"Restless?" I widened my eyes, trying to glean more information from Missy's face.
Lin Xue squinted her eyes again. This time, the pale white light that leaked out from her eyes was more obvious than before. When she opened her eyes again, all I could see was a deep abyss. "I'm just restless. I can't see anything concrete."
Lin Xue's prophecy wasn't omnipotent. There were many factors that could interfere with her prophecy process. For example, there was an unprecedentedly powerful energy, the Void Anomaly, and the reaction of the Abyss. These destructive things could destroy the entire line of causality. Naturally, they also had the power to interfere with the so-called fate. Hence, Lin Xue's prophecy for the deep dive was the most ambiguous of all. Basically, she could only confirm whether the experiment would be successful or not, but she couldn't confirm what would happen during the process. Especially now that the Void Cataclysm was approaching and the discontinuity zone under the Gate of the Abyss was getting closer to the World of Order, Missy's power seemed to be affected to a certain extent. Her judgment for the 'deep dive' was getting more and more blurry.
Even so, her prophecy was still the most important reference before every deep dive. Throughout the entire Void, there was nothing more useful and accurate than her prophecy.
"The Deep Dive this time failed?" I said as I glanced at the communicator next to me. Anthus didn't hear our conversation clearly. He only frowned at the communicator and continued with his work. I began to wonder if I should stop the deep dive.
"It's very vague. It seems that the experiment was successful, but my instincts make me feel uneasy about the process." Lin Xue chose her words carefully. In such a serious place, Missy had completely restrained her usual bad habits. "I can't see the process of the deep dive. Also, as the Abyss has disrupted the line of events, the prophecy with the ancestors as the target will also be disrupted. All I can see are broken pieces."
Sandora curled her index finger and rested it on her chin. "Should we stop first? Maybe the Gate of the Abyss is not very stable today. Anyway, the new ship has just finished debugging, so it won't break. We don't have to rush for a day or two. "
I looked at Tawil. Of course, this great scientist didn't want her project to be delayed. Her eagerness for the experimental data was unimaginable, but she also knew how important the Oracle's advice was. To the Oracle, even a sneeze or a cold war could be linked to the future. Words and actions couldn't be taken lightly. Now that Lin Xue was obviously feeling uneasy, it was too risky for the experiment to proceed as planned.
"We can postpone it for a while. Let's check the Gate of the Abyss a few more times. There may be variables that we didn't discover before." Tawil nodded. "But it's best to discuss this with the ancestors. After all, they are the primary operators, and … uh, it's not easy to persuade them."
The ancestors were famous for their stubbornness. Although they would strictly follow orders, whether it was me or Sandora, we wouldn't give orders to the ancestors if we could. Our ultimate goal was to make the elders cooperate happily.
"What's going on?" At this moment, Anthus' voice came from the communicator. Although he couldn't hear our hurried and hushed conversation, he must have sensed that something was wrong. "You all look so serious. What's wrong?"
"Lin Xue has a bad premonition," I said straightforwardly. "She isn't sure what the outcome will be, but she feels uneasy. We're discussing if we should cancel the operation and wait until we get to the bottom of the problem."
"Cancel the operation?" Anthus looked gloomy, but he maintained his composure with the self-awareness of a soldier. The old man frowned and looked at us through the communicator. "Just because she's feeling uneasy? Is there a clear conclusion that the experiment failed? "
"No." I didn't mean to lie to the ancestors. "But it's not certain that it will succeed either. As you know, the state of the Abyss has been getting more and more unstable recently. All the prophecies related to it have been greatly disrupted. "
"Then we can't just cancel it." Anthus' eyebrows were almost knitted together. "I know a few vague prophecies from the Prophet, and I know what they mean. It should be that the deep dive was successful, but there was a small accident in the middle. We have encountered such accidents a few times, and there are no problems. Maybe this time, the Prophet just happened to be observing at the scene. "
In the end, Anthus' eyebrows relaxed, and he looked relaxed. "I know some of you must say that I'm stubborn, but time waits for no man. The deep dive experiment is very important, and today is the best day for this port. It would be a pity to miss it. Of course, we will be careful. If we really encounter any problems down there, we will surface immediately. This is a new ship, and it is much more resilient than the old one. "
The old man didn't seem to be worried at all, but that didn't make Sandora and me feel better. I looked at Lin Xue again, but the expression on her face showed that there was nothing we could do.
At this moment, Abyss Schilling suddenly floated over with her big box. She didn't usually like to speak in such a crowded situation, but now she took the initiative to persuade the ancestors. "A little delay will not affect the progress of the 'great cause'. Your lives and the deep submersible ship you are on are precious assets of the Empire. We cannot waste them on a reckless operation."
This was quite the 'Abyss Schilling style' of speech, but the ancestors seemed to listen to her. Anthus nodded slightly, then looked at Abyss Schilling with a strange expression. "You really have the Empire in mind."
"I have never turned my back on it." Abyss Schilling nodded, and her smile was as usual.
