The stars, but they become the gray wind

[The wormhole connection has been confirmed, and it has been connected to the slow domain core hub. The core station control system is online.]

The Dyson Cloud Module that created this new gate slowly moved its position in front of the star gate to block the strong stellar thermal radiation. This star gate with a diameter of 1000 kilometers is only 45 kilometers away from the star, which is 1.5 light seconds. At this distance, the stellar thermal radiation emitted by the red dwarf star and a small amount of coronal matter ejected at a high enough altitude are enough to burn the spacecraft and spacecraft of some primary space civilizations with insufficient material science level into charcoal. In order to prevent the spacecraft of the Theia civilization that may use this star gate in the future from being burned to ashes by the thermal radiation and coronal matter emitted by the active red dwarf star the moment they leave the star gate, Zao Chiqi thoughtfully moved the Dyson Cloud Module to the front of the star gate exit, and revolved around the star synchronously with the star gate, creating a shadow area with a lower temperature that is not exposed to the star for the area where the star gate is located.

.........

In the solar system, in the Trojan asteroid belt of Jupiter's Lagrange point, a Titan ship, which was converted from a colony ship and is larger than the USS Fantasy Light, broke away from the bubble of high-dimensional space jump. Unlike the USS Fantasy Light, which has a huge number of relativistic missiles and automatic production facilities crammed into its hull, the Salem is now covered with various turrets. These two interstellar battleships with extremely opposite development paths are hiding together on the dark side of a 300-kilometer-diameter asteroid in the Trojan asteroid belt of Jupiter, which has been completely excavated.

"Long time no see, Renlong, where are the two of them?" Luoying was teleported onto the ship through a micro wormhole without the human astronaut Kuznetsov noticing, and greeted Renlong on the ship.

"They... ran off to Earth. A lot has been happening here lately, like the overdue August 819th coup, the escalating conflict over an asteroid worth over $20 trillion, the greedy nature of high-ranking officials from various human governments, and the first-ever Martian strike."

"We've seen all sorts of bizarre diversity within human society over the past few months."

Chapter 187 Kuznetsov's amazing imagination

In Salem, in addition to Luoying and others, there was an unexpected guest who also came to the solar system, a glass eel biologist, Xuan Zhang Wu Ke.

"Um...Excuse me..."

"I asked to come along myself. I received Zao Chiqi's report, so as a biologist, I wanted to personally study these two species that are likely to have originated from the same galaxy."

"No problem, Professor Xuan Zhang Wu Ke, we will unconditionally provide all the help you need for your research."

"That's not necessary. I just want to study why two completely different life forms appeared in the same galaxy, one based on carbon and the other based on silicon. It's such an interesting coincidence, I want to study the principle behind it."

"I analyzed the sediments and rock samples found at the bottom of the crater, which is 44 light-years away, and found by Zao Chiqi. They show that the meteorite or asteroid that created the crater likely originated from the celestial body called the Moon in the solar system. Composition-wise, the samples Zao Chiqi and his team found at the bottom of the crater are almost as old as the Moon, and their composition and state are highly similar. So... the answer to the question is simple: these two species share a common origin, or more accurately, they likely originated from the same galaxy. Although the celestial body that may have given birth to another species is no longer in existence, current speculation suggests that the celestial body that gave birth to the Theia civilization and its young ancestors was most likely another celestial body, Theia, that existed before the formation of the Moon. Perhaps a fragment of this celestial body, due to a collision or other reason, reached the third cosmic velocity and flew out of the solar system. After a long time, this broken rock struck a celestial body with both good and bad luck. After this, some organic matter from this celestial fragment was released, causing the planet where it fell to begin the evolution of a completely new biosphere: a biosphere composed of complex silicon-based life forms.

"Do you know how rare this is? Less than one in a trillion. Such a rare specimen is extremely valuable for research."

Ed had recently felt that things were getting more and more ridiculous. On the night Dave broke the strike, he suddenly came to him. He had already been upset because Dave had disrupted the workers' strike and unity, so he naturally didn't treat him well. But when he explained why he had come to him and the real reason why Dave wanted to disrupt the strike, this real reason almost made Ed drop his feet in shock.

-Dave's goal has never been to transport the asteroid to Earth, but to Mars. He wants to steal an asteroid in front of the whole world. In order to accomplish this goal, he must obtain the help of some Martian workers. Only these Martian workers on the front line can do it. They can steal an asteroid worth more than 20 trillion US dollars under the noses of the whole world without being noticed.

