At Qi Gong's suggestion, Aquila abandoned its plan to explore Silver Star and returned to the asteroid belt. However, after arriving at the asteroid belt, Ye Fei made a difficulty.

Ye Fei had promised before that the ship's personnel would be allowed to pick up crystals as a souvenir, but it was nonsense to let the soldiers pick up a bunch of super-heavy elements and bring them back to Earth.

However, this problem was nothing to Qi Gong, and he submitted a formal report to Ye Fei, declaring that those crystals were not gemstones, but silica containing certain radioactive elements, which was not only not valuable, but also had a certain degree of danger, and was not suitable for ordinary soldiers to collect.

So Ye Fei got off the donkey, and after making the report public, he canceled his previous promise.

At the same time, the report also claimed that the crystals not only contained radioactive elements, but also contained elemental dust produced by the explosion of other supernovae, which played an important role in studying the origin of supernovae, and gave Ye Fei a sufficient reason to return to the asteroid belt to continue searching for crystals.

Except for the officers and men on the engineering ship, the brains of all the officers and soldiers on the ship were connected, and they couldn't figure out the use of studying the origin of supernova, and even Ye Fei said at various times and places, intentionally or unintentionally, that he couldn't understand what Qi Gong was thinking, but because of the orders above, he had to cooperate.

Other bridge officers who knew about the situation also cooperated to a certain extent, silently calming down the emotions of all the officers and men of the ship.

The warriors felt sorry for it, but none of them wanted to have a bunch of radioactive sources in their rooms that emitted death rays at all times, so it didn't take long for no one to talk about it again.

But secretly. I don't know what the use of the overweight element in the Dao is Ye Fei classified this discovery as a secret among the secrets, and the people who already know about it have received a strict gag order, and the relevant situation must not spread to anyone.

For this reason, the search is still carried out by the personnel on the engineering ship who have been exposed to crystals, and they all know the situation of the superheavy elements and what kind of crystals to look for.

In addition to crystals, Qi Gong speculated that there may also be super-heavy elements in non-gem-like transparent crystals, which is also one of the focuses of this search.

In order to accurately distinguish between known substances and super-heavy elements, Qi Gong even spent time and energy on a set of inspection equipment on the assault landing ship, which carried a squadron of commandos. Cooperate with a dozen engineers to collect - although the heavy protective clothing equipped by the engineering ship is more suitable for exploration missions. However, the protective power emphasized by this protective suit is far less flexible than the combat armor of the commando, and with the cooperation of the commando, the speed of the search is greatly accelerated.

The assault ship stayed in the asteroid belt for half a month. Fight against seventeen asteroids. But only two new crystals were found. Including the four crystals found earlier, there are only six in total.

In addition, there are dozens of ores that may contain superheavy elements, but whether they contain superheavy elements and which kind of superheavy elements need to be studied in detail.

Ye Fei was very strange. He felt that only the gem crystals composed of super-heavy elements were valuable, and he didn't understand why Qi Gong had brought back so many useless ores that might contain super-heavy elements. But for Qi Gong and real researchers, the value of super-heavy elements is very low, but the ore is more valuable!

Two completely different perspectives involve two different concepts.

In the case of gold, for example, the value of high-purity gold is indeed extremely high, but this is only measured from a monetary point of view, and it may not be suitable for other industries where gold is used.

For example, gold is soft, and the jewelry industry usually adds other metals to the gold to enhance the strength of the gold before making jewelry.

Taking the most common iron as an example, pure iron is soft and can be cut with a knife, so it is not possible to be widely used in industry. After adding various elements to make alloys, it has become one of the important foundations of industry.

The same is true for superheavy elements, and although pure superheavy elements may look coveted like gemstones, their physical and chemical properties may not be much better, but rather their compounds or alloys may possess some superior properties.

This is why Qi Gong attaches more importance to those inconspicuous stones than to the alluring super-heavy elemental element.

