The stars, but they become the gray wind

“好啦，这又没什么好争的，既然准备好了我要再次进行跳跃了…抓稳咯…本次跳跃时间预计1.5个小时，5、4、3、2、1…跃迁引擎启动！”

The crystal-clear, fully reflective mirror-surface warped space bubble once again enveloped the entire spaceship, and the closed warped space also wrapped around the entire spaceship's hull once again. The moment the warped space cannon was formed, the entire spaceship disappeared directly into the three-dimensional universe, entering a high-dimensional navigation state, and was pulled to its destination at a high speed that was unimaginable in the physical universe. At this time, if observed from a high-dimensional perspective, the space between the starting point, Alpha Centauri, and the destination, Sky Star, had been bent into a U-shape in a higher dimension, and above this U-shape, there was a small bubble that was rapidly floating from one point on the U-shape to the other end.

From the perspective of the people in the cabin, they only observed the distortion of the starlight outside. After the formation of the warp bubble, as three-dimensional creatures, they were actually unable to directly observe the high-dimensional space from a visual level. Even if the entire spacecraft was in a high-dimensional warp bubble, the various substances they could observe and touch were still three-dimensional. In fact, as far as Renlong and others were concerned, they did not have any feeling that they were moving at a speed faster than the speed of light. If it were not for the distortion of starlight caused by the formation of the warp bubble, Renlong might even think that he was in a stationary car.

But the data on the holographic display in front of him told Renlong that they were now moving at a speed far exceeding the speed of light, and the screen in front of him was showing the countdown to the end of the jump. Feeling everything around him, Renlong suddenly had a strange sense of unreality.

"It's so weird..." Renlong leaned back in his chair.

"What's wrong?" Yuuki asked

"It's okay... I just feel a little weird... We don't even feel like we're moving right now, but all the instruments in front of you are telling you that you're moving towards a certain target at a speed beyond relativity... You feel like you're completely still... but you're actually moving at superluminal speed... It's this feeling that makes me feel a little uncomfortable..." Renlong muttered.

"That's not so bad... from the perspective of a third-party observer in three-dimensional space... we're even flying towards the past."

"If it weren't for the still-incomprehensible temporal protection mechanisms of the zero-point energy reactor and the hyperluminous engine, we might have reached our destination before we even set out. Compared to breaking the laws of causality and traveling into the past, traveling at superluminal speeds several hours into the future is pretty normal, right?"

"No... That's what makes me feel uncomfortable... Although I don't want to experience the kind of time travel where we reach our destination before we set off... But the time it takes for interstellar travel at faster-than-light speed... I think it will take me some time to get used to it..." Renlong let out a long sigh and rubbed his temples.

"I understand... After all, everything has a first time... Once this happens more often, you'll naturally get used to it." Yuki patted Renlong's shoulder with an understanding look.

"Everyone... it's enough for just a few of us on the bridge. In the current high-dimensional space navigation state, we are still relatively safe. If you don't want to be so nervous, you'd better sit in the lounge. We will probably use the gravitational waves generated by a neutron star in the picture to locate our navigation accuracy and direction in 70 minutes. Before that, you can go around the ship or take a rest." Sitting in the captain's seat with a nerve cable connected to the back of her head, Calisi looked at the tense people gathered on the bridge and planned to let everyone relax first.

"Oh... is that okay? But isn't faster-than-light travel dangerous?"

"The Alcubierre engine's warp-speed superluminal travel is indeed very dangerous... However, since the warp bubble of the warp engine is still within the three-dimensional macrocosm during the entire voyage, it cannot avoid the various obstacles on the road. There is indeed a chance that it may accidentally collide with something like a star, destroying the ship and killing people. However, the high-dimensional space jump engine is different. Various things in the three-dimensional macrocosm, whether stars or black holes, cannot interfere with the high-dimensional space. Therefore, there is no problem of the warp engine colliding with obstacles during navigation, unless the interference comes from the high-dimensional space itself. Otherwise, There's almost nothing that can disrupt or damage a ship in a high-dimensional space jump. Plus, this ship is so reassuringly safe, just a few of us can man the bridge... There's no need for you to stand there with us, idiots. "Kallissi was quite perceptive of her fellow passengers' nervousness. She believed the risk of this ultra-long, high-dimensional space voyage was actually very low. And with Cabot on board, she didn't think anything would go wrong. Even if something did go wrong, it would definitely be some unexpected surprise Cabot had secretly prepared for them... or perhaps a shock.

