Alien Relic Hunter

"I have currently taken cells from more than a dozen places such as hair, epithelial tissue, muscle tissue, etc. for examination. Except for blood cells and body fluids, all other cells have a structure similar to the cell wall. The material components of this layer of structure are not yet It’s clear, but if it’s made of cellulose…”

"If they were made of cellulose, it would be impossible for these creatures to show the ability to move like animals." Ke Lan went on to say that the cell wall, if magnified, looks a bit like an insect's exoskeleton. But if every part of a bug's body was made of a hard exoskeleton, it would be impossible for the bug to move.

"In addition, there is another discovery... During my dissection, this cell wall-like structure released a large amount of radiation... I even have reason to suspect that this wolf-like creature generates energy shields. The 'source' comes from here."

"Wait a minute... You just said that except for blood cells, all cells have a cell wall structure. What about nerve cells? Nerve cells don't have a similar structure, right?" Ke Lan asked.

"I did not find nerve cells in the tissues of these creatures." Ivan looked at Ke Lan and said seriously, "Now you can understand why I was so anxious to call you over."

"There are no nerve cells... what about the brain? Are there any whole-body scans of complete corpses or living samples?"

"Scanned, but because there are a lot of radiation sources in these wolf-like creatures, the scanned images are all snowflakes and nothing can be seen." Ivan shook his head.

"Wait a minute, I'll make a call." Ke Lan was startled for a moment, then reacted immediately, took out his cell phone and dialed a number.

"Is it the escort team? Yes, I am Ke Lan. Immediately pick out the remains of a complete head from the specimens... No, directly send a complete corpse to the biological laboratory of the base. Now, immediately, immediately!"

Soon, an almost intact body of a wolf-like creature was pushed in on a cart.

This wolf-like creature was killed in the battle with Augustus. Its spine was broken into four parts. There were multiple fractures and muscle lacerations all over its body. There were a large number of bones under the skin that could be touched by hand. The hard object - it was a lump formed after internal bleeding coagulated... This wolf-like creature was probably beaten to death by Augustus.

Fortunately, her head was not seriously damaged, and the shape of her skull remained intact, which basically met Ke Lan and Ivan's experimental needs.

"Prepare for craniotomy." Ke Lan glanced at Ivan, picked up a pair of medical gloves and put them on, "I'll do it for you."

"Yes." Ivan nodded and took a metal tray from the sterilization cabinet under the table, which was filled with newly sterilized surgical knives and a medical chainsaw about the same size as an electric razor.

The shape of this medical electric saw is very similar to the electric drill often used in construction, so some people call it a "saw drill" - of course, as long as the working head is changed, this thing can also be used as an electric drill. Work.

"Prepare the skin first." Ivan said. Even though he was facing a corpse, all the required procedures were still indispensable.

He covered the head of the wolf-like creature's corpse with a piece of non-woven cloth, used a razor to shave off the hair at the incision site little by little, and then disinfected the exposed skin with alcohol and iodine.

"I'm going to get ready for the operation." Ivan glanced at Ke Lan, and after the latter nodded, he picked up a scalpel from the metal plate on the side.

The way Ivan holds the knife is the pen-holding method. The advantages of this way of holding the knife are that it is easy to control, flexible in operation, and can complete some very fine movements. However, the disadvantage is that the force is completely dependent on the strength of the fingers, and is generally used to cut blood vessels and nerves. , but for large and deep incisions such as amputation or disembowelment or craniotomy, it will seem a bit overwhelming.

But this problem does not exist for Ivan... After all, the hand he holds the knife is not a real human hand, but a mechanical prosthetic limb. The power that the prosthetic finger can emit is even greater than his own core muscles. The power of the crowd.

With the sharp blade slashing down, the skin on the top of the wolf-like creature's skull was cut open smoothly. Ke Lan, who was responsible for assisting, used retractors to pull the cut skin to both sides and fix it. Prevent it from closing again and affecting the operation of the surgeon.

Ivan's hand did not stop. After cutting the skin, he cut into the subcutaneous tissue. Fortunately, the body of this wolf-like creature had just been taken out of the freezer, and there was not a lot of blood during the dissection. So even if there is no pump to suck out the blood in the laboratory, the operation can proceed smoothly.

"You look at the guy's subcutaneous tissue...skin, fascia, blood vessels, muscles, fat...are almost exactly the same as most mammals." Ivan placed the cut things on the plate in categories. Said to Ke Lan.

"To be honest, even though this corpse has been frozen, the body tissue does not feel like it has cell walls... Is it possible that the cell walls we observed under the microscope are just a 'mutated' cell membrane? "

"It's hard to say..." Ivan slowly shook his head, "If there is a structural mutation at the cellular level, then the final form of this creature cannot be like this... even if it is a seed of erosion. Monsters, their cells are not as diverse as this creature."

Ke Lan naturally understood the meaning of Ivan's words. It was like building a house. One of the two architects used concrete as the building material, and the other chose wood as the building material... As a result, the two architects built a house. There is almost no difference in the appearance or interior structure of the resulting house... This is an absolutely impossible thing from an architectural or biological point of view.

It's just that the answer to this question cannot be found by relying solely on the crude equipment in this laboratory... What Ke Lan and Ivan want to confirm is another more straightforward thing.

Ivan had already marked the skull of the wolf-like creature. He picked up the saw and drill, took a deep breath, and then drilled the drill bit into one of the marks.

The heartbreaking sound of friction between metal and bone suddenly sounded. Both of them stared at the cutting position, not even daring to take a breath.

Soon, a square incision with a side length of three centimeters appeared on the left side of the wolf-like creature's Tianling Cap.

