Chapter 1693 From the World of the Dead

Dr. Will quickly walked through the corridor filled with directed bombs, crossed the engine room corridor that rotated like a meat grinder, and pounced on the computer in front of the huge hyperspace engine. Captain Miller watched Dr. Will open the management software at an extremely fast speed and check the surprisingly complicated operation logs one by one. "Is there any problem?" Captain Miller didn't want to care about Dr. Will's almost arrogant attitude ten minutes ago. Although Dr. Will's almost obsessive impulse was puzzling, for him, it didn't matter. There is nothing more important than protecting the lives of all the crew members - he repeated again, "What's wrong? Can you fix it?"

"I can." Dr. Will responded with an affirmative tone, and he showed his professionalism, which made Captain Miller feel a little more at ease. But this comfort is not much, because the hyperspace engine standing above the cooling pool is slowly rotating at the moment, which is very different from the silence they have witnessed before. Dr. Will said, "There is no problem with the constrained magnetic field. The operating circuit should be burned. I can fix it. I need your help, Miller."

Dr. Weir pointed to the wall of the spherical engine room. The walls of the spherical engine room divided into square pieces have the exact same bronze color as the hyperspace engine, and also have weird symbols that are almost identical to the surface of the hyperspace engine. Captain Miller followed Dr. Weir's instructions and pressed down on a piece of bronze wall near the hyperspace engine main control computer with the latter. The cold touch made him shiver. Dr. Will gasped, almost feverishly digging his nails into the wall, and then opened it with force. A bright green light leaked from the maintenance channel, and an ominous premonition once again enveloped Captain Miller's eyes. Even though it was only the faint light reflected from the emergency lights installed inside the maintenance channel when it illuminated the copper-green PCB boards on both sides, it illuminated Dr. Weir's face like a skeleton.

"I brought repair tools."

Dr. Will said hello to Captain Miller, and without looking back, he entered the long passage that could only allow an adult male to crawl on his hands and knees. Before the maintenance tunnel was filled with Dr. Will's body, Captain Miller caught a glimpse of the maze-like intricate passage. The fluorescent green light draped Dr. Will's body like a tapestry, squeezing the man in the blue spacesuit. He was pressed very thinly. Captain Miller didn't know if Dr. Weir could find a way back without the blueprints, but he decided to trust the only person who could help, because worrying had no effect and he had to complete it. Other work - Pilot Steve is taking a break and will continue to repair the Lewis and Clark with search and rescue officer Lieutenant Cooper. Even if the Lewis and Clark cannot complete its re-entry mission, he will not abandon the ship that belongs to him.

But when he turned around to leave, he heard a voice.

An extremely familiar voice, a voice that once belonged to the living, climbed out of the dark cooling pool, with liquid flames flowing on the charred body. This voice once belonged to the living, but now it has come to the world from hell. It has come to this place where human beings have no courage and ability to explore for the time being. It has come to this place that human civilization cannot touch, the light of science and reason cannot illuminate for the time being, and the existing empiricism of mankind. Beyond dogmatic cognition, we come to a world once again occupied by the superstition of the night, the fear of the unknown, and the monster under the bed.

It was as if at this moment, Captain Miller was standing on the edge of hell, peering down. The voice called to him, and fear swept through his body. His face and chest were burned by the blazing flames, and his eyes were burned by the charred human body in front of him. The burst of heat burned him dry. Captain Miller stood there, staring seriously at the charred human body that was approaching, letting the fear deep in his genes strike him.

"You're not him." Captain Miller waved his arms angrily, "Get out of here!"

Then the body from hell disappeared, as if it had never been there.

At this time, Dr. Weir was huddled in the maintenance pipe, and the smell of burnt electronic components made him frown. He used the maintenance tools he carried to pry open the circuit box hidden behind the heat dissipation duct. While checking the wiring, he heard a voice - "Billy." It was a woman's voice, and Dr. Weir was very familiar with that voice. and the lips that uttered his name—and then fear came with the dying light. Dr. Weir turned on his flashlight in horror. The weak, flickering flashlight beam was unable to penetrate the almost supernatural darkness in the maintenance tunnel. The voice called to him again, and he recoiled in terror, on his hands and knees. He heard his wife's voice, and he felt that the hollow eye sockets with gouged eyes were staring at him, just like he had dreamed about on the Lewis and Clark.

"Captain Miller!" Dr. Weir shouted in the direction he came from, "I'm in trouble!"

