The stars, but they become the gray wind

"I hope so..." Aze always had a strange feeling that something was not good about what Yuki said.

Chapter 203 The first landing on the lunar surface...dog eating shit?

A few days later, when the fleet of the Theia civilization turned the direction of its main engines and pointed the engine nozzles in the direction of the Earth and began to slow down, humans on Earth and Mars could observe with the naked eye the brighter light of the plasma tails ejected toward the Earth as the torch engines slowed down in the night sky. As the fleet got closer and closer to the Earth, the light emitted by thousands of high-power torch engines even eclipsed the moon.

After several days of deceleration, the fleet finally arrived at its destination, the Earth-Moon L1 Lagrange point. At the L1 Lagrange point, the rover had been waiting there for a long time.

Although humans are not participants in this meeting and have not been invited, this does not prevent humans from trying to observe this meeting taking place on their doorstep. Countries on Earth have mobilized their relay satellites, space telescopes, space-based observatories or other unmanned spacecraft at the L1 Lagrange point, using all means to closely observe the meeting between two highly advanced alien civilizations on their doorsteps.

The Rover released a sublight-speed drone ship weighing tens of millions of tons from a nearby hangar and explained to the Theia fleet the circumstances surrounding its discovery. By the time the Rover discovered it, the vessel had already undergone a considerable interstellar voyage, leaving many of its components severely worn. The Whipple shield at the foremost point of the ship, constantly bombarded by interstellar hydrogen atoms traveling at near-sublight speeds, as well as by micrometeoroids from its direction, had sustained significant damage. The ship's deuterium-helium fusion reactor was also suffering from the constant neutron radiation, intense heat, and plasma bombardment of its inner linings, leaving the engine in a state of grave concern. Even though the neutron radiation from deuterium-helium fusion was only about 5%, the long-term high-energy neutron damage had already caused significant wear and tear to the engine's lining and nozzle.

The scanning and inspection data of the unmanned exploration ship by these glass eels were also sent to the Theia fleet. These data will be of great reference value to the Theia civilization if it needs to design other star-class spacecraft in the future.

"To be honest, I have only seen the introduction and information of this ship in relevant historical materials." Moia Rock said bluntly.

"That's normal... when this ship set out. Most of us weren't even born yet or were still children."

"But being able to see it from this far away means the ship has more or less exceeded its goals, right?"

"Yes, it was originally just an unmanned exploration vessel exploring nearby stars, but it has inadvertently facilitated our contact with more advanced alien civilizations, helped us understand our true origins, and even given us the opportunity to visit our place of origin and explore. This is already full of surprises. This unmanned exploration vessel can be said to have exceeded its historical mission."

"It's said that when this thing first set out, most people were mentally prepared for the possibility that the ship might not return. Even now, relying on the low sub-light speed of a fusion torch engine to carry out interstellar voyages spanning several light years is still extremely difficult and risky."

"If it weren't for the stargate and anchored wormhole built by the Glass Eel Civilization in our galaxy, we wouldn't be able to reach this galaxy 44 light-years away purely on our own until we completed our own stellar astronomical engineering project, which would likely be hundreds or even thousands of years from now. Just crossing this vast distance of 44 light-years would take hundreds of years for a stellar-class spacecraft using a fusion torch engine at only about 10% the speed of light, and there would be countless risks and challenges along the way."

"Even after we complete the interstellar astronomical project and have the ability to produce and store antimatter on a large scale, this 44-light-year journey will still be a very difficult challenge for us."

"However, thanks to this probe, we now have the ability to explore other star systems at speeds exceeding the speed of light. We can even now, right here at our own place of origin, explore the origins of life on our home planet. It can be considered a blessing in disguise, right?"

Moia was observing the huge unmanned exploration ship in the distance through the cameras and sensors on the outside of the hull. In the Teia fleet where the Rock was located, several large engineering ships and maintenance ships were slowly approaching the unmanned exploration ship. A large number of unmanned ships and drones with RCS engines on their surfaces for small engineering operations were released from the cargo hold of a cargo ship next to the Rock. They flew densely towards the unmanned exploration ship and began to inspect and perform repairs and maintenance on the surface of the unmanned exploration ship.

