A Colossus rushes in at the start

Chapter 73 Some jokes are too accurate

Astronomical observation is a very tedious and boring thing. You need to spend all day in a place far away from the hustle and bustle of the city, doing nothing but staring at the starry sky, or listening to various wavelengths of the universe with headphones.

It's hard for anyone to stick with astronomy unless they truly love it.

Because of the nature of this profession, people who work in this field often find it difficult to achieve the kind of "success" that is defined by the general public.

Fortunately, the civilization built by the Puton people on Deler Star still paid enough attention to the starry sky. At least these observers, who lived far from big cities and did not choose to be cogs in the machine of labor, and who looked up at the starry sky day after day, were not labeled as "not doing their job properly".

On this day, the two Puton men were on duty at the observatory as usual.

One of them temporarily left to make a cup of warm agar tea for the two of them. The observation station was located at the top of a mountain at an extremely high altitude, and the observers had to face the thin air and cold at high altitude every day.

When he returned with two cups of tea, he found his colleague still intently focused on the observation mirror, as if he were a thief who had discovered some priceless treasure.

"Dadi, what are you looking at?"

"In the A-039 sector... it seems like a black hole is forming." Dadi explained his findings while lying in front of the observation scope, showing no intention of leaving it.

My colleague picked up a cup of agar tea, took a sip, and said habitually, "You must be mistaken. I don't recall any stars nearing the end of their lifespan in sector A-039."

It's no wonder he didn't believe it. He had just looked at the A-039 star sector a few days ago, and there wasn't even a single massive star there. How could a huge mass suddenly appear in that location to form a black hole?

"Come and see for yourself if you don't believe me. This increasingly obvious gravitational lensing—is it really fake?"

Seeing that his colleague didn't believe him, Dadi waved him over, signaling him to come to the observation mirror and let the facts speak for themselves.

The man with three fingers rested his palm on the handle of the observatory, and a very obvious gravitational lensing effect appeared in a certain area of ​​the observatory. Because of the distortion of light by gravitational lensing, the positions of the stars behind it were significantly shifted.

My colleague felt his worldview had collapsed and exclaimed in shock, "My God! I remember there weren't any stars in that area just a few days ago. How could a black hole have formed there? Where did all that mass come from?"

Dadi thought for a moment, then said, "Aliens?"

Dadi's colleague glared at him speechlessly. "Can you please stop interfering with your rational thinking with your fantasies?"

Dadi laughed and then replied, "I was just kidding, trying to lighten the mood. A serious atmosphere is too depressing for a discussion."

As he spoke, Dadi offered his speculation: "Spacetime cannot lie. Spacetime tells matter how to move, and matter tells spacetime how to bend. From the moment gravitational lensing appeared, it indicated that a large amount of mass was concentrated at that location, which is a wandering black hole."

"But why haven't we observed any stars in this location in the A-039 sector before? I think it's very likely a special kind of faint star."

The A-039 region didn't suddenly gain a lot of mass to form a black hole; rather, the A-039 region already had that much mass. It's just that the Putonians' current observation technology is limited, so they haven't discovered that region has that much mass.

This is the explanation Dadi gave, and his colleagues did not refute it because it was reasonable. Otherwise, how could they explain the sudden appearance of a large amount of mass in that star sector?

Are we really hoping that aliens moved a huge amount of mass to that region of stars and it's piling up to form an artificial black hole?

Don't be silly, the scientists in the scientific community would scold you for lacking the most basic scientific literacy.

Upon hearing Dadi's speculation, his colleague suddenly realized, "The Dark Star you're referring to, could it be...?"

Dadi affirmed, "Yes, theoretically, celestial bodies are composed of dark matter. Detecting dark stars in the universe requires detecting gamma rays, neutrinos, and antimatter particles, but current technology cannot achieve the high precision required for detection."

A colleague asked, puzzled, "Even if it's a dark star, and we've never discovered its existence before, how do you explain the appearance of gravitational lensing?"

The mass of the dark star is no less than that of a star, and it may collapse into a black hole. The observation technology of the Puton people could not detect it, and all aspects match.

But there's a problem here.

A dark star can collapse into a black hole without significantly changing its mass. Just like when a star collapses into a black hole, it doesn't mean the black hole's mass increases; the black hole's mass remains the same as the original star's mass.

They only noticed the anomalous appearance of the A-039 star region because of the obvious gravitational lensing. If it were a dark star, it would mean that they should have discovered the possible existence of stars in the A-039 star region long ago through the obvious gravitational lensing of dark stars.

In response, Dadi explained: "If the cooling of the matter inside a dark star and the heating of the dark matter can be balanced, the dark star can exist stably in the universe. If this balance is broken, the dark star may collapse into a star or a black hole."

"If it were two dark stars colliding there, there would be no doubt that this balance would be broken."

Yes, it wasn't just one dark star, but the encounter of two dark stars that caused the black hole to appear in the A-039 sector.

