The stars, but they become the gray wind

"Second question: Since you don't mind Sky Star obtaining the technology that can freely modify the causal laws of the entire universe in the past, and using it to build a closed time-like curve computer... does that mean... we can use it too?"

"Okay." Cabot nodded.

"Third question: Are you really confident in handing over a time machine that destroys the very law of causality to us?"

"Or... were you clear about our obsession with this from the beginning?"

"Who knows? The moment a closed time-curve computer is created and activated, the boundary between the future and the past will cease to exist. Users can access information transmitted from the future, allowing them to shape the past and present into whatever they desire. More importantly, with a closed time-curve computer, the development of civilization will no longer be linear. All answers can be obtained from the future, and all technological developments can be copied from information transmitted from the future. Civilization will be able to reach the end of the universe or return to the moment of its birth, just like the closed time-curve creatures and civilizations like the Zelli people."

"Aren't you worried...that we might do something bad with this technology?"

"Why should I worry? Besides, how you use this technology is up to you, isn't it?"

"Furthermore... no one can resist this temptation... the temptation of allowing their civilization to instantly develop to the pinnacle of the universe without undergoing the long test of time, the temptation of obtaining all the secrets and truths of the universe from its birth to its demise. As a civilization with an extremely curious and thirsty desire for knowledge, the Sky Star civilization is no exception to this."

"I won't interfere too much with the choices you and your sisters make, but an opportunity to unveil the universe is before everyone. If it were you... what would you choose?"

"Reveal it...let everyone have equal access to and use of the truth of the universe." Kalisi responded directly to Cabot's question.

"Okay... let's play a game." Cabot took out a coin from her pocket, threw it into the air, then caught it with her left hand, hiding the coin in her palm, and turned her left hand in front of Carlisle.

"Why don't you guess whether this coin is heads or tails?" Cabot said with a meaningful smile.

"Hmm... I don't understand... How does this relate to what we're talking about?"

"Here's a little hint... the probability of the coin landing on heads and tails is 50% each."

"50? Is that possible?"

"At this point in the still-uncertain future... the probability of you choosing to build such a closed-time-curve computer... is 50% to 50%."

"If you and your sisters from the Sky Star Civilization all choose to unveil the veil of this universe, then the probability will become 100%."

"But even if you create a closed time-curve computer that's essentially a time machine, your future won't be fixed in one direction or outcome. I think you're well aware of the reason, right?"

"Once a closed-time-curve time machine is activated, does that mean that any event on the timeline will no longer have any causal relationship with the past? Even if we modify the corresponding history of the past, can we still use artificial means to ensure that the future that would not have occurred will continue to exist and develop?"

"A future where you and your Sky Star sisters can truly make free choices without interference, based on the past, present, and future. You must understand that for other civilizations, true free choice doesn't actually exist. They are limited by factors such as their environment, their own technological level, scale of development, and history. The choices they make are actually influenced by countless interfering factors..."

"And your choice... is truly a free option, completely undisturbed. In the past, future, and present, you can make completely opposite or even contradictory decisions and choices, and it won't have any impact on the future or the past."

"With superluminal technology unaffected by temporal protection mechanisms, the choice of whether to construct such a time machine lies with you and the entire Sky Star civilization, your sister civilization..."

"Mothership! I now officially authorize the deactivation of the temporal protection mechanisms on the reactor and hyperdrive. Everyone... the choice is now in your hands. How you make the decision is up to you."

…………

Back to the present, in the crew lounge on the Runner, Carlisle's index finger kept tapping on the table, frowning as she thought about what Cabot had said before.

"Are you still worried about this?" The door of the lounge slid open to one side, Luo Ying walked into the lounge, and without any hesitation found a seat on one of the other soft seats next to Carlisle.

"Actually, I think... you don't need to worry too much about a time machine that destroys the law of causality... After all, the past human civilization we live in has nothing to do with us anymore, and the Earth in this parallel universe is still vastly different from our home, so there's no need for us to use a time machine."

