Marvel Book of Magical Events

"Dr. Will, I hope you can repair the circuit. After you complete the work, it will be your rest time."

Captain Miller assigned Dr. Physics another task, and the latter nodded, as if the quarrel had not aroused his emotions. Captain Miller discovered why Dr. Weir had no idea of ​​resistance. He seemed happy that he could return to the engine room and stay away from the flesh-stained bridge.

The wreckage left behind by the ship's original crew has yet to be cleared.

Despite Major D.J.'s warning of the biohazard, they still didn't have a good enough way to dispose of the bits of meat still stuck to the wall, nor did they have the time to deal with the minutiae. They are like sailors trapped on the sea in the old days. As the captain, he must take care of everyone's emotions and arrange work for every crew member.

Whether sailing on the sea or in the void, it is never just the ship itself that is challenged, the mental health of the crew is also devastated. Major D.J. seemed a little dazed, keeping his arms crossed and looking at the sticky flesh and blood on the bulkhead; First Officer Stark seemed to have something to say, but hesitated; Doctor Peters fell into guilt again, even though she knew What she saw was just a hallucination, but she still felt guilty about leaving behind a disabled child on Earth who needed careful care.

There is no day or night in space. In this territory ruled by coldness and loneliness, there is only a maddeningly quiet nothingness. The fog still lingers in the orbit, and the pale starlight can barely illuminate the cold dark blue planet below. Anyone who stands here will feel an unprecedented fear. For rational people, this fear is even more profound - this is completely different from looking down at the planet that nurtures humans in the orbit of the earth. It is a kind of warmth. , a magnificent experience, viewed with pride, confidence and caution - but it's different here. They looked out the portholes at Neptune and saw nothing but ice. The distant stars cannot warm their bodies and drive away the monsters of the night. This fear is even more heightened when they realize their place in the universe.

They are just an inconspicuous star in a 4-light-year-diameter star system orbiting 56,000 light-years in the Gould Arm at the edge of the Milky Way with a diameter of 100,000 light-years and containing 200 to 400 billion stars. The life nurtured by the planet is currently being enveloped in the astronomical silence of the universe.

Like floating dust.

Captain Miller found himself losing control of his emotions more than once, as when he had smashed Lieutenant Smith against the center console not long ago. Lieutenant Cooper, Lieutenant Smith, Major D.J. and First Officer Stark are all his comrades. They have served together in the space station and space shuttle for a long time. Under normal circumstances, he would not give orders in such a rude manner. Comrades. He also couldn't blame D.J. who put the scalpel on Smith's neck, nor could he blame Smith who waved his fist at Dr. Weir, nor could he blame Dr. Peters who missed his child and was grieving.

He was sure that the ship had allowed them to see something deep within themselves.

"Dr. Peters." He stepped aside and asked in a low voice, "Where is the drug reserve?"

"It's not enough, Captain Miller." Dr. Peters wiped the corners of his eyes. "NASA didn't expect our mission to last for such a long time. We only have a few tranquilizers now."

"Assign one piece to everyone, and I will ask everyone to take it together at the critical moment." Captain Miller looked into Dr. Peters's eyes, "Take care of yourself, Dr. Peters. You have to know that your son has always been... You feel proud, you are his hero. Even if he doesn't understand it now, he will understand how great his mother is in the future."

Dr. Peters forced a smile. "Thank you for your comfort, Captain Miller."

"Now please take care of Justin. I hope he can recover as soon as possible. I swore that I would bring everyone back safely." Captain Miller patted her shoulder and turned to look at his comrades. and subordinates, "Stark, do you have anything to say?"

"My conclusion may be a bit... superstitious." First Mate Stark stood aside, looking a little hesitant, "Do you remember the life signal detected before we boarded the ship, Captain? Just before Lieutenant Justin, you and Peter Soon after Dr. Si boarded the ship, we detected a large number of life signals."

The so-called life signal is actually the information generated by processing the characteristic parameters of life activities such as breathing and heartbeat in the spacecraft through millimeter wave radar detection. This is a long-distance detection method, and the detection process is not limited by weather, terrain and other conditions. As a rescue ship, the Lewis and Clark is naturally equipped with such equipment. Fields that combine radar technology with bioengineering such as military operations, anti-terrorism activities, and post-disaster rescue on Earth have the same principle as the life detection radar on the Lewis and Clark, but the scale and power are different.

