The stars, but they become the gray wind

"Even if our sisters can't obtain superluminal technology, our visit itself will make them realize that the idea and technological product of superluminal travel are completely feasible. Judging from the energy output of our spacecraft, the energy output required to achieve superluminal travel only requires the power of two stars. And based on their current productivity level we have observed, the energy output of two stars is definitely not a difficult task for them. It is only equivalent to a few thousandths of the power of the entire civilization. If they really intend to work hard to achieve miracles in their research on superluminal travel... maybe they can really create a practical prototype of a superluminal engine. And with the productivity level of thousands of stars they own, mass production of such a prototype is not impossible. Once they break through the barrier of light speed, I believe that at least in our known Milky Way, there is nothing that can prevent them from continuing to expand into a true galactic-level civilization."

"If you think about it this way... considering Cabot's attitude that requires us to meet him, are we really... couriers delivering superluminal technology to him?" Renlong said somewhat unhappily.

"Who knows? To this day, I still can't figure out what Cabot is thinking... But considering the level of development and the terrifying scale of our civilization... I'm going to go to the hangar of the Gray Wind mothership in orbit. Cabot said before that the night fighter in the hangar is available for me to study. Just in case, I'd better try to figure out the specific technical principles and manufacturing methods used by the night fighter."

"Things like space-time condensation materials are seriously beyond our comprehension, right? As far as materials science is concerned, color-nuclear force materials are basically the limit for us as Gray Wind. Space-time condensation materials and wings that exchange momentum with the universe itself... these things are completely unknown to us, or even completely incomprehensible. Are you sure you can really figure out the principles and manufacturing methods of such materials?"

"Gotta try, right?"

"And if it succeeds, although I think the chances of that happening are slim, it will still be an extra layer of insurance for the rest of the journey. It's always good to be more prepared."

"Well then... I hope you can figure out the technical principles and manufacturing methods of the night fighter in the hangar. Whether it's for the upcoming journey or meeting those sisters you've never met... We may really need an extra insurance policy... Anyway... I wish you good luck."

"Okay... I'm going to the elevator first. If anything happens, remember to call me."

"OK." Renlong made an OK gesture to Kalisi, and Kalisi opened a portal. The other end of the portal was a cabin of the space elevator.

Yuki breathed a sigh of relief and looked back at the white house on the island where Charlotte and others lived. Although Charlotte, Ange and others had invited Yuki and did not make a direct affirmative or negative response, Yuki had roughly guessed what kind of response Charlotte and others would make to him by analyzing Charlotte and others' brain electrical signals and physical condition data such as heartbeat and pulse. Although Charlotte, Ange and others did not answer directly, they just hoped that Yuki could give them some time to discuss and consider.

Yuki had just left the white house and walked a few steps when he saw Aze waiting for him by a tree in front.

"Yo...are you done talking?"

"Um…"

"What did they say?"

"They didn't directly refuse, nor did they directly agree. However, by analyzing the heartbeats and brain electrical activity of everyone present, there's over an 80% chance that they'll agree and we'll go together."

"That's good... I was worried... if Charlotte and the others didn't want to leave... it would be troublesome for Mary."

"Hmm?" Yuuki showed a puzzled expression.

"Last night at the observatory, I asked Mary about this as well. Would he be willing to go with us? To travel into space and visit those sisters we've never met?"

"So what did the child answer?"

"She... looked conflicted after hearing this question... It seemed like she couldn't let me go, but she also didn't want to leave her beloved sister Charlotte. But since Charlotte would probably agree to go with us, then there's no problem. We can just take them on board together."

"Oh... a confused look on his face? That's really interesting. It seems like that kid has been completely obsessed with you lately."

"Hehe... I'm very confident in my ability to attract pretty girls. If I had to describe our current relationship, would it be... more than friends, but less than lovers?"

"Are you here playing the loli training game?" Yuki complained to Aze mercilessly.

