The stars, but they become the gray wind

"Could it be..." At this time, Calisi had already realized that the birth and development process of this "sister" on the other side of the starry sky might not be normal, and the two words that came out of Cabot's mouth reminded her of something.

"We planned the entire development process of their civilization over a long period of time. From their basic life forms, history, and even their evolutionary path after mastering advanced technology, everything was designed by us from the very beginning. They never realized that their civilization had been secretly interfered with by us. From the very beginning of their civilization, the seeds of ascension were already planted, and everything that followed was simply development according to a predetermined path."

"The Inertial Flying Spiral... Relying on the powerful calculation capabilities and analytical capabilities of the evolutionary indicators of the celestial megastructure constructed from super-dimensional matter, it continuously corrects and interferes with the development of civilization."

"Every individual that makes up a civilization constantly influences it as a whole, even if they are unaware of it. Perhaps you might think that an unknown individual in the long history of a vast civilization is merely insignificant. But in reality, it is these unimaginably large and unknown individuals who truly dominate the core processes of civilization's development."

"These vast numbers of unknown individuals often have difficulty leaving specific identification information and records in history, making it easy for most people living today to subconsciously ignore them."

"But the reality is that in the process of civilization development, those special individuals who seem to have made a huge impact are only able to borrow the power of a wider group to trigger changes and progress in the entire civilization at a macro level."

"And this is what we often call the 'inertia of civilization development'.

"The inertia accumulated over a long process of development is easy to exploit but difficult to reverse. We have materialized this inertia of civilizational development into a tool and technological entity that can be controlled by humans. By making good use of this tool, we can secretly interfere with the civilizational form of another in real time during its long evolution."

"Throughout their entire civilizational history, these sisters of yours have been subjected to interference and corrections from us using inertial spirals, without their awareness."

"But... don't misunderstand one thing... From an objective perspective, the Inertia Flying Beyblade was never a surveillance machine that restricted their progress. Instead, it was a huge helper that allowed their civilization to truly be free from its various flaws."

"For these sisters of yours, I and several other colleagues in the Combined Fleet have been deeply concerned. They are not just our creations. We have invested so much effort and affection in them that we can even say we treat them like our own daughters."

"Under the influence of the Inertial Flying Snail, they have always believed that their civilization developed freely without interference. We have erased most traces of our existence from their region of the universe, concealing the existence of us, the Creators, in their history, and deliberately left them with a question..."

"The question is: Is there other intelligent life and civilizations of the same level in the universe?"

"Now, your sisters have received the answer. Although this answer, transmitted at the speed of light, will take another 20,000 years to reach them, your presence may be able to deliver it to them sooner."

"But... even if you say so, the energy required for interstellar faster-than-light travel is far beyond what we can currently provide, right?"

"Even if the individual nanounits that make up the Gray Wind at the most microscopic level are microscopic vacuum zero-point energy and negative energy generated by the folding and annihilation of space itself, and even if this negative energy at the microscopic level can be collected and filled into a quantum-sized wormhole, using negative energy to expand this wormhole to the macroscopic level and allow a single person to pass through, a single-person wormhole is not the same as an intergalactic wormhole spanning several or even tens of thousands of light-years. The energy needed to maintain such a giant wormhole spanning light-years would probably require the entire solar system to be dismantled."

"The same goes for the Alcubierre engine. Although we, as Grey Wind, can now create true negative mass exotic matter and negative energy, its energy consumption still requires stellar-level energy output to meet."

"At the current rate of progress, if we want to build planetary or even stellar-scale celestial projects, it will take at least five to eight years. Although it is not a problem to build a planetary ring based on a space elevator within a year, stellar-scale projects are more difficult."

"Our original plan to build an Alcubierre engine-powered spacecraft was to wait at least five to eight years for the completion of the stellar-class Dyson Cloud project. This process would likely dismantle parts of the solar system, most likely Mercury, Venus, and the asteroid belt. In this case, is it inappropriate to consider an interstellar voyage of 20,000 light-years?"

