Extra-critical

One

This is how this old story ends -

A breeze rose in the wilderness.

The clear sky shrouded the four fields, the thin clouds drifted gently with the wind, and on the endless fields, the wheat waves were golden and rolling, and the harvest was full of vision, and between the ridges, a sturdy old man in a simple gray robe raised his head, squinted his eyes in the clear skylight, and looked at the scenery in the distance.

At the end of the wheat field is a slightly hazy mountain range, with towers looming above the undulating gray-brown outline, and small and dense buildings scattered between the mountains and fields, which look like clusters of factories, but also look like villages built on the mountains as described in those old stories.

The old man's gaze withdrew from a distance, swept over the fields that were about to be harvested, and a smile slowly appeared on his face, muttering as if talking to himself: "This year is a great harvest." ”

As soon as his words fell, another voice suddenly sounded beside him: "Yes, a good harvest, it is not in vain that you have worked so long in the dirt - but I don't understand, is it really so interesting to cultivate the soil in such a primitive way?" I'm so tired of you......"

With these words, another gust of wind suddenly rolled up between the wheat fields, and the wind swept the blades of grass and wisps of light, and an old man in a green robe with obvious elven features stepped out of the wind, and looked at the sturdy old man standing in the field with a smile.

"It gives me a sense of steadiness," said the sturdy old man in a simple gray robe, with a smile, "whether it is a giant tree factory that synthesizes food efficiently, or an agricultural starship tended by self-disciplined machines, it is not the same as tending seeds in a field, this very ancient skill retains the most simple connection between man and nature...... But then again, I shouldn't tell you this, but you should educate it, right? After all, things in the natural realm ......"

"It's all about the same, anyway, everything is natural," the elf old man waved his hand happily, "I understand, but everything that is born in the laws of nature is natural, flowers, birds, fish and insects are nature, and bionic flowers, birds, fish and insects are also natural - unless you say that modern technology can already create things that do not conform to the laws of the universe." ”

Listening to his old friend's rather carefree opinion, the sturdy old man just shrugged his shoulders noncommittally, and then seemed to suddenly remember something: "Not necessarily, I heard that the Vanguard-XI laboratory is tinkering with some overrun engine, which is built on ...... How to put it, what is based on the laws of the atypical universe and what is ......"

"Stop, Constant, Norris, you're almost done," the elf old man quickly waved his hand to interrupt him without waiting for his old friend to finish speaking, "Okay, I can remember two terms in a large set of things, and none of the rest can be tossed and understood, and I still popularize science, I might as well go back and check the neural network myself......"

"I'm not an expert in this area, and I can remember two terms that I am already well-read." Norris said nonchalantly, but suddenly, a low roar came from the sky, interrupting the small talk between the two old friends.

The sound sounded like thunder, but it was mixed with a series of trembling noises, and the whole process lasted for nearly a minute, and as the sound gradually weakened, a large shadow suddenly appeared in the clear sky above the field - it was as if the "sunlight" was suddenly missing in a specific area, and then the areas that had fallen into the shadow began to recover rapidly, and the whole sky returned to normal.

The two people on the field watched the change in the sky in astonishment, listening to the roar weakening, Norris suddenly turned his head to look at the side: "Is there a system reboot today?" ”

"No......" the elven muttered, "I remember you told me that the planned reboot should be in three days, and even if the system reboot doesn't seem to be like this......"

"No, I'll have to take a look." Norris felt a little uneasy for no reason, and immediately walked in a certain direction on the edge of the field, but he had barely walked a few steps before the elf old man chased after him from behind: "Wait, where did you park the shuttle?" ”

"A-6 Control Tower, I usually stop there." Norris said casually.

"It's too far, I'll take you directly," the elf old man said casually, and then walked away for a distance, "You wait, I'll brew ......"

As the second half of his words fell, a holy white glow suddenly appeared over the field, and then, this glow fell like a curtain, completely enveloping his figure - the next second, the glow suddenly contracted and condensed, and a holy white giant deer stepped out of it, and turned its head to look in the direction of Norris: "Hurry up, let's go to the canopy first to see the situation, I feel more and more that the movement just now is wrong......

Norris was not polite, and flew directly to jump on the broad back of the giant deer after running two steps, and then grabbed the hair on the other party's back: "I grasped it steadily!" ”

"Walk you!"

