A Colossus rushes in at the start

Chapter 247 The Megastructure of the Beehive is Too Horrifying

"A ring around a star? That's insane! It's impossible! Such a ring-like structure would definitely collapse. There's no material that can be extended to a star scale!" The Ska civilization representative tried his best to dissuade them, even though he knew that such persuasion was useless.

Lu Shang nodded slightly. The Babel Tower bee swarm had thought of this problem before. On a stellar scale, any molecular or atomic material is as fragile as tofu, no, even more fragile than tofu. This is why celestial bodies in the universe are all spherical, while on a small scale, in addition to circles, there are various other shapes.

A ring encircling a star would have to be at least twice the diameter of the star's equator, since the ring couldn't possibly be touching the surface of the star's equator, where the temperature would be too high.

Lu Shang said, "The problem you've thought of, we, the Babel Tower bees, have already thought of. It's a small problem that's easy to solve."

"A minor issue?"

The Ska civilization representative was taken aback. He couldn't even begin to imagine how to solve the problem of material strength on a stellar scale.

Lu Shang explained: "Forces are reciprocal. When people on one boat push another boat, the boat that people are on will also receive an opposite force and move backward."

"The particle stream inside the orbital particle accelerator does not turn on its own. It needs the strong electric field of the inner wall of the accelerator to deflect and turn it. Through this deflection in the form of electric field repulsion, the strong inertial centrifugal force that should be on the particle stream moving at near the speed of light will be transferred to the particle accelerator, thus giving the orbital particle accelerator a supporting force that can counteract the gravity of the star."

"But...but the material strength is still..." the Ska civilization representative said anxiously.

The direction of inertial centrifugal force is unidirectional; it is not omnidirectional and at most only helps particle accelerators avoid falling into stars.

However, space is a three-dimensional environment. If an external force comes from the vertical direction of the ring's surface, such as a meteorite impact, and disrupts the movement of particles within the ring, the ring star particle accelerator will disintegrate like a twisted rope due to the turbulent gravity.

The swarm had already considered this issue. Lu Shang said, "Don't be nervous. There's nothing to worry about in terms of the overall structure. When molecular materials are placed on a stellar scale, their strength does indeed become as fragile as a fluid, but this is not the case for degenerate materials."

"A stream of particles approaching the speed of light will exhibit gravity similar to that of a black hole because it is too close to the speed of light. This gravity will not only extract the mass of stars, but also compress the atomic structure of the particle accelerator itself. The direct result is that the inner wall of the particle accelerator is affected by gravity and compressed from the atomic level density to the atomic nucleus level, which is similar to the neutron degenerate state."

To put it bluntly, it's a solution where one foot steps on the other and the other goes up to the sky.

The particle accelerator provides electric field confinement and velocity, while the internally accelerated particle stream, through its inertia and its own gravity, provides support and strength for the entire star-scale structure.

The Ska civilization representative, having figured all this out, suddenly felt his worldview crumble.

"This...this technology..."

After stammering for a long time, the representative of the Ska civilization was too shocked to utter a complete sentence.

The technical precision required behind this is extremely high, as it involves coordinating the particle accelerator with the accelerated particle stream and precisely controlling the gravity generated by the particle stream.

The discovery of the Ska civilization represents a tragic one. Even if they had known the principles, and given another two thousand years to develop, the Ska people would most likely still not have been able to create such an artificial object orbiting a star.

The technology of the Babel bee colony is terrifying!

Lu Shang assumed that the Ska civilization's representatives hadn't grasped the concept. "If you still can't understand, just think of it as a ring-shaped neutron star nestled in the orbit of a star. The intensity of a neutron star doesn't need much explanation from us, right?"

……

Today's swarm networks are limited by the speed of light in transmitting information.

Therefore, in order to develop, the hives, at the request of the land entropy, hatched many swarm brains. These brains, as executors of the land entropy's orders, served as local commanders on various planets and space clusters.

