The Science Fiction World of Xueba

The convoy gradually moved away along the road in the middle of the cornfield, and Murphy couldn't help turning his head back frequently, until the figure of old Oliver completely disappeared at the end of the road, and then turned his gaze forward again.

From now on, they can only keep moving forward, and there is no way back.

Two days later, forty-eight anti-gravity shuttles were launched one after another under the driving of a hundred astronauts, entered the geosynchronous orbit, and merged with the completely completed "Eternal Night" spacecraft on the synchronous orbit.

The role of these shuttles is not only to send astronauts into space, but also to perform landing missions in future planetary exploration.

In order to adapt to different planetary environments, the surface of the shuttle has a certain streamline structure, which can fly normally in an atmospheric environment with a maximum pressure of ten standard atmospheres. It can also be used as a submersible in environments such as deep seas and low-temperature methane lakes. sneak.

Of course, this kind of stealth can only last for one to two hours, after all, the structural strength of the shuttle is relatively limited.

For the next month or so, the Eternal Night spacecraft did not set sail directly, but carried out overhaul of the entire ship and various supplies.

The total mass of Eternal Night exceeds 30,000 tons, and its overall structure is equivalent to a cylindrical Hall thruster strung on two rings.

The Great Circle is located in front of the spaceship and has twelve main compartments, including a command cabin, four plant cabins, a hibernation cabin, a computer cabin, a living cabin, an entertainment cabin, an astronomical observation cabin, and an electromechanical cabin. and a communications compartment.

The command module, as the name suggests, is the command and control core of the Eternal Night spacecraft, and all operating instructions for this spacecraft will be issued by the command module.

Pang Xuelin's station is in the command cabin, which has different units such as the captain's room, the pilot room, the radio room, the confidential room, the navigation room, and the weapon control room. Each unit is in charge of one or two astronauts. Most of the operations are independently completed by artificial intelligence, and the task of astronauts is mainly responsible for monitoring the operation of artificial intelligence.

The plant cabin is the core of the entire spacecraft life cycle system. On the one hand, it provides Pang Xuelin and others with fresh vegetables and fruits, and on the other hand, it adjusts the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the spacecraft.

There are four plant cabins, and each plant cabin requires four people to take care of it.

This is the core department of the spacecraft, and it needs to make appropriate fine-tuning of the overall environment of the plant cabin every once in a while.

The hibernation cabin is the place where the crew hibernates.

Distant interstellar exploration takes a long time, but the materials that can be carried in the spacecraft are limited. In order to allow the spacecraft to operate for a longer period of time, it is the best way to let the crew enter a hibernation state during the voyage.

The computer cabin is equipped with a petascale supercomputer array and artificial intelligence TASS. In addition to controlling the operation of various nodes and departments of the spacecraft, it will also provide decision support for future exploration activities.

Needless to say, the living cabin is the place where the crew live in their daily lives.

There are more than one hundred rooms in the living cabin, which means that each crew member has his own independent living space. In addition, there is a small infirmary and operating room in the living cabin, which is equipped with four medical staff, two multifunctional therapeutic devices and a large number of medical supplies, which are sufficient to ensure the health and safety of the crew.

There are restaurants, bars, theaters, gyms, swimming pools, game rooms and other living and entertainment facilities in the entertainment cabin, which can provide various adjustments for the boring space life of the crew.

As for the electromechanical cabin and communication cabin, let alone, they can be regarded as one of the important core departments in the spacecraft.

Especially the communication cabin. In addition to being equipped with traditional deep space radio communication facilities, this cabin also has the ability to use gravitational waves to communicate with the earth through wormholes. However, the current gravitational wave communication methods are still quite primitive, and the transmission rate is only 100%. one percent of.

As for the last astronomical observation cabin, a large radio telescope and optical telescope are installed outside this cabin.

It can provide various supports for the deep space exploration of the spacecraft.

The power cabin of the spaceship is located in the small ring at the rear of the spaceship. Six molten salt nuclear reactors form a circular power cabin, which is connected to the Hall thruster in the center of the shaft.

The shell of the molten salt nuclear reactor is made of high-strength alloy armor, which can withstand the impact of meteorites with a mass of less than one kilogram and a relative velocity of less than three kilometers per second.

