The stars, but they become the gray wind

"You mean... a closed time-curve time machine?"

"Indeed, we are one of the few civilizations in the entire universe to have achieved true superluminal speed. In fact, our current model of civilizational development and progress has long ceased to be linear. Our science and technology come from our future selves. If we need to, we can use closed time-like curve computers to obtain answers to most questions about the universe. However, this behavior is meaningless to us now."

"This is why we came to the solar system. The speed of light is a barrier that has severely restricted most civilizations in the universe. Our goal is to build a wormhole network throughout the Milky Way and beyond that can be used by us and other civilizations."

"Giving other civilizations that come later a cheaper way to travel between stars also ensures that when they enter the interstellar civilization stage, they are already mature, rather than being as immature as Earth civilization."

"We are building a highway network across the entire Milky Way that other civilizations can use. This way, when future civilizations mature into sufficiently mature star-system civilizations, they won't have to spend hundreds or even thousands of years slowly crawling through the void between galaxies."

"Through the wormhole created by artificial stargates, we can reach any corner of the Milky Way almost instantly. Whether the distance between the destination and the starting point is one light year or 100,000 light years, the time it takes to reach the destination through the wormhole is the same."

"Although warp drive is also a means of traveling faster than light, it still cannot avoid increasing the distance to the destination and the time spent on the journey."

"The Milky Way is huge. Even for us, it would take a long time to connect all 4000 billion star systems into the wormhole network we have built. The solar system is just an insignificant stop on the journey."

Hearing this, Kelly tried her best to suppress her inner shock. Most of Kuznetsov's previous doubts were finally clarified. They were indeed a small group of individuals from a Kardashev three-star civilization. They came to the solar system not because the solar system or human civilization was so special, but simply because they happened to need to build a stargate in the solar system.

Kelly calmly turned off the recorder hanging on the waist of her space suit and pressed the send button. Her small movements certainly could not escape the perception of the Corrector's Shell. However, as the operator of the Corrector's Shell, someone did not care about the small movements of the human individual in front of him.

"Thank you, Kelly. We've received it. The expert team on Earth will be responsible for analyzing it." Kelly was covered in the space suit helmet, and the voice of one of her subordinates came from the other earphone on her left ear.

Kelly's original plan was to continue surveying the areas in the Krolev Crater where microorganisms might exist. Shortly before she set off, the alien society suddenly came to her and asked to go with them. Kelly certainly couldn't refuse the request of an intelligent being from an alien civilization to travel with her. However, after learning of this request, Mars, Happy Valley, the base, and the team of scientists on Earth all gave her an additional task, which was to try to get more words and information from them.

When she first heard this request, Kelly was shocked, because she knew the other party's technical level, and she knew that she could not hide this kind of trick from the other party. She had even seen this alien existence that looked like a prismatic octahedron directly access the broadcasting system in the Mars base without touching any electronic equipment related to the Mars base, and alerted everyone in the Happy Valley base that an unprecedented large-scale Martian sandstorm was coming, and asked the Happy Valley base to pay attention to the safety of personnel. It was not until a few hours later that the control center of the Happy Valley base confirmed the authenticity of the news with the satellites in orbit and the Phoenix space station. There was indeed a very large-scale Martian sandstorm approaching the Marineris region of Mars where the Happy Valley base was located.

This also made Kelly and several senior executives in the base realize that all communications in their base had no confidentiality or security measures for the other party. As long as the other party wanted, it could easily hijack all the equipment and communications in the base. Therefore, Kelly was also very clear that the other party would definitely know about this little trick she did in front of the other party. But after a fierce ideological struggle, she still agreed to this risky request from the team of scientists in the base and on Earth. The reason was simple. As a human being, she also wanted to know the true appearance of the universe under the veil. As an individual from a Kardashev Type III civilization, the other party must know much more than humans, and perhaps it can make humans truly understand the true appearance of the universe.

Thinking of this, Kelly suddenly felt that the recorder hanging on the waist of her space suit seemed so heavy.

"You don't need to be so nervous. Also, let me remind you that the headphones in your helmet are almost out of battery, and the recorder's capacity is almost full."

[Oh no, he finally found out! When?! !]

Kelly's heart jumped to her throat when she heard this. Her little action really couldn't be hidden from the other party's eyes.

[When you were having a private meeting in the room with the scientists in the base.] This voice suddenly rang in Kelly's mind, almost frightening her to the point of cardiac arrest.

