The stars, but they become the gray wind

Therefore, since the emergence of this technology 150 years ago, there have been only tens of millions of Theians who have uploaded digital data and lived completely in the virtual world constructed by computers. For the Theian civilization with a total population of over 10 billion, the number of these virtual people only accounts for about 0.3% of the total population.

For most Theians, due to the free popularization of advanced medical technology, many people are not so eager to pursue immortality, and this large-scale digital consciousness upload of the entire population is also beyond the computing power requirements of today's Theian civilization. Only after completing the stellar celestial project and the energy and computing power of the entire civilization have exploded exponentially, will Theian society have the possibility of allowing all individuals to upload digital consciousness.

Therefore, whether it is for faster and safer interstellar travel, or sufficient computing power for the immortality of all individuals in the entire society, or simply to break through the approaching bottleneck of civilization development scale, this stellar celestial project is extremely important to the Theia civilization. Only by fully utilizing the sun in its own galaxy, a giant fusion reactor that accounts for more than 99% of the total mass and total energy output of the galaxy, can its own civilization move to the next stage. This is also the consensus of the entire Theia society.

Moia Rock was watching from the cockpit of the Rock with the help of holographic images the orbital elevator facility that was about to carry out the first launch and deployment of the Dyson Cloud's large solar sails. The first batch of twenty solar sails had been completed and were about to be deployed in the synchronous orbit of this massive satellite.

The solar sail film, which has ultra-high reflectivity for visible light, unfolds outward little by little from the center point of the hexagonal truss. Due to the huge size of a single solar sail, the diameter of a fully unfolded solar sail exceeds 100 kilometers, but the overall mass is very light. Even if the main structure truss and thrusters, fuel tanks, and lasers for heat dissipation and energy transmission of the solar sail are included, the total mass of a single solar sail is only about several thousand tons. In order to propel the unfolded solar sail to the appropriate position, it is naturally impossible to rely on the power of the solar sail itself.

After nearly an hour of unfolding, the hexagonal film finally filled the entire hexagonal frame of the solar sail, and the large free electron laser array installed at the terminal station of the space elevator also began to play its original role.

Beam after beam of X-ray band free electron laser, which is invisible to the naked eye, hits the solar sail, providing it with a steady supply of power. Under the action of laser propulsion, more than 20 solar sails that have been deployed begin to gradually move away from the terminal space station of the orbital elevator, and in the next few months, enter the synchronous orbit around the ecliptic plane of the star with the gas giant planet No. 1.

More than 20 solar sails deployed at the synchronous orbit altitude cast a shadow on the ground below, causing a brief solar eclipse. Moia, who was in a weightless spacecraft, recorded this scene with great interest. On the surface of this massive satellite illuminated by the sun, there was a black spot that was completely in shadow due to the obscuration of the solar sail. Moia sent this photo to the public network in the galaxy, but due to the distance between the gas giant No. 1 and the main population centers in the galaxy, others who want to see this information transmitted at the speed of light may have to wait at least several hours.

Solar system, Korolev Crater on Mars. Kelly felt a little envious of the strange-looking translucent cube in front of her. While she was still using four remote-controlled multifunctional robots to explore in underground lava tubes, he only needed to call on the spacecraft in orbit to perform a high-power neutrino beam scan of the entire area to obtain a complete deep geological structure map of the entire area and specific data on the distribution of underground anaerobic microbial communities. Kelly felt that her four-legged robots were like cute little toys in front of him, rather than some high-tech products that had been developed for many years.

And just a few hours ago, during the exploration of the Korolev crater

While further exploring the underground microbial communities, Kelly casually remarked, "It would be great if we could build a large research station here. That way, we wouldn't have to use the Phoenix spacecraft in orbit, sending down supplies every few days with a lander."

