Finding the first and second ssages ans more clues have been discovered. We proceeded along the corridor and successfully found the third ssage at the end of the corridor, which still contained only one sentence:
"New hint: You have completed your health check. If you have reached this point, it ans the detection device has determined your health is up to working standards. Now continue along this corridor and do not stop until you see a new hint."
Although we still didn’t know who the ship was intended for, ssages like "after effects of long-term sleep, needing external devices to check the body, stimulating the brain with audio signals to regain consciousness" clearly do not fit the life form of a Xyrin Apostle. Thus, we can boldly speculate: the passengers of this ship should be ordinary mbers of a "Mortal Race," which coincidentally confird Lilina’s earlier finding—the corridors of the outer layer of the spaceship were filled with fine dust from the weathering of organic matter, which quite possibly ca from the crew’s corpses.
So this ship, at least the ship’s core area, was prepared for the mortal species, which is quite puzzling. Both Sandora and I understood that, during the Old Empire period, Xyrin Apostles were never this "considerate" towards their Servant Army—this ship’s design was quite unreasonable.
The corridor leading from the "Activity Hall" to deeper parts of the spaceship was blocked by an alloy door, and the third ssage was right on the wall next to this door. However, this ti, the door wasn’t easily opened. Judging from the ssage content, behind the door should be a place similar to a dical room, where spaceship crew mbers would be checked after being awakened from a certain sleep state. Only when the health ets "work standards" will this door open, allowing the awakened person to see the ssage outside and proceed to the activity hall and work area. But now, it seed impossible for us to open this door from the outside. The spaceship’s core area’s energy supply was normal, and this door was firmly locked by closing chanisms and a Power Lock. However, none of this was a problem; Sandora flashed her claws, the black blade-like nails clinking lightly on the alloy door, "Let scratch it open."
I nodded, and instantly the alloy gate was torn into pieces of tal on the ground by Sandora’s clawing. A smaller room appeared before us, equally well-lit: it seed the entire core area’s lighting and other standard equipnt had been activated.
This room was indeed a "dical room," with hexagonal recesses on the wall arranged in a circle like hibernation chambers, which I guessed were scan devices for physical exams. A sunken spot in the middle of the room’s floor housed a one-ter-high holographic device, which was now active but only displayed chaotic lines flitting about, clearly in standby mode.
The first task for everyone was, of course, to look for this step-by-step ssage, this ti also placed in a very conspicuous spot: on the ground surrounding the central holographic device, with another paragraph:
"New hint: You have awakened and arrived in the dical examination room. Your brain may still be in a confused state, but this confusion should not affect your judgnt. Energy supply in parts of the area has been restored as the hibernation device activates. This chamber is usable now; step into any dical chamber along the wall, and the system will automatically carry out all procedures. If everything goes smoothly, a new door will open in this room; walk through it, and you will see the next step of instructions."
"This is getting more interesting," Lilina murmured as she licked her lips, looking at the ssage, "Logically, for such a developed Imperial Starship, it shouldn’t need such a primitive process. Hibernation chambers, awakening programs, ssages written on walls and floors—without any monitoring from an automated system... Boss, don’t you find it weird?"
I thought about it and rather embarrassingly admitted, "Actually, I haven’t thought that much so far..."
Lilina was dumbfounded, but Sandora interjected from beside, "I find it strange too. These ssages clearly point to a set of wake-up procedures, but this thod is so antique; after all, this is an Imperial Starship, even if it really preserved a group of hibernating ordinary crew mbers, there should be an on-site AI overseeing everything, unless..."
Sandora seed to have an idea but left the "unless" hanging, so I quickly asked, "Unless what?"
"Unless this ship is engineered for near-extre ’Silence’," Sandora frowned, "I seem to have figured out so things; the degree of ’Silence’ on this ship is extrely high. It only has the Void Engine, Order Field, and regular engines active, which are the most basic requirents for a ship to sail—not to be closed under any circumstances—and these three systems don’t require much intelligence for managent. For re drifting, the simplest logical programs can manage it. Aside from that, can you find anything else operational on this ship? I recalled the abnormal situation we found earlier in the outer layer; the outer energy supply was completely cut off, yet those energy networks are intact, indicating the ship itself cut its external energy supply. Furthermore, we’ve reached the core area, yet have not heard the onboard mainfra’s voice. If this ship truly has a mainfra, it’s annoyingly reticent. Lastly, there’s our current situation: this primitive wake-up procedure bears no involvent of any intelligent systems, purely relying on the simplest ssages and signs—this exhibits extre system ’Silence,’ aiming to hide any ’conscious’ manifestations aboard, including AI forms."
