Chapter 1316: Chapter 1316: Corpse
The road to the core area of the wreckage was unobstructed, just as Taville had said. We were on an ergency escape route, which, due to its special design and high-strength structure, amazingly remained intact after the spaceship crashed. The only obstacle to walking was the angle of this corridor: because the spaceship crashed diagonally onto the ground, the entire interior space was at a forty-five-degree angle. Walking in such an inclined space… in fact, for a long part of the way, we were flying, and I felt dizzy just walking on a straight path…
“This is the gate to the core area,” finally, a hexagonal alloy gate appeared at the end of the corridor. The gate could no longer close completely, and a slightly distorted gate edge revealed a crack more than twenty centiters wide. Taville pushed the gate, finding it immobile, “Looks like we have to destroy this.”
Bingdisi stepped forward and touched this gate, which had stood for an unknown number of years, and it silently turned to dust. Sandora’s expression changed slightly, not because she was moved by the destruction of an ancestor’s relic, but because it seed to remind her of a doubt, though she said nothing and proceeded ahead.
“By the way, how did you get in back then…” I suddenly asked Lilina a stupid question, but the next mont I spotted the doll-sized girl hanging on her wrist, no bigger than an SD doll, and I imdiately understood, “Oh, got it.”
Lilina looked angrily at Taville, who had a voluptuous figure, and Sandora, also voluptuous, and Bingdisi, super voluptuous, and Qianqian, who wasn’t voluptuous but normally developed. She patted her flat chest and walked in: “Hmph, what do you know? Flat chests are a rare resource, one day you’ll realize that straight boards are mainstream, while flip and slide covers are a thing of the past…”
Speechless, I followed at the end of the group into the spaceship’s control center.
The control center was large, matching the grandeur of the spaceship’s exterior. However, I could hardly see any Xyrin traits in the unfamiliar equipnt around. The spaceship built by the Creators almost entirely belonged to another style. If not for all the surrounding material bearing features of the hotown world, Taville and Sandora might not have been able to associate this strange and awkward spaceship with Xyrin Origin. As an outsider, I couldn’t see too many technical details, nor did I know how outdated this ship was compared to the New Empire’s warships, but it was apparent that this control center was entirely prepared for mortals: it was a giant circular hall, with neatly arranged seating and operational terminals filling half the space. There was no sign of the thought-interactive operations console nor terminal locations for the onboard mainfra. This was the biggest difference from current Imperial ships, which require far fewer personnel for direct control, and on which the onboard mainfra essentially acts as the deputy captain.
With caution, the assistant technicians imdiately got to work, beginning with inspecting these ancient devices and trying to figure out their start-up thods and energy types. Although no one could explain how this “mortal artifact” survived the fearso passage of ti to this day, the intact appearance of those consoles was evident. For the inexplicable, just temporarily leave it aside and complete the tasks at hand, which was Taville’s team’s consistent principle.
Sandora approached the seat nearest to her, where once sat one of the Creators, but those ancestors who founded the Void Third Divine Race were gone, leaving only a dusty, broken seat and a bizarre control terminal. Sandora wiped the dust off the console to reveal the pale blue panel underneath. The material of that panel reminded of a touchscreen and was shaped like an elongated hexagon.
“This shape is the only thing that has persisted to this day,” Sandora lanted softly. I recalled the equipnt on Imperial starships: most terminals had a hexagonal control crystal plate. They were made of one of the indestructible materials created by Xyrin Apostles out of nothing, possessing astonishing sturdiness and physico-chemical properties, much more advanced than this glass plate fixed on a steel platform, yet the precise hexagonal ratio transcended ti and space, connecting the two generations, serving as evidence of the immortal link between this wreckage and Xyrin Apostles: destiny, what a marvelous thing.
“Where is the body those two ntioned?” Bingdisi saw that the group seed to be completely absorbed by the ancient equipnt onsite and couldn’t help but remind them. Sandora, of course, hadn’t forgotten about it but hadn’t brought it up, instead focusing on the ancient equipnt in the control center and other random things, intentionally diverting attention.
“Are you feeling hosick?” Bingdisi looked at Sandora with interest and suddenly remarked playfully, “Oh, ‘hosick’ doesn’t quite fit here…but let’s not fuss over details.”
“It’s over here!” Lilina ran to a side and waved at us, and whatever Sandora wanted to say, she couldn’t say it now. To show she wasn’t “feeling hosick,” she ran over without hesitation, and I followed closely behind, soon seeing the “body” ntioned by Lilina.
