Star Ocean: Starting from the Abandoned Mining Space Station.

Chapter 374 The Survivors

Looking at this spaceship left behind by a shining civilization.

Chen Ming struggled to resist the urge to bring all the equipment over and start analyzing the spacecraft on the spot.

Instead, he observed the overall condition of the spacecraft.

There does not appear to be any problems with the spacecraft's external structure at the moment.

Even though the spacecraft's fuel had long been exhausted and all systems that required energy to operate had completely stopped working, the spacecraft had remained almost face-to-face with the core of the black hole for tens of thousands of years.

The spacecraft still has no structural damage and remains intact.

The interior of the spacecraft also seemed to be in perfect condition.

The overall look is very clean, with nothing that could be considered clutter inside the spacecraft.

In addition to the clean first impression, Chen Ming felt that the spacecraft was a very complete and compact integrated structure without any scattered items.

Combined with the design of the spacecraft's operating system and internal layout, it can be seen that this spacecraft can be driven by one person, with no more than two people at most.

Therefore, there was nothing left on the spacecraft by the former pilot.

Although the technology of the Shining Civilization is indeed powerful, it is not to the extent that daily necessities or some supplies can exist for tens of thousands of years.

So much time has passed, even inside the spacecraft, everything that should be gone should have been gone long ago.

However, this meant that Chen Ming was unable to confirm the specific image of the main species of the Shining Civilization, nor was he able to use this to figure out the specific situation of the Shining Civilization.

However, just by looking at the design of the spacecraft's interior, we can still see some of the more common cultures of the Shining Civilization.

For example, some insect-like symbols are like some kind of decoration that is integrated into the daily life of the shining civilization.

This can be seen from the appearance design of the ground mechanical units.

However, Chen Ming doesn't care about culture. Every civilization has its own culture.

What he was more concerned about was the technology of the Shining Civilization, especially whether there were any other relics left on the spaceship besides the spaceship.

Of course there is something, and it is something that Chen Ming is interested in.

Inside a room at the rear of the Shining Civilization's spaceship, which is probably a warehouse, there is a device that should be considered a power armor.

There are also some supporting weapons or weapons for individual soldiers placed inside this small warehouse.

It seems that even if you are not from the Shining Civilization, but from the Empire, you can easily master these things after getting familiar with them.

Chen Ming has studied the writings of the Shining Civilization in the past six months, and of course he knows that according to the current mainstream view, the main species of the Shining Civilization is most likely humanoid.

Therefore, it is not surprising that these things exist on the spacecraft.

He was more curious whether there were other types of things on the spacecraft that would interest him.

With this thought in mind, Chen Ming opened the power armor produced by the Shining Civilization.

Unfortunately, however, there was no corpse inside the power armor, and there was not even any sign of having been used.

It seems that the spaceship was attacked directly by the black hole monster after passing through the wormhole, and the driver died before he could put on power armor to protect himself.

As for the corpse, it was most likely torn apart by the gravity of the black hole after the spacecraft's fuel was exhausted and it lost the ability to protect its internal structure and objects, and finally rotted inside the spacecraft and could no longer be found.

Chen Ming had no way of confirming what the theme species of the Shining Civilization was through the corpses, nor did he have any way of resurrecting a person from the Shining Civilization through the resurrection mechanical fluid to understand their past.

This is bad news with no solution.

But at least that power armor is real, and those weapons are advanced weapons that actually exist.

Whether it is the Shining Power Armor or the individual weapons of the Shining Civilization, their technological levels obviously exceed the relevant technological levels currently mastered by the Empire.

Chen Ming can integrate these technologies into his own biological armor technology.

Or use it in exchange for some resources he needs in the empire.

Except for physical objects like power armor and weapons.

Chen Ming also found the storage unit in the spacecraft's computer log that contained important spacecraft data.

He could tell from the data in the storage unit that this was a new spacecraft that was sent out on a mission straight out of the factory.

You can also see some basic data of the spacecraft, including its origin, developer, designer, etc.

From these contents, we can see that the social structure of the Shining Civilization is similar to that of humans.

He also found a brief description of the last mission carried out by the ship in the database of the ship's computer.

Includes the departure point, destination and mission content.

The destination is of course here, and the mission objective is clear, even written on the name of the spacecraft.

The departure point is in the area of ​​the observable universe of the empire that Chen Ming has never been to.