"Not to mention that, while we can obtain the negative mass exotic matter required for a faster-than-light Alcubierre drive spacecraft on a microscopic level, converting it into a macroscopic zero-point energy reactor capable of directly harvesting negative energy is far from easy. To put it more simply, even if we wanted to meet those sisters, it would conservatively take us eight to ten years."

"This... of course I expected it... But... instead of asking you guys to operate a superluminal Akuberi engine spacecraft that is completely beyond your previous theoretical knowledge and unfamiliar to you, or to find ways to fill and expand an interstellar Lorentz wormhole with a diameter of more than hundreds or thousands of kilometers on a macroscopic level with negative mass exotic matter... why not let me help you..." As he said this, Capote took out a palm-sized silver-white hexahedron from behind him like a magic trick and handed it to Calisi.

"This is?"

"What you need at this stage is a small gift that will save you from having to spend 8 to 10 years dismantling half of the solar system to build the main body and engine of a superluminal spacecraft." Cabot whispered in Carlisle's ear.

"This is a multidimensional space container. It contains something that can help you solve the difficulties you are facing at this stage. It should be said that it is a 'newbie gift pack' or something like that, right?"

"Everything in this multidimensional space container is in a compressed state caused by the warping of space. It contains the things you need most at this stage..."

"It includes a reserve of color-nuclear force materials sufficient to help you complete the construction of your spacecraft, eliminating the need to dismantle and destroy stars to obtain these materials. It also includes a set of zero-point energy reactor components with a macroscopic instantaneous output power of 800 watts. It also includes a superluminal Alcubierre warp drive that utilizes the negative mass exotic matter produced by the zero-point energy reactor based on the principle of annihilating space itself. And, most importantly, the technology that will allow you to easily cross the 20,000 light-year distance: a high-dimensional space jump drive."

Everything is stored inside. This small multi-dimensional space container is now handed over to you. I have already transmitted the specific instructions for using it to your mind. What will you choose? My dear subordinate and...daughter?" Cabot whispered this question in Carlisle's ear.

"So... you asked Cabot about the origin of the detector, and then she admitted it so openly?" Renlong scratched his head and looked at the palm-sized hexahedral multi-dimensional space container on the table and asked Calisi who was sitting opposite him.

"And... she knows everything about the race that created this detection device... maybe she even created this race and civilization?"

"Yes...she did admit it..."

"And what's even more outrageous is...she calls them: daughters?"

"I never imagined... that the Senior Star Governor of the Combined Fleet, whose sole mission is to destroy and exterminate civilizations, would actually treat his own creation as his own daughter?!"

"Judging from her reaction, it seems they aren't some random race she created, but rather the product of a long-term, immense amount of effort and energy poured into them by at least one of the Combined Fleet's senior governors."

"That's actually secondary... I can understand treating a work you've poured so much effort into as your daughter, but treating us as your daughters as well is a little hard for me to understand."

"At best, we are just laborers captured by Cabot. We dare not be her daughters."

"What's worse is...Cabot seems to be asking us to become sisters of "them" who are 20,000 light years away?"

"How can we be worthy of being treated like this creature and her daughter, who have been the subject of so much hard work?"

"It would be fine if she treated us as her subordinates, but if she really treated us as her daughters and sisters of her other daughter, then it would be more than just a huge pressure."

"And after all... why did she suddenly call us her... daughters? Come on, she is the Star Governor of the Combined Fleet, not a corrupted mother." Renlong said here, feeling a little puzzled by the matter.

"According to her... we are both her subordinates and on par with her other creations, the ones she values ​​most." Calisi recounted what Cabot said at the time.

"This... If it was a biological mother like Fallen Mom, I wouldn't mind, but being the goddaughter of a high-ranking star governor of the Combined Fleet, why does it feel so weird?"

"Do you mean the boss becomes the godmother?" Aze, who had been silently sipping milk tea and listening to the conversation between the two, suddenly spoke.

"And the godmother of this joint fleet is not someone who can be easily dealt with." Carlisle said somewhat embarrassedly.

