Deep Sea Embers

Chapter 793: Temporary Communication

The scene began to subtly change as a massive, undefined structure started to form near the Vanished.

Duncan, who was stationed at the stern’s helm, was intently monitoring Alice’s condition. However, he was suddenly overcome by a strange sensation. Almost simultaneously with Vanna, he looked up towards the sky.

A huge, vague form was slowly appearing through the dim sky and light fog, coming into view.

This form seemed to be made up of many large, separate pieces that were loosely joined together, creating a shape that somewhat resembled a space shuttle. It appeared as if it had been torn from a larger entity, with its central part visible as a fractured, interconnected framework!

The scale of this apparition was awe-inspiring. Gazing through the distant mist, Duncan and Vanna couldn’t determine its exact size or how high it was above the Vanished, but its mere presence exerted an overwhelming force, making it feel almost suffocating.

After some time, in a voice filled with wonder, Vanna asked, “What is… that thing?!”

Duncan quickly turned his attention back to the figure at the helm – Alice. She was standing quietly, but at some point, her gaze had dropped, her eyes half-closed as if she was about to doze off, her spirit seeming to drift away with numerous faint “lines” emanating from her.

Possibly due to their past experiences of sharing visions, Duncan could just barely make out these almost invisible lines – they descended from the sky, densely packed, resembling a colossal tree with an intricate structure, or perhaps a cluster of inverted spikes. These lines were clearly connected to the massive phantom in the sky at one end, and converged behind Alice at the other…

Alice felt as though she was in a long, strange dream, in which she was a grand spaceship traveling through the stars.

She carried the hopes and futures of many, departing from a slowly disappearing time cocoon, leaving her origin, never to return.

Behind her, stars burst into life like waves before dimming as if withdrawing, the fabric of the universe unraveling behind her, while a terrifying vision, similar to a red comet, chased her relentlessly through the disintegrating celestial bodies. She navigated through dying worlds as if racing through a shrinking, collapsing tunnel, dodging deadly gravitational traps and enduring storms of bombarding rays like torrential rain…

She calculated tirelessly, constantly adjusting her trajectory, searching for an exit among the stars, charting a course to escape the “collapsing tunnel” using a star map built from the collective knowledge of millions. Every marker on the map shifted, everything in the universe veered off its intended course – first the positions of the stars, then the laws of matter, and finally… “calculation” itself.

There was no way forward, no means left for navigation; the very act of “calculation” had broken down. The protective shields failed, the ship’s structure began to fall apart, and alarms sounded with urgent intensity. The database crashed, life-support pods burst into flames… The thoughts of the “passengers” dissipated into the vast emptiness.

Everything culminated in a bright flash followed by a cataclysmic explosion.

And then, Navigator Three woke up amidst a sea of error messages – she had been lost in a long and strange dream.

In this dream, she found herself as a doll, engaged in the surreal yet mundane tasks aboard a ghost ship – cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, and fiddling with oddities…

The ship sailed through a sea of glowing embers, and it, too, seemed to be made from a kind of compressed ash. She wasn’t alone; a few other “beings” created from ash lived on this ship. Occasionally, the ship would dock next to islands – enormous chunks floating in the embers, bizarrely merged into strange shapes, maintaining some kind of obscure “function” amidst the ashen sea.

The islands buzzed with activity and sounds, the ash mimicking the life that once was, producing noises that seemed intelligent. At times, Navigator Three found these sounds and shapes somewhat familiar, as if echoing information stored in her memory, and this “familiarity” often stirred a feeling of… “sadness” within her.

Yet, in the dream, the “doll” found joy, making peace with the ash. To her, all ash was the same; she wandered this world, reborn from the flames, as if given a meaningful “existence.” She had a shell that mimicked the embers, allowing her to run, jump, and laugh among the other ash-formed beings.

In this dream world consumed by ash, there was a single entity not made of ash.

It was a fragment of the undying cosmos – stars flowing like a river through the sea of smoldering ash.

Alice, or as she was known in this scenario, Navigator Three, suddenly opened her eyes.

She found herself in darkness, surrounded by vague shapes and lines, inside the navigation cabin of the New Hope, a place from her “memories.”

“Mr. Goathead? Miss Agatha?” Alice called out, her voice tinged with worry as she remembered her actions before the darkness engulfed her. The familiar figures were gone, leaving no trace.

“Where did you all go?” Her voice echoed in the void, her advance stopping after a long silence, her spirit lowered, “Did I mess things up again?”