"What's wrong with nurturing it? And thanks to the ubiquitous nanomachines on the island, Mary's body has almost stopped growing and aging. The most troublesome issue of longevity has been solved so easily, and it also brought about an unexpected effect..."

"What effect?"

"That's it—a legal loli!!!"

"Although Mary's body has almost stopped growing, her mental aspect is growing rapidly. Even when she reaches adulthood, she will still be a legal loli. The thought of having a legal loli girlfriend is exciting, isn't it?" As Aze said this, his eyes almost lit up.

"Pfft!!! You... this... training isn't enough... you want to have a legal loli harem?"

"What are you afraid of? Mary will be an adult soon anyway, and this isn't the same world anymore. There's no rule against marrying a legal lolita, especially since she's a princess."

"You...this...perverted yuri lolicon is hopeless..." Yuki said helplessly, holding his forehead.

"That's right... I admit that I just like beautiful girls, including legal lolis. Of course, if it's a young girl or a mature woman, I won't refuse it. It's best to have them all, that's the best!" As they chatted, Aze started to act crazy again.

"If you really do this, aren't you afraid that a girl will chop you down one day?"

"Anyway, I'm a nanomechanical aggregate now. How could a mere hatchet possibly hurt me? And wouldn't it be even better if I could get a bunch of girls to get along harmoniously, even entwining their wings and kissing each other right in front of me, and I could always join in?"

"Ah... this... if the other people in the group heard you say that, wouldn't the pure love group be furious?"

"Anyway, they're not here right now... I just like watching girls sticking to each other and lesbian couples who like girls tying wings with each other, yeah?!!!"

"You're such an XP... No wonder you were able to get along with that lesbian driving freak, Carlisle."

"Hehe... Carlisle might have been good at color charts and driving, but in the end, she was just a person with a lot of theoretical knowledge but absolutely zero practical experience. I'm the one with the most experience in getting close to girls."

"There's no need to mention this... I've known for a long time that you have the most experience with girls among us..." Yuki sighed and waved his hand impatiently.

"But besides me, don't you also have some practical experience in this area?"

"Uh...well..." When mentioning this, Yuki suddenly felt a little guilty.

"I do have experience in this area... yes, but..."

"but?"

"But...I was the one who did that. After all, that was the first time, and the big sister next door was so awesome..." Yuki said guiltily, poking his index finger.

"Wait a minute... Although I've heard about it, how old were you when you first had sex with that neighbor girl?"

"Uh...this...this..." Yuki suddenly started to stutter, and his usually calm face turned red.

"Ten...thirteen." Yuki muttered softly.

"Ah?" Now it was Aze's turn to be dumbfounded. Although she had made some mental preparations, she was still shocked by the number.

"Did you...just say I'm a lolicon?"

"Uh… yeah, what's wrong?"

"I think... when you met that neighbor sister, she was most likely the one who was tortured..."

"I didn't feel that way. I just thought the older sister next door was very gentle, and I had a good impression of her, so I voluntarily approached her."

"Come to think of it... I think you might have more experience in dating girls than I do in some ways... maybe." Aze sighed, scratching the back of his head.

"I actually think you're the real old Si Ji. In comparison, I'm nothing. Even when I was a lolita, I was trained by an older sister. But in front of you, an old Si Ji, I can only admit defeat."

"As for Carisi and Renlong, they only have theoretical knowledge and can only talk about it on paper. In addition, for some reasons, they have absolutely no practical experience. When they see an old driver like you, they can only shout that they are invincible." Yuki, who had known his bad friend for many years, praised the other party in a "special" way for his rich past in relationships with girls and the vast amount of practical experience that made everyone else feel inferior.

…………

Inside the white house, Charlotte and the others discussed it and came to a preliminary conclusion.

"I never thought you'd actually leave this planet, Anjie... We've lived and worked together for so long, and I thought you were the type to live an ordinary life with Charlotte as your partner."