Interlaced like a mountain, just like Qi Gong couldn't command a battleship, it was not surprising that Ye Fei didn't understand the Tao in it.

After completing the search and sampling, the Aquila had been staying in the neutron galaxy for more than a month, and Ye Fei, who was holding a large number of hot potatoes in his hand, couldn't wait to direct the battleship to return.

During this time, Wu Han was not idle, he organized a team of experts who have been on the road and will arrive at the Star Gate in a month and a half, but it still takes more than a month to sail from the Orion Star Gate to the Neutron Star.

In early August 2212, the Aquila returned to Orion's Gate.

Ye Fei informed the remaining fleet a few days in advance of the accident that the Aquila had accidentally deviated from direction and crashed headlong into the asteroid group, but after the Aquila broke away from the nebula, the remaining fleet was taken aback and immediately sent a communication to the Aquila to inquire.

It's not that their reaction is too violent, but the Aquila that appeared in front of everyone's eyes is really too embarrassed, and the whole ship is full of scorch marks and dents from the impact, which is ten times more miserable than experiencing a gut battle.

Several captains couldn't figure out what kind of asteroid group the Aquila had encountered.

Ye Fei immediately replied to the greetings of several fleets, only saying that the damage to the battleship was not small, but after emergency repairs, there was no problem with the power and life support system, but it had to be returned to the mainland for maintenance, and said that he had applied to the mainland.

In fact, there is nothing wrong with the Aquila, and all the traces of the appearance are disguises ordered by Ye Fei before flying out of the nebula, which is enough to confuse the real with the fake.

If you want to deceive the enemy, you must first deceive your own people, this famous saying Ye Fei has never had the opportunity to practice, this time he can finally experiment in person.

The unknown mainland quickly replied to the Aquila's return.

Ye Fei immediately ordered the battleship to return through the Star Gate, and its speed surprised everyone. Is this really a battered battleship?

However, soon the loss of the Aquila was automatically made up by everyone's brain, and the shell was seriously damaged, thinking that there was no damage inside the battleship, and took the initiative to find a decent reason for Ye Fei.

The two-month return time gave all the engineers on the ship a rare time to study, and under the leadership of Qi Gong, all the engineers devoted themselves to the research day and night.

However, the results of the study were not only unsatisfactory, but also extremely disappointing, only four of the six crystals were true super-heavy element elements, and the other two crystals were actually super-heavy element compounds, and the specific composition required further careful study.

There is insufficient equipment on engineering ships, even if it is made on an improvised basis. It can only make some relatively crude equipment. Moreover, the personnel on the ship mainly master mechanical maintenance techniques, and elemental research is not what they are good at, and the result of catching ducks on the shelves is that the research speed is as slow as a turtle crawling.

The most frustrating thing is that Qi Gong, who has invested great enthusiasm, is not good at this kind of research, and more than a dozen people stared at the crystals and ores of super-heavy elements. After more than half a month of continuous research, there are no results. Even the atomic weight of superheavy elements cannot be measured. This result really made Qi Gong eager to find a crack in the floor to get into.

Fortunately, Qi Gong is not the kind of person who complains when he is hit hard, and he quickly regrouped and adjusted the direction of his research. I gave up basic research, which I was not good at, and turned to practical research, which I was good at.

To put it simply, it's how to make use of these crystals and compounds.

Qi Gong's idea is clear, that is, to start with the most familiar aspects.

The crystal application that engineers are most familiar with is the application of weapons, after finding a way to reasonably cut the crystals of super-heavy elements, using four elemental and two compound crystals as the working medium of the laser, laser experiments, and the results of the light green super-heavy element crystals excite the laser power three times higher than the existing laser power!

The incomplete preparation of the test bench was cut by this laser, which passed under the armpit of an unlucky engineer, and almost cut off his arm from the shoulder, and the beam pierced through the four bulkheads, and if it had not been blocked by the armor plates in the warehouse, it might have directly penetrated the inner armor.

