The stars, but they become the gray wind

"I'm sorry, but you can't do anything right now. Even if I tell you how to get them out of this predicament, you humans can hardly do anything in your current state."

"I can tell you how they get out of trouble, but you can't use it at all."

"And the name of this method is mechanical transmutation."

Although Merkaz was brought to Iserlohn Fortress personally by the mysterious alien lady, his origin from the Imperial Army still aroused many doubts about him.

"Leaving your family behind in the Empire is equivalent to leaving them hostage. It seems to me that Admiral Merkaz may have other motives."

No, if Admiral Merkaz had intended to deceive me from the beginning, he wouldn't have mentioned that his family members had been left behind in the Empire. He could have simply found someone to pretend to be his family and keep an eye on him."

If the intelligence department wants to take this opportunity to spy and steal information, this should be the best opportunity, right?" said Shen Koub with a serious expression.

"Admiral Merkaz is a pure soldier, with no connection to intelligence activities or sabotage. I think I can trust him."

Yang was pleased to learn that despite his subordinates' skepticism, Merkaz remained at Iserlohn Fortress as a guest admiral, serving as an advisor to the commander. Both positions were official admirals, and whether engaging the enemy directly or directing his own forces, Merkaz's battle-hardened experience and insights would be a significant asset to Yang.

Meanwhile, in the Alliance, a group of pro-war parliamentarians headed by Treunicht have already fallen into a peaceful and permanent sleep. During the attack on the Alliance capital by the Invincible Battleship, Parliamentarian Jessica, who used her social influence to help and guide the panicked citizens of the Alliance to evacuate in an orderly manner, is gaining increasing support among the people of the Alliance. The Alliance capital of Heinessen, which is currently in the reconstruction stage, is still led by a temporary parliament composed of people like Lebero and Hewang, but the voice of Jessica, who hopes to advocate a ceasefire with the Empire and carry out large-scale reforms to the internal affairs of the Alliance, to be elected as the political leader of the Alliance, is growing louder and louder.

Although he was far away in Iserlohn Fortress on the border of the Alliance, Yang was also very concerned about the things happening in the Alliance. Personally, he was not particularly fond of politics, but he certainly sincerely hoped that Jessica could one day truly change the current inefficiency and corruption within the Alliance.

Although Lebelo and Hovan, who are currently serving as temporary power agents, have tried to reform a series of problems exposed within the alliance, the progress is slow. Many problems of the alliance have become difficult to reverse over the past few decades. To fundamentally solve these problems, a leader with sufficient vision and ability is needed.

However, if we want to fundamentally eliminate these problems that have recurred cyclically throughout human history, it is obviously not something that can be solved by just one reform.

From a civilizational perspective, such reforms and changes are ubiquitous throughout history. However, when considered across the entire history of civilization, culture, and development, these reforms are ultimately only temporary solutions. As an imperfect product of natural evolution, humans have limited lifespans, intelligence, and the speed of their evolution, all limited by technological advancements. Whether they can evolve and develop more rapidly is uncertain. Whether humans can elevate and transform their life forms, how much their intelligence and moral standards can be increased, and whether this is sufficient to achieve a true utopia—all these remain uncertainties for human society.

…………

"At least it's moving in a better direction. Even though it's not that much better, it's still a good start, right?"

Yuuki commented on the humans in this world.

"Is this the price you have to pay for heading towards the stars at an immature stage?"

"In some respects, it's almost identical to the former Interstellar Convention."

"Forget it. Whether they can develop to a higher level depends entirely on themselves. Is it true that interfering with and guiding a civilization is more appropriate in its early stages?"

"A society and civilization born in an unconscious natural state will eventually tend towards the chaos brought about by increasing entropy."

“That’s really hard to like.”

"If more civilizations could receive the correct guidance, perhaps they could avoid this trend of being born in an unconscious natural state and then increasingly tending towards the chaos caused by increasing entropy over time?"

"While this entropy-induced chaos isn't a problem for us, the glass eels, or even civilizations like the Avro Swarm that have evolved to the ultimate social stage, most weaker civilizations are clearly still unable to escape it."

"Perhaps, in addition to the stargate and wormhole superluminal network transportation system, we can still bring something else to other civilizations in our universe?"

"For example... methods to avoid the chaos caused by the accumulation of natural entropy during the development of civilization and society?"

