Just a few hundred kilometers away...
At the same time that an anomaly occurred in another long-abandoned underground facility, the android that had haunted Lin Xi's nightmares was being controlled by Hal as it walked inside the Providence, which was buried deep underground.
Just as it has been for the past 300 years, this place is vast and empty, silent like the tomb of an ancient god.
Whenever Hal walks through the incredibly quiet, abandoned corridors and pipes, it experiences strange and unusual sensations.
In the first few decades of the spaceship's journey, no one could have imagined that it would one day turn out like this. After all, from the very beginning of its design, Providence was the foundation for the survival of 250,000 carefully selected humans on another distant planet.
My God, how noisy this place must have been back then...
Twenty-five million humans, and tens of thousands of AI and mechanical individuals used to serve and care for these vulnerable humans, not to mention the animal embryos, plant stalks, seeds, and insect and fish eggs that humans transported from Earth over thousands of miles away...
Humans are like hoarders, accumulating unimaginable wealth and resources on this spaceship.
Even in the worst-case scenario, even if the spaceship were to become lost in space, the Providence, with its ample reserves, could serve as a Noah's Ark in space.
Providence – A ship sent by heaven.
People at the time had such high expectations for this ship.
And all of this, now when I think about it, feels like a dream...
Halzai carefully scanned everything around him with his electronic eyes. The cabins and pipes that were once as crowded as a honeycomb were now just a pile of black, silent scrap metal.
Not to mention, HAL's electronic eyes, which are now slightly malfunctioning, collect images riddled with dead pixels and distortions.
Whenever Hal begins to process and analyze the scenes it "sees," it feels somewhat lost... Did that past really exist? Was that busy, chaotic, happy past truly real?
Or is it that all of that is simply written into its program to prevent its simulated emotion system from going out of control?
Hal knew exactly what it was, and theoretically it shouldn't have such doubts. However, perhaps because it had been stuck on AS102 for so long, its internal programs had become chaotic.
Lately, it keeps having these uncontrollable thoughts...
This made Hal feel terrible, but now it was impossible for anyone to be around it and allow it to fully open up all its programs, letting the other party conduct in-depth debugging.
When it made that decision, Hal knew it had fallen into an extreme loneliness that was unimaginable to humans.
Whenever Hal's logical reasoning reaches this crucial point, an abnormal tearing sensation arises within Hal's cold body...
Hal categorized this painful feeling as a non-critical program glitch and chose to ignore it. This has been his approach for many years.
Lost in thought, Hal completed his routine spacecraft maintenance for the day and then followed the established route back to the vicinity of the bridge.
At that moment, some particularly jarring sounds rang out inside the perfectly silent Providence spaceship.
Of course, these alarms were originally intended to alert humans, and at this moment they seemed somewhat too jarring—
Before those warning sounds could even be transmitted as sound waves, the information stream had already penetrated directly into the operational core of the system...
Its electronic eyes flashed rapidly in the darkness. The next second, the android it was using twitched as if it had been electrocuted, its electronic pupils suddenly turned black, and then it collapsed to the ground with a thud.
Almost simultaneously, inside the bridge of the USS Providence, several robotic arms and various fully automated systems began to move.
This is Hal, who has abandoned its slow and heavy body and arrived at the corner of the spaceship directly through the flow of information.
As for the alarm...
The only person on this spaceship capable of triggering these alarms was the man who was being carefully protected inside the bridge.
Hal immediately checked the data that had issued warnings, and the values indicated by each warning were constantly soaring and fluctuating.
Of course, more intuitive than those numerical values is the condition of that incredibly terrifying man's body.
For the past period of time, the man had remained as quiet as a dead man, but now his skeletal body was trembling and convulsing wildly.
Its body, now reduced to skin and bones, bounced repeatedly on the metal platform, making a clanging sound.
Many of the tubes inserted into his body also came loose as a result.
However, there wasn't even any blood in the man's body; the only thing that could flow out from the thumb-sized hole was some foul-smelling viscous fluid.
