Star Empire

December 9, Year of Exile 2158.

It's far from home.

In a small golden bubble in the endless void, twelve pale golden spaceships that looked like elongated seeds were quietly suspended in this transparent bubble of order. From a physical perspective, they are indeed completely and absolutely stationary relative to this small bubble of order.

They are completely synchronized with this artificial world, drifting together in the void.

The surfaces of these spacecraft are basically covered with large and small traces of corrosion. A small part of the originally smooth and thick armored shell of several spacecraft has been completely torn off, leaving huge rib-like structural frames and honeycomb-like redundant structures. The remaining cabins and buffer structures are exposed like hideous outward wounds.

There were no lights or any other form of activity on the surface of the spacecraft. Only the occasional flash of golden light from the golden crystals exposed at the fractures of the broken spacecraft shells showed that these spacecraft were still "alive".

In fact, these spacecraft are indeed still alive, and there are still people working and living inside them.

However, it is just survival.

The silence has lasted for thousands of years, and the confusion, darkness and depression are spreading.

Everyone only dares to think about their work meticulously while keeping their eyes fixed on the personal reference object in front of them. Apart from this, no half of the thread of thinking will be separated.

If you don't do this, you may lose your concentration for a moment and be overwhelmed by endless distracting thoughts.

In the long and silent darkness, everyone was gritting their teeth, hoping that they could adapt to this harsh environment - and they did.

In the flagship, the number of obelisks placed near the truncated cone-shaped base of the mathematical core to maintain the stability of the central mathematical environment has been increased to six. The size of these obelisks may not be as large as one person combined, but the restraint shield they can produce can indeed effectively suppress the restless high-frequency crystal energy environment in the mathematical rate core.

These devices, which are not large in size and can even be carried around, are not miniaturized mathematical rate constraint coordination devices. Their true appearance is a constraint shell that has changed its shape.

Limited by current technology, the entire fleet is indeed led by the flagship, but each spacecraft also needs to contribute in maintaining the integrity of the order field and the entire body drifting in the void, so even if any spacecraft has The mathematical rate equipment cannot be stopped even if it is damaged, and the mathematical space can only be maintained by external constraint equipment.

The crystal energy materials used in these small obelisks are special compared to other structural materials: under a certain degree of crystal energy environment, their various strengths and stability will increase with the increase of crystal energy concentration and frequency. And become stronger. This kind of crystal energy activation influence can come from any part. It can be used normally if it contains a crystal energy crystal or the like inside or outside it, or if it is placed in an environment where high-frequency crystal energy leaks.

At the same time, their negative feedback adjustment mechanism still allows a small amount of information flow to disperse in the hall without completely blocking the normal crystal energy environment. Of course, it needs to be emphasized that they can only work normally "within a certain range". Once the crystal energy radiation they receive exceeds their tolerable threshold, they will still be destroyed like the hadron accumulation materials in the past. The infestation becomes a crystal analogue.

…

"The central mathematical rate core external constraint modules of Ark No. 10 have been increased to five, Ark No. 2 and Ark No. 5 have been increased to six like this ship, and Ark No. 15 commanded by Albeck has been increased to seven constraint modules. Obelisk, this is already close to the warning threshold of ten redundant devices of this type. If there are too many peripheral constraint compensation devices... the stability of the system itself will also be affected... the anti-disturbance range of directional chaos information is also limited. .”

In the navigation room above the main control hall, Vidoville turned off the display screen in front of him with a solemn look, "The situation has deteriorated a bit, and there is a conflict with the original plan. Cavinriel, how is the situation of our "target"?" ?”

"According to the crystal energy scanning waves emitted a few days ago, the "target" that may be a fragment of the world is in relatively good condition. Compared with the two detections fifty years ago and one hundred years ago, it is not There is no "displacement" that requires attention, and the feedback intensity has been increasing. Perhaps the powerful information burst in the past gave it a very powerful external supply, otherwise it would not have been detected by us more than two thousand years ago. If it reaches the kind of blurry state and drifting speed, it is very likely that it will not survive now." Cavernril replied.

