At the other end of the hole, they saw that the metallic hydrogen was attached to the stern, certainly not welded, but condensed. After the docking interface is blocked by the "auxiliary fuel tank", although the docking of the spacecraft cannot be completed, people can still pass through. The group entered the cabin through the double-layer air-lock, took off their spacesuits, and entered the lobby. As far as the eye can see, the spaceship is indeed a thick green, green everywhere, but it is not an ordinary willow tree, they are all miniaturized, the branches are thinner, the leaves are more delicate, and the appearance is almost like the bamboo on the earth, which is naturally the credit of Yangyang. Nearly 1,000 bald and barefoot crew members of the "Noah" gathered in the hall to greet them, and the cheers of excitement lasted for a long time. Yu Leshui first saw two chimpanzees - I think they are two chimpanzees. They were also cheering, through voice changers hanging around their necks. Yu Leshui smiled and hugged the people in the front row, including the two chimpanzees. Chimpanzee Azi said something, Yu Leshui didn't understand, Liu Ye translated with a smile:

"He's showing you Chinese, and he's saying: It's fun to have friends from afar."

When she said this, Yu Leshui realized that Azi was indeed saying this sentence just now, so she praised it sincerely: "Azi is not simple, he is studying the Analects, right?" ”

Aziz nodded proudly. Maru asked eagerly in English, "Is Blois coming?" ”

"It's a pity that he didn't come, he's too old."

Maru was very disappointed and said wistfully, "I miss him." I love him first. She looked at Azi and added shrewdly, "I also love Azi first, and both of them love first." ”

The husband was not jealous at all, and nodded his hairy head earnestly. Yu Leshui smiled and said, "Thank you, I thank you for Bruis." I will convey your love to him when I return. ”

The group walked through the welcoming crowd and came to the command cabin, and Liu Ye immediately got to the point, "Sister-in-law, Changchang, there must be an important reason why you caught up with us by picking up the train regardless of the danger, right?" ”

Ji Jichang said: "Yes, Aunt Liu Ye, the major scientific breakthroughs mentioned in your last letter have also been made on the earth. There is only one difference: the half-cycle of an isolated wave is not forty-six and a half years, but sixty-two years. He looked directly at the willow leaves and emphasized, "After rigorous review, the observations on Earth are correct, and you don't have to doubt it." I think that the observation instruments on the spacecraft are rudimentary after all, which is why such an error occurred. But this means that, according to your original plan, when Noah flies blindly to the end of the isolated wave and then out of the wormhole, you will be faced with a universe that has not reverted to a moderate expansion, but is at the extreme of the vacuum, which will be dangerous. ”

Liu Ye sighed regretfully: "My God, our observation is very strict, I didn't expect such a big mistake." Thank you for your prompt notification. But," she said quickly, "according to your calculations, the Expansion Solitary Wave will not end until one hundred and seventy-four years from now, and Noah's hydrogen fuel, including our new auxiliary tank, will not be enough to use it by then." ”

"Don't worry. We've got some for you as much as we can, and we'll pump them over later. Aunt Liuye, you were the first to enter the continuous wormhole flight, and the wormhole thus maintained the best dense vacuum state, so you are undoubtedly the smartest earthlings. Be careful to keep it up, and the whole of humanity will benefit you. ”

"Thank you, thank you."

The crews on both sides are ready to have a party. The hull of the "Tianma" is relatively spacious, and the venue for the party is set in the hall of the "Tianma". The crew here put on space suits and came to the "Pegasus" behind one after another. The two sides briefed each other on the situation over the years. "Noah" also made a theoretical breakthrough in the Mach 100 million spacecraft, but it could not be implemented due to the conditions, and only made some small improvements under the existing conditions of the spacecraft, and now the speed of the ship can reach Mach 2.5. They were very envious of the thin, transparent hull of the Pegasus and its speed of Mach 100 million, and even wanted to have an instant drag racing addiction, but they couldn't. In order to maintain the high-quality space in which the "Noah" was located, they could only fly non-stop until the end of the vacuum after 174 years. Yu Leshui suddenly asked:

"What about the cherub? Why haven't you seen him for half a day? I was so happy that I forgot about him. He must have been twenty years old. ”

"Oh, he must be in deep thought. I'm going to call him over, along with dozens of his peers. Liu Ye made a notice with a walkie-talkie and explained to her sister-in-law, "I informed the earth that the Noahs had learned the 'meditative' thinking, but the new generation has made a new expansion of it, and it can enter a deep meditative state at any time, just like the Qigong Rending, which can increase the thinking efficiency by about ten times." We call this 'deep reflection'. It can be said that as long as a person with an ordinary IQ enters deep thought, he will become a genius like Brother Tianle. Well, they're coming right away, and I've got to tell you beforehand that these new generations have always been naked. They say that living in a constant, rationalistic environment like a spaceship requires neither shelter nor shade, and clothing has completely lost its necessity. ”

