The stars, but they become the gray wind

"For this reason, for thousands of years, humans have formed one group after another, created one ideology after another, dynasties, corporations, nations, alliances... countless fictitious concepts have blossomed on a tiny blue planet called Earth. Looking around... they are all the evil fruits of greed and short-sightedness."

My civilization has wasted too much time pursuing meaningless fictional narratives. Because of this, I dislike the entire civilization and human society I lived in in the past..." Thinking of these past unpleasant things, Luo Ying sighed.

"My fellow human beings and I... they... too many individuals and groups are obsessed with weighing pros and cons, fighting each other to the death for short-term gains. Yet, no one stands up and truly questions whether these long-standing ills in human society can ever be completely eradicated."

"Well... perhaps there once was such a group of people in the area of ​​my planet, but it's hard to see how such a group could bear fruit on this long-dry soil. Even if there were, it would have been short-lived. It didn't even last 70 Earth years, quietly disintegrating one Christmas. The people who founded that nation were true idealists, but their great ideals were succumbed to the evils of human nature. Corruption, short-sightedness, and greed permeated society. In just 69 years, the direction of this nation's development has completely betrayed the founders' original intentions."

"So, let me be frank... I hate the civilization I used to live in. I hate the fictional narrative that humans have created for a so-called common goal. I also hate the history of endless fratricide among humans, and the oppression and exploitation that has never disappeared."

"Even after the Industrial Revolution, productivity has greatly developed. What does it matter? Oppression, exploitation, mutual plunder and slaughter, these evils that are deeply rooted in human society have only continued to exist in human society in a different form. Even after the explosive development of productivity, the destruction and bloodshed caused have increased." At this point, Luo Ying became a little excited.

"Um... I'm curious... when you mentioned these ideas to your fellow mortals, what did they say?"

"A considerable number of people who heard these words... criticized me for historical nihilism... But I have never denied the positive achievements of human society's development to date. However, these positive achievements cannot mask the vicious damage and harm caused to humanity itself during this process of development."

"As for the other group... like the captain and the others... after listening... she actually said something to me..."

"She said: 'I don't like the mountain of code that has accumulated over millions of years of evolution and thousands of years of civilization. Perhaps the best way to deal with this mountain of code isn't to tinker with the existing code, but to start from scratch.'"

“Instead of revising a canvas that’s already stained with all sorts of colors, it’s better to start with a blank canvas…”

"Similarly, instead of working in a folder full of crap code, maybe starting over with a new, empty folder is the real solution."

"Of course, when starting over, the original pile of code can be kept for comparison and reference, or even as a warning, as a typical and collection of negative examples."

"These are the exact words of my friend named Carlisle." Luoying looked at Elena who was thinking, while Elena who was sitting next to her showed an expression of sudden enlightenment.

"Um... please give me a few seconds... I need to organize some extra... uh... comparison records..." Elena gestured with her hand while Luoying beside her was completely confused.

"???"

"I've got some ideas...about the connection between your civilization and ours...I guess you could say that."

"Clues? What clues?" Luoying asked puzzledly.

"Wait a moment... There are a lot of things to search and compare... I need a more detailed analysis... Xiao You!" Elena shouted to the person beside her. As Elena called, a beautiful silver figure appeared in the air.

"I understand... We are collecting relevant information. We need to compare all the details about human civilization in Miss Luoyang's memory with our historical records. I think... we may have made a new discovery..." As he spoke, Xiao You looked at Luo Ying, who was still confused and puzzled.

Earth, February 3, 1909

Without the atmosphere to block the sunlight from shining on the dagger-shaped hull with dark green stripes, the 22-kilometer-long Grey Wind mothership floats like a steel mountain in the zero-gravity dock in the planet's synchronous orbit. The entire spacecraft is like a sleeping giant beast. Energy is flowing slowly in the dark green energy pipelines. In the space without a medium, the heat dissipation grille at the tail of the spacecraft operates at low power, dissipating the heat generated during the operation of the reactor into the vacuum outside in the form of radiation.