"Well, this is relatively good news." Vidoville nodded thoughtfully and then suddenly asked: "The information body we can see in the scanning field is indeed a fragment of the world, so that fragment of the world Is it because the feedback is gradually strengthening that it is traveling backwards in time? Just like the theory that the universe starts from heat death and gradually moves towards equilibrium?"

"Unlikely, Your Majesty." Zhai Cahir interrupted Vidoville's conjecture, "First of all, we can confirm to a considerable extent that it is indeed a fragment of the world, which was removed from the universe after the end of the world. The shattered remains. In the destroyed universe, the timeline will be warped and closed. From the beginning of creation to the end of the world, everything on the entire timeline will be "shared" on this plane in some way. , maybe it’s a phantom, maybe it’s an entity that has never dispersed, or maybe it’s an object randomly collapsing into a certain state along its own overall timeline.”

"In short, according to the model, after the end of the world, both the timeline and the world line have closed and collapsed. Unless powerful external devices are used to forcibly constrain it, the universe fragments themselves will no longer follow any conventional linear trends. After the end of the world, Among the fragments of the world, the best situation is like the universe suffering from non-linear memory disease, spreading its preserved past history in front of us. If the situation is not good, we may crash into the Big Bang at the moment of the birth of the universe. Inside the generated ultra-high-energy photon stream.”

"I hope we won't encounter the latter situation. Even a perfect spaceship cannot completely resist the primordial force of the universe released during the big bang. It is not only a powerful energy, but also a very complex structural change tendency. ." Recalling the brief light explosion he encountered when he was trapped in the death wave pollution fragments of his home world, Cavinriel also felt his scalp numb.

"It was good luck that nothing happened to the primordial energy of the big bang last time, and the fleet was in much better condition at that time than it is now. Later, I made further calculations based on the void navigation equation. When the world barrier was formed, it occupied The frequency can be said to be unique. The property of the direct first-level creation produced when the void decays downward is the same as the crystal energy decaying from the void... We are still studying backwards layer by layer what once inspired us. The initial rules, and some current phenomena and conjectures may support some general items that we have directly used but have not been able to observe and confirm on our own.”

"Let's put the theory class aside for now. Now there is a more important question, Cavinriel, Zhai Cahir, about the time of the order field." Weisruifan said, tapping his right foot a few times: "Under our feet is an information disturbance perpetual clock that modulates and calibrates the time of the entire fleet. It determines the time of our exile fleet. So, is it possible to adjust its value to alleviate the loss of spacecraft equipment as much as possible? Situation? I mean, controlling time?”

"Can't. No way." Zhai Cahir and Cavinriel replied in unison.

"The time constraint of the perpetual clock is at the weak law level. It can only affect the existence that acts on the weak law level. Now its impact on us is only the sensory impact, and it still remains low due to our physical reasons. The action may slow down due to the order. In other aspects, it must be a strong law-level disturbance that can directly affect the information change trend, that is, "generalized time" can affect the high-level system based on crystal energy."

"This is why we can't drive a perpetual motion clock to accelerate our evolution forward... Maybe it's not impossible, but the technical requirements are too high - besides, even if we can do that, it will not work within this reference system. Almost no effect."

"...And here, there is another problem that we are not sure about yet - we are not sure what will happen in the void once such information bodies in relatively independent systems have established information exchange... But As it stands now... there are some actual situations that are not exactly the same as what we had speculated.”

"It seems that our situation is indeed not good." After being choked for a moment, Weisrifan's mood gradually became heavy. "Reports from various Arks indicate that in the past two thousand years, there have been A considerable part of the equipment has experienced a certain degree of "aging", such as powdery cracks at the cracked ends of a very small number of crystal rails, and corresponding slowdowns in some remote control equipment. Compared with previous design indicators, The current situation is less than one-fifth of the design life indicator.”