Under the fine-tuning of the RCS engine, several large fuel transport ships gradually approached the fuel tanks at the rear of the unmanned exploration ship, and several hard fuel filling pipes controlled by robotic arms extended from their hulls to refuel the unmanned exploration ship, which had already consumed a lot of fuel during its interstellar voyage, with deuterium-helium fusion fuel and replenish the propulsion fluid.

"The wear and tear of these parts is not optimistic, isn't it?"

A Theian in the fleet looked at the inspection and scanning data of the entire spacecraft sent back by the maintenance drone, and compared it with the data provided by the glass eel. The two were basically identical, but the Theian who looked at the data frowned.

"If we really calculate based on this wear and tear, and let this ship return from that red dwarf star as originally planned, there's a very high probability that it won't make it back."

"The damage to the Whipple shield is far greater than expected. There are dozens of large holes on it, just one layer away from penetrating all the Whipple shields. It seems that it was hit by several large micrometeoroids during the voyage. Even the light sail has been blasted with several large holes."

"The engine and reactor room are in even worse condition. Just 5% neutron radiation has nearly consumed the first-layer protective material within the reactor. Fortunately, when this ship was designed and built, a low-neutron radiation deuterium-helium fusion engine was chosen. If a deuterium-deuterium fusion engine had been used, this ship wouldn't even have made it to its target star."

"Speaking of which, didn't this interstellar exploration ship have a plan for a pure helium-tri-fusion engine?"

"The total amount of pure helium-3 required is a bit too high. Even for us, who have a treasure trove of helium-3 fuel on gas giant planets, it would be quite difficult to release so much helium-acid fuel all at once."

"What's more... the damage to the ship's engine and reactor components isn't just from neutron radiation.

"There's also the various collateral damage caused by the unimaginably large heat flux and severe ion bombardment. If it were only short-term, it wouldn't be a problem, but this interstellar spacecraft is facing decades of continuous baking from the high-energy neutron radiation and heat flux generated by the long-term, high-powered deuterium-helium fusion, as well as ion bombardment, without any inspection or maintenance."

"Even we can't create materials that can work continuously in this environment for decades or even hundreds of years without needing repair or replacement."

"Maybe the glass eels and the others can do it, but our technology level is definitely not enough."

"It seems that if we want to design a similar interstellar spacecraft in the future, we will have to add a large number of von Neumann self-replicating maintenance robots and modules capable of producing hull parts."

"Yeah, as expected...it's still too difficult for a low-sublight-speed fusion torch ship to conduct interstellar travel."

"Not only is the dry mass ratio and payload extremely poor, but if the enemy hadn't captured the spacecraft, we would never have seen it in such good condition."

"Maybe it has already become a pile of debris floating in interstellar space. Who knows."

"But perhaps the good news is that this spacecraft has collected a lot of observational data about the target star during its voyage. There's also plenty of deuterium-helium fusion fuel and propulsion fluid left on board. After replacing and repairing damaged components, it should be enough to return to our system through the stargate, either with the fleet or on its own."

"Well... at least this ship didn't embarrass us in front of a newly ascended civilization."

.........

Back on Earth, humans also observed the unmanned exploration ship that was released into space from a giant hangar on the rover.

This unmanned exploration ship is several thousand meters long and its overall mass, which is initially estimated to exceed tens of millions of tons, once again allows humans to see how terrifying the ship design and production capabilities of interstellar civilizations are.

"Oh... look at this ridiculously large engine nozzle. It looks like it's used to directly confine the plasma explosion produced by fusion?"

"It seems so. According to the analysis of several of our observation satellites, their spacecraft is likely to be generating a deuterium-helium fusion reaction at the tail of the spacecraft. A strong magnetic field is directly generated at the nozzle, which ejects the plasma produced by the fusion reaction in a continuous pulse of up to thousands of times per second to provide propulsion power for the spacecraft."

"Can they do this? Their material science skills must be really impressive, right?"

"Our observation team observed the magnetic fields generated by those spacecraft during the deceleration process. The highest magnetic field strength we have observed at the tail of those spacecraft is over 350 Tesla."

"so tall?"

