Marvel Magic Case Files

Captain Miller, Dr. Peters, and engineer Justin, clad in 30-kilogram spacesuits, secured themselves with safety harnesses like cave explorers on Earth, and slowly floated into the Event Horizon through the connecting passage. Even with mental preparation, what they saw still filled the expedition team with dread—a dry tooth floating in mid-air, amidst other floating metal cans and empty plastic bottles. Dr. Peters, despite her lack of dental expertise, deduced that it wasn't a baby tooth, nor a permanent tooth broken off violently, but a tooth still attached to its root nerve, with remnants of dried gum, as if someone had forcibly pulled it out by clamping it against the jawbone.

Captain Miller struggled to remain calm. While instructing the first mate operating the Lewis and Clark to continue extending the composite metal cable, he took a sealed plastic bag from a pouch on his spacesuit and awkwardly placed it over the tooth, preserving it securely. On the bridge of the Lewis and Clark, the others who hadn't participated in the initial rescue operation gathered, watching Captain Miller's discovery, including the tooth, through the cameras on their spacesuits. Dr. Will, Lieutenant Smith, Lieutenant Cooper, and other crew members were heavy-hearted at this ominous discovery. The tooth foreshadowed a disaster the Event Horizon might have encountered—a disaster they couldn't have imagined. If it had simply entered hibernation, the crew of the Event Horizon would never have suffered such harm.

"Justin, I need you to check the engine restart power. We need to activate artificial gravity, if the technology Dr. Will mentioned should actually be on this ship."

Captain Miller carefully placed the tooth, which had been sealed in the evidence bag, into his small pouch. He felt that the temperature control system inside his spacesuit wasn't working properly; the chill of space still seeped into his body through the thick composite material, running down his spine and into his brain. But he remained calm, using an indifferent expression to make Dr. Peter ignore his hidden fear as he called for others via the spacesuit's built-in radio.

"Dr. Peters, I need you and me to the cockpit." Seemingly trying to ease the tense atmosphere on the communication channel, Captain Miller attempted to change the subject, "Dr. Will, why are there so many explosives in this tunnel?"

"I assure you, those explosives are safe and can only be detonated via the control panel in the cockpit." Dr. Will breathed a sigh of relief; like everyone else, he refused to ponder the meaning of the tooth. "The cockpit itself is a spaceship. The Event Horizon's mission is to test the hyperspace engine, and it's necessary to jettison it in case of an emergency and return to Earth using the cockpit's own engines."

But we know they didn't do that, or rather, they didn't have time to do it.

Captain Miller, with Dr. Peters in tow, floated towards the cockpit. The closer they got to the cockpit door, the heavier the ominous premonition felt, like lead weights pressing down on their minds. "You mean, the crew of the Event Horizon didn't react to the incident at all? They should have been trained to handle emergencies. And they're all elites; there's no reason they wouldn't have reacted."

"We've already confirmed a problem with the energy system, perhaps in the engines or control room, which is why the cockpit didn't separate," Dr. Will said, frowning. Reality was staring them in the face, something they couldn't ignore, even if they didn't want to. They couldn't help but think about the fate of the Event Horizon crew; the horrific wreckage proved this wasn't a typical space accident. Dr. Will continued, "Scans show signs of life around you. Have you seen anything?"

"No. Nothing at all. Apart from that tooth, our detectors couldn't possibly be that sensitive," Dr. Peters said dejectedly. "Perhaps there's something wrong with the detector."

"Perhaps," Dr. Will said, too lazy to argue further. Passing through the fog might have damaged many parts of the Lewis and Clark, but he could assure him there were no software issues—the only thing he was certain of in this universe. "If I were on board, I might be able to check the software. That would help us start the engines; after all, that ship behind us is getting closer, and we don't have much time left."

"I've run into a little trouble here," Justin, drifting in another direction, interrupted the argument, calming Captain Miller, Dr. Will, and Doctor Peters down. Dr. Will seemed increasingly agitated and emotionally unstable the closer they got to their mission objective. The others also seemed to sense something was wrong, but everyone unanimously admitted they were terrified by that tooth. "How do I open the locked door to this engine room?"

"Enter the password. I'll send it to the communicator, Justin." Following Dr. Will's instructions, Lieutenant Justin finally opened the thick security door. He gasped, his steps faltering. "I know, this looks scary. There's no need to be afraid; it's just a device to eliminate cosmic radio noise."

"This is a meat grinder, Dr. Will!"