Before he knew it, Luoying had been living on Sky Star for seven years. From being a complete newcomer in the beginning to being familiar with the place now, Luoying began to feel that he was becoming more and more like a Sky Star person. Whether in terms of thinking patterns or some daily behavioral habits, Luoying was becoming more and more like a Sky Star person, a branch of the mermaid tribe.

As her brain gradually integrated into the spiritual perception network shared by the Sky Star people, she began to feel the subtle emotional changes of the people around her, such as Elena and Anna. For example, one day Elena tasted a delicious meal. Although Luo Ying did not eat the meal, her tongue incredibly tasted the specific flavor of the food Elena was chewing and a burst of inexplicable joy. After asking little Youqi Lingyin Wuling (Jiu) Liujiu, Luo Ying knew that the flavor she felt was actually the texture of the food perceived by Elena's taste buds, and the joy that followed was the emotion Elena expressed after tasting the food.

In recent years, Luo Ying has also found that he seems to like staying in the water. According to the information Xiao You gave him, the body he is using is a bionic synthetic human body of the mermaid branch of the Sky Star civilization. The mermaid branch is actually an amphibian. When living in water, their legs will appear like a fish tail. After coming to land, the lower body, which was originally a fish tail, will change its structure under the action of nanomachines, and become legs that can walk on land, but the scales covering some parts of the body will still be retained.

.........

"In other words... my body is actually an amphibious aquatic creature in nature?" Luoying, who was soaking in the swimming pool, looked at his legs that merged into a mechanical fishtail and asked Elena who was standing by the pool.

"That's not entirely true... After all, all mermaids possess the ability to change their form at will based on the needs of their environment. Whether on land or in water, those mermaid ladies can generally adapt with ease."

"I've been to several communities and cities primarily populated by branches of the mermaid tribe. Some of them prefer to live on or under the water. On Sky Star, a considerable number of mermaid communities are cities floating on the sea, or transparent dome cities built on the seabed."

"Alas...but in the seven years since I've been here, aside from the time I accompanied you to Space City Alpha 7, I've almost always stayed with you in the Arctic region of Sky Star. If you count the times we went to the Star Ring, it seems I haven't left the house much since I came here..."

"Indeed...compared to Anna's guy, Sister Luoying, you are indeed a bit of a homebody."

"You can't blame me for this, right? Who told your house to be so big? No... it should be because the residential area of ​​almost every Sky Star person is so big?" Luo Ying said with a twitch of his mouth.

"Maybe it's because there are so few of us? Plus, we're actually quite efficient at using our living space, so the average living area per person is ridiculously large."

"The living area per capita is close to 500 square meters? Why didn't I realize that the place you and Anna lived in was so big when I first arrived?" Luo Ying said as he looked at the indoor swimming pool where he was. The room where the swimming pool was located alone had an area of ​​nearly 1,000 square meters. The six-story villa not far away, with an exterior made of some high-strength pure white material and an interior decorated with a sense of technology, was where Anna and Elena lived on a daily basis. The research facility he had just visited was something like a studio built by Elena in another place in the Arctic region of Sky Star in order to satisfy her technical hobbies.

"With such a large place... and everything you need delivered right to your door, I barely need to leave the house to do anything. It's only natural that I rarely leave your area, right?" he said righteously, his shadow falling by the swimming pool.

"Besides... Anna often goes out... Elena, you know what she does..."

"He's flirting with girls. My scumbag sister loves to spend the night at other girls' houses whenever she has nothing to do. But... that's not what I'm worried about... It's that in these seven years, you haven't made any friends besides us sisters, Luoying."

"Apart from Anna and me, well... maybe we should also count the few close acquaintances Anna and I occasionally bring back... it seems like you haven't made many friends in these seven years..."

"Well...it's not that I don't want to make friends...it's just...I'm worried that if I hang out with those girls for too long...I'll be...eaten up or something, just like what Anna did to me."

"what?"

"After all, the girls Anna always brings back... are definitely related to her in that way... And Elena, you know that those girls Anna occasionally brings back often get into each other's arms right in front of us... I even saw them hugging each other on the sofa doing that one time. In these seven years, I've learned a lot about the Sky Star people's concepts in this regard. I think with my experience and methods in making friends, I'm really worried that I'll be eaten up and lose my virginity if I'm not careful."

"Uh... no wonder... you like staying at home so much? So you're afraid of this?"

"It's okay, even if you did that kind of thing with other girls, I wouldn't despise you..." Elena said as she stood by the swimming pool, squatting down and gently rubbing Luoying's head floating on the water.