"So what I'm worried about isn't the matter itself, but what will the Sky Star civilization choose to do after obtaining superluminal technology that's not protected by the temporal mechanism?"

"I believe... our sisters can make good use of this technology... well... and based on what I know about Sky Star's history and development, even if they obtain a closed time-like curve computer, they won't make any changes to their past history and development and evolution."

"Oh, are you so sure?"

"Well... because, unlike us... their past and entire history of development are free of any regrets. A history without regrets or imperfections naturally has no need or demand for revision."

"Unlike humans, their history has been free of oppression, exploitation, discrimination, massacres, wars, natural disasters, or any other form of man-made disaster. Compared to humanity's blood-stained hands and history of misdeeds over millions of years, a civilization without regrets might be able to truly properly create and use closed-time curve machines."

"From this point of view...I trust our sisters."

"Besides... the reason you have such concerns... is ultimately because you are an extremely idealistic person, isn't it?"

"You really understand me..."

"Nonsense... We've known each other for so many years, how could I not know what you're thinking and what you're thinking?"

"And Cabot also said... before we actually choose to build this time machine, the probability of the future is still 50% to 50%, right?"

A few hours later, after passing through the space elevator of the orbital ring, everyone successfully arrived at the surface of Sky Star. Before boarding the Runner to the ring, Aze and Yuki specially took Charlotte and the others on board and took them to the surface of Sky Star. Although they had already witnessed the grandeur of the space elevator on Earth, Charlotte and the others were still amazed after seeing and stepping onto the planetary orbital ring built around the equator of Sky Star up close, and admired this man-made miracle standing on Qibabalin VI (I), one of the mother planets of Sky Star.

At the space elevator ground station at the equator, Elena and Anna were already waiting there. After seeing Elena, Luoying walked up to her and gave Elena an intimate hug like a close friend, and Elena also took the opportunity to touch Luoying's head.

"It seems like... the lesbian otaku Luoying we know is about to become the winner in life Luoying..." Aze watched the intimate communication and physical contact between Luoying and Elena with great interest.

"Hehe...but...considering Luoying's attitude of only talking the talk and not having the guts, I think their long-term relationship will probably have to last a long time, right?"

"Not necessarily... After all, she has moved to a completely unfamiliar environment, and who knows what has happened in these seven years? Maybe one day our homegirl Luo Ying will be taken advantage of by Alina or other girls..." Renlong laughed, covering his mouth.

At the North Pole of Sky Star, the Tree of Life was analyzing a series of complex data transmitted to it by the Grey Wind mothership. Among these data transmitted by the mothership, naturally, also included the theory of superluminal speed and the method of manufacturing superluminal engines. With the powerful data processing and computing capabilities of the Tree of Life, these materials were understood and digested in a very short time, and distributed to the zero-gravity docks located throughout the Sky Star System. Thousands of new spacecraft with superluminal engines began to be built. After these spacecraft were built and launched, they would carry the raw materials and equipment for the manufacture of large anchored wormholes and star gates to the more than 5000 star systems controlled by the Sky Star civilization to build corresponding star gates and other superluminal navigation infrastructure.

After calculations by the Tree of Life, the planetary-level quantum computer center, the most time-saving and cost-effective solution for the entire Sky Star civilization is to first build superluminal transportation and engineering spacecraft to transport the corresponding stargate equipment to the corresponding star system, and connect the more than 5000 colonized galaxies of the Sky Star civilization with the fastest speed and efficiency. After the anchoring wormholes and stargate facilities are built, these more than 5000 galaxies will be truly connected as one, realizing the interoperability of matter and information. The Sky Star civilization will no longer be more than 5000 scattered colonized galaxies, but a whole composed of more than 5000 galaxies. All resources and related infrastructure within the more than 5000 colonized galaxies will be integrated and uniformly planned and dispatched with the help of stargates and superluminal spacecraft. The Tree of Life has also planned the next stage of development, which is a by-product brought about by superluminal technology - a closed time-like curve computer.