Since the Korolev Crater is more than 6000 kilometers away from the Mars Happy Valley Base in a straight line, if you want to come here for scientific exploration and research, you must cross most of Mars. In order to save time on the road, Kelly's research team uses the Phoenix space station operating in the orbit of Mars. When the Phoenix space station's operating position is close to the Korolev crater, they will go down on the lander. However, the supplies and life support systems that the lander can carry each time are very limited, and each stay in the Korolev crater is short-term. At present, the main transportation capacity of the Phoenix space station's Mars surface lander is concentrated on the transportation of asteroid mines and development equipment. It is obviously impossible to allocate the main transportation capacity to Kelly's alien microbial community research team. Therefore, in recent times, Kelly's scientific research team can only borrow the lander on the Phoenix space station when they have time.

But what Kelly didn't expect was that "he" who still kept the spacecraft in orbit around Mars seemed to have some inexplicable interest in Kelly's scientific research. He even provided some proactive help, such as directly transporting Kelly's scientific research team and a large amount of equipment directly to the ridge of Korolev Crater.

It's worth mentioning that there seems to be a guy in Kelly's scientific research team who likes to watch Star Trek. He seems a bit too excited about the sci-fi-like teleportation he experienced. However, the teleportation technology used by the aliens in front of them is more like a direct creation of a micro wormhole that allows macroscopic objects to pass through, rather than breaking down a person into a bunch of elementary particles and then reassembling them at the destination.

"It is possible to perform such an operation, but compared to directly creating an undisturbed micro-wormhole that allows macroscopic objects to pass through, that method of transmission is too susceptible to interference from unexpected factors." This is how the alien cube responded to the overly excited young man.

"And... don't get too excited. A warp drive isn't something that can be created by a bunch of scientists scavenging trash from a post-nuclear wasteland."

"Even for a sublight curvature engine with lower energy requirements, without stellar-level energy output, manufacturing and using it is wishful thinking."

"Just the ship atop your ship has a reactor that outputs more than twice the energy of a star in your galaxy."

After hearing these words, the young man who was obviously overly excited felt like he was poured with a bucket of cold water, but this still did not reduce his excitement.

After Kelly inadvertently complained about her team's limited stay in the Korolev Crater due to problems with supplies and life support systems, the alien cube was silent for a few seconds. Then, a fireball streaked through the atmosphere above Mars, and a huge lander was thrown directly from the alien spacecraft into the Martian atmosphere. When approaching the ground, the reverse thrust engine on the lander decelerated the relative speed between the lander and the ground to near zero in an extremely short distance with an efficiency that was unimaginable to Kelly and others, and landed steadily on the surface of Mars.

After the landing capsule landed, a dazzling series of automated machines drove out of the landing capsule and took out modular building components from the cargo hold of the landing capsule. It only took a few hours to build a large scientific research station with more than a dozen living cabins on the hillside of the Rolev crater.

During the whole process, Kelly and others watched in amazement as the automatic construction machines completed the construction of the scientific research station at a speed visible to the naked eye. After the scientific research residence was completed, the automatic construction robots re-entered the landing capsule in a unified and orderly manner, and then the thrusters on both sides of the landing capsule ignited again, and returned to the alien mothership in orbit with a belly full of automatic construction robots.

"The building materials used for the living quarters and research station are all mainstream materials that humans can produce, which will save you some time. However, large-scale topological optimization has been carried out in the construction process and appearance. The entire construction process has also been highly modularized and automated."

The alien cube only said a brief word to the stunned Kelly and others.

"Uh…thank you for your…help."

"No need to thank me. It's nothing to me. It's just a research station and living quarters made of outdated materials. It's not even a building in our place. At most, it's something like a children's building block game."

"Although the materials used in this habitat and research station are no different from mainstream human consumption materials, its modular and automated construction process is indeed worth considering. When you build things on Mars in the future, you can also consider topological optimization of the exterior. While pragmatism is good, a complete lack of decoration would be too monotonous."

In Kelly's opinion, the appearance of this research station and living cabin is indeed softer in the treatment of some edges and corners. Although the overall design is still not much different from the living cabin of the Mars base, it looks more beautiful, rather than the completely utilitarian style of the Mars Happy Valley base.

