The stars, but they become the gray wind

"Fuck... Is it possible?!" Aze on the side also came to his senses, widened his eyes and cursed.

"The capacitor seems to have been fully charged." Ren Long, who was sitting among the group, looked as if he had expected this.

"Everyone... hold on tight!" Renlong smiled and reminded Aze and Jiecheng who were digging for food beside them.

Immediately afterwards, a warning sound rang out in the car, and the rail elevator entered the ejection start countdown.

"Capacitor charging complete. Launch countdown begins: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4..."

"Renlong, did you know this a long time ago? Why didn't you remind me? Hey!!" Jiecheng yelled at Renlong impatiently.

"In cargo mode, this bungee jumping machine with a length of more than 36000 kilometers is really fun!" Renlong winked mischievously at his companion beside him.

"You... why the hell didn't you say so earlier? ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" Before Yuki could finish his words, the elevator's ejection countdown had come to an end, and the car was suddenly thrown upward by the powerful Lorentz force of the electromagnetic catapult. On the meter on the wall of the elevator, the acceleration increased rapidly, first in the single digits, and then increased to double digits. The terrifying gravitational acceleration of up to 18g pressed the four people tightly to the chairs. Before he could finish his words, he was pressed to the chair by the extremely high acceleration. Yuki screamed, unable to move, and both his soul and body followed the car into the air, rushing towards the synchronous orbit space station at an altitude of 36000 kilometers at a speed of 18000 kilometers per hour.

As the altitude increased, fine water droplets first formed on the windows, and then quickly dissipated. The thick clouds only stayed within the window range for a dozen seconds before disappearing. After crossing the Karman line, the dazzling sunlight, no longer blocked by the atmosphere, shone into the cabin through the windows, and at this altitude, the curve of the edge of the horizon of the earth below could already be seen.

If you look up from the window, you will see the dark starry sky. Without the diffuse reflection of sunlight by the atmosphere, the space outside the earth has returned to its original color.

Skirt Seven (Eight) Wu Si Liu Ling abandoned his energy...

Two hours later, in the synchronous orbit space station, Renlong unbuckled the seat belt on his seat, activated the magnetic boots on his feet, and firmly attached himself to the ground. He turned his head and took a look at Yuuki and Aze, who were still slumped in their seats, with pale faces as if they were dead. Renlong touched the back of his head.

"Maybe it would be better to lower the acceleration next time?" Renlong muttered softly as he looked at the two people lying unconscious in their chairs.

"Oh, no need. I think it's pretty good. Even the best pilots can't experience 18g of gravity. In this regard, we have set a new world record..."

"18g is fatal even for the most elite aerobatic pilots. For transporting people, this acceleration in cargo mode is definitely fatal."

"Looking at them like this... I guess they won't be able to recover for a while." After turning off the magnetic boots on the soles of her feet, Carlisle floated leisurely in the air, feeling the wonderful sensation brought by weightlessness, and also glanced at Aze and Jiecheng who were still unconscious.

"How about we go to the centrifuge gravity area first? And check the construction progress of the dock?" Carlisle suggested to Renlong.

"Okay, let's go to the gravity area first. As for here, let them take some time off." Renlong took a last helpless look at the two "victims", and then followed Calisi, who was floating in the air, to the centrifugal wheel gravity cabin.

.........

The centrifugal wheel gravity cabin of the space elevator synchronous orbit space station located at an altitude of 36000 kilometers is a giant spoke-shaped building with a diameter of more than one kilometer. Four large arms extend from the central axis, connecting the ring-shaped centrifugal wheel gravity cabin and supporting it to rotate around the axis to provide centrifugal force to replace and simulate gravity.

A little above the synchronous orbital space station, a support arm over 50 kilometers long extended from the main axis of the space elevator. On this support arm was a giant orbital dock currently under construction, large enough to accommodate Gray Wind's 20-kilometer-long ship.

The dock, made of lightweight rigid materials, is a hollow octagonal structure. The main frames under construction on both sides constitute the main structure of the dock, just like the ribs of the chest.