"No... Although I don't mind being intimate with girls, I still hope that my first time can be reserved for the one I really like, rather than being snatched away by a strange girl I don't know during some inexplicable intimate moments." Luoying, who was being touched on the head by Elena, blew bubbles in the water and answered shyly with a blushing face.

"Do you care so much about your first time?"

"Yeah! It's very important... I only want to save my first time for the one I really like!"

"So... Sister Luoying, do you accept me?"

"Well...well, I guess so... If it weren't for you being so passive, Elena, how could I have barely had any physical contact or intimacy beyond the limit with any girl other than you and Anna for seven years?"

"In the final analysis... Elena, every time you approach me, you only touch it briefly, which makes me a little embarrassed... It's not good either. I'm too proactive in expressing my affection for you... and then you don't explain it clearly. I don't have much experience, so can't you be more proactive?"

"I saved my virginity until now for you, but you didn't take the initiative at all, Elena. I almost got taken advantage of by that scumbag Anna several times!"

Luoying, who was soaking in the water, blushed and gently scolded Elena, who was more than a friend but less than a lover.

"Oh... that's not the case." Elena waved her hand quickly.

"It's not that I'm intentionally keeping you hanging or anything, but I really don't have much desire in this regard. Unlike Anna, that pervert and slut, the girls I've had relationships with basically developed naturally after spending a long time together. Those girls and I didn't even mention any active requests in that regard, and in the end, that kind of relationship just happened naturally."

"But... Elena, how long will this so-called natural process of yours last?"

"Not long, huh? The shortest girl took about nine years?"

"The girl who took the longest took about 14 years, right?"

"You know... I'm one of the younger ones among all the Sky Star people, around 100 years old. Anna, as my older sister, is only a few years older than me."

"Sigh... I shouldn't have expected anything from you about your sense of time."

"But I'm different from that scumbag Anna. I'm more conservative when it comes to relationships. My relationships with the girls you met before basically came to fruition after a long enough period of time." Elena had no idea of ​​this.

"It's common for a relationship to last nearly ten years. Elena, you're really something. If you had been more proactive, I would have given you my first time long ago..." Luo Ying rolled her eyes at Elena and complained dissatisfiedly.

"If you really want to do that kind of thing with me, I won't refuse if you take the initiative to ask." Looking at Luo Ying who seemed to be in a bad mood, Elena touched her head.

"You big idiot... What I want is for you to take the initiative to ask me about this, not for you to ask me to bring up this kind of thing! Humph!" Luo Ying was a little angry when she saw Elena in front of her who was in a stubborn state.

Obviously, he had always hoped that Elena would be the active one, so that he could voluntarily give his virginity to Elena, a potential lover. However, since the spaceship racing seven years ago, Elena had almost never taken the initiative to ask him in this regard. For a long time, Luo Ying had been very embarrassed. Every time Elena had intimate contact with him, she was very measured and only touched it briefly, and Luo Ying himself was embarrassed to ask Elena to do that kind of thing. As a result, the progress of their relationship had been in an awkward state of neither going up nor down.

"Really...Elena, you're such an idiot. Can't you pick a better time? Are you going to ask me for something like this again?"

"It's so embarrassing to discuss this kind of thing seriously!"

"Sorry...haha." Elena laughed awkwardly.

"By the way, it's almost noon, what would you like to eat?"

"Whatever... Elena, I'll eat whatever you eat."

"Then it would be nice to have a couple's set meal." Elena leaned over and kissed Luoying on the forehead.

On the other side, on the Gray Wind mothership which was in a high-dimensional space jump state, Kalisi, Renlong, Yuuki and Aze were carrying out an important task.

"Calibrating the direction... The coordinates of the neutron star gravitational wave signal have been confirmed... The current overall relative error with three-dimensional space is less than the Planck scale." After confirming the gravitational wave signal transmitted to high-dimensional space by the neutron star more than 10,000 light-years away from the solar system, Renlong compared the spacecraft's current navigation direction data. After confirming that the error caused by this long-distance jump was almost zero, Renlong and Kalisi both breathed a sigh of relief.

"The entire voyage has passed halfway, fortunately there have been no major errors." Looking at the countdown to the end of the jump, which has already passed halfway,

Renlong said.

"By the way...what will happen if the error is too big?" Aze asked.

"If the error is too large... the landing point at the end of the migration will still be in the target galaxy, but there may be a huge deviation from the initial calculated landing point. At the smallest, this deviation may be less than a meter or even a centimeter. At the largest, it may reach several astronomical units. However, judging by the current situation, it seems that our worries are a bit unnecessary. We have already traveled over 10,000 light-years, and the error is less than a Planck scale. Hmm... In other words, we will arrive at the predetermined landing point in the target star system with extremely high accuracy."