"The energy output of this reactor is too scary, isn't it? Even in low-power operation, the heat generated by this thing is almost comparable to the heat stored in the entire Pacific Ocean. Moreover, this is just the standby state after the reactor is ignited, and all systems of the spacecraft are still shut down..." In a corridor in the cabin, Aze looked at the monitoring status of various systems of the spacecraft on the data panel and knocked on the bulkhead beside him out of boredom.

"Heat dissipation is not a problem. Thanks to the powerful performance of the color nuclear force material as a unified force material, the cooling device and various equipment of this spacecraft can operate at tens of billions of Kelvin. Compared with heat dissipation, I am more worried that we will not be able to start this ship near the planet by then. Otherwise, the plasma gamma ray jet generated by the ignition of the main thruster alone will be enough to destroy the entire earth." The purple-haired girl, Calisi, who was walking with Aze in the huge cabin, leaned leisurely against the cabin wall.

At this moment, the two were staying in a high-tech corridor of the Grey Wind Mothership. On the walls on both sides, countless energies were flowing along the dark green energy pipes distributed on the walls and ceiling.

"Speaking of which... do you want to go to the bridge?" Carlisle asked Aze who was jumping in the corridor.

"Bridge? Speaking of which... our cockpit isn't going to be one of those hydrostatic pods that Eggman pilots use, is it?"

"Of course not. What are you thinking? We're not human anymore, but we're definitely not going to get used to immersing ourselves in liquid and flying a spaceship. Yuuki and I are pretty conservative in that regard."

"So how are we going to operate this ship then? Like the captain of the Enterprise, directing a large group of crew members to work in front of various control panels?"

"As for this...won't you know if you come with me to take a look?" Carlisle said mysteriously.

.........

Looking at the rather bland seats in front of him and the holographic operating consoles around him, Aze was obviously a little disappointed.

"It doesn't look anything special, does it?"

"Isn't this just an ordinary captain's chair?"

"It's not that simple... This thing is not an ordinary seat." Carlisle stretched out her hand and pressed the operating panel next to the seat. A cable with dark green lines stretched out from the backrest of the seat neck, and like a nimble snake, it climbed up along the back of the purple-haired girl who was operating the panel next to the seat. After approaching the position of the brain-computer interface that annoyed Carlisle, the cable with flashing dark green lines automatically engaged with the interface behind Carlisle's head.

"That's right... Through this neural bridge, the pilot can control all functions of the ship as flexibly as if they were controlling their own limbs. For example, with just a thought, I can activate all the equipment on the ship at full power, and then make the ship maneuver as nimbly as a fighter jet."

"Of course, not everyone can use this feature... At least for now, it's only suitable for the four of us. Perhaps Capote can, too. But if you simply install a brain-computer interface on an ordinary human and have them connect their brain directly to this ship, their brain will most likely burn out within seconds because they can't process information far beyond their capacity."

"For example, if you asked Charlotte and the others to install brain-computer interfaces and control the ship, the limit they could achieve would be to barely move the ship forward without burning their brains."

"The amount of data this ship generates while in operation is no joke. Every second, it generates nearly a billion times the amount of data generated annually by human civilization in the 21st century information age."

"Of course, most of the ship's computing power is stored in the micro-singularity computer in the zero-point energy reactor. We probably won't be able to use the ship's full computing power most of the time."

"I remember that the micro singularity in the zero-point energy reactor seemed to store more than just our computing modules, right?"

"Well... besides the computing module, the vast majority of our fuel and reserves are also stored within the microscopic singularity within the zero-point energy reactor. As for the principle behind this thing, according to Cabot, it's a microscopic charged black hole with a destroyed event horizon. After the original event horizon is artificially disintegrated, the naked singularity within it is extracted and encapsulated within the zero-point energy reactor. By disabling the laws of cosmic physics within the naked singularity, a region of space with infinite capacity and time where causality ceases to apply is created. Within this naked singularity, nearly infinite computing power can be accommodated and generated. Of course, since this thing is encapsulated within the zero-point energy reactor, under normal circumstances, we can't directly observe this singularity."

"As for singularities, which are things that can completely invalidate the laws of physics throughout the universe, there isn't much information in the database Cabot gave us."

"Do you think it's possible that she doesn't know what's going on inside a naked singularity?"

"No, I think she knows 100%, but she deliberately didn't tell us. Besides, something like the exposed singularity is difficult for even Grey Wind to understand and utilize."

