Voyage of the Stars

So far, everything is going well. In the next period of time, humans will deploy the space station platform and resource transfer station platform as usual, release landing craft, engineering machinery, and collection base deployment vehicles, and start carrying out resources and operations from Aldebaran-Kong Star. Energy extraction.

The Lyra and several other Shan-class warships docked in the orbit of Aldebaran-Zhongda also released equipment to conduct operations on the planet.

The same thing happens in the asteroid belt.

Just when humans thought that this time it was going as smoothly as before, a picture sent back by a detection spacecraft broke the calm.

For a time, everyone on the bridge of the Tianqin entered a fast pace.

"Yue Shuai, this is the picture captured by the No. 7 detection spacecraft through the shipboard optical telescope. Astronomers judged that this is not what normal dust clouds should look like." A staff member in the communications post saw Yue Yuan coming to the bridge. The picture was immediately displayed on the big screen of Tianqin, and then the basic situation was reported.

Yue Yuan floated from the bridge entrance to the big screen, then skillfully activated his magnetic boots and let himself fall back to the bridge floor.

He looked up at the big screen and saw a dust cloud displayed inside.

Dust clouds are very common in space. They are dust and fine metal particles floating in the universe. Most of them are composed of hydrogen. Under the influence of appropriate gravity, these dust clouds gather densely together in the shape of clouds. In astronomical telescopes, They often appear colorful, so people vividly call them nebulae.

Of course, the reason why it looks so colorful is actually due to the long-term exposure of the telescope. Nowadays, pictures in large screens obviously don't have time to be exposed for a long time, so they look ordinary.

However, the purpose of shooting is not to appreciate the gorgeous colors, as long as it contains useful information, that is enough.

Taking a look at the picture, Yue Yuan realized that this dust cloud was unusual. It had obviously been disturbed and was obviously different from the normal appearance formed by microgravity.

No wonder the detection spacecraft transmitted the picture.

Seeing this image, Yue Yuan was first of all satisfied with the intelligent AI of the detection spacecraft. It was able to detect abnormal dust clouds and photograph them, which shows that the AI ​​has a very intelligent self-determination ability.

"Have the Tianqin's telescopes and detectors been pointed at that star field?" Yue Yuan asked.

"The shipboard telescopes of the Kunlun and Huashan ships in the asteroid belt have been pointed at that star field, and the Tianqin is scanning the surrounding star field." the correspondent replied.

"Okay, pick up the Gande communication for me." Yue Yuan nodded. This response is not bad. The detection equipment carried on the detection spacecraft is smaller than that of the battleship. If you want to know the specific situation, you need a large-diameter telescope.

"Chief?" Gander's image appeared on the split screen of the big screen.

"Well, have you seen the dust cloud picture?" Yue Yuan didn't waste any time and went straight to the point.

"Look, our colleagues from the Department of Astronomy are analyzing the images frame by frame." Gan De paused for a moment and said solemnly: "We let the 'Light of the Milky Way' dynamically restore the shape of the dust cloud. After preliminary analysis, we think It is most likely caused by something passing through it. In the universe, there is only one thing that can pass through dust clouds, and that is a spaceship!"

"How much?" Yue Yuan shuddered in his heart, but the surface was still calm and calm. You can't see specific things from the image with the naked eye. It must be restored by professionals through professional means.

The dust cloud image now on the big screen is the most primitive, and not much information can be seen from it.

In fact, when he heard the correspondent's report, Yue Yuan had already made a guess, but without the final result, he was still a little lucky.

Now astronomers have used the "Light of the Milky Way" to reversely restore the process of how dust clouds became like this. That must be correct.

"Commander, wait a minute!" Gander said, turning back to the past to discuss something with a group of astronomers. He was busy on a row of workbench for a while, and then turned to look at the camera: "Four hundred and ten three."

Following Gander's words, the data from the Department of Astronomy was also shared with Tianqin at this moment.

Then Yue Yuan saw that the blurry picture became clear again and again as the screen frames jumped, and traces of gaps could gradually be seen in the originally messy dust cloud.

The picture at this time looks like it has been brushed over.

The computer quickly marked each information point on the dust cloud brushed by the brush, and then displayed the corresponding number, 413, next to it.

There are four hundred and thirteen traces, some large and some small, that is, four hundred and thirteen spaceships of different sizes.

"Is there any way to judge the direction, speed, size of the battleship, and level of civilization?" Yue Yuan's face was gloomy.

Gander quickly replied: "Judging from the traces of dust clouds, the route of this fleet is approximately 90 degrees from the direction we are coming from, and its heading target should also be Aldebaran. The speed, size of the warship, and level of civilization also need to be determined. Further observations.”

This is what they are afraid of. Human beings have obviously moved towards the direction where the stars are sparse, so how can they still encounter aliens?

Could it be that these aliens think the same way as humans?

Hearing what Gan De said, Yue Yuan's heart really sank to the bottom.

However, he remained calm, so he asked the communication staff on the bridge: "Has the standby command for the detection spacecraft been sent?"

"The standby command has been sent out as soon as the picture was sent back." The correspondent added, "Yue Shuai, the emergency avoidance procedure of the detection spacecraft AI has this command."

Yue Yuan nodded, turned around and sat on his seat.

Of course he knows that the detection spacecraft AI has emergency evacuation instructions. Once it detects a situation that may be aliens, it will automatically enter a standby state to shut down the thrusters.

Yue Yuan was just afraid that the AI ​​would not judge this discovery as an anomaly that might be from aliens, so to be on the safe side, he asked one more question, and now he was relieved to hear the correspondent's answer.

When the picture was sent back, it already showed the relative distance between the dust cloud, Aldebaran, and the detection spacecraft.

The dust cloud is less than 0.75 light-years away from Aldebaran, and the detection spacecraft is 0.2 light-years away from Aldebaran. At this distance, the bright tail flame of the nuclear fusion engine is likely to be detected, so shutting down the engine is to improve concealment.

It stands to reason that at this distance, as long as there is a huge fleet on the route, the bright tail flame cannot escape the detection of human large-diameter telescopes, but this fleet is obviously in a state of constant speed with the engine turned off.

This discovery also gave Yue Yuan a preliminary judgment on the civilization level to which this fleet belonged.