What was unexpected was that a “hibernation chamber” was provided in a place like the control center!
Well, it might be a dical cabin, rescue pod, or sothing similar. Anyway, on the edge of the control hall, against the circular wall, there were countless containers neatly arranged. I’d noticed them when I first ca in, but I thought then they were so kind of control terminals or decorations. If not for Lilina’s strong intuition towards anything related to life (including remains), discovering the secret of these containers on her first visit, we might not have found out that these containers held the Creators’ remains until after scanning the entire ship.
These containers were elongated hexagons, sowhat similar to sarcophagi used by Ancient Egyptians (perhaps coffin styles are also part of Xyrin Civilization?), sized for single occupancy. They were pitch black, entirely sealed alloy boxes, vertically placed, and semi-buried in the control hall’s circular wall. Like all the hall equipnt, these “hibernation chambers” had no surface illumination and were silent inside: their energy supply was long terminated; although existing far beyond material limits for unknown reasons, no one expected the occupants to be alive.
“No life signs,” Sandora lightly touched the nearest container’s surface, stating the obvious conclusion. Then she surveyed the entire hall, instantly calculating the number of hibernation pods, “If I’m not mistaken, these pods correspond to the number of people in the control center. It seems these small pods have independent power and navigation systems; I’ve also detected structures resembling thrusters, making them more like escape pods. The Creators setting up this equipnt in the control center might indicate…”
“They lived in an era requiring ready ship evacuation, where not even the control center was safe,” Taville’s mass projection walked over unnoticed, looking at the small pods, “Majesty, should I open one for a look?”
Sandora frowned, taking a long ti to make up her mind: “Be careful not to damage the ancestors’ remains.”
A “hibernation chamber” was smoothly dismantled, connected to the wall by only slots and an energy line, as Sandora said, these pods were designed for independent escape from the Mother Ship. Senior assistant technicians carefully laid the container on the ground, raising a cloud of dust. The container’s opening chanism was completely destroyed, requiring forceful disassembly. When the cutting beams danced around the container, I noticed Sandora nervously clenching her fists.
Eventually, the container lid was cautiously opened.
Inside lay a tall man, his hair slightly graying, sleeping quietly in an ancient military uniform unknown to us, with a peaceful expression, as if he were alive.
Not a shriveled corpse, not bones, not tattered clothing eroded by ti, but a middle-aged officer appearing as if he had just fallen asleep. For an instant, I was speechless, unable to comprehend that this was the long-deceased Xyrin Ancestor. History was approaching with such a “youthful” appearance, bringing a strong sense of discord. He didn’t look like he had been dead a long ti; it even seed… as if he had just lain down in this hibernation escape pod monts ago and was on the verge of being awakened by us.
“So this is the Creator…” Sandora said in amazent, perhaps she hadn’t expected the person in the container to be like this. Then her eyes flashed slightly, entering data analysis mode, “Indeed… inexplicable phenona exist here too.”
“What’s going on exactly?”
I couldn’t help but ask seeing the strange expressions on Sandora and Taville’s faces.
“Mundane matter cannot be immortal,” Taville answered gravely. “That’s why we use information materialization technology to manufacture imperial devices, so those extraordinary materials can withstand the impact of ti. Mundane matter… to give you the most understandable example, you should be aware of molecular peration effects, among many other factors that cause material decay and weathering. As long as in a normal environnt, everything in the world changes slowly. Even if there was only one atom in a universe, it would eventually decay. However, this spaceship, the Creator’s corpse before us, and the holand material we found in the asteroid belt, all transcend ‘ti.’ Theoretically.”
“They exist in a state difficult to explain, an ‘immortal state,'” Sandora took over. “It’s not that ti is standing still, but rather that ti cannot change their ‘state.’ They are like snapshots, fixed in so ‘normal order,’ repeatedly undergoing basic evolution, refreshing themselves at a microscopic level at intervals. This causes everything in front of us to remain in an incredible pristine condition, as if they just fled from the holand world…”
“More amazingly, in this state of microscopic immortality, they still evolve according to normal rules on a macro level,” Taville effortlessly crushed a tal protrusion on the hibernation pod’s corner with her fingers. “As you can see, they can be destroyed on a macro level and won’t recover through ‘refreshing.’ But on a micro level, their atoms no longer decay or transform. Even after eons, it… still remains as it was when it left the holand world. It’s for this reason that the holand material we asured is far ‘younger’ than its theoretical lifespan. Theoretically.”