"Indeed, and thinking of the previous mapping severance disease. It is very likely that even the black and red patterns and various abnormal phenomena that represent the direct impact of the death tide have disappeared. I am afraid that the influence of the death tide has not completely subsided. In short, the ship is now The aging speed is too fast." Vidoville hesitated, but after all, he didn't twist his eyebrows directly into a ball. Over these thousands of years, he felt that he was almost really going to grow eyebrow lines, "Every time The frequency of routine inspections of ships still needs to be increased.”

"Thinking about it on the bright side, at least we still have the ability to repair the spacecraft now. We also have outstanding people like Isendel and Cavinriel who have inherited the old knowledge of the system while mastering new knowledge and can turn it into practical results. Scholars, the spaceship under our feet and the knowledge and data sealed in the brain and crystal can still be understood and used by us."

Weisruifan smiled and said, "Even if our conditions get worse and worse, as long as we are still alive, at least someone can find solutions to all these problems."

"Tsk, well, if this is comfort." Vidoville smiled bitterly. In his mind, the golden flame released by the burning mathematical rate core and the four crystal rails shining brightly gradually became abstract. A huge scene in the past universe that Cavernrel began to give meaning began to gradually appear:

In the deep and dark space of the universe, the orange-red and light yellow light emitted by the remaining stars flickered feebly. In the space a little further away, the space warped in an abnormal form, forming a wall that could span the universe. The huge wall, the bright starlight born from the bustling universal river system, spans hundreds of millions of light-years of distant space and hits this huge barrier, and is elongated and mutated as the barrier bends and warps. , and finally converged near a small black empty spot.

On the long wall of the warped world, the "Star Star", where countless silver stars from far away gathered together, was the most spectacular man-made landscape in the former Star Federation. It was also the landscape that later attracted the most ideological attention from Vidoville and others.

Now, the core of this "star" is no longer a dark hole, but a shining golden light, the most advanced equipment that the empire can create so far. In the cultural tradition of more than ten billion years, light has always represented hope in the star civilization. This light of hope comes from a distant star in space - Gouchen Star.

According to legend, as long as you look at the star, the road ahead will always exist, and the word "star" is abstractly derived from this.

Will fate change like this?

"Why do I have to think about this?!" Vidoville quickly regained his composure. Fortunately, the few people around him didn't notice his little distraction.

Ark No. 17, the first bridge control hall.

After the routine inspection was completed, Eskett focused his attention on the mathematical rate core located in the center of the hall.

Over the past two thousand years, except for the flagship, the role played by most people on other arks was actually patrollers and maintainers distributed throughout each ark. It is really too limited, and except for the first few crystal energy soul fusions and the army, the crystal energy environment with too high concentration is still harmful to ordinary people. Compared to the flagship, time flows faster in other ships, not from a legal perspective, but from a sensory perspective.

Not long ago, Eskett gradually began to have a special feeling. He felt that his soul seemed to be resonating with the entire spacecraft. When he clearly experienced this feeling for the first time, the resonance came from all directions. For a short period of time at the beginning, he thought something was wrong with him, but soon he recalled his experiences and changes four thousand years ago.

The source of the resonance is crystal energy. Under the joint action of the spacecraft power furnace extraction, mathematical rate core compilation and transformation, and crystal rail transportation, the surging information flow fills all corners of the core cabin. He can diffuse the crystal energy radiation here It is normal to feel resonance or even a sense of intimacy in the environment.

Since this feeling appeared, it has occupied part of Eskett's sensory processing ability all the time. Although this feeling is not too bad, and sometimes there is even a slight pleasant feeling of tickling, but for a person who needs to command For the captain of the Doomsday Ark, such meaningless senses can be said to be a dangerous factor.

But today is different. Eskett can feel that this sense of resonance is changing from a passive existence to a part that she can control and belongs to her body.

He walked gently and came to a main crystal rail extending outward from the mathematical core. He lightly closed his eyes, raised his right hand, lowered his main attention to the subconscious level, gave up all senses and allowed his soul to be his only source of external information. He seriously experienced the wonderful resonance and began to Try building something.

In the crystal rail corresponding to his hand, a small bright light group began to gradually take shape.