The stars, but they become the gray wind

For the burrowing owls on the planet, a city that rose from the ground almost overnight was itself a miracle, and the space elevator in the center of the city was called the Sky Tower by the burrowing owls.

The population migration of the entire planet Kagakula has begun. It is impossible for the burrowing owls, who are still in the Stone Age, to refuse to go to a city where the living environment is like a paradise in their eyes. Noli just used a little trick with Klar, and most of the burrowing owls on the planet surrendered to Noli. The burrowing owls also had no objection to following the "Lord God" to the "City of Eden". After seeing the grandeur of this city and the wonderful life in it without having to survive in a harsh natural environment, the burrowing owls naturally could not return to the harsh living environment they had before. For the burrowing owls, who are still in the Stone Age, the existence of such a city itself is a miracle of God, and the temptation of living here is irresistible to them.

In just one month, 90% of the population migration of the burrowing owls in Kagakula, who were still in the primitive hunting and living stage, has been completed. More than 540 million burrowing owls have moved into this city. This city, with all its internal facilities fully automated, is enough to provide tens of millions of burrowing owls with an extremely high-quality life. After those burrowing owls entered the city, the work of improving their intelligence has also been steadily carried out. Take Klaal as an example. With the help of the nanomachines implanted by Noli, Klaal's current level of cognition and knowledge has basically reached the level of an adult in human society in the early 21st century. He has a very deep understanding of various electronic and mechanical equipment, and can operate most of the electronic equipment specially designed for burrowing owls without any obstacles.

"Goddess, another group of compatriots who originally lived in the hilly area north of Kagakula have just decided to join us."

"They've been facing a food shortage problem. Although the northern hills aren't the main habitat for giant carnivorous wild animals like monitor lizards, the food resources there are quite scarce. Many burrowing owls in their habitat seem to be suffering from considerable malnutrition," said Klar, holding a portable data terminal designed specifically for her.

"Well...add more protein and fat to their daily food menu."

"I understand, Goddess." Klar tapped a few times on his portable data terminal and issued a series of relevant instructions, including solving some problems caused by his previous life in the wild for the burrowing owls who had just come to live in the city, such as the long-term malnutrition and some genetic and infectious diseases in a considerable part of the burrowing owl population. He also asked those burrowing owls who had just joined the city to quickly familiarize themselves with this new life of having no worries about food and clothing, and to improve their own cognition and knowledge level to a level similar to his current level.

In her spare time, Klar often likes to take the transport car of the space elevator to the synchronous orbit space station outside the planet's atmosphere. In the panoramic observatory without gravity, she enjoys the wonderful feeling of weightlessness while observing the starry sky above her head that she had previously ignored. Before the goddesses arrived, she was also curious about what these bright spots that would twinkle in the sky above her head at night were?

Now, she knew that it was the light emitted by stars that were formed when scattered hydrogen and other substances in the universe were gathered together under the action of gravity, reaching the critical mass and undergoing fusion reactions. These stars were very far away, and the light she saw was emitted dozens or even hundreds of years ago.

She now knew that the world she lived in, Kagakula, was a planet orbiting such a star, and that the goddesses came from the distant other side of the starry sky, and their hometown was a planet completely different from Kagakula.

Of course, in Klar's heart, the Sky People were still the "Goddess" she believed in. Kagakula, still in its primitive stages, hadn't yet developed a true religion, and the Burrowing Owl civilization only had a small amount of very early animism.

phenomenon.

The more Klar learned about the world he lived in, the more he understood the power of the "Goddesses". They have the ability to sail across vast astronomical distances to meet Kagakula on the other side. To them, the burrowing owls on Kagakula are almost the same as insects and bacteria, but they still choose to communicate and help themselves and their compatriots in a very kind and gentle manner.

Kaga Kula and the burrowing owl civilization that inhabits it are rapidly advancing and becoming enlightened. This is an indisputable fact, Klar thought, opening her personal data terminal and recording her thoughts.

