Chapter 1533: Contact Discontinuous Zone

"Uneasy?" I immediately opened my eyes, trying to see a clearer message from the eldest lady's face.

Lin Xue's eyes narrowed again, and this time the pale white light leaking out of her eyes was more obvious than before. When she opened her eyes again, I could only see a depth: "I'm just restless, I can't see anything." Something concrete.”

Lin Xue's prophecy is not omnipotent. There are many factors that can interfere with her prophecy process, such as unprecedentedly powerful energy, void phenomena, and abyssal reactions. These destructive things can destroy the entire causal line. Naturally, there are also interferences. The so-called power of fate. Therefore, Lin Xue's prediction about deep diving is the most unclear among many predictions. Basically, it can only determine whether the experiment will be successful, but it cannot determine the specific situations that will be encountered during the process. Especially now that the Cataclysm of the Void is approaching, and the discontinuous zone under the Gate of the Abyss is getting closer and closer to the World of Order, the eldest lady's power seems to have been disturbed to a certain extent, and her judgment on "deep dive" has become increasingly blurred.

But even so, her predictions are still the most important reference before the start of each deep dive. Looking through the entire void, nothing more useful and accurate can be found than her predictions.

"Will this deep dive fail?" I said while glancing at the communicator next to me. Anseth didn't hear the conversation clearly. He just frowned at the communicator and then continued busy with the work at hand. , and I began to think about whether to interrupt this deep dive.

"It's very vague. It seems that this experiment was successful, but my intuition makes me a little uneasy about the process," Lin Xue carefully considered each word. In such a serious place, the eldest lady completely restrained her usual bad habits, "I can't see the deep dive process. And because the abyss disrupts the event line, long-span prophecies that directly target the ancestors will also be disrupted, and all you can see are fragments."

Sandora raised her index finger and put it against her chin: "Do you want to stop first? Maybe the Gate of the Abyss will be unstable today. Anyway, the new ship has just been debugged and it won't break down if left alone. We don't have to rush for a day or two. of."

I looked at Tavel. This great scientist certainly didn’t want her project to be delayed. Her eagerness for experimental data was unimaginable to others, but she also knew how important the prophet’s advice was at this time: for predictions For readers, not to mention intuitive vigilance, even an occasional sneeze or a cold war may be linked to the future, and words and deeds cannot be taken lightly, and now Lin Xue clearly feels uneasy. Then the risk of the experiment going as planned would be too great.

"We can postpone it for a while. After we conduct a few more checks on the Gate of the Abyss, there may be variables that have not been discovered before." Tavel nodded, "But it is best to discuss it with the ancestors. After all, they are the first operators. And… well, it’s not easy to persuade.”

The ancestors are famous for their stubbornness, although they will strictly obey orders as long as they are given. But no matter I or Shandora, when facing the ancestors, we can't give orders without giving orders. Making the elderly people cooperate happily is our ultimate goal.

"What's going on?" At this time, Anseth's voice came from the communicator, although our rapid and low conversation could not be heard clearly from his side. But the other party must have noticed that something was wrong in the atmosphere here, "Looking at your serious expressions, how can there be any malfunction?"

"Lin Xue has a bad feeling," I said bluntly. "She was not sure what the outcome would be, but she was uneasy. We discussed whether to cancel the operation this time. We would wait until the problem was clarified."

"Cancel the operation?" Anseth's face indeed showed a depressed look, but he maintained his emotions with a soldier's consciousness. The old man frowned and looked at this side through the communicator, "Just because he is not in the right mood. Ning? Is there a clear conclusion that the test failed?"

"No," I didn't mean to deceive my ancestors in this regard, "but it's not absolutely certain that it will succeed. You also know that the state of the abyss has become increasingly unstable recently, and the prophecies related to it have been greatly disturbed."

"Then we can't cancel it rashly." Anseth's eyebrows were almost knitted into knots. "I also know some of the vague predictions made by the prophets, and I know what they probably mean. The deep dive should have been successful in the end, but something happened in the middle. We have encountered minor accidents like this several times, and there is no problem. Maybe this time it was just that the prophet happened to be watching at the scene and felt this."

