"Why did you spend so much time making this substance and putting it at the heart of the warp engine?" Zhou Xin asked. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

"Because Element Zero is the basis of the warp engine we build, all of our warp flight theories are based on Element Zero." Spred replied.

After listening to his words, Zhou Xin showed a look of surprise, now he has no way to connect the matter of the neutron star with the warp engine, and the other thunder people present also showed the same face as Zhou Xin, it seems that it is the first time they have heard Spred mention this kind of thing. However, unlike Zhou Xin, they showed thoughtful expressions after being stunned for a few seconds.

Spred glanced at everyone, "The previous underground base was used to make the peripheral parts of the warp engine, and the structure of the engine core is an internal secret, so it's normal for you not to know about this. But you've probably heard of Element Zero before, and this substance shouldn't be very mysterious to you. Seeing that the others, including Zhou Xin, nodded, he began to explain the relationship between the two.

"You all know the density of the aggregate state of Element Zero, and at such a high density, the aggregated matter will have a noticeable effect on the space around it, and our warp engine is running to take advantage of this spatial effect." After digesting the meaning of this sentence, Spred continued, "In the core of the warp engine, in addition to a powerful magnetic field that binds Element Zero in space, there is also a special excitation device that we have made. The function of this device is to control the space around the small cluster of element zero, after the special device is charged, it will resonate with the distorted space around element zero, so that the original small distorted space expands, under the control of another device, the expanded distorted space will expand to a certain extent and then become a small independent stable space, this small stable space will continue to grow larger, until we set the size, This process is the process of space generation that we previously saw around the spaceship when it first entered warp flight. Then, during warp flight, the engine core will continue to maintain the stability of this independent space, so that the entire space will not collapse in the process of moving at high speed. ”

After Spred finished speaking, everyone in the command cabin was silent for a long time, obviously understanding the meaning of what he said before, and after a long time, Zhou Xin asked, "After creating an independent space, how did we move forward?" ”

"This is mainly the responsibility of the core of the engine." Spred replied, "The core excitation device will temporarily cease to work after it has stimulated the expansion of space around Matter Zero, and will resume its operation once the independent space around the ship has stabilized. It will continue to stir up the space around Matter Zero in a certain direction according to a special frequency, and this shock wave will propagate in this direction, thus expanding the independent space in this direction that we have created, so that the spacecraft and the surrounding space will move in the opposite direction of the shock wave. After a pause, Spred added, "Theoretically, according to this method, our ship can move in any direction without steering, because the direction of the shock wave can be controlled by the excitation device, but for safety reasons, we generally don't let this shock wave travel to the interior of the spacecraft." So we're going to have the warp engine mounted on the outside of the ship, and the ship will move its head forward just like it would normally do. ”

"According to what you say, the core of the warp engine already includes all the functions needed to advance the warp speed, so what do you need peripheral devices for?" Zhou Xin asked.

"The main function of the peripheral device is to process the energy input to the warp engine, because the energy density we generally use is too low, and there is no way to have enough impact on the distortion space without a high degree of compression of the energy through the peripheral devices of the engine, so everything in the warp speed flight will not be able to talk about it after that." "Of course, the peripherals have another purpose – to spatially shield the weak spatial distortions coming out of the engine's core. He then explained in detail, "Although the zero substance in the core is only a small mass invisible to the naked eye, its influence on the surrounding space is still very large, and the small area of the core alone is not enough to cover all the distorted space, if it is placed there like this, it will cause harm to anyone who approaches it, so we made a shell dozens of times larger than the core to protect it." In addition, the external device also plays the role of a double safe, and the external device is also equipped with a powerful electromagnetic restraint device near the core, which will activate in the event of an unexpected situation in the core, and regain control of the zero substance in the core. ”

Zhou Xin thought for a while, then nodded to show that he had understood, and then he continued to ask, "Then you just entered the core of the warp engine for inspection?" ”

Spred shook his head, "Just entering the position of the external device near the core, since the engine core was built, it is strictly forbidden for anyone to have direct contact with the core, and there is no way to make contact, because anyone who tries to contact the core will die because they can't withstand the effects of spatial distortion." What we often call entering the core for inspection is to enter the position of the peripheral device close to the core, and infer the state of the core from the slight spatial distortion of the core periphery. ”

"And what were the results of your check?" Now that he had said this, Zhou Xin simply asked Spred about the results of the examination.

Spred's brow furrowed, and then he slowly said the results of the inspection, "When I entered the core of the engine just now, I found that the spatial distortion around the core that was originally visible to the naked eye actually disappeared. ”

"Gone?" Zhou Xin asked suspiciously.

"Yes, gone. The disappearance of this spatial distortion can only be one reason. Spred replied, "The mass of Zero matter inside the core has decreased, resulting in a smaller range of space that the mass of matter can affect, so that what we see on the outside will be like this." Then he added, "But when I first installed the engine on the Voyager, I also deliberately checked, and the size of the distortion space around the core is still the same as the one just made, how can it disappear all at once?" "He himself felt incomprehensible.