"But as far as I know, this naked singularity encapsulated within the zero-point energy reactor is the most important reason the ship's Alcubierre warp drive can achieve superluminal travel. According to the instructions Cabot provided, the zero-point energy reactor may continuously generate negative mass exotic matter from this naked singularity. Utilizing the complete breakdown of physical laws around the naked singularity, the negative mass exotic matter and negative energy flow travel at superluminal speeds, creating a warp bubble large enough to envelop the entire ship."

"Under normal circumstances, the warp bubble created by the warp engine cannot travel at superluminal speeds."

The event horizon formed by a warp bubble traveling at superluminal speeds will produce extremely intense Hawking radiation. The warp bubble is similar to the event horizon of a black hole, completely isolating the space inside and outside after its formation.

"At the same time, this Hawking radiation is bidirectional, because Hawking radiation is one of the virtual particles in the pair that falls into the event horizon. This means that the warp bubble moving faster than the speed of light will emit as much radiation inward as it emits outward.

At the same time, the gravitational force exerted by the warp bubble when it is released can tear any physical entity into subatomic particles. When the warp bubble collapses, the peak value will reach 0.3c G. This level of gravitational acceleration and inertia is enough to kill any living thing. Imagine what would happen if your body directly hit the wall and ceiling at nearly 0.3 times the speed of light?

"Of course, we don't need to worry too much about this problem. The inertial stabilization device on our ship will protect the safety of the crew members."

"As for the issue of high-energy particle Hawking radiation accumulating at the front of the warp bubble during superluminal travel... Similarly, because of the naked singularity within the zero-point energy reactor, Hawking radiation and the high-energy particle flow are directly eliminated at the physical level. Therefore, our ship will not encounter this problem when using the Alcubierre warp drive."

"But if necessary, the naked singularity in the zero-point energy reactor can be adjusted. Instead of clearing the high-energy particle flow and Hawking radiation accumulated at the front of the cavitation bubble, the moment warp is broken, a jet of high-energy particles approaching the speed of light, along with gamma rays and Hawking radiation, can be ejected in all directions or in a specific direction. This can be used directly as a weapon powerful enough to completely obliterate a planet."

"Furthermore, the computing module stored in the naked singularity within the zero-point energy reactor apparently possesses some kind of direct capability to operate as a closed time-curve computer. It could have directly enabled us to know all information about the future and the past."

"Originally? (Six) Ling 2 弍 氵 俬玐"

"That's right, originally... but it's clear that Cabot isn't willing to let us use this feature just yet. If she does, then... clearly, there's something she doesn't want us to know. That's why she hasn't yet released the closed-time-curve computer functionality within the computational module. Otherwise, this technology capable of superluminal information and material transmission would essentially be a time machine that defies causality." Through the neural bridge cable, Calisi's sensors observed the vacuum zero-point energy reactor within the reactor compartment, which contained a naked singularity. All the secrets and truths Cabot had concealed from everyone until now lay within that naked singularity...

At this moment, a prompt message suddenly popped up in Carissa's field of vision.

"Hangar docking request? Where's the ship coming from? Wait!! Aren't we the only ship around here?"

Carlisle was very sure that there were absolutely no other spacecraft around except this spaceship still parked in the dock and some drones. Carlisle's first reaction was to turn on various foreign scanning equipment to confirm the situation around the spaceship and the dock.

Immediately afterwards, the patrolling drone outside projected the captured images in front of Kalisi.

A pitch-black aircraft shaped like a sycamore seed with a pair of huge "wings" on both sides was parked in the space only a few hundred meters outside the dock. A pattern of a winged dragon was engraved on the wings on one side of the aircraft's fuselage.

"What... is this?" Carlisle and Aze were stunned when they saw this familiar-looking aircraft.

"The Night Fighter is one of my vehicles and the spaceship I used to come here..." Capote's voice suddenly rang out in their minds.

"Ah... Night Fighter... Wait... Could this name and this shape be..." After hearing Capote's reminder in the thought network, Carlisle remembered where she had seen this familiar-looking aircraft.

"Why... did you make a spaceship in the style of Zelli?"