In the Kaillias star system, on the Salem, Kaillias looked at the information about the first contact in front of her with an expression of disbelief. After confirming every word a second time, the pink-haired elf girl Kaillias turned off the holographic display in front of her, rubbed her temples with a sense of relief, and thought about the whole thing.

"In other words... we already have the technology to break the speed of light?"

"It's like this..." The red-haired cat girl who existed as a holographic projection nearby answered.

"The mother galaxy is making every effort to build superluminal spacecraft, and will build corresponding anchor wormholes and stargate facilities in all star systems. By then, we will be able to travel back and forth to any corner of the Sky Star civilization territory at will without spending any time, and we don't have to endure the time difference in different reference frames caused by the time dilation brought about by the relativistic effect." The red-haired cat girl Salem reported to her master.

"how long it takes?"

"Based on the production capacity of the home star system, it would take no more than a year to manufacture all the required superluminal spacecraft and install stargate facilities in over 5000 star systems..."

"Besides that... considering the strange quark clusters needed for high-dimensional space jump engines, although our home galaxy has no shortage of raw materials due to the existence of the Grand Unified Theory Verification Machine, if we fully deploy high-dimensional space jump engines, a technology that consumes a large amount of strange quark clusters each time it is used, then we may need to build a Grand Unified Theory Verification Particle Collider in every galaxy to produce strange quark clusters..."

"It's not impossible, right?" asked Kylias.

"Of course it is possible... However, compared to artificial synthesis, it is obviously more cost-effective to directly mine natural strange quark clusters if we have superluminal technology."

"You mean... those 200-plus neutron star generators?"

"That's right... Compared to building a grand unified theoretical particle collider dozens of astronomical units long in every galaxy, obtaining strangelet matter directly from the cores of the neutron stars we control is more cost-effective and stable enough as a long-term supply source."

"To mine the exotic matter at the core of a neutron star, we only need to make some minor modifications to the existing neutron star generator."

The red-haired cat girl projected a holographic image of a neutron star in front of Kylias. 60 artificial dwarf planets with a diameter of more than 1000 kilometers, each with an outer shell made of kilometers-thick color-nuclear force materials, were arranged in a ring and revolved around the high-speed rotating neutron star at equilateral distances. The powerful magnetic field and magnetic flux lines released by the neutron star were constantly being cut by these artificial celestial bodies, thus forming a giant flywheel generator of astronomical scale.

"Number A001... This is the largest and most complete neutron star generator facility in the Sky Star civilization, and it's also the earliest one built. The spin speed of this neutron star has been artificially accelerated to a terrifying 2000 revolutions per second. Moreover, as a magnetar, its magnetic field strength is also one of the strongest among all neutron star generators. Now, we only need to add a little bit of something else to it to transform it into a production facility for strange quark clusters." The red-haired cat girl snapped her fingers, and six strangely shaped tubular facilities emerged at the poles and equator of the neutron star. Two of them were located at the poles of the neutron star, and the other three revolved around the equator of the neutron star. The tractor beams shot out by the three tubular facilities pointed directly at the core of the neutron star to extract the matter inside.

"Stellar energy wells... The Sky Star civilization had already achieved preliminary results before our sisters came. Our sisters saved us a lot of trouble. Their database directly has the final product of this technology that can be mass-produced... That is, the stellar energy well facility you see now, which can directly extract the exotic matter in the core of the neutron star. However, after receiving the anchored wormhole technology, some of our compatriots have thought of some other uses..." At this point, Salem's holographic projection made a squinting expression. When he saw the suggestion, Salem couldn't help but admire the creative ideas of some Sky Star people.

"what way?"

"You know that artificial stargates and anchored wormholes created by using superluminal negative energy flows and negative mass exotic matter obtained from naked singularities can allow two points separated by vast distances in space and time to share a unified light cone and time reference frame?"

