The stars, but they become the gray wind

Moia pointed to the room behind the glass curtain wall.

"The composition of our planet's atmosphere is different from yours. Our atmosphere contains some elements that are toxic to you. Although based on the current situation, we can briefly breathe your planet's atmosphere if necessary, your planet's atmosphere and environment are simply uncomfortable for us. Unless there is a real emergency, there is no need for us to do so."

"Some of the toxic components in our planet's atmosphere could cause serious damage to your lungs and other organs. For safety's sake, it would be best if we each breathe separate air."

After setting up the airlock's atmospheric composition adjustment program, Moia opened the door inside the airlock and made a detour to the room behind the transparent glass curtain wall on the other side of the airlock. Moia, having removed his helmet and spacesuit, and several other Teias appeared in the other glass curtain wall room a short while later.

He took a look and confirmed that the air pressure and atmospheric composition ratio of the rooms on both sides displayed on the wall had been adjusted and the disinfection procedure had been completed. Then, he translated the Teia language into several common languages ​​commonly used by humans through the simultaneous interpretation machine and the broadcasting equipment in the rooms on both sides.

"Alright, everyone, you can take off your helmets now. The room on your side has been basically sterilized. The air composition and temperature have been adjusted to be exactly the same as your home planet."

After confirming with each other, the two team leaders took the lead in removing the sealing rings on their helmets and took off the heavy space suit helmets.

"Huh..." The two took a deep breath. There was nothing strange about the air in the cabin. It was even quite fresh and clean.

An astronaut looked at the air composition detection device on his arm, which he brought from the lunar base. This portable device was originally used to prevent the leakage of various toxic and harmful gases in the base and to carry out timely treatment and detection.

"Nitrogen 7808, oxygen 2095, argon 093, carbon dioxide 003, no problem." He gestured to the rest of his companions, and the others also took off their helmets and masks.

"Alright, it looks like the atmospheric composition ratio is fine. Hello, humans."

"Hello...Mr. or Miss Rock?"

"Just call me Rock. Our species doesn't have gender as you understand it."

"Okay, Rock, could you please explain more about the silicon-based compounds you mentioned earlier? Why do you think there are silicon-based compounds on the moon that are related to silicon-based life?"

"Because this is... the origin of life on our home planet. The true origin."

"What?" The two team leaders were suddenly confused. They couldn't understand how the origin of a civilization from dozens of light years away could be related to the Earth's satellite.

"This is a long story... First, let's talk about our home planet."

"Our home star system is 44 light-years away from your planet. It's the star system you call Tiandajiangjun VI."

Everyone present saw that Moia behind the glass curtain wall opposite seemed to point at something in mid-air, and a three-dimensional holographic projection appeared in the airlock on this side, causing everyone to exclaim a little.

The holographic projection shows a very special binary star system. The main star, VI A, is a yellow-white dwarf that is younger than the sun, and the other companion star, VI B, is a red dwarf star that is very far away from the main star. The relative distance between the two is almost one light year.

"The star you call Tiandajiangjun 6A is our home star. In our language, this star is called Teykarol."

"Our home planet is the satellite of the fourth gas giant orbiting Teykalor. We call the planet Teyya."

"Wow... life was born on the satellite of a gas giant planet? This is amazing!" exclaimed a human astronaut in the team.

"However, the first life on Theia was actually foreign."

"Foreign? What does that mean?"

"That's exactly what I said. Please listen carefully to what follows." Moia said as she zoomed in the holographic projection and enlarged an area on the massive satellite orbiting the gas giant. The human astronauts present noticed that the enlarged area seemed to have a circle of craters that looked like they were caused by a meteorite impact.

"This area is called the Origin Crater. It's the origin of life on Theia. It's located in Theia's northern hemisphere, near the equator. Billions of years ago, a massive asteroid impacted here, creating this crater and crater. The asteroid that fell to Theia contained a large amount of silicon-based organic matter. This silicon-based organic matter, which landed with the asteroid, is the origin of life on our planet."

"And this asteroid is not a product of our galaxy. It comes from outside our galaxy."

"I think you all should know how this satellite of your home planet was formed?"

"Well, of course, billions of years ago, a celestial body collided with the Earth and shattered it completely. The fragments of that body mixed with some of the separated Earth debris. After billions of years of converging and cooling, they eventually formed the Moon we see below."

"So... suppose that a massive collision accelerated a piece of the planetary debris to a speed hundreds of times greater than the solar system's escape velocity, causing it to eventually fly out of the solar system and collide head-on with a celestial body in a nearby galaxy. What would happen?"

"Wait, you don't mean to say?"