Suddenly, a light broke through the darkness, interrupting her contemplative murmurs.

Alice looked up, surprised by the appearance of light.

Before her stood a towering rectangular silhouette, topped with a red light that looked like the eye of a giant, set in the upper part of the figure. Around and behind this shadow were numerous flickering lights, looking like a multitude of eyes hiding in the darkness.

Alice paused for a moment, instinctively feeling the urge to approach this mysterious figure – and just as she formed this thought, her vision briefly blurred.

When her surroundings came back into focus, she found herself standing right in front of the imposing shadow crowned with a red light.

The surrounding darkness acted like a curtain, hiding the finer details of the figure before her, yet part of her – the part connected to her identity as “Navigator Three” – recognized it instantly.

“Navigator Two?” she said in surprise, her voice pronouncing a name that felt unfamiliar yet deeply familiar, as if she had known this entity for a long time.

“It’s been a long time, Navigator Three,” the tall rectangular shadow responded, its voice tinged with the static of interference, “It seems Navigator One has indeed succeeded… though the results were not as I predicted, I am nonetheless relieved to detect your identification signal once again.”

“Did you call me here?” Alice asked aloud, her mind swirling with thoughts that, if she had a physical brain, would surely have overwhelmed her, “How can I go back?”

Navigator Two was silent for a moment, as if Alice’s response had unexpectedly veered away from its “calculations.”

But then, breaking the silence, Navigator Two’s voice reached Alice again: “I merely intended to observe you beforehand, to check your stability – the navigation key I designed for you was a bold move. Given my projections and understanding of our current reality, its success is uncertain. After all, I have avoided direct interactions with Navigator One for a long time to prevent cross-contamination.”

Alice’s eyes widened as she processed Navigator Two’s explanation. She then, with a thoughtful look, asked, “What exactly does that mean?”

Navigator Two paused again, its red light dimming as it did so.

Alice waited patiently, her eyes fixed on the flickering lights in front of her.

After a moment, the light grew brighter once more.

“In the last message I received, Navigator One mentioned that a ‘fragment’ it had sent out found an exceptionally capable ‘host’ within the sanctuary, someone capable of preserving the backup data you carry. Yet, why does your current operational efficiency seem so… misaligned with my calculations?” Navigator Two queried.

Alice took a moment to reflect on this, then looked directly at Navigator Two, asking, “Are you saying I’m not smart enough?”

Navigator Two remained silent for a beat.

“Even though I’m not entirely clear on all the details, you seem to be talking about something related to the ‘duplicate’ of the Frost Queen from before, right?” Alice responded, showing some understanding of the situation. “I’m not sure about the specifics, but the captain mentioned it was due to a mistake by the Nether Lord’s duplicate, which targeted the wrong entity for duplication…”

She paused, her curiosity evident as she looked at the light: “Is that a big problem?”

The red light on Navigator Two flickered slowly as if it were pondering the question or perhaps letting its computational processes run. After a significant delay, it replied in its slightly static-laced voice, “No, if the objective is merely navigation, then what we have should suffice.”

“Do you feel regret?” The light dimmed slightly, “You’ve lost a vast amount of your memories. You were once celebrated among us for your quick processing abilities and your capacity to multitask, charged with mapping the vastness of the universe. Yet now, you’re confined to such a… limited form.”

Alice blinked, taking in the words.

The comments were cryptic, yet she sensed an underlying meaning.

This time, she pondered before responding.

“I don’t think so,” she said after a while, gently shaking her head after some thought, “I might have felt lost before, but now I’ve found my way, so I don’t have any regrets. Besides, I’m so busy every day, I don’t really have time for regrets.”

The red light on Navigator Two dimmed again before returning to its previous intensity.

It seemed to be contemplating as well, and after a short pause, it said, “If that’s the case, then that’s good.”

In the darkness, the towering rectangular silhouette began to fade away.

“Are you leaving?” Alice asked quickly, a hint of urgency in her voice.

“This connection is temporary, enabled by the experimental navigation key; I can’t sustain it for long,” Navigator Two’s voice replied, growing fainter in the darkness, “We’ll meet again. I’m glad… to have detected your signal once more.”

Alice’s smile widened.

Though she didn’t fully understand the situation, she felt a deep sense of happiness.

The captain had always said that happiness was something to be cherished.

“Then, until next time,” she waved enthusiastically into the thickening darkness, “I’ll come to find you with the captain and everyone else!”

The darkness did not respond, except for a brief, fading chirp.