Chapter 207 The Mysterious Orion Base
Su Wanqing pressed her body against the metal door, waiting for the last bit of energy fluctuation to stabilize.
The darkness behind the door was somewhat depressing, and the low hum of machines in the distance was accompanied by intermittent vibrations.
She raised her wrist and glanced at the jade bracelet. The energy interface was slowly converging.
Lu Zhao whispered, "Watch your step."
The two men walked through the loose alloy door step by step, and faced a wide passage with a layer of badly worn anti-skid plates on the ground.
At the end of the main road, a light blue indicator light flickered faintly. A tall semicircular hall appeared in front of us, and its structural support was all alloy skeleton.
Su Wanqing walked forward silently, and after a few steps her feet touched the stairs.
When they reached the center of the hall, the footsteps suddenly became silent. A giant holographic projection column stood in the center. Although some parts had collapsed, there was still a blurry light curtain on which a complex three-dimensional cross-section of the base's interior appeared.
Lu Zhao turned on the signal detector and tried to capture data. He leaned close to the edge of the projection and read: "Seven layers deep, the area here is probably almost half the size of the fortress."
Su Wanqing's gaze fell on the top layer of the projection, which had clear outlines and expanded downward layer by layer. Several areas were circled by red spots.
She bit her lip. "The scale mentioned in the previous official report did not mention this place at all." The mark on the projection was still flashing, with "Extreme Research Area" written at the bottom.
There are circles of research stations along the walls of the hall, and medical and biological analysis equipment are still on each table.
Most of the screens had already lost power, with only one workstation near the west side still having the main power switch slightly lit.
Lu Zhao checked the ports one by one. The cooler was covered with dust, so he put on gloves and carefully turned on the power.
A series of old data windows popped up.
Lu Zhao frowned and slowly turned the pages: "There are local records here, but they are all incomplete."
He opened a folder and found a sentence in the remaining log that stood out: "N series experimental subject, consciousness stability suddenly abnormal... The memory interaction interface of the last S project reported an error again, and the authority has been submitted to the supervisor for review."
He paused, "This refers to two sets of experiments."
Su Wanqing came over and looked at the recorded time at the bottom of the screen: "They are all from ten years ago."
She remembered that the era Ye mentioned was earlier than the emergence of the virus.
Lu Zhao closed the terminal and took out the drive to back up the data.
There was a row of lockers at the end of the hall, most of which were locked. Su Wanqing twisted the handles and tried a few, but only the one at the very end was still working.
When she approached with the jade bracelet, the locker automatically clicked open.
Su Wanqing had been feeling a little strange for a while, so she lowered her head and saw a very small wrist ring device quietly placed in the cabinet. Structurally, it corresponded to her jade bracelet, but it was red in color, and there were metal symbols on the streamlined surface.
She took it out, and as soon as she touched it, the red bracelet and her jade bracelet lit up at the same time, and an energy wave resonated violently between the two devices.
Her arms felt a little sore, and a stream of data rushed directly into her mind. The jade bracelet projected a long string of dense encrypted characters, which finally stopped on the screen - "Pairing system, core initialization is not completed."
Su Wanqing's breathing was a little heavy, and she quickly put away the red bracelet. As soon as she separated it, the jade bracelet prompt page converged, and the encrypted data was automatically archived and disappeared.
Lu Zhao took the portable terminal and looked at it for a while. "The security protocol shows that the two devices are highly related. They may be the original matching set."
"Why is there a spare?" Su Wanqing hesitated, "The pairing system... is it also related to the project code?"
She asked, not sure herself.
"This scale is definitely beyond the scope of external scientific research authority." Lu Zhao put the ring in a storage box and said, "Take it back first and analyze it later."
They walked down from the main control hall and there was a passage on the side leading to the culture area. The label on the door was old but the words "Biological Sample Room" were still recognizable.
Su Wanqing pushed the door open and saw more than a dozen culture chambers lined up in the room. Most of the glass chambers were covered with cracks, and each chamber was marked with a code and date.
The interior was bare, instruments and data ports destroyed by violence.
The only one that remained intact was a cabin in the far corner, numbered "N-7". There was a large area of congealed blood on the cabin wall, and the sockets were full of torn cables.
Su Wanqing remembered that Ye had mentioned "Test Subject No. 7". She observed the remaining data in the cabin and found that the last communication was updated on the day the experiment was sealed.
