Star Empire

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"In any case, now is not the time for self-doubt. We must be responsible for the last spark of the entire Federation."

"Um……"

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"Attention all ships, the order field environment has been calibrated, and the distortion range of the fleet clock system and communication system is acceptable. According to the preset tasks, each ship is requested to report the results of the self-test of the entire system!"

"The self-inspection of Ark No. 2 has been completed. The entire system is in good operating condition, all equipment is in good operating condition, the physical and psychological stability of the ship's members is good, and the social stability is good!"

"The self-inspection of Ark No. 3 has been completed. The entire system is operating in good condition, all equipment is operating in good condition, the physical and psychological stability of the ship's members is good, and the social stability is good!"

"The self-inspection of Ark No. 4 has been completed. The entire system is operating in good condition, all equipment is operating in good condition, the physical and psychological stability of the ship's members is good, and the social stability is good!"

"Ark No. 5..."

…

"The self-inspection of the Ark fleet has been completed, and the systems, equipment, and members of each ship are in good condition." In the flagship's No. 2 bridge, large-capacity aggregated information from each Ark was extracted, compressed, simplified, and stored. It was shared to the first bridge on the military frequency band and displayed simultaneously in the holographic window floating above the console.

"Currently, it seems that the situation of the Ark Fleet is very stable." Looking at the final report with zero errors, Victorville finally breathed a sigh of relief - at least, all previous models and test results are currently reliable.

Next to the huge mathematical rate core, a circular conference table was temporarily set up, and all the surviving people with senior and highest authority in the original information collection network were sitting around this table. Vidoville looked around and then went directly to the topic:

"The self-check results of the Ark fleet are normal. We don't have to worry about whether the spacecraft can continue to sail for the time being. In this meeting, we will discuss what happened when the fleet left the universe. To be more specific, what happened? Intercepted information from unknown sources.”

After speaking, Vidoville waved his right hand. Above the center of the ring table, a huge holographic projection instantly unfolded. In the golden projection, several lines of text were slowly rotating with the vertical projection line as the axis of rotation:

Παρατηρθηκετονπολίτίσμδηπουσπζείμσωτουαποκλείσμοπαγκσμίωνεμποδων, οπολιτισμδχεταιτηλξησυμφωναπαρατρηση

"After intercepting this message, we used all existing methods to conduct security checks on it. These methods also include the crystal energy soul perception and Zhai Cahir's information perspective that we cannot fully describe quantitatively at present. , Judging from the current test results, this message does not have any killing or contaminating memetic effect." Cavinrel spoke first.

"For detection methods such as perception and information perspective that cannot be fully quantified, I will make some additions here." Zhai Cahill said, "In the information perspective, almost all attributes of things can be reflected, which naturally includes Whether it may be lethal and historical at the same time can be used as a reference.”

"Judging from all the available information, this message was sent from an unknown place after our universe was about to be completely eroded by pollution and we broke out of the world barrier. Regarding this paragraph, its historicity is in my mind The reflection in the perspective is somewhat similar to the warning message emitted by the star detection station after the main star has abnormal movements. Such warning messages do not need to hide lethal security measures. Therefore, for this message, we can safely deal with it It can be... viewed, but I'm afraid it cannot be studied, and its encryption may be very high."

"Wait a minute...according to your statement...text transmission can already be...encrypted?"

"Of course, Your Excellency." Zhai Cahir knocked on the table, "In our opinion, we need to assign meaning to things like writing. Once our writing system is completely separated from us, then They are pure ghost painting symbols - without our use and analysis, they will not have any conveying properties, but since its meaning can be given subjectively, then... this process, after the technology is achieved, can be manipulated .”

"..."

"The item we have received so far has no direct damage capability, which is a relatively good part, but if you look at it from another... I can use it, this message itself contains a very scary part. , for example, the most direct thing is that it is a terrible thing for us to receive this message."

"Why do you say that?" Vidoville looked at the serious-looking Zhai Cahir and couldn't help asking a little strangely.

"Your Excellency Archon, you have not participated in the detailed development of void communication technology. According to our previous research reports, the void's ability to decompose and clear information is extremely powerful. We once relied on crystal energy vortices to set up a huge scale near the world barrier. Void Communication Array, but even so, the information we broadcast has considerable loss when it reaches the new universe that can be considered to be plastered on the face of our universe."

