Subway Station
Subway Station
The air was turbid almost to the point of being poisonous. Clearly, Hao Ren had chosen an exit that had never been opened: the air behind the hatch had never been scavenged.
The tunnel was very wide, structurally sound in most parts, and not as narrow or dilapidated as they thought it would be. It was only rather old and dirty, plus there was thick dust everywhere. Traces of years of erosion were apparent. Clearly, compared to the enclosed city, this place lacked the necessary cleanups.
There were steel rails running parallel to the tunnel, though different from the railways on Earth. It was obviously a track for some kind of large transportation vehicle. If the accident had never happened to this planet, the tunnel would have probably been a busy subway line—it connected the city with a major transportation hub. It was an important thoroughfare, but now, it was just a cave that had been abandoned for 10,000 years. Aside from inches of accumulated dust, there was old machinery, which may or may not be operational anymore.
The tunnel's ceiling was inlaid with a dim array of lights. Eighty-nine percent of them were working properly. These lights were the only things proving that the tunnel was not completely abandoned. In the dim surroundings, Hao Ren saw piles of unused machinery on both sides, including rusty cars and dusty robots. Lily went up and checked them out, then scurried back to report, "Their model's different from the ones in the city. A little more primitive."
"Meaning, those machines in the city have undergone an evolution of sorts," Hao Ren nodded slightly. "It seems like some kind of 'research and development' is really going on. They're updating the machines... and that requires innovation."
"These machines were likely abandoned before the flight... or perhaps even earlier, like 10,000 years ago," said Y'zaks, looking at the rusting metal on the way. "Looks like these things were abandoned in a sudden. There must have been a situation."
A red light suddenly flashed across Vivian's eyes in the dimly lit environment. She saw something interesting in a pile of debris. Several small bats flew over, raked through the debris, and found a little metal plate. Hao Ren then took the metal plate from the small bat. There was a figure engraved on it. It was of a meticulously-dressed, middle-aged man who had a serious expression. At first glance, Hao Ren found the face rather familiar. Then, it crossed his mind: the middle-aged man he saw on the wall before he entered the sanctuary!
It was the first stranger he saw on the planet.
Nangong Wudi came up and took a gander of it. He looked slightly surprised. "This man could be the commander."
"Commander?" Waving the metal plate in his hand, Hao Ren asked, "You know him?"
"He's appeared on the screen: that TV you were talking about," said Nangong Wudi, nodding. "But besides major events, he'll only appear once a year. He's the highest official here, so I have a deep impression of him."
"The highest official on this planet?" Hao Ren swept the dust off the metal plate. "He's appeared on the big screen, but the year of his birth and death are at the both, and the caption says, 'With Deep Sorrow.' Most of the time, only a person who's died would only be described as such, right?"
"The commander's dead?" Vivian looked at the commemorative plate in surprise. "...Looks like there's more to the person we saw on screen than meets the eye."
Hao Ren nodded and led everyone deeper into the tunnel.
After God knows how long, they arrived at the end of the tunnel in a large cavern, which looked like a subway interchange.
The large cavern was roughly oval in shape. Round tunnel entrances and exits were on all sides of the cave. Each entrance and exit was the same, with rails extending out of them. At the intersection of these railroad tracks, there was a huge dish-shaped structure, which was undoubtedly the hub of the planet's subway system. Supposedly, the round tunnels led to other cities.
The group cautiously stepped into the dish-shaped building. This ancient facility was still structurally sound. It was not known if the power supply was offline or the lighting fixtures were broken; it was pitch-dark inside. Lily raised her Flamejoy, lighting up the interior. Under the illumination of the flickering flames, they saw the crisscrossing railroad tracks, debris-filled schedule boards, and severely damaged control hut.
Several small bats flew into the darkness. They hit something unknown before the "subway station" suddenly reverberated with the sound of machines. To everyone's shock, the lights on the ceiling suddenly turned on.
Confirming that only the lighting system had been activated, Hao Ren began to breathe a sigh of relief and look around curiously. Out of nowhere, a group of complex-looking sculptures standing in front of the railroad intersection caught his attention.
The sculptures presented a group of strange humans. They were huddled in a circle, holding their hands up towards the sky. Floating above their heads was a grotesque object; it was a bunch of radial metal rods, seemingly put together to mimic the appearance of a glow, a lightning or something. Vivian looked at the sculptures and said, "Looks like it's a representation of a close encounter of the third kind."
Hao Ren did not say anything. He just bent down and gently brushed off the thick dust on the base of the sculptures. Unexpectedly, he found some embossed writings on it; the texts still remained on the special alloy after 10,000 years had passed. It read, "The warning from the Denizens of the Stars is forever remembered and appreciated."
"The Denizens of the Stars?" Lily said curiously. "The aliens?"
Nangong Wuyue frowned in deep thought. "Did the so-called Denizens of the Stars come and warn the humans on this planet before they built the ark?"
Hao Ren still remained silent, just staring blankly at the words: "the Denizens of the Stars". He felt a sense of déjàvu; he had seen similar things in other places. "Allies from the stars! Do you still remember this race that was mentioned in Holletta?"
The others started to recall. Nangong Wuyue's eyes blinked in disbelief. "You mean, the Denizens of the Stars mentioned here are the same as Holletta's 'allies from the stars'?"
"I'm just guessing." Hao Ren got to his feet and looked at the abstract lines above the sculptures. "A lot of the things in the Plane of Dreams are interconnected. So far, events haven't happened in isolation on any of the planets."
Lily looked back at the sculptures for a long time before something suddenly crossed her mind. "The Denizens of the Stars are like sea urchins."
Nangong Wuyue solemnly corrected her. "Sea urchins don't look like this—let me show you if you don't believe me—"
"Shut up, you two," Vivian scoffed, shooting the dog and the fish a deadly glare. "Let's move. There may be more clues up ahead."
They searched around the building and finally found a space beneath the floor. The underground space was unusually huge, almost equal to the size of the vessel above it. In the center was a large facility that was composed of a number of arc-shaped structures, like a lift shaft of sorts. Lily ran over and poked her head out to look down. Shortly after, she squatted on the floor and crawled back up. "That thing is so deep!"
The "lift shaft" was more than 10 m in diameter, dropping straight down into the endless darkness below. There were still alloy rails on four sides of the shaft but the lift was gone.
Of course, even if the lift was still there, it might not have been operational given the lack of maintenance in the place.
Vivian summoned a tiny bat and dropped it down into the shaft, waiting for a good long while before she shrugged. "It has't gotten to the bottom."
Lily raised her hand and shouted, "I'm not going to jump! No way! Don't force me into it, I'll bite you!"
"You're not needed." Hao Ren rolled his eyes. "Vivian, you go down with me. The rest of you just stay put."