Deep Sea Embers.

Chapter 794 Temporary Communication
The atmosphere around seemed to change quietly - something, some very large "structure", was taking shape near the Lost Homeland.

Duncan stood on the edge of the stern control platform, keeping an eye on Alice's situation, but suddenly he seemed to sense something, and then he and Vanna raised their heads and looked up at the sky at the same time.

A vague and huge "phantom" is slowly emerging in the dim sky and mist.

The phantom seemed to be composed of many large, fragmented masses loosely aggregated, with a roughly shuttle-shaped overall outline. It seemed to be torn from a larger entity, and the broken connecting structure could even be vaguely distinguished in its central part!
The scale of the entire phantom can be described as astonishing. Through the distant fog, Duncan and Vanna couldn't even judge how big the thing was, nor did they know how far away from the Lost Homeland it was floating. But the pressure brought by just a phantom was enough to make people feel as if they couldn't breathe.

Vanna stood on the deck as if petrified by a spell, looking up at the huge phantom hidden in the clouds and skylight. After an unknown amount of time, she murmured in astonishment, "What... is that?!"

Duncan suddenly turned his gaze towards the puppet that was holding the steering wheel tightly - he saw Alice still standing there quietly, but the puppet's eyes had drooped at some point, and she was half-open and half-closed as if she was about to fall asleep, and it seemed as if her soul was no longer in this body.

And countless faint "lines" extend from her body.

Perhaps because he had shared "vision" so many times, Duncan vaguely saw those nearly transparent lines - they hung down from the sky, densely packed, like a giant tree with an amazing structure, or a converging inverted cone. One end of them was obviously connected to the huge phantom in the sky, and the other end all gathered behind the puppet...

Alice had a very long and very strange dream, in which she was a ship—a great ship sailing among the stars.

She carried the expectations and future of many people, and set sail from a cocoon of time that was gradually being swallowed up. She left her home port behind and never stopped again.

Behind her, the stars burst like a tide and extinguished like a receding tide. The space-time structure collapsed in her jump track, and a terrifying phenomenon like redshift chased her footsteps among the collapsing stars like a relentless nightmare. She shuttled through the collapsing world, as if she was running in a cave that was constantly collapsing and narrowing. The deadly gravitational collapse traps and rampaging ray storms were like falling rocks in the cave, splashing like rain...

She calculated and corrected non-stop, looking for a way out among the stars, planning a path to escape from the "collapse hole" in the star map that gathered the wisdom of millions of people. Every landmark on the star map was misplaced, and everything in the universe shifted from its original trajectory. First, it was the position of the stars, then the laws of matter, and then... "calculation" itself.

There is no road, no road ahead, no navigation, the "calculation" process itself has failed, the shield has collapsed, the structure has dissolved... the shrill alarm, the database is offline, the ecological cabin is on fire... the "passenger's" thinking reactions disappeared in the endless darkness.

Everything ends in one violent flash and explosion.

Then, Pilot No. 3 woke up with a series of error reports - he felt that he had a very long and strange dream.

In the dream, he was a puppet, a puppet busy all day on a weird ghost ship, cleaning, cooking, washing clothes, and playing with some strange things...

The ship was sailing in a sea of ​​burning ashes, and even the ship itself seemed to be condensed from some kind of ashes. There were also several "individuals" that also came from the ashes living on the ship. Sometimes, the ship would stop by the islands - those were huge lumps floating in the ashes, sintered into strange shapes, maintaining meaningless "operations" in the sea of ​​​​ashes.

There are many things and noises on those islands. The ashes imitate the lost vitality and make intelligent sounds. Sometimes, Navigator No. 3 feels that those sounds and looks are somewhat familiar, just like some information stored in his memory bank, and this "sense of familiarity" always makes him feel a little... "sad".

But the "doll" lived happily in that dream. She made friends with the ashes, and all the ashes were the same in her eyes. She wandered in the world after the burning, as if she had a fulfilling "life". She had a body that imitated other ashes, and that body allowed her to run, jump and laugh like other ashes.

And in that dream filled with ashes, there was only one entity, an individual that was not ashes.

It was a starry sky that had never died - a river of stars flowing in a sea of ​​burning ash.

Alice/Pilot Three suddenly opened her eyes.

She found herself floating in darkness, with many hazy outlines and lines floating around her. It was the navigation cabin of the New Hope, the place in her "memory".

"Mr. Goat Head? Miss Agatha?"

Alice looked around uneasily. She still remembered what she was doing before, but when the surroundings suddenly fell into darkness, the two familiar figures disappeared from her sight without her knowing.

"Where have you been?" She called out anxiously, taking steps in the darkness. But after a long time, she got no response, so she stopped in frustration, "Did I mess it up again?"