"And don't you think that the Grey Wind mothership and this thing don't match each other?" Looking at the black fuselage in the picture that was made of a material that did not reflect photons at all, Kalisi complained.

"At least the difference in style between these two is smaller than that between Space 59, isn't it?"

"Well, it seems so." Thinking of the Feitian Wujiu who had beaten up her entire fleet in the game in the past, Carlisle was speechless and held her forehead with her hand.

"And this spaceship of mine is a night fighter that has been enhanced with the United Fleet's super-dimensional material technology. Compared with the original version, its performance is much better." Cabot, who was sitting in the cockpit of the night fighter, gave a thumbs up to the spaceship under him with satisfaction.

Chapter 125: Closed-Time Computers and the Diversity of Civilizations (6000 words)

"Hmm..." Inside the rear hangar of the Grey Wind mothership, which was several thousand meters high, the purple-haired girl stared at the pure black winged aircraft hovering in the air in front of her with twitching eyes.

"Is this thing really... the one I was thinking of... the Zerry Night Fighter?" Carlisle rubbed her temples with a headache and asked Cabot who was standing next to her.

"That's right... a genuine 1:1 scale, 100% simulated Zelli Night Fighter. It has all the technologies and functions of the original Night Fighter. I also strengthened it with super-dimensional matter. It is even better than the original in all-round performance." Cabot walked under the Night Fighter that looked like a sycamore seed and knocked on the outer shell of the Night Fighter with his hand confidently.

"Wait... 1:1, 100% simulation? But I remember that the Night Fighters picked up and discovered by other intelligent creatures weren't essentially the corpses of individual Zerians?" Carlisle carefully recalled the contents of the science fiction novel she had read in her previous life and asked Cabot, who was standing under the Night Fighter.

"It's true that the Night Fighter is the Zerri's physical body in the material universe, but it's just a body. Do you really think a group of baryonic creatures born at the beginning of the Big Bang, capable of surviving within the event horizon of a black hole, capable of creating closed timelike curves at will and violating the law of causality, can be killed so easily?" Capote asked with a smile. (Note 1)

"Except for the photon birds, at least in the universe where the Zelli people live, there should be... nothing that can threaten them, right?" The purple-haired girl said with a somewhat uncertain tone.

"Yes, the Night Fighter is indeed the physical body of the Zerri, but that's all. To these baryonic creatures living within a closed time curve, a physical body like the Night Fighter is merely a carrier that can be discarded and replaced at any time, just like the body of a clone pilot—just an unimportant external material carrier that can carry their spirit and memories."

"So my spaceship...is actually more like cloning a blank body of a Zerri. This body is essentially an empty shell without a soul or inner self."

"I see... But it's just an empty shell serving as a physical carrier... Since the Zerri can upload their thoughts into the Night Fighter, a physical carrier like this, does that also mean?"

"I know what you're thinking... I can... but there's no need. Although the space-time condensed matter created by the Zelli people is indestructible, the bodies of the Union Shipgirls who have already ascended under the influence of super-dimensional matter are much stronger than the Night Fighters made of space-time condensed matter."

"As for you... you can actually do that... but I don't recommend it for now. The technology on the Night Fighter is at least one level more advanced than yours. Even for you who have become Gray Wind, it's still quite difficult to understand the principles behind it."

"My suggestion... before you even think about piloting a night fighter, you should first thoroughly understand everything in the database I've given you."

"It's not that I want to fly this thing... I'm just curious about the Night Fighter, a product of the universe's top civilization..." Kalisi said guiltily, pointing her index finger.

"Oh... really? I see you're so curious that you can't help yourself..." Cabot quickly walked up to Carissa, stretched out his right hand and flicked the purple-haired girl's forehead.

"Don't worry... It's not that I won't let you touch it... It's just that the technology for this thing is not yet ready. When the time comes, I will naturally teach you the technology for making and using products of the level of the Night Fighter. It's still too early for you to suddenly try to use a technology that spans the universe, dimensions, and time. Although closed time-like curve computer technology can indeed allow a person to learn to run before learning to walk, you are not yet suitable to start using this technology." Cabot patted Carlisle's shoulder and said.

"By the way, speaking of this... I think you'd better explain to me the exposed singularity encapsulated in the zero-point energy reactor and its function."