Chapter 236 I Can See You! (6000 words)

Few things surprise the Fessa Dominion Lord Lubinski. Having been cast as bait, Lubinski never expected to receive a letter from the Beluska. Of course, Lubinski couldn't pin all his hopes on such a random bait with an unknown outcome. Rather, the fact that Gonef had returned alive was already beyond his expectations.

Even more surprising, however, was the news Gonif brought back. The two alien groups hadn't clashed, as Rubinski had anticipated. Although his intelligence network within the Empire had reported a brief, intense exchange of fire between the two warships, both ships had escaped the battlefield unscathed. This also defied Rubinski's expectations. He had expected the two ships to suffer, if not a life-or-death battle, at least mutual damage. Instead, it seemed as though only a limited exchange of fire had taken place before each side abandoned the other and departed. This was the case twice.

The news that Beluska brought back was not good news. His intentions were discovered by the other party somehow, and the other party seemed to be very clear about the power behind Feisha. When Gonif was relaying the other party's words and said the word "religion", Robinson's inner alarm bells rang, and his vigilance against this mysterious alien force increased to a higher level.

Until now, the Alliance and the Empire have been unaware of the true identity of Feisha. The Earth Church is the real behind-the-scenes founder and manipulator of Feisha. Even the Empire and the Alliance, who have been exchanging and trading with Feisha for hundreds of years, are unaware of this truth. Rubinsky can't understand how a group of outsiders from outside human society who have only had contact with a few Feisha merchants discovered it?

And this answer, no matter what, seems to point to one result, that is, the other party really may have some ability to directly read human memory as Gonif said.

Thinking of this possibility, Rubinsky felt that the development of the situation seemed to be beyond his control. Assuming that the other party really had the ability to read human memory, to what extent could this ability be achieved? Does it require physical contact to read it, or not?

As for the fact that Feisha was connected with the Earth Cult, only a very small number of Feisha senior officials including himself and Boldeker knew about it. If the other party really had the technology to read human memory, it would be impossible for them to know the inside story between Feisha and the Earth Cult just by reading the memory of Gonif, a small merchant ship owner who knew almost nothing. The only possible answer was that the other party might have already reached into Feisha without his knowledge.

Thinking of this, Lubinski shuddered. How on earth could someone like him, an outsider from human society, figure out the connection between Feisha and the Earth Cult in such a short time? This secret, which the Empire and the Alliance hadn't even noticed for hundreds of years, how did they know?

Although Rubinski is cunning, he is not stupid. The other party seems to have some information channel unknown to him. This information channel seems to be able to contact the few senior officials who know the secrets of Feisha and the Earth Church through some means that Rubinski is also unknown to.

Just as Rubinsky was thinking about all this, a prompt message suddenly popped up on his personal computer.

"Ok?"

Rubinsky opened the email, and the message inside made his eyes widen. It was a series of call records, and he was very familiar with the content of these calls. It was a record of all the calls between him and the Archbishop of the Earth Church over the years. There was also a picture attached below these call records. After seeing the picture, Rubinsky subconsciously stood up from behind the desk and quickly pulled out the laser pistol he had hidden under the desk. He turned around and pointed the pistol in his hand behind him and pulled the trigger, but there was nothing there. The beam emitted by the laser pistol only left a small black mark and hole on the wall.

Rubinsky looked at the picture attached to the email on the computer in fear and uncertainty. The photo seemed to be taken from the angle behind Rubinsky's desk. Rubinsky in the photo was facing his personal computer to check an email, and the shooting time marked below the photo was exactly now. There was also a line of small words below the photo.

We can see you!

This photo is also the reason why Rubinsky is suspicious now. There is no camera in his office. As for the angle shown in the photo, it was taken from behind his desk. There is not even any electronic equipment there. Rubinsky feels that his hand holding the gun is shaking. He is obviously the only one in the entire office, but it seems like something is staring at him from a place he can't see at all.

While being alert, Rubinsky also began to think about how this information was leaked. All the conversations between him and the Archbishop on Earth were conducted through a communicator that was completely physically isolated from other devices. The records after each call would be deleted by himself. This communicator was only accessible to him and could only be operated by him. The location and entry method of the secret room where the communication equipment was stored was only known to him. Not to mention a spy, even a fly could not fly in. Rubinsky couldn't figure out how this information was leaked?

