Chapter 139 (1/2)
After reading the brief introduction of the spaceship, Hao ren paused for a while. He glanced at Raven 12345 in surprise and asked, “So, it’s just a few hundred meters long? I thought it would be at least two kilometers…”
“You still think it’s small?” Raven 12345 rolled her eyes and explained, “This is for when you’re on duty, not for you to use it as a colonial ship. So, it is enough for you. Besides, the ship has an excellent internal space expansion device. A part of the actual bay section is larger than its external dimension. As for the size…you must be dizzy. You can’t estimate its size after you’ve seen something bigger than this.”
Hao Ren agreed. This ship in front of him was as big as a mountain. It looked like it was the best model according to the introduction he read so, Hao Ren told himself to appreciate it. All the questions he had earlier were due to the deep impression left by ship No. 883, and he unconsciously compared the two ships, which were completely different in function.
“This ship has self-defense firepower?” Hao Ren pointed at some points in the projected introduction, which he cared about the most. “And this cross-world travelling… How would I know about these things? Do I still have to learn artillery and navigation?”
“Hehe. You’d be considered smart if you could lift this ship off on your own, right now.” Raven chuckled and walked forward. “Your current piloting skills are at zero, lower than my level. There’s a lot of stuff to learn. The main piloting work will be handed over to your MDT later. We’ll just watch from the side. By the way, the ship has to be docked at the Kuiper Station. When parking in the solar system, the ship must not leave the mask area. It also can’t land on the earth. Do you understand?
Hao Ren nodded. He knew it without the need to mention.
They walked along the spaceship’s corridor for a while, and then entered an area similar to a crossroads. It was as wide as a small hall, where four corridors converged, and an object akin to a round table stood in the middle. A holographic projection floating above it was showing several complex charts and data. Hao Ren noticed that a similar holographic projection had been following him. When he saw the device, he realized that the projection next to him was being released by the MDT. Hao Ren poked the projection beside him and asked, “What is this? Is it from the spaceship? I don’t know—”
“The ship’s host will, by default, set up a projection which follows the captain. It’s purpose is to report the ship’s status to you immediately. Just shut it down if you can’t understand it. There’s actually nothing to pay attention to. When a real emergency happens, the ship’s host will contact you via radio and mind communication,” Raven 12345 said and pointed to the corridor lights and the signs floating on the wall. “Lighting, environment, gravity, markers; everything is on factory setting. You can adjust them according to your needs later. Usually, it will take several navigations before you can adapt to it and completely conform to the habit. The corridor ahead is a central fork. Turn left and it’ll lead you to the ecology and residential areas; turn right and you’ll head to the energy section with all kinds of engine rooms and laboratories. Go straight and you’ll find the control room and intelligence center. In the middle of the central fork, there is a transmitter launcher below the holographic projection. Standing near it will enable you to order it telepathically to teleport you to the upper container area or shipboard hangar. I will send the ship’s structural plan to your MDT, and then you can take your time to adapt to it. If you can understand all of this within three years, you are considered gifted. Now, let’s go to the control room.
The messy partitions and sections made Hao Ren feel a bit dizzy. Just when he was about to ask a question, he suddenly heard a faint buzz. He turned around to look, and found that there was a strangely shaped, mechanical “creature” drifting towards them!
It was a silvery gray creature with an irregular, chubby body. It had two rows of symmetrical bright eyes and several writhing mechanical tentacles stretched out from the bottom of its body. The total length of its body was about two to three meters. Overall, it looked like a mechanical squid that would appear in horror films. This strange and frightening, mechanical monster emitted a series of gabble and drifted towards them. Nangong Wuyue jumped on the spot and asked, “Where did the squid come from! Why is it floating?”
Hao Ren was also startled by this object but, he noticed that Raven 12345 had no particular expression. It seemed like the object belonged to the spaceship. So, he did not move but, looked curiously at the robotic squid. It drifted nimbly towards him, waving its tentacles and ‘jabbering’ a bunch of meaningless words. Then, it floated up to the ceiling and began to detect certain devices with a probe on its tentacles.
“It’s a self-regulating machine. Many of these little people can be seen in all the imperial ships or in a large facility.” Raven 12345 pointed to the mechanical squid and continued explaining, “It is responsible for maintaining the spacecraft, repairing equipment, cleaning, doing all kinds of chores, and taking care of others however, it doesn’t do them well most of the time. It can also be a sentry but, its combat power… Well, it can be used to scare people.”
“The ship’s handyman?” Hao Ren just realized something. “So, this means all the ships’ crew members have been replaced by these self-regulatory machines?”
“Almost. After all, I can’t give you hundreds of workers to do nothing every day other than polish the ship. Also, these self-regulatory machines usually stay in the upper deck of the shipboard hangar. They will repair and maintain each other. Additionally, they will produce new self-regulatory machines based on the circumstances, completely without your intervention. So, just treat them as a part of the ship’s inner biosphere.”
As they were talking, the squid-like, mechanical machine completed its inspection of the corridor, waving its tentacles and gradually drifting away. Nangong Wuyue was finally relieved and said, “Phew… This place really has quite a lot of interesting stuff.”
They finally arrived at the spacecraft’s control room. It was a wide, circular compartment, divided into upper and lower layers. The upper layer was slightly crimped, which made the entire control room feel like a truncated, hemispherical hall. They came in from the entrance of the lower end of the control room. They then saw a hologram device floating in the center of the room, which was showing a projection of the spaceship itself.
“There’s no place for us to sit?” Nangong Wuyue curiously walked around the room and found that there were no seats available.
“If you need a seat, just ‘think’ about it.” As Raven 12345 spoke, a couple of silvery white lines appeared mid-air behind her and these lines instantly condensed into a seat at just the right size for her. “The whole ship supports telepathic control as long as you’ve registered your identity when entering the ship. You can use generic devices that do not require permissions, and the seat is one of them. All right, that’s it. Hao Ren, insert the key into the console’s mainframe interface, that glowing part with a circle of arrows pointing towards it.”
Hao Ren saw light blue arrows emerge from thin air, indicating what to do next. He approached the device called the “Command Console”, and found a keyhole of the right size for the crystalline key. It was on the side of the crystal-like structure.
As the startup key was inserted into the keyhole, they heard the clear and loud sound of beeping, followed by a muffled boom coming from the depths of the spaceship. The core of the power furnace had begun to increase its output.