"An ordinary life would get boring after a while, wouldn't it? And if I were that kind of person, I wouldn't have become a spy in the first place, let alone taken the initiative to go to Charlotte and switch identities with her."

"So...Charlotte, what about you?" Dorothy turned and asked Charlotte.

"As for me... the past few years on the island with Ange have definitely been the happiest days of my life. However, the more I learn about the knowledge provided by Miss Calisi and the others, the more I realize that my own understanding is still very shallow. I want to... go out into space and broaden my horizons."

"But...Charlotte, you should have heard it, right? Even Miss Carisi and the others aren't entirely sure what will happen on this journey, you know?"

"I am willing to believe in the promise of Miss Yuuki and the abilities of Miss Calisi and the others. No matter what situation they encounter, perhaps they can overcome the danger. I am also curious about those who are like Miss Calisi and the others. If I can take this opportunity to see them, even if I may encounter danger, I think it is worth it. What's more, as long as I am with Ange, no matter what happens, I will deal with it with her." Charlotte said as she gently took Ange's hand.

"Oh...you guys...really...forget it. Since you have made this decision, then as Angel's friend, it would be unreasonable for me not to be with you." Dorothy felt helpless as she watched the two people in front of her showing their affection and feeding her dog food.

Note 1: A red supergiant [1] is a massive star on the verge of death. It is a type of supergiant with a very low temperature and a radius ranging from hundreds to thousands of times that of the sun. It is one of the largest stars in the universe.

A red dwarf is a dwarf star with a low surface temperature and reddish color, especially the relatively "cold" M-type and K-type stars in the main sequence. The mass of these stars is below 0.8 solar masses and above 105 Jupiter masses, with a surface temperature of 2500-5000K.

Red dwarfs are relatively small stars. Most have a diameter and mass less than one-third that of the Sun, and a surface temperature less than 3,500K. Their light output is much weaker than that of the Sun, sometimes even less than one-tenth of its luminosity. Because their hydrogen nuclear fusion is slow, they also have long lifespans (even up to trillions of years). 70% of the stars in the Milky Way are red dwarfs. According to the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, red dwarfs are relatively small and cool among the many main-sequence stars. Because their hydrogen nuclear fusion is slow, they have long lifespans, ranging from tens of billions to trillions of years—almost as long as the age of the universe. However, because their light is so faint, they require telescopes to be observed.

Chapter 131: Incomprehensible Materials and Alpha VII Space City (5000 words) I

On orbit, inside the hangar of the Grey Wind mothership, a purple-haired girl stood on the thin wing of the Night Fighter. She squatted down and knelt on one knee on the pure black wing below her. The purple-haired girl stretched out her left hand and gently pressed it on the surface of the wing. A fluid silver substance appeared from the back of the purple-haired girl's hand and spread to the surface of the pure black wing. As it flowed through the surface of the wing, dark green flow patterns began to appear on the surface of the silver substance.

After touching the wing, the slime-like silver substance branched out into countless tentacles shining with dark green light, and at the tips of the tentacles, countless small synapses also split out. These synapses were so tiny that they were completely invisible to the naked eye. The split synapses continued to grow and spread on the surface of the wing, swimming around along the smooth wing surface.

From the microscopic perspective provided by nanomachines, what Carlisle sees is a series of processed data streams, rather than the images seen by the naked eye from a macroscopic perspective.

The silver-white nanomachines scanned the wings and fuselage again and again, but the results of the scans were almost nothing. The purple-haired girl kneeling on one knee on the wing couldn't help but frown. As dark green lines appeared on the purple-haired girl's face, the power of the silver-white nanomachine's scanning and microscopic probing suddenly increased. If it were ordinary matter, under this power of scanning and microscopic probing with a certain destructive effect, the surface touched by the nanomachine would inevitably become bumpy and scarred. But obviously, the purple-haired girl who was operating the nanomachine kicked a piece of iron plate this time. No matter how much she increased the scanning power, or used the most destructive probing method, she could not obtain any information about the microscopic structure of the material from the body below her. Even if she tried her best, she could not cause any damage to the surface of this pure black fighter.

