Chapter 5: Ruin Exploration

Characters:

Fei(formely known as Mai) - Our genderbending protagonist.

Ai (real name Miki) - Mai's best friend and love interest.

Firgin - Human boy companion.

Mlei - Human girl companion.

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We stood outside the ship, pondering on what to do next. When Firgin told us about the ship, he spoke with the weight of thousands of years of study behind him. "This isn't just any ship," he had said. "According to history, these ship is among one of many. There are 12 of these ships in total all over the world."

We've cracked the password finally. Who knew that the password for these ships is just password. It's like a prank or a trick that went unsolved for thousands of years." Firgin laughed. "We will inform the city council when we return. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts." Both Firgin and Mlei did a bow.

He further explained that what we did today is probably one of the greatest breakthrough in their history. His voice trembled as though touching ancient history with his very words. I could sense his excitement, but I also sensed something more - a dread that lingered behind his every word. He wasn't telling us everything, but I didn't press him. Instead, I listened, letting the mystery hang in the air like a shroud. 

We changed into our contamination suits before entering the ship. Mlei sprayed us with a thick foam that smelled like bleach mixed with sulfur. She explained it would kill any viruses or bacteria that attempted to breach our suits, but it did little to calm the unease gnawing at me. The foam clung to us like a second skin, heavy and damp. "This is just a precaution," she said, trying to reassure us. "Ancient diseases... well, they can be unpredictable."

The ship looked dead, sealed for millennia. But then again, we've seen dead things stir before. The undead.

Inside, the silence was overwhelming. Our footsteps echoed against the hollow metallic walls. The ship was enormous, with endless rooms and corridors, each one whispering secrets long forgotten. There were sentry bots stationed in every hallway, but to our relief, they were all powered down. Their cold, lifeless eyes followed us in silence, their bodies gleaming as though they had been built yesterday, not centuries ago. How had they remained so pristine?

In the center of the ship, we found rows upon rows of hibernation pods. The bodies inside them looked alive, their faces serene as though they were merely asleep. Yet, the pods' power was long gone. I didn't need to check—these people were dead, preserved in some strange liquid that defied time and decay. I felt an overwhelming sadness for them, these souls lost to time, suspended between life and death.

It wasn't until we noticed the name tags on their uniforms that everything began to make sense. English. My heart stopped when I realized what that meant. I nudged Mlei, pointing to the tags. "Look at their names," I whispered.

She paled when she saw them. We exchanged glances, and in that moment, we both understood. These weren't just any lost travelers. They were from Earth.

The shock of it settled heavily in my chest. Earth. The place we had all left behind, the place that was no more. But here they were—our people, entombed in this ship, thousands of years away from home. My mind raced with possibilities. Had they come seeking refuge? Was there something in this world they were trying to escape? Or was it something much darker? I kept these thoughts to myself. We needed more information.

Moving deeper into the ship, we found various rooms—living quarters, canteens, recreation areas, and even simulation chambers. The technology here was beyond anything I'd ever seen. In one room, we discovered an entire assembly line for humanoid robots. Everyone stood transfixed as we gazed at them. The robots were sleek, polished to perfection, their designs both alien and eerily familiar.

I advised the team to not turn on any power in the ship, as it may activate it's defense system and wipe us all out. We saw a lot of things. The ship has lots of sleeping quarters, canteens, recreation area, simulation area. Science labs. Technology research labs. 

They also have an assembly line for humanoid robots. There seems to be a lot of variations and designs of the robots. 

Some robot looks eerily familiar. Hmm.

 I took Ai by the hand and led her in front of the robots behind . Does this look like the T1001 to you or T8000? I asked her. She paled. They do look like them. We also saw a robot that looks like a Genomorph and another one that looks like Roboman. There's the robots from Star Conflict and here's the mini replica of the Meta Cogs. Jesus Christ. This ship is a hobbyist dream come. 

It's confirmed, this ship is from Earth. I shake my head in unbelief. Mai and I have died and here we are, reminded of our past. It's comforting and sad at the same time.