When Kelly led her research team to move into the research station, they found that the integration and intelligence of various equipment in this research station seemed to be higher than that of the Mars Happy Valley base. All the equipment in the station was integrated on a large intelligent display screen. With only simple operations, all functions such as communication, scanning, mapping, water circulation, oxygen circulation, power supply, etc. in the research station and the living cabin can be adjusted. The intelligent display screen also displays the operating status of all equipment in real time, and even the visual data and real-time monitoring images of sensors and cameras inside and outside the station.

The interior decoration of this research station is also more comfortable than the Mars base. The interior of the living cabin uses a lot of warm colors and flexible materials. The dormitories inside these living cabins seem to be single dormitories, and are equipped with separate shower facilities and a small kitchen. The location of each living cabin is very reasonably designed and has good lighting. Unlike the cramped environment of the lower-level dormitories at the Happy Valley base on Mars, each single dormitory uses a very spacious and highly reasonably utilized space. After seeing such a living environment, a researcher from Kelly's research team exclaimed that his dormitory at the Happy Valley base was so simple that it looked like a doghouse.

The alien cube simply said emotionlessly, "This is already a minimum living standard built without exceeding your technological level. It doesn't even have the most basic small biodome. By our standards, it's already quite shabby."

The subsequent survey to confirm the distribution of anaerobic microbial communities on Mars allowed Kelly to see how planets are studied compared to humans' absolutely advanced technology.

A highly collimated high-energy neutrino beam was fired directly from the orbiting ship toward the surface, easily penetrating the entire Martian crust. Of course, the entire process was completely invisible to the naked eye. The alien cube used a visual holographic projection to show Kelly the entire process, from the high-energy neutrino beam being emitted from the spacecraft to penetrating the surface of the Korolev crater area, and generating a real-time, accurate image of the entire underground area of ​​the Korolev crater down to every molecule.

In this three-dimensional image, all the areas where anaerobic microbial communities are distributed underground in the Korolev crater are clearly marked, and Kelly's task suddenly becomes simple, which is to send a remote-controlled quadruped robot to these areas to collect samples of the anaerobic microbial communities distributed in the lava tubes under the ground on Mars.

"Some areas are too deep, and there are no lava tubes that lead directly there. I'll help you dig a hole directly into the ground."

Several drones carrying Gaussian fission rays were teleported to the surface just above the corresponding underground microbial distribution community area. As the green light beams penetrated the surface, the Gaussian fission rays began to destroy the atomic bonds between the rocks and soil on the surface of Mars, completely crushing the rocks and soil that were being continuously irradiated at a microscopic level.

Several regular holes with a diameter of only about one meter and a depth of hundreds of meters were formed. The nearest one was only a few hundred meters away from the living cabin where Kelly and others were. From the perspective of Kelly and others, they only saw a round spherical white drone flying above that surface area, and then fired some kind of green light at the soil and rocks below. Within a few minutes, a very regular circular hole with a depth of hundreds of meters was drilled on the surface of Mars. This once again gave these scientific research teams a little technical shock, but what they didn't know was that a guy who was manipulating the shell of the corrector originally planned to throw a low-speed kinetic impactor made of nuclear force material directly to open a hole in the surface of Mars. However, using such a destructive method is likely to cause the underground microbial community on Mars to be directly wiped out, so in the end they had to give up and let the drone slowly use Gaussian fission rays to slowly drill holes in the surface.

Watching the other members of Kelly's research team lowering a remote-controlled quadruped robot tied with ropes and cables into the ground through the hole drilled by the drone, intending to collect samples of anaerobic microbial communities in the underground lava tube area, Renlong withdrew his attention from the shell and turned to the Tiandajiangjun Six star system four light-years away. The Theia civilization had already launched the first batch of Dyson Cloud Engineering solar sails, and the countdown to the start of the construction program set by Zao Chiqi for the star gate was almost reaching zero.

"Should we...give the human some more stimulants?"

Looking at the intelligence reports of the "civilian" torch engine spacecraft of the Theia civilization, whose average power was over 50 to 600 TW, and then looking at the pitiful total output power of less than 18 TW of the Earth civilization in the list on the other side, Renlong was considering whether to give this world's human civilization some more stimulation. It seemed that 44 light-years away, this prosperous, unified, pacifist civilization, which originated from the same star system as humans, had an engine power of any civilian spacecraft that was several times the total energy of the Earth civilization. Would the contact between the two force the human civilization of this world to be injected with another dose of stimulant that might have unknown side effects?