[Don't look so frightened. The human brain is essentially a handheld terminal made of organic compounds that can input and output information. To us, it's basically a completely transparent structure that we can observe. As long as we press the buttons in the right way, we can input information into it. I am of course aware of your little tricks, but I don't care.]

[Curiosity is something that all living things have. I certainly understand your little thoughts.]

[As long as it doesn't cross the line, I don't mind answering some questions for you.]

【Can you see all our thoughts?】

[It's just reading memories. If I can read Kuznetsov's brain and upload his memories and personality data, then reading the thoughts and thought processes of a living person in real time is naturally not a difficult task for us. It's just that most of the time, we don't do it intentionally.]

【As long as it is necessary, the thoughts of all mankind are transparent to us.】

"Well... we are indeed a little too arrogant." Kelly was so scared that she was sweating profusely. She just reached out to wipe the sweat off her face, but her gloved right hand was blocked by the heavy space suit helmet. Only then did Kelly remember that she was still standing on the surface of Mars in a full space suit.

"As for our conversation just now, everything I told you is indeed true. You are welcome to join the group and analyze it. However, I have one request: After your expert team has analyzed it, the entire content of our conversation must be made public."

"These contents...are still...a bit..."

"Humanity must accept the reality that it must reach for the stars. Otherwise, you won't even be worthy of a place in this cold, lifeless universe."

.........

On the Salem, Carlias severed her connection with the Shell. It wasn't Yuuki or Carlisle who had just been operating the Shell to talk to Kelly Baldwin. Carlias, who had accompanied the Sky Star civilization for hundreds of thousands of years, was obviously more suitable to answer questions in this regard. She also didn't mind giving human civilization a little shock of the cosmic truth, forcing them to move their civilization towards a healthier and more sustainable development path, otherwise they would stay where they were and stagnate.

"ignition!"

The mixture of liquid oxygen and kerosene was ignited and ejected from the nozzle of the Rd170 engine at high temperature and high speed. The Vulcan rocket, with a height of more than 88 meters, was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. In another world line, this was a behemoth that only existed on drawings. In this world, because the Soviet Union did not fall down that Christmas, it successfully ushered in its own birthday and glory in the new century. After entering the 21st century, the Vulcan carrier rocket became the Soviet Union's main means of transportation for large-scale personnel and material transportation to the moon. As the ultimate development form of the Energia rocket, the LEO capacity of up to 200 tons is approaching the limit of chemical-powered carrier rockets. This rocket, together with the nuclear-powered version of the second-generation Buran space shuttle, has become one of the most important main transportation vehicles for the Soviet Union to expand the low-Earth orbit space station and lunar base since the new century.

The Vulon rocket launched a batch of heavy machinery and equipment used to verify the initial exploration and construction of the lunar mass accelerator, as well as parts related to the large electromagnetic catapult in microgravity and vacuum environments. Due to the extremely high processing complexity and precision of these parts, various industrial facilities in the lunar base and on the lunar surface cannot yet produce them.

What humans didn't know was that at the same time they were transporting the first batch of engineering equipment for the preliminary construction of the mass accelerator to the moon, a brand new space elevator, which was still out of reach for humans, was finally completed in the Tianda General 6A star system 44 light-years away.

Chapter 197: The Dream of the Birth of the Tree of Life? (6000 words)

As the elevator car loaded with cargo rose along the guide rails made of low-temperature superconductors under the action of electromagnetic catapults and high-power lasers, the first batch of modular components of orbital solar power station mirrors, totaling 750 tons, rose into the sky along with the elevator car.

Below the ground base station of the space elevator, Moia Rock and several friends who had come to this planet together sat on the roof of a multi-purpose all-terrain vehicle specially designed for alien environments, watching the space elevator's first synchronous orbital transport mission in the distance. As they watched the distant space elevator car gradually rise into the clouds, Moia Rock felt like having some sulfuric acid gasoline to celebrate this moment. However, since they were all wearing spacesuits, it was obviously impossible for them to drink sulfuric acid gasoline drinks as freely as they could in a car with a pressurized atmosphere.

"This thing is called a space elevator, but it's shorter than most skyhooks in the galaxy?"

"Yes, after all, the planet we're on has low gravity and a ridiculously thin atmosphere. Building a space elevator here is much easier than on our home planet. Compared to the tens of thousands of kilometers required for a space elevator on our home planet, a space elevator on this planet would only need a total length of 6200 kilometers."

"This engineering effort is even simpler than the geostationary skyhooks built on most celestial bodies in our galaxy, and much easier than the 25000-kilometer-high space elevator we've built."

