Hao Ren did not know if the master of this tentacle could hear his voice, but he sincerely hoped the First Born would hold on. The time for the planet crossing the tipping point was getting closer as the sun's gravity and uneven heating on the planet was tearing its crust apart. Even with the strength of the First Born, resistance was futile. The Petrachelys and Hao Ren's team could not reverse the planet's path. The clock was ticking in the virtual world too. There was no one but the First Born that could keep the virtual world running.
Tremors had been occuring non-stop from an hour ago. It felt scary, as if they mwere standing in a big drum as someone hitting and pounding from the outside. All signs was pointing to the imminent disintegration of the planet; the tremor was just a reminder that they were all falling with the five-quintillion-tonne rock towards the sun. But, in the underground bunkers, they had no time to worry about that, they were racing against time finding the brain by tracing the nerve signals of the tentacles.
The team had left the place that housed the alloy cylinders and was now traversing through a cobweb-like underground structure. There were corridors crisscrossing and caverns of various sizes everywhere. The entire underground world was an endless maze. Without the navigation guide, they would be lost in the forked passages. The complexity of this place had perplexed Hao Ren at first; it was not suitable for human living. But, he soon understood the logic behind the design of the refuge; the tunnels and the caves were tailored built for the tentacles of the First Born.
There were tentacles in all tunnels. The tentacles extended along the grooves in the ground or wall like skeletons of the tunnels. There were specially designed brackets and protection measures around. Cables and pipes were connected to the tentacles at some intervals; obviously, the First Born allowed it.
The entire underground refuge was a cave system built for the First Born. This explained the shape of the previous huge caverns.
The First Born played a role to in the creation of the caverns. Geologically, the planet would not have formed so many caves underground. These caverns were man-made.
As Hao Ren moved deeper into the refuge, he was confused. All this while, he associated the First Born to ecological destruction. Though he knew that this powerful creature was the shaper of the ecosystem and the original gardener, the image of destruction was still bothering him.
The situation here was completely different though. The First Born had co-existed with the mortals. All evidences pointed to the fact that Zormese had lived with the First Born from the very beginning. They designed the refuge in a very clever way to accommodate the First Born with the right equipment. This collaboration might have taken years of tacit understanding and communication to realise.
It reminded Hao Ren of what he learned in the hometown of Y'zaks where the First Born were living in harmony with the mortals, and its temperament was mild.
What he learned back then knocked his socks off. But, seeing the real thing was truly astounding.
They passed through a tunnel with four large tentacles and came into a nearly circular cavern. This cavern was similar to the sacred cavern in Holletta; there was a sunken ground in the centre where a lump of unknown living tissue was laying quietly. There were also a large number of holes lined the circumference of the cavern with tentacles extending out and connecting to the living tissue in the centre. At this time, the tremor had eased slightly and Hao Ren could hear a loud 'lub-dub' sound reverberating in the cave like the sound of of the beating of the heart.
"Here is a large ganglion and a set of pumping organ maintaining the circulation of its body fluid," Hao Ren said as he recognised the functions of these organisms from the earlier research report. "We are very close to the brain. I will plant some more sensors here and we would be able to receive signals from the virtual world."
Lily led a group of autonomous robots to plant sensors on the huge, unknown meatball. It gave her the heebie-jeebies the last time when she first did this kind of job, but she was now a dab hand at doing it.
Hao Ren began to observe other things in the cavern. Other than the organ of the First Born, there were equipment lying around the cavern. His eyes landed on a black machine near the large ganglion. There was a small cable connecting the machine to a tentacle, like an artificial small tentacle.
The machine was something novel to him. It did not look the same as the one used to support the life of the First Born. Hao Ren examined it curiously, and was surprised to find the machine still worked and there was a monitor on it.
That was a miracle, he thought.
"Just like a computer... maybe there's something in there," Hao Ren fiddled with it for a while. He was amazed how similar this machine was to the computer in Nolan's world.
Vivian came over, asking curiously, "What have you found?"
"Some records of the refuge's construction, and sporadic information about the plan for the virtual world. The database is seriously corrupted, can't get much information out of it." Hao Ren still browsing through the logs. "The record says that they were building the refuge to survive a disaster, the Zormese and the 'Root of Origin' built the strong fortress in the ground to resist the end of the world. I supposed the 'Root of Origin' here refers to the First Born."
While saying, he pointed out with his finger the main points to Vivian. This old instrument was not very reliable; sometimes were garbled characters. "These are the coding records of the virtual world. It seems that their scientists and the First Born designed this simulation mechanism, which was to ensure humans would survive in a common dream for a long, long time until..."
"Until what?" asked Vivian.
"Until they return to the real world," Hao Ren's voice suddenly sounded serious. "It mentions a plan to return to the reality! They wanted to wait out the disaster on the outside before returning to the real world. They also have plan to restore the ecosystem and their physical bodies…"
Vivian exhaled and said, "Obviously that didn't work out. This planet now seems like a bad place to rebuild their ecosystem. What else does it mention about the disaster? Is it the falling of the planet?"
"No. Had they known the planet was going to fall into the sun, they wouldn't have planned to return to reality," Hao Ren shook his head. "The planet only started falling about three thousand years ago but the refuge already existed seven thousand years before that. So the fall of the planet must be an accident that thwarted their original plan."
He looked up at the large ganglion in the centre of the cavern. "Perhaps this accident also caused the virtual world beginning to go into a downward spiral—the end-of-day script. If so, then it would match perfectly with the timeline in Nolan's memory. Her memory of end of the world also happened about the same time."
Vivian looked confused. "You mean..."
"The First Born is having a nightmare," Hao Ren lifted his fingers pointing to the unknown living tissue. "So nightmare has swallowed the whole world."
Vivian's eyes widened. Suddenly, Nolan's voice came through the comm. "Hao Ren! Hao Ren! There's a situation here!"
Hao Ren quickly answered, "What? The fire burns again?"
"No — I think I've heard the voice of the 'fabricator'!"
Fabricator was a name Nolan used to call the controller behind the virtual world. Now Hao Ren knew the so-called 'Fabricator' should be the consciousness of the First Born. Nolan seemed to possess a special talent; she could occasionally hear the somniloquy of the First Born. But, humans could not make sense of the way the First Born thought, so the somniloquy were often time, vague.
But, this time, it was different.
"What did you hear?" Hao Ren asked as if he could not wait. He sensed something in Nolan's voice.
"I don't know if there is a problem with my understanding, but I heard that the world is going to carry out euthanasia..." Nolan's voice was filled with fears. "The voice says it is going to block off all the pain, before the collapse of some sort and let the world die painlessly."
Hao Ren took a deep breath.
The First Born could not hold on any longer.