"Regarding the investigation report of the Stars, the Stars departed from Yangshan Port on October 15, 2020. It is expected to travel for 21 months, during which it will pass through ports such as island countries, Solomon Islands, Australia, and finally arrive in New Zealand.
The main selling point of this voyage is the ocean scenery, which is quite rare.”
"However, ten days after setting off, the Star encountered a rare sea storm in the Western Pacific and was forced to dock at Pohnpei Island, north of the Solomon Islands, to wait for the storm to subside."
"During the long and abnormal storm, the Stars suffered many accidents, and a serious fire broke out on November 21. The hull tilted and entered the water. After a week, the rescue failed and it sank into the sea."
"The passengers on the ship took flights back to China in January after the unseasonal storms in the Pacific completely subsided. Among them, a considerable number of passengers suffered from mental problems of varying degrees. The aftermath of the Stars is still in progress."
Lu Tiao saw the investigative report on the Stars Incident that could be made public.
He remembered that during the storm, the passengers of the Stellar seemed to have taken some videos of islands and urban architectural ruins in the storm.
Lu Tiao searched the Internet and found that most of the videos had expired with the passage of time. However, on the old video website, someone left an archive of the second screen shot.
He watched the videos carefully again.
In the violent storm, you can indeed see the shadows of some buildings. Most of those buildings are tall spiers, with strange styles that do not belong to this era. In fact, Lu Jian did not see any buildings from any era in these buildings.
Style, they exist there like art and aesthetics born out of this world, like a black spot on a white paper, distorted and unnatural.
When I first saw it, I didn't have such a strong feeling. Now Lu Jian is almost certain that these buildings are not human creations, but the palaces of some weird, mysterious and indescribable existences.
As for the accident of the Stars, Lu Jian believed that it might have been caused by something strange.
He flipped through some interviews, mostly with the captain, crew, and passengers. Because this accident was actually quite serious, there were many speculations. Some people thought that there was a mutiny among the crew, while others thought that there was a mutiny among the crew.
It was a plunder commanded by the captain, and some people thought it was haunted.
In fact, the testimonies of these people are also contradictory.
For example, Lu Tan saw a clip of First Officer Zhao Liren being interviewed.
"...At that time, I told the captain that there was a problem with the equipment in the engine room and that it needed manual maintenance, but the captain didn't seem to care much and did not agree to my request. As a result, within two days, the equipment in the engine room broke down.
A malfunction caused the fire. No, no, I didn't say that the captain did anything wrong. It's just that his behavior at the time was not calm enough in my opinion. Even if the fire spread, he did not take effective countermeasures. I have known the captain for several years.
, he is not that kind of person, something must have affected him, maybe there were too many changes during this trip, and the pressure overwhelmed him..."
In this clip, the first mate believes that the captain's inadequate response was the main cause of the accident, which sounds reasonable.
But in the words of a tourist, things became different again.
"...Those crew members were particularly cruel. They didn't let us walk freely on the ship at first. They locked us in a room like prisoners. We could only come out for air every day when we were eating, especially during the days when the storm worsened.
God, I feel like the whole ship is about to sink. I have never seen the captain, but the first mate spoke to us, very sternly. He seemed to have encountered something, and there were heavy dark circles under his eyes. It was not until later that we docked and disembarked.
, things got a little better, we didn’t notice the fire at all because the storm was too big, too big.”
In his words, the first mate restricted their movements, guarded them like a jailer, and acted a little nervous, which was not at all the calm state the first mate himself said.
"...these crew members are taciturn and don't like to talk. They were not like this at the beginning. Since the storm started, they have become much more serious. I can understand that such a storm at sea is very dangerous and should not be joked about, but
They all seemed to be different people after experiencing the storm, and they were a lot depressed. For our safety, the crew asked us not to move around. I understand. I talked to a crew member and he said that the current situation is desperate.
The ship might be lost. I thought he was scaring us at the time, but who knew that some time after we landed, the ship caught fire. Fortunately, we were all in the port hotel at the time. It seemed that some crew members were burned to death.
On the boat? I’m not sure.”
Some tourists showed another scene. The crew seemed to have changed because of the severity of the storm, and the measures to restrict personal freedom were also for safety.
Lu Tiao saw another interview with the captain, Johnson Gustave.
This is a German with a beard and he looked very haggard during the interview.
"I have answered these questions many times. The storm we encountered was unprecedented in history. For this reason, I had to ensure the safety of all crew members and passengers, so they all stayed in their rooms. Yes, that's right, on the ship.
Some crew members had mental problems due to stress, and I asked the ship's doctor to give them medicine. At least when we docked at Pohnpei Island, all the problems were not serious."
"What's really serious is that after arriving on the island, the people on the island are very strange. I can't tell you. They sometimes stand at the port in the storm and make some strange worshiping gestures toward the center of the storm.
Some islanders even sneaked onto the boat, not knowing what they wanted to do."
"I walked around the island, and there were many strange statues on it. On the mountain in the center of the island, there seemed to be ancient temples, which were all primitive beliefs."
"Those statues look like octopuses, or some kind of soft-bodied creature mixed with humans. I know that the aboriginal people on the sea always have inexplicable worship of sea creatures, but those statues give people a very uncomfortable feeling.
, although that temple has been damaged, but for some reason, every time you look towards the mountain at night, you can always find it at first sight, just like it is emitting green fluorescence."
"Then the fire broke out, and the people on the island did not participate in the rescue. They just stood in the rain and on the pier, making sacrifices to the burning cruise ship. I swear, I have never seen such a weird sacrifice.
Thanks to the action, I once suspected that these people were possessed by some kind of monster."
"It's just that in the firelight, I did seem to see something rising from the boat and flowing into the storm. It's hard to describe that feeling. I think maybe my spirit is not normal. No, it should be there.
, it's there, I know it, it's coming, I'm sorry, I don't know how to say it, when the Star sank, I felt that it really came to life, and each of us was a witness to its birth."
"what is it?"
The reporter asked curiously.
"It's... it's... it's the stars, it's the stars, it's coming, it's coming soon!"
Captain Gustav became hysterical and the interview was interrupted.
Lu Tiao saw the captain's final outcome. After being interviewed, he rested at home. A month later, he drowned himself in his own wash basin. It is said that when he died, both hands were twisted behind his back and he used force.
He held down his head, as if those two hands were forcing him into the water to prevent him from raising his head.