"And it even has a natural counterweight made of an asteroid." Moia looked up at the sky, where there was a small white bright spot. It was an asteroid located at an altitude of 6200 kilometers and with a diameter of 1.5 kilometers. It was also the terminal station of the entire space elevator facility.

This asteroid was originally an extremely rare sub-satellite orbiting the huge gas giant satellite at our feet. It originally orbited the gas giant satellite at our feet in a highly irregular elliptical orbit. If there was no external interference, this asteroid with an extremely unstable orbit would eventually be ejected from its orbit or directly fall into the gas giant under the gravity of the gas giant. However, with the intervention of the artificial intelligence of the Theia civilization, dozens of high-thrust deuterium-helium fusion torch thrusters were installed on the surface of the asteroid. Under the strong thrust provided by the torch engine, the orbit of this asteroid was gradually lowered to an altitude of only 6200 kilometers from the satellite's surface.

After entering the predetermined orbit, a large number of mining and processing machinery were launched to the surface of the asteroid to begin mining the mineral resources on the asteroid and processing them into high-strength cables for the main part of the orbital elevator.

As the construction progress continues to improve, the height of the main structure cables of the space elevator hanging from the asteroid is getting lower and lower from the ground. After nearly four months of construction, the main cable part of the orbital elevator hanging from space has finally completed the connection and fixation with the top of the ground base station. The first transport guide rail of the space elevator also officially started trial operation today.

Of course, this is not the end of the project. A total of eight transport guide rails and cabins are planned for this space elevator. The single payload of each cabin is up to 750 tons. After all eight guide rails are completed and put into operation, a payload of 6000 tons can be sent to the synchronous orbit at a time.

A series of mining and industrial production facilities and several large free electron lasers for powering solar sail spacecraft have also been established on the asteroid located at an orbital altitude of 6200 kilometers. These facilities have huge energy demands. In addition to the standard deuterium-deuterium fusion power station equipped on the asteroid and the space elevator orbital space station, this space elevator will also be equipped with a unique reflector-type solar power station system. Thirty-six giant reflectors with a single diameter of 120 kilometers and a surface reflectivity of up to 99.99992% will become the main energy source for the space elevator and its affiliated space station facilities in the future. The 36 reflectors provide a total energy output of up to 2800TW, providing sufficient energy for the subsequent solar sail launch and Dyson cloud project construction.

Today, the first batch of modular reflector components are still in the ascending cabin of the space elevator. On the asteroid at the space elevator's terminal, the surface of the entire asteroid still appears quite clean, except for the mining machinery and automated industrial production lines that are still constantly excavating minerals on the surface and inside the asteroid. Below it, the white main cable of the space elevator reflects the bright visible light of the star under the sunlight of the star Tiandajiangjun 6a. In the future, this place may become the starting point of the Theia civilization's stellar astronomical engineering, witnessing that the Theia civilization will one day truly become a Type II civilization.

"Today will be the starting point of our star hunting!" Moia Rock, standing on the roof of the car, looked up at the sky, stretched out his right hand towards the sun above his head, and held it tightly in his hand.

While the Theia civilization 44 light-years away successfully completed another space elevator, within the solar system, heavy engineering machinery transported by the Vulcan rocket for the construction of the first lunar mass accelerator in human history finally arrived on the moon.

"Is this... a lightweight shield machine specially designed for microgravity vacuum environments?" asked the person in charge of the construction project at James Red Star Base, looking at the list of goods in his hand.

"That's right... Building a lunar mass accelerator inevitably means we'll need to conduct a lot of underground construction. Currently, the Moon lacks tunnel boring machines, which are engineering machinery that can quickly dig tunnels and build underground facilities."

"That's a real help. The heavy excavation equipment we had at the base, especially the heavy machinery used for constructing the lunar lava tubes, has always been a bit insufficient. We're exactly what we need, something that can quickly and safely drill holes underground."

"With the shield machine, it's much more convenient. At least our workers won't have to carry out dangerous blasting operations and risk collapsing the entire lava tube."

"Indeed, blasting operations on the Moon and Mars are much more dangerous than on Earth. We don't want to repeat the tragic water-treading accident during the Mars drilling."

"Speaking of which, the lunar mining base construction industry is a bit too arduous. Every day, I have to wear a heavy spacesuit and work hard in the helium-3 gas field collection area, which makes my back and waist ache. Even if the gravity environment is only 1/6 of that on Earth, I can't stand working 11 or 12 hours a day."