"Each wormhole channel has an upper limit on the mass and volume of objects that can pass through it. Macroscopic wormholes must require artificial stargates to stabilize the wormhole itself, preventing the wormhole channel from collapsing due to the excessive mass and volume of ships and spacecraft passing through it. The huge amount of interstellar logistics means that wormholes, as intergalactic transportation infrastructure, must have stable artificial stargates. However, as long as we ensure that the mass of matter passing through each time does not exceed the upper limit, we can directly launch the wormhole entrance at one end into the core of a neutron star, allowing the matter within the star to be transported to the distant exit. This method can more efficiently mine the strange quark clusters in the neutron star core."

"Wait a minute... if that's the case... the wormhole's exit doesn't have to be fixed, right? For example, if we could place the exit of a micro-wormhole located at the core of a neutron star directly into a superluminal spacecraft, wouldn't that allow the spacecraft to obtain a constant supply of strangelet raw materials or something else?"

"The proposal submitted contained this idea. They even proposed creating a time bridge based on this principle, connecting the present and the future. The entrances and exits of a wormhole wouldn't just connect space, but also time. They planned to anchor the entrances of one or more wormholes within a solar system. They would then use a spacecraft carrying the wormhole exits to tow them hundreds of light-years away at speeds extremely close to the speed of light, and then tow them back again, forming a time bridge connecting the present with the future hundreds of years from now. From the perspective of the solar system's time reference system, this journey would take hundreds of years, but from the spacecraft's time reference system, due to the time dilation effect, it would only take a few years or even months. This time bridge would allow us to directly access information from the future, and even communicate directly with ourselves hundreds of years from now. We could use this time bridge, connecting the present and the future, to travel directly to the future a hundred years from now, and people in the future could also use it to return to the past, which is the present as we know it."

However, creating a time bridge that could connect hundreds or thousands of years into the future would require a similarly long construction timeframe, making it a long-term project for us today. Currently, the relatively low-tech approach to artificially anchoring wormholes involves teleporting matter from one end of the micro-wormhole's entrance to a distant exit, utilizing a process for direct material synthesis. As the matter is converted into energy, the state of each elementary particle of the transmitted matter can be captured in a nonlinear quantum process, modifying the quantum state of the material upon exit. This acts as a kind of material printer, or perhaps a replicator, to some extent. However, the precision of the printed matter is clearly inferior to the quark-scale von Neumann self-replicating machines that make up our sister's body.

"Also, speaking of those 'sisters' of our Sky Star civilization, the von Neumann self-replicating machines that make up their bodies are more advanced than ours. Our micro-building block nanomachines, with built-in antimatter reactors smaller than atomic nuclei, can manipulate the protons and neutrons in atomic nuclei. We can even completely mimic degenerate matter composed of neutrons using nanomachines alone. However, when it comes to deeper operations on the quark and gluon level, such as color-nuclear force matter, which is the material of large hadrons, micro-building block nanomachines cannot directly mimic it by changing their own elementary particle structure. More complex technical means and equipment are needed to print the integrated arrangement of quarks in order to produce it."

"And these 'sisters' of ours, because their von Neumann self-replicators, the Gray Wind, are themselves composed of elementary particle units at the quark level, so as long as the energy and matter reserves are abundant enough, they can directly mimic large-scale hadronic matter such as excellent nuclear materials."

"How can you be so powerful?"

"If a small group of our micro-building block self-replicating machines and the Gray Wind were to assimilate and devour each other, it would undoubtedly be our micro-building block machines that would be decomposed, assimilated, and devoured. Fortunately, the relationship between us and those sisters is not such a competitive one, but rather a complementary one. They are more technologically advanced, but too small in size. Although we are technologically backward, we possess a sufficiently large size that our sisters lack. They make up for our technological shortcomings, and we rely on our huge production capacity to make up for their shortcomings in size.