At this time, dozens of "new generations" had already come to the "Pegasus" and came to the hall after taking off their spacesuits. They were all under twenty years of age, both men and women, and were bareheaded and barefoot like the rest of the crew, but they did not have a trace on them. Their eyes were calm, their bodies were toned, their skin was smooth and moist, and they were filled with an invisible brilliance, an ineffable divinity, but they were obviously not accustomed to the excitement of the hall, and only at the urging of their elders came over and embraced their relatives from a distant earth. Yu Leshui hugged his little nephew tightly into his arms, and couldn't help but burst into tears. But she sadly discovers that the other person's hug is purely courtesy, and there is no inner enthusiasm. These new generations obviously did not like this kind of outpouring of affection, and after hugging their loved ones with an attitude of charity, they quickly withdrew from the circle and stood silently around, observing the excited adults with a calm gaze.

Yu Leshui sadly saw that from hugging to leaving, the little angel never asked about the relatives on the earth, did not ask Tianle's uncle, grandparents, grandparents, and these old people, especially Tianle's mother, but always hung the little grandson on the tip of her heart, and how many tears did her mother-in-law shed for fear that the "Noah" would fall into the "quagmire". At the same time, she couldn't help but think of what Liu Ye said in her first letter: "I recite your names to him every day and show your pictures. He will always be the little grandson dear to his grandmother's knees! Compared with the current situation, Yu Leshui's heart hurts like sawing.

At this moment, Yu Leshui suddenly thought of Liu Ye's decision to resolutely escape from the "Noah". She was right to have her worries then, and those worries had fallen on her own son. In just twenty years, an alienated new human race has been formed on the "Noah". They have inherited human civilization, but they have no emotional ties with humans. So, what about two hundred years from now? What about when the spacecraft was 100,000 light-years away from Earth?

Thirteen-year-old Doudou admires "senior astronauts" like Angel very much, and has been circling around them, wanting to make out with them. But after a while he returned in a daze, and whispered:

"Grandma Fish, these bare-ass guys are all 200-type biological robots, without emotional programs!"

Yu Leshui smiled bitterly and patted his head. Suddenly, the angel came to this side, and Yu Leshui hurriedly said to Doudou: "He's here, don't talk nonsense!" What would the angel say, she thought? I saw the angel go straight to Yu Leshui's side and said politely:

"Fish...... I should call you aunt. After you return to Earth, please convey my heartfelt respect to Uncle Chu Tianle. He has made so many discoveries with his natural IQ alone, which is comparable to our contemplative intelligence, and he is indeed an unborn genius. ”

He finally asked Tianle, and his sincerity could be felt in his words, but this sincerity was purely rational and did not carry a little warmth. The other party's calmness also affected Yu Leshui, and she replied with a smile: "Thank you for your praise, I will definitely convey it." I think my husband will envy you, you have developed the art of contemplation, and you are in a vacuum that inspires intelligence—the only high-quality vacuum in the universe that has survived! I believe that two hundred years later, when you return to Earth, you have developed the spaceship civilization to the point where the people of Earth look up to it. ”

The angel did not give in, nodded and said, "It may be like this." However, after all, there is a huge base of earthlings, and if there are one hundred and ten geniuses like Mr. Chu among the seven billion people, then the earthly civilization can still be on par with the Noah civilization. ”

The two looked at each other with a smile. At this time, Yu Leshui's emotions are quite complicated, and he has both admiration for this nephew (for his genius and invisible divinity) and quite pity. He was imprisoned on the spaceship since he was born, especially in the past twelve years, the spaceship has been in a wormhole state, and they are equivalent to living in a living coffin that does not see the light of day. Therefore, it is completely understandable that they escape from the world and hide in the world of "deep thought" in search of peace of mind and intellectual pleasure. But in any case, she can no longer communicate emotionally with the angels. They smiled and looked at each other for a moment, and the angel nodded politely, still retreating out of the circle, remaining in calm silence.

In the small talk that followed, Yu Leshui figured out the current situation of the "Noah". Now, the new human beings, led by angels, have become the de facto core of the ship, and they have formed a think tank, and all matters on the ship must first be discussed by the think tank, and a general opinion will be reached, and then reported to the captain for approval and implementation. This is also an important reason why the ship has been changed to female captains, because these people are closer to their mothers despite their cold feelings. Alex, He Zizhou, and other older crew members all happily recognized this change, because the new humans with contemplative skills were indeed superior to others. But they still do their best to put the "put it in action" in the hands of the older generation, similar to the human attitude towards computers. As for how long this authority will be held, no one can answer.