[With the help of the goddess, we have stepped from primitive society into the communist society stage. This has saved our civilization tens of thousands of years of development time and avoided a series of problems that will be encountered in the future. I have read the information that the goddess has provided about the ecological environment and resource distribution of our planet. As a world that can nurture life, our planet's environment is indeed very excellent, but this cannot be maintained for a long time. The ecological environment of our planet is too fragile. The greenhouse gas of the entire planet depends on the vegetation covering the surface of the planet to remain within the normal range. Once our civilization carries out large-scale industrialization on the surface of the planet, it will inevitably cause explosive population growth and rapid urbanization. The destruction of a planet's surface vegetation would cause the entire planet's ecological balance to be disrupted. Under the influence of massive amounts of greenhouse gases, atmospheric temperatures would soar to unacceptable levels within a century. Our planet's oceans are too small to store enough heat for the atmosphere itself. On an ecological planet, the vast oceans are undoubtedly excellent heat reservoirs and cooling devices, keeping atmospheric temperatures stable. Our planet lacks that ability. With oceans covering only about 30% of the planet's surface area, they simply cannot store much heat. Once we lose the ability of our surface vegetation to control greenhouse gas levels, our planet could face an ecological disaster.

While we're still in the Stone Age, our resource consumption isn't that high. But once we enter the Agricultural and Industrial Ages, the planet's resources won't last long. I doubt it. If we really need tens of thousands of years before we enter the Industrial Age, how much of the planet's resources will be left after thousands of years of agricultural consumption?

[Or to be more precise, how much resources will be left for us to mine relatively cheaply and easily by then?]

[Not just the atomic energy industry, but even the early coal and steel industries were a death warrant for us. Once the large-scale destruction of surface vegetation by coal and other fossil fuels began, it was unavoidable, and any subsequent remedial measures might only be able to close the door after the sheep have been bolted.]

[At least from this point of view, I am very grateful to the goddess for helping me and us. Without them, we might perish in tens of thousands of years due to resource shortages and endless internal friction.]

[There are also some of my own thoughts. If it weren't for the goddesses, I might have died that day, become a meal in the mouth of a giant lizard, and be forgotten in history.]

[It's highly likely that there won't be any bird ritual flags in the future. Qi Liuyi will remember this adventurous, curious little owl. Perhaps many years from now, after being digested by a monitor lizard, her remains will be unearthed by archaeologists and even become a museum exhibit. The thought of that kind of thing gives me the creeps... If it weren't for the goddess, I'm afraid I wouldn't even be able to find my body now.]

Fortunately, I didn't become some forgotten primitive Stone Age bird eaten by wild beasts. I even became the first bird in our civilization to leave the atmosphere. Looking back on the days of starvation and worrying every day about whether I would be eaten by a passing monitor lizard or other wild beast tomorrow, it feels like a dream.

[Also, the goddesses always seem to love hugging and rubbing me in their arms. Does this seem to be a sign of intimacy in their minds and habits? And it seems to be the kind of behavior that only occurs between family members, pets, or extremely close partners?]

"If it's the first two, then it's not so difficult. Pets and the like are not out of the question. Anyway, the technological gap between us and the goddesses right now... calling them pets is a bit of a compliment."

[It shouldn't be... the latter, right?]

When Klar recalled this, she always felt a strange feeling. There seemed to be something else in the way the goddesses looked at her and in their daily intimate hugs... something that she, as an underage owl, did not quite understand.

"Well... although it is indeed comfortable to be hugged..." Klar shook the furry feathers all over his body.

In the past few days, the originally smooth surface of the Vulture City Fortress has become covered with complex geometric lines and fractal patterns. At first glance, the complex fractal patterns even made Julian feel a little dizzy.

Obviously, humans wouldn't have the time or ability to carve complex geometric and fractal patterns onto the surface of a 45-kilometer-diameter fortress. That alien lady or woman I'd previously spoken with seemed to have an understanding of art that was difficult for humans to comprehend.

In their spare time from daily duties, visiting the Vulture City Fortress outside Iserlohn, which has been transformed into a geometric fractal sculpture, has also become a leisure activity for officers and soldiers in Iserlohn Fortress.

"Admiral Yang, why haven't I seen you go to see the art works of that unknown alien artist these days?" During lunch time, Xian Kobu asked Yang Weili, who was sitting at the same table.

"I'm not very good at art. My father is an antique lover. When I was a child, I mostly helped him clean up his antiques. As a result..."

"what's the result?"

"After he passed away, I learned through professional appraisal that all the antiques he had collected and purchased during his lifetime, which he treasured, were fakes."

"From that time on, I realized that I had absolutely no talent for art."

"Oh... The Alliance's youngest and most outstanding master of the art of war actually claims to have absolutely no talent for the art? Admiral, aren't you being too modest?"

"I was just improvising in that kind of situation. Forget about being called a master of the art of war, okay?" Yang spread his hands.

"Admiral, you're quite humorous. You can't be so resourceful as to lead a large fleet of the Great Yan Father Jiu Zi Lin Ling Ling to a complete retreat from the continuous attacks of a large number of famous generals during the retreat during that expedition."