"Yes, this is the original source of the asteroid that gave rise to life on our home planet. It originated from the solar system, a fragment of which flew out of the solar system in a major collision before the birth of the moon. It's even possible that before that major collision, the celestial body that collided with the ancient Earth may have contained a large amount of silicon-based organic matter. Some of this silicon-based organic matter survived along with the planetary fragments and flew through the universe for tens of thousands of years until it plunged into our home planet. These silicon-based organic substances ultimately contributed to our birth.

"We've already excavated and collected rock samples from underground and deep lunar regions, and discovered that some of these rocks are almost identical in composition to the original asteroid fragment excavated from our planet's origin crater. Carbon-14 dating also dates them to roughly the same period. If you deduct the tens of thousands of years the asteroid spent hurtling through space, there's virtually no difference in their formation."

"So, we are also life that originated from the solar system."

"This... is simply too shocking. I need to take some time to think about this information." The humans present, including the two team leaders, were all shocked beyond words. This was something they had never expected. An alien civilization from a distant galaxy actually originated from the same galaxy as life on Earth. The probability of such a coincidence happening is almost negligible in the universe.

"If those two celestial bodies hadn't collided, perhaps two civilizations would have been born in the solar system."

"We believe that there are still traces of silicon-based organic matter inside the moon, possibly left behind by that celestial body."

"In addition to recovering the interstellar unmanned probe we launched, our other main mission is to study and explore your planet's satellite and try to find traces and evidence of the true origin of life on our planet."

…………

On Earth, compared to the nervous top leaders of various countries and the people who inevitably panicked, there was a group that seemed quite excited. They were scientists and research teams in various fields. The existence of advanced extraterrestrial intelligent life seemed to have opened the door to a new world for them. In just over a year, more than one alien race had arrived and visited the solar system, which made scientific researchers and related teams all over the world very excited. In their eyes, it represented an unprecedented new future.

The revelation of the conversation between the astronaut delegation from James Red Star Base on the Moon and an alien civilization after their return from the lunar base has suddenly transformed the previously unpopular and underfunded field of extraterrestrial microbial research into a hot commodity. Overnight, nearly all companies and research institutions are investing in these extraterrestrial microbial search projects. This has been incredibly frustrating for Kelly on Mars, and her personal email inbox is practically overflowing. Within three days, she received invitations and inquiries from nearly a thousand research institutions on Earth, which reminded her of the time she struggled to secure investment for her seemingly unpopular research project.

"You know what? Less than a year ago, no one wanted to invest in my research project. Almost every investment company and research institute I approached was unwilling to put even a penny into it. But just a year later, all of them have completely changed their attitudes and are trying to get funding from me."

"It must be a great feeling to see those who once rejected you now humbly begging you for help, right?"

"No... I'm not happy at all. I just think these people are annoying. They didn't give me a penny at first, but now they all come up to me with such shamelessness. I'm speechless." Kelly sighed. She was very unhappy with the shameless behavior of these investment and research institutions.

.........

On the moon, the Theian research base took shape with astonishing speed, deploying the initial batch via a large landing capsule. After automating the construction of machinery and the lunar base's cabin, the Theian transport ship in lunar orbit ejected dozens of small, portable, modular solar sail reflector power generation assemblies, each 1.5 kilometers in diameter, from its cargo hold. These solar sail reflectors, capable of rapid deployment in orbit, collect sunlight and convert it into electricity, which is then transmitted to the surface in the form of a 500nm green laser beam. This provides the lunar research station with an auxiliary energy supply, in addition to the fusion reactor.

The astronauts from various countries stationed on the moon also witnessed the infrastructure construction capabilities and efficiency of an alien civilization whose technological level and scale far exceeded that of the Earth. However, in just a few days, this alien civilization that had just arrived on the moon had already built one. Even the astronauts on the moon envied them. Even applying for a new freezer to provide more ice-cold beer and drinks for the base took several weeks, and it took nearly two months for the freezer to be delivered to the lunar base. Such speed and efficiency of infrastructure construction made the people on the lunar base envious.

Compared with astronauts, technical experts in the field of aerospace engineering on Earth did not see the powerful productivity and resource allocation capabilities symbolized and represented by the highly advanced automated construction technology of the Theia civilization.

"If we were to build an orbital solar power station of this scale, it would normally take five or even ten years, right?"

"Just the technical demonstration alone could take a year or two. Then, finding a way to secure the budget and investment is another arduous task. Once production actually begins, there are all sorts of engineering challenges to contend with. Even after it's produced, it's still not enough to use. You still have to launch it into space, get it to its intended location, and find the right vehicle to launch it. And I haven't even factored in the maintenance costs and time required for subsequent operations."