Here, Ji Jichang did not waste time, and had already arranged for the crew to connect the pipeline and pump liquid hydrogen to the "Noah". At the same time, they also provided accurate spatial coordinates to Noah, because the latter could not determine the coordinates based on astronomical observations in blind flight. When providing technical parameters, a major discovery was made by accident: the atomic clocks of the two spacecraft had an error of up to 860,000 seconds, that is, the time on the "Noah" was almost ten days faster! Why? I don't know. According to the wormhole theory, the spacecraft is stationary relative to the local space, and there is no relativistic time effect, so the time of the two spacecraft is cosmic stationary time, which should be absolutely synchronized. But apparently there is some unknown factor that affects the time rate of the "Noah", and it is faster than slow down - it is said that traveling faster than the speed of light, even with the relativistic time effect, time should be slowed down. Liu Ye frowned and couldn't figure it out after thinking about it for a long time, and Ji Jichang couldn't figure it out either. Liu Ye consulted his son's opinion, and the angel took it very seriously, saying:

"I don't know at the moment, but I think this phenomenon is very important, it is a dark cloud in the sky of the three-state vacuum theory, and it may be enough to turn the whole system upside down. We need to immediately enter into deep reflection and unravel this secret as soon as possible. What I know for sure at the moment is that the error in our observations of the period of an isolated wave must be related to the error of the atomic clock. ”

He was clearly in a state of imminent battle, hurrying back to the mother ship with dozens of companions. Ji Jichang said to Liu Ye:

"According to our observations before 'picking up the train', the direction of 'Noah' is facing Arcturus, not at the center, but at the midpoint of Arcturus's radius. The spacecraft is now very close to Arcturus, and at Mach 2.5, it is less than a day's journey. ”

Liu Ye said: "We are very relieved, it seems that the direction of the 'Noah' is well controlled. Before entering continuous flight, we calibrated our orientation with Arcturus. After so many years of blind flight, the error is not large. ”

"Are you going to pass through this red giant?"

Alex replied, "Yes, when we set Arcturus as a beacon, we had that in mind. Wormhole blind flight will inevitably collide with a celestial body, so let's do an experiment first. ”

Ji Jichang hesitated a little, "It's okay for us to follow you to have a crossing, but I think it's best to have an observer standing outside the circle for such an important first crossing." ”

"Yes, having an observer is an unavoidable opportunity."

"Well, I'll have to break up with you before I cross over."

"It's a pity, the time is too rushed, and everyone hasn't had a good time after a long absence." Liu Ye said gloomily.

Although there was some reluctance, the two sides still dealt with the aftermath as quickly as possible and prepared to separate. Liu Ye instructed her husband to take a group of people to exchange information with Ji Jichang as much as possible, because for the "Noah" that has been in the information blind spot for many years, any external information is very precious; And the Noahs, who have the skill of "deep thinking", may give some unexpected surprises here, just like the invention of metallic hydrogen. Liu Ye put aside all chores and dragged her sister-in-law to stay alone in the captain's room, chatting about the topics between her sister-in-law and sister-in-law. Liu Ye asked about her mother's situation before she died, Tianle and Cao'er's situation, and the situation of all her acquaintances. She sighed at her brother's "head separation", but she didn't react much. She also talked about the small family here, saying that the four wives get along very well, because there is no soil for jealousy on the spaceship, in fact, there must be a little emotional turmoil, but it is better, and the current life is too rational, so it is too dull. Yu Leshui asked the little angel carefully, and Liu Ye sighed:

"Sister-in-law, I always have a feeling that the angel is not my son, he is a prophet, a saint such as Jesus, Muhammad, Messiah, Maitreya Buddha, etc., but he was born through me. He was perfect, too wise. I wish he was an ordinary boy who had done something mischievous and I grabbed him and punched him in the ass. It's a pity ......," she shook her head. Yu Leshui only accompanied her to be silent. "I've come to realize that there is one biggest difference between me and him – I have a root and he doesn't. My roots are the more than 20 years of life on the earth, especially the childhood and youth spent in the old Jieling, the 'taste of the earth' in the mountains and wilderness has soaked me, and I will never forget it in this life. But what about the angel, he has been living in this ** coffin. ”

Yu Leshui sighed, "Life is like this, you have to get some new things and throw away some old things, even if these old things are precious." It's been the same throughout the ages. If you think about it, we have long forgotten what it was like to live in the African wilderness millions of years ago. It's just that the angels have changed too quickly, and they have changed in just one generation, which is unacceptable. ”

"yes, that's what life is, you have to change something, you have to forget something. Sister-in-law, I had suddenly decided to leave Noah, and then I had decided to come back in ten seconds, and now I feel that the decision to come back was the right one, but the decision to leave was perhaps even more correct. ”

Yu Leshui took his sister-in-law in his arms with pity.