In the end, Anseth's brows relaxed and his expression was very relaxed: "I know some of you must say that I am stubborn, but the time waits for no one. The deep-diving experiment is very important. Today is the worst 'climate' in this port in recent times." It would be a pity to miss such a good day. Of course, we will pay attention to safety. If we encounter any problems below, we will definitely float up as soon as possible. This is a new ship, and its ability to withstand dangerous situations is comparable to the previous ones. The old boat is much stronger.”

The ancestor didn't seem worried at all, but this didn't ease Shandora and I's mood. I looked at Lin Xue again, but the expression on the other person's face clearly showed that there was nothing we could do.

At this time, Abyss Xiling suddenly floated over with her big box. She always didn't like to talk in such gatherings of people, but now she took the initiative to persuade her ancestors: "A slight delay will not affect the 'great cause' The progress, your lives and the deep submersible ship you are on are valuable assets of the empire and cannot be wasted on reckless actions."

This is quite the "Abyss Xiling style" way of speaking, but the ancestors seemed to listen to this kind of persuasion. Ansers nodded slightly, and then looked at Abyss Xiling with a slightly weird expression: "You still Really thinking about the empire.”

"I have never abandoned it." Abyss Xiling nodded, with a smile on his face as always.

The first meeting between the ancestors and the Abyss Xiling was a little awkward, because the ancestors who had experienced the original exile life had a deep hatred for anything related to the abyss. When they knew that a group of Xiling apostles had been contaminated and transformed into fallen apostles, This was even more true at that time. They could accept the apostles of the abyss who had been reversed, but they were extremely repulsive to the polluters in the abyss who were killing and looting everywhere. However, the cooperation of the Abyss Xiling and the historical truth she brought made everyone start to Unexpected.

It took the empire's top brass, top to bottom, half a month to accept the facts and change their attitude, let alone the ancestors.

But this was all a few days ago. Now the ancestors have clearly understood the philosophy of the Abyss Xiling and the reasons for her previous actions. Although they still cannot agree with her dangerous way of thinking, they are not convinced of the "fallen apostles" camp. The understanding is much more objective than before. Although the new army among the fallen apostles is still the mortal enemy of the empire, they are willing to cooperate with the empire. The ancestors can still accept those "benign elements" who will follow the rules in the future. And now some of the senior scientists at the joint testing site are fallen apostles. After these days of cooperation, the relationship between the ancestors and the Abyss Xiling has normalized.

"Then let's pause for a while, but I don't recommend canceling it directly," Anseth gave a compromise reply. "It can be put into a few hours. According to the rules we have learned before, the abnormal phenomena under the Gate of the Abyss will change the longest." The cycle is only less than an hour. Even if something happens to it, it will return to normal within an hour. If it exceeds this cycle, it must be a long-term abnormality that we cannot control yet. There is no point in waiting any longer. , we will eventually send someone down to investigate the situation.”

The ancestors' opinions this time were well-founded. Nowadays, they are no longer laymen, but have made suggestions from the perspective of front-line experimenters. Naturally, others can't say anything. I glanced at Tavel and got a positive reply from the girl with glasses. So he nodded: "Okay, postpone it for three hours, and take advantage of this incident to check all the equipment again to prevent the accident from being caused by external reasons."

There are four words for Lin Xue's "uneasy mind". I have taken "an accident occurred during a deep dive" as an established fact.

The emergency situation did not panic the staff at the Deep Diving Port. After all, "deep diving" itself is a project that is always accompanied by danger. The staff here are used to facing emergencies, and they usually deal with all kinds of emergencies. The hair drill has been conducted countless times. The deep-diving ship remained silently above the gate with its power core idling. Batteries of autonomous machinery and engineering machines flew out from various nodes to inspect the deep-diving ship and the suppression devices around the gate. At the same time, other equipment in the deep-diving port also conducted self-inspections again. All facilities that will exchange data with deep submersible vessels must go through the previous debugging process again.

