Chapter 1453 The Initial Pollution Point
In a state of spiritual connection with the Sky Station, Gao Wen listened carefully to Azarena's report, not missing a single detail.
In the Sky Station... there is a mysterious "Shadow Hall". Even if you don't consider the astonishing traces of reverse tide pollution, the existence of this hall alone is enough to make people wonder why there is such a hall in the space facilities built by the Voyagers. What is incompatible with the "painting style" of the space station? What is the function of this hall? Was it there from the beginning, or did it gradually become that way at some point in the past?
If the hall of shadows was originally just a normal cabin, and it was alienated into what it is today at a certain time in the past, is its "alienation" related to the reverse tide pollution? If it was part of the space station's design from the start, then there must have been a point for the Voyagers to have such a place in the space station... What is this "meaning"?
"We checked other parts of the hall and found that the energy supply of the entire hall is normal, but a large number of devices have entered a dormant state, which is not the same as the 'disabled cabin' encountered before," Azalena said Continued to report, "Chief Nicholas believes that this shows that the 'Shadow Hall' has a higher energy supply priority than other areas, so it still maintains basic operations when most areas of the entire space station are in a dormant state.
"However, we still have no way to determine what is going on with the shadow force in the hall, and we are not sure whether it was in that state from the beginning. What is certain at present is that the original lighting in the hall is obviously also affected by the 'dark environment. 'The influence of this shadow power entrenched in the hall is obviously very powerful, and...the Voyager's equipment did not respond to this powerful shadow power, but allowed it to move in the hall."
Gawain fell into deep thought, and asked after a while, "You probably haven't gone through the hall to check the situation at the other end, have you?"
"Not yet," Azalena responded immediately. "The situation in the hall is weird at the moment. We have taken a cautious approach. Before we understand the nature of the Shadow Hall, Chief Nicholas told us not to move forward."
Gao Wen breathed a sigh of relief: "Very well, keep this kind of caution. Nicholas is still in the hall, right? I'm going to try to spread my perception to that side, hoping that there is also a communication that can be activated in that hall node."
"Understood, I'll tell you right now..." Azalena agreed, but interrupted suddenly in the middle of her sentence, "Ah, Miss Berlanta, who was guarding the hall, sent a message... Officer Nicholas activated The large-scale equipment wrapped in the thorn structure!"
"He activated that thing?" Gawain's voice suddenly rose, and he saw the momentary expression change on Azarena's face through the monitor in the orbital station, "Did you find anything?"
"...There is only one line of information on that terminal - the star map keeper is offline."
...
"What is a star map keeper?" Cassandra stretched her neck curiously to look at the ancient device activated by Nicholas Egg just now,
The words projected on it trembled slightly in the air. It seemed that the focusing structure of the projection equipment was not in good condition after a long period of dormancy. "Is it the previous staff here? A certain position in the Voyager?"
"The literal meaning seems to be the navigator who is in charge of managing the star map? Or is it just a 'warehousing position'?" Nicholas also heard a buzzing voice full of doubts in his body. Although he could use simple and crude physical methods He activates the terminal in front of him, but he doesn't know much about the specific voyager technology and equipment control methods. When faced with such an ancient device that has been dormant for many years, he can only be confused like those ordinary engineering team members. Operating with guesswork, now he is guessing how to use this terminal while trying to input commands to the terminal in front of him based on the experience accumulated in several cabins, "Let me see what else it has. reaction……"
As soon as the voice fell, a small electric arc shot out between him and the ancient terminal. This well-timed electric arc was his means of "dealing" with these antique machines.
In the next second, there was a slight beep from the terminal that had just been "dug" out of the thorn bushes, and then a line of red fluorescent text appeared in front of everyone along with the buzzing warning sound: "Error, the star map custodian is not authorized."
"...This thing seems to be specially prepared for that 'star map keeper'," the red dragon mechanic Belranta who was on the side had been calmly watching the changes in the terminal, and then he broke the silence, "We need The corresponding authority can proceed to the next step."