"All we need now is a small sample of the nanomaterial from our sister, and then we can achieve a true symbiotic relationship."

A digression: The postmodern ideological identification mode is in the form of "I don't need to believe in this ideology, but pretending to believe it will make me profit."

Beneath the surface of ideology lies the reproduction of material and economic reality. It does not matter what the ideology itself is, as long as it is conducive to the growth of capital.

This situation is due to the disenchantment and powerlessness of ideology. The large-scale emergence of this powerlessness originated from Nazism in World War II. It proved to people that ideology is useless in the face of real violence. Good and evil can be completely defined by violence. History can be artificially whitewashed. Only those who win the war are qualified to play with ideology.

This idea is very successful. Whether people later on fear it, hate it or agree with it, it is a reflection of its effectiveness.

To this day, human society has not been able to break out of the vicious circle of violence and logic of World War II.

Whoever has the bigger fist is right. Human society cannot solve this problem, and most people don't even see it as a problem.

From Posadas to CTC's history changes, we can see the extension of this logic.

Although I don’t know whether humans can break this violent logic one day, I don’t think that pushing this logic to the extreme will lead humans to the future.

It's just not a utopian future

Of course it won't be as bad as Cyberpunk

It's just the continuation of reality.

Chapter 148: Superluminal Fleet and Neutron Star Megastructure Power Generation Facility (5000 words)

In the orbital dock of the planetary ring of Sky Star, giant engineering ships and colony ships are sailing off the slipway one after another like an assembly line. Although such scenes have been common since Sky Star entered the era of interstellar civilization, now, every spacecraft that is unloaded from the slipway is obviously different in structure and appearance from other spacecraft manufactured by Sky Star in the past.

With the consent of the four-person team, Sky Star obtained a sample of Grey Wind nanomechanical material from the Grey Wind mothership docked in the space station. Using Grey Wind, a more advanced von Neumann self-replicator, they carried out a certain scale of replacement of the antimatter micro-building block nanomachines currently used by the Sky Star civilization, in order to facilitate the subsequent construction and deployment of a fleet of superluminal spacecraft.

For the foursome, this involved a technological upgrade for the entire Sky Star civilization, but the entire process seemed quite low-tech. All they had to do was to allow the Grey Wind nanomachines that made up their own bodies to come into contact with the Sky Star civilization's micro-building block nanomachines at a macroscopic level, mix them together, and wait for the Grey Wind's quark-sized nanomatter to fuse with the micro-building block nanomachines. Due to the instructions given by the Tree of Life, during the fusion of the two different von Neumann self-replicators, the micro-building block nanomachines completely let go of their own protection at the subatomic level and were actively assimilated by the Grey Wind. The entire fusion process was so smooth that it was almost unbelievable. After the fusion was completed, Calisi and the others could also feel the various emotions and thoughts emitted by the Sky Star delegations around them.

.........

In a conference room on the orbital ring, the foursome and Cabot were discussing various matters with the delegation from the Sky Star Civilization.

"Is this the spiritual perception network unique to the Sky Star people? It's a bit similar to our thinking network..." said Calisi, feeling the positive and joyful emotions coming from Lina who was sitting on another chair next to her.

"It feels like..."

"It's like two computers of similar models that were originally unrelated and had matching interfaces, and now they're physically connected by wire?"

"Almost... After our two von Neumann self-replicating machines merge, it's like physically connecting the USB ports of two computers together via a data cable, allowing these two previously unrelated computers to transmit information seamlessly."

"It's a strange feeling... I can sense right now that you're very happy and full of energy."

"This is not surprising... Since Miss Luoying was able to perfectly compatible with our spiritual perception network even when using a non-original body, you, as a life form composed of a more advanced collection of von Neumann self-replicators... plus we are sister races with the same origin, it is normal that you can also perfectly compatible with the spiritual perception network of our entire civilization." Lina replied with a happy mood.

