mynovelonline Chapter 66: Fancy Barriers
Chapter 66: Fancy Barriers
In the year 126 of the Interstellar Era, at star marker (1, 2, 5254, 4c0), the Alpha Fleet is navigating deep space.
"Warning, warning! Two powerful entangled gravitational fields detected at a distance of six light-years!" the artificial intelligence suddenly warned. The Alpha Fleet's humans were awakened from deep "hibernation."
"Dean Zhou, what's this entangled gravitational field all about?"
“George, I just looked. We can’t see anything where that gravitational field is. Don’t you think we’ve had a similar experience before?”
"Black Domain?"
"Correct."
"The 'light speed barrier' of the 'Light-Descending Civilization'?!"
“Possibly.” Zhou Yuan didn’t seem very sure either, because the two gravitational fields seemed to overlap.
"Two large gravitational fields overlap, and the outline formed by the two gravitational field lines is very strange. George, what do you think this outline looks like?"
George shook his head, indicating he didn't know.
"Like the shell of a peanut!"
"Huh? There are two suns inside that 'light speed barrier'?"
"Yes."
“The ‘Light-Descent Civilization’ really knows how to play around, they’ve even come up with some fancy ‘barriers’? I bet we’ll see even more overlapping three-petaled, four-petaled, or other fancy ‘light-speed barriers’ in the future,” George couldn’t help but marvel.
“What you’re saying is very likely.” Zhou Yuan said seriously, not believing that George was joking.
"Anyway, let's go take a look. Artificial intelligence, heading towards the overlapping gravitational field."
"Yes, Master."
In the year 132 of the Interstellar Era, humanity was awakened by artificial intelligence once again. The Alpha Fleet was approaching two entangled "light-speed barriers" that resembled peanut shells or overlapping lobes.
A group of scientists from the Alpha Fleet began discussing how to enter this strangely shaped "light speed barrier".
"During the Earth Era, Dean Zhou used the collider to destroy the Earth's sun, thus breaking through the 'light speed barrier' that trapped the solar system within the 'Light-Descent Civilization.' That was the method to break through and escape the barrier. Now, we need to consider how to enter the 'light speed barrier.'" Although George hadn't personally witnessed that great event of the Earth Era, like a group of scientists, he felt a surge of inexplicable excitement and admiration for Zhou Yuan, which had grown even stronger. Destroying the sun—what courage that required!
“But the speed of light is slow inside the ‘light barrier.’ What takes us one day outside might take tens or hundreds of millions of years inside,” a scientist said with concern.
“Yes. Because this barrier is a key target of the ‘Light-Descent Civilization,’ it’s estimated to be extremely dangerous inside. If we can’t stand the loneliness, we can destroy the sun inside if necessary.” Zhou Yuan smiled, trying to lighten the mood. “This is also the first time humanity has attempted to enter the ‘Light-Speed Barrier,’ so we must come up with a good way to get in.”
"Could we use a super energy exchanger to increase the speed of light?" one scientist suggested, then shook his head. Humanity's current "vacuum zero-point energy extractor" doesn't have that much power to cover the area of two star systems.
Among the scientists, a young man's timid voice rang out, "Gentlemen, I have a suggestion, but I don't know if it's acceptable?"
Zhou Yuan gave him an encouraging look, signaling him to continue.
"We don't necessarily have to go in; we can remind them to destroy their own sun."
“This is a good idea, but how do we remind them?” Zhou Yuan and the others became interested.
"They haven't destroyed the sun yet, and it's very likely that they believe the speed of light in the universe is constant and haven't noticed the existence of the 'speed of light barrier' in their internal galaxy. So let's create light that travels at a variable speed to remind them that the speed of light is variable. Once they distinguish that the speed of light that travels at a variable speed is different from the speed of starlight outside the 'speed of light barrier,' I guess they will think of destroying the sun and breaking through the 'speed of light barrier.'"
"Great!" Zhou Yuan and the others applauded enthusiastically. This method was worth a try.
