The stars, but they become the gray wind

"Based on our experience, this possibility is very high, but we can't jump to conclusions. Based on current observations, this object blocking the star is more likely to be... a rigid Dyson ring?"

"And most importantly, this neutron star is at least 30,000 light-years away from us. In other words, what we observed is its state 30,000 years ago. In other words, at least 30,000 years ago, the stellar-class celestial structure we see today began to build up around this neutron star."

"The 14 planets that disappeared around the neutron star also disappeared at almost the same time. According to past records, they were most likely dismantled. As for the thing that looks like a rigid Dyson ring around the neutron star, I think we can only confirm what it is after we arrive at our destination?" Lina was also discussing with Yuki while looking at the analysis report on the holographic screen in front of her with great interest.

"However... the analysis report also points out that if it were merely a neutron star energy-collecting coil or a rigid-body Dyson ring, then as a neutron star is very small, only 20 kilometers in diameter, despite possessing extremely strong magnetic fields and gravity, as long as theoretically advanced materials science, such as reaching the level of being able to produce zero-element materials, shouldn't require the dismantling of so many planets. This is the strangest aspect of the current observations. The total volume of stellar celestial projects built around neutron stars is much smaller than that of main-sequence stellar projects, and the material consumption and total amount of matter required are also much smaller. So, the question arises: if it were merely stellar celestial projects built around neutron stars, why would they dismantle so many planets? And even completely, with all traces of the 14 planets completely vanishing, not even a trace left."

"What happened to all the excess material from dismantling 14 planets?"

Chapter 154: The Shell of the Corrector and Cabot's Past Vest (5000 words)

"I've explained almost everything I need to, so I'll be leaving first!" The purple-haired girl looked at her past self happily, stood up from the soft sofa, whistled happily, and left the lounge. After the Calisi from the future left, the present Calisi who remained in the lounge was still sitting on the sofa, thoughtfully recalling the various details that her future self had just shown.

"Really... I'm pretty self-aware of the fact that I can be unreliable sometimes, but why does it feel like my future self is getting worse in this regard?"

"And there's a smell of... a lesbian and green tea-scumbag Aquaman. What on earth happened in between?" Now, Calisi knocked her head and complained with a worried look on her face.

.........

After leaving the lounge, the purple-haired girl from the future, following her memory, skillfully followed the route in her memory to find the secret cabin in her memory, which was located in an inconspicuous corner of the spacecraft that was more than 20 kilometers long. There was a high-tech device hidden in the cabin that Cabot had secretly left there.

"It seems I don't even know there's a secret compartment on my ship right now, a secret I haven't even discovered yet... And something as important to the 'Shell', Cabot certainly wouldn't hand it over to me now... The first time I remember seeing that thing was after we reached the center of the galaxy."

After passing a winding road and around an inconspicuous corridor, Carlisle stopped by a wall at the corner of the corridor.

"If I remember correctly, it should be here... The control panel should be on the right side of the wall?"

Carlisle groped for a while on the right wall. With a "drip" sound, the microscopic particle structure of the wall began to change and turned into a wall composed of soft fluid. A touch panel emerged from the wall that had turned into fluid.

"The next is the most troublesome problem. At this point in time, my identity recognition data seems to have not been entered into this thing yet... It seems that I have to use force." Kalisi frowned as she looked at the touch panel on the wall. Then, she took out a palm-sized round object from her pocket, stuck it on the touch panel, and pressed the start button on the round object. With a burst of electric sparks and a long string of garbled characters on the touch panel, a large hole opened on the fluid wall that could accommodate one person. Kalisi put away the round object stuck on the touch panel and walked into the large hole on the wall.

On the other side of the hole created by the fluid wall is a long and narrow corridor. At the end of the corridor, there is a tightly closed hatch. In the room behind this hatch is the destination of Carlisle's trip.

Just like what she did with the touch panel on the fluid wall, the future Calisi did the same thing and stuck the round object on the hatch. The hacked identification device then automatically unlocked the hatch.

"It seems that the defense is not that good..." Just as the hatch had just slid open, Carisi stepped into the cabin with a smug look on her face. The next second she was stunned, because in this secret cabin that was supposed to be empty, there was a person guarding it.

"Are you familiar with this place?" Cabot sat on the steps in the cabin and waved to Carlisle who came in.

"You! What?!"

"You want to ask me how I knew you were coming here?"

