by <unknown>
Suddenly, Shaw heard a muffled sob coming from behind him. It made him shudder again and he quickly turned around only to be greeted by the usual, vast nothingness.
The world outside the spaceship, separated by the window and the space inside the spaceship were completely alternate worlds as far as Shaw was concerned. While he could see the intricate workings of the subspace dimension outside, his vision rendered him blind to anything inside the spaceship...
Shaw's erratic behavior piqued the curiosity of the artificial intelligence. "Mr. Shaw, when you turned around just now, I noticed that your heart rate has increased by eighty percent and your blood pressure has increased by fifty percent. Why is that?"
"Can't you hear it?"
Shaw asked, "Is there a female crew member on board? I heard her crying just now, a rather harrowing cry."
"..."
There was silence from the artificial intelligence before it spoke again, "There are no female crew members on board. There are only ten Black Knights and ten psionicists subjects on board, including yourself of course."
"What?"
Shaw's pupils dilated. He looked behind him again at the field of darkness. The artificial intelligence noticed this and enquired, "You keep looking behind you. Is that where this voice you speak of comes from?"
"Yes... I'd say it's only around twenty to thirty meters away."
Shaw nodded in response and gauged the distance.
"The spaceship is only thirty meters long, Mr. Shaw."
The artificial intelligence stated, "Two meters behind you is the buffer gate of the bridge. It's tough enough to withstand low-caliber pulse rifles and it has excellent sound muffling capabilities. You wouldn't hear a cannon fired on the other end of this door."
"Are, are you kidding me?"
Shaw grew restless. Based on what he was told so far, he deduced that prolonged exposure to the subspace was highly dangerous. Although he had determined the reason the spaceship was held in place, there was nothing he could do to alleviate the situation. The only option is to sit idly and wait...
Putting that aside, how was it that he was the only person to hear this strange sob?
This sobbing, this sobbing...
It felt like something had been injected into the deepest crevice in his mind. It overlapped and fused with his existing memory. At this point, he heard the same sobbing again!
"Uuu..."
Shaw's hair crawled up his back. He felt like was losing his mind. This eerie voice was drawing closer to him, no more than ten meters away now!
It was drawing closer!
Shaw felt a chilling bite crawling into his spine as he stumbled backward and fell on his hips. His eyes fixed on the deafening darkness in front.
"Mr. Shaw? Mr. Shaw!"
The voice of the artificial intelligence echoed in his mind. It's tone was dragged out and slowly faded out like a mirage.
Shaw seemed to see something faintly conjured in his vision. He continued to fix his eyes on it. Somewhere in the profound darkness, what seemed like a human silhouette appeared.
This figure was stark naked with what seemed like blood all over it. Its posture made it seem like a corpse...
How could a corpse materialize out of nowhere in a blind man's sight?
The corners of Shaw's mouth twitched involuntarily. His vision turned clear unexpectedly and he recognized this corpse as the body of his late wife!
"Clack…"
Its wrists moved. The corpse made an extremely subtle movement that seemed to evoke a chain reaction in Shaw's body as well and made him jump!
What happened after that was similar to what was only seen in horror films. One by one, the corpse began to move its limbs. It dragged the heavyweight of its body across the floor and crawled toward Shaw like a zombie!
Every ounce of strength had been drained out of Shaw's body. All he could do was lean against the window behind him and stare at this demon approaching him...
"Shaw, Shaw, Shaw..."
The corpse muttered Shaw's name endlessly. Its joints clicked loudly in a disturbing fashion as it approached Shaw, then it raised its head mechanically...
Moments before Shaw broke down, he smelled a sharp scent of sulfur probing into his nose...
Chapter 610: Subspace Navigation Experiment Success |
"Zoom!"
Moments before Shaw would be devoured by these sensations, a whirlpool suddenly appeared around him. A tide of what seemed like faint electric currents of some sort circled him, taking on strange, magical forms amid the darkness.
"Hiss…"
In the midst of the frenzy of this whirlpool, the haunting figure in front of Shaw vanished. Suddenly, he felt the touch of a pair of powerful hands on his shoulder that pulled him up off the ground!
"Huff, huff..."
Shaw blinked rapidly, trying to steady himself from the fright he received. Sweat rained endlessly from his forehead.
"What did you see?"
The artificial intelligence asked several times before Shaw registered the question.
Shaw felt entirely drained. His spirits had not yet recovered from the shock. "It, it was my wife, she came back to haunt me..."
"Rest easy Mr. Shaw, it was just an illusion."
The artificial intelligence offered words of comfort, "I can assure you that nothing appeared in front of you earlier."
"But..."
Shaw tried to refute this claim. The previous image flashed in his mind again and sent shivers across his body. Part of him wanted to believe that it was nothing at all but another part of him was convinced that there was more to this.
"The reality anchor has been activated."
The artificial intelligence informed, "It can stabilize reality and prevent the intrusion of the subspace currents."
Shaw nodded but his mind was somewhere else.
After this short exchange, Shaw looked around himself wearily and noticed the vines that once tangled the spacecraft were slowly pulling back and away from the spacecraft.