"I think the reason why their spacecraft's torch engine is so efficient is because of this reason. By generating an ultra-high-intensity magnetic field at the tail of the spacecraft, it can confine the fusion plasma to explode in a directed manner and eject it backwards, providing thrust for the spacecraft."

"During the fleet's deceleration phase, our team observed exhaust velocities on several ships exceeding 6.8% of the speed of light, with continued deceleration exceeding 1g. Several ships even achieved exhaust velocities exceeding 7% of the speed of light. Calculations suggest that the maximum specific impulse these ships could achieve could be over 1100 million seconds per second, with a single engine thrust exceeding millions of Newtons."

"Is it so outrageous?" A researcher who was also sitting in front of a computer watching the images sent back by the L1 Lagrange Point Monitoring Satellite almost spit out the coffee in his mouth when he heard this.

"Of course, this is firsthand observation data obtained by our observation team through satellites and space-based observatories on the space station. How could it be fake?"

"This level of technology... to us... is simply... like a god?"

"No, I think compared to this, the aliens who previously parked a spaceship as big as a mountain in low Earth orbit were more outrageous. Although this Torch Fleet is huge and technologically advanced, based on the analysis of the observed data, it is still within the scope of our understanding and imagination. At least they still use the method of injecting working fluid into the spacecraft and the spacecraft to provide propulsion power. But the aliens who previously parked their spacecraft in low Earth orbit... we can't even see how the aliens used to drive the spacecraft. They can accelerate the spacecraft to 1/10, or even more than half the speed of light, in a near-instantaneous manner. Moreover, we haven't observed any temperature or heat changes on the surface of the spacecraft. This technology... is already beyond our cognition.

"This level of propulsion and drive technology is countless generations ahead of us... and the fleet currently repairing the interstellar exploration ship at the Lagrange point."

"I now truly understand one thing: the power of things."

"what's up?"

"We humans... in this vast universe, and even in this galaxy, are still too weak and backward to even touch the heels of these alien civilizations."

"No... To be more precise, I was technically outclassed by the other party and couldn't even see the taillights."

For today's human civilization, whether it is Theia, which has the smallest technological gap with itself, or the Glass Eel and Sky Star, which have a difference of more than hundreds of orders of magnitude, from the perspective of Earth civilization, these three civilizations visiting the solar system must all be a series of gods. Of course, the three parties do not care too much about what humans think of them.

The main purpose of the Theia fleet's trip, in addition to recovering the probe, is to conduct a detailed scientific investigation of the moon, its true celestial body of origin, in order to fill the gaps in the biological origin and evolutionary history of its home planet's ecosystem.

While the fleet was inspecting and maintaining the interstellar unmanned probe, a small number of spacecraft responsible for scientific exploration of the moon restarted their engines and flew towards the moon. Among them was the Rock, where Moia was located.

…………

"Oh, my old Tianyan... Is this the celestial body where life on our home planet originated?" Moia observed the gray celestial body below, whose surface was covered with craters. It was hard for it to imagine that such a desolate satellite without atmosphere was the origin of all silicon-based life on its home planet.

At this time, the Rock was docking with a transport ship that was a large landing ship. Although the Rock itself was carrying a small aerospace plane that could fly within the Earth's atmosphere, it lacked a corresponding lander for a celestial body like the Moon that had no atmosphere. Therefore, the people on the Rock would take the large lander loaded on this transport ship and descend to the surface of the Moon together with other Theians who came with the fleet.

.........

Meanwhile, at James' Red Star Base on the lunar surface and at various countries' lunar outposts, almost everyone was extremely nervous, because there was an alien spaceship overhead, which had just dropped what was clearly a lander onto the lunar surface. Everyone was staring intently at the lander's descent trajectory, analyzing where on the moon it intended to land. A first contact diplomatic team had been urgently assembled at James' Red Star Base, consisting mainly of astronauts stationed on the moon from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. This team would, when necessary, make first contact and communicate with this alien group visiting the moon.

.........

"Speaking of which, what are the specific places on the surface of this celestial body we're going to this time called?"

Inside the slowly descending lander, Moia, strapped to her seat, suddenly remembered something and asked a question to the person beside her who was looking at information on a personal data terminal.