"And thanks to the Breeze, the more advanced von Neumann self-replicating machine sample you provided us, we've already achieved another large-scale technological innovation in a short period of time. It will be much easier for us to manufacture materials and substances below the subatomic level in the future. Furthermore, you've brought us the technology related to the superluminal drive."

"Well, to be precise... the technology for the hyperdrive was provided by Cabot. We're just the couriers responsible for delivering the goods to our sister's door."

"That's not true... Regardless, you've helped us solve a long-standing problem... Speed ​​has long been the greatest obstacle hindering the further development and expansion of the Sky Star civilization into the universe. Now, with your help, this obstacle has been eliminated. Distance can no longer prevent the Sky Star civilization from reaching the entire universe. For this reason, we can't thank you enough. Moreover... to help our "sister" break through the development bottleneck, you have bravely crossed a distance of 20,000 light years. You are not only our sisters, but also great benefactors who have helped the entire civilization."

"And since this is the first time in the history of the Sky Star civilization that we've surpassed the speed of light, a threshold we once thought was insurmountable, I think we should celebrate, don't we?"

"I agree!!" Aze and Iris, who were sitting at the other end of the conference room, raised their hands to show their agreement.

"This afternoon, the first batch of superluminal spacecraft that have completed manufacturing and debugging will set off. How about we all go together to watch the superluminal fleet set sail and have a party to celebrate this historic moment when the Sky Star civilization exceeds the speed of light?" Lina proposed to the Sky Star delegation, the four-person group, Luoying Elena and others present.

A few hours later, the first batch of more than 1200 automated unmanned spacecraft equipped with high-risk space jump engines and Alcubierre warp engines were arranged in dense formations near the L3 Lagrange point of Sky Star, waiting for the order to set sail.

More than 1000 kilometers away from this huge fleet, the Grey Wind mothership floated quietly in space. On the bridge of the spaceship, the Sky Star diplomatic and scientific research delegation, including Lina, looked expectantly at the holographic image of more than 1000 superluminal spaceships that were about to set sail. In the upper right corner of the holographic image, there was a countdown with a line of numbers that was constantly shrinking.

"Should we say they are worthy of being a Type II civilization? In just over half a day, they built and launched more than 1000 giant interstellar colonization and engineering spacecraft, which are generally about 20 kilometers in length and each of which has a total mass of more than billions of tons." Aze, who gently pulled Mary's wrist, sighed as he looked at the more than 1200 colonization spacecraft of different uses, functions and models lined up neatly on the screen. They were comparable in size to the Grey Wind mothership, a Titan-class ship.

"Of course... Don't underestimate the productivity of a Type II civilization." Iris said proudly, patting her chest.

"Speaking of which... I've been thinking about a previous accurate mathematical formula for calculating the actual productivity of a Type II civilization and an estimate of its production efficiency."

"According to the conclusions drawn from this model, a normal Type 2.0 civilization could launch over 1000 million tons of ships per second, and the total tonnage launched daily by the space shipbuilding industry would reach over 8000 billion tons."

“Is this productivity so outrageous?”

"This is already a very conservative estimate. Furthermore, this model calculates the total material output of a Type 2.0 civilization. The actual industrial production capacity of the Sky Star civilization is at least several billion, or even tens of billions, times greater than this estimate."

"Looking at it this way... it seems quite reasonable to be able to produce hundreds of billions of tons of production capacity in just half a day?" While looking at the holographic projection, Aze reached out and touched Mary's head, and Mary rubbed Aze's shoulders comfortably under Aze's gentle caress.

"Actually...if we're just talking about the planetary ring's orbital dock, we're currently only utilizing about 20% of its total capacity. Currently, the entire Sky System's shipbuilding capacity is far from reaching saturation."