In addition, some weapon systems are installed in the spacecraft, such as electromagnetic guns, laser cannons, particle beam cannons and other weapons.

The main function of these weapons is to remove obstacles such as asteroids and meteorites near the spacecraft. If you really encounter an interstellar civilization of the level of the shrimp civilization, it is no different from a sword and spear.

As the captain of the "Eternal Night" spacecraft, Pang Xuelin has a lot of work to do.

For example, formulating mission plans, improving various flight logs, and completing the running-in of the entire ship.

Compared with the rookie astronauts in the ship, Pang Xuelin has much richer spaceflight experience.

In addition to serving as the captain, he also has guest roles as a mechanical engineer, a flight load expert, and a psychologist to help the spacecraft and crew complete various preparations before sailing.

A month later, the "Eternal Night" spacecraft, which has completed various supplies and overhauled the entire ship, officially started sailing.

Following the command from the ground, the Hall thruster in the center of the spacecraft was successfully ignited, and a faint blue particle beam was ejected backwards. The huge hull began to start slowly, overcoming the obstacles brought about by the gravity of the earth.

In the captain's room, Pang Xuelin was communicating with his wife and daughter in real time for the last time.

"Chris, little Murphy, I love you when I come back."

During the video call, Chris pursed her red lips tightly, hugged little Murphy who was crying and kept calling her father, and nodded emphatically.

"Honey, little Murphy and I will always be waiting for you, waiting for you to come home."

After the video call ended, Pang Xuelin stood at the porthole, looked at the blue earth suspended in the deep space like a sapphire, and sighed.

Ding dong——

At this time, the door of the captain's cabin was opened, and Big Murphy walked in.

"Brother-in-law, it's almost time to go to hibernation."

Murphy had just finished the video call with Oliver, and his eyes were slightly red.

Pang Xuelin nodded. He changed the regular clothes in the spaceship and only wore a standard T-shirt and shorts. Led by Murphy, he went to the hibernation cabin.

Originally, according to Pang Xuelin's idea, the hibernation cabin should be designed in a decentralized manner like the world of Wandering Earth, and each cabin has certain hibernation protection measures.

Later, during the construction process, engineers discovered that this would greatly increase energy consumption, hull structure complexity, and manufacturing costs.

Therefore, after intense discussions, they followed the conventional design and designed a large hibernation chamber on one side of the living area.

The hibernation cabin can guarantee the hibernation of up to two hundred people at the same time.

The distance from the earth to the perigee of Saturn is 1.28 billion kilometers, and the apogee reaches 1.58 billion kilometers.

If it is in the dark forest world, the spaceship can reach this distance in a week.

However, the technological development level of the interstellar world is far from the level of the dark forest world. Although the main power system of the Eternal Night spacecraft can provide a thrust of one million cattle for the spacecraft, compared with the hull of more than 30,000 tons, it is still Some drop in the bucket.

Therefore, the Eternal Night spacecraft needs to accelerate the flight for half a year, then turn off the engine, coast for a year, then turn the bow, restart the engine, and slow down.

For this reason, Pang Xuelin specially arranged the on-duty tasks during the flight.

During a normal flight mission, three-quarters of the crew, that is, seventy-five people will enter a hibernation state, and the remaining twenty-five people will remain awake and perform duty tasks in the spacecraft .

During the next two years of the Saturn voyage, they will rotate every six months, and each will perform a half-year duty mission.

Pang Xuelin and Murphy's flight missions were scheduled for the last period.

Inside the hibernation cabin.

The hatch closed slowly under the control of the artificial intelligence Tass.

"Dear Captain Pang Xuelin, your hibernation time is one year and six months, and the spaceship will wake you up in February 2050."

With a chirping sound, a burst of white mist spread from the hibernation cabin, Pang Xuelin slowly closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

...

February 2050 in the Christian calendar.

The space is as black as ink.

After more than an hour of cosmic journey, the photons of the sun swayed on the silver-white hull of the Eternal Night.

Pang Xuelin was in his captain's cabin, just after watching the video message to him from Chris and Little Murphy.

