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It's a tiny, fiery red planet that has maintained at least tens to hundreds of millions of years of desolation and loneliness before humans set foot here. Originally, this number could be expanded to four billion years, which is the time of the birth of the solar system in the calculation, but even if human civilization has established a large base on Mars that can accommodate hundreds of thousands of people, human beings have never been able to completely determine or rule out the possibility that life once existed on Mars. So, for the sake of rigor, this time frame should be delineated as tens to hundreds of millions of years. At the very least, human civilization can be sure that there was no life on Mars between tens and hundreds of millions of years in the past.

At this moment, more than 300 years have passed since the solar crisis. After the crisis that almost destroyed the entire human civilization has passed, the technology of human civilization has finally ushered in an explosive exhibition again. This kind of explosive exhibition is not only because of the survival instinct in a desperate situation, but also because the reverse fusion layer created by the solar civilization has brought great enlightenment to the science and technology of controllable nuclear fusion in human civilization. Fifty years after the solar crisis, controlled nuclear fusion technology has finally been developed, and it is driven by controlled nuclear fusion technology that human civilization has truly stepped into space.

The moon base once built for Zhao Huasheng was the first time that human civilization built human buildings on a planet other than Earth. After Zhao Huasheng returned to Earth, the moon base became a landmark building and port for human civilization to enter deep space. With the Moon Base and Skylab as a springboard, and with the help of the more powerful impetus brought by controlled nuclear fusion technology, human civilization has finally left its footprints on the desolate land of Mars. And in the following 150 years, this great Martian city that can accommodate hundreds of thousands of people was built. And named the city after Zhao Huasheng. In order to commemorate Zhao Huasheng's outstanding contributions to human civilization.

Not only Mars, but also the footprints of human civilization have been imprinted on more planets. Astronauts have even landed on Vesta and Homo sapiens in the asteroid belt, and there is a semi-permanent space base built by human civilization on top of the heavy clouds of Venus within the Earth. Human civilization is preparing to go farther into the stars, and preparations have begun for the manned 6 program for Jupiter and its satellite system, and the first team of astronauts is expected to be sent out within 50 years......

This is an era of science and technology exhibitions, and it is also an era full of hope, full of curiosity and exploration. The Age of Discovery once brought glory to Europe, and now. The new Age of Discovery, which explores the entire solar system, is also destined to bring human civilization to a new peak. It is believed that the construction of the first Mars base Watson City is only the first step of human civilization to colonize the entire solar system, and in the near future, the footprints of human civilization will spread all over the entire solar system.

Advances in productivity have led to extremely high welfare. Even the poorest people in human civilization do not have to worry about cold and hunger in the slightest, and those with a modicum of skills and willingness to work for themselves can live a life of comfort and prosperity that they never imagined before. Meantime. Because of the opening of the prelude to the Age of Interstellar Discovery, practitioners related to natural sciences have truly become the top of society, they not only have the most complete scientific research environment, but also have a social reputation that matches their contributions. At present, no matter how much the government and the people attach importance to education, even if the enrollment rate of school-age young people in universities has reached 97 percent, and even if the graduates of natural sciences and related majors hit a new high every year, there is still not enough relevant scientific and technological talents. As a result, stimulated by high welfare, the fertility rate has once again increased significantly, and the number of people has once again exploded......

Controlled nuclear fusion can bring a nearly infinite supply of energy, and the exploration of the starry sky will bring a truly infinite living space. People are only afraid that there will not be enough people to occupy the newly opened land, and people will never be afraid of the problem of shrinking living resources and living space due to too many people.

Human civilization has never been so prosperous and never so promising. Watson City is the most concrete manifestation of this prosperity and hope.

There is a busy trade route connecting Watson City and the Earth, whenever Mars and the Earth run to the same side of the sun, and the distance between each other is shortened, this trade route will be opened, and the cargo spacecraft and scientific research spacecraft loaded with various materials will travel back and forth between the two places at a distance of more than 100 kilometers per second, and the materials from the Earth will support 30% of the energy and material consumption of Watson City, and various specialties from Watson City will be sold at a high price on the Earth.

This is the first interstellar shipping lane opened up by human civilization. With the support of this interstellar route, tasting the specialties from Mars, or simply taking a few days out of a trip to Mars, seeing Mariner's Canyon, admiring Mount Olympus, or feeling the storm above Mars, these behaviors have become the most fashionable way for the emerging middle class of human civilization to vacation.

But now is not a good time to travel to Mars. Because of the difference in the rotation rate of Mars and the Earth, the distance between the two planets changes all the time. At this moment, the distance between Mars and Earth has passed 100 million kilometers. Traveling over such long distances, or doing business is not a wise choice. Therefore, in this trade route at this moment, except for some spaceships that must carry out tasks, there is no shadow of other spaceships.

The decrease in the number of spaceships directly led to the desertion of the spaceport located above Watson City. At this moment, most of the huge space port was shut down from the energy supply, except for a few areas where staff were still on duty, and it was plunged into darkness and cold.

Under the cover of darkness, a small and beautiful spaceship quietly left the port and entered space, and then finally disappeared into the darkness under the continuous increase. In the midst of this whole process. The port's communications equipment has been in constant contact with the ship. And received a very compliant response. So the port staff did not receive the alarm from the electronic system. Although the departure of this small spaceship is not so normal no matter how you look at it.