After complex calculations by super artificial intelligence on the different levels of technology of civilizations within the "light speed barrier," the probability of this method being implemented reaches 85%.
Therefore, the Alpha Fleet immediately created two artificial mini-suns and placed them at opposite ends of the "peanut." Then, using an invisible "super energy exchanger" near the mini-suns, they extracted vacuum energy to very slowly increase the speed of light propagating from the mini-suns. The time interval for this increase was measured in femtoseconds (10^-12 seconds). Because a day at the location of the Alpha Fleet, within the low-light-speed "light-speed barrier," could very well be tens or hundreds of thousands of years!
The Alpha Fleet remained silently hidden, waiting for a miracle to happen.
Twelve days later, the fleet detected a sudden and significant oscillation in the overlapping gravitational field, followed by two small suns bursting into view. Simultaneously, two massive fleets came into Zhou Yuan and his group's view!
The humans in the Alpha Fleet erupted in cheers and applause. Then everyone fell silent, quietly observing the reactions of the two fleets.
The two fleets that appeared at either end of the "peanut" clearly stopped their advance, just as humanity had when it first broke through the "light speed barrier," to observe this unfamiliar space and universe.
The Alpha Fleet scanned both fleets and discovered that the creatures in one fleet were also from a human civilization, resembling elves but with gray-green skin. The other fleet consisted of gray-green, mantis-like, upright-walking creatures, but each was one meter tall.
The Alpha Fleet easily intercepted communications between the two fleets.
"My God, the speed of light here is ten times our speed of light! Gufro, it's strange, why is the speed of light emitted by our 'Revelation Star' not changing? It's clearly increasing when we probe inside the 'Speed Barrier'."
“Nischer, it’s the same here.”
“‘Revelation Star’ is not right. It is not a natural result of stellar evolution, but clearly a creation of an intelligent civilization!”
"indeed so!"
Then the two fleet commanders fell silent; they were truly terrified. Having just broken through the "light-speed barrier," they had encountered an alien civilization whose technology was many times more advanced than their own.
The two fleets quickly drew closer; only by getting close did they seem to feel safe.
Suddenly, they discovered that the two "Revelation Stars" had vanished into thin air.
The two fleets immediately panicked, and the warships set sail, preparing to escape at 10% of the speed of light in this space.
Just as they were preparing to flee, the two fleets received a message from the Alpha Fleet.
"I'm sorry to have made you nervous."
"Who are you?" Nicholas answered, his heart pounding.
"We are the Lunar Empire fleet, and we have just recovered the two 'Revelation Stars' you mentioned." Of course, the invisible "Super Energy Exchanger" was also recovered by the Alpha Fleet.
"The Lunar Empire fleet? How come we can't detect it?"
"We've become invisible; we're right nearby."
Nicholas and Guflü held urgent consultations and then made a decision.
"Could you please show yourselves?"
"can."
As soon as Nicholas received this message, all the spirits on the ship let out a scream, and the same thing happened on other warships.
The stealthy Alpha fleet, having withdrawn from its operations, impressed them with its uniquely massive hulls.
"Did you really give us this revelation?" Nicholas seemed somewhat incredulous, as if he were sleepwalking.
"Yes."
"why?"
"For no reason other than that we share the same plight."
"Huh? You mean, you were also trapped inside the 'light speed barrier'?"
"Correct."
"I understand. Thank you so much, you have saved both our races."
"It was nothing, just a small favor. By the way, what are your plans for the future?"
"This galaxy is too big, and we don't know where to go. It's likely that both of our races will perish in this vast interstellar space."
"why?"
“In this universe, we are traveling too slowly. The planet suitable for our two races to live on, we just corrected the data, and it is actually 1026 light-years away from us. Of course, this light-year is calculated at the current speed of light in space. In other words, we will have to keep flying for 10260 years!” Nischel couldn’t help but sigh.
George glanced at Zhou Yuan, who nodded.
"We can help you."
"Really? How can we help? Even if you can travel at the speed of light in this space, it will still take you 1026 years."
"Believe in us."
