Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1688 The Invisible Beast

Facing the data panel on the table, Captain Miller shook his head with a wry smile and said to the listless crew members around the conference table, "We're like sailors trapped on a ship in a storm. The only thing we can be thankful for is that there are no rats in our cabins. Dr. Peters, I hope you've taken stock of the drug reserves. Dr. Will, you're the only one who knows about the hibernation pods here."

"We're like rats," Dr. Peters thought. "We can't even pull the sails or turn the rudder; we're worse than rats gnawing on the ropes."

"Our medication reserves can support one more hibernation, and all of us are in good physical condition. Lieutenant Smith's (pilot's) hard work on that treadmill belt wasn't in vain," Dr. Peters said listlessly. The mission was so highly classified that she hadn't even said goodbye to her son, who had a disability in both legs. She worried that if something happened to her in space, Houston would never tell her son about the highly classified mission, and her son would likely resent her forever.

"If you think we can survive this voyage by hibernating, then I can only say that this is a bad decision. I've spoken with the engine room, and we don't have enough fuel to provide sufficient acceleration on the return journey. Therefore, I believe we must hibernate on the return journey to reduce the consumption of food, medicine, oxygen, and water. If we don't do this, we are very likely to die in space, either from suffocation or starvation."

"What other bad news, guys?" Captain Miller sighed deeply.

"I have no problem," Lieutenant Smith said expressionlessly. "I just want to know when we'll be able to get out of this fog. We haven't observed this fog at all on Earth, and we need physicists to explain it."

"My knowledge cannot fully explain this phenomenon, Smith, and I am not an astronomer either." Dr. Will's tone remained gentle. "Based solely on the photographs, I can only determine that it could be cosmic dust from a comet or asteroid collision, or some kind of ionized gas that might affect our navigation systems, or even just a layer of comet ice crystals reflecting cosmic rays. Only a spacewalk to collect samples can determine the specifics."

"I'm in. I'm not going to sit here and wait to die." Lieutenant Smith finally straightened his back, like a hyena that had found its prey. The aimless life in space was driving him crazy. "Whatever's outside the ship, we have to go out and find out, or we'll never reach Event Horizon."

“I’m signing up too. I’ve done spacewalk training.” Search and rescue technician Lieutenant Cooper, a young and enthusiastic Black man, nodded. “I have to join in if I want to figure out what’s out there.”

"I will be in charge of the safety of the spacewalk," said First Officer Lieutenant Stark, "as well as everything else needed for the spacewalk. Captain Miller, it's time for you to make the decision."

"Our food supplies, Stark?"

"Sixty percent of our solid food and forty-four percent of our purified water are gone." First Officer Lieutenant Stark was second only to Captain Miller in his concern for supplies. His duty as First Officer was to ensure that fuel and other supplies would last until their return to Earth. For the emergency rescue mission, they had to pull the Lewis and Clark spacecraft and a launch vehicle from the last century from Project Pegasus's depot. All the supplies on board had been precisely calculated to ensure a successful mission into space. "If it weren't for rationing, our food would have run out long ago."

Captain Miller remained silent for a moment.

"We must have a contingency plan." After a long wait, Captain Miller finally made a decision. "Dr. Peters, Dr. Will, and Stark. Open the dry bags in the restrooms and make full use of the recycled water and the experimental seeds on this ship. If necessary, we will cultivate edible plants and edible insects here."

"Honestly, haven't you been waiting for this day? I know it's a scene from your favorite space movie," the first mate winked at the captain. The atmosphere suddenly became lively and cheerful, as if it was the captain's duty to keep everyone occupied. The first mate asked, "When are we going to do a spacewalk?"

"Wait until the first seeds sprout," Captain Miller said. After everyone had reported, Captain Miller clapped his hands, signaling the others to get back to their tasks. "Time to get busy, men. Dr. Will, Dr. Peters, come with me." Once everyone had left the bridge, the forced smile and excitement on Captain Miller's face vanished completely. "How confident are you?"