While Rubinsky was thinking in confusion, another email was sent to his personal computer. Rubinsky hesitated for a few seconds and opened the new email.

[You don't think we need physical contact to read a human's memory, do you?]

There was also a photo attached to the email. The photo showed Rubinsky holding a gun, checking emails on his computer, and looking around vigilantly.

This is a small warning. Don't have any ideas about us. Any of your schemes and tricks are useless to us. But if a fly keeps buzzing around your ear for too long, it will become annoying. Remember, your every move, every thought, and every thought is in our sight.

Rubinsky closed the email silently, still looking around vigilantly. It was obvious that the other party was both demonstrating to him and warning him that he was being monitored by the other party in some unknown way, and what was certain was that he had been monitored by the other party for at least a long time.

Rubinsky did not see anything wrong in his office, such as miniature spy cameras disguised as fly-sized insects. His office had a complete alarm system, and he would be the first to know if anything wrong entered the office.

But now, there were no alarms in the security systems inside and outside the office, and scans from all the sensors in the office also showed that there was only one living creature in the entire office, Lubinski. Apart from him, there was not even an ant. Everything seemed to be flawless.

It was this situation that made Rubinsky anxious. There was no doubt that the other party was monitoring him. Regardless of whether the reading of human memory was true or not, it was certain that he was being monitored by the other party. Moreover, the other party was observing and monitoring him face to face, while all the alarm systems around him showed no abnormalities.

"Huh, is this some kind of technology I haven't seen before?" Rubinsky felt terrified, but helpless. This method was completely beyond his understanding.

Rubinsky's personal computer lit up again, and another unread email notification appeared. Rubinsky opened the new email.

"Don't look for us anymore. You can't see or touch us. We're always watching you, like a shadow, following you everywhere. Your life is in our hands. Are you really that stupid to think that your little tricks will work against us?"

"Oh, my life is in your hands? What if I'm determined to go against you? What else can you do? Send assassins to kill me like the Earth Cult did?"

Lubinsky said with all his courage.

As soon as he finished speaking, another new email was sent and Rubinsky opened the new email.

[Assassin? We don't need something so low-level. Oh, and you humans need to breathe air, right? Do you want to know what it feels like and what the consequences are of prolonged oxygen deprivation?]

After reading the contents of the email, Rubinsky felt as if something was blocking his throat. At first, he just had some difficulty breathing, but in less than a minute, he felt that he could no longer breathe. His face turned pale and he reached for his neck in vain, trying to tear away the thing that was blocking his breathing. However, he felt around his neck but couldn't find anything. It was as if there was an invisible rope around his neck that he could neither see nor touch.

"I...I...know...I know...I...promise you...quickly...stop it!"

"Please... stop...!" The suffocating Rubinsky screamed in horror.

Then, he felt the muscles in his neck relax and his breathing became easier, as if the invisible rope that he could not touch or see had disappeared from his neck.

Lord Feisha slumped against his desk, greedily breathing in the fresh air.

With a familiar prompt tone, a new email was sent to Rubinsky's personal computer.

The originally confident Lord Feisha almost crawled back to his seat and opened the new email that had just been sent to his personal computer.

【Your life or death depends on just a thought from us.】

[Now, understand?]

"I...I understand. Please forgive me, my lord. I will never offend you again." The frightened Lord Feisha had to temporarily abandon his dignity in order to save his life, wagging his tail and begging for mercy at the other party like a dog.

"Ah, this method is indeed more effective. Let this annoying bald guy know that we want to kill him without even lifting a finger. A thought is enough." At the edge of the Feiza galaxy, Yuki remotely controlled the nebula probe that was decomposed into the form of elementary particles.

The nebula probe is a device that can decompose itself into elementary particles and act directly on the brain or other thinking organs of intelligent creatures, directly affecting and rewriting the thoughts and senses of the creatures. The operation that Yuki just performed was a direct application of this method. She allowed the nebula probe to directly affect Rubinsky's brain nervous system and muscles, causing his brain to feel suffocated. This sensation was not just an illusion, but a real lack of oxygen that was enough to cause fatal suffocation. Under the wrong instructions of the brain's nervous system, the muscles and blood vessels around the neck began to squeeze the trachea in the throat, which was impossible under normal circumstances, making Rubinsky experience a real threat of death.