"You're talking about that singularity... That naked singularity is essentially a naked singularity storage. Inside the singularity storage is a nearly infinite negative space. There's not only a closed time-like curve computer with nearly infinite computing power, built using the physical properties of the naked singularity's completely chaotic relationship between spacetime and causality, but also a homogenized quark factory for repairing ships or constructing an entire industrial system for the era of interstellar civilization. There's also a zero-point energy core that harvests the negative mass exotic matter constantly ejected from the naked singularity. However, most of these functions are not yet available to you. Only the zero-point energy device, which provides sufficient negative energy for superluminal warp travel, and some of the homogenized quark factory's functions are available to you, which automatically repair the spacecraft after damage."

"So can the faster-than-light Alcubierre engine on this spacecraft really be used as a time machine?" Calisi asked Cabot this question that had been lingering in her mind for quite some time.

"Yes... but it's not the right time yet..."

"Of course this ship can time jump, but it's too early for you guys... So the time jump function of this ship's hyperdrive won't be available to you for the time being. Of course... when the time comes, I will naturally open this ship's time jump function to all of you."

"Then...wait a minute, let me ask, when will we be qualified to use this ship to time jump?"

"Don't worry... My dear subordinate, from the moment I brought you to this world, I knew what you were thinking... Modifying the past through macro-CTCs... so that the entire birth and development of civilization is truly flawless? Am I right?"

"you know?"

"Of course... That's something you and your closest friends have been quite obsessed with for a long time, isn't it?"

"Just like the Zeli civilization, they went back to the Big Bang and the beginning of their own civilization to modify their entire evolutionary process, making their evolution as intelligent life and their development as a civilization perfect."

"It's just that... the Zerri people's modification of their past was specifically for the purpose of war, while you desire to use the ability of closed-time curve technology to modify the past to directly eliminate all problems caused by various negative and destructive factors in the development of civilization, ensuring that the development of civilization is spotless and free from the heavy burden of history, creating a truly utopian civilization from the very beginning..."

"As the Senior Star Governor of the Combined Fleet, I have no objection to modifying the timeline before your present, or even allowing a civilization to be its own nanny or teacher from beginning to end. Furthermore, for us, such a civilization has more or less passed the screening in a special way and is qualified to join us."

"But how about waiting a bit? You have plenty of time now, even if you have to wait a few more years, there's no rush. Why don't you come with me to see the sisters you've never met at the bottom of the starry sky? It won't be too late to make a decision after you meet them."

"What's more... as a civilization... your sisters... they have actually developed very well. Seeing their civilization will also help you and your friends make subsequent decisions, and..." Cabot suddenly paused and emphasized the word "and".

"And?" Carlisle turned her head and looked at Cabot in confusion.

"And... do you really think... that the development of these sisters of yours, whom you've never met, really follows linear time?"

"You...are you saying?"

"Think carefully about what I said before."

"What you said before? The social development and operation mode of these sisters of ours on the other side of the starry sky is a complete utopia... Wait a minute! You don't mean to say... these sisters of mine have been affected by the closed time-like curve computer transmitting information from the future to the past?" The purple-haired girl carefully recalled what Cabot had said to her before. After realizing what Cabot had deliberately ignored in his words, Carlisle suddenly understood.

"Who knows?" But Cabot deliberately turned a blind eye to this.

"A closed time-curve computer, or macroscopic CTC, has only two states: built or unbuilt. If it's unbuilt, everything will proceed normally, requiring a process. But the moment it's built and operational, all past and future will lose their meaning. You could even send messages from the future to the moment the Big Bang occurred, or ask your future self a question and copy the answer directly from your future self. All the necessary step-by-step processes would disappear, and the answers to all difficult questions could be obtained from the future. From the Big Bang to the Big Rip, the future would hold no secrets for you. A closed time-curve computer would free the development of civilization from the constraints of so-called historical limitations. In your civilization, humans always say we shouldn't view the past through the lens of the present, as everything has its historical limitations. But with a closed time-curve computer, all so-called historical limitations would become a thing of the past. All social and developmental challenges could be solved directly from the future, eliminating the need for the long and painful process in between."