Recently, due to the fuel plant accident and worker strikes, the Mars base has begun to implement increasingly strict martial law and control measures, which has only led to more dissatisfaction among the workers. Almost every passage and entrance to the Mars base is guarded. No matter where you go, your identity is checked and your purpose is questioned. Such strict control measures have disgusted many people on the Mars base. M7 and some Mars base management have even ordered the closure of the entrances and exits to the third and fourth underground levels of the Mars base to prevent workers from finding secret gathering places.

What made Ed feel even more embarrassed was that his daughter Kelly had to go to the Korolev Crater 6000 kilometers away to do scientific research, so she left her grandson to his care. However, the grandson was obviously a little scared. His grandfather, whom he had rarely seen since he was born, made him feel a little at a loss when it came to getting along with his grandson.

.........

"I hope you're sincere and not trying to sabotage our strike."

"It's unfortunate and difficult for everyone that things have escalated to that point, but the strike must end because we are running out of time if we want to capture the asteroid before it flies away."

"But you all have demonstrated your principles and will not compromise the principles of the Association under pressure."

"Stop beating around the bush and just say what you want to say!"

"I need you to help me do something unprecedented in human history, not only for Mars, but also for the future of human deep space exploration, and more importantly, for yourselves to live a better life. Only in this way can those bastards on Earth take you seriously."

.........

On Earth, in the space agency's conference room, Margo explained her plan to everyone.

"First of all, the Ranger asteroid tug's engine has very little thrust compared to the asteroid's huge mass. It can only cause a tiny change in the asteroid's orbit and can only send it...to the vicinity of Mars." Margo drew a curve on the asteroid's trajectory diagram.

"After reaching Mars orbit, the Ranger Asteroid Tug will ignite again for a full 20 minutes, using Mars' gravitational slingshot effect to allow the asteroid to change its orbit with the help of Mars' gravity and fly towards Earth."

…………

"But if Ranger's continuous ignition time in Mars orbit is extended to 25 minutes, the asteroid's speed will be slowed down further. It will be directly captured by Mars' gravity, and will no longer fly towards the Earth, and will become a permanent satellite of the red planet. This is our goal." Dave drew a simple diagram of the asteroid's orbit change with chalk.

"The computing power at Happy Valley Base lags far behind Earth's, so they'll resolve the ignition command issue on Earth. The space agency will then upload the data to the Operations Command Center in Happy Valley. The Operations Command Center on the Martian surface will then forward the data to the Ranger. This process will utilize a secure communications system, an S-band antenna, and, most crucially, a frequency detector to confirm the command's validity."

"We need our own operations command center..."

"That way we can send out our own communication signal."

"And the most critical part of the whole plan is the detection box. When the Ranger is on a mission, we need someone to sneak into their crew and replace their detection box with one that we modified ourselves. In other words, we need an insider." Then, everyone's eyes turned to Sam who was sitting at the middle table.

"Sam, I need you to have an identical frequency detection box to switch when the time comes."

"Just to be clear, are you serious? You're asking me to replace a mission-critical component right in the middle of the spacecraft, with the entire crew watching?"

"of course."

"If we want to succeed, we have to do things that are not so comfortable for us."

"Another key thing is that if we want to build our own command center, we need a lot of important equipment, consoles, processors, servers, communication relays, a lot of equipment."

"We have to thank the space agency for this. They have always been extremely redundant. Almost every piece of equipment has a spare, but we have to find a way to transport these devices off the Phoenix."

"I think I know who to ask for help." Sam thought thoughtfully.

…………

During the planning of stealing the asteroid, Ed felt that he seemed to have finally found the right way to get along with his grandson. He told Alex some of his favorite books and read them to him before bed at night. In addition, he finally figured out why his grandson was afraid of him. Alex thought he was like a bear because of his white beard and always serious expression, which scared Alex.

On the ridge of the Krolev crater on Mars, several quadruped robots entered a lava tube at the foot of the mountain. After going deep into the lava tube, the scanners and sensors equipped on the robots carefully conducted a 360-degree survey and inspection of the cave. Through big data training and learning, the robots soon discovered some anomalies on the walls of the Martian lava tubes. Trace amounts of methane were emitting from the rock pores of several lava tubes, and natural methane usually represents traces left by microbial activity.

