Chapter 590: Return III
"No!" Aried jolted out of his trance and shouted. "Stop! Quick, stop the ship!" His face was drained of blood.
"Halt!" Ye Chong gave the order without delay. Darkniss slowly came to a stop. Ye Chong looked to Aried and asked, "What is it?"
Aried stuttered, "This is spatial crack… No… There are cracks in space… It's unstable…" He was not making much sense, perhaps because of feeling too nervous.
Ye Chong frowned. "Try again."
Aried inhaled deeply and gathered himself. "There are cracks in the space around here. These are small regions of chaotic spatial dimensions. These cracks in space move slowly, and anything in its way will be sliced into pieces. Our bodies cannot withstand spatial cracks. Besides, they are not visible to the naked eye. This place is dangerous. If our warship encounters a region with spatial cracks, everything in the warship, including us, will be cut into pieces." He pointed to the holographic screen. "Just like that rock!"
Everyone in the bridge looked horrified.
Aried paused for a moment, and then continued to explain quickly. "Spatial cracks are caused by instabilities in space. So far, there are no theories to explain their method of formation, but the cracks are threats to us, without a doubt. Spatial cracks can destroy anything in this world, no matter how strong it is. However, few spatial cracks were ever observed, located in only a few places with spatial instability. We have too little research on them. I don't know much about them myself."
Ye Chong looked calm. His composure soothed the panic in his crew members, for they trusted their commander. They believed that he would think up a way to counter this threat.
"What do you suggest?" Ye Chong asked Aried. He was the expert in this matter. Surely he must have a plan.
"We have no sensors to detect spatial cracks on this ship, so we can only build one from scratch. Quick! I need a good engineer." Aried did not hesitate to ask for what he needed. This was not the time to be polite. If they were to find themselves in the path of a spatial crack, they would be finished.
"Alright! I'll help you." Ye Chong did not hesitate to lend a hand either. He was the best man for the job on the ship.
Just as the two men began to leave, Sha Ya broke her silence. "Perhaps I can help."
Everyone looked at her. She still wore her typical calm expression, but her voice no longer sounded so hoarse. "I can sense them."
Aried stopped to absorb her words, and then blurted out with joy, "Right right right, how could I have forgotten about you? You can sense the structure of spatial windows. These spatial cracks will not be a problem for you."
Zeep! Suddenly, one of the holographic screens went dark. Someone reported, "Hummingbird 311 was attacked and destroyed." From the other holographic screens, they could see clearly how the Hummingbird was destroyed. It was on its way back to the ship when the entire bird structure suddenly collapsed into pieces. It was chilling to watch!
Everyone watched the Hummingbird silently broke into pieces in midair. It all happened in less than a second, without any warning. Nothing came into contact with the Hummingbird when it happened. The machine simply burst into pieces just like that, without any clear indication of why or how it happened. It was still uncertainty that left a strong impression in the crew.
"30 degrees off the radius vector!" Sha Ya suddenly raised her voice.
The bridge burst into activity after the initial silence. Crew members quickly directed the warship towards the right.
Ye Chong shook his head inside. These students needed more experience and training. His expression betrayed none of his thoughts. He knew that, as their leader, he must maintain a calm image so that his soldiers could stay calm as well.
As expected, the students quickly recovered from the initial shock and panic. They listened carefully to Sha Ya's instructions and directed their ship accordingly. Darkniss advanced as slow as possible.
The bridge was silent except for Sha Ya's directions. Aside from the few crew members in charge of flying the warship, the other crew members held their breaths and stared at the holographics screens.
Sha Ya knew the terminologies. She had gone through the same training as these students. Moreover, she had good spatial awareness. Darkniss flew without any issue.
Nevertheless, everyone on the ship did not relax. In fact, they were tensed. They had seen rocks of different sizes crumbling on the screens. Of all the Hummingbirds they deployed, only three made it back. The others were all metal scraps now.
Ye Chong took a glance at Sha Ya, focused on her parapsychic feedback, and then turned to Aried. "Will there be danger ahead of us?"
Aried smiled bitterly. "I don't know. Spatial cracks are rarely discovered, and they are too dangerous. Any experiments done on them were by powerful and resourceful research organizations. Someone like me never stood a chance. I've never heard of any significant results from their research so far. We know simply too little about them."
Ye Chong went quiet. He considered for a moment, and then asked, "Is it possible to have spatial windows around here?"
Aried nodded. "Where there are spatial cracks, it is very likely to have spatial windows too. As long as there is enough energy to stimulate it …"
Aried and Ye Chong exchanged a look.
Aried suddenly got excited. "Spatial windows, right, it's spatial windows! There must be spatial windows that lead elsewhere in this place! Perhaps the red-tailed beasts entered the He Yue Galaxy through here. Right! It's very likely the case!"
The possibility for returning to the He Yue Galaxy was real. Standing beside Ye Chong, Rui Bing's eyes gleamed with hope.
