Chapter 1690 Sudden start

Captain Miller, Dr. Peters and engineer Justin wore protective spacesuits weighing 30 kilograms. Like adventurers exploring caves on Earth, they fastened safety ropes behind their waists and slowly floated into Event Horizon through the connecting channel. Number. Even though they were mentally prepared, the team was still horrified by what came into view - a dry tooth floating in the air among other floating metal cans and empty plastic water bottles. Dr. Peters made a judgment that even though she did not have professional knowledge in dentistry - it was not a young deciduous tooth, nor a permanent tooth broken due to violence, but a tooth connected to the root nerve and with some dry gum remaining, as if Someone clamped the jawbone with a pair of pincers and pulled it out.

Captain Miller tried to calm down. While calling the first mate operating the Lewis and Clark to continue lengthening the composite metal cable, he took out a plastic sealed bag from the small bag on the waist of his spacesuit and kicked towards the tooth. Preserving that tooth in an extremely awkward way. On the bridge of the Lewis and Clark, everyone else who did not participate in the first rescue mission gathered together and watched Captain Miller's discoveries, including the tooth, through the camera on the spacesuit. Dr. Weir, Lieutenant Smith, Lieutenant Cooper and other crew members were all heavy-hearted about this ominous discovery. The tooth indicated that the Event Horizon might have encountered a disaster they could not imagine. If it simply went into hibernation, the crew of the Event Horizon would It was simply impossible to suffer such an injury.

"Justin, I need you to check on the engine unit to restart the power source. We need to turn on the artificial gravity. If this technology that Dr. Will said should really be on this ship."

Captain Miller put the tooth in the sealed evidence bag into the small bag. He felt that the temperature control system in the spacesuit was not working. The coldness of the universe still seeped into his body through the thick composite material, running up his spine and jumping into his brain. But he remained calm, and instead used a cold expression to let Dr. Peter ignore his hidden fears and called the others through the suit's built-in radio communication.

"Doctor Peters, I need you and me to go to the cockpit." As if to ease the tense atmosphere in the communication channel, Captain Miller tried to change the subject, "Dr. Will, why are there so many explosives in this channel? "

"I assure you that those explosives are safe and can only be detonated under the control of the center console of the cab." Dr. Will breathed a sigh of relief. Like everyone else, he refused to think about the meaning of that tooth. "The cockpit itself is a spacecraft. The mission of the Event Horizon is to test the hyperspace engine. It is necessary to abandon the hyperspace engine in the event of an accident and use the engine of the cockpit itself to return to Earth."

But we know they didn't do it, or they didn't have time to do it.

Captain Miller floated toward the cockpit with Dr. Peters. The closer he got to the cockpit door, the heavier the ominous premonition that squeezed his mind like a lead weight became. "You mean, the crew of the Event Horizon didn't respond to the accident? They should have gone through training to deal with emergencies. And they are all elites, so there is no reason not to respond in any way."

"We have previously confirmed that there is also a problem with the energy source. Maybe the problem is in the engine and the central control room, so the cockpit is not separated." Dr. Will frowned. Reality still slaps everyone in the face, even if they don't want to face it, this is something they can't get around. They had to think about what happened to the crew of the Event Horizon. The horrific wreckage proved that this was not a space accident in the ordinary sense. Dr. Weir said, "The scans show signs of life all around you. Do you see anything?"

"No. There is nothing, except for that tooth. Our detector cannot be so sensitive." Dr. Peters said gloomily, "Maybe there is something wrong with the detector."

"Maybe." Dr. Will was too lazy to continue arguing. Passing through that fog may have damaged many parts of the Lewis and Clark, but he could guarantee that there were no problems with the software. This was the only thing he was sure of in this universe. "If I were on the boat, I might be able to check for software issues. That would help us start the engine, because the boat behind us is getting closer and we don't have much time left."

"I have a little trouble here." Justin, who was floating in the other direction, interrupted the argument, causing Captain Miller, Dr. Will and Dr. Peters to calm down. Dr. Will didn't know what was going on with him. It seemed that the closer he got to the mission goal, the more irritable and emotionally unstable he became. Others seemed to have noticed the abnormality, but everyone admitted in their hearts that they were frightened by that tooth. "How do I open the blocked door to this engine bay?"

"Enter the password. I'll send the password to the communicator, Justin." Following Dr. Will's instructions, Lieutenant Justin finally opened the thick protective door. Then Lieutenant Justin let out an exclamation, and his steps became hesitant. "I know, it looks scary. There's no need to be scared, it's just a device to eliminate radio clutter from the universe."

"This is a meat grinder, Dr. Will!"