"There was an accident in this cabin." She lowered her voice.
Lu Zhao supported the oxygen tank on his shoulder and responded in a deep voice: "Violent destruction, and escape behavior after infection. Unlike ordinary culture bodies, the data interface of this cabin is three-fold."
The two walked to the operating table next to them. Su Wanqing tried to touch it with the jade bracelet, but only felt some irregular interference.
Every time she passed a locked area, whether it was a database or an internal passage, the access control system would flash the monitoring light a few times as soon as she approached, the lock tongue would automatically retract, and the door would open.
Lu Zhao turned on his cap light and said, "The authority has been directly raised to the supervisor level. Every time you get closer, the access control will react to you."
Su Wanqing suppressed her uneasiness and focused her attention on the jade bracelet on her hand.
She pushed open the door on the easternmost side of the corridor and saw a nameplate on the door frame that read "Supervisor's Office."
She tried to look inside, and the scanning mirror next to the access control automatically lit up and emitted an electronic voice: "S-7 identity confirmed, welcome back, Dr. Su."
She paused. Her mind was in a fog. There was no movement in the office. She looked at the jade bracelet she was wearing, and touched her arm, but could not find any fragment of memory.
She walked in. The room was filled with old books and data terminals, with several sets of unopened file bags piled in a corner.
Everything seemed to be prepared specifically for her, but she had no idea.
At this time, Lu Zhao worked outside and connected the temporary terminal to an available data well.
He looked at the screen, and soon his expression became puzzled: "I pulled up your biometrics, and the match between Director S-7 and your body in the database is as high as 98%.
The only thing that doesn’t match is your brain’s neural activity, which has a special set of parameters in the database.”
Su Wanqing calmed down and tried to sort out the information she had just absorbed. She had never been to this base before, and had no memory of participating in these studies, but all the permissions, access control, and data systems seemed to be waiting for her.
She pursed her lips and looked back despite the headache. The seven-layer structure on the projector was still rotating slowly, and each of the following areas was marked with codes that only the insiders knew.
"It is probably certain that I have a fundamental connection with the director of the S-7 project."
She pressed her temple and didn't dare look at the access sign that said "Welcome back".
The data from the two wristbands seemed to resonate faintly within the body, and there was a strange feeling of weightlessness in the deepest part of his consciousness.
They continued to walk through the data room, and Lu Zhao tried to crack more databases, but no matter what, her permissions were automatically revoked when they reached her.
The security system tacitly allowed her to enter at every critical point. Several mechanical electronic prompts almost engraved her last name "Dr. Su" into her nerves.
After going around the entire first floor, traces of past experiments can still be seen in various places in the base, including scattered biological detectors, mainframes that once operated at high frequencies, and abandoned sealed capsules.
Most of the rooms showed signs of temporary transfer and evacuation, with neglected semi-finished experimental materials and printed test reports everywhere.
The holographic projection column was still glowing, and the progress bar of an unknown experiment was playing in a loop above the truncated table.
Further east is a separate inspection area with huge sample freezing cabinets labeled with classification labels.
The smoke-proof glass of one of the sample cabinets was shattered, and empty device shells and numbered stickers were scattered all over the floor. Some of the sequences corresponded to the data codes they had just seen in the diary port.
Su Wanqing never relaxed from beginning to end, and countless incomplete details flashed through her mind.
Lu Zhao sorted out the fragmentary report fragments behind her and stared at the entrance of the base for a few more times.
The main control communication board was still silent. Xiao Ran's signal was completely cut off and there was no contact with the outside world.
"The complexity of the base's structure far exceeds the blueprints. You are too closely associated with this place, which is wrong."
Lu Zhao said as he looked up the counter information, “Once you have the authority, you can open it completely.
This is not just a matter of setting up. The comparison in the biobank shows that your identity is already written deep into the code.”
Su Wanqing touched the pressure buckle on the side of her waist and put the two bracelets into her pocket at the same time.
She didn't understand much of the reason, but now she could only continue to investigate deeper.
Lu Zhao followed with the equipment in his hand. His footsteps echoed in the empty hall. The unpleasant smell of metal and coolant was still strong in the air.
She pushed open the last isolation door and prepared to move towards the next unpredictable area.
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