Chapter 1699 Human Courage

They hurriedly opened the helmet of the extravehicular spacesuit, and Lieutenant Cooper's blue face under the helmet finally relaxed. He slumped on the deck and just gasped for air, unwilling to say anything. Now he still hasn't figured out the situation, and Captain Miller has no intention of explaining, because they can't be sure what this malicious ship wants to do to them.

"You're okay." First Mate Stark said softly, trying his best to comfort Lieutenant Cooper. If the information they know is accurate, then Lieutenant Cooper should have been thrown into the universe in the explosion. Now he has completed an unprecedented feat in the history of human spaceflight. But this is not something to be happy about, because they are still trapped at the edge of the solar system, and all praise will be reserved for when they return to Earth. "It's over, Cooper. You're okay."

"It's not over yet." Captain Miller opened the airlock panel. There was a countdown on the panel. When the hyperdrive is activated, all external airlocks must be locked. "Will turned on the hyperdrive, we have to turn it off!"

"What to do? The bridge has been destroyed!"

"What about the engine room? Do you think you can shut down the engine from there?" Captain Miller asked.

First Mate Stark shook his head. The control computer on the bridge uses an inherited system that can be used to control the ship, but the control computer in the engine room uses professional software to check and control the components of the engine room. It is filled with a large number of electronic component names and data, and has not been It is difficult for people with professional training and systematic learning to figure out the details. Even if they pick up the fault manual, it is difficult to figure out what those codes mean.

"I don't know. I'm not a software expert, Will is."

"I'd rather die than go there," said Lieutenant Cooper, who finally regained his breath. He has witnessed the bad things that happened there. Whether it was Justin who turned into a vegetable or Dr. Will who attacked him with a nail gun, they were all related to that engine. The exploding Lewis and Clark killed Justin, Peters (all Everyone believed that Dr. Peters had been on board the ship (everyone on board was killed in the explosion) and Smith, even if he was not a superstitious person, was unwilling to get close to something he could not understand.

"Okay, then let's blow it up. Just like Will said, blow up the corridor, separate the hull, and use the front cabin as a lifeboat." Captain Miller said, "This is the original design of the spacecraft, hoping to send The data register can receive distress signals. Prepare the hibernation module, enter hibernation and wait for rescuers to arrive."

"I saw a ship when I was outside, but I was a little dizzy at that time. You know, the wreckage of the ship was spinning very fast." Lieutenant Cooper gasped, "It was too far away and I couldn't see clearly. . That should be a big ship. Remember what Will said about other countries sending spaceships to get hyperspace engines? Maybe that’s the ship I saw!”

"This is good news, indicating that rescue will not be too far away from us." Miller blinked, and there was no joy caused by the good news on his dark face. He could not guarantee that the spacecraft that could reach Neptune's low-Earth orbit would comply with the United Nations Outer Space Treaty, but he could not say such depressing words now. They were in a desperate situation and nothing was more important than the confidence of the crew. "Now I'm going to set the explosives. Cooper, now you go send a distress signal, and then come back here immediately. Stark, you stay here to prepare the sleep cabin, and close the airlock after I leave..."

The first mate touched the dried blood on her neck and forehead. The wound on her forehead had stopped bleeding. The large amount of dried blood stuck her blond hair to her forehead and neck, which made her very uncomfortable. She can still feel the dull pain in her forehead and back, and the decompression accident nearly pulled her eyes out. But now they have no time to clean these wounds, all time must be spent on survival. She took a breath of cold air. The hull's oxygen circulation and insulation measures have completely failed, and their remaining survival time depends entirely on the temperature and oxygen content on the ship.

"You don't have to..."

"I will be back. Now, everyone goes on your mission."

Miller had read the steps before he took over the boat. As the captain who is responsible for the safety of all crew members, he will not let go of any emergency plan. At this time, the ship will automatically broadcast an announcement that the hyperspace engine will start in five minutes. Captain Miller raised his head and looked at it. Look at the engine compartment at the other end of the corridor and press the manual detonation setting on the controller in the corridor.

"A distress signal has been sent."

When the announcement rang in his ears, Lieutenant Cooper finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He had a hunch that help would come very quickly. His long space voyage experience told him that the ship he saw might have started its reverse thrust engine to slow down, and would be here to salvage them soon. At this time, something wet dripped on him, and Lieutenant Cooper had to doubt whether this aging ship, which had not undergone any maintenance and was gradually aging, could complete Captain Miller's vision - until he felt that the dripping liquid was too viscous. and warmth - Lieutenant Cooper discovered that the liquid dripping on his hand was blood. He raised his head in horror and saw blood pouring into the lighting system at an extremely fast speed, then overflowing from the ventilation duct, sliding down the bulkhead, and finally covering his shoes. The blood was like living creatures, eager to swallow him. Lieutenant Cooper recoiled in horror, then turned and ran, heading towards the airlock where First Mate Stark was.