The deer Amorn let out a shout, and then leapt into the sky, like an upside-down pure white meteor, in the direction of the blue sky, and the void behind him spread out layers of aura, making him faster and faster - but in a matter of moments, he and Norris had reached the height where the thin clouds floated.

A translucent structure that rippled like water flashed through the air around them.

The clear and high blue sky quickly became dim and illusory all around, and the whistling wind also turned into a strange short whistling as the atmosphere subsided sharply and gradually disappeared, Amone and Norris passed through the artificial canopy, and the force field bones outside the canopy were quickly left behind them like illusory cobwebs, and beyond these force field bones used to support the artificial atmosphere, there was a deep starry sky rushing in front of them.

and the countless luminous entities that lie between the stars, wrapped in a propulsive glow or hazy force field.

Ammon slowed down in the starspace, and he made a beautiful arc and turned to look in the direction he and Norris had first arrived.

It was an extremely large space structure with a long axis of tens of kilometers, it was roughly in the form of an hourglass with two ends swelling and a small middle section, its main part was covered with silver-gray armor that emitted a cold metallic luster, and the connecting part in the middle of the "hourglass" at both ends seemed to compress a small sun - a reaction core containing terrifying energy floated in the center of dozens of thick and solid connecting beams, releasing a moving light.

On the side of the hourglass facing Ammon and Norris, a slightly raised artificial canopy system can be seen.

Beneath the canopy is the vast wilderness, the ring-shaped laboratory clusters built around it, and the several tourist areas outside the laboratory clusters, which are connected to the city inside the "hourglass", and at this moment they have closed the "skylights" for admiring the starry sky, and are in a state of total defense.

Above the clustered laboratories that resemble a circular mountain range around the wilderness, countless jumping arcs of electric arcs can be seen.

“…… Seeing that the observation decks were all closed, that there was an abnormal arc release in parts of the Crater Laboratory, and that there could be a systemic barrier breach," Norris sat on Amone's back as he heard the rapid report of the Mind Aid Implant in his head, which was his "prosthetic brain" helping him analyze the current situation, "trying to establish a Class I emergency data link...... Build failure, major system error!

"Warning, the core energy level is abnormally high, remote intervention fails, and it is recommended to take artificial circuit breaker immediately.

"Warning, gravity field disturbance detected, remote intervention failed.

"Warning, Unable to open Login Navigation, Unable to Authorize Gate Key...... Remote intervention failed.

"Warning, the core command module of the 'Baishuihe' space station cannot be contacted, and it is speculated that there is strong signal interference or communication system failure......

"Warning ......"

"There's a big mess!" The continuous warning sound instantly filled his mind, making Norris exclaim, the space environment cannot transmit sound, but the ubiquitous neural network within the scope of the ship can send what he said directly into Amone's "ear", "Old deer, there is a big problem with the space station system!" I can't get to the control center, and I can't make a navigation call, so we have to use a more traditional method to 'intervene' in the system! ”

“…… I don't really like the 'traditional way,'" Amonen complained, but had already begun to move around in space, looking for the best angle to 'enter' the station, "which reminds me of some ......"

"Stop talking nonsense!" Norris interrupted the guy who was once called the "God of Nature" and now spends his days wandering around the outposts and the Ark, "I don't feel good...... Can you do it? ”

"Okay, okay, I have experience in this matter, you can grasp it steadily, I'll just go over," Amone shook his head in space, and as he spoke, he had begun to slowly accelerate towards an armored area of the main part of the space station, "We're going to 'physically open the door', and you can pay for the repair by yourself ...... when you go back."

Before he could finish speaking, the holy giant deer had already turned into a brilliant light that streaked through the sea of stars, and fell like a shining white nova to the outer wall of the space station.

Two

Barriers have breached, sparks are flying, tiny explosions are everywhere, ventilation systems have been shut down, toxic smoke is filling the hallways, and glowing lines can be seen on the walls everywhere, as stress-activated nanoreset robots are in a futile attempt to repair the broken bulkheads—and these invisible swarms simply can't deal with the catastrophic consequences of the main system going offline.

Ammon hits a hole in the station's outer wall, and then lands with Norris in the hallway leading to the control center, and the terrifying suction of the air pressure imbalance hits in an instant, but the station's emergency locking and exhaust mechanism does not respond in the slightest - but this is not a big problem for Ammon, who was once known as a "god".

The holy deer turned his head and swept his gaze over the hole in the wall, a dense barrier of light instantly closing the gap, and then he changed form in a burst of light, turning back into an old man with elven features.