A light suddenly appeared at the end of the darkness, interrupting her muttering.

Alice raised her head in surprise and looked in the direction where the light came from.

She saw a tall rectangular shadow with a red light like a giant's one eye embedded in the upper part of the shadow. There were also many flickering lights floating on both sides and behind the shadow, like countless eyes lurking in the darkness.

Alice was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously wanted to walk over there - but the moment this thought came to her mind, she felt her eyes blurred.

By the time she reacted, she had already arrived in front of the tall shadow with red light.

The darkness blocked her vision like a veil, making it difficult for her to see the details of the shadow, but she still recognized the other person quickly - or rather, it was the part of her that belonged to "Navigator No. 3" that recognized the other person.

"Navigator Two?" She spoke with some surprise, saying the unfamiliar name in her own voice, as if she had known the other person for a long time.

"Pilot No. 3...long time no see," the tall rectangular shadow said, his voice filled with noise caused by interference. "It seems that Pilot No. 1 has indeed succeeded...Although its implementation method is somewhat different from my calculations, I am still very happy to read your identification signal again."

"You brought me here?" Alice thought for a moment and tried to sort out a question. She felt a lot of messy thoughts were fighting in her head. Fortunately, she didn't have a brain in her head, otherwise she would definitely be destroyed by those thoughts. "How can I go back?"

Pilot Two was silent for a few seconds.

Alice's reaction seemed to deviate from its "calculation" again.

But soon, the lights flickered again, and the voice of Navigator No. 2 reached the puppet's ears: "I just wanted to see you in advance to confirm whether your condition is stable. The navigation key I made for you is a bold attempt. It is based on my calculations and understanding of the current state of the world. I am not sure whether it can really work. After all... In order to avoid mutual contamination, I have not had direct communication with Navigator No. 1 for a long time."

Alice opened her eyes wide and listened carefully to what Pilot No. 2 told her. Then she frowned and thought for a while: "...What do you mean?"

Pilot No. 2 was silent for a few seconds again, and this time, even the red light on its surface dimmed.

Alice didn't urge him, she just stared at the light in front of her with wide eyes.

After a while, the light finally became bright again.

"...In the last message we received, Pilot One said that a 'splinter' it released found a very talented 'carrier' in the shelter. This carrier is powerful enough to carry the backup data you left behind. But why is your current operating efficiency so... inconsistent with my calculations?"

Alice thought about it and looked at the other person seriously: "Are you saying I'm stupid?"

Every silence from Pilot No. 2 seemed deafening: "..."

"Although I don't know what you want to say, it sounds like it's related to the 'copy' of the Frost Queen, right?" Alice said casually. She was certainly not stupid. At least she could react to this matter. "I don't know what happened specifically, but the captain said that there was a problem with the operation of the copy of the Lord of the Deep, and the copy target was chosen incorrectly..."

She paused at this point and looked at the light with some curiosity: "Is it a big problem?"

The red light on the surface of the Pilot 2 flickered slowly, as if it was thinking, or simply ignoring its thoughts. After a long while, its slightly noisy voice broke the silence: "No, if it is just performing the navigation mission, it is enough."

"Oh, that's good," Alice said, very happy. "The captain asked me to steer the ship, and I was afraid I couldn't do it well. I just hope I can do it well enough."

"...Don't you feel regretful?" The red light was a little dim. "You have forgotten a lot of things. You originally had the fastest processing speed and multi-threaded response ability among us. You were once used to measure the scale of the entire universe, but now you are trapped in such a... shell."

Alice blinked.

What the other person said was always somewhat confusing, but she felt as if she... understood it.

So this time, she thought carefully before answering.

"I don't think so." After a long moment, she shook her head gently. "I couldn't find the way before, but now I know where it is, so I don't regret it. Besides, I have a lot of things to do every day, so I don't have time to regret it."

The red light of Pilot No. 2 gradually dimmed, and then gradually became brighter.

It seemed to be thinking, and after a while it responded: "If that's the case, that's good too."

In the darkness, the tall rectangular shadow seemed to be fading away.

"Are you leaving?" Alice asked hastily.

"…This is just a temporary communication established with the help of the navigation key. I can't communicate with the outside world for too long." In the darkness, the voice of Pilot No. 2 began to become a little unclear. "We will meet again. I am very happy… to read your identification signal again."

Alice laughed happily.

Although she wasn't sure what was going on, she could feel that she was very happy.

The captain said that being happy is a good thing.

"Then we'll see you later," she waved her hands vigorously at the deepening darkness, "The captain, I, and everyone else will go look for you together!"

There was no response from the darkness, only a short buzzing sound.

(End of this chapter)