"How about figuring out what the fog outside is?" Dr. Will looked him in the eye. "To be honest, there's no guarantee, but it's much better than letting them despair. Besides, I can't solve the atomic clock problem either. Without atomic clocks, we can only stay in orbit on our return journey and contact command center to calibrate the time; otherwise, our navigation system will only give us incorrect landing coordinates."

"That's it then." Captain Miller let out a long sigh. "We can only take it one step at a time."

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"Check the integrity of the shield."

"Integrity check complete, preparing to activate shield."

Tita nodded and walked to the bridge window.

The Emperor stood here, the same spot he had stood for a week since arriving on the Punishment, watching the ever-approaching, ever-changing silvery mist outside the porthole. To the naked eye alone, this mist constantly challenged the sanity of normal humankind. This mist had no temperature, no weight, emitted no visible light spectrum, and didn't even affect micrometeoroids passing through it, as if they were merely ghostly shadows drifting in space. The Punishment's technicians told the Emperor that the radio signals reflected from the mist were filled with static, and if the audio was separated and listened to carefully, one could hear faint, chilling screams, just like the signals NASA received from the Event Horizon spacecraft.

Tita glanced discreetly at Diana, who was fully armed, standing beside the emperor.

She'd heard that when Diana arrived at the Punishment, she brought a huge suitcase filled with her and the Emperor's clothes and various personal belongings. A week had passed, and Tita hadn't seen the Emperor take out a single fine glass to drink from—but that didn't matter. She was constantly wondering about the Emperor's plans, because he had seemingly preordained everyone's duties, and they only needed to follow orders—this made Tita very uneasy. It wasn't a lack of trust. Her unease stemmed from the Emperor's protection of her and the other homunculus, a protection that only appeared when they might face unbearable trials. She knew she loved the Emperor, and that's why this protection was all the more unbearable.

She stood beside the emperor, and the intimate relationship between the homunculus and its creator ensured that her casually asked question would not be refused. "My lord, will we be able to leave after we enter the mist?"

The Emperor finally looked away from the window and turned to Tita, the lovely and loyal android beside him.

His tone was kind and gentle, as if one were in a living room with a fireplace burning warm wood, rather than a bridge filled with steel and computers, and the light reflected outside the window was not cold starlight but the lights of the houses across the street.

"This is a labyrinth with Minotaurs, and we're carrying a ball of thread. Once we enter the fog, we'll soon reach the Event Horizon, but I don't know how much time will have passed for the people on that ship by the time we arrive. I just hope it's not too late. Dr. Will is the best option for us to understand Project Pegasus."

"Is Dr. Weir worth the risk?"

"We started too late. Asgard cannot provide shelter for the human species in the future. All the critical knowledge we want to gain will come at a price. This ship, every aircraft in the hangar, your armor and weapons—all of that. Don't worry, I've arranged everything. I never waste an opportunity."

"This is what I hate the most."

The Commander of the Royal Guard cast a surprised glance, completely unable to believe that the utterly loyal android would utter such capricious words. The Emperor's smile remained gentle. The android's soul was born from his alchemy; he could completely erase the android's emotions, but Diana's behavior made him abandon that decision. In his view, Tita's emotions were quite endearing—androids have no childhood, no past; their minds and intellect are entirely dependent on information implantation. A certain degree of capriciousness is normal for alchemical life forms—the android leader completely ignored the Commander of the Royal Guard's reproachful look and boldly said, "Even if you can see the future, you always put yourself in danger. Conquer Earth first, and you'll have more resources to do these things. There's no need to put yourself at risk."

"Now is not the time, Tita. My thoughts are clear." The Emperor gently ended the argument. "Now, it is your turn to give the order."

Although the android chief was still somewhat dissatisfied, she nodded, because her emotions could not affect the mission.

