Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 83 Crisis Era Year 12

The Trisolaran fleet is 4.18 light-years from the solar system.

Hubble 2 Space Telescope Control Center.

The 'brush' marks have once again appeared in the laser image on the computer. This is the result of the Hubble 2 telescope processing the image. Of course, the original image can also be seen. In that high-resolution photograph with the universe as the background, the soft, silky 'brush' marks can be clearly seen with the naked eye.

"This time the 'brush' is much clearer than the last time."

"That's because the Trisolaran fleet is much faster than last time, and the higher speed has a greater impact on the dust cloud, making it more noticeable."

"General, have you noticed anything in this picture?"

"One thousand trimaran warships."

"Can you count them again more carefully?"

General Fitzroy and Dr. Ringer had worked together for five years. During those five years, although Fitzroy, as the military representative, and Dr. Ringer, as the scientific community representative, mostly disagreed, they also understood each other quite well. Faced with Dr. Ringer's words, Fitzroy began to carefully re-examine the picture.

“1, 2, 3, 4… I saw 10 tiny bristles emerging from the flight path, but they were very faint.”

What do you think that is?

"A Trisolaran warship?"

"The number of Trisolaran warships has not changed; it remains at one thousand."

“These 10 bristles are very small and look like something like a detector.”

"Yes, you guessed right. Based on our logic, these should be 10 detectors. Judging from the size comparison shown in the picture, these detectors are about the size of a truck, but they are faster."

"Faster? How much faster?"

"This hasn't been calculated precisely yet, but it's clear that the acceleration of these 10 probes is much greater than the overall acceleration of the fleet."

Fitzroy felt a surge of nervousness, but he remained calm in front of Dr. Ringer: "Can you calculate its approximate speed?"

Dr. Ling nodded. "I'll give it a try."

While Dr. Ringer was doing his calculations, General Fitzroy told his subordinates, “Notify the United Nations and the PDC…and remember to notify the Wallfacer as well.”

After a while, Lin Ge spoke up: "Using the Trisolaran fleet as a frame of reference, the speed of these 10 probes is approximately—"

A sword's cry echoed through the sky, growing louder as it approached. Then, a gentle breeze swept by, and Luo Qing, the Wallfacer, appeared in the Hubble 2 Space Telescope control center.

The communications officer, clutching his head as he watched Luo Qing's retreating figure, said, "I just pressed send and enter less than a minute ago..."

Luo Qing explained, "I am having dinner with former President Sai, not far from here."

"Is a few hundred kilometers not far?" the correspondent complained.

General Fitzroy was clearly the most composed person present. He had seen Luo Qing more than once at the Wallfacer hearings over the past three years, but he hadn't expected him to arrive so quickly this time.

Dr. Linger, whose calculations were interrupted by Luo Qing's arrival, was not annoyed. He said to General Fitzroy and Luo Qing at the same time: "According to the traces of the contrail, the speed of these 10 probes is about 8.34% of the speed of light, which is about 25000 kilometers per second."

At this speed, it can circle the Earth in about 1.3 seconds.

"8% of the speed of light? That's fast?" General Fitzroy was somewhat shocked.

Although Luo Qing had just arrived, a quick scan with his spiritual sense gave him a general idea of ​​what had happened. He frowned and asked, "Wasn't it said that the Trisolaran fleet's speed was only 1% of the speed of light? How could they launch probes that are close to 10% of the speed of light?"

Dr. Ling corrected, "The difference between 8.34% and 10% is still quite significant."

General Fitzroy said, "Doesn't this mean that in 50 years, the solar system will encounter the probes launched by these Trisolaran fleets ahead of schedule?"

Fifty years—this far exceeded Luo Qing's expectations. He had imagined that he might make contact with the Trisolaran civilization ahead of schedule, but he hadn't imagined it would happen so soon.

Even in the world of cultivation, 50 years is the average time it takes for a Foundation Establishment cultivator to break through to the Golden Core stage. For the Nascent Soul stage, this time is not long either; it's enough to break through a minor realm.

But for human civilization, that's far too short; 50 years is simply not enough time to develop a starship. Fortunately, Dr. Ling's next words brought a sigh of relief to everyone.