Everything was complicated, and they couldn't indulge in the love of their aunt and sister-in-law for too long, so the two hurriedly ended their whispering and left the room. Margaret waited outside for the fish to enjoy the water, and said bluntly:

"I'm too short on time, so I'm going to have to bother you. Please talk to Alex, he's in a bad mood, he feels like a wreck on the 'Noah'. She smiled wryly, "Actually, that's how I feel, but I can make some mental adjustments, and he can't." ”

She led Yu Leshui to her husband in a hurry, and continued to talk about the situation on the way. Alex has been conceited intellectually all his life, but he is always a few steps behind the new generation such as Angels. What's more, Alex is a relatively imbecile in life outside of rational thinking, so after losing his conceited intelligence, he also loses the backbone of life. Unlike He Zizhou, after He was squeezed out of the decision-making circle by the younger generations, he learned to enrich himself with gardening work. They found Alex in a corner of the hall, and Margaret walked away to take care of his self-esteem. Yu Leshui found that Alex had indeed changed, this person had always been arrogant and conceited, awe-inspiring, always like rejecting people thousands of miles away, only after long-term contact with him, could he feel the warmth of his heart from his surface indifference. But now, Alex's "coolness" is gone, replaced by Santa's kind smile and ...... Invisible inferiority. When he saw the fish in the water, he smiled and said:

"Did Margaret ask you to comfort me? Don't. It's actually quite easy for me to mentally adjust, as long as I honestly admit that I'm a retired piece of waste, everything will work out. He sighed, "Actually, even Yang Yang and Liu Ye will soon follow the same fate as me." I envy Barrow, he died early, and dying early is a blessing. ”

His mind is still so sharp, Yu Leshui really can't comfort him anymore. Yu Leshui suddenly thought - maybe we can take him back to Earth? But she immediately dismissed the idea. With Alex's pride, he won't look back. She could only be honest:

"How can I comfort you, you have always been a god of science in my mind. Although you now feel that you are beyond the reach of the new generation in space, please remember: everything at present, including the super wisdom of the angels, is inseparable from the decades of efforts of the 'Friends of Happiness', and the heroes of the new era include Tianle, Pauli, my father-in-law, Barrow, George, Yangyang, Changchang, and of course, you are very important. ”

Alex smiled, "That's a clever relief." Okay, in the future, I will often recall the scenery of the year for my own relief. The breakup is imminent, so hurry up and go elsewhere. ”

The time to break up will soon come, this time it will definitely be goodbye, and when the "Noah" gets out of the wormhole state after one hundred and seventy-six years and returns to Earth, they will definitely be greeted by strangers. And the "Pegasus" will soon start its circumnavigation of the world, and if it can return to Earth in a few hundred years, it will only see the descendants of the Noahs. When the two sides said goodbye, the angel and his companion did not appear, and they must have entered into deep thought and were unwilling to jump out. Ji Jichang regretted it:

"I'm still waiting for them to give an answer about the time error, and I think this phenomenon is very important, and maybe it portends some new breakthroughs. However, it seems that I can't wait. It's a shame that even if they draw conclusions later, they can't communicate it outside the wormhole. ”

He Zizhou corrected with a smile, "Ah, it's not like this, the angels have already figured out a way." In the same way that a submarine cast an information buoy while sneaking, or a drifting bottle thrown into the water during the Enlightenment of Navigation, we also intend to build a small vehicle that can be sent backwards in conventional power, out of its own space, and then send a message to Earth. Such information buoys or drifting bottles will be cast on a regular basis, and of course, it will be forty years since the first message was received on Earth, and the lag period will be longer and longer. ”

"Okay. We'll get this information out to Earth, so they can listen to the whispers of the submariners at all times. ”

"It's a pity that this kind of contact is one-way, and we can't receive information outside the wormhole during blind flight."

"Be patient. As long as the civilization of the earth does not collapse, it is likely that another Mach 100 million spaceship will follow in our footsteps and catch up with you again by picking up trains. So, when you cast the Drift Bottle, be careful to indicate the spatial coordinates at the time of casting, so that latecomers can find you - although you can only rely on calculations to get the spatial coordinates when you are flying continuously, it's better than nothing. ”

"Of course."