"Only by recognizing our own weakness and backwardness can we let go of the past, meaningless internal friction, and choose to catch up and develop?"

"It seems... maybe this is a good idea?"

"Should we... let Zao Chiqi send them an invitation letter directly?" Ren Long looked at the countdown for the star gate construction program in the Tianda General Six A star system, which was already dwindling.

…………

After the first batch of solar sails were launched into orbit, the von Neumann machine automated production factory cluster on the ground began to produce the second batch of solar sails, and transported them to the final space station in the synchronous orbit by orbital elevator.

Just as the laser propulsion array had just pushed the second batch of solar sails away from the space station, the Theia Society Management General Strong Artificial Intelligence suddenly received a message about an abnormal phenomenon from the edge of the galaxy.

An asteroid left its original position and orbit in a way that violates the laws of physics. After leaving its original orbit and position, the entire asteroid began to disintegrate, forming a ring-shaped object with a diameter of 1000 kilometers.

After receiving a series of relevant information, Theia Social Management Artificial Intelligence even felt for a moment that its host seemed to have crashed for a few seconds due to a series of information beyond its cognition.

After the ring-shaped object was formed, it ejected a beam of high-energy neutrino jets outward, and then a broadcast message to the entire Tianda General 6a star system was sent out from the ring-shaped object. Within six hours, all space stations or spacecraft in the Tianda General 6a star system received this message from the other side of the star gate.

The message reads: [Welcome, we want to see you, we are waiting for you on the other side.]

Chapter 200 Contact with the Theia Civilization

"Is this... the unidentified alien building that broadcasts information to our galaxy?" Moia Rock, who was floating in the cockpit of the spacecraft due to weightlessness, was very confused by the image of the ring-shaped structure on the holographic projection.

"This thing looks like a wormhole? And... we're invited to go through it? What do you think?"

"Our scientific community has been searching for extraterrestrial life for so long without any clues, but... now we're suddenly told that the clues left by extraterrestrial life are right in front of us. Isn't this a bit too ironic no matter how you look at it?" Several people in the cabin shrugged and replied.

"It's just that we still don't know why the alien life that created this thing placed it in our galaxy."

"It seems that this thing has been disguised as an asteroid?"

"It's more likely that it's hidden inside the asteroid. Before it formed, all traces of the original asteroid had completely disappeared, not even a speck of dust remained."

"The interstellar warning radar has made an even more interesting discovery. This object seems to be completely invisible to all of our radar bands. We seem to be able to confirm its existence only in the visible light band."

"Long-range observations of this object using several very large survey telescopes within the galaxy have shown that the reflectivity of its surface material is incredibly high, and it appears to be no ordinary substance."

"Is it a material made of supersolid matter, such as electron degenerate states?"

"I can't rule out this possibility, but considering the surface temperature we've detected is absolutely zero degrees, I suspect the surface of this building is most likely made of a material like neutron degenerate."

"Wouldn't that material explode if it were to escape the extreme gravity and pressure of a neutron star?"

"So, it's just speculation at this point. Several of the nearest unmanned spacecraft are already heading there. The closest one will take about ten hours to reach the unidentified alien structure. Just in case, the galaxy's early warning system has already pointed all available weapons in the galaxy at that strange alien structure, including the giant free electron laser array we saw earlier. However, considering that the surface material of this thing may not be simple, it's still unknown whether our methods will be effective."

"What about that broadcast message? The AI ​​that serves as the social management system has already dispatched a small fleet of unmanned spacecraft to handle it."

"To be on the safe side, we'll have the spacecraft send an unmanned probe through that thing first."

"We need to at least confirm what's on the other side of that thing. We don't want to rashly come into contact with alien beings without knowing anything."

"Especially when the opponent's skill level may be far superior to yours."