Sheila looked at the busy hall in front of her and listened to the urgent but coherent reports. She suddenly smiled and said: "You are all quite professional. You can tell that you have done this countless times."

"We started seventy thousand years ago." I said with a smile, directly adding the deep history of the old empire to the new empire.

"The deep-diving vessel has been inspected and everything is normal."

"Suppression system check completed, everything is normal."

"The sensitive communication array has been checked and everything is normal."

"The usual inspection of information isolation is completed, everything is normal..."

Messages were sent back to the control center one after another, and all systems were operating normally. Ansers remained patient, and everyone present remained patient. The two hours seemed a bit long, but it was finally over.

"That feeling is still there," Lin Xue breathed out. Even the prophet, who was always calm and calm, was a little unsure of the situation when facing the abyss, but she still nodded, "It seems that she may be really neurotic, or maybe It's just a normal 'little accident', since it can't be avoided... then let's continue."

Tavel turned around and ordered calmly: "The engineering ship releases the locking device, and the deep submersible ship switches to its own power and prepares to dive."

Ansers showed everyone a "rest assured" smile on the communicator: "I will be careful. Then...United I,!"

The deep-diving ship broke free from lock, quickly approached the door of the abyss, and finally disappeared into darkness.

Perhaps I was infected by Lin Xue, and even I couldn't help but have strange thoughts in my heart: Will we really say goodbye forever?

Under the influence of this idea, time seems to be slowed down, so that the few seconds of "blackout time" from when the deep-diving ship enters the gate to when communication is restored seems to have lasted as long as several years, but as the communicator The noise on the ship disappeared, and the image with some interference but still clear reappeared. Ansers's voice made all the nervous people breathe a sigh of relief: "This is Union I. It has successfully entered the gate. All components of the spacecraft are in operating status." Good. Oh, better than expected.”

Lin Xue also relaxed, and even had time to lightly kick me and joke a few words: "Look at the bad name you gave me, there is no creativity at all. What is the United Number I? If you don't know, you would think it is produced by the Second Agricultural Machinery Factory. .”

"It's better than the Blue Fly." I glanced sideways at the eldest lady, feeling relieved.

The naming of the new spacecraft has been a struggle for a long time among the first family members. If Qian Qian had not shown her imagination, I might not have been able to prevail with my idea of ​​"United I"...

"Don't let your guard down so quickly. The deep dive has just begun." Sandora cautiously reminded everyone, making us realize that now is not the time to make fun of each other.

For most people at the scene, this was not the first time "throwing things into the Gate of the Abyss", and everyone was familiar with the first few tasks. The control center issued a series of instructions in accordance with the procedures, and Ansers accurately executed and recorded the data: this is the first step in the actual combat of the new ship, and these tests have been carried out several times during the previous unmanned submersible ship test stage, so No surprise at all.

"The power core is stable, the energy is surging, the output is accurate, and the conversion device is working very well. The components made from the source energy mine... Wow, there is no pressure at all with such a large energy flow. The shield refreshes normally, and the margin exceeds 100%. "Ninety-nine, the new propulsion system is also very good and is perfectly compatible with the controller of Xiling's 'bloodline'," Ansers said with glory. For an old captain, nothing is more satisfying than a perfect new ship. He was happy. "Well, the situation under the Gate of the Abyss is also normal. I saw the workstation installed here a few days ago. It looks like it is in good condition. It can run for a long time. Let me tell you, how can something go wrong? "

I looked at Tavel with a satisfied smile: "Well done, I didn't expect you to be able to build a new ship in such a short time... The efficiency of Apostle Yi Xiling is amazing."

The four parties jointly manufacturing deep submersible ships have to face more than just their own technical issues. There are also crucial issues of technology integration and compatibility. Although Xiling Apostles are extremely efficient, their "joint thinking" talent is very good at quickly testing a large number of verification models under virtual conditions. But the speed at which Tavel builds new ships is still staggering. Originally I thought it would take at least three months for her to come up with the finished product.