"In general, when a single voyage covers tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of light-years, and there are no induction beacons to provide precise positioning, the error generated during the high-dimensional space jump will slowly increase with the increase in the jump distance."

"But at the moment... it seems we've underestimated the performance of the ship's high-dimensional space jump engine. A single jump of just 0 light-years isn't enough to produce any error greater than zero."

Chapter 144: First Contact with the Sky Star Civilization (5000 words)

"Hiss... We seem to have overlooked something..." On the bridge, Renlong looked at the screen in front of him that displayed a real-time image of the outside of the spacecraft, scratching his head and saying.

"What's the matter?" asked Carlisle from the captain's seat.

"It's our sisters who are about to meet us... Think about it... They never knew we existed, right?"

"It seems... yes..."

"And if the information Cabot gave us earlier is correct, the area of ​​the Milky Way they're in should be considered quite empty, right?"

"Um……"

"That is to say... by definition, we are their first contact with extraterrestrial intelligent life... and the same is true for us."

"We've been ignoring this point before... Even though we're sisters created by the same mother... to each other, we're just two different alien intelligent species who never knew each other existed. Meeting sisters is different from meeting alien creatures... Have you thought about what to do when the time comes?"

"Um... I think... Cabot, our biological mother, should help us, right?"

"But the question is... do you think someone who abandons her daughter to a place 20,000 light years away would be a competent mother?"

"And now this biological mother, whom I haven't seen for tens of thousands of years, suddenly brings back a blood-related sister whom I've also never met. If I were them... I don't know what I would do."

"Why do you make it sound like some weird family drama?"

"Isn't it?" Renlong complained sharply.

"Well, I think... there will always be a way out when the time comes. Let's talk about it when we meet."

"Hey, don't give up on treatment like you've completely given up...at least do some advance planning."

"Anyway, if all else fails, we'll just drag Cabot, our unreliable biological mother, out to recognize us as our relatives, and then discuss with the other side how we, as sisters related by blood, should get along with each other in the future?" In response to this obviously too tricky question, Calisi answered with an unfazed look.

"You... this... forget it... I'd better think of a way myself..." Renlong helplessly held his forehead, and while thinking hard about how to deal with the situation later, he looked at the distorted starry sky outside the spaceship that could be seen from the inside of the warped mirror space bubble. In fact, when traveling at superluminal speed in high-dimensional space, the starry sky in the original three-dimensional universe cannot be seen, because in the three-dimensional universe, the wavelength of light emitted by stars is greatly compressed or stretched to a band beyond visible light. On the other hand, some of the light that was not originally in the visible light band will become visible light under the influence of the moment when the high-dimensional space bubble is formed and leaves the three-dimensional universe. Therefore, at this time, the starry sky outside the spacecraft seen by the human dragon is actually a distorted freeze-frame photo of the starry sky that can be observed in the starting point area when the spacecraft jumps into the high-dimensional space bubble at the starting point. The freeze-frame photo looking from the outside of the spacecraft to the inside of the mirror bubble of the jump bubble, the light emitted by the observable stars at the original starting point position has been greatly stretched or distorted, and the starlight seen by the real dragon is nothing more than some meaningless phantoms left on the inner wall of the high-dimensional space bubble. At the moment when the jump cannon returns to the three-dimensional physical universe and is released, these distorted starlights left by the high-dimensional bubble will also become the normal starry sky seen in the destination area again.

…………

[Regular gravitational wave signals detected, decoding in progress... Decoding complete, confirmed as regular gravitational wave communication information... The decoded content has been attached... Please review it if needed.]

[Attention, there are 6 minutes and 03 seconds left before this jump ends. Please be prepared to re-enter three-dimensional space.]

A prompt sound broke the silent atmosphere on the bridge, and Carlisle, who was sitting in the captain's seat, and the other three people beside her felt a chill all over their bodies.

"Gravitational wave signal? And it could also be a man-made communication signal?" Renlong stood up from his seat in surprise.

"Wait a minute... what's this?" Carlisle hesitated. She carefully read the gravitational wave communication signal intercepted by the spacecraft. The specific content of the communication message decoded by the spacecraft, which was carried by gravitational waves, was as follows:

Anna! Why did you go to Alpha Seven again, you bastard? Which girl are you going to mess with now? You brought so many girls home two days ago, and you still think it’s not enough? You went to Alpha Seven again to hang out with those mermaid girls you’ve been thinking about? You brought a few girls to mess with me just the day before yesterday, and you’re still not satisfied? It’s only been less than a day.

