Voyage of the Stars.

Chapter 1412 Step by Step Towards the Abyss
They've arrived; the three major voyages have reached their destination. Of course, this isn't the final destination, it's just a stopover, but it's still a huge success.

The fact that we were able to arrive here alive means that the ultra-long-distance voyage capabilities of the three major voyage organizations have been verified. Although everyone is half-dead, at least we are not completely dead.

After leaving the galaxy at the edge of the Boötes Great Void, the three major voyages changed course once more, and by total distance, they have traveled 2939 million light-years to reach this point.

That's nearly 30 million light-years! If it's a straight-line distance, we've already covered one-fifth of the final journey. This is undoubtedly a magnificent feat, an unprecedented long-distance voyage.

The universe is amazing.

The three major expeditionary organizations traveled 2939 million light-years, but according to the timeline of this target star system, the time it took for the three expeditionary organizations' fleets to travel from departure to arrival was very short, less than a hundred years.

This is the phenomenon caused by time dilation.

From the perspective of an observer in the target galaxy, light traveling from the edge of the Boötes Hollow to this point takes zero time, while the three major spacefaring organizations, traveling at slightly less than the speed of light, take several decades.

However, for the three major voyage organizations themselves, 2939 million years have passed. This is why they are half-dead; the vast expanse of time stretches everything out, and even the slightest loss becomes an astronomical figure over such a long period.

That said, with two different observers, one having observed 2939 million years and the other only a few decades, isn't that a clear bug?

For the three major voyage organizations, it was as if they had traveled to the past of the target star system, while from the perspective of the target star system, they had traveled to the future of the three major voyage organizations.

However, this is not a bug, because the reason for this time difference is that the three great voyages have not yet slowed down and are still traveling relative to the target galaxy at a speed close to the speed of light. Their intrinsic timelines do not overlap, so at this time they are meaningless to each other.

Therefore, the three major expeditionary organizations will need to decelerate. During this deceleration process, their intrinsic timelines will rapidly coincide with the intrinsic timelines of their target galaxy. This process will take several decades for the former and 2939 million years for the latter.

When their intrinsic timelines coincide again, their timelines are unified once more, and their time flows align once more.

The universe is so mysterious.

"We really made it, and we're still alive."

"Yes, congratulations on still being alive!"

"Praise life!"

Praise be to the universe!

"Praise be to civilization!"

The moment the fleet finished slowing down, all the survivors awoke. They congratulated each other, for being alive was the most worthwhile thing to celebrate!

The Lyra is still there, and it has already been cleaned by cleaning robots, making it clean and tidy. However, it will require a major overhaul, as many of its equipment and partitions have suffered severe aging due to the diffusion of matter molecules, and all of these need to be replaced. Not only the Lyra needs a major overhaul, but other ships will also need major overhauls, or even be completely rebuilt. For example, habitation ships have many components that are not as advanced as the Lyra, so they need even more replacements; if too many need to be replaced, it might be better to just build a new one.

Engineering vessels and factory-type spacecraft, which serve as maintenance tools, also require maintenance and upkeep.

It could be said that the fleet had just finished slowing down, and humanity had already planned what to do next.

The same is true for other civilizations.

The Daya civilization is in a slightly better situation than humanity; besides the Daya, they still have several thousand main warships that haven't been dismantled. The Feiyu civilization is in a similar situation; none of their residential ships have been dismantled.

The Falcon Civilization is in a slightly worse situation than the Human Civilization. Their entire fleet now consists of only the Falcon, the habitation ships, and the necessary engineering ships; all the other transport ships and warships have been dismantled.

The situations of the Silver Heart Civilization, the Sedes Civilization, the Toulei Civilization, the Memoda Civilization, and the Stayu Civilization are basically similar; none of their individual life forms have reached the point of activating the Fire Seed Project.

The Aran civilization fared much worse. In order to maintain the operation of its super-intelligent leader, a massive energy consumer, most of their individual lives were transformed into genes. However, they eventually came to a stop, and given enough time, they can be reborn.

As for the Divine Ju civilization, they no longer have neutron war stars, because they have expelled all the matter from the neutron war stars and turned it into ordinary matter to use as fuel.

Now, their neutron star appears to have only a core remaining. However, this isn't a big deal for them, as the neutron star in this state is merely unusable for combat, not necessitating replacement. With a sufficient amount of matter to absorb, their neutron star will quickly recover.

This did allow various civilizations to see what the core of the neutron war star looked like, but unfortunately, no one could understand it and they simply admired it as a spectacle.

The Abyss Civilization, the Kroll Civilization, and the Blue Ocean Civilization all survived, but many other civilizations only managed to survive by launching the Fire Seed Project.

In summary, of the 80 civilizations in the Galactic Expedition, 39 initiated the Fire Seed Project, nearly half. In the Abyss Expedition, 90 out of 127 civilizations initiated the Fire Seed Project, due to sacrifices made to aid the Nebula lifeforms. The Blue Ocean Expedition, with its 308 civilizations of similar technological achievements, only had 27 civilizations initiate the Fire Seed Project.

From this perspective, although there were some setbacks along the way, this ultra-long-distance voyage was still quite successful overall.

These civilizations have not perished; given time, they can rise again. Civilizations that implemented the Fireseed Project can continue to reproduce; lost warships can be rebuilt; and losses incurred during voyages can be recovered because their technology remains.

This is certainly something to be happy about, but the civilizations also know that it's not time to pop the champagne yet, because this is only the first stage of the journey, and the journey will become more difficult as they approach the center of the Great Hollow.

Based on current observational data, the next destination is a full 39.8 million light-years away, and if everyone's observations are correct, the destination after that is even farther away. We still don't know if we'll reach the end, and this increasingly difficult journey gives us the feeling that we're slowly heading towards hell.

Even if this path leads to hell, we must go all the way, because there is no turning back, and no civilization will ever turn back. Everyone is aware that they would rather perish on the road of progress and exploration than stop and die after a miserable existence. Cosmic disasters are spreading, and it is always better to make an effort than to sit and wait for disaster to strike.

(End of this chapter)