"If we want to build something like this, it would take 15 or even 20 years. The efficiency of infrastructure construction at this level is thousands of times higher than that of humans."

In the office of the head of a seemingly inconspicuous space agency, two technical experts in the field of aerospace engineering were exchanging their views on what was happening on the moon.

"And this is just the tip of the iceberg of the productivity of a quasi-Type II civilization. As for that one that might be from a Kardashev Type III civilization, I can't imagine the extent of its capabilities."

"By the way, speaking of this topic, didn't we just recently complete the site selection and survey work for the lunar mass accelerator?"

"Yes, it took several months just to select the site and survey the route, and we haven't even started laying the foundation yet."

"Now that you mention it, I'm actually a little envious. I wish we could have their production efficiency and construction speed."

"Don't be so delusional. With our current level of technology, it would take over a decade to build a small-scale orbital solar power station. The Goldilocks asteroid mining project has only just begun, and the related infrastructure is completely lacking. We haven't even begun work on a new generation of Earth-Mars transport spacecraft, and the existing Unity Earth-Mars transport spacecraft is completely insufficient. Mars is currently short of people, equipment, and infrastructure. The Lunar Mass Accelerator, which aims to launch large payloads to Mars and Earth's high orbit, has barely laid the first brick. We are still too backward and weak at this stage."

"Yeah, we originally thought we might be the only civilization in the universe, perhaps even the most advanced. But in the end, it was all just wishful thinking on our part, wasn't it?"

"The Teian people on the moon who communicated with our astronauts said that we had encountered a low-probability event. It is extremely rare, even unprecedented, to have a highly developed alien civilization within 50 light years."

"As for being visited by another Kardashev III civilization... well, that's purely because they're technologically advanced and have already pinpointed the exact locations of most civilizations and intelligent life in the galaxy."

"They proactively visit other civilizations and intelligent life forms simply to perfect galaxy-wide wormholes and their own faster-than-light transportation network."

"Although neither you nor I are professional theoretical physicists, I think we can both understand how outrageous superluminal speed is, right?"

"Are you talking about the closed timelike curves I created at superluminal speeds? I'm curious how they avoid creating wormholes without destroying the temporal protection mechanism?"

"According to what those Theian stone men say, they haven't avoided destroying the temporal protection mechanism or creating closed timelike curves. Their wormhole and superluminal technology can essentially be used as a time machine, even a time machine that breaks the law of causality. According to information revealed by the Theian people on the moon, the Kardashev III civilization building wormholes and stargates in the solar system has used wormholes to create a true closed timelike curve computer, a super-Turing machine capable of near-infinite calculations."

"Do you know what this means? They can use a time machine to construct closed timelike curves, continuously sending future information to themselves, modifying their own history, and even reaching their destination before they set off!" The aerospace engineering technical expert, wearing reading glasses, was very excited. (Note 1)

Note 1: Due to the nature of FTL technology itself, causality and temporal paradoxes are completely irrelevant to a civilization that can use FTL technology to travel through time. They are not bound by many of the "rules" that often determine the mechanics of time travel in other space opera works. They can also have multiple versions of the same biological spaceship from different parts of its history coexisting at the same time, a kind of "time cloning" plot.

In addition, time travel technology can also be used to create CTC (closed time-like curve) computers and factories.

CTC computers can transmit calculation results to the past, so the results transmitted from the future can be obtained at the beginning of the calculation. The calculation time is zero and the calculation speed is close to infinity.

The CTC factory also uses the same technical principle. After the product is produced, it will travel through time and be transported to the moment when production just started. Therefore, the factory obtains the finished product at the moment of executing the production procedure. This method can not only obtain infinite production efficiency, but also call on all raw materials on the past, present and future timelines.

Chapter 205 High-performance electromagnetic guns and star-class battleships?

For today's human beings, no matter who you are, such as an astronomy enthusiast, as long as you have a small astronomical telescope and point the telescope at the Earth-Moon L1 Lagrange point, you can see the alien spacecraft and fleet busy at the L1 Lagrange point - the Rover as big as a mountain, the giant interstellar unmanned exploration ship of the Theia civilization with a long axis of more than 5,000 meters and a total mass of more than 10 million tons. If you are lucky, observers on Earth can even see directly through their telescopes those engineering maintenance and repair spacecraft moving around on the surface of the interstellar unmanned exploration ship, replacing parts for this giant stellar-class unmanned exploration ship.