You're back at Alpha Seven again, swiping at other girls. I'm so impressed... You've just taken me in once, and now you're ignoring me by pulling up your skirt again, right? And the next day you're back at Alpha Seven again, swiping at other girls, you slutty lesbian, watch out! I'll make sure you can't even walk the next day!

————My sister Elena, who was badly betrayed by you.

"Forehead"

"This"

"What is this...??"

"Puchi... Hahahahahahahahahaha!!! What the hell is this? Is this a declaration of condemnation from the sister of the scumbag who was harmed by Lily Neptune?" Among the four people, three of them had speechless expressions on their faces after seeing this decoded message, only Aze couldn't help laughing.

"Hahahahahahahahaha... No, I'm dying of laughter... This is the first time I've received a communication signal from an alien civilization, and the content of the message is this... No, I'm dying of laughter

I’m dying… Hahahahahaha burp!” Aze covered his stomach and slapped the holographic display in front of him, laughing so hard that he couldn’t straighten his back.

"This content is really explosive in every sense!" Aze made such a comment after almost laughing himself to death.

"The key issue is... judging from this communication mode and power, this seems to be a broadcast..." Jiecheng said speechlessly.

"And... um... this is a high-power broadcast on all frequencies? And judging by the timing, this message shouldn't have been sent recently, right?"

"Well, yes, the communication we received should have been sent several years ago. However, gravitational waves propagate in the macroscopic three-dimensional universe as well as in high-dimensional space. In addition, the speed of light in high-dimensional space is faster than that in the three-dimensional universe, so we can receive this information at this point in time." Just as Renlong finished speaking, a prompt sounded on the bridge.

[Attention... This high-dimensional space jump voyage is about to end. This ship is about to return to the three-dimensional universe. The countdown jump engine is shutting down.]

The starlight on the warp bubble outside the spacecraft was distorted again. In the instant of returning to the three-dimensional universe, the high-dimensional warp bubble that enveloped the spacecraft was completely released and disappeared without a trace. The normal starry sky reappeared outside the spacecraft, but this time the starry sky outside the spacecraft contained not only the natural light emitted by the stars, but also the reflection of starlight from countless man-made objects and the light of various wavelengths emitted by them in the dark space.

.........

"What is this?" Aze looked at the densely packed hexagonal plates floating in the low orbit of the star, blocking more than half of the light and radiation from the yellow dwarf star. These hexagonal plates had diameters of only a few kilometers at the smallest and more than thousands of kilometers at the largest.

"It's obvious... the Dyson Cloud... covers 65% of the star, and it's not just a simple energy facility..." As she spoke, Kalisi zoomed in on the holographic image. A tongue-like object with a length of more than 15 kilometers and a bright red flame erupted from the surface of the star. A Dyson Cloud collecting plate located in the low orbit area used some invisible force field to directly pull the prominence matter ejected from the surface of the sun, and pulled it closer little by little until the ejected prominence matter was completely absorbed into the central area of ​​the side facing the sun.

"This is?"

"It's obvious... this is collecting matter ejected by the star itself, and I also found this..." Carlisle zoomed out the picture, revealing a closed tubular ring structure orbiting the star with a circumference of perhaps more than 70 astronomical units.

"Is this... the Niven Ring?" Renlong asked in surprise. (Note 1)

"No... I think it's a particle accelerator... and it's very likely a circumstellar-level wake particle accelerator..."

"Wait a minute... Are you saying... this is a... Grand Unified Theory verification device?"

"That's right... To verify the Grand Unified Theory, besides a 7-light-year linear accelerator, another option is a wake accelerator tens of astronomical units across... It seems... our 'sisters' are truly impressive. They've even built a circumstellar particle accelerator capable of verifying the Grand Unified Theory."

"In addition to these two things... a large number of man-made structures in space have been observed in the galaxy, including objects like artificial planetary rings surrounding several rocky planets and gas giants. Everyone, get ready... We are about to make contact with these sisters we have never met before." Even as she was speaking, Calisi, who was still connected to the nerve cable on the captain's seat of the spacecraft, felt at least dozens of scanning signals of various forms and frequencies, including conventional electromagnetic waves, neutrinos and gravitational waves, from all over the star system, sweeping across the hull of the spacecraft. Mixed among them were multiple communication signals sent in different ways that obviously expressed some kind of friendly greetings.

"Elena, what's wrong?" Lu Ying, who was sitting by the swimming pool, asked Elena who suddenly stood up beside him.

"You'll understand...if you look at the information in the spiritual perception network, something big has happened."