Justin protested loudly, and the others on the bridge saw what he was seeing through the cameras. They then cast disapproving glances at Dr. Will—who they considered Justin's description perfectly accurate—it was a cylindrical passageway with a long steel bridge leading directly to the hyperspace engine compartment. But encasing this bridge were thousands of constantly rotating, scimitar-like metal beams that sliced ​​the faint overhead light into shimmering fragments. Justin felt like he was about to enter a psychedelic tunnel in some amusement park. Worse still, the rotating walls weren't decorated with black and white patterns but with metal. Even worse, he couldn't walk steadily on the bridge; instead, he was being pulled forward by cables. The disappearing gravity made him feel like he was about to plummet into the slowly rotating metal, his sharp edges cutting through his protective suit and his flesh. He couldn't explain why he had this fantasy, like someone standing on the edge of a tall building who might unconsciously imagine jumping. He had to hold onto the doorframe tightly to prevent this fantasy from becoming a reality.

"The hyperspace engine is an extremely sophisticated device," Dr. Will said. "This is necessary to ensure the engine's accuracy."

"I just hope I don't drift into these blades!"

"That's not a razor blade, Justin."

"Let's not get bogged down in academic definitions, okay?" Lieutenant Justin took a deep breath. This usually carefree young man, like a cartoon character, was now deathly pale, looking like an extreme sports enthusiast about to jump off a cliff without a parachute, desperately pedaling his bicycle. "Dear First Officer, please hold on tight to my cable, don't let me turn into a pile of minced meat!"

Captain Miller ignored the little commotion on the communications channel, and after Dr. Will provided guidance via camera and communication, he was finally able to open the sealed circular door of the cockpit. Captain Miller instinctively blocked the camera on his spacesuit, and Dr. Peters pointed at the equipment inside the cockpit and exclaimed in surprise.

In the dim light of the searchlight, they saw that the control panel in the cockpit was splattered with old blood, and almost all the equipment was covered in a layer of flesh and blood. Dr. Peters' expertise allowed her to immediately recognize that the flesh and blood on the equipment and walls still retained blood vessels, tendons, and unformed organs. The blurred flesh and blood were covered with frost, which seemed to indicate that the space had once been extremely damp, even if it meant violating the most basic safety regulations for space travel.

Captain Miller finally lowered his hand from the camera and cautiously approached the control panel. Dr. Will and the other crew members on the bridge gasped, but Dr. Will still directed Captain Miller to the control panel to try and retrieve the storage device containing the Event Horizon's navigation logs. Only by reviewing the logs could they figure out what had happened to the Event Horizon.

Dr. Peters, who was surveying the surroundings, screamed again. The crew on the bridge of the Lewis and Clark watched in horror as a rusty, withered corpse slowly floated past within thirty centimeters of Dr. Peters' eyes. Dr. Peters had seen many corpses, but never anything so gruesome. It was an extremely horrific body; its eyes had been gouged out, its exposed teeth were stained with black blood, and its body was covered in crisscrossing wounds, as if someone had ripped their own skin open with their fingernails and thrown it into the cabin.

However, the horror didn't end there. Justin in the engine room continued his mission. But unlike what he had imagined—unlike anyone else's—after crossing the corridor to the compartment housing the hyperspace engine, he didn't see the metal tanks storing fuel, nor the complex equipment connecting numerous cables. It was a huge spherical space, with gray-black metal discs depicting bizarre totems lining the walls. Several enormous metal spikes emerged from these discs according to a certain mathematical pattern, pointing directly at the hyperspace engine in the center of the compartment. Several huge blobs of liquid water floated in this strange space in the weightless environment, resembling giant, amorphous rust-colored spheres.

Compared to the bizarre cabin, the hyperspace engine was the strangest thing.

It was a sphere encased in three bronze-colored metal rings. The outermost ring was covered with symmetrical spikes, while the innermost sphere was encased in metal discs resembling chambers. When Justin approached the device, the three rings of the hyperspace engine were still quietly and slowly rotating, emanating a heavy and eerie aura. Suddenly, the three rings stood upright in front of Justin, and several metal discs on the surface of the central sphere began to dent and emit a blinding light. Justin couldn't help but raise his hand to shield his eyes from the light. When the light dissipated, he saw that the metal discs that should have encased the sphere had disappeared, replaced by a jet-black circular surface that reflected ripples like water under the searchlight, as if a breath could dispel it.

"Justin, listen to me," the first mate said. "We've detected increasingly strong life signals from the Event Horizon, especially in the engine room where you are. Justin..."

Justin couldn't hear anything.