"Now that technology has improved, although the new self-replicating information sending method has reduced requirements for transmitting base stations, the overall energy required for communication is still very high. Excluding the concept-level encryption measures that it may come with, if that If this piece of information is not sent to us deliberately, but is transmitted evenly or sent to the depths of the void, even if the target is the world closest to here except our two extremely close universes, according to the void detection array, Information feedback, if implemented with our technology..."

"How's it going?" Vidoville and Vesrifan asked together.

"...We need to convert all the information in the entire universe, including historical information, into crystal energy to be able to support such a message transmission."

"This...this is so amazing..."

Not to mention converting it into crystal energy, even if it is a mature "backward technology" such as converting the universe into vacuum zero-point energy, the federal civilization has been using this energy for nearly ten billion years, but the total space burned is indeed for the universe. It is insignificant in insignificance, and one broadcast now requires burning the entire universe, including historical information and other relatively "virtual" information, and among these virtual information there are possibilities, which are greater than space itself. It contains an existence with a greater amount of information, but such a large-scale use of energy is only used for an information broadcast whose source and direction are not clear.

In any case, this is far beyond the entire understanding of anyone in the current Federation.

"We can only hope that the sender and receiver of this message will not cause harm to us for the time being." Vidoville tried hard to shake his head and throw the heavy feeling out of his mind. "There is no point worrying about this now. We It can’t change anything, so let’s talk about something more realistic, Cavinriel, is there really no way to decipher the sentences in that message?”

"This... Your Majesty the Archon, please forgive us for not being able to do anything about it. We really have no way to crack it." Cavernril rubbed his hands in embarrassment, with a look of embarrassment on his face.

"To crack an unknown text, if it does not carry a self-decoding system and there is no other information that can correspond to it, the possibility of cracking it is extremely slim, let alone the current situation, our historical records There is no similar text form in , and the number of existing samples is only a small amount. Under this condition, we cannot find, or cannot verify, the mapping relationship between it and our language system, even if we really Even if we force a correct matching pattern, we can’t verify it.”

"Coupled with Zhai Cahill's statement, it is very likely that it now has direct information-level encryption... and if it can be directly operated on the expressive ability, then these contents may very well contain very important information. It’s a tricky thing. So Sir, I personally advise you not to work on it. We won’t be able to find any valuable information from it for a long time.”

"Well, it seems that the current situation is really not optimistic." Vidoville shook his head slightly, "So, the overall navigation status of the spacecraft-"

"The situation is stable and the fleet is controllable, but it will take time to provide an "adaptation period."" A report was quickly presented to Victorville's eyes and mind. In the concrete display of ideas, there are densely packed polylines, curves, matrices and a large number of equations that are very mysterious just in writing.

"The communication system needs to be calibrated, and the mathematical rate core calculation capabilities of each ship need to be calibrated with each other. At this stage, we should try to avoid letting the spacecraft fly alone. It is too risky. We also need to try to find out what changes will occur when we sail in the void. ——It’s best to try to find some kind of pattern..."

"But this all takes time - and now it seems that the plan may be revised at any time." After a relatively eager explanation, Cavinrel made the final summary.

"That is to say... we now need to spend some time to conduct various exploration attempts." Vidoville stood up and left the meeting, "Then this meeting can end here, everyone. Let’s all go back to our jobs, the meeting is dismissed.”

…

Life on the exiled spaceship can be described as extremely monotonous. Most of the cargo hold of the spacecraft is used to store the crystal energy crystals that are the source of power for the spacecraft, while the storage capacity of other materials is not high - in fact, for now, only If you want people to survive, almost no materials will be consumed. Although there is no need to force the crew into the hibernation chamber for the time being, one thing is certain. The remaining scientists of the Star Federation will no longer be able to consume huge amounts of materials just to verify an unclear change curve as before.

…

"The fleet's internal communications are in good condition, and the redistribution of personnel living areas and resources has begun..."

"Pay attention to controlling all communications. Now, we are only surviving as the ignition and the last remnant of the Federation. Any behavior that breaks away from the overall control and coordination of the highest government is dangerous."

"Canceling all non-essential entertainment activities...banning the export of all additional spiritual materials...enforcement of all-round control, please all members strictly abide by the orders of the Exile Emergency Declaration..."

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"Some crew members are experiencing physical instability..."