This makes sense.

My colleague thought about it and still felt that Dark Star's speculation wasn't very reliable, so he asked...

"Is it possible that two wandering black holes collided?"

If it's a low-mass wandering black hole, it's understandable that it wasn't discovered before.

Dadi said helplessly, "I had thought about that, but the collision of black holes would produce relatively obvious gravitational waves, and our radar did not receive any similar gravitational wave signals."

"If possible, I would also be unwilling to believe Dark Star's speculation. After all, it seems a bit unreliable to use something from a theory as a basis for conjecture without adding any physical substance."

My colleague nodded knowingly and replied with some excitement, "Regardless of the truth, today will be a day that will go down in history for us."

The astronomical phenomenon is there for all to see, and the outcome will not change regardless of whether the facts are as they speculate.

As the first discoverers of this major astronomical phenomenon, they were about to become the focus of civilization and be recorded in the annals of civilization...

The two Puttonians were unaware of how precise their joke was: the planetary beings were using psychic energy to construct a mini-universe.

The astronomical spectacle that the Puttonians witnessed—the so-called "a huge mass collapsing into a black hole out of thin air"—the astronomical anomaly in the A-039 sector, was indeed the work of extraterrestrials.

It was a group of Babel bee swarms that used psionic energy to warp spacetime and created a miniature universe in sector A-039 73 years ago, capable of enveloping planetary life forms.

The object at the center of the gravitational lens is not a black hole, but a small universe that is gradually taking shape as spacetime is curved. Once it is completed, these obvious gravitational lenses will no longer be visible.

At the very center of this emerging microcosm dwells a planetary being.

The planetary beings outside, who help warp spacetime with psychic energy, send an object to the center of the microcosm using psychic energy and transmit a string of information through the swarm network.

"Take this and attach it to your body. It was purchased from those aliens in the Star Alliance. It's called a collapse bomb. It contains antimatter. When the antimatter is detonated, it will form a miniature black hole, causing the target to collapse into a black hole."

"It's dangerous, be careful when you install it."

The collapse bomb is extremely large, roughly the size of three Starfleet battleships.

The planetary being at the center of the microcosm briefly observed the collapsing bomb after receiving it from its kin using psionic energy, and then asked, quite puzzled.

"...This collapse bomb is useless, isn't it?"

"With my psionic abilities, creating a black hole is easy. All I need to do is warp spacetime to the extreme, so that space can first form a pseudo-black hole, and then let the pseudo-black hole devour matter, and soon a stable black hole with a singularity can be formed."

The other planetary beings replied, "That's true, but the bee colony knows far too little about the situation in the neighboring galaxy. What if there's a very powerful civilization in that galaxy?"

"What if that civilization can completely seal off your psionic abilities in one go?"

"According to Lu Shang's main brain, this is something for you to use to commit suicide. If in an interstellar war, the enemy understands the swarm, but the swarm does not understand the enemy, then it is no different from being about to perish."

I have reservations about Lu Shang's other talents, but his military talent is beyond doubt. Since Lu Shang mentioned the danger in this area, the swarm is very likely to be in danger in this area as well.

Therefore, the Babel bee colony must guard against this possibility, because all of this is for the survival of the colony, and the survival of the colony is above all else!

The planetary being at the center of the microcosm asked in bewilderment, "But if that's the case, I feel that these collapse bombs would be even more useless. My psionic energy could be sealed off instantly, which means the enemy could disarm me completely in a moment. How would I have time to commit suicide then?"

The other planetary beings replied: "Install it, just in case. If it's useless, it's useless. But if you find it useful and it's not installed, it'll be too late."

"What you said makes sense."

The existence of the swarm is paramount. After some thought, the planetary beings at the center of the microcosm also agreed to assemble the collapse bomb.

At this moment, the other planetary beings questioned the planetary being that was about to be completely enveloped by the microcosm.

"You've remembered everything that the Lu Entropy mainframe told you to do, right?"

The planetary creature replied, "Remember, concealing ourselves is paramount. Being undetected and unnoticed is the greatest level of security. Secondly, we must gather as much intelligence as possible without being detected, so that the swarm can have a greater advantage from the outset in any potential intergalactic war."

"Conversely, if I am captured, and the unknown enemy obtains information about the swarm from me, while the swarm knows nothing about the unknown enemy, it means that the entire Babel Tower swarm has already stepped halfway across the line of extinction."

The other planetary creatures said, "Yes, hide yourself, gather intelligence, you don't need to do anything else, your mission doesn't involve combat."

With the completion of the microcosm's construction, the gravitational lensing caused by the psionic distortion of spacetime disappeared, and the planetary creature vanished completely from the main universe.

"You can set off now."

"OK."

After the microcosm took shape, it formed two wormhole tunnels. One of them remained in place, while the other moved out of the Vorsotis galaxy at faster-than-light speed.

(End of this chapter)