"Uh... Boss, we've made a discovery."

"What discovery?"

"We found traces of what looked like anaerobic microbial activity three metres below the methane."

"Then what are you still standing there for? Collect samples quickly! Such precious research samples! This could very well be the first time in human history that life has been discovered outside of Earth. Even if it's just a few microorganisms, it's still an unprecedented discovery!"

While the group was so excited that they almost lost themselves in joy, the operator in charge of the equipment controlled the robotic arm on the back of the Pathfinder quadruped robot to take a sample of the rock that was suspected to contain anaerobic microorganisms.

.........

A few days later, on the Ranger, Sam took advantage of everyone's inattention and dripped a small tube of glue into the heat dissipation vent of the demodulator box right below the console. A few minutes later, smoke began to emerge from the heat dissipation vent. On a nearby console, a technician who had been staring at the screen saw a fault indicator light representing a demodulator box component next to him suddenly light up, and then he remembered to check. After the other astronauts who were guarding the cab used a screwdriver to remove the demodulator box and opened it, the pungent smell of burnt plastic and circuits coming from the demodulator box made them frown.

"It's all burnt out. I can't fix this thing."

"There's definitely no time to fix it. The next ignition won't start in a few hours. Just replace it with the spare."

"I know where the spare one is. I'll go get it." Sam said in surprise, looking at the burnt demodulator box.

"Thanks, Sam."

Inside the cargo hold of the spacecraft, Sam looked around and after confirming that there was no one around, he nervously took out from the box the modified demodulator box that looked exactly like a normal demodulator box.

…………

On Earth, official representatives from both the United States and the Soviet Union looked at the cost-input curve, return on time, and budget reports on the projection screen with bitter expressions.

"Over the past month, we have conducted numerous assessments and calculations, and we believe that even if the asteroid is transported to Earth, the time for mining and generating revenue cannot be brought forward any further."

"I have to say that the president and the higher-ups will be very disappointed. The expected delivery time is at least two years away, and generating revenue will take even longer. There must be a way to get the high-value ore mined to market faster."

"Then we need to build more spacecraft, equipped with more and better drilling rigs and corresponding mining equipment.")

“That would further increase the cost…”

"We've already invested trillions of dollars. If I tell my superiors that we need to invest even more to generate returns, they'll probably fire us all. Anyway, thank you all for your ideas. Let's keep thinking and see if we can come up with a better solution."

"But how do we fund the next generation of Mars spacecraft?"

"Uh... well... wait for my reply."

“But the deadline is approaching!”

"Fuck, if these damn politicians don't create all kinds of obstacles for us, how much can we achieve in helping humanity?" Aleida threw the documents on the conference table and complained helplessly.

"These politicians are like that. They are always good at procrastinating until the last minute, when they have to make a decision. Then they often make the worst decision and then tell the public afterwards that they had no choice."

[Any bureaucratic system is bound to have corruption and inefficiency, and any political system is bound to be full of problems.] For no reason, Margo recalled a sentence that her mentor, von Braun, had said to her before his death.

.........

"By bringing asteroids to Earth, humanity will no longer have a reason to invest resources in Mars. Although they say they care about Mars and further deep space exploration, they care more about making money for themselves and their subordinates, because only in this way can they maintain their political legitimacy."

"So once the asteroid comes to Earth, they'll divest from Mars, and that's true for both the US and the Soviet Union, just as they did with their Mars exploration program in the 1980s."

"It wasn't until we forced them to take action, and the unexpected factor of Dave Ayesha, that they were forced to speed up their Mars exploration plan."

At Aleida's house, Margo communicates with his old lover, the former director of the Soviet Space Agency who fled to the United States.

Kuznetsov felt that something seemed to have changed on the spacecraft recently, but when he wanted to find the root of this change, he found nothing. In the past few months, he and Parker had been on the spacecraft, walking around and looking around, using cameras, pictures, and words to record and observe everything on the spacecraft. In his notebook, there were already many simple sketches of various strange devices he saw on the spacecraft, and the camera hanging on his waist also took specific images of many areas on the ship. He tried his best to use his own understanding to describe the various strange things he saw on the ship.

"I always feel that what we are doing is a bit futile."

"How is it in vain?" Snetsov stopped writing and looked at Parker in confusion.

"Have you ever heard the story of the blind men and the elephant?"