"Recording, the following nodes have experienced low-level unexplained damage."

"We need support! The number of abnormal individuals is increasing! Repeat! We need support!"

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"In the past few years, some equipment has suffered superposition of damage due to unknown reasons... Damage detection: The data model is damaged, and part of the material in the structure is annihilated... The mass cannot be recovered..."

"The navigation trajectory is difficult to confirm, and the navigation direction of the Ark fleet cannot be determined..."

"Your Excellency, science officers and executive officers, the number of reports reported by proofreaders has increased, and a large number of signals that cannot be proofread and confirmed have been found - we may be missing a large amount of void navigation data..."

"Enter steady-state rest and summarize all data..."

Alert, an unexpected situation has occurred - the external law environment parameters are unstable, suspected to be related to irregular void navigation. Our space law coordination cannot directly offset its own influence, which means that the crystal energy shield must be turned on at all times and occupy part of the redundancy. Calculation - Any small aircraft is prohibited from carrying out transportation operations across the Ark! This protocol must not be broken before integrating the principles and practical applications of this part!

"The current algorithm for void navigation is non-linear... We have not been able to understand the relevant properties of void coordinates and order field boundaries in the void. We must move forward first and initially master the explicit operation rules and direct operation rules before measuring and correcting them."

"Check the operating condition of the Ark hull!"

…

In the precise ultra-high frequency flickering of the perpetual clock, in this small field of order, an independent timeline is slowly moving forward. Through routine reporting and maintenance, the Chronicle of Exile began to officially carve its own trajectory in the history of the Star Federation.

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On September 17, Year 7 of the Exiled Year, Ark No. 1 of the Star Exiled Fleet.

In the No. 2 "Mirror Bridge" of the flagship, a test application report was placed in front of Vesrifan and Vidoville.

"To be honest, the target pointed to by this report is indeed very important." Vidoville closed the holographic projection and floating windows in front of him one by one. "However, it would be a bit risky to directly use the current fleet ark. Now every ark They are very precious. Once they crash, we cannot bear the corresponding losses - we do not have time to carry many detectors, or in other words, they are very rare. And in order to allow the detectors to survive in a harsh environment for a period of time, their own The functions are very limited..."

"——Archon, we must take this step now. According to the time of the perpetual clock, we have been drifting in the void like headless flies for more than seven years. How much error has the fleet made with its original course? No one can explain it clearly now. If the situation is extreme, our fleet may even be turning around and running back! We must install equipment that can provide us with navigation in the void as soon as possible!" At his desk, Kavin Riel said anxiously.

This is an increasingly serious fact facing the Star Fleet.

As the Ark fleet began to gradually adapt to the state of void navigation, the initial panic gradually dissipated. As the basic environment required to sustain life gradually stabilizes, the relevant "route" issues are gradually put on the agenda - it is fortunate to have caught enough reliable floating objects in the ocean to save life, but after that , where you will drift must also be considered. The current Federation fleet must start to consider where it is heading and how it is sailing.

The previous results, as Cavinrel said-the situation was quite bad.

Due to the loss of the target reference object, and at the same time, the Star Fleet simply did not master the knowledge and technology required for stable void navigation. The current Federation fleet can be said to be - jumping around blindly.

If you want to solve a slightly more accurate jump trajectory equation, you must compare the differences with reference objects, and try to summarize enough rules. If it is best... you can set a goal.

But doing so means that the fleet must set its own "goal" - right now, it can only be the Ark in the fleet.

It is no longer possible to collect data for the fleet without risk-taking attempts. It has been proven that the "sail distance" within a single order field has nothing to do with the "order frequency".

…

"Don't worry, this is not a denial." Weisruifan crossed the report from the military consul to himself. With a tap of his right hand, a holographic information display base and two tilted light screens occupying the left and right fields of view respectively. Then appeared in front of her. In the holographic projection, the line drawing of the standard ark was floating quietly.

However, unlike the structural diagram of the Ark shown on the seventeen screens on the first bridge, in this diagram, the mathematical rate core inside the Ark is highlighted. Weisrifan can see that near it, A series of not huge but very complex structures were added near the cabin.

"Is this the additional void navigation system and the collection of algorithms included in it?"

"Yes, Your Excellency, this is the most valuable thing we can keep before we escape from our home universe." Cavernrel explained somewhat eagerly, "Our fleet is indeed sailing in the void now, but from now on The day we started sailing, the heading data we relied on... was a mapping relationship based on the difference in information expressed by the world barrier between the two worlds and the void that separated them."

