Warren Field was a skinnier man than we had imagined. When he died of natural causes, he was already a hundred years old. His body had shrunk beyond recognition. The old starship commander was sitting quietly on the only chair in the small warehouse. His body was covered with a layer of hoarfrost. His hair and beard were all white, his face was wrinkled, and his skin was dark. He looked like an old farmer who had been working in the fields all year round. The only thing that could prove his identity as a soldier was the well-ironed officer's uniform that he was wearing. It was a little loose on him, but it still looked majestic.
The old man's hands were frozen in front of his chest, and under the hoarfrost was a small MDT that he was holding tightly.
Sandora walked up to him, but she hesitated when she took the MDT off. Then, she carefully placed her finger on the MDT and teleported the palm-sized device out of the warehouse. I could tell that she was trying to protect the fragile body. Although the environment in the small warehouse had made Warren Field's body look alive, he was not immortal like his ancestors. One touch and the body would turn it into ashes.
"It can still be used," Sandora said as she checked the MDT's working status. After the initial authentication was completed, the small device that had been shut down for tens of thousands of years lit up again. She found the special code to wake up the mainframe of the spaceship and activated it. Then, she waited quietly. About a minute later, we heard a faint noise coming from deep within the spaceship. Then, the low to high buzzing sound of various equipment being activated and high-power wiring coming back online came from all directions. The mainframe of the spaceship was rebooting. The redundant equipment and radar that had been shut down for a long time were activated too. We suddenly received a report from the fleets outside. "Your Majesty, the spaceship has been rebooted. The ghost ship is moving. Its peripheral equipment seems to have woken up! "
"I know. Sandora is activating the ship," I replied casually. "Keep suppressing it. Its engine is still running. Also, inform the follow-up personnel to come in in fifteen minutes. The spaceship is safe. "
I hung up. Sandora looked at the empty cabin and suddenly said, "Mainframe, can you hear me?"
"The mainframe is responding," a soft female voice said from all directions. "The system self-check is complete. The mainframe is working normally. The spaceship has suffered more than ninety percent damage. All systems are in standby mode."
"Let's talk about this later." Sandora waved her hand. "Do you know who we are? Is your authorization authentication system still working? "
The soft voice said again, "Authentication is working. Her Majesty Sandora Kelvi Ulysses, Emperor authorization, unrecorded individuals, Emperor authorization, other unrecorded individuals, including one Protoss."
Dingdang popped her head out of my pocket and looked around. She was able to recognize such a small thing. It seemed that the mainframe of the spaceship was working well. If she could recognize Shadora's and my level of authority, then everything would be easy.
"What's wrong with this spaceship?" Sandora asked as she glanced at Warren Ferd's body. "Also, what's up with this awakened human? Which sector did you come from? "
"This spaceship doesn't belong to any independent sector. It is a non-authorized unit that was produced by a special individual in the final years. Our mission is to escape from the collapsing Empire and continue to wander in the void. We will follow the predetermined route to search for new tinder, which is to say, other survivors who have escaped from the Empire. Warren Ferd's awakening was due to an accident. The spaceship was damaged in the process of escaping, so we could only execute the awakening procedure. "
The situation matched with what was mentioned in Warren's diary and what we had guessed. Not long after the spaceship set sail, it was intercepted by the crazy Imperial Army. Although it was in a highly silent state and looked like a dead ship, the Imperial Army who had lost their judgment had severely damaged the spaceship. As a result, the hibernation system malfunctioned and most of the spaceship's functions stopped working. The unfortunate starship commander began his life of solitude for decades. Sandora thought for a while and suddenly realized something was wrong. "Mainframe, why didn't you let this human go back to hibernation? Is the hibernation system of the spaceship really jammed? Even you can't unlock it? "
I was curious. Warren Ferd's decades of solitude could have ended with just one thing, and that was to return to the hibernation pod. However, Warren mentioned in his diary that the hibernation system refused to allow him to return to the pod. His explanation was that the hibernation system had completely malfunctioned, and the hibernation pod refused to reopen due to a hard logic error. However, the existence of the mainframe seemed to have made this explanation untenable. The mainframe was a semi-human AI with the ability to think rationally. Apart from the fact that it did not have a regular body, you could basically see any mainframe on a Empire starship as a special Shiring Apostles. Although these mainframes were limited by their responsibilities and had weak personalities, they at least had the ability to correct the logic errors of other equipment and even the ability to actively avoid their own logic loopholes.
In other words, the mainframe of this spaceship was not stupid. She should have known that Warren Ferd's awakening was a mistake. Even she herself admitted that the awakening of the human was due to an accident. Therefore, she was fully capable of unlocking the loop of the hibernation system. As the control center of the spaceship with the highest authority, the mainframe had the ability and responsibility to troubleshoot the problem. However, she did not do so.