"There are quite a few. The first target is Shackleton Crater, located at the pole of this celestial body. I think the civilization in this galaxy gave this crater this name. The bottoms of these craters and the underground lava tubes within the craters are most likely to contain traces of the origin of life on our home planet."

"The Aitken Basin region is one of the largest craters on this celestial body. It also has a high probability of retaining secrets and traces related to the birth of silicon-based organic life on our home planet around the time of the impact of the celestial body billions of years ago."

.........

"Command, the landing capsule's descent trajectory has been confirmed. Its destination is the edge of Shackleton Crater!"

Inside the James Red Star Base, a technician in front of a computer screen shouted to the commanders-in-chief of both bases and several astronaut representatives from other permanent members of the UN Security Council who were on duty in the control center.

"What?!" The two base commanders and several astronaut representatives present rushed to the computer impatiently to check the landing trajectory of the alien landing module.

"The specific location is probably on the other side of the crater, about 58 kilometers away from our bases."

"Everyone, get ready to go to the airlock, put on your spacesuits, and stock up on spare oxygen tanks. We may need to stay outside for a while this time."

"Get the lunar rover ready. We might just make history again."

…………

Accompanied by a slight vibration, a giant landing capsule, equivalent to the size of several An-225 aircraft, landed steadily on the surface of the moon. The heavy landing pad also stirred up a cloud of dust when it landed on the surface of the moon.

All the air in the airlock at the exit was exhausted, and as soon as the hatch opened, Moia, wearing a space suit, ran down the ramp at the exit impatiently.

"Yeah! I'm the first Theian to set foot on an extrasolar object!"

But before it could be happy for a few seconds, a stone at the bottom of the slope hit it. The gravity on the moon is only 1/6, so it fell face down.

The other Theians who were walking down the slope were all stunned for a moment, looking at Moia, who was the first one to fall on the surface of the moon in a dog-eat-shit position and was a little too proud of himself. Everyone's expression was wonderful.

"Oh... How embarrassing." Moia got up from the ground, patted his space suit and helmet that were covered with moon dust, stood up and looked at the silver-gray desert around him. The sun's rays shone on the surface next to the Shackleton crater, bringing a touch of bright color to the silver-gray desert.

In the cargo hold on the other side of the landing module, hundreds of automatic transport and assembly robots have begun to carry and install modular living cabins and scientific research equipment to the lunar surface. A small deuterium-helium fusion reactor and a series of vacuum environment cooling equipment transported along with the lander were first placed on the lunar surface. With the energy support provided by the reactor, a large lunar research station consisting of dozens of cabins was quickly assembled and built. Under the precise coordination and control of the strong artificial intelligence program on the giant transport ship in orbit, the Theia civilization's first landing on the moon was completed in just a few hours, a lunar base of equal scale that took Earth years or even decades to build in the second half of the 20th century.

…………

"Command...this..."

In the lunar rover fleet sent by humans approaching the Theians' lunar landing area, an astronaut pointed speechlessly at an alien lunar base several kilometers ahead, which had been built from the ground in just a few hours.

"Those things moving around the landing pod...are robots? Isn't that incredibly efficient?"

"By the way... Command... How long did it take us to expand and build the lunar base to its current size?"

"It's been nearly 20 years since the mid-80s, right?"

"These aliens completed what took us nearly 20 years to build in just a few hours... Is this... the gap in technological level?"

.........

"Hmm? Someone is coming. Is it the civilization on the nearby planet? Should I take some people to contact them?" Moia Rock looked at the information sent from the spacecraft in orbit, and became curious about these creatures that were born from the same origin galaxy as his own civilization.

"Send me their multifunctional translation program based on the radio waves leaked from their planet, as well as their electromagnetic wave communication channel, so that we can communicate later." Moia sent a request to the artificial intelligence of the ship in orbit through the built-in communication module and intelligent display of the space suit. After a while, a multifunctional language translation program and the corresponding communication frequency band were sent to Moia's space suit personal data terminal.

Moia called on four security robots that were transported down with the land cabin and six Theians who wanted to go together, and together they started the first contact between humans and Theians, two civilizations with the same origin.