…. …

After the first unmanned spacecraft arrived at the space region where the star gate was located, it first turned its bow and pointed the engine nozzle towards the side of the star gate. Under the action of the engine, the relative speed between the spacecraft and the star gate gradually slowed down to zero, and finally came to a complete stop.

After entering a state of relative stillness, the spacecraft first adjusted its attitude and aimed its bow at the stargate. Then, a modified probe flew out from the cargo hold door at the bow and flew towards the wormhole interface in the center of the stargate at a speed of 100 kilometers per second.

After a 30-second flight, the probe, which spanned a distance of 3000 kilometers, finally came into contact with the wormhole interface inside the star gate. The probe drilled into the wormhole interface and then disappeared.

After a few seconds of waiting, the cargo ship outside received the image signal from the detector - a spherical space full of chaotic colors. On its crystal wall, there were more than 10,000 ring-shaped objects that were exactly the same size and specifications as the star gate in its own star system. In the center of this spherical space area, there was a silver-white sphere with a diameter of more than 900 kilometers and strange blue-green lines on its surface. The surface of this artificial celestial body was constantly surging with blue-green lines of varying brightness.

As if sensing the arrival of the probe, the probe's communication module received a message sent directly from the sphere.

【Welcome to Slow Domain. 】

[Slow Zone? Is this what you call this dimension?]

[Yes, it is one of our wormhole hubs. As you can see, it currently connects a total of 168894 stargate facilities in different star systems within the Milky Way... Oh, correction, it is now 168895.]

In the images sent back by the detector, another new star gate appeared out of thin air on the surface of the space crystal wall at the edge of space. Accompanied by a neutrino jet, a wormhole interface was formed in the center of the star gate. The bright stars on the other side could be vaguely observed on the wavy surface of the wormhole interface.

You will soon cross the threshold of Type II civilization. This is an invitation. As you enter this stage of civilization, you can use the intergalactic highway we have built to traverse the entire galaxy in a fraction of the time. Whether the distance is one light-year or one hundred thousand light-years, the time it takes to reach your destination through this wormhole hub will be the same.

[When did you start observing us? A long time ago?]

No, according to your Five Star timeline, it only started about half a year ago. Without your noticing, I launched a more advanced microscopic von Neumann self-replicator into an asteroid in the Kuiper Belt at the edge of your galaxy. Over the course of six months, it hollowed out the asteroid's interior, using it as raw material for the Stargate. After observing you launch the first batch of solar sails for the Dyson Cloud stellar project, we activated it, disintegrating the asteroid and opening the Stargate.

You guys do this... why? It's totally unrewarding, right?

[Yes, there is indeed no reward, but I think you have guessed the reason.]

Speed ​​of light?

[Yes... the speed of light is capped. The laws of our universe do not allow for exceeding this limit. Any form of superluminal technology is essentially the creation of a closed timelike curve and a causal time machine. According to the results of our closed timelike curve computer, we are the only civilization in this universe to possess superluminal technology.]

We realize that this technology is very dangerous. Please think carefully. If two civilizations possessing this technology were to engage in war or any other form of conflict, the existence of this closed-timelike curve time machine would lead both sides into an endless war of timeline modification. Even more extreme, what if someone used this causal time machine to go back to the beginning of the Big Bang and modify the parameters of the entire universe in order to completely destroy the enemy?

[Qilin, Si, and Qi, ...

Therefore, we need to provide a way for all civilizations in the universe to travel across the galaxy at speeds faster than the speed of light without triggering a war that could lead to the extinction of all life in the universe.

We will build a wormhole network high-speed passage that spans the entire Milky Way and even beyond, so that Type II civilizations like yours will not be trapped and die below the speed of light.

[According to our estimates and calculations, your civilization will enter the Type II civilization stage within approximately three hundred to one thousand years. After that, the Theia civilization will begin to use stellar astronomical engineering to build a circumstellar-scale super-unified theory particle accelerator and acquire the ability to produce antimatter on a large scale.

The hybrid propulsion of matter-antimatter annihilation and Dyson cloud laser sails is enough to enable you to possess mature high-sublight-speed interstellar navigation technology and become a true interstellar civilization.