"So let's talk about what's inside this thing?" Yuki said, pointing to the hexahedral multi-dimensional space container on the table.

"According to Cabot... it's just enough to build a ship."

"First up is this… this is the list of things in here that she sent directly into my head."

"This is what's on the list: at least tens of billions of tons of color-nuclear force materials formed from arranged quarks, about 50 billion tons of antimatter deuterium, a matching deuterium and antideuterium annihilation device that produces a conventional propulsion method of gamma-ray jet propulsion with an exhaust velocity reaching the speed of light, and a zero-point energy reactor with an instantaneous energy output of 800 watts. This power is equivalent to several suns, but this is not the entire list.

"This list also includes an Alcubierre superluminal warp drive that uses a negative mass solution. According to Cabot, warp drives are suitable for short-distance interstellar superluminal travel of a few to a few hundred light-years. However, when it comes to ultra-long distances of over 20,000 light-years, warp drives are unable to cope."

"The Alcubierre drive, as a drive method that changes the curvature of space, will leave behind a gravitational lens that is difficult to smooth out. Such traces will take decades or even hundreds of years to dissipate on their own with the disturbance. In such a gravitational lens area, the speed of light will be suppressed to an extremely low value. Once trapped in the gravitational lens area,

It will be directly affected by the clock slowing effect. Even without a continuous time slot, a single moment in the slow light trap is often equivalent to tens or hundreds of years or even longer in the outside world."

"Also, the Alcubierre Drive has a minor problem. As the duration and distance of the voyage increase, a large amount of high-energy particles will accumulate at the front of the warp bubble. Although the spacecraft's hull, made of hadronic material, can withstand such high-energy particle bombardment as long as these particles don't accumulate to dangerous levels, this inherent problem makes the Alcubierre Drive unsuitable for long-distance interstellar travel."

"Think about it. Every time we travel a certain distance, we have to stop to clear out the high-energy particles that have accumulated at the front of the warp bubble. These high-energy particles not only pose a threat to the spacecraft themselves, but also potentially to other objects at the destination. The accumulation of high-energy particles and Hawking radiation generated by long-term travel is enough to shatter a planet. Although it's not impossible to use the high-energy particles accumulated at the front of the warp bubble during travel as weapons, such as using them as planet-destroying weapons."

"Of course, this isn't what we need right now. What we want is stable FTL travel technology, not planet-destroying weapons that can blow the destination planet to smithereens."

"And this is what I'm going to talk about next. It's the method of superluminal travel that truly meets our current needs: high-dimensional space jumps."

"Its principle is quite complex. To put it simply, it bends the space between the departure point and the destination into a U-shape. This creates a completely warped and closed high-dimensional space bubble that exists independently of the three-dimensional material universe. The spacecraft is then enveloped in this warped space bubble, which is endowed with a 'vibration frequency' very similar to that of the destination. The spacecraft is then 'pulled' directly towards the destination, thus achieving ultra-long-range, time-distortion-free, superluminal travel.

"The resulting high-dimensional warped space bubble is, in a sense, a movable, closed artificial universe that is completely independent of the current universe and has no causal relationship with it. It's like a spaceship moving itself to a position roughly parallel to the entire space-time, and then distorting and modifying the position of this closed artificial universe relative to the universe on the 11-dimensional space-time membrane as needed."

"Compared to the entire universe, this warped space created during the high-dimensional space transition is like a bubble completely independent of the current universe. It has completely broken free from the constraints of the speed of light. Theoretically, its speed can even reach infinity."

"Through the special warp cavitation force field generator, the entire spacecraft will take on the properties of a higher dimension. Such a spacecraft will sail through the universe like a shadow passing over the ground at high speed, leaving no trace and unaffected by celestial gravity or human interference."

"Based on the spacecraft's own reference frame, its movement speed does not exceed the speed of light, which to some extent avoids the time machine effect of forming a closed timelike curve."

"Also, regarding the things in here... there is also a more special type of product..." Carlisle stretched out her right index finger and tapped lightly on the multi-dimensional space container on the table.