"Alright. How should we repay you?"
"No need. If possible, we would love to hear the stories of your two races inside the 'Light Speed Barrier'."
The eloquent Nicholas immediately spoke with the slightly eccentric Gufro. After reserving some confidential information, Nicholas began to tell the story of the two races. The plot went something like this.
The Elf and Mantis races originated from the rocky layers of their respective home planets. After nine hundred million years of evolution, they evolved from rock bacteria into their current life forms. Naturally, wars were constant within the two races' planets. After several stages of civilization, the two races reached a relatively advanced stage on their respective planets.
When they discovered that a planet four light-years away also had advanced intelligent life, both sides were greatly surprised. The war within the planet disappeared, and the two planetary civilizations began to vigorously develop technology, expand their armies, and prepare for mutual invasion.
However, in-depth geological exploration of their respective planets drastically overturned the Elven and Mantis races' views on the origins of life. They discovered the remains of prehistoric warships within the rock layers of their planets, these remains clearly from two different civilizations. Consequently, scientists from both planets re-examined their origins. Ultimately, the well-preserved fossils they unearthed completely shattered their illusions: they originated from experiments conducted by those two prehistoric civilizations; the ancestors of both races came from cultured cells created by those prehistoric civilizations!
This further fueled the animosity between the Elves and the Mantises. After achieving higher speeds, a full-scale war broke out between the two planets, lasting for over a hundred years. Both civilizations stagnated, their populations drastically decreased, and their technological advancements slowly declined.
Two hundred years later, the elves and mantises suddenly discovered that a small sun had appeared near their own sun! They were terrified by the small sun.
The elves and mantises temporarily ceased their attacks on each other, each continuously tracking and observing the two small suns. To their astonishment, the light emitted by these two small suns was traveling faster than the speed of light!
So scientists from both planets went back and retested the speed of light in their own space. This time they found that the speed of light in their own space was actually decreasing. Subsequent decades of observation confirmed that the speed of light was decreasing more and more rapidly.
Among the many ordinary people, there will always be geniuses and saviors. The concepts of "light speed barrier" and "revelation star" were subsequently proposed by geniuses. They believed that "revelation star" was a creation of an advanced civilization, revealing to them that the speed of light is not constant.
The elves and mantises were forced to sit down at the negotiating table to discuss how to survive and develop together and break through the "light speed barrier," and the two races subsequently formed a close alliance.
Under immense pressure, the two races, who were mutually tolerant, developed their technology very rapidly. Ultimately, after another five hundred years of technological advancement, their warships and spaceships finally reached the speed of light in this space.
Just like the humans of Earth in the Earth Era, the Elf and Mantis races each destroyed their own suns and broke through the peanut-shaped "light speed barrier".
Listening to Niecher's heartfelt narration, Zhou Yuan and the others felt as if they were there.
After Niechtenstein finished speaking, he received no response for a long time, so he cautiously asked, "Is there a problem with this story?"
George, Zhou Yuan, and the others regained consciousness.
"We apologize for our rudeness. Please forgive us, we are deeply moved by your story."
"Oh."
"Nischer, Gufro, your two fleets, prepare to cross over."
"Time travel? You mean that gray-green planet 1026 light-years away?"
"Correct."
No creature in either fleet could believe their own senses, their ears.
"Fleet 34, teleport that star with 4.5 times the mass of the Sun that you just passed to the coordinates we sent. The Alpha Fleet needs to create an artificial stellar black hole for wormhole traversal."
"clear."
Next, all the creatures in both fleets could no longer believe their own senses.
A giant sun suddenly appeared far ahead of the fleet. The lunar empire fleet dispatched a warship nearly 800 kilometers long. This warship emitted a strange beam that destroyed the giant sun, creating an artificial stellar black hole. Then, another strange beam shot out, piercing through the black hole. The Elf and Mantis fleets were instantly sucked into the wormhole.
When they awoke from their dizziness, they found a gray-green planet beckoning to them from about a light-year away.
The beauty of distance, a visible paradise. They truly traveled through time.