"No need to guess, you are from the future, right? You don't really think that I didn't notice that something other than information came back from the future?" Cabot stared at the purple-haired girl in the future with a smile on his face.

"So... you've already discovered this time travel?"

"I can monitor all instances of reverse time travel into the past within this universe... My future self didn't tell you that, did I?"

"The same goes for closed time-curve computers. Every piece of information sent to the future or the past on the timeline, and every piece of matter transmitted, is completely transparent to me, including your reverse time travel this time." Cabot patted his knees and stood up.

"Let me be clear, I'm not breaking any rules... And traveling back in time and informing my past self about changing the future is within your control, right?"

"That's true. I've been waiting here to catch you, not mainly because of the reverse time travel, but because you came here looking for this thing in advance."

"I hid the Shell here when we first set out from Earth. You seem so familiar with this place. You must have witnessed the full power of the Shell in the future, right?"

"And maybe... you are the user of Kara Mirai?"

"Well... Actually, I'll be the one primarily using the 'Shell' in the future. After your incident, the right to use the Shell was basically handed over to us. As for the sisters in our sky civilization, they first heard about and came into contact with the Shell after they came into contact with that old friend who lives in the center of the Milky Way. Before that, we had always been very curious about the 'Crimson One' in their civilization, who only existed in a few images and records. As a result..."

"Only later did you find out it was a vest I used before?" Cabot laughed secretly.

"Since you are the 'Burning One', why didn't you just declare it honestly from the beginning? Why did you wait so long?"

"It took us decades of getting along with each other before we realized the connection between our two civilizations. If you had revealed that 'shell' from the beginning, we wouldn't have had to go through so much trouble." Future Calisi rolled her eyes at Cabot, her irresponsible boss and mother.

"But at the end of the day, it didn't make a difference in the end, did it?"

"It doesn't affect us, but it's really embarrassing for them... Who knew that the 'Lord of the Burning' whom they respect and adore the most would hide behind his own daughter for over a decade before revealing his true identity?"

"Those two old friends are so embarrassed. They almost thought that the 'Burning Master' they respected the most left hundreds of years ago and would never come back. But you've been hiding from us, concealing your identity and approaching them. They're so embarrassed when they find out."

"Just think of it as a little prank...it's quite amusing to see their reactions, isn't it?"

"How funny is that? They worshipped you like a god, and then you disappeared for hundreds of years without a word. After coming into contact with us, they missed you for decades, and then they realized you'd been staying by their side the whole time. All their previous expressions of longing and actions became incredibly awkward. Even if it was a prank, they wouldn't do it like this, right?"

"Even before you left hundreds of years ago, you left them a superluminal communicator, saying you'd contact them in advance if you ever returned. But when we first visited them, I don't think you sent them any information in advance. They were so nervous, thinking it was their first contact with an alien species more advanced than their own. If you'd called ahead of time, there wouldn't have been so many strange things."

"It's just a little prank. Besides, the Sky Star Civilization is more or less my daughter. They are also the most trusted intelligent beings in this galaxy, besides my own daughter. I feel more at ease letting such an intelligent group of beings communicate with my daughter and become her friends."

"Since you just want the Sky Star Civilization to gain an ally that will never betray and is always trustworthy, then you should at least give them a call before you arrive. Although as friends, our two civilizations have a completely equal relationship, at the beginning, due to the gap in technological level and civilization scale between them and us, they were always a little hesitant when communicating with us, with a sense of deliberately lowering themselves. Honestly, my sisters from the Sky Star Civilization and I are not used to or like this way of communication. If you could have given them a heads-up, they wouldn't have to be so humbled when we first met because of the huge gap in scale between our two civilizations."

"We are obviously friends, not superiors and subordinates."

"I came back this time largely because of this incident. It made the communication go more smoothly, unlike what happened in our previous time. The initial communication between the two sides always seemed a bit stiff and lacked vitality."

"Honestly... we like them. As the only species in the entire galaxy with a technology level close to ours, we want them to be our friends, not just subordinates."

"Oh, so you came here to use the shell to avoid this?"

"Yes... At this point in time, the only thing we have that can prove our connection to the 'Crimson One' mentioned in their civilization's records is the shell. As someone who has returned from the future, I know you've been hiding the shell in a secret compartment of this ship. So, I was thinking... even if you still intend to pull this prank, at worst, I can take out the shell and prove my identity, thus resolving the issue of our initial communication being rather stiff and lacking in energy."

"That's a good idea... but even if you have a shell, you can't completely prove that you are related to my original vest, right?"

