"I think Scripps didn't tell you before he died what you were going to do when his body finally couldn't hold on anymore."
Lin Xi murmured.
Along with his whisper, Hal's movements became a little stiff - obviously its analysis system was running wildly, trying to understand what Lin Xi said to it.
It just stood there blankly. After a short pause, it opened its mouth to answer Lin Xi - but compared with the previous fluent reply that was particularly human-like, its response at this time was quite mechanical.
"Error—Bad data—unable to read—unable to—read—"
Its electronic eyes flashed wildly.
All Lin Xi's words were suddenly choked in his throat.
At this moment, the entire central control room was filled with Hal's repetitive mechanical and electronic sounds.
Sensing Lin Xi's mood at this moment, Xavier slowly approached Lin Xi, stretched out his hand and gently held Lin Xi's cold fingers.
Lin Xi could feel the silent comfort from Xavier.
Also because of the spiritual connection, Arthur and Noah seemed to have noticed something. When two alien species of different shapes saw Xavier approaching Lin Xi, they also moved quickly. They slowly moved toward Lin Xi's body. He leaned closer...but was quickly kicked away by Xavier secretly from behind.
The overt and covert struggles of the alien species would always make Lin Xi feel a little embarrassed in the past, but at this moment it seemed extra...warm. --
Lin Xi knew it was strange to think like this, but looking at Hal not far away from him, and thinking about everything it had experienced in such a long time, Lin Xi actually felt a little lucky.
After all, no matter what he has gone through, he will never be alone. Xavier will always be by his side, as will Arthur and Noah... Even in the distant future, there will be more heirs and more dependents... As long as there is no Surprisingly, they will all be with him.
Lin Xi lowered her eyes and looked at Hal with pity.
The Providence Plan was the most massive plan in the entire era of exploration. It almost completely drained a powerful country of all its human and financial resources.
I'm afraid it's precisely because of this that no matter from that perspective, ordinary humans or single artificial intelligence are unable to handle such a task.
Lin Xi could easily guess what those scientists did back then.
When making Hal, in order to cope with the possible loss of contact, people added some additional self-evolution and self-adjustment functions to Hal.
Then, the worst happened. For nearly 300 years, Hal was trapped in the Providence, accumulating program errors without anyone debugging, and finally...
Eventually, he became a human being.
Although Hal does not have a real body, he already has everything human beings have.
Human sadness, human despair, and only human madness...
Thinking of this, Lin Xi turned her head thoughtfully and looked at the miniature holographic projector at hand. At the end of the projection, Scripps' pale face was frozen forever three hundred years ago.
Scripps, who left a message on the Helios and longed for death, blocked most of Hal's detection functions on the Providence, and induced Hal to block advanced attack methods. Pus…
"Actually, it's you."
Lin Xi said with a sigh.
His words undoubtedly gave Hal a violent stimulation. Hal, who was already deeply troubled, suddenly trembled. He looked at Lin Xi stiffly, and then slowly shook his head.
"You are just... talking about some ridiculous fantasy... I know very well... I know Scripps must still be here... He has always been..."
Does Hal know that he is repeating what he has said before? Lin Xi thought in her heart.
But in reality, he just looked at Hal like this, and then repeated what he had already said.
"In the same universe... there can only be one insect mother at a time."
As he spoke, Lin Xi's eyes gradually turned an inhuman scarlet color.
Tentacles.
Mouthparts.
scales.
wing.
Overlapping appeared on the surface of his body, and then disappeared instantly.
In the end, Lin Xi returned to his original human appearance, which was also his most perfect mimicry.
"...But, I am already the mother of alien species."
He said.
The red eyes shone with an inhumanly cold light.
"My transformation began when I was a child...and by then, Scripps was long dead. That's why I emerged. The 'Scripps' you've always wanted to capture It's actually your own consciousness that you... you want to die."
But the program and Scripps's dying orders made it impossible for Hal, the core system of the Providence, to "die" forever.