"You and your companions are not Zerri. There is no need to use time technology with utilitarian and strong purpose to artificially interfere with your own history from the moment you were born, and forcibly accelerate the development of a civilization, just to fight against things like the Photon Bird."

"Although I do feel a little unhappy about this... but... well... what you said does... make sense, I can't refute it."

Carlisle held her forehead and sighed helplessly.

"A large part of human history is caused by extreme oppression and unimaginable suffering, which has led to extreme resistance. Extreme resistance often leads to terrible consequences. I am very clear about this."

"If we want to prevent civilization from falling into this vicious cycle, we must completely eliminate and correct the inherent biological and social flaws in humans that favor exploiting and oppressing other human beings to gain greater benefits."

"The existence of a closed curve-like computer means that, in theory, it's possible to infinitely modify the past while simultaneously perceiving nearly everything about the future. Any new problem becomes solved after time zero. Even future problems can be shared with countless past "selves." As long as someone solves a problem at some point in time, then the entire civilization will have understood it since the Big Bang."

"Although I may not be truly omniscient and omnipotent over the entire universe, only in this way can we construct a utopia without any historical stains from beginning to end." Calisi expressed her true feelings to Cabot, her boss who gave her the special identity of Grey Wind.

"Come to think of it... you and your companions have always been fascinated by and obsessed with the concept of utopia. And this view of yours must have been criticized by history teachers and others a lot in the past, right?"

"Are you referring to the criticism we've received in the past for being civilizationally nihilistic? Haha... I've never denied the achievements of human civilization throughout history, but we shouldn't be satisfied with them. Human society could have been even better than it was before I arrived, but... as a congenital defect resulting from long-term evolution and social formation, humans are unable to escape the negative aspects of human nature. It is precisely this negative aspect of our nature as intelligent creatures that has divided us, forcing us to maintain unity through a series of false, fictional narratives. We treat fellow human beings, who are clearly of the same species, as enemies, engaging in endless mutual slaughter and hatred. The root of countless problems lies in how we came to be. Clearly a single species, we're divided into "us" and "them," viewing each other as enemies. What negative impact has this damned fiction created throughout the history of our civilization brought? War? Massacres? Racial discrimination? Class oppression? A civilization that should have been better has become the same shabby state it was before my arrival. Hundreds of millions of individuals are forced to struggle for basic survival, while even more individuals are constantly on the brink of death due to the chaos, war, famine, and epidemics brought about by these fictions. Even surviving to see the next day's sunrise is a luxury.

"These so-called fictional narratives may indeed have brought us productivity gains, but we have allowed the chaos they unleashed to spread across the planet, watching as human society has sunk deeper and deeper into the catastrophic effects of these fictional narratives of nations, ethnicities, religions, and ideologies. The chaos unleashed by these fictional narratives has caused countless individuals to live in long-term suffering."

"So... I hate that as a single species, we still use these completely false fictional narratives to differentiate between 'us' and 'them'. As Homo sapiens, there shouldn't be any distinction between us and them. As a whole, human civilization should have been a better utopia, not a society filled with oppression, exploitation, war, hunger, disease, and chaos. Throughout thousands of years of history, humanity has had countless opportunities to make its development model healthier, but each time it fails to learn its lesson, it sinks deeper and deeper into the pernicious consequences of these fictional narratives."

"Just like my old friend named Luoying... I can't really say I have any favorable feelings towards the civilization I used to live in, or human society as a whole."

"Although I expected it...but it's still a bit surprising to hear you say it to me in person..." Cabot leaned against the night fighter, gazing at the purple-haired girl with emotion.

"From a certain perspective... aside from Gestalt or hive-conscious civilizations, any naturally developing civilization with the concept of individuals will exhibit a state of considerable disorder similar to the human society you originally inhabit. Races and civilizations that can escape this chaotic state and emerge from their cradle in a short period of time are extremely rare. The vast majority of civilizations will be trapped in this purposeless and endless chaotic development for a long time. Such civilizations will fall prey to every pitfall in their development, and even suffering bruises and bruises is the least of their worries. There are definitely many cases where their entire civilization is destroyed. As you complain, development without a clear purpose will only lead to this kind of internal chaos, creating more historical baggage and sowing endless hidden dangers for the future."