The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

When Hao Ren got out of the crack in the elevator shaft, he was awed by the fantastic scenery inside the 100-kilometer long spaceship.

It was a vast interior space, where Hao Ren could barely see its boundary. Buildings spread out into the distance as the city landscape gradually raised and finally joined the surface above. The city, built in a closed oval space as if an eggshell, had buildings attached to the wall inside his eggshell.

He looked around and felt a little dizzy. There was no sky, no upside, and downside; the entire space was an enclosed spherical shell. No matter which direction he looked at, he only saw buildings and weird equipment. He looked back at the elevator shaft that he came out from; it was a metal tube running through the entire spherical shell space. More than a dozen such metal tubes were running in parallel behind him, coming out from a large building and connecting to another large inverted structure on the other end of the city. In the middle of these parallel rows of metal tubes, he saw platforms and horizontal pipelines suspended in the middle. It was the main thoroughfare.

The parallel metal tube cluster near him was not the only one in the city though. Looking further into the distance, Hao Ren saw the silhouette of a similar tube cluster. They were like the skeleton of a monster crisscrossing the giant spaceship, connecting the city to the outside world.

Vivian was the last to come out of the elevator shaft. She looked at the city in the shell, curious. She muttered to herself, “There is no air, there is silence, but there is light.”

The city was neither dark nor bright. Between those quiet buildings, there was residual lighting system that still worked dotting the entire space of the closed town. At the end of the spherical shell, there was an extraordinarily large cylindrical ‘mountain’. It looked like a massive machine with a complicated structure. The machine was shimmering in orange-red light on its radiator-like structure around it, giving the city its much-needed light.

But this light was far from bright. The spaceship’s internal system must be suffering from some technical problems. Whether it was the remaining lighting in the city or the massive machine at the end of the spherical space, it was apparent that the whole system was not running below capacity. It was like in a standby mode.

“There are no signs of life,” Hao Ren said, glancing at the readings that the MDT sent him. Though the MDT did not possess a high-power scanning capability, he did not think he would need a bigger scanner. He doubted there would be any survivors. “There is no atmosphere, no water, almost as cold as space outside, and there is excessive radiation. It seems that everyone is dead,” Hao Ren said.

Nangong Wuyue suddenly came up to him. She poked Hao Ren’s arm with the tip of her tail and then pointed to a direction. “Certainly, they are all dead,” she said.

Hao Ren looked at the direction where Nangong Wuyue was pointing; the body of a humanoid was floating in the distance.

Focusing his eyesight, he could now see more bodies floating in between the city buildings, and some of them were floating in the height of the enclosed spherical space. There was no upside and downside in this confined space. So strictly speaking, the central point of the enclosed area was the highest point, which was also the farthest point from the shell wall. Corpses were floating around, and most of them were mutilated. The ultra-low temperatures made the bodies extremely fragile. They would break into pieces upon hitting one another. Those intact corpses were the luckiest ones. More might have been smashed into dust by the constant collisions over time.

Hao Ren turned and floated up to a group of buildings closer to him and landed on the roof of a tall building. The illusion of being upside down was not so obvious when not looking up at the overhanging structures overhead. He found a few bodies were floating near the building and so he came up to examine them.

“The facial features are close to the standard type I humans. The skin color is fair, long ears, small bones. Probably these are the results of long-term space living,” Hao Ren said while examining the biological characteristics of the dead like a professional coroner and comparing it to the bio-lineage on the data network. “It’s well preserved,” he said.

“There is no air here, and the temperate is ultra-low, the body will neither rot nor dry up. It will remain in the state of when it first died and became an ice sculpture,” said Nangong Sanba, while taking out a few delicate tools and needle and examining the body. “Let’s see what information I can extract,” he said.

Hao Ren looked up at the quiet City of Twilight and tried to figure out the cause of the tragic death of the people onboard the ark. “Was it air leak, or some other problems that led to the failure of life support system?” he speculated.

“The airlock that we came through was faulty, but the outermost door was closed, and the control system was working properly,” the MDT said. “This spaceship is too big. Maybe we need a complete structural scan to find out what has happened. There are more than a dozen other spaceships out there, and I think their conditions are no better than this one.”

Hao Ren nodded. He clicked on the radio. “Nolan, release the probes, and inspect the exterior of the giant spaceship we are in to see if there are any leaks or other fatal flaws,” he ordered.

“Roger that.”

Nangong Sanba had finished examining the first body. He seemed to have discovered something, but he went up and examined another body again. Nangong Wuyue was curious. “What have you found?” she asked.

“The cause of death of these people is neither suffocation nor low temperature,” Nangong Sanba said and put his tools away. “They look very peaceful, and there are some residual chemicals in the frozen blood vessels, very much like—”

“Like what?” Lily could not wait but ask.

“Like they have inhaled a high dosage of hallucinogens… or some other substances,” Nangong Sanba said, pointing at the bodies around. “They are all the same.”

“Dope?” Hao Ren looked surprised. “These people died because of popping pills?”

“Something like that but I think your choice of words isn’t that appropriate.” Nangong Sanba’s mouth twitched a couple of times. “At present, I have only checked a few of them. It is not conclusive. Let’s explore further.”

Hao Ren agreed. He turned around and floated out into the street in the distance.

The spaceship, which contained the city, was massive. There were large buildings and complete facilities. The streets were wide, and the buildings were tall. People would not be aware that they were in an enclosed space without looking up. They might even forget the real face of the city as a result.

They came to the deepest part of the city, and soon found more bodies and something that seemed wrong.

There was a building with a beautiful round glass dome and an airy interior, which, judging from the decor, should be an exclusive event venue. When the team entered through a massive hole in the wall, they were stunned.

It seemed that a banquet had been held here. There were arranged tables with plenty of food though everything was covered in ice. There were more bodies in this place, remaining in their postures as if they were still alive. People were sitting at the table, men in tuxedos, women in bright and beautiful dresses, aside from the fact that they were all frozen, it looked like a usual banquet. In the corner of the hall were several male bodies in black suites lying on the stage. They had frozen together with the musical instrument in their hands. They seemed to be members of a live musical band.

The sumptuous food, live band, men and women in suits and dresses–this evidence suggested that they were having a feast before they died.

“It feels creepy,” Nangong Wuyue said, rubbing her hands.

“I feel furry,” Lily said, wagging her tail.

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