"It's a mess," Norris looked at the situation in the space station, his eyebrows were already wrinkled, and there was a layer of glow floating around him, which was the spell-casting implant in his body that was running automatically, holding up a breeze shield to protect against the toxic environment around him, "It doesn't look serious on the outside, how did it suddenly become like this inside?!" ”

"It looks like all the systems are offline, even the nano swarm is running autonomously without control," Ammonn said quickly, running deeper into the hallway with Norris, "Is it an attack?" An attack on the main system? ”

"Who would dare to attack the outpost space station of the Loren-Noi Combined Ship Regiment?" Norris said quickly as he ran forward, "And even if it's an attack, it won't become like this all of a sudden...... the main system of the 'White Water River' is military-grade, and in addition to the rotating brain, there are at least three backup brains that can be online at any time, but now it seems that all the systems are down!" ”

“…… There's no point in guessing, so let's see for yourself. Amon said quickly, and as he passed by a viewing window in the middle of the corridor, he subconsciously glanced out of the window - from here he could see the city inside the space station, which was now in a state of emergency, with the lights of the emergency dome mixed with the lights from the vigilant drones flying in the air, and below were buildings that had been turned into fortress shapes.

Striking red numbers float above those buildings.

This shows that every building in the city is ready for "disaster avoidance" - if there is a real crisis of the disintegration level of the space station, this big "hourglass" will be torn apart in an instant, and the buildings in the city will use the last energy to prop up a barrier that lasts for about thirty seconds, and the barrier itself is enough to withstand the impact of the energy core explosion, and at the same time buy time for each building to enter the faster-than-light jump.

“…… Don't look at it, I don't want my space station to become thousands of lifeboats floating back to Hub-XII-B, and the old immortals in the matrix will laugh at me for a thousand years. Norris interrupted Ammon's gesture to look out the window, and in front of them, the final door to the control center finally appeared.

Luckily, the door didn't jam – perhaps the mastermind had a "quick move" in the last moment of desynchronization and unlocked the control center door.

Inside the control center, the same smoke was filled, the alarms were blaring, the dark red lights flashed everywhere, and the magic projections suspended above the terminals were full of incomprehensible parameters and heavily distorted and distorting graphics.

Norris ignored the frantically alarming devices, and rushed past a few of the apparently dead officers on duty to the massive hemispherical structure in the center of the hall.

In a hemispherical container made of high-strength transparent polymers, a thin biomass solution is bubbling up, a giant brain-like organ composed of translucent crystals, biological tissues, and metal structures is floating in the solution, and a large number of sensory contacts and nerve connectors embedded in the surface of the brain are flashing chaotically.

This is the main brain of the space station currently on duty - it has apparently lost synchronization with the main system.

On the operating table next to the hemispherical container, there is a dying figure, it is a young woman, who looks like a human, but her cheeks, arms, etc., can be seen in a fine structure like dragon scales, behind her is also covered with scales, and hard horn-like structures can be seen on both sides of the head.

Obviously, this is a Noi ethnicity - a race whose superior neural sensing abilities make them well adapted to working with all types of servo brains.

"Alive," Ammon quickly judged the state of the Noi woman, and stepped forward to shoot two healing techniques to wake the other person from his dying, "Wake up, wake up, what's going on?" ”

“…… Help me prepare a return to the luxurious feast Thank you, the ...... of the Wo Ava flavor," the Noi girl muttered in a daze, "I didn't hang ......up until the last minute at work"

"Don't be confused, this is not a resurrection center, I woke you up." Ammon stepped forward and slapped another lucid spell - these old tricks still work today, and the Noi girl woke up in shock, and then looked around in horror, and then her eyes fell on Norris.

"Mr. Norris!" The girl seemed to want to stand up, but as soon as she moved, she stopped because of the severe pain all over her body, and said while inhaling cold air, "The space station has been hit hard for unknown reasons, and all systems are offset, and the parameters are ...... The various parameters reported by the main brain are difficult to understand...... Hiss...... Sorry, I've never seen anything like that, really, I've been an operator for 1,400 years...... Everything didn't work all at once...... I transferred the data to the disaster log, but it won't be sent...... Hiss ......"

Amon raised his hand and slapped the girl with another healing spell, but he found that his healing spell had somehow diminished a lot, and the ancient magic that should have been enough to fully restore a person from the near death was like a trick made by crappy druid apprentices in ancient times.