"However, I'm curious about one thing. How does the alien lady who turned the Vulture City Fortress into a sculptured work of art plan to move this artwork back?"

"The Vulture Domain Fortress's jump engine was damaged in the previous battle, and the 12 rear propulsion engines were directly dismantled by them. I wonder how they plan to move this 40 trillion tons of equipment back?"

"Since their spaceship can directly pull the entire fortress, perhaps they can drag the entire fortress back like they did with the Vulture City Fortress before?"

"No, No, No, Admiral Yang, that method is indeed convenient when moving short distances, but once the distance becomes longer, this method is too inefficient." Suddenly, I heard a rustling sound in the restaurant, followed by the familiar voice of Senkob.

"Did you... hack into the fortress's broadcast and communication systems?"

"Invasion? You call that an invasion? The security and confidentiality of your fortress's communications and broadcasting systems are so poor that I don't even need to deliberately crack them. In our eyes, your fortress's communications and security systems are like a sieve with mesh everywhere."

"We are really sad to hear what you said."

"But this is basically the truth. How about I demonstrate it to you?"

"How...demonstration?" Sinkob, who had not yet realized the disaster he had caused, continued chatting as if nothing had happened.

.........

Inside the control center of Iserlohn Fortress, the technical sergeant in charge of the fire control of the fortress's weapon systems stared in bewilderment at the floating turret that had suddenly risen to the surface of the fortress's liquid metal.

"Hey! Why did the floating turret suddenly start up? Who suddenly raised the floating turret to the surface of the fortress?" The staff officer on duty asked the non-commissioned officer sitting in front of the fire control console.

"I don't know. It wasn't me. The floating turret is out of my control!"

"What! The Fuqilin Barracks' artillery position is out of control? Go check the cause!"

"Report, there is a problem with the life support system!" At this time, a soldier on the other side of the console suddenly reported.

"What's the problem? Tell me quickly!" The staff officer on duty at the control center felt a pang in his heart. If there was a problem with the fortress's life support system, it could cost the lives of all the people in the fortress. Realizing the seriousness of the matter, he immediately ordered his soldiers and technicians to start investigating the problem.

"No... the life support system in the fortress just suddenly released a large amount of air freshener into several empty warehouses. I don't know why I can't reverse this order."

"Quickly notify Major General Kajielun and Admiral Yang! And immediately send technicians to check Qi Lingwu IV VI (Eight) Qi Qiyan's life support system and floating turret!" The staff officer on duty was frantically directing the officers, soldiers and technicians on the scene to deal with the unexplained loss of control of the equipment in the fortress.

…………

Yang and Senkob, whose lunch was interrupted by a sudden call from the police station, looked at each other in bewilderment when they heard the anxious voice of the staff officer on duty in the control center.

"I think I know the reason. Don't panic." Yang calmly comforted the anxious staff officer on duty.

"Do you know the reason? What is going on?" The staff officer on duty at the control center looked surprised.

"Let's get the technicians back. It looks like our security system is so weak that it can't even stop a certain alien lady's little prank."

"Ah?" On the communication screen, the staff officer's expression was stunned.

"Don't worry, it's nothing serious. It's just some alien lady trying to prove and demonstrate to us why our security system is like a sieve."

"What?" The voice of the staff officer opposite him was choked.

"Uh... we've already seen it, so there's no need for you to remind us. Thank you."

"Report, the floating turret and life support system have been restored to control!"

After Yang finished speaking, the staff officer on duty in the control center suddenly received reports from the soldiers and technicians below, and heaved a sigh of relief.

"What a shame! I was going to try to use your fortress cannon to set off a firework outside."

"I'd better refuse this. If I really let you use our fortress cannon to set off fireworks, it wouldn't just be the control center that's in a mess just now."

"Really? It's just a firework, isn't it? Many artists in our civilization have created flashes of light in the universe that are much brighter than this."

"Let me ask you, what do you think your compatriots think of as 'fireworks'?"

"Hmm... let me think about it. Would it count as detonating thousands of antimatter bombs in a phased array on the surface of an asteroid tens of kilometers in diameter, turning the entire asteroid into a dazzling flash of light in the universe through pure energy annihilation?"

"This... uh... definitely counts."

"There is also the ignition of a gas giant planet close to critical mass through the Dyson cloud beam. That is one of the most beautiful scenes in the universe. The gas giant planet is instantly ignited by a gamma-ray laser beam produced by a zero-element matter reflector from a star. The gas giant planet is transformed into a burning fusion plasma under the laser beam of stellar power. At the moment of ignition, the entire galaxy will be illuminated by the gas giant planet that has turned into a red dwarf." The girl's voice seemed to become very happy in the restaurant broadcast, but the expressions of Schneckenb and Yang, who were soldiers familiar with war and military technology, were a bit subtle. It seemed that the other party had inadvertently revealed some shocking news.