"How long will it take to complete this thing?" Inside the centrifugal gravity cabin, Kalisi looked through the window at the dock frame that was still under construction outside and asked Renlong.

"It will take about two weeks. Once the dock is completed, we can open the multidimensional space container Cabot gave us and use the materials inside to complete the main structure of the spacecraft. We will transport the items inside to the dock and assemble them one by one. This will complete the construction of the spacecraft and embark on an unprecedented voyage."

"By the way... Speaking of which, does Cabot have anything else to say about that multidimensional container?"

"What? Let me think... She seemed to remind me that when opening a multidimensional space container, it's best to do so in an open space with nothing around. The contents inside are very large, so I must be careful when opening it."

"Is that so... In that case, to be on the safe side, it's best not to open the container in the dock... At that time... um... you should keep a distance of about 1 to 2 kilometers from the dock and then open the container in space. After ensuring it is safe, we can transport the things we take out of it to the dock." Renlong explained to Calisi out of caution.

"I understand... I'll be careful." Carlisle replied softly, looking out the window at the dock in the distance.

On the other side of the distant galaxy, in an inconspicuous facility on a planet 20,000 light-years away from Earth and surrounded by countless man-made megastructures, a "person" woke up.

"Woo... huh?!!!" Feeling the unknown liquid filling around her body, she suddenly felt a little panicked.

[What the hell?] She frantically paddled in the surrounding liquid to try to float her body, and then her head hit the hard cabin cover.

[I'm going to drown! !] Just as she was thinking this, the opaque hatch in front of her suddenly opened. In a panic, she fell out and rushed to the ground outside along with the nutrient solution in the culture chamber.

"Oh... where am I...?" Luoying raised her hand and touched her forehead, then she noticed that there seemed to be something shiny growing on her wrist.

"This is... scales? What the hell?" Luo Ying touched the scales on her buttocks in disbelief. Then she noticed that a strand of hair on her forehead seemed not to be its original black color, but a light blue-brown color.

Then Luoying raised his head and saw the smooth wall in front of him and his current appearance reflected on it.

It was an incredibly beautiful face, with blue-brown hair that reached its waist. Fin-like structures extended from the ears on both sides of the head, and the same strange fin-like structure extended from both sides of the head all the way up to the top of the head.

"This... isn't this Lamia?" Luo Ying looked at his reflection on the wall, touched his cheek and shouted in disbelief.

Luo Ying remembered very clearly that before he lost consciousness, he was chatting online with some silly group friends he was familiar with, watching the team leader and others happily shouting with everyone in the group, but the next second, he lost consciousness. After waking up, he found that he was trapped in this thing behind him that looked like an incubator. After struggling to get out, Luo Ying was shocked to find that his body had almost completely turned into Lamia's appearance.

"I am... could it be that I have traveled through time?"

"And...is this Lamia Shenyao? Apart from anything else, she is indeed very beautiful." As she spoke, Luoying pinched her face against the smooth wall.

"But... where exactly is this?" Luo Yingying looked around and found that the entire room was filled with various devices that she was completely unfamiliar with. Just as she was wondering what these devices were used for, the tightly closed door of the room suddenly opened on one side, and an elf girl in a white coat, with waist-length golden hair and pointed ears walked into the room.

"Huh? Weird... I clearly didn't activate this body, so why did it suddenly wake up?" Ignoring Luoying who was still kneeling on the ground in a duck-like posture and the surprised look in Luoying's eyes as she looked at the pointed ears on both sides of the elf girl's head, the elf girl walked forward as if nothing had happened, stretched out her hand and touched the cheek of the still naked Luoying, then squatted down and met Luoying's curious gaze.

"Hmm? That's not right?! How can this body have self-awareness and a complete personality? Even if it was accidentally activated, it should be in a blank state. How can it have self-awareness?" After touching Luoying's cheek, the beautiful elf girl seemed to suddenly feel something and muttered to herself.

Luo Ying, who was kneeling on the ground naked, was already mesmerized by the beautiful face and figure of the elf girl in front of him.