"But there are no living people on the ship, except for us." Captain Miller pointed out the key question, "Is it possible that it was a misjudgment?"

"The life signals we detected are all over the entire ship. It is impossible for the life radar to have such an error, and it is even less likely that the outer shell of the ship forms scattering and interferes with the receiving antenna. As far as I know, this spacecraft does not have similar technology. Characteristics." First Mate Stark shook his head vigorously, as if he was trying to shake some bad thoughts out of his mind. But with the encouragement in Captain Miller's eyes (you can never have too much bad news, Captain Miller said), she still mustered up the courage to speak out. But before saying these words, she took several deep breaths, and even D.J. Young Hero also ended his meditation and looked at her with bloodshot eyes.

"What we scanned is related to the hallucinations you saw. Those hallucinations are like some kind of immune system, and now this response is gradually increasing. I suspect that this ship seems to... bring some kind of life back."

"So you're telling me this ship is alive?"

"You want answers, and this is the answer I can come up with." First Mate Stark sighed, "I wanted to tell you from the beginning, Captain."

As an astronaut with extremely high scientific literacy, she could not deny how stupid and crazy this idea was. Such an idea soaked in superstition was simply an insult to the knowledge she had learned. Then she was surprised to see Captain Miller nod thoughtfully, seeming to acknowledge that there was some plausibility to the idea.

There was no denying that the ship knew his secret.

As he firmly told the others, it was definitely not the hallucination Dr. Weir claimed. He could name the burning body that crawled out of the cooling pool, and knew the body's past and hobbies. He had never told this secret to anyone else, not even Major D.J., whom he had known for a long time. He never told others that he once made a correct judgment in a space accident, but it cost his friend his life, and he never told others how terrifying and beautiful the flames in the vacuum were. That accident was deeply buried. Just like other products of the Pegasus Project, he could not tell others that he once knew a woman who was radiating light and could fly in space, and what that woman was like. resulting disaster.

"We have encountered many strange things, Stark. Just like the fog, we still can't tell whether it is a layer of micrometeor ice crystals or strange low-temperature plasma in space. We also don't know how far our route in space has deviated. We still don’t know why we arrived on this ship. But now that we are on this ship, we cannot deny any possibility that has not yet been demonstrated.”

Captain Miller encouraged the young first mate again, and then turned to look at Major D.J., who had been silent. It seemed that Lieutenant Smith's impulsive behavior when he controlled him surprised himself. After that, he had been thinking about something, and it seemed like he was summarizing some thoughts.

"D.J.?"

"My conclusion is not much better. I have been thinking about one thing, and that is the recording processed by the space agency." Major D.J looked into his boss's eyes. He judged from the beginning that the recording was in Latin. As the only person on the crew who knew Latin, he naturally took on the task of translating. After they began to restore the Event Horizon's logbook, it became clear that the owner of the voice, the owner of the recording, was the captain of the Event Horizon, Kilpuck.

As for why Captain Kilpak sent a distress signal in Latin, they still have no answer.

"I need conclusions, D.J. You're the only one here who understands Latin."

"I think the previous translation was wrong, Captain." Major D.J took out his voice recorder and started playing the recording. Looking at his skillful movements, Captain Miller could guess that he must have listened to this recording many times in private. "I thought he was saying liberate me, which means, save me. But instead of 'me', it's liberate tutume, save yourself. And what's worse -" He pressed play again, evil, noisy, as if from The sound squeezed out of the bloody throat reached their ears again. On the contrary, Major D.J's voice became softer and softer, and his eyes scanned the bridge, as if he was worried about waking up a sleeping creature. "—I think what he said was, ex inferis. Save yourself, escape hell. If Dr. Weir is telling the truth, this ship crossed the boundaries of the universe, crossed the boundaries of science, and who knows where it went Where, what did I see...and what did I bring back."

"Things from hell," Captain Miller asked, "Do you really believe this?"

Major D.J shook his head, his blue eyes turning almost violet under the lights of the bridge, "The person who sent this message believed it."

Silence enveloped the three people in the bridge until Dr. Peters broke in.

"Justin!" she shouted in horror, "He's in the airlock!"