"This kind of thing...if you really want to be picky, a more accurate name would be a zero-inertia engine or a zero-inertia accelerator."

"There are several zero-inertia booster engines here based on different principles that can be directly installed into spacecraft."

"Let me tell you about one of them, the stacked tidal gravity drive. During operation, it generates asymmetric gravity fields in different directions of the spacecraft, using vector propulsion to accelerate the ship to near the speed of light in a very short distance and time, without consuming any propellant or fuel."

"Also, this spacecraft's protection uses a very special design. Remember our kinetic energy neutralization field?"

"This spacecraft utilizes an amplified version of the kinetic shielding force field we personally use. During operation, it creates a spherical envelope of several hundred to thousands of kilometers around the hull. With the exception of particles like photons and electrons, which are so small that their mass can be ignored, any object with a certain mass within this spherical envelope will be instantly terminated if its speed exceeds the safety limit you set. This doesn't matter if it's an unpowered artillery shell, a self-propelled missile, or any other object with a certain mass. Any object exceeding the set safety limit will be instantly terminated." (Note 1)

"Another protective measure designed into this ship is a gravitational shield. It uses a strong gravitational field to manipulate tiny particles of matter, including self-replicating nanomachines, to a certain extent hinder the damage caused by high-speed neutral particles. It can even use binding energy similar to a particle collider to induce nuclear reactions in the iron powder in the gravitational field, absorbing energy and weakening the power of high-energy particles such as neutron beam weapons. Even if that doesn't work, it can reduce the damage these particles cause to the ship's armor and hull."

"And another protective measure derived from stasis technology. I call it the mass-energy conversion field. Its principle is to reduce the speed of time within a certain range, so that a low-speed-of-light zone similar to the gravitational lens produced by the Alcubierre engine appears within this range relative to the outside world. As long as the foreign matter has rest mass, it will annihilate itself and become pure energy due to the instantaneous mass expansion the moment it passes through these two areas." Kalisi took out a palm-sized holographic projector from her pocket to demonstrate to everyone a specific scenario of pure energy annihilation that would occur when a high-speed, high-mass object passes through the mass-energy conversion field.

"However, after talking for so long, let me first show you the general structure and appearance of this spaceship." Carlisle moved her fingers and showed the design drawing of the spaceship in front of everyone.

The holographic projection showed a dagger-shaped ship with a silver-white main body, countless dark green light bands inlaid on the angular hull, and a long axis of more than 20 kilometers.

Note 1: The effect is similar to the purple force field in the interstellar space in the third season of The Expanse that forced human spacecraft to brake.

Chapter 111: Space Elevator and Another Unlucky Group Member (6000 words)

Looking at the holographic design in front of him, Aze zoomed in and observed the details on the design.

"The Grey Wind Mothership is beautiful in every aspect..." Aze said with a happy tone.

"Yes, it's 22 kilometers long and powered by a vacuum zero-point energy reactor with an output of 800 yaws (YW), equivalent to the power of 2.13 suns. Literally, the energy output of a single ship is comparable to that of a star. The entire ship is constructed of chromium-core materials for its skeleton and hull. With the stellar-level energy supply provided by the zero-point energy reactor, the entire ship possesses extremely strong self-repair capabilities. Even if over 90% of the hull structure is destroyed, given enough time, the entire ship can completely repair itself 100%."

"The entire ship is equipped with multiple propulsion engines based on different principles. These include the Alcubierre Warp Drive and the High-Dimensional Space Jump Drive, which are used for faster-than-light travel, and the Zero-Inertia Stacked Tidal Gravity Drive, which is used for conventional propulsion below the speed of light. This zero-inertia propulsion system allows us to accelerate from zero to near the speed of light in less than a second, without the crew feeling any change in gravitational acceleration."

