"Survivor?" After hearing the sudden words from the data terminal, Hao Ren glanced at it in surprise.
The data terminal floats next to a control device. The blue light it emits shines on the cables and extension accessories around the device, pulsing slightly like breathing. In this way, it finally reads the last details of the deep parts of these weather-beaten devices.
A bit of data that has not been completely erased: "This machine is connected to the navigation brain deep in the ship, and has a rough grasp of the navigation method of this fleet. Its navigation method requires people to be alive."
Hao Ren looked at the data terminal and motioned for it to continue speaking.
The data terminal opened a set of holographic projections, on which was a fleet of thirteen ellipsoidal ark ships, with some complex lines extending radially around each fleet: "These are the patterns detected before.
Repeated signals. According to the situation currently understood here, the operator of the Ark is dead, so these ships are relying on automatic systems for command, so the signal transmission between them is this mechanical. According to their navigation mode, these ships
There is no fixed flagship. They rely on the Internet to connect all navigation brains together and build a unified, virtual navigation program. This machine guesses that this is because the designers have considered from the beginning any navigation system, including the flagship.
All ships may suddenly be destroyed, so they gave the highest navigation authority to a ghost host active on the network, so that as long as the fleet maintains a certain scale, it can continue sailing without having to consider the replacement of flagships...
"
Hao Ren waved his hand: "The key point, tell the key point."
"The key point is that such a ghost host is not installed on any ship, and considering that the host of each ship may not be reliable during such a long journey, this navigation program is not controlled by any specific terminal.
.It automatically monitors the fleet and relies on certain conditions to determine whether its navigation mission still needs to continue." The data terminal floated up and down. "Its detection rule is 'life is still continuing'. This machine found this from the bottom of the database.
information."
Every Ark built by a civilization has a different way of operating, and this one. They will only continue to sail as long as the life inside them is still alive. Their thrusters are still not extinguished, so unless these ships are formed
There is a problem with the navigation program. There is only one explanation:
"There are still people alive on a certain ship..." Hao Ren murmured to himself, then frowned, "But they didn't respond to Nolan's call."
"Perhaps it's a system failure, or they don't understand Nolan's high-level language. It's more likely that they are frightened. They may think that we are in the same group as the 'Guardians.'" The data terminal turned back all the light. "Of course.
There is a worse possibility, that is, there are not many survivors left, not even the people who know how to operate the radar. In short, they do not respond, then we can only check every ship."
Hao Ren was startled and looked up at the console in front of him. On one of the screens of the console, the scene in the vast space was displayed. Some dim lights were shining in the darkness. They were the other twelve arks.
The silhouette of a giant ship in space.
"I hope every ship has the same structure as this one..." Hao Ren muttered, and connected the communication with Nolan. "Nolan, you have heard what is said here. Call in the engineering drones,
Cut open the outer shell of each ship. Drive the life detector in until the deepest signal can be scanned. Also, do not interrupt the communication requests to these ships. If someone is willing to take the initiative to respond, we will not need to put it on their ceiling.
There are holes in it.”
"This machine feels that drilling a few small holes in these behemoths that are more than a hundred kilometers long will not collapse their entire system," the data terminal muttered as it shook its body, "unless you accidentally dig them.
atmospheric pump or reactor."
Hao Ren sighed slightly: "You still believe in my luck after following me for two years?"
The terminal was stunned for a moment and called the Giant Turtle Yantai number: "Nolan, tell those drones to be careful. It is best to scan at least three times every time when driving the drill bit... Oh no, let's scan four times."
A group of people left the central control station and looked at the overall view of this huge facility from the outside. Now that its core reactor has been reactivated, the once dim luminous grids and heat sinks are glowing brightly. But because most of the urban ecosystem
The important equipment has been dismantled, and the control station is like the remaining head of a giant and can no longer produce any function. It is just running silently in a vacuum, shining like an artificial star in this cold world that has become lifeless.
Shelter. Hao Ren looked at the frozen and dilapidated city around him and knew that there was nothing worth continuing to explore in this ship, so he left some autonomous machines here to study the city structure, while he himself took
People return to the Giant Turtle Rock Platform.
The Giant Turtle Yantai slowly left the giant ark ship named "Qunluan", and then some silvery-white light spots flew from a distance. They had a square shape and some sharp-edged engineering arms.
It was a swarm of drones that came in response to the call. The swarm flew towards the silent arks in space, and then some tiny flashes of light burst out from the shell of each ark.
Drones began cutting into these eerily silent steel domes and placing small detectors inside them.
"I have figured out how to make the first modification to the Giant Turtle Yantai." Hao Ren stood on the bridge and knocked on the console in front of him. "I at least need a high-power life-sensing radar, or a
New models of detector hives. Nowadays, these devices are becoming less and less useful. It is difficult for the general-purpose basic model to detect life reactions through several kilometers of steel plates and energy fields, not to mention that in most cases what I want to detect is
Those weird species created by the goddess of creation.”
"With all due respect, partner," the data terminal said in a deliberately serious tone, "according to your work history, your life detector will rarely have a chance to be used."
Hao Ren: "...it's not my pleasure to explode wherever I go!"
Each of the thirteen giant ark ships is more than a hundred kilometers in size. They have an outer protective layer several kilometers or even ten kilometers thick, a complex system of shallow pipelines and corridors, and a thick steel shell surrounding them.
A spherical city, and all of these things are in disrepair. Tens of thousands of old airlocks and exhaust pipe air pump systems maintain the fragile balance inside these spacecrafts, which brings a lot of trouble to the work of drones.
But everything still went according to Hao Ren's plan. A few hours later, the data from the detector group was continuously transmitted back to the Giant Turtle Rock Platform.
Hao Ren stayed in front of the console. The more important images returned by the detector were sorted out by Nolan and projected onto the main device. Hao Ren saw the internal conditions of the remaining twelve arks. Some of them had just detected the surface, but
Some have already penetrated to the core.
The conditions inside these arks are different. Although the structures are similar, they have different defects. In one of the arks, you can see a frozen city similar to the situation in the "Qunluan", but inside another ark
There is only a huge and terrifying hole: the city itself has been dismantled and turned into parts of another ship that may have been left behind hundreds of years ago.
"The situations are getting worse one after another... No signs of life have been found so far, only various wreckage has been found," Nolan's voice sounded next to him, "Their shells are intact but the insides are riddled with holes. These ships are in
In the past thousands of years, they have managed to survive by devouring each other. There may have been hundreds of them at that time, but now there are only thirteen ships still sailing... These thirteen ships look like floating corpses to me, with dry insides.
And empty.”
"After becoming a ship, you have become more emotional than before," Hao Ren smiled, "Have any arks responded to your call?"
"No, there is no echo on any frequency band, but I can be sure that my signal has been sent to the inside of these ships." Nolan nodded slightly, "The shallowest drilled detectors have already drilled into the cables of those arks. If
In this case, if there is still no one responding, then I’m afraid it really means ‘no one’.”
Hao Ren didn't say anything. He turned back to look at the holographic projection. A small detector was drilling into the spherical city dome of the sixth Ark. In its constantly shaking perspective, darkness flashed past, followed by
In a cold and dead silence in the dim light, a deserted city appeared under the lens of the detector, and other data sent back by the detector showed that there was no life here.
Hao Ren began to seriously think about whether all life in these arks had really become extinct. Perhaps there was something wrong with the navigation program that allowed it to continue running even though life was extinct. But just when this idea came to his mind
, a message jumped out from the holographic projection.
Nolan and the data terminal said at the same time: "There is a life response!" (To be continued.)