Qi Gong was so excited that he couldn't wait to sleep with the crystal in his arms, and he made up his mind to dig deeper into the application potential of the crystal, but the next few experiments fell into a dead loop again, and there was no progress for half a month.

September 6, 2212.

Qi Gong worked alone until the second half of the night as usual, and suddenly had the idea of irradiating the crystal with rays.

He was already in a state of madness in his research on crystals, and when he thought about it, he couldn't let it go anyway, so he immediately began to prepare.

Fortunately, the automatic equipment on the engineering ship is complete, and he only needs to perform simple operations, and the robotic arm moves all the equipment needed for the experiment to the designated location.

He hoped that under the irradiation of the rays, a certain crystal would be able to undergo a special change like a laser, so that a new powerful weapon could be added to the military, and he himself would go down in history because of it.

The various ray generators were prepared, and the six crystals were irradiated one by one, but nothing unusual was found except for the pink super-heavy element crystals, which emitted a red light that enveloped the entire laboratory when irradiated.

So the focus of Qi Gong's research shifted to the pink crystal, but no matter how he repeated the experiment, the pink crystal just emitted light like a light cannon, and there was nothing special about it, even if it was continuously irradiated, nothing was found.

Disappointed, Qi Gong was exhausted and left the laboratory disappointed.

Early the next morning, Jiang Xue entered the bridge and began to check the flight records at night.

But she soon noticed the anomaly: "Captain, something is wrong. ”

"How?" Yawning again and again, Ye Fei, who had no image, asked listlessly.

"Look at the screen, the brightness of the stars in front of you is wrong!" Jiang Xue pointed out her discovery, "We still have a month to find the solar system, six light-years away, at this location, the brightness of the solar system should be much weaker than now." ”

Ye Feiden was startled, and all his sleepiness was swept away: "What's the matter?" Is it that the target is not the sun? ”

"I don't know, but it's impossible, there's no turning record on the flight log." Jiang Xue pondered for a long time, but couldn't think of any mistakes or omissions.

"Out of the faster-than-light state. Return to your normal space and reorient yourself! Ye Fei made a quick decision.

Flying direction mistakes are not a trivial matter, it is said that the experienced Jiang Xue will not have such a problem, but people have made mistakes and horses, who dares to say that they have never made a mistake?

Jiang Xue immediately executed the order, and the battleship instantly left the faster-than-light state and returned to normal space, and she immediately began to compare the star map, calculating the current position of the battleship through the positions and angles of nearby stars.

With the assistance of the ship's computer, Jiang Xue only took a few seconds to calculate the result, but this result was too incredible. She couldn't believe it was her own calculations. Unwilling, she threw herself into the calculation again. After double-checking the data, the results were still the same as before.

"Jiang Xue? What's the situation? Ye Fei saw her abnormality and asked strangely.

"Boss, the calculations. The star in front is the sun, yes. But where we are at the moment. It's just over a light-year away from the sun, and it's only a five-day voyage......"

"What? No way! Ye Fei subconsciously denied it.

No one knew the speed of the Aquila better than the two of them, a full two-month voyage from Stargate to the solar system. It's not a day, it's only a month now, how can it be possible to fly to the solar system?

"I don't think it's possible, but the data doesn't lie, and all the data is just observed, so there's no possibility of any mistakes." Jiang Xue also felt that it was impossible, but facts speak louder than words, and no matter how unwilling she was, she couldn't deny everything in front of her.

Ye Fei knew very well that Jiang Xue was right, and was silent for a moment before saying, "Have you checked yesterday's data?" ”

"Checked, everything is normal, there is no problem with the location and distance." Jiang Xue found that the situation was wrong, and immediately called up yesterday's data.