Norris came to the console and raised his hand to open the direct communication for an emergency conversation with the mastermind: "Mastermind, report on your situation." ”

A series of bubbles bubbled out of the hemispherical container, and then the slightly mechanical voice of the main brain came from a nearby talkie: "It's painful, itchy, and numb, I think the space station is about to hang, and I'm about to hang up - when the core explodes, I'll jump and run, and if I'm lucky, I shouldn't have to consume the consciousness transmission bandwidth......"

Norris's eyebrows furrowed: "I didn't ask you this!" ”

“…… I don't know anything else, it's so evil, all the sensors are crazy, and the things that the auxiliary computing unit calculates don't even dare to believe themselves, and I feel like the whole universe has become unrecognizable, so I was stunned...... You see, this place is so virtuous. ”

Norris frowned and looked up at the mess of the control center.

But just as he was about to say something, a low humming sound suddenly swept through the entire space.

There seems to be something...... Something has changed, passing through the current time and space.

The next second, he heard the sirens blaring all over the hall suddenly begin to subside, followed by the low hum of the ventilation system reactivating, the gravitational field restored, the crooked gravitational pull became perpendicular to the ground again, and the tingling sensation on his skin from the energy radiation quickly subsided.

The mastermind's voice suddenly sounded:

"The main system is rebooting...... Recoupling with neural networks...... Begin trying to restore synchronization with the station's units...... The synchronization is successful, the energy core reading has been read, and the core output is stable...... Reads to the communication system, speeding up the process of sending and receiving and sending fault reports to hub-XII-B......"

Norris and Ammon watched in amazement as the equipment in the hall quickly recovered, and watched the space station, which had been completely out of control, "resurrected" as if nothing had happened, and they didn't know what was happening for a while.

Even the mastermind himself doesn't know.

"We ...... Just suffered an incomprehensible attack, and an incomprehensible recovery......" After a while, Norris muttered, "Mastermind, how are you doing?" ”

"Alive, but not fully alive, I have to eat a candy to comfort myself."

Norris casually flipped the sugar delivery switch - in the old days of time, this function was used to "overclock" those old models of servo brains, although the current servo brains no longer need to rely on this method to temporarily increase the computing power, but this function is still retained.

It is used to enhance the relationship between the servo brain and the controller - the effect is outstanding.

The servo brain let out a series of comfortable grunts, and the seriously injured Noi girl slowly took a breath: "The space station seems to be fine...... I seem to be a bit serious, do you think I'm dying? ”

Amone reacted instantly and raised his hand: "Wait a minute, I'll give you another treatment, I didn't play well just now, and now I feel like I'm good again......"

"Ah, don't," Girl Noi waved her hand with difficulty, and then tremblingly took out a beam dagger from her arms, and put the handle of the dagger in standby state on her forehead little by little, "It hurts terribly, and I will definitely have to work overtime to deal with the aftermath if I am cured here, I am still dead......"

As soon as Amorn saw that this was okay, the doctor's benevolent mood instantly rose, and he stepped forward to shoot it with a big rejuvenation technique: "Don't! You can still be saved! ”

"Don't save me! Let me die! ”

"Hold on! You put the knife down and you're back in the blink of an eye! ”

"I'm determined to die, you let me die!"

"You...... Why do you still have a knife on you?! ”

"Pss

Norris was splattered with blood.

Amon turned his head helplessly: "Didn't stop - she's off work." ”

Norris looked at this scene with a blank expression, and only wiped his face after a while, and sighed: "Young people nowadays, it's really not the same as my time......

"Don't babble about this, isn't everything you did in that era just for everything in your current era," Amone said casually, his gaze sweeping over the recovering control hall, "What about here?" Theoretically, this place is indeed a place that we don't have to worry about for the time being, but we have to pack up ......."

"Let's see if there's anything else in this place that can be pulled up to work," Norris sighed, his gaze scanning the corpses of the operators strewn across the hall and the self-healing terminals, "I really can't do it, let's work overtime." ”

"Alas......"

Three

The ship group is moving forward, this great expedition that has lasted for hundreds of thousands of years seems to be endless, and countless starships, giant ships and fortress celestial bodies are like a moving galaxy that continues to flow forward in the vast space, along the ancient boundary monuments and road signs, persistently looking for the end of the universe.