That location is some distance away from the wormhole in the Origin System, but not too far.

There is a high possibility that there are relics of the Shining Civilization, or even military relics.

Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility that exploring wormholes is a relatively common project and that there is just an ordinary relic there.

It is even possible that there is nothing left at the departure point.

But no matter what, Chen Ming took note of the location and immediately began to arrange for the spacecraft to go there to take a look.

There should be results soon.

In addition, when Chen Ming was checking the task log, in addition to seeing information about the task itself, he also saw another piece of information that might be valuable.

That is the date this mission will be executed.

This is very important news and the timing means a lot.

But here he encountered a problem.

The date of the mission is based on the Shining Civilization's calendar, which is different from that of the Empire.

Because the dating system is usually determined by the period of revolution of a civilization's home planet around its own star.

Therefore, just by looking at the time in the spacecraft log, Chen Ming had no way of determining whether this time corresponded to the time in the Empire.

What's more, this spacecraft has been out of operation for tens of thousands of years, and there are no log records for the missing tens of thousands of years.

He couldn't do what he did when he was reading the log of the scavenger robot, and reversely calculate the earliest recorded time through the objective time recorded in the log, and finally determine that the scavenger robot has appeared for at least 30,000 years.

Therefore, if he wanted to find out the specific time when this reconnaissance spacecraft would carry out its mission, he might have to make a special trip to the Shining Civilization Research Institute.

There should be a table that can help analyze the corresponding times of the Shining Civilization and the chronology of the Empire.

Chen Ming even felt that he might not only be able to prepare to go, but he must go.

Because he felt that the things related to the Shining Civilization related to this wormhole would be very important, and it would be a critical time point to understand the Shining Civilization.

Perhaps the Shining Civilization declined around the time it discovered the wormhole and was preparing to enter it to explore it.

The reason why he has such an idea.

Of course it was because of the scavenger robot and the spaceship he had just acquired.

These two things are definitely products of the same period and are definitely not too far apart in time.

The scavenger robot was originally used to simply carry mining drones to mine and develop the initial resources of the galaxy.
The nano forge it carries is also intended for colony construction.

The two work together to build infrastructure before the population of the Shining Civilization arrives.

but.

The nanoforge was broken for some reason and no one repaired it. It was eventually taken away by a scavenger robot and installed on its body, where it has remained ever since.

The scavengers also dismantled some materials from the sunken mechanical battleships to arm themselves, and said that they could only do so during wartime.

This clearly indicates that war broke out during that period.

This war eventually led to the bankruptcy of the development plan, and even the Shining Civilization seemed to have forgotten this place.

The reason why I say "seems" is that Chen Ming is not sure whether the Shining Civilization had already disappeared during this period of war, or whether the war did not directly lead to the demise of the Shining Civilization, but simply made the Shining Civilization unable to manage these border areas that needed to be developed.

But after having this spaceship that could pass through the wormhole, Chen Ming became clear about one thing.

The Shining Civilization must not have disappeared at this time, but was gradually disappearing.

Because the timing of the reconnaissance mission is either before the battle that caused the battleship graveyard to appear here, or after the battle.

If this reconnaissance ship had passed through the wormhole before the battle, there would have been no way that the Shining Civilization would not have been rescued.

The reconnaissance ship was so powerful that even if it pierced into the body of the monster, as long as there was fuel, it would never let the people inside die.

This was the conclusion Chen Ming came to after doing some research on the spacecraft.

Therefore, the Shining Civilization definitely has enough time to rescue.

With the technology of the Shining Civilization, killing this thing is definitely not a problem.

But no, the Shining Civilization was not even able to rescue the people who were scouting behind the wormhole.

So even if we can’t say they were destroyed, at least they began to decline from here.

Therefore, if we can figure out this specific time, we might be able to determine the approximate time of the demise of the Shining Civilization.

With a specific time point, the Empire can use the things excavated from many ruins to prove the history of the Shining Civilization.

Find out how the Shining Civilization, which was countless times more powerful than the current Empire, perished, so as to avoid following the Shining Civilization's old path.

Of course, this is also something Chen Ming is very interested in.

He not only wanted to know the technology of the Shining Civilization, but also the reason for its demise.

He also needs to prevent himself from going down the path of shining civilization.

Especially when Chen Ming increasingly felt that many aspects of his psychic power were similar to those of the Shining Civilization.

One third of the basis of his psychic power is the legacy of the Shining Civilization, the mechanical race.