He stared, mesmerized, at the black pool in the middle of the engine bay, as if it were the most captivating object in the world. Every sound seemed to recede rapidly from him; he felt as if he were a child, immersing his head in a bathtub filled with warm water, the folded, distorted sounds and light filtering through the surface, entering his senses, yet receding away, drawing him in unconsciously, drawing him closer, becoming entranced. His spirit curled up, enveloped in a warmth absent in space. He was unaware of the comms blaring; Dr. Will, the First Officer, and Lieutenant Cooper were loudly warning him of the anomaly before him, but no matter how much the others on the bridge called out, they could only watch helplessly as he approached the black pool.

He reached out and gently touched the black liquid.

The instant his fabric-wrapped fingers touched the liquid, Justin snapped back to reality. An unseen force surged through his body, striking his brain and jolting him from his daze. He couldn't explain why he had done it, nor did he understand why the dark pool had drawn him in. He screamed in terror, then was pulled directly in by the force, submerged in the black water displayed by the hyperspace engine. Immediately afterward, on the control panel on the bridge, Justin's spacesuit camera lost signal, and the safety tether connecting to the spacesuit seemed to be pulled by a tremendous force. The tether length reading on the equipment skyrocketed, instantly adding a kilometer to the tether's length.

The engine room of the Event Horizon is not one kilometer long.

"I'm going to rescue Justin!" Lieutenant Cooper, the search and rescue operator who had been waiting for an opportunity, shouted, simultaneously activating equipment to reverse the safety tether. He quickly pulled Justin's safety tether through the connecting arm while simultaneously instructing the bridge via the radio around his neck, then giving the instructions expected of a professional. "You guys put on your spacesuits too, we've encountered an uncontrollable situation! Miller, Peters, evacuate immediately!"

"What happened, Lieutenant Cooper!"

"Justin, he..."

A few seconds later, before Captain Miller could figure out what was going on, a tremendous force erupted from the engine room.

In the blink of an eye, the force swept across the entire ship from the engine room at the stern of the Event Horizon. The cockpit's isolation door was smashed into the cockpit as if a high-yield explosive had been attached to its exterior. Many loosely secured and easily damaged pieces of equipment were also shattered by the force. Captain Miller and Dr. Peters, who were still in the cockpit collecting evidence, were also struck by the force and slammed into the empty hibernation pods inside the cockpit. However, this was not the end. This enormous force also shook the Lewis and Clark, which were connected to the Event Horizon. The previously tightly connected connecting arms and airtight doors were immediately damaged, and the violently broken hull spewed out gas and sparks. Many devices on the bridge malfunctioned, leaving only dense snowflakes and colored patches. The unfortunate crew members were thrown to the ground by the force, bleeding from head wounds and dazed. Fortunately, some people still retained their senses. Dr. Will immediately called for everyone to put on their spacesuits.

"We have to get to the Event Horizon immediately!" Dr. Will shouted amidst the shattered equipment spewing sparks. "This ship is unusable. We must get to the Event Horizon, or we'll all die here!"

"Justin!"

Lieutenant Cooper felt the tremor too. He clung desperately to the cable as he traversed the jamming-resistant bridge and entered the engine bay where Justin had been. He saw the cable connecting Justin's spacesuit sink into the dark, unreflective liquid. Just as Cooper was about to reach it, the reversed cable finally pulled Justin out. Lieutenant Cooper rushed forward and caught Justin, and the two of them crashed against the spiked walls of the engine bay.

Meanwhile, the Event Horizon's control console came back to life without human intervention. The computers and screens, previously without power, revived, the ship's gravity field instantly returned to normal, oxygen levels began to fill the hull, and insulation rapidly melted the frost clinging to the portholes and flesh. A massive water balloon in the engine room slammed to the floor, the crimson liquid mixed with filth cascading down the gangway. Dr. Peters, roused from her semi-conscious state, saw the floating corpse crash into the cockpit floor and shatter like ice.

Immediately afterwards, she felt someone grab her arm and drag her outside.

Captain Miller gasped for breath as a small hole appeared in the sturdy spacesuit, letting warm air rush out and condense into frost in the cabin. The icy air of the Event Horizon felt like his lungs were about to burst, but he still held tightly to Dr. Peters's arm and dragged her out from between the shattered metal and glass.

"You'll be alright, Peters," Captain Miller gasped. His eyes were unfocused, and he didn't seem to have recovered from the violent impact. "You'll be alright," he repeated over and over, stepping over the shattered corpses and slippery, frozen flesh, the chill of the void seeping into his body. He had no time to think about the Event Horizon and the Lewis and Clark; his only goal was to save those he could.