Of course, this method is only a rather simple and crude, but effective application method for the nebula probe. The greatest use of the nebula probe is to quietly modify the subconscious of intelligent creatures on a species basis. When used in this mode, the entire affected intelligent life species will be modified without their own awareness. In the eyes of the affected party, they have only experienced some consciousness and ideas after experiencing a series of seemingly unrelated coincidences and accidents. In fact, these are the effects of the nebula probe, which will make the affected intelligent creatures think that these are their own ideas, and the affected intelligent creatures will not even be aware of any abnormalities.

However, to date, Yuuki and no one else has used the Nebula Probe's highest-power operating mode, which is the working state that modifies the subconscious thinking of intelligent creatures based on race and species.

At first, the boy didn't like the universe.

When he was just a young child, one winter night, he rode on his father's shoulders and looked up at the sky. When he saw the lush snow-capped mountains and the vast, cold darkness above his head, he was so scared that he hugged his father's neck tightly. In the deep and unfathomable darkness, it was as if an invisible hand reached out and snatched his small body away. The terrifying feeling made his hair stand on end.

Now, his father has passed away for many years, and the boy's fear of the depths of the universe has gradually faded. Now, he only wishes he could have a pair of wings and fly freely in the starry universe.

Julian learned and heard a lot from the words and deeds of his guardian. The world he knew in the past was just a few insignificant dust particles in the entire universe. Beyond the universe and starry sky seen by humans, there are infinite universes and time and space. The area where human civilization has left its footprints in the Milky Way in nearly 1000 years is still just a drop in the sky for the entire universe. Even if it is only on the scale of the Milky Way, the thousands of star systems that humans have developed are still not worth mentioning for the Milky Way with 4000 billion stars.

Furthermore, from those alien ladies who had secretly visited him—or were they ladies?—Julian didn't know what to call them. Even the youngest of them were old enough to be his grandmother, and the oldest was said to be approaching six figures. From their mouths, Julian learned about the infinite possibilities of space and time itself. A single choice could lead an entire civilization, the entire universe, in a completely different direction.

When Julian told Yang that he wanted to join the army, Yang Weili, who was also Julian's guardian, seemed very unhappy.

"There are hundreds of professions in society. Why do you want to be a soldier?"

When asking Julian this question, Yang's expression and voice were full of dissuasion. He had joined the army in his youth out of helplessness. He originally only wanted to be a historian, but was forced to join the army due to life and studies. Although many citizens of the alliance regarded Yang as a hero, Yang himself knew that many times, he was just forced to put on the armor to save the situation.

Being Yang's adopted son wasn't necessarily advantageous to Julian. During his training as a new recruit, some junior officers and soldiers, who were known for stirring up trouble and forming cliques, often used this as an excuse to mock him behind his back and in private.

"I'm the adopted son of that heroic Admiral Yang! Of course I'm fearless."

"This guy is really damaging Admiral Yang's reputation."

"He must have used his status as Admiral Yang's adopted son to get in here through the back door!"

Although all the sarcastic rumors and rude words were annoying, Julian did not take them to heart. This kind of emotional factor caused by jealousy was not only the case in the army, but also very common among all groups in human society. However, this situation reminded him of a topic that the alien ladies and Admiral Yang, with whom he had met several times, discussed while conducting a fleet battle simulation on the holographic computer.

When they mentioned that their social structure based on groups had completely disintegrated long ago due to the overly advanced level of productivity, compatriots with different preferences often lived in distant parts of the universe, like gods, scattered in the universe to create their own ideal world, Admiral Yang, who was micro-managing and dispatching the fleet on the simulator, asked a question. Yang asked them that since different individuals and groups had different ideas and hobbies, would there be conflicts within their civilization due to the different ideas and preferences of different individuals and groups?

Julian was impressed by the answer from the alien lady with long pink hair and pointed ears.

Her response to Yang Wei-li's question was: "No, because of the uniqueness of our life form, we cannot have or do anything that would harm our fellow human beings. We do not harbor any jealousy or discrimination towards our compatriots who have different ideas and preferences."

Yang Weili then asked how this was done, but the pink-haired alien girl who looked like an elf just raised her finger and pointed to her head silently.