This time, the mainframe seemed to pause for half a second before answering Sandora's question. "The hibernation pod has been destroyed."
All of us were stunned. Even the little crow could not help but let out a caw. Although the bird was not very smart, it was surprised at this moment. It was enough to show how unexpected the mainframe's words were.
"What do you mean by the hibernation pod has been destroyed?" I quickly recovered from my surprise and asked loudly.
"The first round of attack destroyed the outer defense circle of the spaceship. The second round of attack hit the second main energy node of the spaceship. The resulting psionic surge rushed into the core section and destroyed the hibernation area. When the spaceship escaped from the pursuit, all the hibernation areas were severely damaged. The psionic energy permeated and contaminated all the facilities, killing almost all the crew. Warren Ferd was the only survivor, but he did not know it. "
Sandora's gaze fell on the corpse in the middle of the room. "In other words … he was not awakened naturally?"
"Indeed," the mainframe replied in its usual calm voice. "After discovering that the hibernation area was contaminated by a high concentration of psionic energy, I sent out the remaining autonomous robots to search for the wounded. In the end, I found that only one person survived. Warren Ferd was brought to the medical room for emergency treatment. I then completely locked down the hibernation area to prevent the contamination from spreading to the last clean section."
"Then, you lied to him and said that he was awakened prematurely due to the hibernation facility malfunction. You also used the reason that the hibernation system was jammed to prohibit him from approaching that section." After I sorted out the information, I realized that the truth was completely different from what Warren had described in his diary. "In fact, there was nothing behind the isolation door, right? Were you afraid that he would collapse? "
"I made the above decision based on the psychological model of the Hakonians that I had entered before we departed. Based on logical analysis, I believed that Warren Ferd needed a psychological support and a relatively mild reason for the accident to have a chance of surviving and continuing to work with a normal mentality. The psychological support was that his compatriots in the hibernation area were still alive, and the relatively mild reason for the accident was a system malfunction. The logical analysis was flawed in the later stages, and Warren Ferd was still in chaos for several years, but in general, it had the desired effect. "
Now, everything became clear. Why couldn't the mainframe with its self-correcting ability and high authority deal with a small hibernation system bug? Why did the mainframe completely lock down the hibernation area when we couldn't even find that section? Why did the mainframe stop Warren Ferd from awakening other hibernators to accompany him? The mainframe used the lame reason of "insufficient supplies on the spaceship" to prevent Warren Ferd from awakening other hibernators. This reason was completely untenable, because we knew how powerful the Empire's information-physical conversion equipment was. If it could provide food and air for one person, it could provide for another thousand.
There was only one real reason why the mainframe forbade Warren Ferd from approaching the hibernation cabin: it was long gone.
Warren Ferd didn't understand the technical details of this ship. Based on what he wrote in his diary, we could tell that he was unfamiliar with most of the Empire's equipment. He only knew how to use it, but didn't know how it worked or how it worked. This was something that most of the Old Empire's servant armies had in common. Back then, the Empire's iron-fisted army only needed the cannon fodder to know how to pull the trigger, but it would be different for the New Empire's servant armies.
From the fragmented diary entries, we could understand Warren Ferd's psychological state. From the beginning to the end, the "bastards lying on the floor" in the hibernation cabin were very important to the starship commander. He envied them, envied them, missed them, and hated them. He deliberately hypnotized himself to ignore them. No matter what kind of psychological state he was in, the "passengers in the hibernation cabin" were the thing that the old captain could not let go of when he was alive. It was because there were people on the spaceship that he could maintain the basic motivation to work. If he knew that he was actually piloting an empty spaceship, he might have really collapsed from the beginning.
"I have a general understanding of the situation," Sandora looked at the MDT in her hand. "You did the right thing. Although not completely right, you did the right thing."
"Wait!" Liliana suddenly jumped out. "Wait, I still have a question!"
"The mainframe needs to confirm your right to ask questions."
"She has the right to ask you to answer all questions." I patted Liliana's head and said to the mainframe. The latter was isolated from the New Empire's authority network, so of course, she did not know Liliana. Even her recognition of me was the same as Gaia's, "a stranger who does not know but has the authority of the emperor of the fifteenth sky zone." So, I needed to explain.
"The mainframe understands. Please ask."
"According to what you said, everyone in the hibernation cabin is dead, right?" Liliana took out Jingle from my pocket and put it on her head. "In other words, there should be no life on this spaceship. But both the goddess and I felt that there should be life on this spaceship. What's going on? Are there other living people on this spaceship? "
"This spaceship has a blocking interference system. You shouldn't be able to sense this situation."
"Don't ask why," Liliana waved her hand. "Are there other living people on this spaceship?"