The first meeting between the ancestors and Abyss Schilling was a little awkward, because the ancestors who had experienced the life of exile had a deep hatred for anything related to the Abyss. It was even more so when they learned that a group of Shiring Apostles had been corrupted and turned into Fallen Apostles. They could accept the converted Abyss Apostles, but they were extremely repulsed by the Corrupted who killed and looted everywhere in the Abyss. However, Abyss Schilling's cooperation and the historical truth she brought to them were unexpected.
It took the upper echelons of the Empire, from top to bottom, half a month to accept the truth and change their attitude, not to mention the ancestors.
But this was all a matter of days ago. Now, the ancestors clearly understood Abyss Schilling's philosophy and the reason for her previous actions. Although they still couldn't agree with her dangerous way of thinking, their understanding of the 'Fallen Apostles' was much more objective than before. Although the new army of the Fallen Apostles were still the enemies of the Empire, the ancestors could still accept the 'good elements' who were willing to cooperate with the Empire and follow the rules in the future. Now, some of the senior scientists in the Joint Experimental Site were Fallen Apostles. After working together for so many days, the relationship between the ancestors and Abyss Schilling had become normal.
"Then let's pause it for a while, but I don't recommend canceling it immediately," Anthus gave a compromise. "We can postpone it for a few hours. According to the rules we have previously grasped, the longest period for the anomaly under the Gate of the Abyss is less than an hour. Even if something happens to it, it will return to normal within an hour. If we exceed this period, it will definitely be a long-term anomaly that we have yet to grasp. It will be meaningless to wait any longer. In the end, we still have to send people down to investigate the situation."
This time, the ancestor's opinion was reasonable and well-founded. Now that they were no longer laymen, they made the suggestion from the perspective of frontline researchers. Naturally, no one else could say anything. I glanced at Tawil and received an affirmative answer from the bespectacled girl. So, I nodded. "Alright, we'll postpone it for three hours. Take this opportunity to check all the equipment again to prevent the accident from external causes."
With Lin Xue's' restless' words, I had already regarded the 'accident during the deep diving process' as an established fact.
The sudden situation didn't cause the staff of the deep submergence port to panic. After all, "deep diving" was a project that was always accompanied by danger. The staff here were used to facing unexpected situations, and they had gone through all kinds of emergency drills countless times on a daily basis. The deep submergence ship maintained its power core and quietly hovered above the gate. Batches of autonomous robots and engineering robots flew out from various nodes to check the deep submergence ship and the suppression device around the gate. At the same time, the other equipment in the deep submergence port also performed a self-check. All the equipment that could exchange data with the deep submergence ship had to go through the previous debugging process again.
Hilla looked at the busy hall in front of her and listened to the hurried but well-organized reports. She suddenly said with a smile, "You guys are quite professional. I can tell that you have done this many times."
"We started 70,000 years ago," I said with a smile. I directly added the deep submergence history of the old Empire to the new Empire.
"Deep submergence ship inspection completed. Everything is normal."
"Suppression system inspection completed. Everything is normal."
"Sensitive communication array inspection completed. Everything is normal."
"Information isolation inspection completed. Everything is normal …"
Messages were sent back to the control center one after another. All the systems were operating normally. Anthus remained patient, and so did everyone else. The two hours seemed a little long, but it was finally over.
"The feeling is still there." Lin Xue let out a sigh. Even the usually calm Prophet was a little uncertain about the situation when facing the Abyss. But she still nodded. "It seems that she might really be oversensitive. It could also be a normal 'small accident'. Since there's no way to avoid it … let's continue."
Tawil turned around and calmly ordered, "Release the locking device on the engineering ship. Deep submergence ship switch to self-propelled power. Prepare to dive."
Anthus gave everyone a 'don't worry' smile on the communicator. "I will be careful. So … Joint I, set sail! "
The deep submergence ship broke free from the locking device and quickly approached the gate of the Abyss before finally disappearing into the darkness.
Maybe it was because I was influenced by Lin Xue, but even I couldn't help but have a strange thought. Will we really be parting from each other forever?
Under the influence of this thought, time seemed to have slowed down. The few seconds of 'blackout' from the time the deep submergence ship entered the gate to the time the communication was restored felt as long as a few years. But as the noise on the communicator disappeared, a clear image with a certain degree of interference reappeared. Anthus' voice made everyone heave a sigh of relief. "This is Joint I. We have successfully entered the gate. All the components of the spaceship are in good condition. Oh, it's better than expected. "
Lin Xue also relaxed. She even had the time to kick me lightly and tease, "Look at the stupid name you came up with. It's not creative at all. What Joint I? If I didn't know better, I would've thought that it was produced by the Second Agricultural Machinery Factory."
"It's better than the Bluffley." I glanced at the missy and felt a sense of relief.
The naming of the new spaceship was something that the First Family had struggled with for a long time. If Qian Qian had not shown her creativity, I'm afraid that the idea of "United I" would not have prevailed …
"Don't let your guard down so quickly. The dive has only just begun." Sandora cautiously reminded everyone. She made us realize that it wasn't the time to tease each other yet.
For most of the people present, it wasn't the first time "throwing things into the Gate of the Abyss." Everyone was familiar with the first few steps. The control center issued a series of instructions according to the protocol. Anthus executed and recorded the data accurately. This was the first step of the new spaceship. These tests had been done several times during the unmanned submergence test, so there were no accidents at all. "The power core is stable.