"So beautiful... It would be great if I could be a girlfriend of a girl like this..." Luo Ying, who had liked girls since she was a stay-at-home girl before she traveled through time, thought so as she looked at the beautiful elf girl in front of her who was still touching her face with a puzzled look on her face.

(New member Luoying is online, welcome!)

Chapter 112: Miss Luoying, who traveled to the Lily Race (5000 words)

Luo Ying was very confused now. She was chatting with her friends in the group one second ago, and the next second she woke up in something that looked like an incubator, and found that her body and appearance had turned into the robot mermaid Lamia, and she also saw a blonde girl with an elf appearance.

Looking at the beautiful blonde elf girl in front of him who had a strange expression and was gently pinching her cheeks, Luo Ying, who was kneeling on the ground, felt a little timid and looked into the other's blue eyes.

"Excuse me...where...is this place? And who...are you?" Luo Ying, who was kneeling on the floor, supported his hands on the ground in front of him and asked the elf girl in front of him with a shy look.

“………” Hearing Luo Ying’s question, the elf girl in a white coat who was pinching Luo Ying’s chin did not answer immediately, but stared at Luo Ying’s face and naked body and looked at Luo Ying.

"Xiao You? Are you there?" When Luo Ying felt a little shy and blushed under the other person's stare, the elf girl suddenly shouted to the empty room.

"Here... Elena." A pleasant voice suddenly sounded in the room. A ray of light emerged from beside the two of them and condensed into a beautiful figure. The projection of a silver-haired girl with glowing whole body appeared beside them.

"Xiao You... is this the reason why you suddenly called me back from outside?"

"Well... a breeding chamber in your laboratory suddenly activated, and without my authorization, it bred and printed a synthetic merman's body." The silver-haired girl who looked like a holographic projection reported to the elf girl she called Elena.

"Then how can she have self-awareness and cognitive abilities? Could it be that one of our compatriots accidentally uploaded their digital consciousness into her?" The blonde elf girl who was replaced by Elena lifted a strand of hair from Luoying's forehead and looked at the mermaid girl in front of her who was looking at her with a puzzled look, and asked the holographic projection beside her.

"That's the crux of the matter... During the activation of this body, I did not detect any digital consciousness uploaded into this body."

"No digital consciousness upload was detected? In other words, it wasn't the consciousness of some compatriot I don't know?"

"But... why can't I feel her mental network perception and thoughts and emotions? Could it be some newly born blank artificial intelligence program?" Elena said as she touched Luoying all over, unconsciously touching her body with both hands, and even touching Luoying's chest with her right hand as if nothing had happened.

Luo Ying, who was still naked, was suddenly groped by the elf girl in front of him. He hurriedly retreated, his face flushed, and he covered his private parts with his hands. He shyly shouted to the elf girl who was still squatting on the ground and looking at him in panic: "Even if we are both girls, sexual harassment without consent is not allowed!!!"

"Uh... huh?" The elf girl opposite had a big question mark in her mind after seeing Luo Ying's panicked reaction.

"Xiao You...are you sure this isn't some conservative member of your tribe who accidentally uploaded their digital consciousness into this body?"

"I'm quite certain... there was absolutely no record of any digital consciousness being uploaded or strong artificial intelligence programs being loaded into this body during its activation. I didn't even detect any loading signals at all."

"It's not a member of our species that failed during the digital upload, nor is it a strong artificial intelligence AI. Furthermore, I can't sense the existence of this body in the mental network. So where does the consciousness in this body come from?"

"Wait a moment... let me check..." A palm-sized drone emerged from an opening in the wall and flew to the head of Luoying who was still kneeling on the ground. A blue beam of light was directed at Luoying's head, scanning it up and down for about ten seconds.

Luo Ying stared in amazement at the drone that was floating in the air and checking itself. She did not see any aerodynamic structure like rotors on it to maintain lift. This palm-sized drone was floating in the air in a way that Luo Ying could not understand.

"Okay, the test results are out... Huh? What is this?" From Luoying's perspective, she saw a surprised and puzzled expression on the face of the holographic projection girl standing behind Elena.