"We cannot guarantee that it is absolutely accurate, because we have only found a set of relationships and a corresponding special solution from the vast void. At present, it seems that this set of correspondences is correct, and we can This set of mapping relationships changes its own information offset to move in the void, but we are completely unable to determine the accuracy and applicable scope of this set of special solutions."

"And on this basis, we are also faced with a question. If an error occurs, how will the error change our void route? Is it continuous? Is it a quantifiable linear relationship? We don't know these, although It is unlikely that we have actually drifted to the point of turning around at this time, but the current rough status of the fleet's navigation situation is not optimistic."

"That's true." Weisrifan nodded and put a few strands of blond hair behind his ears. "I agree with your statement, but how do you verify your theory? During the verification process, the fifteenth How can we explain the specific role played by the seventeenth and third arks?"

"Huh--" After receiving the affirmation of Weisrifan, Cavinriel let out a long breath, and then he would stand behind him on his right, also wearing a white and gray science officer uniform, with the same extraordinary bearing. But the person who is more active than Cavinriel is pushed to the front, "The main designer of this system is Ikarim, and he will tell you in detail how these systems work. "

"Your Excellencies," Ikarim greeted. "To put it simply, we currently need to find a way to calibrate the route. To achieve this goal, we must have a more accurate route matching algorithm than now - if we want to sail in the void, almost all of our useful information depends on us It’s “calculated” by itself.”

"After we solved the algorithm for going outside the world, another target world that is close to our universe became our best target - we solved the gap between the order field and the barrier of the target world. After confirming how much "deviation" there is between us and the target, we will then modify our own order field representation to push the spacecraft closer to the target world. At that time, we had a fixed and clear target. But now... we have no target. "

"If we need to go to a new location, then we need to first calculate many properties in the theory of that location, and then adjust the fleet's order field to that frequency and complete the offset - this is a cyclic process... ...In fact, the related logical models still need to be confirmed. We are not yet sure whether void navigation is a result process or a series of executive processes. We can only use some of the ideas and understanding of space navigation to generalize Sexual use.”

"We currently encounter many substantive problems when executing these cycles - first of all, we are not sure whether the target we finally calculated is the target we hoped for. Secondly, we are not sure whether our execution The means are precise—we have no reference in the void.”

"To calibrate for distortion and error in these processes, we have to set our own reference points - we need some different sources of information that we can target, and then we need to measure the actual distortion between us and them , and further compare and calculate the theoretical information bias, and then continue to analyze and refine based on this."

"So, you are now going to use three arks to simulate the destination, and then test the certainty of these theoretical algorithms and the reliability of the equipment?" Weisruifan raised his eyebrows slightly, "I understand, we should indeed test it again Find your own way."

"It is indeed necessary. After you have debugged the equipment, I agree to arrange for the three arks to participate in the experiment. Can we artificially create a logic model to simulate the "void coordinate system" and then try to analyze the route... Is it possible? .”

"But... at least from my personal point of view, maybe you could have done better. Maybe we are currently getting out of a long period of stagnation. In this process, metaphysics may appear many times. , maybe it’s somewhere we can’t notice, so we should pay more attention to it... Wait, I remember... it seems that it was mentioned in the information that scanning radar cannot accurately locate an order field in the void, right?"

"It should be said that it is [difficult to locate accurately] rather than impossible, because the order field itself is constantly jumping. If the solution speed is lower than the jump frequency, the analysis is of no value. At the same time... indeed, the radar and void scanning array can only Roughly determine their fuzzy intervals and directly locate them accurately... at least we are unable to do it at present. However, now we still have redundant auxiliary communication means - the above situation is based on the premise of communication gaps. If the order The fields can communicate with each other and cooperate with each other, so it is not impossible to solve the problem."

"I understand, that's how it is." Victorville nodded, but then he asked another question: "Why three arks?"

"This was requested by Commander Zhai Cahir." When he mentioned this, Ikarim also looked puzzled. "Cavenriel and I also considered using fewer or more arks to conduct experiments, but Zhai Cahill asked us to use three ships."

"What's the reason?" Upon hearing such a request, the two decision-makers were quite surprised and strange.

"He said...three has a special meaning."