Chapter 1456 — The Starchart Custodian

Leaving only hollow echoes, impressions that once signified "something was once there." She had witnessed things a mortal could never possibly comprehend, yet these things had not harmed her fragile mortal sanity, but had instead dispersed harmlessly like a gentle breeze—she wanted to say this, but as the words reached her lips the description felt too strange. And in that moment of hesitation, Nikolshi's voice suddenly rang out from beside her, interrupting her exchange with Berlanta: "Information? What information?"

Nikolshi seemed to have noticed nothing of the change in the patterns on the pillar's surface, nor "witnessed" any "form of indescribable truth." He merely sensed that the energy within the pillar had grown active in an instant—equipment that had been in deep dormancy was humming as it rapidly awakened, the terminals connected to the great pillar lighting up one after another, and faint lights gradually emerging on the ceiling as well.

Then the dense shadows that pervaded this hall seemed to thin somewhat—not dissipate entirely; that unnatural gloom still shrouded the whole space, but it was clearly no longer as thick and oppressive as before, no longer enough to make one tense and uneasy. The light spilling down from the ceiling brought back warmth and a sense of safety. The shadow power in the hall still held sway, but the feeling it gave... was as though it had recovered from some extremely released "out-of-control" state to a state of orderly operation.

All these changes were clearly connected to Cassandra and the others' work in completely clearing away the "thorns."

"It seems we have repaired something here..." Nikolshi said in a deep voice, a metallic resonance trembling in his tone. "I can feel the energy surging through the hall; all the equipment here is gradually awakening. This great pillar at the center is the core of the entire change—the lights on its surface have doubled. I will now check whether the terminals connected to it can be operated."

Gao Yang listened to Nikolshi's report, watching the astonishing change that had suddenly come over the Shadow Hall—and deep in his consciousness, the "light motes" and "lines" representing the working status of the Sky Vault Station's various systems had quietly altered as well. The mote corresponding to the Shadow Hall was noticeably brighter than before, and a great many lines that had been hidden emerged from the fog. Through these secret connections, Gao Yang felt himself linking into new databases or command libraries. He knew that more ancient permissions had loosened, that certain long-sealed logs were entering his list of accessible records—and these data clearly all pointed toward this mysterious Shadow Hall and that "Anchor Generator" of unclear purpose.

"Try activating the terminal to your front left," Gao Song's voice suddenly came from above the hall. Following the "lines" he saw in his consciousness, he began directing Nikolshi to start up the corresponding hardware in the hall—this would help him further master this cabin section that had just "awakened." "Enter the original command: 00-01-01-22-15-05."

Nikolshi immediately began to cooperate—over the past several dozen days, he had worked with Gao Yang this way countless times, and the results had proven it highly effective.

The terminal, which had just started up along with the awakening of the "Anchor Generator," accepted the externally input command. The interface projected above it flickered, seeming briefly to want to reset its own state, but within a thousandth of a second Gao Song's will took over the terminal and projected out some of the logs stored within—logs of which only fragments remained.

At the same time, those fragmented log remnants surfaced in Gao Yang's mind as well—they seemed to be some "annotations" made after this Shadow Hall was built, and also somewhat like instructions the Voyagers had left for some object or objects—

"...The Anchor Generator shall activate after... The target individual shall be maintained in a stable state...

"The target individual shall receive the Starchart Custodian authority after activation of the Anchor Generator. The system clock shall be reset to zero at this time and begin running. The Sky Vault Station data link shall open to the Starchart Custodian after this clock is started...

"Note: after activation, the Starchart Custodian may not shut down the various subsystems and sub-authorities it carries. This task shall persist perpetually, until the ideal model appears and meets the standard...

"...The link between the Starchart Custodian and the Anchor Generator shall be set to high priority. On the premise of ensuring the operation of the Sky Vault itself, under all circumstances priority shall be given to ensuring the energy supply of the Anchor Generator and the survival of the Starchart Custodian...

"If the Starchart Custodian dies unexpectedly or fails, the Anchor Generator shall immediately restart and reset the Custodian's state. If the Starchart Custodian goes offline while alive, the Anchor Generator shall lock to the pre-offline state and continue operating, to the maximum extent ensuring the Custodian's survival...

"If a permanent catastrophe occurs in the local planetary system, such that the probability of civilization arising again within a calculable timescale remains forever zero, then this project may be terminated early. If the Starchart Custodian is still alive under such circumstances, then... use all energy for launch... execute evacuation mission...

"Note: the Sentinel system may not establish direct data exchange with the Starchart Custodian, to prevent the Anchor Generator from losing focus. If the Anchor Generator loses focus or enters secondary... it may cause erroneous duplication and overflow of the Custodian's data..."

The fragmented system logs flowed like water through Gao Song's mind, yet the information they implied brought only greater confusion. Gao Yang searched this ancient device, which might have lain dormant for a hundred thousand or even several hundred thousand years, trying to find more fragments to piece together what he had seen—but found only some utterly useless operational records or hardware logs of the Sky Vault Station. In the end he could only refocus his attention on these flowing log fragments, and there he saw the end of these fragmented pieces of information—

"...To the Starchart Custodian, our respects. To all beings born and unborn upon this planet, our blessings. May fortune be with you—the star-sea is vast, the universe is cold, the road is still long, but you are not alone."

By the time Gao Yang had finished reviewing the log fragments read from his mind, the advance team in the Shadow Hall had also seen the information projected above the terminal. Asarena felt that rarely in her life had she been as utterly bewildered as she was today: "What on earth is all this... supposed to mean?"

"An ancient plan the Voyagers left on this planet," Gao Song's voice answered her, low and grave. "It seems... what they left behind here was not merely 'surveillance.'"

"It appears that the 'Starchart Custodian' mentioned here relies on this thing called the 'Anchor Generator' to maintain stability—or rather, to 'maintain survival,'" Berlanta said thoughtfully. "This mysterious existence is the core of the entire plan... but who is it, really? Or rather—what is it?"