"What's wrong? Xiao You?"

"Elena... the consciousness active in this body... is very strange... I don't know how to describe it... It's like it came from another world?"

"Ah?" Elena was stunned when she heard Xiao You's answer.

Earth, December 23, 1908, local time, location: 36000 km geostationary orbit, zero-gravity dock control room

"I say, since the materials are already available and only one dock is needed, what should we do with the remaining nine space elevators in orbit that are under construction?" Carlisle asked Renlong while floating in the air and looking at the orbital dock outside the window.

"What else can we do? Two orbital elevators have been completed, one on Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa and the other on the Andes in South America. However, those two locations are barren and desolate. The humans on this planet haven't yet discovered that these two highest peaks in Africa and South America have become ground base stations for space elevators."

"Those two space elevators are already complete and ready for use. They just don't have the same orbital docking stations as this one. Their synchronous orbits and final destinations are currently just two bare centrifugal wheeled space stations with virtually no equipment installed."

"As for the other nine elevators still under construction, because we've focused all our resources on this one space elevator and its supporting facilities, the construction progress of those nine has been temporarily slowed down. However, this doesn't mean that the nine elevators under construction can't be used at this stage. They just can't be used as complete space elevators. In terms of integrity and functionality, they are already complete skyhooks. As long as there is a supporting SSTO spacecraft, they can still be used as non-rotating skyhooks... but I estimate that we probably won't need them."

"By the way, I haven't been paying much attention lately. The humans on this planet should have noticed that there's something extra above their heads, right?"

"You're talking about that... In this era, astronomers are still a minority. Most people rarely notice anything new in the sky. Only a few astronomers who regularly use telescopes to observe the stars have noticed the project we're carrying out above their heads. Considering that we're still conducting periodic deterrent patrols in Europe with aerospace carriers, European countries, which have the largest educated populations in this era, have basically chosen to keep silent."

"For people of this era, these projects we're carrying out in the sky haven't attracted much attention. In an era before UFO fever, even if there really were a few more artificial stars above people's heads, it wouldn't have attracted much public attention."

"The nine space elevator facilities still in the skyhook state have surprisingly not attracted much attention. As for the three completed space elevators, they are all located in extremely remote and sparsely populated areas, so no one has discovered them so far."

"But even if we're discovered, it doesn't matter. The armed forces we've deployed around the space elevator's ground base station and cables are more than enough to repel any malicious individuals with ill intentions."

"That puts my mind at ease. After all, we don't plan to open this thing to the current humans on this planet. If they want to be qualified to use it, they have to wait at least another 100 years until their own technology and moral standards have developed to the right level. Only then can I conditionally open the other two space elevators to them for free use."

"Humans of this era are, after all, immature and lack the qualifications and ability to journey into the starry sky."

"Let's keep those two space elevators locked away from the humans of this world for now. When they mature, perhaps we can safely hand them over to them."

"Don't worry... I've already made some preparations. I'll use optical stealth camouflage modules to seal off the ground base stations of the two space elevators, ensuring that humans can't get close. Unless we authorize them, no one will be able to discover the parts of these two space elevators within the atmosphere."

"Okay... let's do it." Carlisle nodded and agreed with Renlong's idea.

"The dock will be completed in one day. Are you ready?" Renlong turned to ask Calisi.

"It's just opening a multidimensional space cube container. There's no need for any preparation, right?"

"I've asked Cabot, and he tells us this multidimensional cube container is disposable. Once opened, it will disintegrate, and everything inside will disperse. This means we not only need to find a sufficiently open area to open the container, but also prepare the appropriate tugboats and engineering drones to tow the released components one by one to the dock and reassemble them as needed."

"Didn't we agree that I'll just be responsible for opening the container in an open area? There shouldn't be anything to prepare...right?"

"On the contrary, you are the one at the greatest risk. Everything in the container, which is in a compressed state, will be thrown out at once. I don't want you to get bruised and battered."