Fortunately, the Babel bees are not human; otherwise, given Lu Shang's brutal power structure, a series of power struggles would have already begun.

Every bee in the colony yearns for the colony to return to its former glory. This desire unites all the bees in the colony, motivating them to do their jobs diligently and responsibly.

After the construction of the gravitational ring around the star's orbit was nearing completion, the masterminds, who had been assigned to manage and command larger clusters, were summoned back to the planetary life forms by Lu Shang.

Based on the trajectory of human history, it is likely that those in power are doing this to relinquish military power over a cup of wine.

However, this thing did not exist in the history of the Babel Tower bee colony. Lu Shang summoned them back to discuss and decide on the future path of the bee colony.

"Once the gravitational ring is built, the swarm will have a mass source with an inexhaustible supply of matter, as well as a star framework."

"By perfecting this stellar framework, we can turn the orbital structure into a celestial-scale wormhole generator and antimatter source."

On the planetary life form, one of the mainframes expressed its thoughts to the other mainframes: "Fortunately, the Star Alliance already has wormhole generation devices and antimatter production methods. With a little biological modification, they can be created by the swarm. It's just a matter of time."

"With antimatter and wormholes, we have a certain level of confidence in both faster-than-light travel and waging space wars."

"I propose that, once the wormhole generation device is completed, we should prioritize a full-scale exploration of other regions of the Mother Universe and establish contact with the Mother Universe framework as soon as possible."

If they can re-establish contact with the Mother Universe, the Babel Swarm will gain absolute control over the current universe.

The Mother Universe is a member of the hive; the universe itself is a swarm of bees. The Babel hive can change everything in the universe, including the current physical rules, simply by issuing commands to the Mother Universe.

Therefore, as long as the Mother Nest universe can be returned to the command of the swarm, the Babel Tower swarm will be free from any enemy threat in this universe.

However, this proposal was quickly opposed by other hive leaders.

"I object. The risk is too high. Other areas are still unknown. If we encounter a powerful enemy, the swarm currently does not have the capability to wage space warfare."

"We should first occupy the nearby star systems, and after occupying as many stars as possible, then we can consider full-scale exploration."

The swarm has only just built its first gravity ring, which is too small. If it doesn't build more, it will definitely suffer heavy losses if it encounters other interstellar civilizations and a cosmic war breaks out.

After being reminded by the opponents, those in the leadership with a stronger sense of crisis also put forward their own ideas.

"We should first install faster-than-light engines on the planetary creatures. The planetary creatures are currently an important strategic stronghold for the swarm, and we should restore their interplanetary mobility as soon as possible."

Soon, another mastermind objected, saying, "But there's not much antimatter, so even if we made it, we wouldn't be able to use it."

The faster-than-light engine, as known from previous satellite civilizations, is a technology that uses ultra-high-energy lasers to bombard the void, creating a special spacetime bubble that envelops the spacecraft, thereby achieving faster-than-light speeds.

To generate such ultra-high energy lasers, antimatter is needed as fuel for annihilation; the larger the spacetime bubble, the greater the required antimatter mass.

However, the swarm currently has zero antimatter reserves. Even if they collect antimatter at full power around the star, it will take a very long time to collect enough antimatter for planetary life to travel faster than the speed of light.

Ultimately, Lu Shang made the decision: "Expand first, occupy one hundred stars, and then consider conducting small-scale explorations of the entire galaxy."

Lu Shang explained his reasoning: "The Mother Universe is a member of the Hive. With the Hive psionic network unusable, it should be eager to find us and make contact with us. However, the Hive has not made contact with it, which means there are some factors preventing the Mother Universe from doing so."

"Therefore, my conclusion is that danger exists, and it is very dangerous. The swarm needs to focus on expansion and explore as a secondary task. At least after it has gained control of more than two galaxies, it can then consider large-scale exploration of the entire Mother Nest universe."

(End of this chapter)