This flowing "artificial galaxy" stretches for dozens of light years, leaving behind a bright trail that can illuminate the endless starry sky, and in the process of moving forward, new boundary monuments and road signs are constantly set up and updated, and new members continue to join. The ancients, who were directly connected to the space-time neural network, still remembered the events of the ship group until it set sail, and maintained their perception of the ship group as a whole.

The central node, within the highest hub cluster.

The huge and ancient "Ancestral Sacred Land Group" is arranged in a loose gravitational balance structure, which maintains a sub-light cruise speed under the impetus of star engines, tens of thousands of star engines radiate thousands of flames in space, piercing the stars like knights lined up in ancient times, and an artificial star releases light and heat among these planets with a long history and special significance, while maintaining a magic network broadcast to the entire hub star cluster, and in orbits closer to artificial stars, The Ancestral Sanctuary - Loren is waking up from a routine overhaul.

The atmospheric mask was reset according to the program, the sky above the planet gradually returned to the appearance of blue sky and white clouds, and the giant armor covering the edge of the continent flipped and sank, putting cities back under the sun.

And in the central continent of Loren, the sacred land of the ancestors, a magnificent plant that has covered almost the entire continent is gradually waking up.

This plant looks like a forest, but its layers of intertwined branches are actually a single plant, she is prostrate under the atmosphere, the shade of the trees covers the ancient earth, and those who have glorious names and histories sleep in her shade.

A slight but regular fluctuation of leaves rose from the edge of the continent and quickly spread throughout the giant tree, and among the leaf fluctuations, the crystals and metal skeletons that were hidden between the leaves and branches shimmered slightly.

A lady in a long black dress, with a veil-like lower body and a mysterious temperament, was spreading across the canopy, and when the waves rose, she stopped and looked thoughtfully somewhere in the sky.

After a moment, she withdrew her gaze, as if to say to someone invisible, "There is news from Lao Lu's side that there is a problem with the outpost space where he is eating. ”

As soon as she finished speaking, there was a rustling sound at the woman's feet, and then a figure rose from between the wriggling and trembling leaves: "Norris? What's the situation? ”

"The whole system is offline, the redundant backups are all failing, the main brain is out of sync, and the sensors are recording countless misaligned parameters - the entire space station seems to have been suddenly thrown into the crazy and chaotic time and space, and then inexplicably recovered."

The lady in the black dress said, frowning, and looked at the figure in front of her: "Beltiera, this is not the first time, this situation is getting more and more." ”

"yes, and it's still spreading to the rear," Bertila frowned as well, "at first, only the foremost Pioneer Starship encountered occasional, unexplained system-wide failures, then the Forward Relay Station used to support the Pioneer Satellite, and now even the relatively safe outpost settlements are having problems - after crossing the Norris space station, it should be the Ark ship at the front of the group." ”

At this, the Lord of the Giant Tree paused, pondering and saying, "It feels like the ship is slowly crashing into an invisible wall, or slowly sailing into an invisible swamp...... Something is eroding and destroying our fleet from the back of the field......

"Milmina, I have a bad feeling, very ...... Disturbed. I can't remember how many millennials I've had without feeling this way. ”

"The entire group is currently moving at a high sub-light speed, and individual vanguard exploration teams are even rushing forward to gather intelligence in a normal faster-than-light leap - we are not 'slowly' crashing into that wall, we are already crashing faster than any normal celestial body in the universe," Mirmina corrected Bertila and nodded, "This is unsettling indeed...... It has been 60,000 years since the regiment encountered a so-called real 'threat,' but now our vanguard is suffering frequent losses. ”

"I think the Immortals should be notified immediately, and the Supreme Council should be formed," Bertila said with a serious face, "and if the situation continues to deteriorate, even consider issuing a ship alert." ”

Mirmina did not speak for a moment, but looked up at the sky.

Outside the hazy atmosphere, a faintly radiant planet could be seen floating near Loren, with its verdant earth and beautiful mountain structures, and a circle of propulsion at its waist rippled in layers, leaving beautiful lines in the sky.

"The Ancestral Sanctuary - Noi will soon be overhauled, let's send the news first, and then hold a meeting directly, the Noi people should not be absent," Mirmina said, and then as if remembering something, she asked casually, "What about Gawain?" Can you contact him now? ”

"It's hard to say, my brother said that he wanted to pursue the feeling of youth, and ran to the Blue Maple-V star cluster with Amber, where there seems to be a planet that is doing a hundred years of what kind of retro exhibition......" Bertila said, growing a vine and scratching the canopy of the nearby trees, "It's a group of people who put on strange classical literary and artistic images, build all kinds of theme cities on the planet, and then pretend that ancient people are living ......"