"Could it be that the battleship passed through some natural wormhole last night?" Ye Fei could only think of this possibility now, "No matter how much, it's only a light year away, just fly over and take a look." ”

The sudden anomaly made him a little worried, wondering if what he saw after flying to the solar system was the place where he grew up.

Jiang Xue started the battleship into a faster-than-light state and flew towards the solar system at full speed.

An even more unexpected situation happened, after lunch, Ye Fei stared at the sun on the screen boredly, and suddenly found that the brightness of the sun had become a little brighter, and the size seemed to have changed a little!

He stood up on the ground, what was going on?

Before Ye Fei could figure out what was going on, the same change happened several times in a row, and the star that was originally in the middle of the screen actually ran to the side of the screen, almost leaving the screen.

Ye Fei didn't care about calling Jiang Xue again, and immediately used the captain's authority to stop the flight of the battleship, and the Aquila immediately left the faster-than-light state and returned to normal space.

Everyone was stunned by Ye Fei's behavior, and they didn't know what happened to Captain Lu Dao.

Only Jiang Xue stared blankly at the obviously crooked star on the screen.

"What a daze!" Ye Fei roared with hatred.

Jiang Xue subconsciously wanted to calculate, but after thinking about it, she gave up this troublesome method, and directly called the optical system to observe, and everyone recognized at a glance that the star that was close at hand was the familiar sun.

Jiang Xue's eyes were straight, and she muttered vigorously about unscience.

How is it possible that the five-day voyage was completed in just one morning?

Ye Fei was also dumbfounded, wormholes are not a common phenomenon, even if you encounter a wormhole halfway, you will only encounter one, how can you continue to encounter it?

Could it be that there was some unusual malfunction of the battleship's faster-than-light engine that caused the flight speed to increase?

"Maintenance team, bridge call."

"The maintenance team received, please speak."

"I'm number one, immediately overhaul the faster-than-light engine." Ye Fei commanded.

"Understood!"

"Be careful, if you find a problem, don't fix it for the time being."

"Huh?" The maintenance team was stunned by this order.

"Execute the order!"

"Yes!"

"Captain, I don't think it's possible to be a problem with the faster-than-light engine, if it is, it was already a problem last night, how can it still fly today?" Jiang Xue analyzed from a professional point of view.

Ye Fei rubbed his temples with a headache: "I also know that the possibility of the Dao is not high, but in addition, what else is possible......" As he spoke, there was a sudden flower in front of his eyes, as if a red light enveloped the entire bridge.

All at the same time fell into a state of stupor.

Ye Feiteng stood up: "Did you see it?" ”

"Look, I see!" Ruan Peng's reaction was the fastest and he was the first to answer.

The others nodded their heads as well.

What the hell is going on?

Ye Fei was puzzled, but he instinctively felt that the abnormal speed of the battleship was related to the red light just now. At this moment, the maintenance team called the bridge and said that everything was fine with the tachyon engine and there were no failures.

Ye Fei was ninety percent sure now, he pondered with his heels, and he could also think that eighty percent of this matter had something to do with Qi Gong, so he immediately used the captain's authority to call up the video records in the laboratory.

On the records not long ago, sure enough, a flash of red light was found.

The video rewinds to last night, and several flashes of red light are all recorded.

Ye Fei immediately established communication with Qi Gong, told him to stop the experiment immediately, and recorded the experimental data in detail.

The inexplicable Qi Gong didn't know what was going on in Lu Dao at all, and when he arrived at the bridge, Ye Fei dragged him aside and whispered his speculation.

Qi Gong was even more dumbfounded than Ye Fei after hearing this, and arrived in the solar system a month early? How is this possible? Could it be that a small experiment can change the flight speed of such a large warship?

"Captain, I don't think your speculation is very reliable, you should try again when you are prepared!" In line with rigorous scientific ethics, Qi Gong put forward his own suggestions.

Ye Fei replied without thinking, "I agree." (To be continued......)

PS: This setting actually existed as early as 10 years!