"...Where can I find the so-called 'custodian'," Cassandra muttered, "This entire space station has been placed for 1.87 million years, and I can still find a communication station for the voyager ship. Can the regiment send a message asking them to send someone back to unlock it for us?"
"Theoretically...it shouldn't be so," Nicholas muttered, floating in front of the ancient terminal, thinking while scanning the deep structure of the surrounding equipment, "the Voyager put this space station and The entire space facility group outside is set to automatic operation, and judging from the records of the Dragon Clan, it is clear that the voyagers had no plan to return when they left... Since they did not plan to come back from the beginning, why did they bother to return? Reserve a hall here that requires the permission of the 'star map keeper' to activate? Under normal thinking, they should either completely lock this area, keep it open, or set up a hall that can be opened without the return of the fleet. conditions?"
Cassandra next to her reacted: "You mean... the 'star map keeper' mentioned here shouldn't be a member of the Voyager Fleet?"
"If you're leaving a place for good and you leave a 'legacy' before you leave, you should either entrust it to someone, or lock it up for good, rather than leaving a 'key at the door'. In XX’s hand, please leave a message if you need to open the door’,” Nicholas shook his body, “Anyway, I think so.”
Cassandra was thoughtful, and almost at the same time, everyone in the hall heard Gawain's voice suddenly coming from all directions: "I agree with Nicholas."
The next second, they heard a slight humming sound coming from some nearby machines, and the faint and dim lights on the ceiling of the hall also flickered a few times. In the darkness, several monitors were activated one by one, dim to Indicator lights that are almost imperceptible to the naked eye flashed across the casings of monitoring equipment, broadcasting equipment, and communication equipment——Gauvin Cecil's will reached this hall through the newly activated information link, and passed through the hall The interactive terminals set up everywhere observed here and talked with everyone in the engineering team.
Cassandra was stunned for a moment, and then laughed: "You are very emotional every time you 'come'."
"Oh, Your Majesty! You're here!" Nicholas also said happily. Although he couldn't see Gawain's figure, he knew that everything that happened in this hall was like happening in front of Gawain at this moment— ——As an "iron ball star" who can directly observe the operation of the surrounding machines and the flow of energy, he has understood Gawain more deeply and clearly than anyone else since he boarded the Sky Station and talked with Gawain for the first time The connection with this space station, "Have you seen the situation in this hall?"
"...I can see more clearly than you. I have multiple perception filters here." Gao Wen's voice was deep and low. During the spiritual connection, the state of the entire Shadow Hall had already appeared in his mind, and in his other layer " In "Impression", you can see a series of activated dim light spots and the connecting lines between the light spots—that is the compartments that Nicholas and his party have been continuously activating since they climbed into the sky.
These successively activated devices appear as a continuously forming and intertwined net in his mind. It is precisely because of the spread of this 'net' that he can continuously connect his consciousness to the newly discovered cabin, from a certain In this sense, the actions of Nicholas and his party are actually constantly activating his "vision" in the sky station.
And now, at the end of this field of vision, he saw the shadow hall, and also saw the huge ancient equipment in the center of the hall——
It was a huge polygonal column connecting the roof and the ground. In the special field of view transmitted by the monitor, he could clearly see the part of the column hidden in the thorn bushes, and through constantly switching various visual modes Looking at its details, he saw that there were a large number of branches spreading out from the top and bottom of the pillar, and these structures were connected to a large number of equipment and pipelines deep in the hall.
In his feeling, this device presents a "painting style" that is incompatible with the surrounding voyager equipment from top to bottom, but it is naturally integrated into the entire hall, and this entire hall... looks like It also seems to be an extension of this pillar, which exists to support the operation of this thing.
Gao Wen silently switched the visions sent back through the multiple monitors. Obviously, these "visions" were not all obtained by relying on optical viewing, so the dim environment in the hall did not affect his "sight". The "thorn structure" of the column - in the picture automatically corrected by the monitor, those crystal thorns showed a translucent illusory state in his eyes, covering a large area in the center of the hall like a layer of phantom, looking... Just like the "armor" that guards the pillar.