Shadora and I couldn't help but perk up our ears. Lina's question really piqued our curiosity. The mainframe paused for a second or two before replying, "Please prepare for teleportation. This spaceship will guide you to the ecological zone."
There was a flash of light and we found ourselves in a place that we had never seen before. It seemed to be another large cabin in the core area of the spaceship.
This place was as spacious as the activity hall, but there were fewer furnishings. There were no spaceship-related instruments or control seats around. The ceiling of the hall seemed to have been modified. There were some messy pipes and nozzles hanging on it. However, these were not eye-catching. What really caught my attention was the ground in the middle of the hall.
There was a nursery garden there!
That's right, there was a vibrant green field in the middle of the hall!
"Long time no see. It seems that the automated system that was left behind has taken good care of this place. It's time for harvest again."
The mainframe's voice came from all directions. I wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but I actually heard a trace of nostalgia in the supposedly emotionless synthesized voice.
"This... is this the vegetable garden that was mentioned in Warren's diary?" I immediately thought of the diary that I had read before. In the latter half of Warren Ferd's life, he basically relied on tending to a vegetable garden to maintain his focus. If I remember correctly, this method of relaxation came from the mainframe's suggestion. I never expected that the vegetable garden had been maintained until now!
"That's right. This spaceship has analyzed the psychological model of the Herconan and compared it with Warren Ferd's psychological state. In the end, I found a way to maintain a stable state of mind."
"After that human died, the automated system took care of the vegetable garden?" Sandora suddenly asked. "Was it his last will or did you arrange it yourself?"
"This spaceship's decision has nothing to do with Warren Ferd."
"You shouldn't have such a logic. Your psychological analysis of carbon-based lifeforms and various' treatment plans' should be beyond your preset database. Did you learn all of this on your own?"
"That's right. This spaceship's original mission was to bring the exiles out of the Empire safely. After the accident, Warren Ferd became the only person that this spaceship was monitoring. This spaceship adjusted the priorities and placed protecting the Herconan as the highest priority. This spaceship tracked and studied Warren Ferd's behavior patterns and tried to analyze his psychological changes. In the end, this spaceship built a monitoring tool database that was more complete than the preset database. "
"It seems that the signs of life are coming from this vegetable garden," Lina muttered next to me. "The ecology here hasn't changed for tens of thousands of years. Even with an automated system, it's still incredible." "That's right.
I looked at the square vegetable garden that was no more than ten meters long. It seemed that Hercona was a planet that was highly similar to Earth. Although the plants here were in strange shapes, they were lush and green, very similar to the green plants on Earth. They were growing vigorously, and it seemed that they had just been watered not too long ago. I could even see sparkling water droplets at the edge of the leaves. I imagined that tens of thousands of years ago, a lone starship commander was farming, harvesting, and recording silently. He was completely unaware that he was the only living person left on the spaceship. He spent his entire life for an illusory mission goal, and the only thing that accompanied him was the ship's not-so-smart mainframe...
Now that the commander was no longer around, the vegetable garden that he left behind had been taken care of by the automated system. It still maintained its original appearance after tens of thousands of years.
The automated system that was used to take care of the vegetable garden wasn't actually needed. If it was a mainframe that had just left the production line, it definitely wouldn't have wasted the spaceship's energy on a place that was completely meaningless to the mission. At least, a normal mainframe from the old Empire wouldn't have done so. However, the mainframe of the Schilling No. 6 spaceship did it.
The mainframe attributed everything to logic, but I reckoned that it wasn't as simple as logic.
I looked at Liliana, and Liliana and Jingle looked at each other. In the end, both of them looked regretful and shook their heads. Not all lives could be resurrected. The mortals who entered the immortal state like our ancestors were just a special case. It was impossible for Warren Field to come back.
"At least he had calmed down when he left, and you were with him until the end." Sandora seemed to be thinking the same thing as me. She actually comforted the spaceship's control system for the first time in history. Then, she mentioned the spaceship's initial mission. "Mainframe, you should have the details of the spaceship's mission and the final information of which zone it belongs to, right? Upload them to me."
"Mainframe understands. The spaceship's initial mission log and the information sent to other survivors will be uploaded to your MDT. The spaceship's construction information will also be uploaded. Please receive them."
Sandora confirmed the receipt of the information, but she was not in a hurry to look at it. Instead, she continued to talk to the mainframe, "Can you still return to the team?"
The mainframe was silent for a while while Sandora waited patiently. We heard some low sounds coming from the depths of the spaceship. It seemed that some new large-scale equipment was coming online. Then, the lights in the hall dimmed, and the indifferent electronic voice sounded again.
"Schilling No. 6 spaceship, mainframe N-CCER-06 is fully activated. The core is ready. The spaceship is waiting to fire."
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