At the L1 Lagrange point, three giant space tankers are anchored next to the interstellar unmanned exploration ship, connected to the interstellar unmanned exploration ship's fuel storage tank through a fuel refueling hose. A large amount of deuterium and helium fusion fuel is being continuously transferred from the tankers to the interstellar unmanned exploration ship.

On the surface of the unmanned exploration ship, dozens of engineering spacecraft are using robotic arms and automatic maintenance robots to replace the old and damaged outer shells of the exploration ship, including a new multi-layer Whipple shield device to protect against the impact of high-speed hydrogen atoms and micrometeoroids during interstellar navigation, a brand new intact laser sail, and the engine nozzle and the inner wall of the deuterium-helium fusion reactor at the tail of the spacecraft that were severely worn due to neutron radiation are also being replaced bit by bit. A large number of small maintenance robots with the ability to move on the surface and inside and outside the spacecraft are crawling in and out of the spacecraft, checking everywhere to see if there are other spacecraft parts that need to be replaced or repaired. The exploration ship, which had been severely damaged during the long interstellar voyage, is being repaired bit by bit.

Almost all human beings on Earth have seen all of this and are worried about it, because the current Earth civilization is too weak. The total energy output of the entire civilization is not even as high as that of any civilian torch ship of the other side. No matter what the other side wants to do to them, they have no ability to resist. If the two alien civilizations that came to the solar system had not had basically no subjective malice towards humans, and did not even care too much about the existence of humans on Earth, then their species would most likely have disappeared in the universe. For a long time, human society has been in a state of anthropocentrism, and now, a seed called "de-anthropocentrism" has been planted and will germinate one day in the future.

Of course, this has nothing to do with Moia and other Theians who are conducting archaeological excavations in the Shackleton Crater area of ​​the moon. In the newly built Theia lunar research station, Moia and others are leisurely waiting for the automated exploration robot to send back images of the deep lunar geology of this area. In order to kill the boring time while waiting, the Theians present have started their hobbies. One Theian who loves art even asked the automatic excavation robot to dig back a piece of lunar rock with a diameter of more than half a meter from the outside, and began to carve the lunar rock on the spot with a laser welding gun.

"Why do you want to cut it into a complete circle?" Moia asked puzzledly as he looked at his companion who was using a laser welding gun to cut the half-meter diameter lunar rock into a circle bit by bit.

"You'll find out later."

"By the way, does anyone have a panoramic image of this object taken from orbit?"

"What are you talking about?" Moia called up a three-dimensional holographic projection of the entire lunar surface terrain layer.

"Ah... yes, that's it. I'll carve a scaled-down replica of the moon for you guys later."

"So... that's why we have to cut such a big stone into a round shape?"

"Yeah... but this stone has a high titanium and iron content, so it's quite heavy to carry. It looks like the exploration and excavation robots accidentally discovered an ilmenite mine."

"But it won't be of much use to us. After all, we don't plan to build a shipyard or large-scale spacecraft production facilities here."

"We don't need large-scale facilities like a microgravity shipyard, but we do need a launch site and basic fuel storage and processing facilities, right?"

"We can't just build a simple landing pad for the spacecraft and install a few simple fuel storage tanks near it like those humans on this celestial body. By our standards, the facilities here are not only rudimentary, but also completely incompetent and substandard."

"Furthermore, on a celestial body like this, with no atmosphere and extremely low gravity, a mass accelerator isn't just for launching small payloads. With our engineering capabilities, it's easy to build one in a short period of time. The fleet's main transport ship that arrived this time also carries some engineering components for building a small, modular, and simple mass accelerator."

"It just so happens that the humans next door are planning to build a mass accelerator on the moon. So, let's consider this as a positive example for them, right?"

"It seems that several transport ships do carry something called a modular small mass accelerator assembly, but as I recall, that wasn't... a modified anti-asteroid railgun that fires slow, heavy projectiles?"

"Yeah, but that thing can be used to launch low-mass payloads on the surface of a celestial body with low gravity and no atmosphere."

"The original prototype of this thing was intended for space stations to defend against asteroids tens to hundreds of meters in diameter. However, we later discovered that it could also be used to launch payloads in microgravity or zero-gravity environments. So, we modified its function and turned it into a multi-purpose mass accelerator that can be used to launch payloads onto the surfaces of such low-gravity celestial bodies without atmospheres."

"Well... but this thing is barely adequate for use as a self-defense weapon against asteroids for space stations and other space colonies. It only has a velocity of 5800 to 6000 meters per second, which means it can't hit anything except asteroids."

"In our case, it's just an old product with very poor performance."

"I guess among the glass eels and the others, it's at best a children's toy, right?"