Chapter 204: The Terrifying Construction Efficiency and Speed ​​of K1.2 Civilization (6000)

When the lunar convoy approached, the astronauts at James Red Star Base discovered the figures of aliens who were suspected to be wearing spacesuits moving around the giant lunar lander. Compared with the hundreds of engineering machinery and automatic assembly robots that were constructing and assembling lunar structures near the lander, these dozens of aliens beside the lander were too inconspicuous, so that the astronauts at James Red Star Base did not even see these aliens wandering around the lander from a distance.

When the human astronauts finally approached the lander, several alien individuals had apparently discovered them. On the lunar surface, where the gravity is only 1/6 of the Earth's, several aliens jumped towards the human astronauts who had just got off the lunar rover.

"They look so tall?" An astronaut from the European Space Agency exclaimed as he looked at the other party, who seemed to be at least two meters tall.

"Um...does anyone know what communication frequency band the aliens use?"

"How could we possibly know that? Commander, why don't you just start broadcasting on all channels?"

"Well, it's really inconvenient without air."

The two commanders of James Red Star Base adjusted the radios on their spacesuits to full-band broadcast mode.

"Uh... hello? We are humans from the blue-green planet next door." The two commanders first tried to express friendly greetings to each other in several major languages ​​used by humans. Although they were not sure whether the other party could understand them, considering that the previous individual who claimed to be from a Kardashev Type III civilization had directly deciphered the human language through the radio waves leaked from the earth, then it was likely that the group of aliens in front of them had the same ability.

"Hello, humans, we are the Theians from the Theian civilization." What surprised the humans present was that they heard this response from their own communication frequency band in electronic tones including English, Russian, Chinese, French, Arabic and other languages.

"I have deciphered your language and communication channels. You can communicate directly with us using your communication channels."

"My name and title, translated into your language, should be... Moia Rock. You can call me Rock."

"Um... hello... respected... Rock? May I ask why your spacecraft landed here?"

"Geological and archaeological excavations and scientific research. In order to facilitate detailed planetary geological research on this celestial body, we need to establish a scientific research station here."

"Archaeological excavation? Is there anything worth excavating on our moon?"

"There are... traces of certain organic compounds that may have been buried underground when this celestial body was first formed."

"These organic compounds have a lot to do with the origin of our species."

"Organic compounds shouldn't form in a vacuum, right?"

"So even if there are any, they are just fossils and traces buried underground. But you're mistaken about one thing: these organic compounds are not carbon-based. The main element that makes up these organic compounds is silicon."

"Silicon? Silicon-based organic compounds? Doesn't that mean..."

"We are the product of this silicon-based organic compound, which is the silicon-based form of intelligent life that you know and imagine."

"What? Silicon-based life actually exists?" exclaimed an astronaut present.

In response, Moia opened the opaque visor on the outside of its helmet, revealing its face beneath the glass mask. It heard the human astronauts in the communication gasp when they saw its face.

It was a head, somewhat flat and square, made of stone. Its eyes were made of a highly transparent, crystal-like substance. It was worth noting that the Teia lacked distinct lips like humans. When they weren't speaking, you could barely discern the position of their mouths.

"If you have anything you want to discuss, you can come to our lander or base. There, we can have an unobstructed and more convenient atmosphere for conversation.

After a brief discussion, the two team leaders agreed to enter the alien base that had been built and started operating on the surface of the moon to communicate. Of course, what the two team leaders did not say explicitly was that they wanted to get close to alien technology that was more advanced than that of humans, which might provide some reference and ideas for the future technological development of mankind.

Led by several robot-like devices following behind them, the astronaut representatives from the James Red Star Moon Base entered the airlock of the other cabin. However, this airlock was much larger than the cargo airlock of the James Red Star Base in both area and horizontal length. One of the astronauts noticed that there was a strange design in this ridiculously large airlock. One of the walls was a whole piece of two-way transparent glass, and opposite the glass seemed to be a room that was slightly smaller than this airlock and was also enclosed.

"Don't take off your spacesuit yet. I'm adjusting the air composition in this section of the cabin. We'll go to the next room later.