I suddenly felt enlightened as I stared blankly at Sandora, "This is to reduce its presence..."
Sandora completed my thought: "Then escape from sowhere by any ans possible."
The fact speaks volus; for an Imperial Starship to undergo such an extent of ’Silence’ for escape, only the disaster seventy thousand years ago cos to mind. It’s not to flee the Abyss but to avert the insane chase by erstwhile allies: disguising as a destroyed vessel!
"Keep looking; there should be more clues here," Sandora urged quickly, "These dical chambers are only for physical exams, not hibernation; the passengers’ hibernation location must be in a different area... but the passage is hidden."
The core area’s interference persisted; Dingdang and Lilina still couldn’t locate the life response’s origin, nor could Sandora scan other cabin segnts, whereas I wasn’t skilled beyond energy perception: however, destroying this place I could manage. The interference in the core area seed to function unconditionally, likely another thod the ship employs to heighten its ’Silence’ level.
Little Crow was the most bewildered among us; it was her first ti partaking in such a solemn expedition, leaving her a bit overwheld, yet she desired to aid the adults. So, she mimicked us, gingerly prodding around the room. Ultimately, she arrived at the standing, coffin-like dical chambers by the wall, calling "caw-caw" and slapping the chamber exteriors, and unexpectedly, one opened up!
Sandora and I were simultaneously taken aback: the luck level of this Silly Bird was simply miraculous; despite her average intellect, she had stumbled upon key points twice today—definitely a natural virtuoso for chance gas.
"Ah, that makes sense," Sandora concluded after a brief thought, very after the fact, "According to the ssage, newly awakened crew need physical checks here, but their brains might not be very alert at this point, hence nearly all equipnt here should automatically sense and respond, and since they’re unrestricted, feel a presence would trigger the dical chamber to open by itself."
I curiously observed the open dical chamber; its structure differed slightly from the coffin-like hibernation chambers made by Taville, but they were largely similar. Sandora ca over for a quick look and, with expertise, comnted: "Definitely made for carbon-based lifeforms, featuring enhanced radiation shielding and low-power scanning devices."
Lilina joined in, squeezing between Sandora and , inspecting the equipnt inside the dical chamber, then suddenly jubilant, she hopped inside: "Look, boss! It’s so spacious for !"
"Doing nothing risky leads to no trouble" is truly a wise saying. Just after Lilina jumped inside, I noticed the cover of the dical chamber flashed for a mont, and before I could react, the sliding cover suddenly closed, leaving with only Lilina’s final surprised expression. Soon after, the mischievous child began fussing inside: "Wow! Boss, hurry and get out! Why did this thing close?"
Of course, I promptly intended to open this dical chamber, but just as I started, Sandora held back, pointing at the equipnt in the center of the chamber: "Look at that."
In the center of this "infirmary," there’s a data terminal which, when we arrived, was in standby mode. Now it’s activated, and a few lines of data quickly refreshed on the holographic screen above the machine, followed by a light blue human figure projection. I imdiately recognized it’s Lilina’s full-body image: it seems Little Crow and Lilina accidentally activated the dical diagnostic system here. Two seconds later, Lilina’s diagnostic report appeared on the terminal, containing only a simple statent:
"dical chamber number six diagnosis: Biological characteristics within chamber incorrect, please place a human inside."
Lilina’s muffled voice continued sounding from inside the dical chamber: "Boss, hurry and rescue ! It’s pitch black in here! Why are things made by the Old Empire so inhumane!"
I exchanged a helpless look with Sandora, who then operated outside the dical chamber a bit, finally allowing Lilina to see daylight once more. The disgruntled child imdiately spotted the diagnostic report on the central terminal and burst out: "What’s with ’please place a human inside’! Do I, the Pope, not look human? How can soone as adorable as not look human?"
I quickly restrained the little one: "Calm down, calm down, you probably don’t match the default passenger profile of this ship, it’s normal for the dical chamber to misjudge."
Just then, Sandora was re-examining the dical chamber Lilina had just climbed into and suddenly noticed sothing: "Ah Jun, look at this! There’s a line of words, handwritten!"
I rushed over to check the situation. Sandora pointed at the shell of the dical chamber, and sure enough, I saw a large area of handwriting that seed to be burned in with so handheld tool. The content was puzzling: "Warren Field’s diary, today is the eighth day of awakening. Completed the routine task, observing those empty radar images. I have no idea if this is aningful. Most of what should have been activated isn’t, and I am still the only one awake. The ship’s main computer isn’t responding to my queries and remains in silence. Sothing must be wrong. I returned to this dical room for a body check-up, the equipnt reported everything normal—my body is normal, but there’s definitely sothing abnormal with this ship. I’ll continue to observe, though things are bleak, I think with training I can get through this.