Because of the communication channel, Chris and Little Murphy can only send back a five-minute video message to Pang Xuelin every month.

"Honey, little Murphy is doing great in school, she's already taught herself ninth grade math and is about to teach herself high school..."

"Honey, I dreamed of you again yesterday, the scene when you rescued me and little Murphy from the refugee camp."

"Honey, I believe you will be able to find a new home for us..."

"Husband, I love you, I will always wait for you, wait for you to come home, and our family will be reunited."

...

"Dad, even though you lied to me at the beginning, I still can't hate you. I miss you."

"Professor Brand praised me today, calling me a genius."

"Dad, I want to major in aerospace in the future. The teacher in the school said that the space city project is about to start, and everyone will live in space from now on..."

"Dad, I love you, my mother and I miss you very much..."

...

"Chris, I have worked hard for you all these years. I love you. I am still on my way to Mars. We have traveled three quarters of the way. I will be online for the next six months. Murphy, are you Papa's pride, I'm so lucky to have a daughter like you..."

After replying to his wife and daughter, Pang Xuelin ended the video recording.

In a little over an hour, the video will appear in the Project Lazarus command center on Earth.

It will probably take at least a few days before it is delivered to Chris and Little Murphy.

This is the swan geese of the space age.

Then, Pang Xuelin changed into fitness clothes and went to the gym for exercise.

He didn't really come to the gym to exercise, but just to pass the boring time.

After all, after undergoing genetic modification, his physical fitness and comprehensive abilities in all aspects have surpassed the peak of human beings.

What surprised Pang Xuelin was that when he came to the gym, he saw Murphy sweating profusely on the treadmill.

"Brother-in-law, you also come to exercise?"

Murphy looked at Pang Xuelin in surprise.

She has never seen Pang Xuelin come to the gym on his own initiative, but every time he takes a physical test, Pang Xuelin always comes out on top.

Pang Xuelin smiled and said, "Come here and practice. After lying down for a year and a half, your bones are going to rust."

During the voyage, life inside the Eternal Night spacecraft was relatively boring. Except for completing the daily routine logbook and various equipment inspections, life was very ordinary most of the time.

The only time Pang Xuelin had a sense of expectation was the monthly video call with his wife and daughter.

Although there was a time delay, such communication gave Pang Xuelin an emotional sustenance in his heart.

Half a year passed by in a flash.

The giant planet Saturn is already in sight outside the spacecraft's porthole.

In the past few years, in order to ensure the smooth progress of the Lazarus Project, NASA has carried out several unmanned exploration projects.

Although the main target of the detection is the huge wormhole with a diameter of more than 100 kilometers located 5 million kilometers away from Saturn, NASA even let unmanned probes go through the wormhole, and verified the possibility of using wormholes for gravitational wave communication .

But when human probes pass by Saturn, they will detect Saturn to a certain extent.

Therefore, to a certain extent, Saturn is the planet in the solar system that humans understand the most.

The beautiful rings of Saturn surround this gas giant planet. Through radio telescopes, Pang Xuelin can even hear the wonderful sound coming from the interior of Saturn after electromagnetic wave demodulation.

It was a faint cry to the universe that began billions of years ago when the solar system was formed.

It's just that Pang Xuelin and the others are destined to pass by this giant planet in a hurry.

After arriving at Saturn, all 100 crew members in the Eternal Night were awakened.

Then after another week of sailing, the huge wormhole was finally in sight.

Compared with the wormhole that Pang Xuelin experienced in the ninth district world, the wormhole in front of him is at least a hundred times larger, and its diameter exceeds two hundred kilometers. Through the naked eye, you can see the sun's rays pass through the space where it is located. , a certain degree of bending occurs.

There was nothing in its place, and even the gravitational force did not produce any abnormalities, but everyone could sense his existence.

It's like a big mouth from a prehistoric monster, devouring everything in the vast void.

The wormhole in the movie is considered to be from the handwriting of future high-dimensional human civilization.

They can freely shuttle between the space dimension and the time dimension, and they can be called the biggest behind-the-scenes boss in this world.

Pang Xuelin didn't know if the wormhole in front of him was really as described in the movie.