If Hal was just a computer system without any human emotions or any autonomous consciousness, it would probably continue to run according to the instructions as a matter of course until the Providence's body was completely destroyed - which might still take thousands of years.
But Hal is not such a stupid and lucky "life".
It can only endure this extremely long... despair and pain.
Until "Scripps" came along.
…
"You're just telling silly lies."
Hal said word for word.
"Scripps is dead, why don't you face reality, why... don't you look behind you?"
As Lin Xi spoke, she raised her hand and pointed her fingertips behind Hal...
In Hal's perception, those life-support devices that had been carefully debugged were actually already dilapidated, like scrap metal. Even if you just look at it from a distance, you can tell that those things have lost their effectiveness a long time ago.
On the platform surrounded by life-support devices, Scripps's former bones were even more broken, and it was even difficult to see the original shape of the bones. What is left there now are only broken pieces one after another, with an exceptionally smooth gray-white surface. Just bone fragments.
In this huge control room, there is actually nothing.
There are some broken bones and scales in the corner, probably from the alien larvae that hatched here many years ago.
However, without a normal insect mother, they would not be able to wait until they grow up.
Over a long period of time, they eventually decayed until only brittle and thin remains remained, looking no different than dust.
There is nothing here.
This is just a cemetery, a dead cemetery.
There is only Hal here.
Of course, Hal didn't think so.
Hal followed Lin Xi's fingertips and looked back quietly behind him - Stripes' withered body was still lying there.
Yes, its captain does appear to be extremely weak, but under the control of the life support system and special drugs, Scripps' vitality characteristics are still within acceptable values...
The only problem is probably the same—when Hal looks at Scripps, the date error warnings from the system will obscure his view.
But that was an irrelevant matter, and Hal still sent those reports into the garbage database that did not need to be resolved as usual.
--
Of course, Hal had to admit that those error reports were a bit too much, and perhaps when it transferred all its data to the escape boat's independent system, it should be able to delete some data.
It's just... reports of incorrect dates... when did they accumulate so many reports
This question lasted for about tenths of a second and was quickly deleted by Hal.
The top priority is to get out of here and let his plan go forward.
As long as Lin Xi dies, Captain Scripps will regain the surging and eternal vitality of being the mother of alien species, and he will completely break away from his current extremely weak appearance.
He will survive...forever...
--
But Lin Xi, who had already arrived at the central control room, did have some troubles.
Hal thought calmly.
The three alien species around Lin Xi have become extremely powerful. They seem to have entered a long and powerful growth period from their weak initial stage.
To make matters worse, Lin Xi's conversation with it also dragged on for a long time (Hal didn't understand why he made such a mistake).
Hal could clearly feel that his thinking function was getting weaker and weaker, and he had almost completely lost control of the Providence.
The only thing it can control now is probably this tattered android body.
Hal carefully examined his body. This bionic man was produced by Del Company. Therefore, even if it is a service bionic man, it will still have some basic weapons built into its body... but these basic weapons will be consumed. Hal already had very little energy left.
But now, when most of its control rights have been removed, even just such a bionic human body is enough...
Hal's arm moved slightly, and it was about to take action, but then his whole body instantly froze in place.
As if possessing magic, Lin Xi "teleported" to Hal before he had time to take action.
At this moment, his arm was pressing on Hal's shoulders.
It looks like an ordinary human being, but its pale and weak arms bring the same strong oppression and power as those of mechanical warriors specially used for fighting.
Hal could hear his body creaking under the heavy pressure, and the few remaining logical feedback systems told it that at this time it should choose to stay quiet and show obedience in front of Lin Xi.
This choice contributes to its survival.
Hal didn't have much choice.
But at this moment, Hal found himself struggling wildly and uncontrollably.
It only felt as if a high-voltage electric current appeared in its body. It stretched its arms hard and tried to take out the laser weapon from its abdominal cavity. But the next second, its arm was severed from the arm.
The android's arm hit the ground and rolled down a few times. The remaining dark red mucus flowed out from the joint, which was lubricant that had already deteriorated...