Mirmina listened in amazement, and finally looked at Bertila uncertainly: "I always feel like you've skewered a whole bunch of things...... But it doesn't matter, just send him a message, no matter what, he will have the honorary title of 'Eternal King'......"

"Send it back, but he will definitely reply, 'Hey, I'm retired, you can do it yourself'." Bertila sighed, but didn't say anything more, but honestly edited a message and sent it through the neural network to the head of an immortal who didn't know where he was fishing.

Subsequently, Mirmina also sent the news of the convening of the Immortals and the formation of the council to the upper neural network of the ship.

A highest-level meeting that would only be held in exceptional circumstances was launched with great efficiency.

In a vast space, a huge white spider wanders slowly through the shallow grass, and she weaves an illusory venue, which is modeled after a historical moment in an ancient era, with magnificent and simple stone pillars standing around the venue, surrounding the waterhole and platform in the center of the venue, and under the stone pillars, there are figures entering the venue one after another.

Figures without clear facial features and bodies, as if condensed from amorphous clouds into hazy human forms, their figures were very vague and dim at first, but gradually became stable over time, and above these figures, banners hung down from the stone pillars, and the flags marked the ethnic groups represented by these figures—

Palasha Swarm, Gaelic Empire, Namu Psionic Alliance, Normalizer, Gerbo......

And under the two most eye-catching stone pillars in this venue, there are two figures with the most condensed "texture", and the flags above them are marked with the two most dominant symbols in the entire ship group——

Loren, Noy.

In the center of the venue, the temporary moderator was Mirmina, who was currently the most knowledgeable about the situation in front of the ship—her figure emerged from the air, then looked around and said in a deep voice: "Are you all ready?" ”

"The Parasha swarm should have reached 77 million seats, but it has reached 77 million seats."

"The Gaelic Empire, it should be 40 million seats, but it is 40 million seats."

"Namu Psionic ...... Sorry, we're in the process of final synchronizing, and the main clan personality is stabilizing...... The Namu Psionic Alliance should have reached 36.5 million seats, but it actually reached 23 million seats – and some of our members failed at the same time. ”

"Understandable," Mirmina nodded lightly to the "projection" representing the Namu Psionic Alliance, "Your nervous system is sensitive and complex, and the clan has only only been a member for a short time, so you need to further adapt to the online environment of the group, so you don't need to be too reluctant. ”

Subsequently, the other members of the meeting also reported in order, and the final voice came from Loren and Noy.

"Loren, it should be a million seats, but it is a million seats."

"Noi, it should be a million seats, but it is a million seats."

"Alright, the delegates are ready, let's get started," Mirmina nodded, then took a light breath, "I'm not going to talk nonsense—guys, there's something not going to be good ahead of our group...... phenomenon, there is evidence that we may be driving into an incomprehensible 'danger zone'. ”

Four

At the edge of the hub cluster, the cluster piloted the Ark "Pole Star" out of the faster-than-light state.

Since its completion six millennia ago, this giant starship, which is almost the size of a small planet, has been responsible for navigating the entire ship group, with a highly recognizable fan-shaped main structure and a large and sturdy shield system, and its continuous fan-shaped arc is equipped with the most advanced neuro-sensing critical device from the Loren-Noy consortium, which can complete the mental synchronization and course guidance of the vast sea of ships in an instant, and at the same time, it also has a large number of integrated sensing stations. It is used to detect dangers in the deep space of the universe, so that the "pathfinders" at the edge of the ship cluster can avoid the risk areas in the route in advance.

The most distinctive feature of the Ark's "Pole Star" is not the countless advanced equipment, but the thousands of blue waves under its fan-shaped dome.

The Polar Star Pilot Ark carried an ocean.

This gives this huge ark an unusually moving beauty when it sails through space - it is like a silver-gray fan-shaped shell, sailing in the depths of the endless starry sky, but inside the shell is a pool of sapphire-like water.

On the shores of the "Starship Inland Sea", you can see a forest of urban buildings and functional facilities, and a large and ancient structure stands in the center of the Finger Star Inland Sea, floating on the surface of the sea like a monument of astonishing scale, solemnly and silently bathed in the bright stars sprinkled through the dome.