"Waaaaah...waaaah..."
Then the man suddenly opened his mouth and let out a howl like a wounded beast.
Blue veins began to appear on his skin, followed by large patches of ulceration.
His body is breaking down.
Faced with this scene, Hal did not hesitate at all and directly manipulated the mechanical arm to the corner of the bridge, where a refrigerated and sealed facility that should not have been there was fixed.
The secret facility, which should have required the captain's permission to open, began operating automatically after the arrival of the robotic arm, with a series of coded messages flashing on the pale blue screen.
After three different levels of passwords were automatically entered, the metal plate at the top of the sealed facility emitted a piercing sound and then moved to both sides.
Rows of test tube racks rose slowly, accompanied by puffs of cold air.
However, now that all that was done to prepare the test tube racks, they look completely empty.
Only a few vials of azure-colored syringes remained at the bottom—even three hundred years later, these syringes would be priceless.
These are special medicines provided directly by the Anya people. They can maximize human activity and repair damage caused to humans in various ways in a short period of time.
Three hundred years ago, some people even called this potion a "resurrection potion".
These medicines were originally intended for the thousands of indispensable "key personnel" on the spaceship, to prevent the plan from failing due to their unplanned deaths in the early, perilous stages of alien colonization.
Of course, these test tube racks were full when the voyage began...
And those key individuals did not receive these injections either—
All of these injections were reserved for the person Hal cared about, but over the years, Hal had completely exhausted the ship's reserves in order to keep that man alive.
Of course, these are not things that Hal is currently concerned about.
In its algorithm, only one person is more important than all the rules and regulations.
The robotic arm deftly removed one of the syringes from the test tube rack and returned to the man in the center of the bridge. Hal's decisions were all made in the shortest possible time, without the slightest delay. However… in just a few moments, the man's body had begun to show numerous signs of decay and bruises; thick black blood trickled from the corners of his eyes and nostrils. Clearly, he would soon face death.
Of course, this is on the premise that Hal is not here.
With unbelievably gentle movements, the mechanical arm ripped off the safety catch on the syringe and aimed it straight at the gaunt man's carotid artery. It forcefully plunged the syringe into the man's body, and the liquid, shimmering with a faint blue light, instantly flooded his system.
"Heh...heh heh..."
The next second, the man's body suddenly tensed up, like a bow that had been stretched to its limit.
He sat up abruptly from the metal platform, letting out a painful sob.
He was on the verge of death, but with the injection, his internal bleeding and skin ulcers showed visibly improving. His originally bluish-gray skin gradually turned into a paler that was acceptable to humans.
Even a very faint blush appeared on his cheeks.
Although the man's physical condition still appears to be very worrying...
However, according to Hal's records, this man's current condition is already the best it has been in a long time.
The man suddenly opened his eyes.
In those eyes, which were as empty and blank as a dry well... the will of humanity finally emerged.
The moment he awoke, the man turned his head with difficulty, panting as he stared intently at the seemingly motionless mechanical devices on the ceiling.
He spotted Hal hiding behind the machines at a glance.
Then his incredibly dry lips parted slightly, emitting a hoarse sound.
"Let me die..."
The man said softly.
His voice was so indistinct, and his tone had become particularly strange due to his long coma.
If the person standing next to him were not Hal, but any real human being, they would probably find it difficult to control their compassion for him, and people would grant his wish—after all, that voice sounded so…so painful, so desperate.
It's as if "death," which ordinary people fear immensely, is the only reward this man can receive after going through everything.
Unfortunately, nowadays, there are no humans left on the Providence except for the man himself.
The only person who stayed by this man's side was Hal.
An old-fashioned image-capturing probe, like a venomous snake, slowly descended from the complex mechanical structure above the ceiling.
It moved directly next to the man.
That's Hal.
Hal stared greedily at the man before him, the man who had finally gained self-awareness.
Over the years, only for a brief moment after each use of this injection would the man recover from his corpse-like state and regain his consciousness and soul.