"Yeah, it would be great if the base's mining and construction facilities could be more automated. Blasting operations are always dangerous, and we literally risk our lives doing this."

"I heard the upcoming lunar mass accelerator project will require more manpower and equipment. They might need to build a higher-power nuclear reactor on the lunar surface to solve the mass accelerator's energy supply problem. It would be great if we could take this opportunity to improve our working environment. Unfortunately, we're unlucky and don't have the same opportunity as the workers on Mars."

"I think it would be a great honor to be able to see aliens and alien intelligent races that are much more advanced than those on Earth in this lifetime."

"Yes, being able to come into contact with a high-level alien civilization is a kind of luck in itself. Have you read the contents of Kuznetsov's diary?"

"I've seen it. It's probably one of the few reliable records of close contact and communication with aliens, and even detailed information. As for Kuznetsov and Parker, who experienced resurrection from the dead, they're said to be almost legendary figures on Earth and Mars."

"His experience is unprecedented in human history. He first died in an asteroid accident, then was resurrected by aliens. He then lived on an alien spacecraft for a considerable period of time. It is said that the M7 Allies wanted to bring him back and treat him as a treasured symbol, just like they did Yuri Gagarin.

"But I heard that he would rather stay on Mars and participate in asteroid mining and the continued construction of the Mars base."

At the Happy Valley base on Mars, on the surface of the Goldilocks asteroid, an early mining station on the surface of the asteroid has been initially established. Although this mining station seems so crude and backward even for the Theia civilization, the few people and the glass eels did not pay much attention to this matter, but its significance to mankind is self-evident - the first asteroid mining station in human history. However, due to the lack of relevant equipment and facilities in this mining station, except for its surface appearance, this mining station has not yet carried out corresponding mining work. Before officially starting to mine high-value minerals such as iridium, gold, and platinum on the surface of the asteroid, a detailed survey of the inside and outside of the asteroid must be carried out first. Due to the lack of professional equipment, personnel can only wait for the equipment to be in place before they can start construction on the surface of the asteroid.

"By the way, what do you think that spaceship looks like?")

"A concave dagger?"

“It’s indeed very similar.

Outside the Phoenix, two Mars base maintenance personnel were working outside the cabin. As they worked, they talked about giant ships like the Ultima Thule orbiting above Mars.

"I'm curious, how did you propel something this big?"

"After all, I don't see any propulsion or other equipment on this thing. Fluid propulsion can't accelerate a ship to half the speed of light in such a short distance and time."

"Perhaps only the aliens themselves know about this kind of thing."

.........

"Inertia-free engine?" Margo seemed very confused.

"By creating an asymmetric gravitational field, the spacecraft can move in any direction. At the same time, the static volume of objects within this gravitational field becomes very small compared to the surrounding space, making it easy to accelerate objects within this asymmetric gravitational field to near the speed of light."

"However, just like accelerating an atom to near the speed of light requires consuming the entire energy of the observable universe, an inertia-free engine cannot truly accelerate an object to the speed of light. It simply causes the object within the asymmetric gravitational field to have a significantly lower mass relative to the surrounding space-time. Even if the rest mass of an object is very low, as long as it is not completely zero like a photon, it cannot truly reach the speed of light. An object accelerated by an inertia-free engine can only approach the speed of light infinitely, but cannot truly reach it."

"At the same time, an object or something else accelerated to the speed of light over a very short distance and time by an inertia-free engine cannot avoid the relativistic clock slowing effect brought about by extremely close-to-light speed travel. Its time will pass very slowly relative to the outside world."

"Although this universe allows for the existence of superluminal travel technology that breaks the law of causality, achieving it is not so simple. Even a sub-light warp drive requires stellar-level energy to operate."

"So even if we gave the warp engine to humans at this stage, you wouldn't be able to use it, because you simply don't have the energy output to drive a warp engine that would consume astronomical amounts of energy."

"So, at this stage, humans shouldn't think of taking shortcuts. Becoming an interstellar civilization is more difficult than you imagine."

"What's more, no civilization, including yours, is likely to achieve the prerequisite for a superluminal warp drive or wormhole—superluminal negative mass energy flow."

"If faster-than-light technology is so easy to achieve, why would we and them need to build wormholes across the entire galaxy?"

The glass eel that had been communicating with Margo asked Margo back.