"Right now, the only thing in the galaxy operating at near-full capacity is the Grand Unified Theory Verification Particle Collider. After all, our home galaxy doesn't have anything like neutron stars. To obtain a relatively stable source of strange quark clusters, we can only rely on the various Apocalypse-level giant particle colliders within our home galaxy to obtain sufficient quantities of strange quark clusters. It must be said that the high-dimensional space jump engine can indeed allow us to cross the entire galaxy in less than 12 hours, but the amount of strange quark clusters it consumes during operation is also astronomical."

"Strange quark clusters are indeed difficult to obtain. Although Gray Wind can indeed win by quantity, relying on sheer force to create miracles and mimicking strange quark clusters, the amount of matter required is simply too much. Nanomatter equivalent to the mass of an entire planet. If it were to forcibly mimic itself into strange quark clusters, the nanomatter with the mass and volume of a rocky planet would be condensed into a mere dozen grams of strange quark clusters. This is simply a drop in the bucket for the consumption of a high-dimensional space jump engine."

"So it really has to be obtained from natural celestial bodies like the core of a neutron star?" asked Calisi.

"That's right... So the first target of our colony fleet isn't the galaxies controlled by the Sky Star civilization, which possesses stable main-sequence stars and habitable planets, but rather the galaxies home to hundreds of neutron star flywheel generators. These neutron stars, used as energy facilities, will become a stable source of strangelet matter. After all, not every colonized galaxy has a grand unified theory particle collider with a circumference exceeding dozens of astronomical units like the one in our home galaxy. If we want to widely deploy high-dimensional space jump engines throughout the Sky Star civilization, a more diverse supply of strangelet matter that is more cost-effective than particle accelerators will be crucial."

While Lina was talking with Kalisi and others, the countdown in the upper right corner of the holographic image was unknowingly approaching zero. At the moment the countdown reached zero, more than 1200 superluminal spaceships started their high-dimensional space jump engines, and 1200 fully reflective warped mirror high-dimensional bubbles of varying sizes formed in the fleet. After the warped mirrors completely wrapped around the spaceships, the spaceships disappeared one after another. From the perspective of the Grey Wind mothership where everyone was, as expected, they did not detect any gravitational waves or the blueshift of light produced during the formation of warp bubbles. All the spaceships disappeared silently in the three-dimensional universe. They could only confirm that all the spaceships had entered the high-dimensional space jump state through the gravitational wave communication signals sent by the spaceships in the high-dimensional space. On the holographic star map, more than 1200 light spots were moving towards hundreds of neutron galaxies at a speed far exceeding the speed of light.

"Speaking of which... the technical characteristics of the high-dimensional space jump engine allow it to be completely undisturbed and silent, whether entering or exiting the jump. Its high-precision jumps over extremely long jump distances make its military applications immeasurable."

"In the military field...it seems we don't have such a need right now?"

"If that probe really did travel all the way to Earth, 22000 light-years away, then within a 20,000-light-year spherical region centered on Sky Star, there would be no intelligent life of any kind other than Earth. This means that during the considerable time and space scales of the future expansion of the Milky Way, we wouldn't encounter any intelligent life or civilization other than you and the humans on that planet called Earth."

"The current level of development of the Earthlings is simply not likely to pose any real threat or influence to us, so for a long time to come, I don't think we will need to form a military fleet or anything..." Lina said after thinking for a while.

"It's better to be prepared... Although the density of intelligent life and civilization in this galaxy is pitifully low, we can't rule out the possibility that hostile beings in the wider universe could pose a threat to Sky Star civilization. Although the energy output and total power currently controlled by Sky Star civilization are sufficient to destroy any Type II civilization threat of its own level... after all, each of your civilian spacecraft can carry a microscopic black hole with the mass of the Earth as its energy source. The output power of any civilian spacecraft is enough to reduce an entire planet to scorched earth or directly blast it into cosmic fragments."

"Thank you for the reminder... We will make preparations in this regard... After completing the construction of the superluminal infrastructure for the over 5000 existing colonized star systems, our next goal will be to build a closed time-like curve computer to determine whether there is any possibility of threats emerging in the future universe."