"This must be left by a ship’s crew," I made an obvious judgnt, "but based on the diary content... it seems he’s encountered quite an unfortunate situation, why is only one woken up?"
"There must be a malfunction on this ship," Sandora frowned, "Maybe the disaster seventy thousand years ago damaged the ship. But I’m now more curious why Warren Field decided to engrave his diary on the dical chamber’s shell, that’s sowhat primitive."
I surveyed the surroundings, finding no traces of human activity, nor did we see any sign or record left by "Warren Field" during our exploration so far. But considering this ghost ship has drifted for an imasurably long ti, the crew mber likely isn’t among the living anymore, though he must have left more than just one diary entry.
"Let’s return to the hall, we didn’t examine it closely just now," Sandora decided to backtrack and explore, "The ssages said sothing about workspaces near the hall, those will likely provide clues."
I recalled this, too. The note by the entrance of the activity hall ntioned workspaces, though everyone’s focus at the ti was finding spaceship personnel and the main computer room, temporarily setting aside the workspace noted in the ssage. Now, with Warren Field’s ergence, it becos apparent those workspaces might contain crucial clues.
Everyone imdiately returned to the activity hall, where Sandora released a bunch of smart probes, and Little Crow released her mini-girl battalion. A large group of nimble investigators began searching separately for any traces of human activity. It’s no surprise that the one with unexplainable luck, the silly bird, was the first to find a clue: one of her split lifeforms happily flew back, chirping reports to everyone. We followed the palm-sized Little Crow to a corner of the hall and discovered several passages on the wall. This ti, it wasn’t just a single diary entry:
"Warren Field’s diary, fourth day since awakening, sothing seems wrong. The system was set to start awakening after chaos ceased, and when contact with other survivors was made. But the radar shows nothing, no other survivors, with the spaceship drifting alone in an unknown location, navigation is still in automatic mode, jumping to unknown coordinates, a major anomaly. On the bright side, the chaos indeed seems to have subsided, no pursuing enemies, no collapsing world. Regardless of the situation, I should comnce work, having planned what to do if workflow errors occur—though I originally believed it’s unlikely, it now seems inevitable. I’m relieved for the previous foresight. Postscript: This entry was actually added on the fifth day."
"Warren Field’s diary, fifth day, completed the inspection of all systems, bad news is, the spaceship appears gravely damaged, outer hibernation facilities unresponsive, connection bridges deadlocked, transmission devices faulty, seems the ship encountered attacks during sleep. The good news, I’m alive, others in the core area are as well, and the ship continues to operate. Most equipnt is functional but refuses manual takeover, normally expected, initially set not to be controlled by carbon-based life for their feeble willpower leads to errors, yet it’s still irkso. Moreover: regarding bleak possibilities, diaries written in the data terminal might remain unseen, thus I decided to engrave them everywhere. Should I die unexpectedly, these records may be discerned in visible areas. You lucky guys, sleep soundly, Captain Warren Field starts his duty."
Upon seeing this, Sandora and I simultaneously nodded: the diary clarifies why these texts use the most primitive thod of engraving on walls—at first, the diarist indeed recorded in data terminals, but on the fifth day foresaw the worst-case scenario, employing a primitive yet safer thod to engrave them outside.
"This Warren Field seems to be a resiliently optimistic servant army warrior," Sandora softly comnted, "I already estimate the extent of misfortune he experienced, yet he calmly accepted reality and started working, even among the Old Empire’s servant army, possessing such psychological fortitude is rare."
"It’s not necessarily perfect," Lilina pointed to the following diary, "Look, he’s also complaining."
I looked at the diary, its contents seemingly disconnected from the previous two:
"Warren Field’s diary, ghost knows how many days, perhaps over ten since last visiting the dical room, hadn’t written a diary in a while, today’s work didn’t go smoothly, attempted finding nearby material plane signals only t a blank. Rarely does void host such desolate places, seems the grand disaster flattened all worlds. I might eternally drift with this cursed spaceship, but so what? I must work, observe and record unchangingly, everyday the sa. In this empty zone, watching empty radar, my mind empty too, truly wishing for other signals, even static would be nice."
There are only these three diary entries on the wall.
(Alright, second recomndation for "Rebirth of Super Battleship," why does my recomndation seem ineffective... Anyone who saw the recomndation, give us a shout.) (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, welco to Qidian (qidian) to throw recomndation or monthly votes, your support is my biggest motivator. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.)
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