"At least it can make communication between the two sides smoother and more intimate... Come on, the root of the problem is actually you, right?"

"Me?" Cabot asked, pointing at himself.

"Yes... If you hadn't deliberately concealed your identity and allowed us to contact them from the beginning, we wouldn't have had to spend so many decades teaching them to be more open and communicate with us as equals. They could also have built their own superluminal wormhole network system much faster."

"After all, the objective disparity in scale and level between the two civilizations is there. Although both are Type II civilizations, the Sky Star civilization is a genuine quasi-K3 level civilization. Even if we both communicate with each other with friendly intentions, the stronger and more advanced party will more or less put some pressure on the weaker party, causing the weaker party to unconsciously lower their status during communication. This is not what we want."

"And you also said... you want someone who can be a friend to your daughter, not a vassal civilization or race. If you can reveal your identity from the beginning, it will save a lot of trouble between the two sides, and it will take much less time to become completely trusting friends."

"I see. It seems I was indeed a little inconsiderate in some matters."

"It's more than just ill-considered... As the Senior Star Governor of the Combined Fleet, it's fine for you to act impulsively, but such impulsive actions can occasionally lead to unexpected consequences. While we won't stop you from making such a decision, after all, we can't stop you even if we want to..."

"Thank you for the reminder, Lu Lingsanshiba, I will pay attention to it..."

"I don't mind that. After all, we owe you a debt of gratitude for treating the Sky Star Civilization and us as your daughters and subordinates... The Sky Star Civilization was originally just an experiment and research project of yours. You've invested so much energy and emotion in it, not just treating it as an experiment. We're the same. You're willing to treat me and the sisters from the Sky Star Civilization as your real children. It's an honor for us."

"Hehe... this is nothing. It's just like the Reverse Sun-class dreadnought I designed. If I hadn't been persistent enough in the design concept and confidence of this ship, how could I have spent so much energy and time on a keyboard to engage in a war of words with the people in the shipbuilding department when the Union was still in its origin era?" Cabot said self-deprecatingly.

"The same goes for the original Sky Star experiment. I was too obsessed with it. After investing a lot of emotion and energy, I realized that I didn't just treat the Sky Star civilization as an experimental observation project. They were like my own children, whom I had spent countless hours and energy to cultivate. It was like playing a nurturing game, a kind of..."

"The sense of accomplishment of raising a daughter?" Carlisle continued Cabot's words.

"Yeah, that's right... the sense of accomplishment of raising daughters. Even if it's just a virtual raising game, doesn't it involve a lot of emotional investment? Especially when they're a bunch of adorable daughters you created with your own hands. Even if you initially treat them like pets, you'll find that your mindset changes as you raise them. They're no longer just experiments or pets, but you'll take care of them like your own children. Watching them grow brings a great sense of accomplishment."

"You really are... unexpectedly gentle, aren't you?"

"As a senior governor of the Combined Fleet that has destroyed countless civilizations, I don't think I'm that gentle."

"That's not the case, is it?" retorted Carlisle.

"I know people like you very well... Even if I appear cold and ruthless to others, I will be very gentle to the people and things I truly care about."

"I guess this is what they call being cold on the outside but hot on the inside?" Carissa said jokingly.

"Forget it, let's not waste time. Since you are here to look for Shell, I won't stop you..." Cabot stood up from the stairs where he had been sitting and walked towards the depths of the room behind him. There was a rectangular cargo storage unit with a silvery-white surface like a container. Cabot walked forward and pressed his right palm on the identification device on the door of the storage unit. After reading Cabot's identity information, the door of the storage unit opened to both sides, revealing the "cargo" placed inside.

Inside the container is a translucent octahedron suspended in mid-air. The surface of the octahedron is almost completely smooth, without a single trace of joints. As the lighting inside the container lights up, the light shines on the surface of the octahedron made of fully reflective mirror material, and the entire octahedron becomes as shiny as crystal.

"Corrector's Shell. If you've returned from the future, you should be familiar with this thing, right?"

Cabot walked forward, raised his right hand and tapped the smooth outer surface of the shell.

"Of course... Apart from them, in the subsequent encounters, you handed over control of this thing to me, and it played a lot of roles afterwards."

"Also... the technology behind this shell is beyond our comprehension. Even in the future, without your help, we won't be able to restore and create a fully functional, identical shell."