The small spacecraft began to recharge as soon as it left the spaceport, until it reached one hundred and thirteen kilometers per second. This is quite fast for a small private ship, and it is almost close to the limit of the fuel it can carry. At such a height, it only takes a dozen days for it to come to the vicinity of Earth and complete an interstellar journey across Mars and Earth.

However, this small spaceship did not follow the fixed trade route that had been opened up long ago, and was full of navigation satellites and supply points. Shortly after leaving Mars, it deviated from its course. It even deviated from the ecliptic plane, and moved along the unfamiliar space that very few spacecraft pass, and which is basically only accessible to scientific and military spacecraft.

In front of him is the huge and bright sun, and behind him is the vast sea of stars. Surrounded by such a beautiful scenery, the small spaceship was silently suspended, still and only through the constantly changing numbers on the electronic meter could the small spaceship be perceived that the small spaceship was advancing, and if you only looked at the surrounding environment, no one could detect that the spaceship was advancing.

In this silence and stillness, thirteen days passed quietly. The sun became bigger and brighter, and the pale blue star in front of it finally changed from a dot to a disk. If you look a little further away, you can still see the blue planet not far away. The moon glows with a pale white light.

It's less than five million kilometers from Earth. After the beginning of the Age of Interstellar Discovery, the distance of five million kilometers is not too far, and it can even be considered quite close. Not far ahead, there will be space patrols and supplies built by human civilization, as well as inspection bases, and no spaceship trying to approach Earth will escape the observation of these bases. And at this moment, the pilots of this small ship have prepared a whole set of deception and concealment procedures to deal with these bases.

But at this moment, just as the pilot was about to approach the Earth, in the distant starry sky on the left in the direction facing the small spaceship, a faint star that could not even be directly seen by the naked eye suddenly brightened in a very short time. Its brightness increased so rapidly that in just a few seconds, its apparent magnitude had risen from 6.21 to minus 13, almost brighter than a full moon.

As a result, in the eyes of the spaceship pilot, he could see that in addition to the sun, the earth and the moon, there was one more star.

The bright star appeared so suddenly, without the slightest sign until it changed. It appeared there, thousands of light-years away, projecting its own light into the tiny galaxy and into the eyes of the ship's pilot.

The ship's pilot knew that the star was named Seamount II. Seamount II is a star system located on the base of the ship, this star system is composed of two stars, but because of the thick interstellar dust cloud, the companion star of Seamount II has not been directly observed. Seamount II is too big and too bright for people to observe.

Seamount II is a blue giant star with a minimum mass of 120 times that of the Sun and a luminosity of more than 5 million times that of the Sun. This intensity of luminosity is close to the limit of Eddington's luminosity, which causes the radiation pressure on its surface to be close to or even out of the star's own gravitational pull. This makes it extremely unstable, causing it to burst large amounts of matter at extremely high rates. In fact, scientists estimate that it has ejected at least the equivalent of thirty suns since its inception.

It's a young, grumpy, massive star. Normally, such stars are short-lived, and they will end their lives with a powerful explosion tens of millions, or even millions, years after their birth. This process of star death is called a nova burst.

And obviously...... Just now, the star Seamount II exploded and died. It ended its life in such a way that it was indescribably magnificent, transmitting the message of its death to the solar system and being detected by human civilization with a light so intense that it still looked like a full moon even at a distance of more than 7,000 light years.

The spacecraft pilot knew that the explosion of Seamount II also heralded the birth of a black hole. Its mass is so great that a detonation of this magnitude would create a black hole directly at its core instead of a neutron star. Some of the material ejected by the energy of the explosion will fall back into the black hole and become its food, and the other part will form an accretion disk around it. The faster ones will spread and eventually form a nebula.

Although the explosion of Seamount II was magnificent, it would not have much impact on the Earth or the solar system. Because the distance is just too far. Except for the interstellar voyage, which requires a little higher radiation resistance, ordinary people will not notice anything other than seeing a star in the sky that is as bright as a full moon.

But the explosion of Seamount II is a good thing for the pilots of this small spaceship. The spacecraft pilot knew that after the second explosion of the seamount, the attention of the entire human civilization would be attracted to the past, and almost all the observation forces would be aimed there, and correspondingly, the intensity of the spacecraft would be reduced. This helps the ship's pilot to get through the trick more safely.

But the little ship didn't end up coming close to Earth. After the distance between it and the earth was shortened to 3 million kilometers, it suddenly disappeared from here, without warning, like the explosion of the second sea seamount, and it disappeared out of thin air.

No one other than the original owner of the spacecraft would have known that a small spaceship once left Mars for Earth and eventually disappeared there. Because it didn't leave a record of departures in the ports of Mars, nor did it leave records of entries in the ports of Earth. None of the navigation satellites or testing stations on the trade route have left any records of their communications.

The starry sky was still quiet, as if the little ship had never been there. (To be continued......)

PS: Volume 2: Scourge of the Stars was finally conceived, and the first chapter was coded before 12 o'clock...... A new journey has begun, ask for tickets ~ ask for tickets ~ ask for tickets ~