"This is the tea that we have grown from the seeds brought out of our home planet, and everyone says that it has the taste of home, so please taste it. "In the captain's room, several automaton brought black tea to the shadow chasers, and the mellow aroma of tea wafted into the air, making those who smelled it feel calm for no reason. The two old men sat side by side opposite the Shadow Chasers, Ryan still had an awkward expression, twisting his head not to look at the Shadow Chasers, but Nina smiled kindly, picked up the teacup and introduced to the Shadow Chasers, "In this universe far from our homeland, only this taste from our hometown can allow those of us who have lost our homes to enjoy a moment of peace of mind." ”

Delia sat between the two old men, holding the arms of the old men on the left and the right, the old woman seemed to enjoy her daughter's company, patting her daughter on her hand from time to time, but Ryan sat straight and stiff, obviously, this man was still not used to the enthusiasm of the little one.

"Sure enough, it's a good black tea. Shuer took a sip, to be honest, this cup is far worse than the black tea in his hometown or Pavadiga, but compared to the light and watery black tea in the floating city below, this cup is now considered superb, closed his eyes and savored for a moment, Shuer put down the teacup and said softly, " Actually, I should have given you a few days to let your family enjoy the joy of reuniting after a long absence, and then talk about business, and there was time to do it, but, heh, sometimes curiosity is a terrible emotion, once it can't be satisfied, it will make it difficult for people to sleep, so I hope to take up a little time for you first, explain the current situation clearly, and as for the cooperation in the future, you can wait a few days to talk about it. ”

"Oh, of course there is no problem, it is better to say that Mr. Shul has been able to endure until now, which is very surprising to us. The old woman replied in place of her husband, "Since we have invited you to the top floor, we are ready to satisfy their curiosity, so if there is anything you want to know, please ask, and we will not hide anything, after all, it is meaningless to us." ”

"Thank you very much. Xiuer picked up the black tea and stared at the tea in the cup with his eyelids down, "Why don't you two introduce your situation first?"

"We, or our race?"

"It's not a big difference. Shuer smiled and said, "If it's convenient, you can introduce it together." ”

"We are a group of exiles. Ryan finally recovered from his awkwardness, although his tone was still a little stiff, but his demeanor was much more normal, and his limbs were not so stiff, "I've been adrift in the universe for thousands of years. ”

"Huh?"

"When the Brown Star was destroyed, we fled our hometown together, and since then we have been living a wandering life with the spaceship as our home. ”

The Shadow Chasers did not speak, but quietly looked at the three people sitting side by side, knowing that after countless years of silence, the two old men were looking forward to confiding in the people and reminiscing about the history of the race.

"Scholars had already learned of the demise of the Brown Star in advance, so the world joined forces to build thousands of giant ships, well, the Jackdaw was one of them. Before the day of destruction, all those who were willing to leave boarded the ship and began to march towards the endless universe, while the remaining people who were attached to their homeland and did not want to leave remained on the brown star, sleeping forever with their homeland. ”

"After leaving the Brown Star, we also encountered various difficulties along the way, but everyone worked together and persevered. While the loss of the home planet is a pain for civilization, for individuals in the race, everything is normal except for a different place to live, and as in the past, life similar to that of Brown Star is repeated day after day, and the ship becomes our new city, and the fleet becomes our new planet. Of course, you can't travel between cities anymore, after all, you have to use shuttles to travel between various spaceships, which is dangerous and troublesome, so it is required to minimize the physical interaction between spaceships, but this is not a big problem, and it can be easily overcome. ”

"The problem that is difficult to overcome is in terms of materials, although there are some production facilities on the fleet that can make products that are sufficient to meet the necessities of life for all, but the consumption of basic materials is inevitable, and people always have desires, and they can do it for a short time, but after a long time, it is impossible to live a life only on necessities. ”

"However, there are solutions to these, the most basic materials, such as mineral wood, can be replenished along the way on the way to wander, and the scale of production can also be expanded using the space reserved on the spaceship, even if the population has increased for decades, it can maintain a good life, as long as we pay attention to controlling the rate of population growth and not letting the population growth become unbalanced, then it is not delusional to persist like this, well, this is consistent with the idea of scholars who make escape plans. ”

"Not only that, but on the way to exile, everyone is still working hard to constantly develop new technologies, and then apply them to the spaceship, so that the facilities inside the spacecraft are more and more advanced, faster, more powerful, and even better life. Oh, it is said that during that time, every day was developing for the better, and life was full of hope. ”

"No wonder. Xiuer sighed lightly, which is enough to explain the problem that Wei found at the beginning, the extremely unbalanced development of science and technology is caused by this special environment, all unimportant science and technology have been completely abandoned or postponed research, the most applied and urgent aspects are constantly strengthened, and the scientific and technological tree of civilization is becoming more and more deformed, but it is also more and more suitable for alternative life.