Time was already tight, and the crew of the "Noah" reluctantly withdrew from the "Pegasus", the airtight door closed, and the two sides waved goodbye one last time through the transparent bulkhead. The two ships began to separate, and the "Pegasus" started its conventional power and slowly retreated. The pale blue flame stream illuminated the small space inside the wormhole, illuminating the concave antenna of the "Noah" and the silver-white "auxiliary fuel tank" towed behind it. Suddenly, there was a slight bump in the "Pegasus", and it had already withdrawn from the "Noah" native space and returned to the large universe. Then the alarm bell sounded, the heat warning light on the instrument panel flashed wildly, and the exterior vision was drowned out by a strong orange-red glow. It seems that their exit was a little late, and at this moment they were too close to the surface of Arcturus (it should not be more than a light minute) to feel the scorching heat of Arcturus's 4,400 degrees Celsius. Ji Jichang quickly commanded the spacecraft to make a 180-degree U-turn, and then entered the wormhole of Chimach to fly. The wormhole obscured the bright light and heat of the outside world, and the alarm in the spacecraft immediately stopped. The true blind flight lasted less than half a second, and by the time the spacecraft got out of the wormhole, it had already left Arcturus by one astronomical unit. The Pegasus turned around and began to calmly observe through the telescope.

Against the backdrop of Arcturus' bright light, they easily found the "Chaos Fish". It turns out that "Chaos" is not completely opaque, and strong light in the vertical direction can enter the outer layer of Chaos, and then go around the circumferential direction to the opposite side, and then project it outward in a vertical direction. This process acts as a polarizing filter, making it resemble a large Leo filter[note 1], an effect that clearly exposes the "Chaos Fish" against a background of strong light. Instead of facing the center of the great angle, it is pointing a little outward at the midpoint of a radius, where the stratosphere and the intermediates of the star meet. Such a crossing point is actually more secure, as it can avoid the high-density core of a white dwarf in the center of the red giant. Of course, due to the protection of the wormhole, theoretically it would be fine to go straight through the core, but that would cause Arcturus to bounce more violently. After all, this is the first experiment of a wormhole-like spacecraft crossing a star, so it's better to be on the safe side.

Now, Noah has entered the corona of Arcturus, and despite the very thin solar wind here, the wormhole dug by the spacecraft has created a dark coronal hole, making it easy to observe. The coronal hole rapidly extends towards the Arcturus itself. At this time, the "Pegasus" retreated more than one astronomical unit from the crossing point, about ten light minutes, so the coronal hole observed by the "Pegasus" was already the "old scene" ten minutes ago, and the actual position of the "Noah" at this moment was much farther away than the visual scene. It traveled at Mach 2.5, and had already crossed Arcturus and traveled more than 25 light minutes.

The faster-than-light flight of "Noah" created a peculiar scenario: although the crossing had long been completed, the crossing scene continued to be "live". In Pegasus' field of vision, Noah continued to advance into the range of the color ball. It was like a raging grassland, and countless rose-red tongue-shaped Great Sun rose upward, and the dark wormhole moved forward quickly, flattening the Sun within the circle of the hole. Now, the Chaos Fish enters the star's photosphere, a thin layer that is the main source of visible light for the star, so when the Dark Hole advances here, the "darkness" appears clearer against the background of strong light. It is markedly different from the sunspots that usually appear on the surface of the sun, with a small area but clear edges, like a deep well without a bottom. The spacecraft continued to advance and now went deep into the troposphere, where there was strong radial convection. The wormhole is basically perpendicular to the radial direction, which is equivalent to crossing a rushing river, but its direction is not affected in the slightest.

The spacecraft passes through the troposphere boundary, and the rest of the journey is an inversion of the first half: troposphere - photosphere - chromosphere - corona. Arcturus has a radius of about 18 million kilometers and a crossing area of about 30 million kilometers, which can be passed by a Mach 2.5 spacecraft in just 40 seconds; But for the "live", the traversal process takes a hundred seconds to complete.

The crossing is complete. Even though the stars are all gaseous, the buildup of material caused by the wormhole still creates a solid tunnel inside Arcturus, enough to hold it under intense pressure for a while. One astronomical unit away, the Pegasus had adjusted its attitude with conventional power, and now their gaze could just pass through the straight hole. Strangely, against the background of the intense red light, you can see the starry sky behind you through the hole, and two or three stars shine in that hole. This is because that hole creates the "tube effect" of the telescope.