"In addition, there is another set of engines on the spacecraft that is more in line with our understanding of physics. It uses the reverse thrust generated by high-speed jetting of working fluid as propulsion power. It emits jets backwards through the annihilation of antideuterium or positrons and positive matter at a speed close to the speed of light. The energy of a single photon reaches more than 1000MeV of gamma rays. It is used as power, which can accelerate the spacecraft to a speed of more than 0.9c in a relatively short distance." Kalisi was also very satisfied with the excellent performance of this Grey Wind mothership.

"But speaking of it... the color scheme of this ship, plus its self-repair ability, and the inertia-free navigation engine setting that can instantly accelerate to the speed of light, why do I always feel like I'm looking at a space Necromancer's metal battleship?" Aze leaned back boredly, put his hands behind his head and complained.

"Hearing you mention it... thinking about it carefully... the style of our ship... does seem a bit like the Necrons."

"It's not just the spaceships that look alike... the effect of the micro-wormhole portal we created looks almost identical to the Necrons' Death Mark Assassin..."

"Come to think of it, the design for this thing was also given by Cabot... Could she have done it on purpose?"

"Including the previous short-distance transmission ability and this ship, our style seems to be getting more and more necromancy-like." Aze slapped his head with sudden realization, and finally realized that the root cause of the weird style of everyone's painting was the senior star governor lady.

"Don't talk like I'm going to harm your star god, okay?" At this time, Cabot, dressed in a black combat uniform, appeared in the restaurant without warning, scaring Aze who was talking bad about her behind her back.

"Wow! When did you come?" Aze was so frightened by the sudden appearance of Cabot that he almost jumped out of his chair.

"As soon as I arrived... I heard my dear subordinates and daughters trying to say bad things about me behind my back?" Cabot walked up to Aze with a kind face, raised his gloved right hand, and flicked Aze's forehead.

"Ouch...it hurts..." Aze shook his head and said.

"Don't worry, I'm not some malicious Star God fraud or anything like that... I'm simply trying to help you quickly reunite with your sisters across the stars."

"After all, your presence is a surprise to them."

"You've completely avoided the question of why our painting style has become so strange..." Aze looked at Cabot, who was trying to change the subject as if nothing had happened, with embarrassment.

"In short, although the multidimensional space container I gave you contains all the materials you need, the supporting facilities, the space elevator and orbital dock, still need to be built. Otherwise, if you only have the materials but no supporting tools, you still can't build this spacecraft."

"However, compared to before, with a clear goal in mind, you can use resources more focusedly and precisely. What originally required dozens of orbital elevators and an entire synchronous orbital planetary ring built around the equator, a solar Dyson cloud, a gas giant planet centrifuge facility, and the supporting solar system energy broadcasting system and industrial system has been compressed to just one space elevator and a sufficiently large orbital dock to complete most of the preparations for this voyage. You no longer need to spend a lot of time building a solar system space industrial system. You only need to complete the corresponding space elevator and orbital ship, and use the materials and supporting parts I provide to assemble a spacecraft capable of completing this voyage."

"I look forward to you all completing this voyage with this spaceship and reuniting with the sisters who are still waiting on the other side of the stars. In short, keep going, everyone. I'm counting on you, and..."

"I look forward to the changes you can bring to this universe, my dear children."

Cabot walked up, patted the two men on the shoulder solemnly and gave them a meaningful smile.

"Well... you are the Star Governor of the Combined Fleet... please don't make yourself look like a corrupted mother, okay? I really can't adapt to it." Carlisle complained helplessly.

"Don't worry, isn't it nice to play the game of cultivation?" Cabot said with a smile.

"In many ways... this should be considered... a very memorable day?" Ren Long sighed with some uncertainty as he looked at the space elevator ground base station on the artificial island at sea level in the distance.

"After all, the first space elevator ever built on this planet has been put into operation... This should be a memorable day no matter what." Looking up at the main cables of the space elevator that reached into the sky and were made of silver-white lightweight rigid materials, carbon nanotubes and room-temperature superconductor rails, Renlong scratched his head in confusion.

As the first space elevator ever built on Earth in this timeline, this should have been a moment worthy of celebration and commemoration. However, neither Renlong, who was standing under the space elevator and looking up, nor the others who were doing other things elsewhere were in the mood to celebrate.