"We are like blind men touching an elephant with their eyes closed. We have no idea how these devices work and what they are used for. All we see is just the tip of the iceberg."

"Whatever we can do is fine. After all, I don't know if He will ever let us go back."

"But the key is, what are we in his or their eyes?"

"Given their level of civilization, we might not even be considered experimental animals. Perhaps the difference between us and them is better described as bacteria and single-celled organisms in a petri dish observing their research and experimenters."

"Besides, have you noticed? That guy's appearances are becoming less and less frequent."

"Maybe he's just not that interested in us anymore?"

"Given the level of technology they've demonstrated, it's possible that they don't care about humans at all, or even just view human civilization as a joke."

【You may have made a mistake about this. 】

"!!!" Kuznetsov and Parker were startled and subconsciously looked in the direction of the sound.

A translucent prismatic octahedron floating in the air appeared out of thin air, but this time, it was followed by something that scared Kuznetsov and Parker.

It was a creature with a large number of tentacles like a jellyfish on its lower body and a smooth, hairless head and two eyes on its upper body.

"Excuse me...what is this?" Kuznetsov asked cautiously.

"My friend, you should be considered a 'biologist', right?"

"It's very interested in you two."

Kuznetsov's eyes widened. He noticed the word "friend" in the words of the translucent prismatic octahedron in front of him. Relying on his imagination, he naturally thought that the jellyfish-like thing behind it might be the true form and original appearance of the alien race represented by this prismatic octahedron.

【You haven't let them see your true form yet?】

Xuan Zhang Wu Ke's gaze turned to the Shell of the Corrector.

[Uh... I don't want them to realize right away that we look so much like them.]

[Now he seems to have mistaken us for being of the same race.]

[Isn't this race's imagination a bit too strong? ]

[Don't ask me, I'm also fucking curious, I'm also very curious, how did this guy come up with this? ]

"Anyway, and as a profession that you would consider a biologist?"

"I am very interested in your life forms."

Through an external simultaneous translator, the singing-like voice of the glass eel during communication was translated into standard Russian and English.

"Is there anything about us that might interest you?"

"Just one more entry to add to our database of alien life forms."

"Is that so?" Parker was obviously a little frustrated when he heard this.

"We are amphibious creatures. Like you, native terrestrials, our bodies have long since undergone extensive modifications, adapting to the most extreme and harsh environments. When your ancestors were just learning to make tools from stone and wood, we were already a civilization on the scale of a stellar system. Although many things have happened in between, it ultimately did not stop us from marching towards the universe."

"The area we want to occupy is near the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The matter there is extremely dense. The local bubble in the area where your solar system is located has a material density that is like a remote and desolate place."

"Of course, due to the environment we were born in, our bodies' adaptability is much stronger than yours."

"We are designed to survive in environments of high radiation, high temperature and high pressure."

Behind Xuan Zhang Wu Ke, Kuznetsov kept taking notes on his notebook with the ballpoint pen in his hand. This was a very crucial piece of information that the other party had inadvertently revealed. At least, he now knew that the other party might be a civilization composed of aquatic amphibious intelligent creatures.

"Can I ask a question, please?"

"Ask, provided it's within the scope of what I know and can answer."

"Regarding the Fermi Paradox and the Drake Equation... within the Milky Way and the universe..."

"Don't even think about it. You're not the first civilization. We existed before you, and there were others before us, but their scope of activity was always limited."

"Even a Type II civilization would, for most of its lifecycle, be confined to a 100-300 light-year radius around its home galaxy. The number of civilizations within the Milky Way is pitifully small, and those that have reached our level of development are already few and far between, let alone traversing the tens of thousands of light-years from the center of the Milky Way to our solar system. Remember, the total number of civilizations in the universe is enormous. Even within the vast spatial and temporal dimensions of the observable universe, the distribution of civilizations becomes incredibly sparse. In remote areas like the Milky Way, there are few civilizations, and even fewer that have reached a highly developed level."

"The vast distances between star systems prevent civilizations from interacting on a deeper level. Different civilizations are lucky to encounter one another once in millions of years or even longer."

"But you are very lucky. Not too far from you, there happens to be an alien civilization with a fairly good level of development."

"If we're lucky, we'll have a chance to observe their effects within a few hundred to 1000 years."

"Of course, you have to be able to continue and develop until that time. You know, the extinction of civilization is not a rare event in the universe."