"Ah, no! Forget it, I give up! This thing doesn't have any microscopic structure at all?!" Calisi raised her hand in despair and slammed the wing under her, then collapsed on the wing of the Night Fighter due to exhaustion.

"There is really no result?" Renlong's voice came from the communicator of Kalisi No. 2 Middle School.

"I failed...and I failed completely." Carlisle fell back and lay on the wing of the night fighter with her body spread out in a big shape.

"Aren't you going to tell me the conclusion?" Renlong connected to a drone in the hangar, controlled the drone to fly over Kalisi's head, and projected his own holographic image into the air.

"What's there to say...isn't it just that the scan and analysis of this thing's microscopic material structure ended in complete failure?"

"I want to hear a more specific conclusion..." Renlong in the holographic projection crossed his arms and stared at Kalisi lying on the night fighter.

"What's the specific conclusion? The specific conclusion is that this thing doesn't have any microscopic structure. No molecular structure, no atoms or atomic nuclei, and no quarks or gluons, which are the most microscopic basis of matter. Nothing at all!"

"The material that makes up these two wings doesn't have any microscopic structure. Its existence completely defies the laws of physics. The nanomachines that make up our bodies, no matter how miraculous their appearance and properties, still have a microscopic structure at the quark scale. And this thing..."

"There's nothing. I can't detect any elementary particles. I think I now understand how Ding Yi felt when he couldn't see any molecular structure in front of the water droplet no matter how high the microscope magnified it."

"It can exchange momentum with the universe because the material is made up of pure space-time structure itself..." Renlong shook his head and sighed.

"So... these two wings are made up of the macroscopic and materialized structure of space-time itself?"

"I think we can understand it this way, "Time and Space Flaw Wings"

...No wonder it's called that, wings made from flaws in spacetime itself."

"Obviously... we're currently completely unable to decipher and understand this material. As a von Neumann self-replicating machine, our understanding and application of the material world relies on matter itself, which is composed of various elementary particles. However, if something isn't composed of elementary particles at the microscopic level, then we have no way of understanding or manufacturing it... Take, for example, the wings of this Night Fighter."

"What about the material of the fuselage? Doesn't the spacetime condensation material itself still have a certain elementary particle structure?"

"Spacetime condensed material... This thing isn't a simple Bose-Einstein condensate. At least, this so-called Bose-Einstein condensate is very different from the gaseous and superfluid matter we understand. Its microscopic structure is very... strange... It violates almost every physical law I know about elementary particles."

"Then... do we... have the ability to produce this material?"

"It's hard to say... There's a high probability... it's impossible. I don't know how Cabot managed to make the microscopic structure of this material appear so completely unnatural. From a microscopic perspective, this space-time condensed material looks like a bunch of strange quarks, but its macroscopic properties are completely different from what a strange quark cluster should exhibit."

"In short, the conclusion is... it is highly unlikely that we can create this kind of material made of a von Neumann self-replicator composed of elementary particles," said Carlisle dejectedly.

"It seems... this night fighter can't provide us with any ideas for further development?" Renlong said with some disappointment.

"Not entirely... I actually figured out a few things." Carlisle interrupted Renlong.

"what?"

"The star-shattering weapon carried by the Night Fighter is a directional laser-assisted graviton beam launcher. We can also use similar principles to create a weapon with the same effect. Compared to the materials that make up the fuselage and wings, which are beyond our understanding, the principle of this star-shattering weapon is actually the technology that is easiest for us to understand and replicate."

"Using the gravity tidal stacking engine on the spacecraft, we can also create a directional graviton beam. Gravitons, as massless bosons, can also travel at the speed of light, just like photons, which have no rest mass. This allows us to create a laser-like directional graviton beam weapon that travels at the speed of light. The destructive power of this graviton beam weapon depends on the instantaneous energy output of the spacecraft carrying it."