He tapped the flashlight eagerly, trying to get it to provide a steady source of light on its own. The heat released by the running electronic components was like a hot wind wandering in the desert, rushing towards him from the end of the maintenance channel. The panic and rising temperature made him sweat profusely, and his forehead was covered with sweat beads. Then he saw the woman's face. She lay in front of him, naked, with water droplets on her skin. She was just like what Dr. Will had seen in his dream, with wet brown curly hair, but there was no sweet smile on her face anymore, and her rosy cheeks would remain cold forever, because she was dead.

She returns from the world of the dead and flings herself towards the faint candlelight emanating from the souls of the living.

She stared at him with bloody, empty eyes. "Stay with me," she said, "forever."

"Dr. Will!"

Captain Miller's voice brought him back to reality. Dr. Will crawled back following Captain Miller's voice. When he emerged from the maintenance tunnel, the faded adrenaline almost made him unable to stand still. Dr. Weir looked pale, and Captain Miller had to hold him up to prevent him from falling into the cooling pool.

————————

"High concentrations of carbon dioxide may cause hallucinations."

"This is not a damn hallucination, D.J!" Captain Miller crossed his arms and glanced at every crew member on the bridge. He has told all the crew members present about the situation he encountered, and almost everyone was surprised by what Captain Miller saw - they are elites who have been carefully screened, and naturally they are not like superstitious religious believers or unbelievers. Like agnostics, they are afraid of or dependent on a phenomenon that cannot be explained by their own empirical dogma. They will use their own wisdom to analyze and solve problems, otherwise Captain Miller would not call them to the bridge. "Doctor, you were in the maintenance tunnel at the time. You must have heard or seen something."

Just as Dr. Weir hesitated, Dr. Peters spoke.

"I saw it, not long after we arrived here." Dr. Peters lowered his head and choked with sobs. "I saw my son lying on the operating table, and his legs..."

"Peters, if you don't mind, I would like to say that this is a bit like shock..." Dr. Will reminded softly next to her, "Maybe it was due to excessive fright. We encountered an accident at that time." "No, no." Peter Dr. Si shook his head desperately, as if to shake off the sadness caused by that hallucination.

"...could it be because I saw a dead body?"

"No!" Dr. Peters yelled at Dr. Weir, causing the latter to shut up. She gritted her teeth and said, "I've seen dead bodies, but this is something else!"

"What she said is true. I can feel the heat. This is not an illusion." Captain Miller glanced at the crew and looked into their eyes. "Smith, have you encountered anything strange?"

"No. But I can tell you that you don't need to see it to know that this is an evil ship."

"Thank you for your scientific analysis, Mr. Smith." Dr. Will put his hands on his hips and sounded disdainful.

Lieutenant Smith rushed over and punched Dr. Will in the face until Captain Miller and others pulled them away. “It doesn’t take an expert to break all common sense, everyone knows that it comes with a price!” Smith shouted at Dr. Weir, and Dr. Peters could hardly stop him, “You killed a group of people, and now you want to kill us! It’s a damn ship!”

"D.J.!"

Dr. Peters screamed in horror, and Captain Miller turned around to see Major D.J. grabbing Smith's chin and pressing a scalpel against the latter's neck. Major D.J pressed close to Smith's ear and lowered his voice and said, "You are out of control. This ship is a pile of metal and nothing else! Do you understand?"

"D.J.?"

Captain Miller leaned forward slowly, his tone hesitant. He pointed to his neck, but it was not until Lieutenant Smith surrendered that the medical officer dropped the scalpel to the ground. Captain Miller quickly walked up and grabbed his shoulders, but D.J's face was full of confusion, as if he didn't realize what he had done.

"Are you OK?"

"I'm fine..." Major D.J stood there with his arms folded, his face still full of confusion, "I'm sorry, Miller, I seem to..." Before he could finish his words, Lieutenant Smith, who had been controlled before, moved toward him again. Dr. Weir pounced. Captain Miller turned around and grabbed Lieutenant Smith by the collar and smashed him onto the center console. The plastic box used to hold the flesh and blood collected on the bridge was also swept to the deck.

"I want you to calm down, now!" Captain Miller pointed at Lieutenant Smith's head and shouted sternly, "Now!" After confirming that the latter really obeyed the order, he pulled Lieutenant Smith up and said, "Go upstairs. Get up there! You and Cooper have to fix the ship together, and nothing can go wrong! If you make a mistake, no one will be able to return to Earth, do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

Lieutenant Smith said reluctantly and a little embarrassed. As he passed Dr. Weir, he stared at the Physics Doctor angrily.

I originally wanted to continue writing, but it was a little stuck, and I wanted to give you more at the end of the year, so I posted it.