"Just like your brain wouldn't normally instruct you to fight your left and right hands, or to injure your limbs or other parts of your body, because that would cause your brain to directly feel the pain from other parts of your body, there's a certain kind of emotional and spiritual empathy between us individuals. We can personally feel the emotions and physical responses of our fellow human beings. If we inflict a painful act on them, we ourselves will also feel the same pain."

"Therefore, our civilization and species have never been about killing or harming each other since their inception. Honestly, I find it difficult to understand the wars and killings between intelligent creatures like you. To me, it is completely meaningless and only adds to suffering and death."

"Perhaps it is because human nature brings pleasure to killing? Perhaps this is why you find it difficult to understand the current behavior of humankind?" This was Yang Wei-li's answer at the time.

"It's hard to understand... From our perspective, this kind of behavior only increases the suffering of you and your fellow humans. If, in the early stages of your civilization's development, this behavior could be attributed to a lack of resources and a struggle to obtain more survival resources, then it's simply incomprehensible that you still engage in this kind of behavior after entering a mature and materially abundant industrial society."

"We find it incomprehensible that people are killing their compatriots simply because they have different ideas and hobbies from us."

While saying that, the elf girl, who was said to be six figures old, was not distracted at all by the game in the simulator. She once again increased the output power of the annihilation rays of the Barrier Star Ring, destroying more than 700 sub-light speed meteorites and icy asteroids that Yang had launched from several astronomical units away after a long period of acceleration, and easily destroyed Yang's entire offensive fleet that was besieging the Barrier Star Ring.

"Ah... I lost again." Yang took his hands off the simulator's operating devices and slumped casually on the sofa at the back.

At this moment, as a new recruit who had just joined the army, Julian Mintz, who was facing a sudden encounter, successfully buried the first enemy in his career. In a flash and explosion, a person's life ended suddenly.

What kind of man was that enemy he had defeated? Did he have a wife? Or a lover waiting for his return? Or a child waiting for his father's return? ... A Wangergulei fighter plane carried only the brief life of a soldier, but this soldier's life was entangled with countless branches, extending to every corner of society. This is what Julian thought about during a break in battle.

This is not some meaningless sentimentality or hypocrisy. A person's life ended without any reason, and his death may be meaningless to the entire human society. He himself cannot feel the pain brought by the death of him or his relatives and friends because of the death of his loved ones. As expected, this kind of thing may still be unavoidable between humans. Humans who cannot understand each other's feelings and pain cannot do the same as the alien lady's race who will not hurt and kill each other. Julian silently remembered the enemy pilot he shot down. Although he did not know his name or his past, Julian would definitely remember him while he was alive, because it meant that there were traces of the birth and life of such a person in the world.

…………

By the way, let me talk about this topic: people’s hostility and fear towards AI technology are closely related to the fear of losing their jobs… The so-called “I’m afraid that AI will replace humans” is not as good as “I’m afraid that AI will cause me to lose my job, make money, and be unable to survive.”…Humans were not born to make money.

If AI can largely replace human labor, the development of human productivity will no longer rely on population to sustain economic growth, and the aging transition will be much smoother. As machines automatically produce what society needs, the population will naturally decrease, allowing machines to reduce production accordingly. Furthermore, since the population will no longer need to be concentrated in large cities, it will become more dispersed, improving living conditions for everyone. Greater industrial concentration will reduce costs, freeing up more resources for waste disposal and significantly reducing pollution emissions. Recycling costs will also be significantly reduced, and the reuse rate of industrial raw materials will increase, thereby reducing resource demand and consumption.

In the long run, AI will enable the vast majority of people to live a better life. It may cause some people to lose their jobs and face difficulties during the transition period, but this is not a technological problem; it is a problem that needs to be solved by society. The development of AI is inevitable and will not stop just because it affects the lives of some people. Humanity needs to overcome these difficulties to live a better life than it does now.

Of course, to achieve these, artificial intelligence alone is not enough, and the energy problem must be solved. The energy consumed by artificial intelligence must be quite large, which requires a large-scale expansion of the energy infrastructure.

Chapter 237: Interesting Facts about Indigenous Planets (6000 words)

The encounter that Julian unexpectedly encountered ended in a way that no one could have expected. After receiving the signal requesting support from the front-line patrol fleet, Yang, under the advice of Melka, an advisor from the Empire, directly led the entire fleet in the fortress to attack, and directly forced back the enemy fleet in a deterrent manner.