"We need to survive this first." Ye Chong's calm voice shook Aried out of his excitement. Aried considered their situation for a while, and then raised his head. "We can only rely on Sha Ya for now. Regions with spatial cracks are usually not very big. They are actually regions with spatial instability. Once the region reached a certain size, space will collapsed back into itself. Based on the current speed, however, it will take a few days."
Everyone looked towards Sha Ya, who had shut her eyes and looked very peaceful.
The warship had flown for two days. Aside from the one time when it brushed past a spatial crack on its side, the journey was uneventful. The close call left a half-meter deep gash in the thick hull armor. There were crack marks inside the gash. Everyone felt chilled when it happened, but the hull was soon repaired.
Ye Chong had never flown a ship so slowly, but he had no choice. Some things were best left to the professionals. This was something Ye Chong learned a long time ago.
"Sir, there's something you should see." A crew member's tense voice broke the silence in the bridge.
Ye Chong looked up.
On the holographic screen was a black spatial window, suspended in the air.
"A spatial window!" Aried sounded jubilant. He was also repeating himself a lot. "It's really a spatial window, oh, my god …"
The spatial window was about 15 meters in diameter. The black circle floated quietly in the air, as soundless as their surroundings.
"What's that?" Rui Bing spoke up, pointing somewhere close to the spatial window.
Ye Chong followed her finger and looked. His eyes widened. He reached out with his right hand and shouted, "Halt!"
The crew members quickly stopped the warship. Ye Chong looked up towards the holographic screen and fixed his eyes on it.
"Zoom in there."
The holographic screen zoomed in on the lower left corner, providing finer details.
It was a human shaped figure, like a human clay statue. That statue was large. It was in a half sitting position, but it was probably as tall as a mech when standing up.
This was the only thing Ye Chong and his people had seen in this place that bore similarities to humans. Was this something natural or manmade? If it was manmade, then who made it? Why make this clay statue at all?
Things made an eerie turn with the sudden appearance of a clay statue and a spatial window. The sitting clay statue was a mystery.
"Sha Ya, are there any dangers around the spatial window?" Ye Chong turned towards her and asked.
"It's very dangerous!" Sha Ya replied solemnly. "There are many spatial cracks around the spatial window, and they are moving faster than the ones we have seen before."
"How do we get closer to the spatial window?" Ye Chong looked at Sha Ya.
Sha Ya held his gaze for a moment before closing her eyes again.
After about 30 seconds, she reopened her eyes and stated plainly, "There is a path. It's not wide. We can only travel on foot."
"Alright, let's go." Ye Chong did not hesitate.
Sha Ya led the group. Rui Bing followed closely behind Ye Chong. They first landed via a small transport ship. However, even this itself was laborious. What should have taken only one minute took them 15 minutes instead. There were no obvious signs of danger around them, but they were in fact surrounded by spatial cracks. The three of them proceeded with great caution.
After they landed, Sha Ya led them both on their slowly journey forward. She closed her eyes and kept her parapsychic sense focused on their immediate surroundings. She walked quickly without opening her eyes. Ye Chong and Rui Bing followed her closely. They veered left and right, and sometimes stepped backwards. Sha Ya's physical training was effective. She could not run as fast as Ye Chong or Rui Bing, but she had improved significantly.
It took them only 30 minutes to to reach the clay statue.
Sha Ya could not understand why Ye Chong was so interested in the clay statue that he would risk approaching it. This was not uncharacteristic of him. Rui Bing said nothing as she quietly watched after Ye Chong.
Ye Chong walked to the front of the clay statue. He could see it much clearer from here. This was man made, he was certain of it.
The earth on the surface of the statue looked loose. Ye Chong nudged it a little, and a huge chunk fell off.
Underneath the earth was something black in color. Ye Chong's eyes widened. His pulse spiked up. Quickly, he began to dust off the earth covering the statue.
There was a lot of earth, about 50 centimeters thick. They were mostly fine soil or dust. How many years would it have taken for so much dust to gather?
Rui Bing and Sha Ya saw him moving, and promptly went to help him.
Five minutes later, they cleared away all the dust and soil. The three of them were covered with dust, but they did not seem to notice. Their attention was entirely on the huge object in front of them.
It was a black colored mech. Despite its age, many of its parts still looked brand new. Ye Chong quickly noticed that it was heavily damaged. It must have gone through a very intense battle.
There was a big hole in the pilot cabin. Something sharp must have pierced through it. This attack was fatal. The mech pilot would have never survived it. This was also the biggest damage dealt on the mech.
The mech had a dark metallic luster. Ye Chong was familiar with this metallic feel and texture. The mech had a distinctive logo of a long leaf on its surface. Ye Chong had never seen this mech before, but he was certain of one thing.
Ye Family's mech. This was a classic, advanced level mech of the Ye Family!
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