Justin protested loudly, and other people on the bridge also saw what Justin saw through the camera, and then cast disapproving glances at Dr. Will - they thought Justin's description was very accurate - it was a long strip of The cylindrical passage of the steel bridge leads directly to the cabin where the hyperspace engine is located, but what wraps this bridge is thousands of constantly rotating, scimitar-like blades of metal, cutting the thin light cast overhead into pieces. pieces of shimmering debris. Justin felt like he was about to walk into the psychedelic passage of some amusement park. What was bad was that the rotating walls were not black and white patterns but metal. What was even worse was that he could not walk steadily on the bridge, but was restrained by cables. Floating forward, the disappearing gravity made him feel like he would fall towards the slowly rotating metal at any time, letting the sharp edges cut through the protective suit and his own flesh. He couldn't explain why he had this fantasy, just like a person standing on the edge of a tall building can't help but fantasize about jumping down. He must hold on to the door frame tightly to prevent this fantasy from coming true.

"The hyperspace engine is an extremely sophisticated device," Dr. Weir said. "This is necessary to ensure the accuracy of the engine."

"I just hope I don't drift into these blades!"

"That's not a blade, Justin."

"Don't let us get hung up on academic definitions, okay?" Lieutenant Justin took a deep breath. This young man who usually looked like a cheerful cartoon character looked pale at the moment, like an extreme sports challenger who was about to jump off a cliff but didn't have an umbrella on his back and was still glaring at the pedals of his bicycle. "Dear first mate, please tighten my cable, don't let me turn into a ball of minced meat!"

Captain Miller ignored the small interlude of lively atmosphere in the communication channel. After Dr. Weir provided guidance through the camera and communication, he was finally able to open the sealed circular door of the cockpit. Captain Miller subconsciously blocked the camera of the spacesuit, and Doctor Peters pointed at the equipment in the cockpit and screamed.

Under the weak searchlight illumination, they saw that the cockpit console was covered with old blood, and almost all equipment was covered with a layer of flesh and blood. Dr. Peters' expertise allowed her to recognize at a glance that the flesh and blood on the equipment and walls still retained blood vessels, tendons, and unformed organs. The blurred flesh was covered with frost, which seemed to indicate that this space was once extremely humid, even if it meant violating the most basic safety regulations of space navigation.

Captain Miller finally put down the palm that was blocking the camera and cautiously walked to the console. Dr. Weir and other crew members on the bridge took a breath of cold air, but Dr. Weir still directed Captain Miller to go to the console and try to remove the storage device that stored the Event Horizon's voyage log. Only by looking at the voyage log can they figure out what happened to the Event Horizon.

Doctor Peters, who was looking around, screamed again, and everyone on the bridge of the Lewis and Clark saw in horror a rust-colored, shriveled corpse slowly floating past less than thirty centimeters from Doctor Peters' eyes. Dr. Peters had seen many corpses, but never such a horrific scene. It was an extremely terrifying corpse. Its eyes were gouged out, its teeth exposed in the void were stained with black blood, and criss-crossing scars were all over its body, as if someone had torn open its own skin with fingernails and then tore it apart. Throw it into the cabin.

However, the horror did not end there. Justin in the engine room was still performing his mission. But unlike what he had imagined - and unlike anyone's imagination - after crossing the covered bridge and arriving at the cabin where the hyperspace engine was located, he did not see the metal tanks storing fuel, nor did he see the complexity of connecting a large number of cables. equipment. This is a huge spherical space. The walls are surrounded by gray-black metal discs depicting strange totems. Several huge metal spikes emerge from the metal discs according to certain mathematical rules, pointing directly at the middle of the cabin. of the hyperspace engine. Several huge masses of liquid water floated in this strange space in a weightless environment, like huge, uncertain rust-colored spheres.

Compared to the weird cabin, the hyperspace engine is the weirdest thing.

It was a sphere wrapped by three bronze metal rings. The outermost ring had many symmetrical spikes, and the centermost sphere was wrapped by similar metal disks covering the cabin. When Justin came to this device, the triple rings of the hyperspace engine were still slowly rotating quietly, exuding a heavy and weird atmosphere. The triple ring suddenly stood up in front of Justin, and several metal discs on the central spherical surface began to dent and began to emit dazzling light. Justin couldn't help but raise his hand to block the light. When the light dissipated, he saw that the metal disc that was supposed to wrap the sphere disappeared, replaced by a circular plane as black as ink, reflecting ripples like water under the searchlight. , as if blowing a breath can dispel it.

"Justin, listen to me," the first mate said, "We found that the life signal of the Event Horizon is constantly increasing, especially the engine room where you are. Justin..."

Justin couldn't hear anything.