The crew of the "Pegasus" observed this magnificent picture through the bow field of view. They were so obsessed with it that they were completely oblivious to the danger that was approaching them: the cave wall could not withstand the intense pressure from the star's interior, and collapsed in two minutes. This caused a strong disturbance within Arcturus, so the red giant ejected all the gaseous parts except the solar core, causing it to erupt at extremely high speeds, forming a terrible gaseous tsunami. Its vanguard was a strong red light, and within ten minutes it reached the "Pegasus".

The red light flooded the field of vision, triggering a sudden alarm sound. Ji Jichang immediately saw the danger he was facing and must flee quickly! Otherwise, by the time the stellar material arrives, the ship will be left with no bones. But at this time, it was too late for the spacecraft to turn its head again, so Ji Jichang immediately made a decision, immediately started a continuous wormhole flight of Mach 3,000, and pounced straight towards Arcturus along the direction of the "Noah". However, he tweaked the direction wisely, otherwise the faster Pegasus would pass through the Noah in front of it, turning it into a shiny hole in the inner wall.

A cloud of white light erupted from the front of the "Tianshu", and it was immediately surrounded by chaos. Under the isolation of the wormhole, the strong light and high temperature are immediately eliminated, and the alarm sound stops. A second later, Ji Jichang stopped excitation, and the spacecraft came to a standstill. It has now traveled a distance of about forty-three light minutes, stopping on the other side of Arcturus, thirty light minutes from the surface of Arcturus, or about 3.6 astronomical units. This distance was deliberately chosen by Ji Jichang, and it was calculated that when the "Tianma" stopped, the "Noah" also happened to arrive here.

After the observer Ma Ming switched the field of vision on the screen to the spaceship, Yu Leshui quickly saw Arcturus, this orange star was about the size of the sun seen on the earth at the moment, but the light was dimmer, and it was quietly staying in the sky. They couldn't see Noah, which crossed over, and they couldn't see the big explosion of this star. For a moment, Yu Leshui didn't believe his eyes. Of course, this is due to the faster-than-light flight of the Pegasus. At the moment they saw a star arcturus that had not changed. Ji Jichang said:

"Aunt Yu, please watch calmly. The glare from the Arcturus eruption won't get here until thirty minutes later, or rather, we'll see the live feed of the eruption thirty minutes later — no, it should be eighteen minutes, because by the time the ship starts, the glare has already traveled this way for twelve minutes. ”

Ma Ming shouted: "Look, 'Noah'!" ”

He spotted a "Chaos Fish" on the side of the ship, which was the "Noah" that arrived here at about the same time. But the strange thing is that this "chaos fish" quickly divided into two, one forward, and disappeared into the depths of space in an instant; One backwards, straight for Arcturus. Even Ji Jichang didn't expect this kind of scene, he thought seriously for a moment, and explained to Yu Leshui with a smile:

"Aunt Yu, it should be like this......"

But Yu Leshui has long been a "science head", she smiled and said: "I seem to have figured it out, let me say it first, you will be the examiner." Ji Jichang smiled and nodded. The doppelganger of the 'Noah' is the illusion caused by its faster-than-light flight. Mach 2.5's 'Noah' arrived at almost the same time as our spacecraft stopped, so we saw it and watched it fly forward and disappear into the depths of space. However, the scene of the 'Noah' on the way earlier was spread at Mach 1, lagging behind the spacecraft at Mach 2.5, forming an inverted movie shot. In our field of vision it will go backwards all the way, thirty minutes back to Arcturus - no, not thirty minutes, it should be twenty minutes, this is the time that the image lags behind the real thing. ”

"Exactly! But this is the end of the reversed movie shot, followed by the scene of the Arcturus exploding in front of it. Aunt Yu, I admire you very much, you are sixty-seven years old, and you have always been humble as a 'liberal arts head', in fact, your thinking is very clear and fast, no less than a professional scientist. ”

Yu Leshui smiled and waved his hand, "Don't make me blush, the blind cat just caught the dead mouse." ”

Observer Ma Ming pointed the telescope lens at the backward "chaos fish", and everyone watched silently. I saw it quickly retreat, forming a vague trail in space. Twenty minutes later, it plunged headlong into Arcturus. From this moment on, the reversed film is turned forward, or more accurately, a positive release of the Arcturus explosion, but the image of the "Chaos Fish" is cut out of it. The place where it plunged, that is, at the midpoint of the radius of Arcturus, suddenly appeared a bright spot, which was a local eruption of stellar material caused by the shock wave in front of Noah as it passed through the star. But after the eruption, the "Chaos Fish" disappeared out of thin air! Because the image has already been broadcast in advance on the way after it has been crossed!