"Considering the condition of our spacecraft...if this weapon were installed on this Gray Wind mothership, it could easily destroy a star several times larger than the sun in an instant, or even cause a red supergiant star thousands of times larger in diameter than the sun to rapidly transform into a supernova under the influence of graviton radiation."

"It seems... quite efficient?"

"It's not so bad... At least compared to our sisters I've never met, this weapon is probably only about the power of a small-yield nuclear bomb."

"I don't think this weapon can truly pose a sufficient threat to an interstellar civilization occupying thousands of star systems."

"I think... a weapon capable of instantly wiping out an entire galaxy by transforming its central star into a supernova is quite terrifying. Even for a civilization occupying thousands of star systems, having a galaxy instantly wiped out is definitely more than just a minor scratch, right?"

"This... I think there is still something that needs to be studied carefully." Carlisle, who was lying on the wing, rubbed her eyes and yawned.

Sky Star, L5 Lagrange Point, Alpha VII Space City

Alpha VII Space City is a very old facility. As other space cities of the same model as Alpha VII, which need to use centrifugal force to simulate gravity, were eliminated tens of thousands of years ago. Only a few space cities of the same model, including Alpha VII, have been preserved as symbolic cultural relics.

"Wow! It's the O'Neal Cylinder!" This was the first sentence Luo Ying shouted after seeing the appearance of Alpha Seven.

"This old-fashioned design that uses centrifugal force to simulate gravity... I think I can understand why the event was held here. As a party with retro art as its style and theme, it is indeed quite appropriate to hold it here." Elena sat in the Runner's cockpit and sighed at the slowly rotating cylindrical structure outside.

"This thing has been running here for nearly 100,000 years, right? I remember that the last batch of O'Neill cylindrical space cities that used centrifugal force to simulate gravity were retired more than 98000 years ago, right?" Elena turned her head and asked Anna beside her.

"To be more precise, it was actually 98517 years ago. At that time, the degenerate gravity generator was already mature, and the O'Neill cylinders, which were designed in the early days of space exploration, were already too old. This was despite the fact that this design had been used for over 10,000 years. To put it nicely, it was mature, but to put it bluntly, it was outdated. Even the shortest-serving O'Neill cylinders at the time had been in use for over 5000 years, and the longest-serving ones had been in use for over 13000 years. Although the things we make generally have the ability to self-repair and maintain themselves due to the existence of nanomachines, these O'Neill cylinders are still outdated after such a long time. During that period, almost all O'Neill cylinders and a large number of older models of space stations that simulated gravity through centrifugal force were eliminated."

"A space station and a space city can be used continuously for more than 10,000 years? The things you build are really durable in every sense..." Luo Ying sighed with slight surprise.

"Actually... this is largely thanks to the nanomachines that are widely present in the atmosphere and various materials of Sky Star. Whether it's the space station or the hull and main structure of the spacecraft, they are all mixed with a large number of active nanomachines. These nanorobots work with extremely fast efficiency, continuously and permanently repairing and strengthening the hulls and frames of various buildings, spacecraft, and facilities, as well as the precision equipment inside. This has greatly improved the durability of these infrastructure and spacecraft. Unlike your civilization, which needs to spend a lot of time and resources to maintain and repair existing infrastructure, our various facilities do not require any human intervention or manual maintenance after they are built. The long-term maintenance and upgrades of these facilities will be completed by a fully automated maintenance system composed of nanomachines, and we don't need to spend any additional resources or energy on this."

"Furthermore, the nanomachines born from our five planets can not only repair physical damage to matter, but also automatically maintain and upgrade infrastructure and spacecraft energy systems, keeping them in top condition. I believe you noticed this when you visited the Space History Museum before? The spacecraft parked there as exhibits are generally over ten thousand years old, but aren't they all incredibly new?"