"The vines... Are loosening?"
Shaw was surprised. "Is this the work of the reality anchor?"
"It does seem so..."
Even the artificial intelligence was unsure of this. The spacecraft rumbled ever so slightly several times after that and began to accelerate again at a steady pace.
Ten kilometers per second, twenty kilometers per second, thirty kilometers per second...
When Shaw was certain that the spacecraft was on the move again, he took a sigh of relief and politely pushed himself away from the palm of the Black Knight holding him steady.
Then, he turned to look outside and address the artificial intelligence. "You say that this world outside is known as the subspace, that it doesn't belong to reality?"
"That's right, you can think of this as a mirror dimension of the real universe."
The artificial intelligence responded, then followed up with a question of its own. "Just as you described, the spacecraft had escaped from whatever was tangling it earlier. Did you notice anything peculiar?"
"I..."
Shaw took a deep breath, his cataract-blurred eyes revealed a hint of emotion for the very first time. "I saw a vast empty space. It was distorted and gave off a very majestic impression. It seemed unbound to the laws of reality as it operated on a set of rules of its own... It seemed like a dream...
"The place was completely unlike the universe in our dimension. I saw countless balls of light that words, so radiant that mere words cannot do them any justice... These balls seemed like living beings. I felt like they were trying to communicate something to us...
"Then I saw... In the vast emptiness ahead, what seemed like a continent dyed in stark red... This land was far off in the distance... It's even beyond the solar system... No!"
There was an indescribable look in Shaw's eyes. He suddenly frowned and leaned forward. "There was more than one continent. Earlier, to our left, there was another large, dark continent ... On
e, two, three, four...
"God, there are four continents in this space! Each one of them multitudes larger than the earth... Artificial intelligence, your suspicions just might be correct. Perhaps my powers were destined for this place. Though my eyes are useless in the real world, they can see past the boundaries of time and space, observe things light-years away from us..."
The artificial intelligence did not know what to make of Shaw's incessant ramblings. Was this a madman's delirium speech or did he truly see something that ordinary beings could never behold?
The spacecraft continued accelerating for more than ten minutes after that when Shaw suddenly perked up with alert. He promptly informed the artificial intelligence, "Take a sharp turn here."
"What is it?"
Though the artificial intelligence was unsure of what motivated Shaw to say so, it did exactly as it was told since the commander had authorized Shaw to navigate the spacecraft. The Courage Voyager swerved several degrees to the right...
"There's another ocean of vines several hundred thousand kilometers down where we're heading."
Shaw stated calmly, "If we don't turn when there's still time, we'll ram straight into it and get tangled in it again..."
The artificial intelligence scanned the location Shaw pointed out but could not see anything in that precise location. Apart from the same mist of pale-yellowish sulfur, there was nothing else notable to be seen.
The spacecraft continued accelerating...
Truthfully speaking, after wringing itself free from the previous predicament, the spacecraft's artificial intelligence could very well perform the space warp process now to take the spacecraft back to reality. The trouble lay with the fact that a set of stringent formulas had to be calculated before leaving the subspace to calculate the spacecraft's coordinates in the real world. If not done correctly, the spacecraft might collide right into another planet or asteroid in the real world and the consequences would be catastrophic.
Another reason that an early escape from the subspace was deemed not necessary was due to the importance of completing this experiment. As it was, the spacecraft was still slowly approaching the appointed coordinate. "Swerve fifteen degrees to the left..."
After some practice, Shaw was getting better at using his abilities. He started to manually navigate the spacecraft proficiently. His vacant eyes were fixed on the window and scanned every crevice of the subspace in front of him like a radar. "There's a group of what seems like jellyfish to our right, we better keep our distance..."
"Oh no! Those things are coming after us!"
Shaw brushed the sweat pooling on his forehead. "Are those things sentient? It's... They look like the creatures I saw in a vision earlier!"
Just like before, the artificial intelligence surveyed the location Shaw was referencing, only to see the usual yellow mist. There was nothing that even remotely resembled jellyfishes.
The spacecraft continued accelerating from there on. The second half of the journey went past in almost the blink of an eye. Seeing that the spacecraft was about to reach the pre-determined coordinate, the artificial intelligence promptly activated the space warp engine. It summoned a cloud of black bubbles out of thin air that instantly encircled the entire spacecraft!
An outside observer at this moment would see the spacecraft engulfed in what seemed like a black hole. The giant black hole expanded and contracted periodically until moments later, it completely vanished along with the Courage Voyager...
"Swoosh…"
Again, Shaw heard the terrific sound of water current echoing in his ears. His vision turned into the all-too-familiar pitch-black canvas again. They had returned to the normal world as he knew it.
Surprisingly, Shaw felt a tinge of sadness upon realizing that they had returned to the normal world.
However, this sadness was quickly replaced by a swarm of joy. He remembered the promise made before the experiment began, that the participants would be granted freedom upon the successful completion of the experiment!
Freedom...