The other third is the Thorn Zerg, which has a very close relationship with the Mechanoids.

The last third is the dimensional technology that Chen Ming does not believe the Shining Civilization has not mastered.

There were so many coincidences that it was hard for Chen Ming not to think too much, so he became more and more curious about the Shining Civilization.

Of course, everything he just thought of had to be confirmed by asking the Shining Civilization Research Institute.

After a thorough inspection of the ship's database and the ship itself.

Chen Ming also found a portable device in the cockpit of the spacecraft that had been preserved to this day and seemed to be of some interest.

Chen Ming used his psychic power to get the device in his hands and got its name. [Resonance Channel Communicator]

According to the operating principle that Chen Ming mastered through his psychic power, it communicates by means of the same-band resonance similar to the main battleship's linked shield that has been mastered so far.

But the specific effect can only be known after trying it.

The psychic minister next to Chen Ming was very sensitive to all changes around him, so he just noticed the spaceship that Chen Ming brought back using his psychic power. It was a model he had never seen before.

Now he also noticed the unknown device that Chen Ming suddenly took in his hand.

"what is this?"

Chen Ming did not deliberately cover it up, but told the truth: "It should be some kind of communicator."

It seemed to be still running and its battery life was full, but when Chen Ming pressed the button twice, there was no response.

Considering the purpose of this spacecraft, Chen Ming was not sure whether it was because the person or object that could communicate with this device was no longer there.

But just when he thought this thing was useless, he suddenly noticed a resonant signal being emitted towards the outside world.

Chen Ming was a little surprised and immediately tried to track the source of the signal, but the signal disappeared immediately.

He couldn't detect it.

The next moment, a shining and civilized language appeared on the communicator's screen.

"who are you?"

Chen Ming did not answer, but was thinking.

Thinking about how this communicator was under his control, he was completely unaware of how the information was transmitted into the device.

Is this resonant communication device really so outrageous?

And he has no idea whether the person behind the communication is a human, a ghost, or some AI program.

He didn't know whether the person behind the communicator was a descendant of the Shining Civilization who had survived to this day, or simply a person who had survived from the Shining Civilization to this day.

A rash answer is not a good option.

But he didn't seem to have any better choice.

This was his only clue.

The director of the Psychic Institute next to him also saw the words on the screen, and his heartbeat suddenly quickened: "Is there still someone alive in the Shining Civilization? This is a big discovery."

Although his project is not focused on the Shining Civilization, psychic technology itself is a direction that is inseparable from the Shining Civilization.

Therefore, he must have some understanding of the basic knowledge, and of course he clearly discovered the special significance of the suspected descendants of the Shining Civilization.

However, Chen Ming was not so optimistic and said, "It is not certain whether they are from the Shining Civilization."

"That spaceship has existed for at least tens of thousands of years. Even if it's been 30,000 years, can the descendants still remember it?"

As Chen Ming spoke, he explained the two things: his psychic power had just tried to track the transmitted signal but the tracking path was cut off, and that the communication signal was sent directly over his psychic power.

“So I’m very skeptical about what their situation is.”

Before the director of the psychic power institute could respond, a new line of text appeared on the communicator: "Have you discovered the monster in the black hole?"

Chen Ming frowned slightly, still thinking about what to do.

The director of the Psychic Institute really wanted to say something, but after all, these were things that Chen Ming had obtained personally with his own efforts and he was not at all shy towards him. It was not easy for him to speak directly when he saw these obviously extremely important things.

"We are the survivors. We want to communicate with you. We have no ill intentions."

After this sentence came out, Chen Ming's consideration came to an end.

He used his psychic powers to monitor the device from all angles, and then responded on it: "What is a survivor?"

The communication channel was silent for a while, and then a sentence appeared again.

"We are the remnants of the Shining, descendants of the survivors who hid in the world behind the wormhole. We are dedicated to preserving everything Shining."

Chen Ming looked at the director of the Psychic Institute who seemed a little excited, and continued to ask: "What happened to 'Shining'?"

“We can’t answer that question.”

The other end of the communication chose to remain silent.

"why?"

“Because we are missing this period of history.”

Missing...

Chen Ming suddenly remembered the time when he was looking for files in the database of the main controlling personality core in the core colony of the mechanical race star field.

Likewise, the records of the demise of the Shining Civilization were also lost.