"Deep-diving technology reaches the same goal by different routes. The two protoss have already made considerable achievements in their respective deep-diving fields. My subordinates are just integrating existing things into a framework," Tavel smiled modestly, "and The experts from the two groups of gods and the abyssal zone are very conscientious and they are also thinking about ways to integrate technology, so it is not difficult to just put the finished product together. Of course, what is more important is our active energy mine."

"Yeah, the source energy mine cheated my face." Abyss Xiling said sourly from the side. After living in Shadow City for a long time, she also learned a lot of vocabulary unique to "here".

The large holographic projection shows images from the deep-diving ship. The spacecraft is still cruising in the shallow area, and in the center of the screen is a working platform protected by a light blue mask. This working platform looks very much like a quickly arranged one. At the scientific research station, there is only one building that looks like a barracks on a small triangular platform: this is the forward outpost we set up under the Gate of the Abyss. This is the latest one in front of us.

In the abyss of chaos, such outposts are the only things with color, substance, order and long-term existence. Of course, their "long-term" is also relative.

The deep submersible ship approached the forward outpost according to the scheduled procedure and compared their respective monitoring data of the abyss. First, it was ensured that neither the outpost nor the deep submersible ship was contaminated and caused cognitive errors. Then the second step of today's experiment officially began:

The deep-diving vessel dived and approached the discontinuity zone.

If you want to establish contact with the other side, you must cross this discontinuous zone, so you must study this thing thoroughly no matter what.

The submersible process was smooth and boring. Everyone was waiting with a little nervousness and a little anticipation for the deep-diving ship to contact the strange and inexplicable mobile medium. Time seemed to be stretched again, and the control center could only hear the sounds coming from various seats. There were tense and orderly reports and instructions, interspersed with on-site reports from Ansers or other ancestors.

Lin Xue's premonition seemed to be just a case of nervousness.

"Already close to the discontinuous zone... keep getting closer... contact the upper part of the discontinuous zone..." Anseth's steady voice woke me up from the feeling of time slowing down, "turn on special detectors to collect pollution readings and peak chaos levels" , prepare to calculate the 'range' of the discontinuous zone. Call the command center, is the data received there clear?"

A high-level Xiling Angel is the operator of the communication module. She checked the data returned in front of her, compared whether the clutter in the data was a pollution carrier, and quickly came to the conclusion: "The data is accurate and credible. Recording."

The communication device used by the deep-diving ship is a relic of the Fifteenth Sky Zone that we recaptured from the Merova people. It is the pinnacle-level deep-diving equipment manufactured by the old empire. Now it seems that this old antique is in better working condition than the most advanced things we have at hand.

The discontinuous band readings returned by the deep-diving ship appeared in front of everyone, as weird, absurd, and turbulent as ever.

The pollution concentration fluctuates up and down, and the chaotic peaks jitter like paper tape spit out by a seismic recorder. The entire discontinuous zone is in a state of constant "oscillation". It is constantly approaching the real world in terms of overall trend. However, its "position" cannot be determined within a certain period of time, and it constantly jumps and moves within a certain range. : This is also the most dangerous place in the discontinuous zone. You may think that you have only touched its relatively flat surface, but in the next second you will find that it suddenly "jumps upward" by a large distance, covering the entire deep submersible ship. Wrapped in lethally high concentrations of contamination.

But for now, everything seems safe.

"The deep-diving ship will 'hover' in this area for one hour," Ansers repeated the instructions in the plan. No matter how stubborn his ancestors were, he would strictly follow the rules at this time. "Record discontinuities in place." The magnitude of the jump, trying to determine how 'thick' this thing is at once."

Time passed by, and the data was transmitted bit by bit, but suddenly I heard Lin Xue’s exclamation in my ears: “Get out quickly!”

"Zi"

Interference noise and clutter replaced the communicator's sounds and images.