[But this isn't enough. The fundamental laws of the universe don't allow for exceeding the speed of light. All civilizations within the universe are firmly restricted to traveling below the speed of light. Limited by the speed of light, these civilizations may never have any form of communication or contact in their entire lives. We are here to change this.]

"It's a great project... but... even if we were to connect the entire galaxy, it would still take a long time, right?"

After becoming a Type II civilization, we have plenty of time. A star's birth and natural death often take billions of years. We are confident that within a million years, all 4000 billion star systems in the Milky Way will be connected to our wormhole hub.

This will be a long-term project...

[That's right, but we weren't the only ones involved in the construction. They were also involved, and you were the first witness besides the two of us.]

Another civilization that has mastered faster-than-light technology?

Yes, this is part of their civilization.

【……】

[Interesting…Are you all carbon-based organisms?]

[Yes, we were quite surprised to see a civilization of silicon-based intelligent life at such a close distance.]

The total amount of carbon in the universe is much greater than that of silicon, so carbon-based organisms should account for the largest proportion in the entire universe.

This theory is limited by our own civilization's form of existence and has never been verified. Now that I see you, I can confirm that, judging by the distribution of elements in our universe, the possibility of carbon-based life is indeed higher.

Yes, in fact, there is a carbon-based biological civilization very close to your galaxy, and this civilization has a certain connection with you.

[Origin? Please explain.]

[Stargate A1372, Name: Solar System, Third Planet, Human Civilization, Planetary Satellite: 1, Name: Moon. This planet's satellite, the Moon, has a deep connection with the Origin Crater on your home planet.]

Approximately 45 billion years ago, two celestial bodies collided within the galaxy. One planet deviated from its original orbit and collided with a third planet within this information, completely shattering the deviated planet. A fragment of the fragment was accelerated to hundreds of times the third cosmic velocity in the massive explosion created by the collision and eventually escaped the star system. After drifting through the universe for tens of thousands of years, it crashed into your home planet. The silicon-based organic matter carried within this fragment gave rise to the first life on your home planet.

Is this the true origin of life on our home planet? Interesting. My creators would be very interested in this. They have always regarded life on our home planet as originating from outside the solar system.

[And this... is the information about intelligent life on the third planet in that star system.]

【……】

[This is a bit troubling... Are we still in the splitting stage? ]

【And this civilization's development level is indeed a bit low compared to both of us.】

We are currently trying to find ways to get them to stand up quickly and stop indulging in petty interference that causes internal friction, but... it's not ideal.

Their development model has been problematic from the very beginning, and it can be said that old habits are hard to change.

[Indeed, as someone who shares the same origin as my creator,

Civilization, it is indeed a bit unsatisfactory.

[This is the location of Star Gate A1372. You can go to that galaxy at any time and take appropriate measures to work with us to promote and change the development methods and routes of civilization in this galaxy, taking a healthier path.]

The speed of light limits the scope and speed of expansion of civilizations in our universe, forcing them to utilize all resources within their own solar system with maximum efficiency and embark on a sustainable development path with highly recycled resources. Within the constraints of the speed of light, no civilization can rely on endless expansion to resolve the resource dilemma of an unsustainable, high-consumption civilization. To survive in the universe for a long time, they must maximize the efficiency of all energy and matter within their own solar system, including the stars themselves.

[In this sense, we believe that the lack of cheap superluminal means is not necessarily a bad thing. It forces all civilizations in the universe to embark on a path of long-term sustainability. Most Type II civilizations often have long lifespans and survival times exceeding hundreds of thousands or even millions of years.]

This is indeed a very interesting theory. Stellar astronomical engineering is indeed the best solution and option for civilizations in our universe to continue their civilization on a scale of millions of years.

The star in our home galaxy is a neutron star. The stellar engineering projects built on this neutron star have given us the energy output equivalent to that of at least hundreds or even thousands of yellow dwarfs or red dwarfs. This means that our civilization will no longer have to worry about energy and resources for the next millions to tens of millions of years. You are now on this path.