Is it really missing?
Chen Ming doubtfully skipped the topic that might lead to the termination of this communication and asked, "Why are you hiding?"

The survivors responded: "Because we are too weak, hiding is our only way to survive."

"Please believe us, we really only do this because we are weak."

Chen Ming expressed his doubts, but he did not say it out loud. Instead, he asked, "Then why did you contact me and how did you contact me?"

"It was you who actually contacted us."

It really is so.

Chen Ming casually pressed the button on the communicator, and who knew that there would actually be a result.

The survivor continued, "And our database stores all the records about Shining. We have a special record about the communicator you found, because this record is the reason why we survived."

"What is the specific situation?"

"Our ancestors once organized a small fleet and entered the wormhole, hoping to escape from something."

"But after passing through the wormhole, they were attacked by the monsters in the black hole. Some of the spaceships sacrificed themselves to interfere with the monsters, buying time for others to escape the black hole."

"We thought that all the people and spacecraft in the past had fallen into the black hole, but we didn't expect that there is still a communicator that still exists today."

A cliché story.

Chen Ming commented silently in his mind.

But logically speaking, what these survivors say does seem to be correct.

The survivors are most likely a group of people who wanted to escape when the Shining Civilization was close to collapse, and they may not have very good weapons and equipment.

Although those equipments looked really good from Chen Ming's perspective, they were only good in terms of technique, not ability. But if he really used those equipments to fight the black hole monsters, he could just forget about it.

I'm afraid they are really just a small group of people.

"Do you know how much time has passed since then?"

"Forty-five thousand three hundred and seventy-two years."

The Psychic Minister next to him converted the units directly and said, "About 50,000 years ago in Earth time."

Chen Ming nodded, ended the one-sided identity confirmation questioning, and began a normal conversation: "So... who do you think I am?"

"A member of a newly born civilization."

"We noticed that you were trying to track us through psychic power, so we hid in a more hidden place. Please do not try to track us."

It seems that these survivors of the Shining Civilization know that the Shining Civilization has been completely destroyed, and no one claims to be the survivors of the Shining Civilization.

Chen Ming asked: "So what do you want to do?"

"You can probably tell that I just randomly pressed the device twice after picking it up. I have no idea whether you exist or not."

"But you took the initiative to contact me, so there must be some purpose."

There was silence again on the communicator, and then a response came: "Yes, we want to make a deal with you and the civilization behind you."

"We hope that you can preserve everything that Shining exists, so that Shining's past will not disappear with our demise."

"We no longer think we can revive a civilization, we just want our civilization to be recorded."

It sounds like there's nothing wrong with it.

The last people of a once prosperous civilization hope that their own civilization will at least not be forgotten when facing a newly born civilization.

But Chen Ming remained alert and said, "Then you can just give me all the data, and I will give all the data to my civilization."

"I'm sorry, but we can't trust you completely yet. We must respect the heritage of our civilization. We can't just hand over everything of our civilization casually."

Chen Ming replied directly and forcefully: "Then we have nothing to talk about."

After hearing this, the Minister of Psionic Power became a little anxious. After all, this was an excellent opportunity to contact the Shining Civilization.

But Chen Ming raised his hand to stop him, indicating that he knew what he was doing.

He is now facing an unknown existence and he must test it.

Facing the situation with a tough attitude is the simplest and most effective option to test the other party's situation.

At the same time, this is also Chen Ming’s own idea.

He has always been very gentle to people of his own kind, but his attitude towards people of other kinds is completely different.

Although both the Empire and himself have been picking up garbage from the corpses of the Shining Civilization.

But no matter what, the Shining Civilization is not human civilization.

Therefore, it is impossible for Chen Ming to empathize with the Shining Civilization.

And he actually had another thing to worry about.

That is, is it possible that the Shining Civilization has mastered some extreme means to take over human civilization?

With the technology of the Shining Civilization, he felt that this was possible.

So he will never let down his guard.

The survivors of the Shining Civilization quickly sent another message after Chen Ming's tough reply: "Perhaps we can try to win each other's trust."

"Excuse me, have you killed the monster in the black hole?"

"No."

Chen Ming felt that there was nothing to lie about this question. After all, if these survivors were really descendants of the Shining Civilization, they would at least have the ability to detect black holes.

"As a token of our sincerity in gaining your trust, we are willing to tell you the weakness of the monster we call 'Nightmare of the Planes'."

(End of this chapter)