"Fuck me! Fuck me! Stark!"

First mate Stark noticed that the temperature had dropped again and frost was clinging to the portholes. She raised her head and looked around cautiously. After seeing Dr. Weir's appearance, she had some intuitions that she couldn't understand, just like the dead Smith. The supernatural events on this ship have completely subverted past perceptions. The flames of science and reason have been completely extinguished by the cold space. Witchcraft and superstition have returned by borrowing the bodies of the dead and fear. Anything can happen here.

She could feel some kind of huge, damp and cold invisible thing running through the interior of the ship like a snake at the moment, poisoning their souls and bodies with vicious thoughts full of venom, squeezing the metal into distortion and creaking, she could Picture a cold, slimy, dark snake crawling through the pipes.

She remembered Dr. Weir's words that the ship was alive. She thought something was inhabiting the ship, something from another dimension. It was dormant in steel, jumping in cables, and the life signal she detected on the Lewis and Clark was the monster's heartbeat. The invisible formless creature was observing them now, enjoying their fear with malicious intent, waiting for the opportunity to hunt them. Now she saw the thick blood spreading slowly in the decompression fluid pool, as if the evil thoughts of the invisible thing had come to reality. The pipes in the ship's hull seemed to have turned into blood vessels, injecting the vicious thoughts of the invisible creature into reality. The pure white light in the dormant cabin became turbid as if contaminated, and even the air was filled with the smell of blood.

The glass of the decompression fluid pool suddenly exploded, and a huge amount of decompression fluid stained crimson by blood knocked her down like a flood. The sea of ​​blood knocked her headlong against the gangway below, until she and the wave of blood hit the lower deck hard. Lieutenant Cooper also came here at this moment. He shouted loudly and pulled the first mate out from under the gangway that turned into a waterfall. He was also covered in smelly and slippery blood.

First Mate Stark wasn't seriously injured, and she hadn't lost her mind yet. She vomited a mouthful of dark red and fishy liquid, and the extremely sweet and putrid smell almost made her spit it out. "Our fears gave it form, it fed on our thoughts," thought First Mate Stark. But she couldn't say anything. Her eyes were blinded by the thick and smelly blood, her nose was filled with the stench of decay, and fear spread uncontrollably from the depths of her soul.

It is so long ago that any historian can only speculate with scant evidence. One million years ago, before the birth of Paleolithic civilization, before animal skins and flames warmed the body, the ancient and extremely nameless fear descended from the depths of the universe into the dark night of the earth. . This fear hidden in the shadows and nights outside the cave is hidden deep in the dim genetic memory and soul. It is a secret that cannot be erased even through bloody inheritance. The technological development and establishment of the human race in the past hundred years His beliefs are as weak as those of a baby in comparison.

She heard a consciousness in the blood.

The vocal organs evolved by primates on earth cannot even pronounce their names completely, and the weak organic information processing organs cannot fully understand their existence. They can only understand them through the fragments they reveal in the material universe. It is like the manifestation of a four-dimensional object in the three-dimensional world, like a moment in a long time. It was something that humans could never understand. She didn't even know if that thing had life, or whether the narrow word "life" created by humans could describe the existence of such a thing.

She could only scream.

"Run!"

Captain Miller walked to the other side of the covered bridge and pressed a few buttons again. A black box locked with a combination lock immediately popped out and unlocked. He pulled out a 1990s Motorola phone-style device with a small screen and a thumb-sized red button in the center. This is a detonator, and the broadcast sound in the covered bridge proves that he has successfully adjusted the detonation mode to remote detonation. "I'm ready to detonate." He said to the intercom on the pillar of the covered bridge. "Repeat. I'm ready to detonate."

"Miller! Can you hear me?" A bloody face suddenly appeared in front of the screen. First Mate Stark looked at the screen in panic, and Lieutenant Cooper looked around behind her, fearing that something terrible might burst out of the corner he couldn't see. "We have to get out of here, now!"

Captain Miller didn't have time to answer, because the dazzling firelight and surging heat exploded around him, and the scorching air forced him to take a few steps back and stay away from the intercom. He saw the charred corpse again, the flames jumping on the charred flesh. The charred corpse shouted, spitting out a stream of flames that filled the entire covered bridge. The flames followed closely, and the approaching heat even scorched his forehead. Captain Miller had to turn around and escape, getting into the anti-jamming device in the engine room that cut the light into pieces like a meat grinder. I don't know whether it was the setting of the program or the ship was controlled by a malicious consciousness, but the door of the hyperspace engine room slowly closed in front of Miller, and the jagged edges meshed like teeth.

