Chapter 442: Acting Captain
Abigail moved to a relatively open space in the entry chamber. "Stand to the side, be careful of moving parts."
"Uh... do we not need to go outside?" Honglian asked, a bit nervous yet somewhat expectant.
"No, it’s impossible for this place to turn into a fuel tank."
"Fixing such a large object..." Chen Xuan hesitated for a moment before asking, "How many years of your accumulation will it cost?"
"I don’t know, maybe ten years, maybe fifteen."
He couldn’t help but fall silent.
The price is this high?
If it were him, he’d probably be reluctant to use a decade’s worth of accumulation to help others, even if it wasn’t altruistic help.
"You don’t need to feel bad." Sensing his silence, Abigail chuckled softly. "I’m not a miser, always holding onto power without using it. The only expectation I have for my ability is that it can be used where it’s worth it—and obviously, saving many lives is worth it."
"Thank you," Chen Xuan said sincerely.
"Do you think I’m admirable? Actually, in the Dimensional Limit Mechanism, there are countless people who would do this, some officers even sacrificing their own lives to help others." Abigail raised her hands, "I hope that for their sake, your impression of the Mechanism might change a bit."
As soon as she finished speaking, she activated the Barrier Power.
An invisible wave of energy erupted centered on her, enveloping the other three people in the blink of an eye.
But Chen Xuan did not feel any discomfort.
He noticed that the flow of Spiritual Qi around him had changed—no longer like elusive breezes or whirlpools, but turning into straight, orderly lines. These lines interwove, converging from different directions into the dilapidated spacecraft, as if they were bestowing this man-made object with the power of new life.
It was Chen Xuan’s first time "seeing" such a scene.
In his understanding, Spiritual Qi was a resource that only living beings could absorb and utilize. Demon Fiends, though unlike humans, also had the characteristics of life. Yet now even an artificial object purely assembled from metals and other industrial products could be nourished by Spiritual Qi, which was indeed a bit unbelievable.
A few seconds later, significant changes appeared.
The rusted and faded walls in the cabin began to restore bit by bit. Those scattered parts on the ground sank into the ship piece by piece, and new replacements grew at the damaged spots—this process was less like reversing time to walk back through the entire process from brand new to damaged, and more like treating the spacecraft as a newborn whole, where broken fragments would be absorbed and reintegrated into the craft, with missing parts supplemented by Spiritual Qi.
The evidence was that parts belonging to the spacecraft were rejuvenating, whereas parts not belonging to it, like files, wrenches, and coffee cups casually tossed onto the ground by the Mechanism, remained untouched.
"This ability is really over the top," Lin Qing couldn’t help but remark.
"Indeed, it’s quite over the top," Chen Xuan agreed. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen Abigail deploy the Barrier, yet he still found the ability astonishingly magical.
Through the porthole, he saw that the spacecraft’s broken wing had "grown" from the fracture, a large bundle of complex pipelines quickly extending inward, and then wrapped in skin and armor, finally with the paint perfectly restored.
When the indicator lights in the chamber all lit up, Abigail lowered her hands and exhaled a long breath.
"Should be fine now."
As soon as she finished speaking, a subtle wind noise arose in the chamber.
Simultaneously, a synthetic electronic voice came from overhead, "Pollutants detected in the air, the filtration and circulation system is activated."
"Overload and impact detected, spacecraft self-check initiated."
"Analysis system unresponsive, mainframe rebooting."
"Reboot complete, welcome aboard the Wind Song."
At this moment, the spacecraft looked completely different from before—the metal floor underfoot was sparkling clean without a speck of dust, and the lighting embedded in the walls emitted a gentle glow; the hardwood bench next to the storage locker was gleaming, and if you closed your eyes, you could even smell a hint of wood and polished varnish.
If not for some debris on the ground, it would be like an entirely new product rolled straight off the factory line.
"Nicely done!" Honglian exclaimed happily, patting Abigail on the back, nearly knocking her over.
"Easy, are you trying to kill me?" She staggered and complained.
"Then maybe I should carry you later."
"You’d better shut up."
"The next problem is getting it transported," Lin Qing looked worriedly towards the direction of the subway station, "If the residents at the settlement find out a brand new spacecraft suddenly appeared here, they might develop some inappropriate ideas."
As representatives of the world’s cutting-edge technology, the Mechanism’s aerospace ships are an absolute treasure trove... engines, power systems, weapons, computers... dismantling these things can greatly benefit any refuge.
"Don’t worry, they won’t have time to bother with us," Chen Xuan said nonchalantly.
As soon as he said this, the four of them heard a piercing siren.
"Woo—woo—"
It was clearly coming from the direction of the subway station.
"Why sound the alarm again?" Honglian frowned.
"I reckon they’ve discovered a new projectile. Experiencing the same situation twice, even a fool should realize this isn’t a coincidence," Chen Xuan said, "However, even if the Mechanism doesn’t immediately initiate a new round of attacks, we can fly the spacecraft to a remote location first to avoid their attention."
"By the way, do you know how to fly a spacecraft?" Honglian asked belatedly.
"Of course, what do you think?" he said confidently, "Wait here for me."
Strictly speaking, Chen Xuan had no idea how to actually operate the spacecraft.
But being a vehicle that integrated the most advanced technologies, it was equipped with highly automated flight programs. Mechanical Officers could drive a spacecraft to Earth or a space station alone after about two months of training.
As an Ability User of the Arbitration Court, Lin had naturally undergone related training as well.
Walking inside the spacecraft felt like coming home to Chen Xuan.
Drawing from those memories, he quickly found the spaceship’s cockpit.
"You don’t have access clearance." The camera issued a warning.
"Modify clearance, emergency command code: 65R2Z71..." Chen Xuan recited a 16-digit code; who knows how Lin memorized it.
The automatic door unlocked and slid open obediently to the sides.
The layout of the spacecraft’s cockpit was not similar to an airplane; it was more akin to a ship: the captain’s command position was in the center of the chamber, surrounded by seats for various subsystem operators. The walls were embedded with large screens, monitoring the external view of the spacecraft in real-time.
Using these sensory equipment, Chen Xuan could clearly see the condition around the subway station—upon hearing the alarm, the residents who had just mustered up the courage to explore outside retreated back into the settlement. Through a high magnification lens, the panic and fear on people’s faces were clearly discernible.
"Wind Song, the mission has failed. Based on command and operational protocols, I now formally request to take over the ship," he said, looking up.
This was an inherent directive implanted in the spaceship by the Mechanism during its manufacturing process.
The arrangement was that when a captain or commander perished and the mission could no longer continue, other personnel could assume command to prevent the spacecraft from turning into uncontrollable scrap metal. There were two ways to handle this: one, the captain directly grants permission, and two, someone reports the emergency command code of the ship, with the AI needing to verify whether "the mission is unattainable" is factual.
For a spacecraft that had crashed years ago, its mission being deemed a failure was undoubtedly a given outcome.
After a brief pause, the AI’s synthesized voice spoke up again.
"Understood, the Wind Song’s control authority is now open to you, Acting Captain."