"After all, this shell is a product of the late Age of Miracles. Whether we are now or in the future, if we rely solely on our own technology and strength, the best we can do is create a castrated, reverse-engineered replica of the original Corrector's Shell."

"Sure enough...will there be another set of standards for grading civilization development levels in the future, different from the Kardashev scale?"

"And you used the one you were most familiar with?"

"Yes... In many cases, the Kardashev Civilization Scale isn't entirely accurate in describing a civilization's technological level, so a more accurate civilization classification system is used."

"If we follow the civilization classification system we will use in the future, the Sky Star civilization now and in the next hundred years should be considered to be in the late super-material age and the early stage of the miracle age. As for our friend at the center of the Milky Way, their current technological level should be in the early to middle stage of the super-material age. When I came back, their scale and technological level had already reached the late stage of the super-material age. It won't be long before they will enter the miracle age like us. After all, the only factor restricting their development now is the same speed as that of the Sky Star civilization. As long as they can break through the speed of light, entering the miracle age and K3 civilization is almost a foregone conclusion. I can only trouble the present me and our sisters to travel thousands of miles to deliver a courier to this future friend." Kalisi said, stroking the smooth outer shell of the Corrector's Shell.

On the other side, Yuki rubbed his head in disbelief, and then looked at Carlisle who had just arrived.

"You're saying... after the closed-curve computer started up, you saw your future self in the spaceship lounge?"

"Um……"

"And this future you gave you the coordinates of the neutron star and this?" Jiecheng asked, pointing to the data chip on the table.

"Hmm... This data chip contains some detailed information about the civilization living in that neutron star system. I looked it over carefully before coming here."

"And my future self told me that the civilization living in that neutron galaxy will become our most important friends in the future. Their detailed introduction is basically in this memory." Carlisle opened the memory and transmitted and projected the information on the memory onto the holographic projector in front of everyone.

"They call themselves glass eels, which are a type of aquatic creature that originated in the ocean, but more accurately, they are amphibious creatures that can produce and move in a dehydrated environment for a long time, but they must hibernate and reproduce in water.

The planet named Tangyuan in the Neutron Galaxy is their home planet. Its surface is covered by a thick layer of ice several kilometers thick. The orbit of the entire planet is in the outer area of ​​the entire star system. Before they completed the celestial engineering, the planet showed signs of moving away from its stable orbit and leaving the galaxy. After they carried out a series of planetary and stellar-level celestial engineering projects, the orbit of the planet was artificially stabilized again.

The object we see orbiting the neutron star through our telescopes and observation equipment is the remains of their stellar ring. Their civilization developed through two periods: the Old Era and the New Era. The stellar ring remains we see were constructed during the Old Era. The 14 planets that disappeared were also dismantled to build the stellar ring we see. At the end of the Old Era, a large-scale interstellar war that affected the entire galaxy broke out, causing a devastating blow to the entire Glass Eel civilization, forcing them to retreat and hide on the planet Tangyuan. After a long period of stagnation, they began to return to the stars due to a series of unexpected factors. After a long period of revival, they finally completed the stellar-level celestial project that had been unfinished in the Old Era on the basis of the stellar ring remains and once again became an interstellar civilization.

"Due to the vast distance between us, the Dyson Ring-like star ring ruins we see are in their unfinished state from thirty thousand years ago. The scale of the neutron star ring today is likely far greater than what we see. According to the information provided to me by my future self, the Glass Eel Civilization, which has shaken off the shadows of the old era and entered a new era, has returned to the stars and surpassed the achievements of their ancestors. They call this current neutron star megastructure the 'Sun Hunter Star Network'!"

----

By the way, someone has done a calculation on the tactical use of the previous relativistic missile.

Suppose that tens of thousands of missiles are launched at a speed close to the speed of light at once. Each missile can produce trillions of fragments. Each fragment made of zero-element matter weighs between several hundred kilograms and tens of tons. Each fragment has the kinetic energy of a starburst. Then this launch can release 10^16 times the energy of a starburst. Assuming that the Earth has a binding energy of 2.210^32J, that means 2.210^48J of energy is released at once.

In short - it's so terrifying!

Chapter 155 Schrodinger's Cat

"So you are... the future Kalishi?" Yuuki, Renlong, Luoying, Aze, and the current Kalishi all looked at the purple-haired girl in front of them who was both familiar and unfamiliar.

"That's probably what I mean, although this explanation can't be considered completely accurate..." Future Carlisle nodded.