Just like Wei once proposed, their planet livability transformation technology, compared to deep space navigation technology, can only be described as primitive, and is puzzled by this, and now it is finally clear that they live on a spaceship, and they don't need to transform the planet into habitability at all, and they only need to dispatch self-disciplined machinery to mine resources on passing planets, and they don't need to go down with lifeforms, so the related technology in this area has completely stagnated, and the gap is not big. However, there is a fundamental problem that cannot be explained.

"I don't quite understand. Shuer frowned and asked suspiciously, "You have been wandering for thousands of years, and it is impossible that you have not encountered habitable planets along the way." Although you can live normally on the spaceship, it is not good for life, and it is better to spread out on a suitable planet, so why did you choose to continue sailing when you passed by the habitable planet? I think when you left the Brown Star, let everyone board the spaceship, just to migrate to other planets and rebuild the civilization of the Brown Star. ”

"Heh, quite the opposite. Ryan's smile was full of ridicule and self-deprecation, "From the time the exile plan was formulated, there was no intention to stop again, all the ships are designed to allow humans to live for a long time, so we didn't plan to stop from the beginning, and we can't stop." ”

"Why?"

"It's hard to explain this right now, so I'll explain it to you later. The two old men hesitated for a while, trying to explain clearly, but finally gave up trying, "Don't worry, we won't hide all your doubts, as long as the two of us know." ”

"Okay. Shul nodded, "Sorry for interrupting the two, please continue." ”

"In this way, we, the fugitives from the Brown Star, have been sailing in space for more than a hundred and sixty years, but the real problem has arisen, and it is so serious that it is simply impossible to overcome. ”

"Sorry for the digression. Shuer's eyes flickered, and he was already aware of the real problem, "How long is the lifespan of you brown stars?"

"The average is around 100 years old. The two old men were stunned for a moment, obviously surprised by Xiu'er's reaction, but they still replied normally, "One hundred and twenty years old is basically the limit, and in historical records, there has not been a human existence beyond this age. ”

"It's about the same as Pavatiga. "The shadow chasers looked at each other, a hundred years of life, no wonder there was a problem at this point in time.

"The generation that came out of the Brown Star is long gone, and there are very few of their next generation still alive, and even the third generation has begun to get older, and the more active ones are basically the fourth or even fifth generation of exiles. Ryan explained softly, "It wasn't until then that the key issues were discovered, and we ...... I'm starting to forget who we are. ”

"We are the inheritors of the Brown Star Civilization, the purpose of our exile is to pass on the Brown Star Civilization as much as possible, once we forget our homeland and who we are, then our existence will completely lose its meaning, this is the most terrible thing for us, and we must not let it happen. ”

"However, the problem is in front of us, but no one can solve it, with the change of generations, this has become an inevitable trend, until then we know that the makers of the exile plan, still think about the problem too simply, after all, they are only relying on the establishment of models to dream, only when the implementation, the difficulties will really emerge. ”

"And we see another, more terrible problem, enough to shake the foundations of the exile project. ”

"When leaving their homeland, all are united in hatred and work for the same goal, and it is rare for them to commit crimes or other unstable acts. In my generation, most people have maintained a similar attitude, but there are already some people who have other ideas and are starting to put them into action. The oppression and resistance between classes, the disputes and calculations between people, and the disputes between different spaceships over the distribution of resources are increasing and becoming more and more uncontrollable. ”

"And so the first war between the exiles broke out, and although it was small in scale, the result was very cruel. More than a dozen ships were destroyed in the war, and millions of people were reduced to cosmic dust. We, the exiles, have been hit hard, mainly mentally, but it has also made us see the reality that we must make a change, otherwise, the exile plan will completely fail, and it will only be a matter of time before the Brown Star civilization dies forever. ”