In the Hall of Shadows, Gawain's voice fell silent for a while, but the hum of equipment running in the surrounding darkness gradually sounded. At the same time, there were slight clicks when some devices were switched, and when the top monitor rotated. The lights turned, and Cassandra and the others knew that this was Gawain using his "magic ability" to mobilize the surrounding monitoring equipment to observe this place carefully, so they didn't urge anything, but just waited silently.
At the same time, Azalena also brought people back to the hall from the previous corridor—they were obviously not moving as fast as Gao Wen, who relied on the transfer of consciousness, and they had just returned at this time.
"Has he arrived here?" Azalena came to Belranta and asked in a low voice.
"He is observing here," Berlanta replied in a low voice, "he has been here for a while."
Azalena nodded, and at this moment, she heard Gawain's voice suddenly sounded in the darkness: "Is the remnant of the reverse tide pollution at the gap in the thornbush? I saw an abnormality there. "
"Ah, yes," Azalena said immediately, and at the same time walked to the corroded and dented floor, "This is where the pollution was found—and a part of the thornbush was also obviously polluted. , it’s just that those thorns suddenly shattered afterwards, which left a gap here—but it also happened to expose an interactive terminal that was originally wrapped in thorns.”
"Do you think these thorns prevented the pollution in those years?"
"That's our guess," said Bellanta at the side. "After all, it looks like this from the traces at the scene, and those thorns seem to be protecting this... pillar in the center of the hall."
"Hmm..." Gao Wen hummed lightly, and then asked again, "Can the traces on the scene tell when the pollution occurred?"
"This...it's hard to judge for a while," Azalena shook her head in embarrassment, "The environment of the space station is closed and different from the surface. Everything that happens here seems to be frozen in time. It's hard to find a way to judge the time." passing reference, and we don't know how these 'thorns' change over time..."
"Based on a rough judgment, this should have happened a long, long time ago, and the time scale is in units of 100,000 years, so it cannot be recent." Alice RS-6, who had never spoken next to her, suddenly broke the silence. "I scanned the pollution The particle deposition around the traces, although the site environment has been slightly damaged by our actions, the scanning results are still of reference value."
"A unit of 100,000 years..." Gao Wen's voice sounded quite surprised, "That is to say, at least hundreds of thousands of years ago, or even hundreds of thousands of years ago..."
"In such an ancient time, the power of the reverse tide tried to invade the sky?" Bellanta's eyes widened suddenly, "At that time... At that time, it should still be trapped in the tower next to Tarrond... ..."
"Don't forget that although Ni Tide's body is trapped in the tower, his power spreads outward all the time. This spread escapes the eyes of the dragon clan and even the dragon god. Even before it escapes, the spreading power Just pollute the sentinel system," Gawain's voice sounded, "then it is not inconceivable that he would 'radiate' part of his power to the sky station in a similar way... Wait, it would be more reasonable to say that he pollutes the sky first... ..."
Belranta didn't understand Gawain's thinking for a while: "Pollution of the sky is a reasonable situation? Why?"
"The Voyagers left two systems on this planet, one is to monitor the 'Sentinel' home port and its affiliated fleet in the deep world, and the other is to monitor the present world's 'Sky' space station and its affiliated facilities, and this affiliated facility The swarm includes satellites and small space stations near the sky, as well as their corresponding 'support stations' on the ground..."
Gao Wen's voice echoed low and deep in the hall, and he felt that his thoughts became clearer little by little. In the mist, some ancient clues were finally connected together.
Although Ni Tide was dead, the clues exposed at this moment were by no means meaningless—he felt that he was approaching a crucial piece of history, some truth that was ignored by everyone.
"...Back then, the body of Reverse Tide was trapped in the 'tower' on the sea off Tarrond, and that tower was located in the present world, so if it is classified according to the facilities left by the sailor, it should be counted as a Facilities under the sky system.
"So, I'm afraid that from the very beginning, it was not the sentinels who tried to pollute against the tide... but the sky!"