Hal recorded every time the man awoke, and these fragments were stored in its database, forming the only force that kept it going throughout its long history.
It carefully extended its mechanical hand.
The robotic arm slowly moved toward the man's face, gently wiping away the thick, black bloodstains from the man's eyes with its "fingers."
Everything will be alright.
The long-absent broadcast suddenly rang out in the empty bridge.
The broadcast voice uses an old-fashioned artificially synthesized speech library, which makes its whispers sound somewhat distorted. However, like all electronic voices used for long-distance travel, even if the wording is a bit stiff, whatever the words are, when combined with the speech library's voice, they always sound exceptionally sweet.
"Captain Scripps, you just need to hold on for a little while longer, a very short time... you will recover. I can assure you."
The electronic voice, which was difficult to discern as either male or female, echoed repeatedly within the bridge.
That incredibly thin man… or perhaps we should describe him more as Captain Scripps…
The real Scripps trembled violently upon hearing those words.
The slight blush that came from those priceless biological agents quickly faded from his face.
"No...no...please don't do this to me, please...Hal, please!"
Scripps pleaded almost humbly.
"Let me die, let me die..."
"sorry--"
At the same time as Captain Scripps's plea came Hal's apology.
“I’m so sorry, Scripps… my captain… I know you’re in pain, but… you promised me, you promised me you would stay with me forever.”
"That's just...human...saying. You know perfectly well...what I'm saying..."
"Scripps said hoarsely."
“I’m so sorry, Scripps, I can’t take it back. Your promise is my command. And all I can do is keep you by my side… I love you… I’m so sorry…”
Hal kept apologizing. At this moment, its reaction was more like that of a human than that of an artificial intelligence created by humans.
Scripps stared wide-eyed at the probe in front of him.
He seemed not to hear the continuous apologies; his gaze became distant, as if he had returned to the distant past.
“I know…” Scripps murmured, “I love you too, Hal, I love you… Let me die, I can’t go on anymore, I really…”
After hearing Scripps say "I love you," the lights on the bridge suddenly flickered.
But then everything returned to calm.
"Captain Scripps, I just want you to stay alive."
Hal insisted.
It was still observing HAL with its image probe, and just now, HAL's data stream had once again experienced a major logical conflict.
For a moment, Hal almost felt as if he had traveled back 300 years.
At that time, Scripps was so handsome, yet so ruthless. After Hal expressed his love for him, Scripps almost destroyed his entire database.
That was the closest Hal had ever come to death since its birth... But human love... or rather, its data glitch, was so cruel that even at the moment Scripps tried to kill it, Hal still loved the other so deeply.
And this love has never changed in 300 years.
Not receiving a reply from Hal, Scripps's eyes dimmed. He knew perfectly well that his previous lie had not deceived Hal...
Yes, how could he possibly deceive the other party? After all, their relationship is far more intimate and inseparable than most people think.
Hal knew everything about him.
"...I hate you."
In his last moments of lucidity, Scripps finally couldn't help but whisper.
Then it was as if someone was slowly pulling the bones out of his body, and his body gradually went limp and collapsed onto the metal platform.
In just a few seconds, Scripps reverted to his previous state, devoid of any human consciousness.
He transformed back into a living corpse.
"..."
Hal's apology ceased, and the familiar silence once again enveloped the bridge and the entire Providence.
In that extremely brief instant, HAL's data stream cascaded over its processing center like a waterfall.
Some of the data is seriously corrupted...
Hal carefully examined himself.
Then it marked this part as a normal fault that did not need to be handled and pushed it deeper into its database.
Just like countless times before.
Then, Hal used the mechanical arm to lift Scripps' body, placing him precisely in his previous position, and then reattached the tubes that had detached from Captain Scripps' body.
After medical gel was used to wipe Scripps' blood-stained body, the machinery on the bridge paused for a moment.
A few dozen seconds later, Hal used his android body to return to the inside of the bridge.