In the coastal area, on the top platform of the Navigator Tower, a lady wearing a light blue dress and long silver hair is quietly looking at the undulating sea in the distance, her lower body is like a sea snake, but the temperament of her upper body is graceful and luxurious, her gaze is over the undulating sea in the distance, over the slow sailing sightseeing ships on the sea surface and the civilian aircraft flying at low altitude, and landing on the hazy huge "monument" in the depths of the ocean.

After a long time, the silver-haired lady sighed lightly and said as if talking to herself: "It still feels incredible to think about it now...... We relied on an old, tinkered ship to complete the navigation mission for the first 100 light-years of our voyage......"

"Yes, Your Majesty Pettia," a soft, gentle voice came from the side, and the lady-in-waiting, Rosaria, looked at her queen with a smile, "but it is undeniable that it was the right decision to restore Antavien to the skies – it helped the regiment through the most difficult start. ”

"Indeed, the boat was really dangerous at the beginning...... The first time we sent to visit Noi, the star shuttle was even drifting in a vacuum for two years due to a mechanical failure," Petia shook her head, "and a system that could navigate on a light-year scale was invaluable......

"It's not just systems that can perform navigational tasks that are valuable, Your Majesty."

“…… You're right," Petia laughed, "isn't our navigator awake yet?" ”

"She's been making up for this sleep for more than two hundred years, and she should wake up again," Rosalia sighed, "Do you want me to push again?" Maybe you can pour some 'Enyat wine' into the dormant pool of Tyre......"

As soon as Rosaria finished speaking, she heard a sudden snort from the nearby mechanical door, and then the door opened, and a complaining voice sounded on the platform: "I heard it!" Do you have such a friend? I didn't even say anything about you last time you poured vinegar into my pool, but you're planning to kill me this time, right......"

"Lady Enya will be sad to hear you," Rosalia smiled and turned her head to look at her long-time friend who was chrysalis coming out of the platform lift gate, "and seriously, as far as I know, several of the wines she invented are very popular on the Parasha Zerg side, to the point where the Zerg Empress is eager to use the Swarm Consciousness to enforce Prohibition......"

“…… Those Zerg can even drink the secretions of the Abyss Devourer, can I compare to them? Tyr gave Rosaria a blank look, then bowed to Queen Pettia before rubbing her head, "Let's get down to business...... What is it that suddenly calls me up to such a loud movement? Now that the navigator team is not short of people, there should be no need for me to work overtime......"

"In some situation, we may need all the authorities to come to the post to decide the fate of hundreds of millions of civilization members next," the expression on Petia's face finally became serious, she looked at Tyr's still sleepy eyes, "The Supreme Council has just ended in the neural network, the Immortal Matrix is fully online, the leaders of the Arks of each node and the consuls of the mobile planets are still in session, and even ...... Even His Majesty Gawain was pulled back. ”

Tyr, who was sleepy to death a second ago, finally came to his senses at this time, looking at the queen's serious expression, listening to the series of terrifying "movements" that the other party said, even the heartless kraken could realize the seriousness of the situation.

Tyr's tail was visibly twisted, and his face was full of nervousness: "I'm ...... What the hell is going on?! ”

It was Rosaria who spoke: "In short, the front end of the ship group is being continuously damaged, multiple space stations and the Marginal Rover spacecraft are severely damaged or even completely disintegrated and destroyed, and the damage may be further expanding due to unexplained interference in the communication environment ahead—there are no completely lost members of the ship group for the time being, but only temporarily." ”

Rosaria's voice fell, and Queen Pethia on the side added a few words: "In addition, this destruction is spreading to the rear, and the speed is extremely fast. ”

Tyr listened to his friend and the queen in a daze, his expression gradually became stunned, and finally he couldn't help but exclaim: "Attack? What are we at war with?! How else can this universe encounter an 'enemy' that can inflict such great damage on the ship's mass? ”

"It's not an attack, it's easier to do if it's a war," Rosaria shook her head, "We haven't found any enemies so far, so that's why I said that the regiment suffered 'continuous destruction' - all the damage was inexplicable, even ...... Some of the damaged units suddenly disappeared into the communication network, and no concrete damage has been reported so far. ”

Tyr frowned slightly and thought for a moment, then suddenly spoke: "...... I need more detailed data. ”

"It's ready."

Rosaria said as she turned and waved her hand in the air.