"I guess so... After all, whether it's a wormhole or warp speed travel, the inevitable side effects of faster-than-light travel cause the order of space and time to be disrupted. Never mind the causal laws and grandfather paradoxes surrounding the altered history. The universe is simply a series of completely unrelated events. Using the time jump function of a hyperdrive ship, we can create a closed timelike curve that jumps from one event to another. So, causal order doesn't really make sense to us now or in the future, does it?"

"So you... came back from the future... just to..."

"Please expedite your contact process. As far as the outcome is concerned, contact with our friend the glass eel at the center of the Milky Way is inevitable. No matter how you revise it, the past and history are irreversible and confirmed."

"It's just that the specific time of this confirmed fact will vary due to the current choices you and the Sky Star Civilization make."

"In other words, just like the cat in Schrödinger's box, apart from the process, the very act of contact has collapsed from a quantum state of uncertainty into an ultimate outcome that will inevitably occur?"

"Yes, just like the cat in the box, which collapses to a fixed result only after it's opened, from my perspective, this contact will happen no matter what. The box has already been opened, and the result is fixed. The choices you make are essentially just different ways of opening the box. As for the result inside the box, it collapses to a fixed outcome because of me, or the future Sky Star civilization, the future observer."

"No wonder, you're clearly here to urge the Sky Star civilization to speed up their exploration towards the center of the Milky Way and to make contact with them, but so far, you've been taking your time. Is the reason because the outcome of this matter has already been determined?" Carlisle analyzed, tapping the table with her knuckles.

"But I still don't quite understand." Aze held his head and sorted out his confused thoughts.

"Actually, it's Schrödinger's cat. The reason why we can't confirm whether the cat is dead or alive is because we can't see the state of the box. Only by opening the box can we confirm whether the cat in the box is dead or alive. But at the moment the box is opened, the life or death of the cat collapses to one of the two results. But now there is a guy who can see through... that is, the future Sky Star civilization. They don't need to open the box, they can use their ability of perspective to end the quantum superposition state of the cat in the box and enter a certain mechanical determinism as the final result." Yuki explained very considerately to Aze, who had only a vague understanding of this aspect.

"In other words... the result is already determined... What we are actually doing is taking different processes to reach the final unchanging result?" The purple-haired girl in the present looked at her future self.

"That's right... Because this matter is quite important to us, the future Sky Star Civilization and the Glass Eel will use their closed time-like curve computer technology to ensure that this historical event will inevitably occur. It's just that the timing of this event will be different. I came back to speed up the process of this event."

"So, what if you were not there and the original historical process continued?" Renlong, who had been thinking silently beside him, suddenly asked.

"Originally? If history had continued as it is without external interference..."

"The Sky Star civilization and you will probably come into contact with the glass eels at the center of the Milky Way in about 500 years. Since neither side understands the connection between the two civilizations after contact, and there's a significant gap in scale between the two civilizations, initial communication will be minimal. It won't be until decades later that the Sky Star and the glass eels will discover... their unbreakable connection..."

"What kind of relationship do you mean?"

"Cabot." The future Calisi pronounced Cabot's name word by word.

"what?"

"Cabot is the link between the two civilizations. Hundreds of years ago, she disguised herself as a sock puppet and helped the glass eels who had yet to return to the stars. She guided them to surpass the peak of their ancestors and redevelop into an interstellar civilization."

"During the time she was interfering with the glass eels, she used the identity of a being called '琞者' by the glass eels."

"And the image she showed to the outside world at the time was this—the Shell of the Corrector." The purple-haired girl from the future snapped her fingers, and the translucent Shell of the Corrector suddenly appeared in the room. Both the foursome and Luo Ying were very surprised, because before the Shell of the Corrector actively lifted its invisibility, the five people's perception abilities and sensors were completely unaware of the existence of such a thing in the room.

"This thing... ignores our perception?" Now, Kalisi looked at the shell of the Corrector floating in the air. The translucent, fully reflective shell looked magnificent, which showed the extremely high technological content represented by the thing in front of her.

"Of course you can't see or sense it with your abilities. The Corrector Shell's invisibility isn't just optical; it involves some kind of antimemetic technology. This antimemetic invisibility can affect both living beings and machines. Intelligent creatures, even the most advanced surveillance scanners or sensors, will be blinded to the Corrector's presence under the influence of this antimemetic invisibility. Even if the Corrector Shell were to kill someone in public, from the perspective of others or surveillance equipment, that person would simply appear to have died suddenly."