Let's go back in time to after Ye Fei discovered that there was a problem with the new engine.

Ye Fei reported the situation to the Earth Headquarters as soon as possible, and asked the headquarters for help, hoping that the headquarters would send a warship to pick up the Aquila as soon as possible, and it would be best to bring a new engine over.

However, Ye Fei never expected that his reasonable and reasonable request would be directly vetoed by the strategic command center.

It's not that the Earth Headquarters doesn't want to rescue the Aquila, it's that the Headquarters has no ships to send at all!

As a last resort, Ye Fei could only talk to Wu Han directly, and after some careful communication, Ye Fei learned from Commander Wu that the Aquila was not the first warship to ask the headquarters for help because of the failure of the new engine, and that the Thunderhawk flying to the direction of Ursa Major had an engine failure problem more than four hundred light years away from the solar system.

After receiving the distress signal from the Thunderhawk, the strategic command center had to dispatch a Harrier-class battleship from the fleet guarding the solar system to rush to the scene of the incident.

Because the matter was likely to involve a design flaw in the new engine, it was not reported to the whole army.

The Sky Harrier-class battleship with the new engine installed had a maximum speed a little faster than the Skyhawk class, and it only took half a month for the Harrier to arrive at the accident site and successfully rendezvous with the Thunderhawk.

The new engine "experts" who arrived with the Harrier-class battleship immediately began to work, disassembling the new engine of the Thunderhawk and trying to repair it, but after using special tools to disassemble the engine. The "expert" who knows the inside story discovers that the super-heavy element crystals in the new engine are missing!

The unexpected discovery frightened the experts into a cold sweat, and immediately sealed the dismantling site and informed the headquarters of the situation.

The existence of super-heavy elements is also a secret that only a very few people can grasp within the military, and the disappearance of a piece of super-heavy elements is enough to cause a strong earthquake in the military.

But the location of the Thunder Eagle is more than 400 light-years away from the solar system, who would expose itself at such an inopportune time and steal the super-heavy element crystals installed in the new engine?

Without hesitation, the headquarters issued an order to the Harrier to take over the Thunder Eagle, and all personnel who had access to the new engine were quarantined. Including the captain of the ship is no exception.

What followed was an endless stream of review inquiries. The interrogation was so strict that it almost didn't use chili water and tiger chairs.

A few days later, the interrogation was extended to the entire crew of the Thunderhawk, but after all the crew members had been sifted through a sieve. It was discovered that there was nothing suspicious about anyone on the Thunderhawk - interrogation directly through the brainwave detector. No matter how deeply hidden the spy is. There will be nothing to hide, unless this spy has the special ability to control brain waves!

But this is simply impossible, and it has long been proven by medicine that it is impossible for anyone to control the activity of brain waves. Even in a vegetative state, a certain amount of brainwave activity can be detected, with the exception of brain death.

The entire crew of the Thunderhawk regained their freedom, but things came to a dead end.

At this time, the "expert" in charge of the dismantling suddenly provided a clue that was not a clue: the new engine of the Thunder Eagle did not show any traces of disassembly!

The structure of the new engine is special, and as long as it has been dismantled by external force, it will inevitably leave traces.

After a detailed analysis, the military's intelligence team in charge of the matter came to a most unlikely, but only irrefutable conclusion: the new engine of the Thunderhawk has not been disassembled, and the super-heavy elements in the new engine have not been stolen at all!

But this conclusion is so ridiculous, no one steals it, where did the super-heavy element crystals go?

Although the members of the firing group have little ability to study science, their reasoning ability is extremely strong, and based on the previous conclusions, it is surmised that the use of super-heavy element crystals to accelerate the battleship is not completely consumed, just like the reactor needs to consume hydrogen isotopes, and people need to eat and drink, the crystals in the new engine are gradually used up in flight!

In order to prove this inference, the firing group rushed to the base of Saturn as soon as possible and consulted the records of the use of super-heavy element crystals.

Because the crystals of super-heavy elements are so precious, as long as the use of super-heavy elements is involved, whether it is cut or installed, there are detailed records, and even the fragments and residues left after cutting have not been spared.

By comparing the red crystal used for experiments in the laboratory of the base of Saturn, it was found that the size of this crystal, which was only used for experiments, was about 0.3 millimeters smaller than when it was first sent to the laboratory.

Moreover, the firing group also found out through the engine number that the crystal installed in the new engine of all the red crystals installed in the new engine is the smallest in size!

This explains why the Thunderhawk was the first to have problems, not the Aquila, which was the first to use a new engine.

The conclusion of the intelligence team was sent back to the Earth Headquarters as soon as possible, and Wu Han, who saw this investigation report, simply didn't know what to say, he never thought that the super-heavy element crystal was actually a consumable!

Although the mining of neutron galaxies has not stopped, the military has long hoarded a large number of crystals, but the resources of neutron galaxies are limited, even if they can be used by the military for hundreds of years, they will be completely exhausted one day in the future.

However, it is clear that it has a super-heavy element crystal with a strange function, if it is sealed and not used, Wu Han will be even more entangled.

So after closed-door consultations with the military leadership, the headquarters made several secret decisions.

The first is to immediately change the research direction of the military laboratory on super-heavy elements, and put the research on how to artificially synthesize super-heavy elements in the first place, and applied research to a second place.

The second is to secretly gather the fleet, and arrange for the warships to return to the solar system one after another without affecting the planning of deep space as much as possible, and add equipment engines and spare crystals.

The third is to make every effort to develop the mineral source of neutron stars and obtain superheavy element crystals as much as possible.

Fourth, prepare for rescue, if the Thunderhawk occurs when the Sky Eagle-class battleship that carries out the deep space plan fails to return to the mainland, then the battleship must be dispatched as quickly as possible to rescue.

Originally, the Aquila was supposed to receive the order to return to the solar system, but at this time, the Mountain Eagle encountered the Saucer Clan, and Wu Han had to send the Aquila to investigate.

It must be noted that the new engine of the Aquila is equipped with one of the largest red crystals, and according to the existing distance between the Aquila and the solar system, it should be able to hold on for a while, but Wu Han ignored the record of the Aquila making many round-trip flights at the boundary between the fine scale star field and the diffuse star field, and did not expect the Aquila to consume so quickly! (To be continued......)