"Could it be that?"

"That's right... Although the spacecraft themselves are no longer operational, the nanomachines on their hulls are still continuously repairing and maintaining the spacecraft, keeping the long-retired spacecraft in top condition. However, since the reactors that provided the main energy source for the nanomachines on those exhibited spacecraft are no longer operational, the nanomachines on those ships are operating at low power, only performing limited repairs on parts such as the hull and keel structure. When the nanomachines are operating at low power, some unimportant internal equipment will not be repaired. In addition, as exhibits, the internal equipment has been almost completely dismantled, so the nanomachines can basically only repair the keel and hull."

"The same is true for the O'Neill cylindrical space city before you, which has been in use for over hundreds of thousands of years. Over these hundreds of thousands of years, the nanomachines throughout the entire shell and various structures of the space city have continuously maintained and updated the entire space city, keeping it in top operating condition."

"Just like the Ship of Theseus in your civilization, although this space city looks the same from the outside as it did a hundred thousand years ago, its internal equipment and structures have long been upgraded countless times by nanomachines. Even the nanomachine clusters that maintain it have undergone multiple large-scale technological iterations, from the original nanomachines, which were only 2nm in size and could only control and change the structure of matter at the molecular level. Later, the individual self-replicating units of the built-in cold fusion reactor were shrunk to nanomachine clusters the size of just a few atoms, and now the built-in micro-antimatter reactors, with the individual self-replicating units having a diameter of only the atomic nucleus, are self-replicating machines."

"In the entire space city, all the equipment has been refurbished countless times on the molecular and even atomic scales. Even the nanomachines that maintain it are no longer the original ones." Elena, who was sitting in the driver's seat and controlling the Runner, introduced it to Luoying, while Luoying also looked at the Alpha VII space city in the distance and recalled the story of Theseus's ship.

"However... there's actually not much to say about the past of this space city. There was indeed a wave of population migration when this space city was just built, and the population of this space city also reached its peak during that period, at around 100,000 people... Don't look at me with such disbelief, it really was only that many." Elena noticed Luo Ying's somewhat incredulous expression.

"At its peak, this space city had a population of just over 100,000. Built at the same time as this space city, and employing the same centrifugal force to simulate gravity, there were at least 50,000 space cities of the same model and principle at the various Lagrange points around Sky Star. You heard that correctly, over 50,000. As a civilization whose material productivity and energy production have been in a state of severe oversupply throughout history, its infrastructure development in the early stages of space expansion was also in a state of severe per capita oversupply. Each of these space cities, scattered across the Lagrange points, actually had a very small population, with the smallest number containing only a few hundred people, and the largest, like Alpha 7, with a total population of around 100,000. Sky Star's highly developed, fully automated construction and production systems require fewer than double-digit populations to operate a complete space industrial production and manufacturing system, allowing every individual to enjoy sufficient, even excessive, material and spiritual abundance."

"Unlike your initial space exploration days, when people often had to squeeze into tiny, canned space stations, the Sky Star civilization's space facilities in the early stages of space exploration and expansion were almost completely oversupplied with living space. Alpha VII, with a major axis of nearly 40 kilometers and a total habitable area exceeding 510 square kilometers, had a population of just over 100,000 at its peak. This is a microcosm of the per capita living space in the Sky Star civilization's space facilities at the time. Even in some of the more extreme cases, such vast usable areas were only inhabited by fewer than a few hundred people. The vast majority of the area was a natural ecological zone that was a 1:1 replica of the environment of the Sky Star home planet."

"However, these over 1000 space cities didn't last long. As degenerate state artificial gravity generator technology matured, many of these space cities, which still relied on centrifugal force to simulate gravity, were decommissioned after less than a thousand years. Compared to the older space stations that used centrifugal force to simulate gravity, most Sky Star people clearly preferred the more advanced new generation of space stations equipped with degenerate state gravity generators."