The two of them looked at each other in unison.

"I'm about to witness the results, but I'm a little hesitant." Ivan said as if he was mocking himself.

"There's nothing to hesitate. Haven't we seen enough weird and unreasonable things?" Ke Lan whispered.

"Taking this opportunity, let's clarify the unspoken speculation just now." Ivan said, "You say it first or I say it first."

"I suspect that this creature...may not have an organ like a 'brain'." Ke Lan said bluntly.

"This is impossible... If there is no brain, then the various behaviors they exhibit cannot be explained by common sense." Ivan shook his head repeatedly - the "brain" they refer to here is not just the one used for thinking. The "brain" also includes the diencephalon, cerebellum, brainstem and other organs. These organs not only control the thinking and movement of living things, but even the operation of various parts of the body, ranging from heartbeat and breathing to hormone secretion and metabolism. , these organs are needed to "give orders"... Without the "brain", the organism will instantly fall into a state of "out of control".

"Then what is your guess?" Ke Lan looked at Ivan and asked.

"I..." Ivan hesitated for half a second before saying, "Although my reason tells me it's impossible, my guess is the same as yours... Since there are no nerve cells in other parts of the bodies of these creatures. , then the brain is a 'completely useless' thing to it - since the signals sent by the brain cannot be conveyed to various parts of the body, then even if this creature originally had a brain, over time, this organ will It slowly deteriorates."

"But," Ivan continued, "it's easier to do without a brain. If there is no cerebellum and brainstem... what is controlling the movement of the body... controlling its heartbeat, breathing, eating and excretion? Even if it is a robot , there must be a CPU (central processing unit), right?”

"Perhaps, the organ below is its CPU?" Ke Lan pointed at the cut skull with tweezers and said, "Wouldn't you know if you open it?"

Ivan nodded solemnly. The tips of his mechanical fingers split into several petals, with a slender metal probe sandwiched between each two petals. He carefully inserted these needles along the cut gaps. Gently clamp the square piece of bone and slowly lift it up...

Under the incision was a layer of pale fascia. Because of the freezing, the blood did not overflow. But perhaps it was for this reason that Ke Lan had an illusion in his trance: it seemed that what they were dissecting was not a human body that had just been dissected. The corpse of a slain beast was instead a zombie that had been sealed for who knows how many thousands of years.

"It seems... it's hard." Ke Lan poked the pale fascia with tweezers, and a hard touch came from the thing under the fascia, which made him feel a "thump" in his heart - although this The corpse had been frozen, but even the muscles were not so frozen. How could the brain tissue be as hard as stone?

Of course, the premise is that the organ under this layer of fascia is the brain and not something else.

Ivan did not answer, but took the smallest surgical tool and, with the help of tweezers and needles, cut open the thin fascia bit by bit.

The things under the fascia were finally exposed to the two people's field of vision, but the two of them fell into silence for several seconds.

Under the fascia, there is not brain tissue frozen into a lump of ice, but a crystal - a multi-faceted crystal that is completely transparent and has a smooth surface.

"Although there are some differences from my guess, it's pretty much the same." Ke Lan was the first to break the silence.

"This thing...is a carbon-based creature?" Ivan said with a slight twitch in the corner of his mouth.

"Except for the 'brain', other parts can be considered as carbon-based organisms." Ke Lan said.

"Will the brain of a carbon-based creature be a crystal? Or...are these creatures actually robots?"

"I am more inclined to the theory of modified creatures. The ones that can be imprisoned inside 'Yagunaktor' are obviously not ordinary beasts." Ke Lan sighed, "So far, we haven't done anything about it. It is clear what the purpose of this ancient battleship was... is it a weapon, a colonial ship like the Ark, or a 'scientific research ship' used to conduct various experiments? ?”

These wolf-like creatures are obviously not comparable to the crystallized lava beetles in the power room. The latter are more like immigrants who accidentally entered the battleship and then found a place that was "extremely suitable for survival" and settled there; and this group of wolf-like creatures is more like "man-made creations" that were deliberately kept in captivity in the battleship. ".

But who keeps them in captivity? Alpha civilization? Or... the mysterious third civilization that built "Yagunaktor"?

There is really too little information at hand now. Logically speaking, Ke Lan and the others should be ecstatic that such a major discovery has been made in the first phase of exploration, but for some reason, Ke Lan is not happy at all. stand up.

An indescribable feeling of depression lingered in his heart.

At this moment, Ivan suddenly let out a low cry. Ke Lan quickly looked down and saw that the originally smooth, mirror-like surface of the crystal had turned into pits in just ten seconds. .

"This thing... it, it is degrading itself?" Ivan suddenly became a little at a loss, "How could this happen?!"

"Normal." Ke Lan nodded, "This can explain why we did not find this kind of crystal in those mutilated corpses - because all the exposed crystals have 'disappeared'."

"What should we do now? Suture the incised fascia?" Ivan tried to use a crochet hook to pull the fascia and wrap the crystal again, but he just used a little force and the crystal under the fascia suddenly broke. turned into powder.

"Try freezing." Ke Lan said, and had already walked around to the other end of the dissecting table, but before he could lift the body off the dissecting table, the crystal had completely disappeared, leaving only an empty cranial cavity.

"Record all these and send them back to the Ark together with the samples." Ke Lan said to Ivan, "There are not many samples left. Every time one is wasted, there will be one less opportunity for research... If I had known this would happen, If it’s something, we shouldn’t conduct an autopsy hastily.”

"Crystals that degrade quickly when exposed to air... This is the only information we currently have." Ivan looked at Ke Lan, "Do you think of anything?"