Soon I understood what they ant, looking at Taville and Sandora in amazent: they were explaining why the holand world survived against the norm until now, and why this ancient relic before us remains immortal after countless ages. This was a perplexing issue just a few hours ago, but I didn’t expect Taville and Sandora to have figured it out now.
“The guess about microscopic immortality has long existed,” Taville explained why she suddenly had a breakthrough, “but in the asteroid belt, there’s only primitive matter. Those materials from the sa zone may only be preserved due to minor world distortions, lacking evidential value. Yet here, both this spaceship and the Creator’s corpse exhibit the sa ‘immortal’ state, confirming my suspicions. Just now, I briefly discussed with Her Majesty Sandora, and we believe that if even the Creator’s corpse is in this strange ‘immortal state,’ then likely the entire holand world is in the sa state. Theoretically.”
It turns out Taville had a vague suspicion for a long ti but didn’t voice it due to lack of proof, a restraint typical of a prudent scientist—no wonder she’s the New Empire’s best researcher; her deductive ability is strong indeed.
“Next, we need to verify these guesses through experintation,” Taville stated seriously. “Let these materials endure ti to see if they are indeed unchanging. I have already ordered the lab to prepare the ti acceleration chamber, soon it will…”
“No need to bother,” I casually pointed at Qianqian, who was playing Go with Visca on the ground nearby, “The ti acceleration chamber is less precise than Qianqian—and that girl will stir up trouble if she doesn’t do sothing useful soon.”
Taville stared blankly and responded with an “oh.”
Of course, the Ancestors’ remains couldn’t be used as experintal subjects, so Taville instructed her assistant to take out the material samples collected from the spaceship wreck and the asteroid belt’s substances, and hand them to Qianqian for acceleration testing. Sandora ordered the engineering soldiers to carefully dismantle all the hibernation chambers in the hall and prepare to transport them back to the base. Each of these hibernation pods contained a person. Based on the ship’s state and the fact that the hibernation pods were sealed but not ejected, Sandora tried to trace back the events that happened to this ship:
The spaceship suffered severe damage (possibly from the Abyss, but since there were no residual Abyss reactions on the ship, it might be a secondary space disaster caused by the Abyss, but let’s not dwell on this for now), yet the Creators had enough ti to react and all retreated into the escape hibernation pods. However, fate played a trick on the people on this ship. Perhaps just as the escape pods were about to eject, the ship’s propulsion system finally gave in: a violent explosion tore it in half.
The ship’s control signal was abruptly cut off, causing all the escape pods to fail to launch properly. Though their bodies were well-protected by the hibernation chambers, they never awoke again.
This ship’s wreckage must have drifted in the holand world for a long ti initially—it couldn’t have been lost in the Void, or it would have been entirely assimilated ages ago—before suddenly flashing into this universe twenty thousand years ago.
After a while, watching everyone busy with their tasks in front of , I suddenly thought of sothing significant. I quickly hopped over to Sandora, who was supervising soldiers transporting the hibernation pods: “By the way, kid, do you think this ship’s navigation computer might contain the holand world’s coordinates?!”
I had a promising idea: any normal spaceship capable of venturing out into the universe should have a navigation computer, right? The Creators weren’t that technologically advanced, but compared to today’s Xyrin Apostles, they had already reached the level of advanced civilizations capable of leaping through the Void. They must have known how to precisely mark their holand world—and this spaceship, with its massive size and spacious living quarters, seed more like an exile ark than a warship. Moreover, it had equipnt that appeared to be Order field generators in the central segnt, which suggested it was designed for Void navigation. I had countless reasons to believe: this ship carried the holand world’s coordinates.
Even if the holand world was about to vanish into nothingness, the Creators would have input what would theoretically soon beco a blank coordinate into the spaceship’s navigation computer. That’s what I thought.
Sandora’s eyes seed to light up for a second, but she quickly sighed, indicating the reality wouldn’t be so optimistic:
“A world’s ‘position’ in the Void doesn’t remain unchanged. Every world slowly alters its coordinates at a very slow rate. On a typical scale, this change is negligible, and Void navigation databases update completely only once every million years. But it’s been unknown how many millions of years since the holand world… you understand.”
I blinked, trying hard to dismiss the irrelevant associations like the continental drift theory in my mind, then sighed with disappointnt.
“What are you thinking?” I couldn’t help but ask curiously, seeing Sandora’s gaze refocusing on those ancestor hibernation chambers with a thoughtful expression.
“If they are already immortal in material form,” Sandora articulated slowly, “does that an… we could resurrect these ancestors…” (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welco to vote for recomndations and monthly tickets at Qidian (qidian), your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian for reading.)
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