Shaw repeated the elusive words to himself. He felt two people approaching from and at the same time, heard the artificial intelligence speaking through the broadcast system again, "Congratulations, Mr. Shaw. You're the only surviving experiment subject in this experiment while playing a vital role in its success. I'm sure that after a short review session, the ones in charge will consider granting you your freedom."
"Hold on, what was that?"
Shaw was just about to enquire about his leaving when the sudden mention captured his attention. "What did you mean that I'm the only surviving experiment subject?"
"Exactly what it sounds like."
The artificial intelligence answered without a change in tone, "The first time you experienced a panic attack, the other subjects went through similar episodes as well. It does appear that psionicists like yourself are more susceptible to the corruption of the subspace. I couldn't save them even by urgently activating the reality anchor."
"Is, is that so?"
Shaw felt sweat pouring down his back again.
Before he could provide any further input, the two Black Knights had taken him away.
...
"The spaceship appeared!"
Nancy's broadcast echoed across the Mars Spire 2 base just three minutes later. "After disappearing for two hours, the Courage Voyager has reappeared along Jupiter's orbit in the appointed coordinates!"
"It returned?"
Chen Chen's heavy expression gradually subsided. "What's the damage? Did Shaw survive the trip?"
"It seems like your gut feeling is correct."
Nancy was delighted when she informed, "Just as you predicted, Shaw was the only one of the ten experiment subjects that survived. The mission report also states that he has made a vital contribution!"
"Just as I thought..."
Chen Chen was even surer of his initial suspicions now. Shaw was a blind man and that gave him a definite advantage in the subspace. This was something that Chen Chen had more or less proven as well based on his previous experiences in the subspace.
However, Shaw was more than just any blind man. He was also gifted with the psionic manifestation known as the astral sight that granted him special sight abilities. This gave him a unique advantage in the subspace that no other living person possessed.
"Navigation, huh?"
Chen Chen looked at the report Nancy provided and found it very intriguing. According to the mission report, Shaw was a vital part of the mission's success. His precise navigation of the spaceship kept the spaceship away from all the hidden dangers in the subspace dimension. He had proven himself to be an exemplary subspace navigator.
"That's not all, it also seems like your hypothesis was correct."
Nancy added. "The reality anchor is only useful to a certain extent. It's not viable as a defensive measure since it can only barely suppress the subspace current flow into the airship at most. I think that the black slate you control would be more effective at neutralizing the effects of subspace."
"Neutralizing is a generous term."
Chen Chen shook his head. "Previously, I managed to destroy the black slate inside the subspace and strip it from Zhao Shanhe's hands. If I can destroy it, so can the subspace. At best, it can only function as an extra safety measure when entering the subspace."
Chen Chen raised a palm and summoned the black slate. Then, he inspected it briefly before retracting it into his body. "Tell the Courage Voyager to return to the base. Also, make sure Shaw is ready for a short meeting with me."
"Understood."
Nancy replied dutifully as always.
...
Mars was about 550 million kilometers away from Jupiter. It would take any spaceship more than a month of constant travel to reach from one planet to the other. That was, provided that the spaceship could maintain constant acceleration.
Although the distance between Earth and Mars was only one-eighth of the distance betwe
en Mars and Jupiter, it would still take a week to travel between the two destinations. In theory, a nuclear fusion engine could achieve constant, gradual acceleration for several years until it reached a maximum speed of one-tenth the speed of light.
This meant that the farther the distance between the two destinations, the higher the average speed of the spaceship since it would have more time to build up toward the maximum speed of one-tenth the speed of light.
However, with the newly implemented space warp navigation technology, it only took two hours to travel from Mars to Jupiter. And this was factoring in the interruption encountered in the subspace, otherwise, the entire journey would only take no more than ten minutes.
The Courage Voyager did not encounter any unforeseen incidents on its way back. It quickly exited the subspace and reappeared on the orbit of Mars where Shaw was transported back to the mars base.
Words could not express Shaw's relief upon landing on the surface of Mars, returning to the comforts of a safe planet.
There was no denying that he was delighted to regain his sight in the mysterious subspace dimension. However, considering all the dangers lurking in the subspace dimension, he would still choose blindness in the real world over dwelling in the subspace any time of the day.
Upon his arrival, he was ushered by two Black Knights to an unknown destination. He tried to ask them where they were headed but the Black Knights behaved like robots and hardly made an effort to entertain his efforts.
"Ding!"
The sharp ding of an elevator gave Shaw a slight clue of where they were headed. Upon entering the elevator, he immediately sensed that something was off.
The temperature inside the elevator was distinctly lower than that of the temperature outside. Also, he could sniff a faint scent of the familiar sulfuric air in here, although he was not sure if it was his mind playing tricks on him.
Safe in the confinement of the elevator, the two guards seemed to lower their guard slightly, knowing that Shaw could not escape anywhere. They released their firm grip on him.
"Hey officers, could I at least know where we're going?"
Shaw asked again. It was not so much that he was trying to get on their nerves with his persistent questioning. This was merely his attempt at gaining more information via other methods. Ever since losing his sight, he had become adept at obtaining information using other means. It was the only way to gain some form of assurance amid this world of desolate darkness.