With her movements, the ground in the center of the platform suddenly rippled like water waves, and the hard metal actually vanished out of thin air, turning into some kind of thin and uniform mist, and then the mist became clear and transparent, and a large number of clear holographic images and constantly refreshing data appeared in front of the three krakens.

Tyr immediately arched over, engrossed in studying the parameters and diagrams that surfaced on it.

It was all damage reports from the units that were destroyed at the front of the group and parameters collected by sensors at the last moments, including a damage record from an immigrant ark - a giant ship a little bigger than the Pole Star, because it was deployed in front of the group, the ark was equipped with an incredibly strong shield and strong armor system, and powerful firepower enough to destroy a planet in an instant, but on the damage report that came back, the master of the immigrant ark recorded an astonishing destruction process:

Only thirty minutes passed from the time the first sensor of the Ark began to report an error to the collapse and disintegration of the entire Ark due to the loss of control of all the energy cores.

There are no specific attackers, no enemy is in sight, no intrusion records and traces of destruction are left in all systems, as if ...... The ship was naturally destroyed.

“…… I reacted the same way you did when I first saw the data," Rosaria's voice came from the side, "shocked, incredulous, even a little frightened...... We've never seen such an 'attack', have we? ”

“…… This is indeed not an attack," Tyr finally came to her senses from her shock, she backed away slightly, her gaze swept over another damage report, it was from the outpost station 'Whitewater', and due to the timely disposition - or just plain good luck, the space station did not completely disintegrate like the immigrant ark it had just seen, so the data it sent back was more detailed and weird, "This is 'self-disintegration'. ”

The Siren Queen Pettia also came to Tyr's side: "Do you have any opinions?" ”

"Did you notice the sensor recording?" Till raised his hand and put together the noteworthy data from several reports, "See the pattern?" ”

"Regularity?" Pettia frowned, "I just feel confused, as if the Parasha Zerg who have poured too much Enyat wine have made long and short poems in a daze......"

"Yes, confusion is the rule," Tyr said with a serious face, "Under normal circumstances, no matter how bad the sensor is, with the size of a colonial starship or space station, there should be a part of the data it sends back at the end that is 'reference', and many large units are also specially equipped with sensors that are independent of the central system and directly connected to the 'disaster backup database', just to prevent problems in the main system, in order to leave some comparisons before the whole system is damaged." Clean and reliable' data, but look at these...... All the data is not right, Your Majesty, I don't think it's a glitch. ”

"Not a glitch?" Pettia frowned, "What do you mean...... Are the sensors of these damaged units actually working properly? They...... Did you really record the true face of the 'saboteur'? ”

"Yes, the true face of the saboteur is in these misguided data - the sensors are working all the time, but it is likely that they are not able to recognize what they 'feel', and these sensors record my feelings...... It's as if there's a huge audio signal input into the optic nerve that can't be recognized, so it can only output these jumbled parameters......" Tyre said slowly, his voice gradually hesitating, "it's like...... It's like ......"

Rosaria's voice suddenly sounded next to her, and her voice was soft: "It's like the moment in ancient times, when we first perceived 'magic' in Loren's atmosphere......"

Tyr didn't speak for a moment, but fell into a long thought, and after a long time, she suddenly raised her head: "Do you remember an unusual phenomenon that the navigators noticed before I hibernate this time? ”

Petia thoughtfully: "You mean ......"

"It was four millennia ago that we last crossed the 'boundary marker' left by the sailor, and for a long time before that, the 'signposts' and 'messages' left by the sailors have accompanied the ship," said Tyr slowly, "but in the last four millennia, we have passed through the widest 'vacuum fault zone' on record, and we have not seen anything left behind by the sailor along the way...... Not even a single navigation light shining in the starry sky. ”

Pettia and Rosaria involuntarily glanced at each other, and both of them had a look of solemnity and contemplation in their eyes.

"We have been restless for a long time, and many have speculated about the fate of the Voyager, why did their traces suddenly cease to be such a powerful race of pioneers? Is it because the vacuum fault zone is not easy to anchor permanent buildings? This is not a problem at all for the starter's technique; Is it because they forgot? It's even more unlikely; Is it because they are finally tired of this never-responding 'message' and have given up waiting for the next civilization to set sail in the universe? But four thousand years ago, around the last Voyager beacon we saw, they also left us with a message of 11,000 anchored lighthouses – welcome, keep going. ”

Tyr paused, silently staring at the flickering data in mid-air and the grim images coming back from the destroyed outposts.

"That's probably the answer."