"It's definitely not going to take 50 years. I observed the relative distance and time of these brush marks. Those 10 protruding bristles took a long time to reach their current maximum acceleration. I estimate that they will definitely arrive before the fleet, but at most by about 200 years. Although their maximum speed is 8.34% of the speed of light, this speed of light is obviously not enough to cover the entire journey. Their average speed is about 2%."

"As for why I judged that this speed could not be sustained throughout the entire journey, we need to look at the traces left by these brushes. The traces of interstellar clouds have obvious phased characteristics, which means that the speed of the probe also increases intermittently. Moreover, due to the presence of dust clouds, these probes encountered actual non-vacuum resistance in the vacuum of space, and therefore could not glide without resistance at 8.34% of the speed of light."

Dr. Lin Ge's analysis was spot on; the timeframe of two hundred years brought a sigh of relief to everyone present.

One military staff officer said, "It's just a detector, we shouldn't be so nervous."

Luo Qing asked, "How big are these detectors?" He had just arrived and had not heard Dr. Ling describe their size.

Dr. Lin Ge said, "The Trisolaran fleet consists of ships that are roughly the size of 50 aircraft carriers. The enemy's giant space warship model is the fundamental premise for the space forces of various countries to study how to deal with the enemy. The size of the probe is about one in hundreds of thousands of these ships, roughly the size of a truck."

One engineer said, "There shouldn't be any danger; it's just something the size of ten trucks."

"Don't underestimate big trucks."

Luo Qing interrupted the engineer's assessment: "This is a truck that can travel at 25000 kilometers per second. Even if it does nothing but crash into a human city, it can cause damage no less than a nuclear bomb."

"That's at most equivalent to 10 nuclear bombs."

Luo Qing pondered in silence.

“But there’s one thing I don’t understand,” Fitzroy asked. “Why did the Trisolarans launch these 10 probes? Don’t they have sophons?”

Thinking of this, General Fitzroy looked at Luo Qing: "Mr. Wallfacer, what do you think?"

Luo Qing shook his head frankly: "I don't know either, but we definitely can't judge it by conventional thinking. No matter what these four probes are for, whether they're here to celebrate a birthday, surrender, or even come to do a pole dance in space, we shouldn't care. We should treat them all as enemies."

"As soon as it gets close to the solar system, immediately unleash all firepower until it is destroyed," Luo Qing said.

"This thing runs so fast, it's not easy to hit," one observer said.

General Fitzroy said, "Speed ​​isn't the problem. Can it be faster than light? We can use laser weapons."

"What if laser weapons can't destroy it?"

"If we can't destroy it, I'll stand guard at the edge of Pluto and go myself." Luo Qing's voice was extremely calm.

Fitzroy quickly picked up the conversation: "Wallfacer, a few probes aren't enough to warrant your intervention. High-powered laser weapons, as one of the mainstream defense measures for the future solar system, will certainly play their due role. All macroscopic objects are subject to the influence of energy, and we should have confidence in laser weapons."

As he spoke, Fitzroy turned to look at Dr. Ringer:

"Dr. Linger, considering that the images transmitted back by the Harvard 4 telescope are actually from four years ago, can you deduce the exact launch time of these ten probes?"

"Of course. When the fleet launched these probes, they were also in a dust cloud. These crisscrossing tire tracks under the snow can give us the answer."

After a brief calculation, Dr. Ringer told the Wallfacer and General Fitzroy a date.

"March 20th, Year 8 of the Crisis Era." (December 3, 2014.12.20)

“There’s nothing special about this time,” Fitzroy shook his head. “If there’s anything special about it, it’s that on that night, another Wallfacer, Dr. Luo Ji, almost fell into the icy lake, and then Zhi Zi typed something in Zhuang Yan’s eyes…”

Fitzroy became increasingly puzzled as he spoke, his voice growing softer and softer until he finally fell silent.

Luo Qing immediately asked, "When were the first accelerations of these 10 detectors?"

"March 25th, Year 9 of the Crisis Era." (December 4, 2015.4.25)

"Is there anything special about this time?" Luo Qing asked again.

General Fitzroy replied, "On that day three years ago, Dr. Luo Ji, the Wallfacer, returned to China and, with the help of the FAST telescope in Guizhou, completed the broadcast to the sun, officially sending his incantation into the universe."

Dr. Lin looked at Luo Qing subconsciously, only to find that the other person had his eyes closed and was calculating something with his fingers.

(End of this chapter)