The ship as an armory with different kinds of unknown weapons. We see the standard pistols, guns, knives and swords and here we are. THE BKG 2000. A Photon Sword. Excalibur, Soul Edge, Caladbolg, Hruning, Durandal, Kusanagi no Tsurugi, Dainslef, Tyrfing, Arondight, Durendal,Balmung, Gram, Energy Sword, Master Sword, among others.

We finally found the records of the ship and yes, It's all in english. Firgin looks at the metal sheets of what I think are titanium. He and Mlei are dumbfounded while holding the sheets and cannot believe the luck. These metals are virtually priceless and are used by the greatest craftsmen in the world in making unbreakable weapon.

Firgin reads the logs in broken english. Like a 3 year old french speaking english. I stopped him when I have heard enough.

I read the words for him. Both he and Mlei were stunned as I read.

Captains log: Star Date 10-7-3099. 

We have finally reached a planet after thousands of years of hibernation. Even with reaching almost the speed of light, it would take us 7000 years to reach a possible habitable planet. Possibly habitable. 

We thought we could fold space or enter a black hole or wormhole or some of other mumbo jumbo. By the end of it, we have cured cancer, we have removed aging and we developed super sentient AIs. We also developed hibernation technology. After 100 years of research, sadly we couldn't make any worm hole or any other ways of folding space. 

Captains log: Stardate 9-11-9099. 

We are awoken from our hibernation and the alarms go off. Apparently we have reached our destination. Planet Kelpar A is in sight. We will prepare to land.

Captains log: Stardate 9-12-9099.

We have landed on the planet. Unfortunately the controls got destroyed when we crashed.

We can't open the ships door manually they seems to be jammed by something on the outside. Further investigation shows that we are actually buried 20 meters deep in some kind of a lake.

We tried destroying the walls of the ship to get outside, but the ships walls are tough and durable. We know the ship walls are almost indestructible even with the tools that we have in our ship. We designed this. This oversight of creating indestructible ships seems to be our undoing. We will die here within this ships. Unless...

Captains log: Stardate 9-13-9099.

We have decided what to do. We still have our emergency power batteries that would last for thousands of years, for how long, we don't really know. We have activated an emergency signal for others to see. Hopefully others will find and rescue us.

We will be hibernating in the pods until we are rescued. In case we are not rescued then we would die when the pods batteries run out. We have filled the pods with life gel, that would keep our bodies fresh even after we die so that we can be revived. I hope we can return back to Earth in the future, even though it's a nuclear wasteland planet now. We have not learned from history and destroyed ourselves many times over.

I will leave a message to our holodisk regarding the password for to activate our greatest creations.

The Planet Garden Creation Robot or T-PGCR. It is programmed with humanities positive qualities and it can actually create life forms from artifical flesh.

We have learned and unlocked the secrets of the DNA and these robots can virtually create any creatures tht it can imagine. Thus we have programmed it to create creatures from Earth as well as to create animals from pop culture and fiction. The only limitation is these creatures are programmed to not attack humans and would not harm them unless humans decide to attack them. We have created 12 of these robots, which will be activated the moment someone enters the ship.

As long as you they are not hostile, these robots will not attack you and you can interact with it. If they are not commanded to do anything, then these robots would go outside and seed the world with life and creatures. It's secondary directive is to revive us in the scenario that we die.

We will wait here in the pods, hopeful that we would be rescued in the future. Live long and prosper.

Regards

Captain Leeroy P. Oswald

We froze. We didn't notice that robotic humanoid creatures have surrounded us and are just standing beside us listening. I advised the team to not attack these robots as they are harmless and docile as long as we pose no threat to them.

These robotic creatures are pure metal and are ahem... unclothed like silver surfer and nova. They peek at the metal sheets in my hands and looks at the hibernation pods with keen interest. How long have they been about? Some of them carry metal boxes with them which I presume contains genetic materials and biomass necessary for creating life.

They then burst into action, like constructions workers early in the morning. Some of them are trying to repair the ships, some are trying to bring power back to the pods. This happens just within 2 minutes after I finished reading the plates. After verifying their directives, they moved. 

"Greetings. I am T-PGCR 01. Who might you be?" as one of the robot beings approach me.

(To be continued)