In this battle, Julian achieved his first victory since joining the army, shooting down three Wangergulei and destroying an Imperial patrol ship. Julian's teachers, including Senkob, were quite surprised and applauded with delight. "This achievement is truly astonishing! Perhaps Julian really is a genius."

Yang did not comment on this, but just said: "I hope he didn't use up all his life's luck in this battle. Sometimes winning in one battle is not necessarily a good thing." Yang, who knew the unpredictable nature of the battlefield, felt helpless about this. Even the former famous ally Ashbi eventually lost his life in an unfortunate accident. Sometimes on the battlefield, luck is really important. Those soldiers who survive are often not the bravest fighters, but the ones with the best luck.

…………

"The only fortress within the Empire that can rival Iserlohn is Vulture City, the base of the noble coalition during last year's civil war. This fortress was once abandoned, but once it's repaired and equipped with jump drives and conventional propulsion engines, we can march straight into Iserlohn and engage in a decisive fortress-to-fortress battle."

Kemp had no fondness for the overweight man who was talking so eloquently in front of him and Reinhardt. As the Director of Science and Technology of the entire empire, he had reached this position not by relying on his professional ability and knowledge as a scholar, but by marginalizing his colleagues and superiors in daily work and workplace politics. For six years, under the management of this leader, the Department of Science and Technology had made almost no achievements in other fields except for the directional Jefu particles. Both Kemp and Reinhardt were quite disgusted with this guy who was good at consolidating his status and privileges through political means.

"With the power provided by the current jump engines, twelve engines must be arranged in a wheel at the rear of the fortress and activated simultaneously. Technically, there is no problem. The rest depends on the commander's leadership and operational execution capabilities."

With a look of pride that was almost beyond words, the increasingly self-inflated Xuft sat back in a chair beside him after introducing his plans and proposals.

Reinhardt had considered replacing Schft more than once, but over the past six years, Schft had eliminated all competitors who posed a threat to his position and power, leaving key positions within the Directorate controlled by Schft's subordinates. Replacing Schft and then clearing out his subordinates would inevitably create considerable resistance. Even Reinhardt, now the Supreme Commander of the Empire's Armies, could not find a suitable reason to replace him, so he could only hold his ground.

"There are no technical problems with moving the fortress. The only issues that need to be addressed are quality and the stable operation of the engine at high power." Xuft assured confidently.

The Vulture City Fortress had a total mass of forty megatons. If even the slightest error occurred during a warp jump with such a massive mass, the more than one million people inside the fortress could be reduced to discrete atoms in the universe, or forever lost in the warp.

Although several small-scale experiments were repeated after that, directly using the entire fortress for actual combat was still full of uncertainty. In addition to letting Kemp be the person in charge of the fortress jump experiment, Reinhardt also asked Gilfias to supervise the progress of the matter.

…………

Looking at the fortress in the distance that was about to conduct its 11th short-distance subspace jump experiment, Siegfried Gilfias was not optimistic about this experiment that was full of the meaning of great force to achieve miracles, but he also knew that with the current level of human technology, this was one of the few ways to confront the Icherlohn Fortress head-on in terms of firepower. The passages in the Iserlohn Corridor were very narrow and tortuous. With the current conventional propulsion engines of mankind, the tortuous passages in the corridor could not provide enough acceleration distance for asteroids or large-mass kinetic impactors equipped with thrusters to bomb the Iserlohn Fortress. Directly moving large-mass asteroids or objects that were enough to threaten the Icherlohn Fortress at low speed into the corridor was too difficult. With that kind of time and cost, it would be better to send a fleet to attack the fortress directly. Knowing that the Vulture City Fortress in front of him, which was equipped with thrusters, was essentially just a patch for the big ship and big gun doctrine, Gilfias shook off these messy thoughts in his mind and silently observed the fortress in the distance that was preparing for a space jump.

It's a pity that we don't have the same technology and engineering capabilities as them to transform an entire natural planet into a huge celestial fortress almost overnight, nor do we have a weapon with an output power and destructive power tens of thousands of times greater than the main gun of the Iserlohn Fortress. Otherwise, there would be no need to conduct such a crude and dangerous experiment, Gilfias thought.