"That's right. The performance of this thing is really terrible. I guess it can only be used to throw small mass payloads into the sky for scientific research bases. It can't compare with those new models of electromagnetic accelerators that can reach initial velocities of over 500 to 800 kilometers per second."

The two Theians were giving a sharp review of their own electromagnetic acceleration technology. If a human being present heard such a conversation, he would definitely be sweating profusely, and then look at his own electromagnetic cannons with a maximum projection speed of no more than 3500 meters per second with a guilty conscience, and then complain in his heart about how the Theian civilization could achieve such an electromagnetic acceleration projection device that could reach speeds of more than 500 kilometers per second and a few thousandths of the speed of light.

…………

Qi Ling Wu Si Liu Qi "Come to think of it, I accidentally discovered something that we overlooked before." By directly hacking into the camera of a Theia civilization's excavation machinery operating on the lunar surface, Kalisi was almost observing the ever-expanding Theia lunar research station at close range.

"what's up?"

"The Teian's electromagnetic acceleration and projection technology."

"They are actually quite advanced in this area, but most of the time they don't have the need for it. Through their civilization's interstellar data network, I've discovered quite a few of their technological achievements in this area."

"Such as this."

"What is this?" Yuki looked at the information sent by Carlisle curiously.

"The design of a railgun using an ultra-long barrel and plasma acceleration principle?"

"A reconnecting electromagnetic gun, where a high-powered laser triggers a fusion reaction in a pellet of fusion fuel. The plasma generated by the micro-nuclear explosion is then directed into the barrel to provide a sufficiently high initial acceleration for the projectile. Accelerator coils or rails then provide further acceleration. It seems like that's the idea..."

"Unfortunately, the materials science of our original world simply can't achieve this kind of thing, and now... this kind of thing is basically just a toy for us."

"However... for the Earth in this world, or even the Theia civilization, this thing is no longer a toy. Take a look at the test results and specific data of this thing."

"A 1,100-meter-long guideway made of a new type of high-temperature superconducting magnet material successfully accelerated a niobium alloy projectile weighing approximately 100 kilograms to an initial velocity of 6000 kilometers per second?"

"2% of the speed of light? This performance... considering the technological level of a Type 1.2 civilization, is quite good."

"Indeed, based on my understanding of early interstellar warfare, this thing already has an extremely high hit rate at distances of one light second or even several light seconds. Being able to accelerate a projectile weighing hundreds of kilograms to 2% of the speed of light already demonstrates a very strong level of combat capability."

"However, considering the level of shipbuilding technology of the Teia civilization, this thing can only be used as an axial gun on a large ship, right?"

"Due to the inherent characteristics of propellant propulsion technology and the physical limitations imposed by material properties, the length-to-width ratios of ships built by the Theian civilization were generally kept relatively close. Otherwise, the ships' turning capabilities and maneuverability would be severely impaired. The Theian civilization's mainstream ships had a length-to-width ratio of approximately 10:2. Large ships generally had a major axis between 1000 and 2500 meters, while their widths and diameters were generally between 200 and 400 meters and upwards."

"Based on this ratio, it's not unreasonable to cram a main gun over 1100 meters long into the spacecraft that can accelerate 100-kilogram shells to 2% of the speed of light."

"What's more, Theia's advanced materials science in superconducting technology also gives them an extremely outrageous advantage in manufacturing smaller electromagnetic weapons."

"Even the least powerful railguns currently used in aerospace are capable of launching nuclear melon bullets made of 150 to 200 grams of lithium deuteride at a muzzle velocity exceeding 300 kilometers per second."

"Although 300 kilometers per second is only about one thousandth of the speed of light, this is a nuclear melon seed. A nuclear melon seed launched at this speed will almost certainly trigger a fusion reaction upon impact with its target. For most civilizations, which can only use Whipple shields to protect their spacecraft, this technology is already quite advanced."

"However, this kind of thing can only damage spacecraft or spacecraft that rely on conventional chemical bonding materials. It has difficulty dealing with materials such as sub-shell electron bonding materials that have overcome electron degeneracy pressure, let alone more advanced materials composed of supersolid matter."

"Come to think of it, they do seem to have the ability to synthesize and preserve metastable metallic hydrogen, a relatively basic supersolid substance, in large quantities?"

"In fact, if the Theia civilization can mass-produce metastable metallic hydrogen to a certain extent, then it's not too far off from being able to produce materials for bonding sub-shell electrons."

"If the environment around their star system didn't allow it, they would actually have the ability to capture some extremely low-mass primordial black holes passing near the edge of their star system. However, the location of their galaxy and the gravitational environment shaped by the stars are quite subtle, so there are no low-mass primordial black holes around them."