"Of course, the energy consumed by the inertia-free engine is also astronomical. The energy output of any small spacecraft on our ship in a short period of time is enough to tear the entire Earth apart. As you understand, the enormous energy and power output of any spacecraft of an interstellar civilization is itself a weapon."

"I'm telling you this because you seem to have a misunderstanding. I want you to deeply understand the huge differences between civilizations of different levels. My way of looking at the universe is completely different from yours. Regarding your civilization's current state, we will both come to completely different conclusions."

"In short, you just need to understand one thing: don't use your current moral values ​​and standards to judge the code of conduct and moral values ​​of our post-singularity technological civilization."

Aze had a dream. She dreamed that she seemed to be in a strange laboratory. There seemed to be a very familiar figure in the laboratory who was busy in the laboratory, but she could not see the specific appearance of this person, nor could she hear her voice.

"Your enthusiasm seems a little abnormal." A figure with a blurry face but seemingly silver hair appeared in the laboratory.

"Is there?" The figure that Aze felt familiar turned around from a learning projection and answered the silver-haired figure.

"I've never seen you devote so much energy and attention to anything, so I judge that you have an unusual passion for this matter."

"Maybe you just found something you enjoy doing besides designing warships?"

"After all, we all have our own hobbies, but for some individuals they aren't so distinct."

As these words fell, the scene that Aze saw in his dream seemed to have changed.

It was still the same laboratory, but the interior seemed to have changed a lot.

"Does your emotional investment seem excessive? I take it back. This isn't enthusiasm for the project, but rather a more direct and extreme feeling for what the project itself can create."

"That's right, I'm a little confused myself about what my attitude towards it and them is."

"If I had to give you an answer, it would most likely be 'love', such as the love for one's pet, but your answer clearly doesn't fit the description."

"Love? Maybe. I'll just leave you."

.........

The scenery that Aze saw changed again. It was still the same laboratory, but the atmosphere in this laboratory seemed to have changed.

"Sure enough... It's just as I suspected. Isn't this the love a master has for his pets? You seem to have developed feelings for them?"

"What? Is this not possible?" The figure seemed a little unhappy.

"No, quite the opposite. Considering they are our creations and share a high degree of similarity in aesthetics, it's normal for you to have such thoughts. In fact, such examples are definitely not uncommon within our civilization. Many high-level Star Governors of the Alliance have also experienced this. Accidentally, due to excessive investment in the creation of something, they fall in love with their own creations. Such examples are everywhere within our civilization. I didn't expect you to encounter such a situation, which is a bit surprising."

"After all, given your personality and normal behavior, it's hard to imagine you being so emotionally moved by something."

"That Star Governor who's obsessed with building bizarre spaceships all day has fallen in love with his own creation, which hasn't even been born yet. I guess no one would believe this if I told them, right?"

"Hmm... Now that you mention it, let me think about it. It seems to be true. I don't even realize what kind of emotions and thoughts I had towards them when I created them."

"Perhaps it's really as you said. I'm like some of the senior Star Governors in the Alliance. I accidentally became too involved and fell in love with my own creations?"

"The Union has never been against this kind of thing. As our creations, we can even prepare a special whitelist for them. As long as they can prove themselves, we don't mind having them become our followers or even members."

"However... your design obviously still has a lot of problems. I can help you improve some of the bad parts."

As the female figure with long silver hair approached, Aze gradually saw her face clearly. She was a girl with waist-length silver hair, green eyes, and looked heroic.

"Since we want them to achieve near-perfect evolution and development, why not add something to them? Something that absolutely cannot exist in nature."

The girl with long silver hair stretched out her finger towards the equally blurry holographic experimental table, and a wisp of silver sand-like substance flew to the center of the holographic experimental table. At this time, Aze, who was observing the scene from a third-party perspective, also recognized the true appearance of the silver-gray sand.

"Is this... the Gray Wind nanomachine on us?"

"Could it be...she is the Grey Wind Lady of the Combined Fleet?"

"Could the other one be?" Although he still couldn't see the specific appearance of the figure next to Huifeng, Aze already had a guess in his mind.

"Since you don't just want to create an experimental subject to verify a certain purpose, then just take full responsibility and ensure that they are always in an artificially created excellent evolutionary environment."

"A being more perfect than any natural species."

Ms. Grey Wind made a light gesture toward the holographic display in the laboratory, as if she was taking something off it.

Then, Grey Wind opened her palm, and an ordinary-looking seed lay in the palm of Ms. Grey Wind's hand.

"We need a super AI nanny that looks like it evolved naturally and exists in biological form."