He stared at the black puddle in the middle of the engine room with fascination, as if it were the most attractive object in the world. Any sound was quickly moving away from him. He felt like he was immersing his head in a bathtub filled with warm water when he was taking a bath as a child. The folded and distorted sounds and light entered his senses through the water, but they were moving away from him, making him unconscious. Pay close attention to, get close to, and indulge in. His spirit curled up, wrapped in the warmth that didn't exist in space. He didn't know how noisy the communication was at the moment. Dr. Will, the first mate, and Lieutenant Cooper loudly reminded him of the abnormal situation in front of him, but no matter how other people on the bridge called, they could only watch him approach. That black pool.

He reached out his hand and gently touched the black liquid surface.

The moment the fingers wrapped in fabric touched the liquid surface, Justin woke up. Some invisible force jumped into his body, hit his brain, and woke him up from the abnormality. He couldn't explain why he did this, and he didn't know why the dark pool attracted him. He let out a scream of terror, and then was pulled directly in by the force, sinking into the dark water revealed by the hyperspace engine. Immediately afterwards, in the console on the bridge, the camera of Justin's spacesuit lost signal immediately, and the safety cable connected to the spacesuit seemed to be pulled by a huge force. The cable length reading displayed on the device soared rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, the cable was gone. It was pulled out by an extra kilometer.

The Event Horizon's engine room is not a kilometer long.

"I'm going to rescue Justin!" Lieutenant Cooper, the search and rescue officer who had been waiting for an opportunity, yelled and activated the device to reverse the safety cable. While pulling Justin's safety cable quickly through the connecting arm, he told the bridge through the radio in his neck, and then gave instructions that professionals should give. "You also put on your spacesuits, we have encountered an uncontrollable situation! Miller, Peters, evacuate quickly!"

"What happened, Lieutenant Cooper!"

"Justin, he..."

A few seconds later, before Captain Miller could figure out the situation, a huge force gushes out from the engine room.

In the blink of an eye, the force swept through the entire ship from the engine room at the rear of the Event Horizon. The isolation door of the cockpit crashed into the cockpit as if a large amount of explosives were attached to the outside. Many unfixed and easily damaged equipment were also hit by this. A force smashed into pieces, and Captain Miller and Dr. Peters, who were still in the cockpit collecting evidence, were also hit by this force and smashed into the empty sleeping cabin in the cockpit. However, this was not the end. This huge force also shook the Lewis and Clark connected to the Event Horizon. The originally tightly connected connecting arms and air-tight doors were immediately damaged, and the violently broken hull spewed out gas and electric sparks. . Many of the equipment on the bridge failed, leaving only dense snowflakes and patches of color. The unlucky crew members were thrown to the ground by this force, their heads bruised and bleeding, and they were dazed. But fortunately, there were still people who remained sane, and Dr. Will immediately called on everyone to put on spacesuits.

"We must go to the Event Horizon immediately!" Dr. Weir shouted amidst the damaged equipment that was constantly spewing electric sparks. "This ship is no longer usable. We must go to the Event Horizon, otherwise we will all die here!"

"Justin!"

Lieutenant Cooper also felt the tremor. He desperately dragged the cable through the covered bridge wrapped in anti-jamming equipment and entered the engine room where Justin had arrived. He saw the cables connecting Justin's suit submerged in the dark, non-reflective liquid. Just when Cooper was about to arrive, the inverted cable finally pulled Justin out. Lieutenant Cooper rushed forward and hugged Justin, and the two fell against the spike-covered wall of the engine room.

At the same time, the console of the Event Horizon came back to life without human control. The computers and screens that had lost power came back to life. The gravity field of the entire ship began to recover in the blink of an eye. Oxygen of a suitable concentration began to fill the hull and keep it warm. The facility quickly melted the ice hanging on the portholes and flesh. The huge water ball in the engine compartment hit the ground, and the blood-red liquid mixed with dirty water flowed like a waterfall toward the cabin door bridge. Dr. Peters also woke up from a semi-coma state. She saw the floating body hitting the cockpit ground and then shattering like ice.

Then she felt someone grabbing her arm and dragging her outside.

Captain Miller was breathing heavily, and a small hole opened in the sturdy space mask. Warm air spurted out along the gap, condensing into white frost in the cabin. The cold air of the Event Horizon nearly burst his lungs, but he still grabbed Dr. Peters' arm tightly and pulled her out from among the shattered metal and glass.

"You're going to be okay, Peters," Captain Miller gasped. His eyes were distracted and he didn't seem to have recovered from the violent impact. "You'll be fine." He kept repeating, stepping over corpses broken into ice cubes and slippery frozen meat, and the chill of the void continued to seep into his body. He had no time to think about the situation on the Event Horizon and the Lewis and Clark. His goal was only to save the people he could save in front of him.