Fear will make people timid and hesitant to move forward. He was either burned to death by the flames behind him, or his body was cut off by the gradually closing air-tight door. But fear never belonged to a captain who had flown many dangerous space missions. He jumped in through the airtight door that was not completely closed, and hit the grid deck hard. The last thing he saw was the flaming corpse squeezed into a beam of flame through the gap in the air-tight door that had not been closed yet - he quickly rolled over, and the beam of flame hit the center console behind him - - The airtight door is completely closed, leaving only a wisp of flame still burning at the joint. Eventually even the flames died out, leaving only a thick puff of smoke.

"Hyperdrive will activate in two minutes."

Captain Miller held the detonator tightly in his hand and had to face a fact. If the monster was still outside the door, he was destined to be unable to return to the cockpit. But when the firelight and heat hit him from behind, he realized that the hyperspace engine cabin behind him had been engulfed in flames. Whether it was the huge spikes protruding from the spherical bulkhead or the slowly rotating hyperspace engine, it was as if it was being burned at this moment. Doused with gasoline and ignited.

"Miller!" the voice shouted beside him. As soon as Captain Miller turned around, the charred corpse that suddenly appeared swung its fists and flames at him. The supernatural force pulled him and slammed him against the spherical bulkhead burning with flames. The pain that burned his skin made him wake up immediately. He rolled into the cooling pool without hesitation, trying to extinguish the flames on his body. "You gave up on me, Miller!" The charred corpse stepped into the cooling pool, "You owe me."

Miller was lying next to the cooling pool, trembling all over, "You are not him, I saw with my own eyes that he was dead." The flames on the scorched corpse gradually extinguished, and the bones all over the body were deforming. The face was covered with countless deep scars composed of incomprehensible symbols. "Will?"

"This ship brings me back." Will chuckled, "I told you, this ship won't let me leave, and it won't let anyone leave. Do you really think you can destroy this ship? It beats Without time and space, it has been to places you can’t even imagine. Now it’s time to go back.”

"I know, go to hell." Captain Miller lay on the cooling pool and panted, gathering strength.

"You don't know anything. Hell is just a word. The real situation is much worse than hell." Will, or what was once Dr. Will, stretched out his hand to catch Captain Miller's fist. He grabbed the latter's head and used supernatural power to force Miller to keep his eyes open. "Let me show you... Hell!"

He saw First Mate Stark tied to the cross with razor wire, and the skin all over her body was cut with blood. He saw Justin, the engineer, hanging upside down on a huge spike in the engine room. He saw Lieutenant Cooper being impaled by a black thorn ring that appeared out of thin air and hung from the top of the engine room. The cooling pool water filled with blood slid over his eyes, forcing him to open them. Everyone was screaming, dead and living alike.

All he could do was scream.

"Did you see it!" The thing that was once Dr. Will let go of him, "Did you see it!"

"They...are not dead!" Captain Miller lay in the cooling pool and struggled to get up.

"Not yet, they will die sooner or later."

Miller groped in the cooling pool. He touched a cold, soft body and cylindrical steel. That's a carbon dioxide filter. He knew that Dr. Peters died here. He roared and swung the filter canister, hitting the monster in human skin on the face, one after another, full of anger. "Don't even think about it!" With each word he shouted, he waved it in the face of the monster who blasphemed human emotions. "Kill my crew!"

The monster caught an attack that could kill an ordinary person, and smashed Captain Miller into the cooling pool with his backhand. The burning hyperspace engine stopped rotating, and the complex, flower-like mechanical structure on the surface of the bronze sphere gradually opened, and indescribable filthy light shot out from behind the opened mechanical structure. "They are not your crew, they belong to this ship!" the monster yelled. "The hyperdrive is on and they can't leave here."

The pain prevented Captain Miller from standing up again. He saw the remote-controlled detonator dropped on the grid deck, flames burning on the water. He used all his strength to crawl toward the remote-controlled detonator on the edge of the cooling pool. Every time he moved, he couldn't help but cry out in excruciating pain. He felt like his ribs and leg bones were broken.

"Take me away and let them go!"

"No. Everyone belongs there. The space door has been opened, and you all must follow me. Have you seen it?" Countless terrifying visions crashed into Captain Miller's brain. He saw countless disgusting and horrifying scenes. He saw the true purpose of the huge spikes in the engine compartment. He saw himself being impaled on the spikes, and the copper-colored spikes covered with flesh and blood emerged from the deformed upper and lower jaws. Pierce out in the middle. The monster asked loudly again, "Did you see it?"

Captain Miller yelled in agony, reaching out through the flames to grasp the detonator on the grid deck. He saw maggots crawling all over Dr. Peters' body as she looked at him with glassy eyes. "Did you see it?" He saw Major D.J lying on the medical bed, eyes wide open, watching himself being cut open. "Did you see it?" He saw Lieutenant Smith's lower body integrated with the bulkhead, and his upper body spread out like a sinner nailed to the cross.

"Yes, I saw it." Captain Miller looked at him angrily. Those threats could not shake his mind, and he pressed the button without hesitation, "Go to hell, just you and me!"