"Dyson cloud beam, does your civilization still have the ability to create such a thing?" Yang asked.

"What's so strange about this? Shouldn't something like a Dyson Cloud beam be the most basic galactic communication and energy facility for an interstellar civilization? Every star system our civilization has set foot in has a Dyson Cloud stellar astronomical project with a power level of at least 20% to 100% of the original star."

"Just like the houses you live in have running water and electricity, we believe that stellar celestial projects like the Dyson Cloud are the most basic needs and infrastructure that a star system should have, just like running water and electricity. A star system lacking such facilities is like a simple house without even water and lighting."

The corners of Yang and Senkob's mouths twitched when they heard this. In their view, stellar-scale celestial projects such as Dyson spheres and Dyson clouds were concepts that only existed in fantasy. Even if the industrial production capacity of the Alliance and the Empire, which had already entered the stage of interstellar civilization, was combined, it would be impossible to build a project of this scale. In fact, the construction cost and expenses of the Iserlohn Fortress alone were almost enough to empty the treasury of the Empire. A stellar-scale celestial project was something that was simply unimaginable.

"Is the ring-shaped device surrounding a star that I saw in the information you sent me earlier something similar?"

"That is a work of art whose aesthetic value outweighs its practical value. Although the ring world can be used for living, they never considered placing any overly complex organic intelligent creatures on it from the beginning." The girl's voice paused for several seconds before reappearing.

"However, by our standards, construction on a low-mass celestial body like a red dwarf is just like building a slightly larger villa."

"The truly magnificent creations of our civilization are based on blue giant stars with millions of times the mass of stars and black holes in the cores of galaxies. That is truly spectacular."

"Now that you mention it, I'd like to see for myself what this truly magnificent work of art looks like."

"You really want to see it?"

“Of course, who doesn’t want to admire beautiful and spectacular works of art?”

A few seconds after Schneider said this, his personal data terminal on the table lit up, showing that an email had been received. Schneider opened the email, which contained several photos and videos that seemed to have been taken from a distance.

In the video, by comparing it with other objects in the background, a hexagonal device with an estimated diameter comparable to that of a star floats in the dark background of space. Its center seems to constrain a high-speed rotating ring, and the center of the ring is a spherical wormhole interface like a water wave. As the perspective zooms out, Schinkob sees the full picture of the surroundings of this strange device: four groups of giant arc-shaped metal structures, slowly rotating with the hexagonal structure built around the wormhole as the center.

"This is?"

"The location of that wormhole was originally the black hole at the center of our Milky Way. This black hole has the mass of 400 million yellow dwarf stars. We collapsed the event horizon of the black hole, creating a stable wormhole leading to other universes. We also built a black hole Dyson ring around the original black hole with a diameter of 120 astronomical units and a total length of more than 550 billion kilometers."

"Hiss..." The usually calm Sinkob took a deep breath after listening to the other party's explanation.

"In order to build this celestial megastructure, which is also quite large in our opinion, we have almost used up all the material in the accretion disk of the original black hole at the center of the galaxy. Currently, the device is 40% complete and it is estimated that it will take about 5 to 10 years to complete. Once it is completed, it will be one of the most magnificent megastructures in our galaxy."

…………

Note: The protostars and old stars that deviate from the main sequence in the universe have a lifespan that is too short and not very stable, making them unsuitable for building megastructures like the Dyson ring. Although celestial bodies with extremely long lifespans, such as white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes, have some extreme properties, they are more stable in the long run and more suitable for building stellar astronomical projects. For example, the Hawking radiation evaporation of a massive black hole is an extremely slow process. The celestial megastructure built on a massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way can basically be used until the day the universe goes silent.

Chapter 244 The Essence of Life (6000 words)

The Iserlohn Corridor, the original Vulture Realm Fortress, is now covered with geometric fractal patterns that dazzle the eye at first glance. A large number of seemingly irregular geometric shapes form a regular pattern covering the entire surface of the fortress.

This piece of art used for practice is actually completed. The reason why it is still here is only because there are still a few viewers here.

The fortress's jump engine and propulsion system had not been repaired. Yang Weili and everyone else present were very curious about how an amateur art enthusiast planned to take away the fortress with a total weight of more than 40 trillion tons.