"The process for opening the container is very simple. Just press firmly with your thumb on one side of the cube for five seconds, then silently say "open"."

"The simpler the process, the more likely it is to go wrong. You'd better be careful when the time comes."

"I see. But speaking of which, once this thing is turned on, there will be a lot of things to move. Do you have enough tugboats and engineering drones?"

"You can rest assured about this. I've prepared at least tens of thousands of modified engineering drones to assemble the unpacked spacecraft components."

"As for the unmanned tugboat, don't worry. These things are incredibly simple to build. Essentially, they're just a robotic arm with a few fuel tanks and three deuterium-helium engines. The only valuable thing on the entire ship is the reactor."

.........

Time passed quickly, almost in the blink of an eye. A few days later, the orbital dock was built, and everyone planned to unpack the contents of the multi-dimensional space compression container given by Cabot.

A green, two-dimensional portal emerged from the vacuum of geostationary orbit, and Calisi, in a state of weightlessness, slowly floated out. It's worth noting that even in the freezing cold of space, Calisi wasn't wearing any protective gear; she simply floated unprotected in the vacuum.

Floating in the vacuum of synchronous orbit, Kalisi glanced back at the orbital elevator station and zero-gravity dock nearly 1000 kilometers away. She pulled the six-sided cube-shaped multidimensional space container from her pocket. After giving a final signal to Renlong and the others, Kalisi pressed her thumb against one side of the cube, held it for five seconds, and silently said, "Confirm to activate."

The cube container slowly began to melt in the dark vacuum, until the original was only the size of a palm.

The cubic structure completely disappeared, and then a large number of man-made objects suddenly began to emerge in the surrounding space.

"First, a gigantic cube appeared, a massive cube made of color-nuclear force material. This massive amount of color-nuclear material weighed over tens of billions of tons. These materials would be used to build the spacecraft's skeleton and hull, capable of withstanding impacts from objects traveling at speeds close to light.

Then a series of equipment and components, including the zero-point energy reactor, emerged from the huge cube. As soon as the cube began to disintegrate, Calisi used the portal to retreat back to the monitoring room of the space station 1000 kilometers away.

"Wow, so many things?" In the monitoring room, Ren Long marveled at the large number of things released from the multi-dimensional space container. While sighing, he skillfully released the engineering drone and let the drone drag the components on the ribbon track to the dock.

"Besides color-nuclear force materials, are there also integrated quark arrangement printers specifically designed to change the structure and shape of these materials? This technology is quite comprehensive."

"Forget it, let's not talk about that for now. I think we can officially start our shipbuilding work now."

"Now that the preparations have been completed, then... I declare that the construction of the Gray Storm mothership will officially begin from today!!" Kalisi shouted with some pride.

More than 20,000 light years away, on the planet Eden, Luo Ying looked at the "two people" who were looking at her with strange expressions with confusion. Not long ago, the holographic projection girl called Xiao You seemed to have conducted an in-depth examination and scan on herself, and now they were all very surprised by the results of the scan.

As an artificial intelligence, Xiao You couldn't explain why this newly born body contained a mature consciousness whose origins were completely unknown. Furthermore, based on his own readings of the consciousness within this body, the memories it possessed didn't seem to come from his own civilization. The society it came from seemed like another world.

"So... according to you... you are from another world?" The elf girl called Elena put a coat on Luoying in front of her.

"I had Xiao You repeatedly review your memory and confirm that there's no trace of modification or fabrication in your memory."

"If I'm not mistaken... you're definitely not from our civilization."

"I... remember I was chatting with my friends... and then I seemed to pass out and woke up here."

"So...this place...is really..."

"Let me get to the point first... As for the civilization and society in your memory, we never knew there were other civilizations besides ours, and we are very curious about it." Elena suddenly interrupted Luoying and put her face close to Luoyang's lips with interest.

"But...didn't you say before that you could read my memory directly? Then I don't know what to say." Looking at Elena who suddenly came up to him, Luo Ying moved back nervously.

"By the way, when I was checking your memory, I found something interesting... Are you interested?"

"Interesting place?"

"Um…"