Then, Arcturus' eruption began to affect the area, and a red glow filled the sky, triggering another alarm from the Pegasus. However, the "Tianma" was already in a safe position at this time, and the red light intensity was relatively weak, so Ji Jichang did not start the ship and was still observing in place.

Arcturus slowly disintegrated under their witness, slowly spreading into a nova nebula, the edge of which was the usual orange-red color of Arcturus, but faded by diffusion; The center is bright blue-white, because the hot material inside Arcturus is now exposed. In the blue-white background, there is a brighter blue ball, which is the solar core of the original Arcturus, which has just been peeled away, and the temperature is tens of millions of degrees. Then, suddenly, a neatly edged straight hole appeared in the nebula, larger and more neatly edged than the hole they had seen, through which they could see the canopy behind the nebula. This hole was not dug by Noah, but by the Pegasus itself, but it was not "live" until this moment (thirty minutes later). As for the image of it on the way after that, it has been broadcast live in advance, because the image on the way to the "Noah" basically coincides, so everyone didn't notice it just now. Moments later, the new tunnel collapsed as well, triggering an even more violent tsunami in the nebula.

At this time, the temperature was too high to stay, and Ji Jichang started the Mach flight of the crawling block. The bright light of Arcturus bursting chased after them at the same speed, appearing as a constant image on the screen. As the distance increased, the intensity of the red light gradually decreased, and at this time, the Pegasus paused for a moment to look back at the expansion of the nebula. This process of "watching while escaping" lasted for several hours, and by the time the spacecraft had reached five astronomical units from the center of Arcturus, the environment was safe enough that the Pegasus simply stopped firing and stopped to watch. They watched like this for several days on end, until Arcturus's period of rapid expansion was almost over, after which it would turn to a slow expansion.

The "Guardian of the Heavenly Court" (Arabic mythology), the "Guardian of the Great Bear" (Greek mythology) and the "Horn of the Dragon" (Chinese mythology) have disappeared since then, leaving a diffuse nebula in its place, and in the center of the nebula is a white dwarf, although its surface temperature is as high as tens of millions of degrees, but because the surface area is too small, it should be dim in the eyes of earthlings.

Everyone gave a final tribute to the dead Arcturus, and Ji Jichang said:

"Aunt Yu, let's go back. You can't delay too long, you have to rush back to see off Uncle Chu. ”

"Okay, let's go back."

There was no delay on the return journey, and the spacecraft turned around and went straight through the nebula at a top speed of Mach 100 million. At this speed, the spacecraft would be back to Earth in twelve seconds. Six seconds after the spacecraft flew, Ji Jichang suddenly stopped flying and said to Yu Leshui with a smile:

"Aunt Yu, and our other partners, I think everyone wants to take one last look at Arcturus, so please go back and enjoy it now!"

The ship was out of the wormhole, and the outside view was restored. Through the telescope, they once again saw the familiar Arcturus, now eighteen light-years away from the spacecraft, still quietly in the constellation of Mulf, intact, much larger than the Arcturus seen on Earth, nestled next to several pentagonal substars. Not surprisingly, the Pegasus now sees the same light it emitted eighteen years ago. If looked up from Earth, Arcturus will live much longer, not erupting until thirty-six years later. For a moment, it was as if everyone had traveled back in time in a time machine, as if they were going to turn the bow of the ship and return to Arcturus (in the case of the Pegasus, it would only take six seconds!). ), you will see an intact original. Of course this is not possible. Assuming that the Pegasus returns quickly and maintains a continuous field of view, they will see Arcturus' eighteen-year history at high speed, ending in six seconds. When the spacecraft returned to the vicinity of Arcturus, they were greeted by the same Arcturus that had become a nebula. Mach 100 million spacecraft can see the past, but they can't go back in time. At this moment, seeing the original Arcturus, Yu Leshui's heart swelled up with more intense sadness. She sighed and said sentimentally:

"Don't look at it, go back to Earth. It's time for me to meet my husband who has only a head. ”

3

The "Goose Whistle" has made all preparations for sailing, and is still positioned in a synchronous orbit over the Halmahera Space Launch Site, just waiting for Yule Shui to see her husband off. The "Pegasus" was moored diagonally above it, and everyone watched the appearance of the "Goose Whistle" through the transparent bulkhead. At this moment, it is unfolding the crossbar, two kilometer-long milky white crossbars were originally attached to the hull (the hull in the fitting state can be completely contained in the wormhole, so that it can carry out wormhole flight), and at this moment it is slowly unfolding around the stern, and a two-kilometer-long horizontal crossbar is assembled in the stern, which is long enough to ensure that the sphere at its end protrudes beyond the wormhole. Six pairs of milky white cables were pulled diagonally from the bow to the crossbar, a total of twelve. Xiao Doudou, who was watching in the command cabin, shouted with a smile:

"Where is this spaceship, it's completely a cable-stayed bridge!"