Although they had no intention of celebrating the completion of the space elevator, as the first time the space elevator was put into use and the transport cabin was sent upwards, Kalisi, Yuuki, Renlong, and Aze still planned to symbolically serve as the first group of passengers transported by the orbital elevator, riding the cabin upwards from the bottom to reach the synchronous orbit space station at an altitude of 36000 kilometers.

"As the starting point of our journey to the stars, it is indeed spectacular." Looking at the huge man-made building on the sea level that was like a slender sword, splitting the azure sky of the sea into two halves, Kalici took a photo of the space elevator in the distance with a camera he got from somewhere.

"Stop dawdling, Xixi, do you still want to be one of the first passengers?" Aze, who was jumping in front, turned around and urged Carisi who was lagging behind.

"I know... I'll be there right away..." Carlisle followed her three companions onto the pier connecting the space elevator's ground base station on the sea and the island itself. The four of them walked side by side slowly towards the entrance of the space elevator's ground base station.

.........

The silver-white metal door of the cabin, which was full of technological beauty, slowly opened, and several people walked into the cabin on the floor made of metal and composite materials.

The cabin is shuttle-shaped as a whole and is attached to the track at a nearly vertical angle. The interior of the shuttle-shaped cabin is divided into multiple layers. The doors of the cargo hold and passenger cabin are located at the bottom of the shuttle. Connecting the internal multiple layers are an elevator and stairs used in emergency situations.

Several people sat on a row of seats next to the wall of the cabin. There were several transparent windows on the cabin wall next to them. Looking out from the windows, they could see that the automatic loading and unloading system in the loading and unloading area of ​​the ground base station was continuously transporting the freight load for this trial run into the cabin.

"In the end, they still used the electromagnetic acceleration design?" Carlisle muttered.

"Actually, it's not impossible to use lasers, but it's rather troublesome. We have to build an additional high-power laser transmitting station on the ground. Although it doesn't consume many resources, it will ultimately waste time to build an additional set of facilities. Moreover, we have mass-produced room-temperature superconductors, so in the end we chose the electromagnetic acceleration solution that utilizes the excellent performance of room-temperature superconductors." Renlong fastened his seat belt and explained to Calisi beside him.

.........

20 minutes later, all the goods had been loaded and unloaded, the elevator car door was closed and locked, and the supercapacitor located under the elevator began to charge slowly. At this time, several people were still chatting leisurely in the car.

"Oh... by the way, there's something I forgot to tell you." Carlisle suddenly said mysteriously to Aze and Yuki.

"What's the matter?" Looking at Carlisle's expression, Yuki suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart.

"That's... this elevator's electromagnetic accelerator and its operating mode..."

"You know... this thing has two operating modes, one for passenger transport and one for freight transport. The experience in these two modes is completely different."

"In passenger mode, the elevator will slowly climb at a very low acceleration and then accelerate gradually at a very slow speed until it reaches its maximum speed. During this process, people in the elevator car will not feel any discomfort because the elevator has almost no noticeable acceleration. It is just climbing slowly, and it takes a long time for the elevator to reach the synchronous track, about nine hours."

"The other operating mode is freight mode. In this mode, the elevator completely abandons all comfort in pursuit of extreme efficiency. Each elevator car will be launched from the ground at maximum acceleration and reach maximum speed in the shortest distance. In freight mode, each car takes only two hours to reach the synchronous orbit space station from the ground. After departure, the car in freight mode will accelerate itself to nearly 18000 kilometers per hour over a very short distance at an acceleration of more than 18g, reaching the synchronous orbit in less than two hours."

"Completely abandoning comfort, the rail elevator in freight mode is a true super-high-speed jump machine..."

"Why are you telling me this?" Aze was a little confused.

"Wait...you won't..." Looking at Carlisle's nasty expression, Yuki's inner alarm bells rang.

"That's right...Guess whether this elevator car is in passenger mode or freight mode?"