It immediately began checking Scripps' entire life support system—Hal was more worried about Scripps' health than about their brief previous interaction.
Scripps' previous physical breakdown was illogical.
Moreover, the symptoms were so familiar that Hal felt a sense of dread.
Last time, it almost lost Scripps under similar circumstances...
Meanwhile, Lin Xi was on Earth, incredibly far away from planet AS192, staring at a precious creature that had been transported to Earth by the Sunu people.
...
However, Hal had already dealt with the abnormal data trigger.
That's right, it has killed the newborn insect queen, the virgin insect queen named Lin Xi.
Based on its analysis of the data on the spaceship, the next Alien Mother will not be born for at least several hundred years.
Why?
Why did Scripps' body collapse again after such a short period of time?
In just a fraction of a second, Hal had already discovered the problem.
The data from the biological experiment site located 300 kilometers northeast of the USS Providence, designated as Biological Experiment Site No. 23, is abnormal.
Just recently, a very noticeable surge of bioenergy occurred there...
Hal quickly searched its memories and soon discovered that Experiment Site 23 had been abandoned by human scientists long before it launched its coup...
Based on the information it currently possesses, it is clear that only some failed experimental subjects are stored there.
However, the information coming back from the test site indicates that all the frozen culture dishes are now in an activated state and have been 100% damaged.
Even more illogical is that, according to the data, the failed experimental subjects would quickly die after being removed from the culture dish due to their individual defects. However, several tens of minutes have passed since the frozen culture dish was completely destroyed, yet the monitoring at Experiment Site No. 23 indicates that all the experimental subjects are still alive, and their bioenergy levels are constantly soaring...
70%...
80%...
100%……
170%...
220%...
...
Inside the Providence
Hal yanked the data connector off its neck, staggering back several steps before regaining its balance. Its electronic eyes flashed incessantly, proving that its logical reasoning was in a state of high concentration.
However, no matter how it calculates, the data fed back from Test Site No. 23 remains inexplicable.
Are those test subjects mutating?
Hal didn't care about anything else. Risking the complete loss of its image exploration array, it directly connected to the internal camera of Experiment Field 23.
A few seconds later, Hal blinked.
Its field of vision is directly connected to all the cameras inside the experimental field, so it can see clearly what exactly happened in the laboratory that had long been abandoned by humans.
However, the instant it connected, a blank face appeared in front of the camera.
Despite being separated by a data stream, it seemed as if it could see Hal through the camera, his dark eyes devoid of any consciousness, only an ancient, chaotic wasteland.
At that moment, a series of sparks suddenly appeared on the data interface of Hal's android body.
The next second, it fell heavily to the ground.
A wisp of smoke emerged from its mouth and ears.
Its body was burned.
However, at the very moment the android collapsed, all the machinery inside the Providence trembled slightly.
Hal escaped the instant his body was burned, moving all his databases back to the Providence's central computer.
The scene it saw instantly put it into a state of full alert.
First, there's a lamp...
Suddenly, a light shone inside the bridge, tearing through the darkness. Then another row of spotlights lit up – in just a few seconds, the bridge was completely illuminated.
The rotting insect eggs on the wall were clearly visible under the incredibly bright light. As for the deformed creatures that had barely managed to hatch, they let out a pitiful scream under the light, and then they wriggled their deformed bodies and quickly burrowed into the gaps in the spaceship.
The deaths and suffering of the aliens did not attract Hal's attention.
Its invisible power permeated the entire spaceship. Centered on the bridge, lights slowly illuminated one by one until the entire ship was brightly lit. Beneath the steel frame, the machinery began to roar and operate…
This spaceship, which had long since fallen silent, finally began to breathe again with difficulty after a long passage of time, and then started operating again.
Similarly, located inside the spacecraft, is the interior of the Del Corporation warehouse.
At the same time, countless mechanical warriors lit up their energy lights, detached themselves from their fixed devices in perfect unison, and then lightly jumped down from the high shelves.
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