He was right, from a distance, the "Goose Whistle" really looked like a beautiful single-tower white cable-stayed bridge. It's just that the crossbar is very thin, similar to an ordinary telephone pole, and it obviously doesn't look like a bridge. Xiao Doudou changed his words and said:

"No, not like a cable-stayed bridge, more like a long barbell! Those two Qiuqiu are Grandpa Chu's living room, right? ”

Two balls are held at each end of the bar, forming an overly slender barbell. The size of the sphere is about the size of a large car. Emma looked at the sad fish and whispered:

"Yes, your Grandpa Chu's head lives there. The blood vessels, nerves, and air ducts leading from the skull extend for a kilometer through a hollow crossbar to the body of the Goose Whistle, where it is connected to a life-sustaining device. The ball was a neutron-like substance, with walls two meters thick, and was made black to block radiation. You know: when two spheres travel at high speed in non-native space, the oncoming low-energy photons will turn into high-energy radiation. However, the ball wall does not need to be insulated, because the 'friction' with the vacuum does not generate heat. ”

"I understand all these truths, you don't need to go into details. However, the two spheres, one is inhabited by Grandpa Chu, and the other is empty? ”

Emma immediately glanced at Yu Leshui and turned the question away. She said, "I'll tell you more about the structure of the crossbar, we're just talking about the exterior shape." Through the transparent cabin of the Goose Whistle, you can see that a thicker longitudinal rod is twisted in the middle of the crossbar, forming a T-shaped shape with it. The longitudinal rod runs from the centre of the hull to the bow and is then connected to the bow by a gimbal ball hinge. It is the only one that is rigidly connected to the hull, and the rest of the hull is flexibly sealed. Do you know why such a floating structure is adopted? She asked Doudou.

Thirteen-year-old Xiao Doudou had already completed his university engineering course, and immediately replied: "Of course I know if you take such a simple question to test me." As long as the crossbar cable system is connected with the hull in a floating way, the crossbar will not affect the hull when it is deformed by force, because the hull must not be deformed, otherwise it will affect the accuracy of the acceleration trajectory of the particles outside the ship. I also know that the materials used for the crossbar and cable are all developed by the Friends of Joy Academy with great difficulty, and it is a new composite material based on C_ (60), which has super strength and super elasticity. Right? Also, the crossbar is designed with a 'constant resistance' ......"

"That's right, that's right, you can just be my teacher in the future." Emma interrupted him with a smile.

This thirteen-year-old little scientist has a wealth of scientific and technological knowledge, but unfortunately he is still a child in the emotional field, and he doesn't know that the question just now is too sensitive for Aunt Yu - another person lives in another hollow sphere, a woman, that is, Professor Elaina, who performed the head surgery on Chu Tianle. After successfully performing this operation, she did not say hello to anyone and immediately asked her assistant to do the same surgery for herself. After Ji Ren Rui heard the news and hurried over, she (her head!) With a grin, he said:

"The ex vivo brain surgery I developed is amazing, and I can't bear to make it someone else's exclusive use. Besides, I do this to preserve the symmetrical beauty of nature – two spheres, one can't be left empty. One man lives on one side and a woman on the other, which is in line with your Chinese philosophy of complementarity and unity of yin and yang. Mr. Ji, you know that I have never been married, because I am a companion of the God of Science, and the great Mr. Chu Tianle is fully qualified to be the body of the God of Science. Therefore, it must be very romantic to accompany him in the vast space, talk about love, have a platonic spiritual love, and grow old together for a hundred years. ”

She speaks in a semi-synthetic voice. Although the isolated head retains the vocal cords, it lacks thoracic resonance, so it still needs mechanical assistance. What she said about "growing old together for a hundred years" is not a rhetorical exaggeration, and the two heads that are moving at an accelerated pace in non-native space will enjoy the relativistic effect of time delay, and their lifespan can be extended by 100 years. Ji Ren said open-mindedly:

"It's come to this, it's useless to talk about it, I sincerely bless you."

"Mr. Ji, I have a request: to make a direct phone call between me and Mr. Chu, without going through the transfer of the 'Goose Whistle', I have to create a private world for two. Also, when Mr. Chu's body was cremated, mine was also cremated. ”

Ji Renrui smiled and said, "As long as Tianle has no opinion—I don't think he will refuse a small request from an infatuated woman—I'm happy to serve you." ”