"Could it be decay?" Zhou Xin speculated, "Aren't simple neutrons easily decaying?" ”

"It's unlikely." Spred shook his head, "The strong electromagnetic field in the core will prevent Element Zero from decaying, if it decays so easily, the warp engine will be useless for a long time, and it is impossible for a problem to occur at this time." ”

"So what's going on at the core?"

Spred still shook his head, "I don't know. Then he fell into deep thought, thinking about him as he said to himself, "Maybe I'm really going to go to the core and take a look." ”

"Nope." Zhou Xin directly objected, "How can you judge that the core of the engine can enter, what if the mass of neutron matter inside is still there, if so, you won't be able to come back." ”

"yes, you can't go in." Ralph also said on the side.

"But if you don't go in, how can you know what's wrong with the core of the engine? If we don't know what's wrong, how can we repair the engine? Spred retorted.

"Then you don't use a warp engine." Zhou Xin blurted out.

"Do you think that's possible? With that slow, sub-light engine on the ship, where do you want to fly? Spred said loudly, and then his voice weakened and became muffled, "And according to my estimates, maybe we're in the worst-case scenario, and there shouldn't be any danger in entering the core." ”

"What do you mean?" Zhou Xin asked.

"It's hard to say now, and it's confusing to say it." Spred said thoughtfully.

In the ensuing discussion, Zhou Xin, Ralph, and the others present still tried to prevent Spred from entering the heart of the warp engine, but failed. In desperation, Zhou Xin had no choice but to agree to his request.

The next day, Spred was still unprepared, and he refused the other people's requests to follow in, and he entered the heart of the real warp engine alone. At the energy entrance of the warp engine, Zhou Xin and the others were looking at the back of Spred's entry with a worried face, and they didn't want to just wait for Spred's news from the cold screen.

Time seemed to slow down as everyone waited, and although it was only a few minutes, everyone felt that a long time had passed. In the process of waiting, Xiao Bai didn't know where it came out, it quickly climbed onto Zhou Xin's shoulder, but Zhou Xin was not in the mood to play with it, and Xiao Bai seemed to feel the solemn atmosphere around him, just squatted quietly on Zhou Xin's shoulder, and quietly stared at the energy entrance of the warp engine with everyone.

Although everyone thought that a long time had passed, Spred actually walked out less than ten minutes after entering. After seeing his figure, everyone gathered around, Zhou Xin didn't care about the solemn expression on Spred's face, but looked his whole body up and down, and when he was sure that he was not unusual, Zhou Xin focused his attention on his face. Like yesterday when he came out of the energy outlet, Spred's face was not very good, even worse than yesterday, without waiting for Zhou Xin to ask, he said directly: "It seems that we have really encountered the worst situation, I just went to the core area to see, and the mass of zero matter in the core has completely disappeared." ”

"Gone?" Zhou Xin said in surprise, "How did it disappear?" So is the warp engine completely unusable? ”

"I don't know why, and I don't see any signs of destruction inside the core." Spred shook his head, and then he said the worst possible result, "Without that mass of Zero, the warp engine is completely unable to start." ”

After listening to Spred's words, Zhou Xin smiled bitterly, and then he asked with a glimmer of hope, "Is there still a way to repair the core?" ”

"Repair? Yes, yes, in fact, it is not difficult to repair. Spred looked helpless, "As long as you can find a lump of Substance Zero and put it in the core of the warp engine, the engine will be back to work." Then he smiled wryly, "But where are we going to get such a lump of Substance Zero now?" ”

"It's really not that hard." Zhou Xin had a depressed look on his face, "Stop at this kind of ghost place, where can we go to find a cloud of neutron matter." ”

"So." Spred spread his hands, "We've completely lost the warp engine right now. ”

"Okay." Zhou Xin finally accepted this helpless fact, he thought for a while, and said, "It seems that now we can only rely on the main engine of the Voyager to move forward. ”

Spred nodded, "But luckily, we're not that far from the target system, and if the engine goes wrong in the first place, it will be even more troublesome." ”

"But it's not much better now." Zhou Xin continued, "Even if we reach the target, it is unlikely that we will find the neutron matter we need from the target galaxy. In that case, how do we move on to the next galaxy? As he spoke, he led the group towards the command module.

"This is only one step at a time." Spred didn't have much to do about it.

Zhou Xin sighed, and then he remembered what Spred had said about the engine core when he first came out, and he asked, "You just said that there is no sign of destruction inside the core?" So how did neutron matter disappear? ”

"There really are no signs of destruction." Spred also showed a strange look, "I also made a special observation before entering the core, and found that the strong magnetic field used for restraint in the core still exists, but when I looked inside from the reserved observation window, the zero substance inside actually disappeared. ”

"Impossible." Zhou Xin was a little unconvinced, "Even if it is completely decayed, there should be remnants, how can there be nothing." ”

"It shouldn't be decay." Spred shook his head, "I've tested it with an instrument, and there's no trace of radioactivity in it. ”

"How would that have gone away?" Zhou Xin fell into deep thought, "It can't really disappear directly, this is not logical." ”

"I don't know." "But I didn't do a detailed check on the core when I just went in. He also showed a thoughtful look, "It seems that I need to open the space where Substance Zero is stored for a detailed inspection, maybe this will be able to find clues......"