And now, it was obviously the moment when the answer was revealed. The silver-white warship, which could be called a giant ship in the eyes of the Tonglan fleet, sailed to the front of the fortress. Just when everyone thought that it would use the kind of gravity traction device with unknown principles that could drag the entire fortress to move, an unexpected scene occurred.

A spatial distortion undetectable by any instrument appeared in the area surrounding the fortress. A mirrored bubble began to expand outward from the Time-Like Infinity, until it enveloped and obscured the entire space within the fortress—a high-dimensional, mirrored, warped bubble exceeding hundreds of kilometers in diameter. Although its single-ship jump performance was far inferior to that of the Zerri Night Fighter, the Sky Star ships' uniquely high output power allowed their jump engines to carry objects dozens or hundreds of times the ship's size and mass over vast distances. Within Iserlohn Fortress, amidst a burst of exclamations, the mirrored, high-dimensional bubble, hundreds of kilometers in diameter, silently vanished into three-dimensional space. Throughout the entire process, aside from conventional optical observations, none of the fortress's instruments detected any abnormal readings within that space, as if nothing had occurred. The mirrored bubble, carrying the fortress, weighing 40 trillion tons, quietly vanished, as if its immense mass and volume had ceased to exist.

"No spatial distortion was detected... and the radar didn't show any abnormal readings. How on earth... was this possible?"

"It seems... we are lagging behind a bit in the field of technology?" said Schneider, leaning against the console and drinking coffee.

"A single warship less than three thousand meters long can carry a fortress-sized payload? With such terrifying jump engine performance, it's a good thing they're not our enemy. Otherwise, I can't imagine the consequences of making an enemy of such a being."

"Since they can carry something of this mass on a single ship, what if they replace the fortress with an asteroid of the same weight or a bomb of a massive yield and drop it directly on us? The battle would be over the moment it begins. They could even teleport piles of explosives directly into our fleet, and then... BAM!!! That's it!"

"I can't imagine how to deal with such an opponent." Kajielun also touched his chin and thought.

"Senior, I've personally experienced the strength of that indestructible planetary fortress. Do you know how many fleets I pre-set before the hundreds of simulated battles?"

"How many?"

"That's more fleets than the Alliance and the Empire combined since their founding, enough to densely surround the entire planet. But do you know how long a fleet of this size could last in the simulated war against that planetary fortress?" Yang stretched out his right hand and spread out his five fingers.

"Five days?" Kajielun guessed a number, and Yang Weili shook his head.

"Five hours?" Yang still shook his head.

"It can't be five minutes, right?"

"In fact, in the first two rounds of simulated battles, a fleet of this size only lasted five seconds." Yang revealed the answer. Kajielun's mouth opened so wide that it could swallow an egg.

"In the first two rounds, I misjudged the firepower coverage of a planetary fortress, resulting in the entire fleet being wiped out by the opponent's sub-light-speed missiles with precision guidance function at a distance of nearly 150 light seconds. I learned my lesson later. From the third round on, I did not allow the team to march and attack in any overly dense formation. However, as long as we approached that planetary fortress, let alone whether the fleet's firepower could break through the defense of the planetary fortress, the huge cannon with a minimum power output tens of thousands of times more than Thor's Hammer alone caused me heavy losses." Yang Weili spread his hands helplessly, indicating that he had no way to deal with the opponent's technology and tactics.

"Later, I changed my strategy and launched thruster-equipped sublight-speed meteorites and ice blocks at the enemy from several astronomical units away. However, it was obvious that this method was still ineffective. All the sublight-speed meteorites and ice blocks were shot down in advance by the enemy's sublight-speed kinetic interceptors launched at the same speed. You have to know that in those hundreds of rounds of simulated battles, I used all my skills, but I couldn't cause any effective damage to that planetary fortress."

"Even you can't do anything about them?"

"There's no way. If the technology gap isn't too big, maybe we can make up for it tactically. But if the technology gap is too big, no matter how we try to make up for it tactically, it won't help."

"What's more, this isn't just a few generations of technological difference; it's probably at least a dozen or even dozens of generations."

"No matter how good a commander is, he cannot lead his troops armed only with wooden clubs and stone axes to defeat an enemy armed to the teeth with the most advanced power armor."

"Are you trying to say that the technological gap between us and them is as great as that between a primitive man who has just learned to forge a stone axe and an interstellar civilization capable of faster-than-light travel?"

"That's probably right? After all, I only saw what they showed me. Perhaps there are more advanced technologies that we don't know about, but they have neither the need to use them nor the environment to use them."