The energy output is accurate. The conversion device is working well. The components made from the energy ore … Tsk tsk, such a large amount of energy flow doesn't seem to be pressured at all. The shield refresh is normal, and the energy reserve is more than 90%. The new propulsion system is also very good. It's perfectly compatible with Schilling's' Bloodline 'controller. "Anthus' face was full of pride. For an old captain, there was nothing that made him happier than a perfect new spaceship." Yeah, the situation below the Gate of the Abyss is also very normal. I saw the workstation that was set up here a few days ago. It looks like it's in good condition and can operate for a long time. I knew it. How could there be any problems? "
I looked at Tawil with a satisfied smile. "Well done. I didn't expect you to build a new spaceship in such a short time … Considering the Shiring Apostles' efficiency, it's really shocking."
The four parties working together to build a deep submergence spaceship not only had to deal with their own technical problems, but they also had to deal with the most important problem of technology integration and compatibility. Although the Shiring Apostles were very efficient, and their "Joint Thought" talent was very good at quickly testing a large number of models under virtual conditions, the speed at which Tawil built a new spaceship was still shocking. I originally thought that she would need at least three months before she could produce a finished product.
"The deep submergence technology leads to the same goal. The two Protoss teams have already made great achievements in their respective fields of deep submergence. I'm just integrating the ready-made technology into a framework." Tawil smiled humbly. "Also, the two Protoss teams and the experts of the Abyss region are very responsible. They are also thinking of ways to integrate the technology. So, it's not difficult to put the finished product together. Of course, the most important thing is that we have the energy mine. "
"Yeah, I'm full of energy mine," Abyss Schilling said sourly. Xi Ling of the Abyss said sourly. After living in the City of Shadows for a long time, she had learned quite a few words unique to this side.
The large holographic projection showed the image from the deep submergence spaceship. The spaceship was still cruising in the shallow zone. In the center of the image was a work platform protected by a light blue light shield. This work platform looked like a research station that was quickly set up. There was only a barrack-like building on the small triangular platform. This was the forward outpost that we had set up under the Gate of the Abyss. This was the latest one.
In the chaotic Abyss, this kind of outpost was the only thing that had color, substance, order, and could exist for a long time. Of course, their "long time" was relative.
The deep submergence spaceship approached the forward outpost according to the predetermined procedure. We compared the monitoring data of the Abyss to ensure that the outpost and the deep submergence spaceship were not contaminated. Then, the second step of today's experiment officially began.
The deep submergence spaceship dived until it reached the discontinuity zone.
If we wanted to establish contact with the other side, we had to pass through this discontinuity zone. So, we had to study this thing no matter what.
The diving process was smooth and boring. Everyone waited for the deep submergence spaceship to come into contact with the strange moving layer with a hint of nervousness and anticipation. Time seemed to be stretched out again. The control center could only hear the nervous but orderly reports and orders from the various seats. Occasionally, there would be live reports from Anthus or the other ancestors.
It seemed that Lin Xue's premonition was really just an overreaction.
"We are approaching the discontinuity zone … Continue to approach … Contact the upper layer of the discontinuity zone …" Anthus's calm voice woke me up from the feeling that time had slowed down. "Turn on the special detector and collect the contamination readings and the peak of order chaos. Prepare to calculate the 'range' of the discontinuity zone. Call the command center. Is the data received clear? "
A high-ranking Schilling Angel was the operator of the communication module. She checked the data sent back in front of her and compared it to see if the clutter in the data was the carrier of the contamination. Soon, she gave a conclusion. "The data is accurate and trustworthy. Recording."
The communication device used by the deep submergence spaceship was a relic of the fifteenth sky zone that we took back from the Melovans. It was the pinnacle of deep submergence equipment made by the old Empire. Now, it seemed that this antique was working better than the most advanced equipment we had.
The readings of the discontinuity zone sent back by the deep submergence spaceship were presented to everyone. It was as strange and absurd as ever.
The concentration of the contamination was fluctuating, and the peak of order chaos was shaking like a paper tape spat out by a seismograph. The entire discontinuity zone was in a state of 'vibration' all the time. It was moving closer to the real world, but its' location 'could not be determined for a certain period of time. It was constantly moving within a certain range. This was also the most dangerous part of the discontinuity zone. It was very possible that you would think that you had only touched the relatively flat surface of the discontinuity zone, but in the next second, you would find that it had suddenly' jumped up 'and enveloped the entire deep submergence spaceship in a deadly high concentration of contamination.
But for now, everything seemed to be safe.
"The deep submergence spaceship will 'hover' in this area for an hour." Anthus repeated the instructions on the plan. No matter how stubborn the old ancestor was, he would still strictly follow the rules. "Record the extent of the discontinuity zone's jump in place. Try to determine how 'thick' this thing is in one go."
Time passed by, and the data was transmitted bit by bit. But suddenly, I heard Lin Xue's scream. "Get out of here!"
"Buzz!"
Noise and clutter replaced the voice and image of the communication device.
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