"Lower the blast curtain." At her command, thick composite armor plates immediately descended behind the porthole. "Activate the shields and let's enter the fog."

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The malfunctioning atomic clocks weren't the only time-related issue aboard the Lewis and Clark. Everyone found that the time displayed on their data panels and watches was inconsistent. Sometimes, as they walked from the bridge to the engine room, the time on their watches would jump forward, and an unspoken, eerie atmosphere permeated the ship. Captain Miller insisted it was the cosmic rays in the fog outside that were to blame, a claim corroborated by Dr. Will's silence, even though the latter knew perfectly well that cosmic rays capable of penetrating the ship and affecting the quartz discharge of the mechanical watches were enough to kill every single cell in their bodies.

Due to the malfunctioning atomic clock, the times displayed on different data panels were completely inconsistent, forcing Captain Miller to rely on his regular schedule for time management. When the first standard cycle (seven days) of scratches appeared in the notebook, the vegetables Dr. Peters had planted in the plant lab finally sprouted, and they might be able to eat fresh potatoes soon. Before they could eat potatoes, they had to perform a spacewalk, and Captain Miller privately had to raise his concerns again. The initial plan was for the spacewalk to be conducted by the rescue team, but now the pilot and others were trying to participate, which made Captain Miller very uneasy.

"I believe the fog outside the ship's hull poses no danger."

Dr. Will rubbed his bloodshot eyes. While others prepared for their spacewalk, he had to take on more shifts. Dr. Will was happy with it; it allowed him to escape sleep, as nightmares had been relentlessly attacking his dreams lately, but he hadn't told anyone. Dr. Peters would only prescribe more psychiatric medications—on this ship, taking psychiatric drugs was the only way to escape the endless void and nightmares—but Dr. Will, proud of his intellect, didn't particularly like these drugs that clouded his thinking.

"The surface temperature of the ship hasn't increased, and the insulation hasn't been damaged. As long as we take proper biological and radiation protection measures, those samples will be safe. We might even find that they're just tiny ice crystals that happen to reflect radio signals, and we're just going in circles," Dr. Will said. "You know, a human's two legs aren't the same length. If you blindfold a person, they can't walk in a straight line at all, and maybe that's what we're doing now."

"Spaceships rely on engines, not legs."

"Perhaps you're right. I'm not an engineer; I can only offer suggestions."

Captain Miller closed his eyes and shook his head in anguish. "This is the only way. Dr. Peters, is there anything else you'd like to say?"

"I'm afraid we won't need to do a spacewalk." Dr. Peters tossed her short blond hair, her face flushed with excitement. She shouted, "The fog's cleared! We can see the Event Horizon!"

Lieutenant Smith was equally excited.

He waited for Captain Miller in the cockpit, then pointed to the void outside the porthole. But without his prompting, anyone could see the black behemoth bathed in pale sunlight in the dark void. It was a giant cross in space, floating silently, its black hull devoid of any lights, and the most violent storm in the entire solar system moving at a visible speed below its orbit. Captain Miller wasn't overwhelmed by the sudden good news. They had inexplicably arrived at this place, and Dr. Will had told him that the ship's atomic clocks and everyone's mechanical watches had returned to normal. This made him feel as if the mist was waiting for something, and the unseen behemoth in the void had spat them out like it was stalking prey.

Sure enough, bad news followed.

"We've spotted a ship." Captain Miller gestured to the first mate to continue. "It's not the Event Horizon. The ship is behind us, and the communication codes it's using aren't NASA or the European Space Agency."

"Is it human?"

"This is not the time for jokes, Will!" Dr. Peters said, somewhat annoyed.

"No, I'm serious." Dr. Will's eyes made everyone realize that this mild-mannered physicist wasn't joking. "Project Pegasus made contact with extraterrestrials. They visited Earth during the Cold War. Now I need to ask again, did the people on that ship speak an Earth language?"

(End of this chapter)