In an era when the stars are shining again, a distant wanderer has discovered a glimmer of life at the perceived boundary of the ethnic group.
In the boundless deep space of the universe, the distant stars have remained silent in the eternal darkness for billions of years. Across a distance of several light years, even the most blazing stars have only one point. The cold light can reach this airspace, and in this dark space illuminated by the cold starlight, a ripple suddenly breaks the long silence.
Ripples appeared in the universe, and the stable space-time structure was instantly distorted and reorganized. A shock that exceeded the speed of light suddenly arrived at the predetermined coordinates. Then this shock broke away from the deep sea state and began to condense rapidly in the material universe. It shows its original appearance
A light starship with a length of less than a hundred meters. Its streamlined and rounded silver-white shell shines under the starlight, shaped like an elegant and slender arc, slightly The light slowly undulates around the edge of its alloy shell, interspersing with the stars in the distance.
This beautiful aircraft has been roaming in this vast sea of stars for an unknown period of time. The passage of time can hardly leave many traces on its specially made shell. But inside this aircraft, all the equipment and The cabin still maintains the most basic silent operation.
In the core control cabin of the "Rover" starship, extremely dim lights slightly illuminated many terminal systems that were in automatic state. There was no sound in the relatively spacious cabin, which did not matter at all. The appearance of life seems to have lasted for thousands of years, and on a protruding platform at the front of the cabin, a hemispherical crystal container is gradually lighting up with the awakening process.
Under the dim light, you can see that the crystal container is filled with a viscous and translucent biomass solution, and there is nothing else.
This silent and lifeless state lasted for an unknown period of time. Suddenly, a remote detector finally sent back the long-awaited signal from the starship. A soft voice sounded in the cabin, breaking the news. "The final jump coordinates have been determined and the controller z377s15 applied to transfer to manual control to start manufacturing."
The automatic system announced that a series of bubbles suddenly appeared in the crystal container in the front part of the cabin, and then a series of drastic changes began to occur in the solution that originally seemed calm and dead. The preset biological template was injected into the guidance system, and the complex Biological structures began to be quickly printed and organized in the container. Flesh, flesh and bones grew and matured within ten seconds. Nerve fiber implants spread out from the four walls of the container, connecting and merging with the biological nervous system that was growing rapidly in the solution.
During this process, the automatic system's announcement sound continued to sound
"The controller enters the production process, and the estimated completion time is three minutes.
" Those eligible to connect to the Immortal Matrix have responded and have begun downloading the controller.
“Confirm the basic information of the controller, the Loren ethnic group, Cecil’s selected branch, the neurosymbiote derivative branch, Renee.Parama, service record 3507, passed the mental coding verification.
"The controller is activated, and the ship switches to manual control."
As the system announced the voice, the crystal container filled with biomass solution was finally opened, revealing a slender man. The girl walked out of the container. There was still a bit of lifeless dullness in her iron-gray eyes, but the next second, those eyes blinked flexibly, and then she looked to the side. The "captain's seat" in manual control.
With ease, Renee took the short robe sent by the self-discipline machine and put it on her body. Renee stepped forward to the captain's seat. She reached out and grabbed the back of her neck, and removed the nerve connector from her spine. Pulling out and connecting the control panel, at the same time the other hand activated the communication interface next to it. "This is Marginal Wanderer Renee. I have arrived. The last hop is to arrive in person."
came from the communicator There was a brief silence, and then a calm male voice came into Renee's ears, "How do you feel?"
The nervous system that was born less than a few minutes ago processed the sound that came into the ears. The voice sounded a little distorted at first, but it soon stabilized into a familiar voice. Renee rubbed her eyebrows. "After all, I am a little dizzy. After all, I traveled from thousands of light years away in a few minutes." The server node is transported to the bridge of the Marginal Rover and downloaded into a blank body with a newly formed brain. You know, this is not an easy job."
"I thought it was like you Such immortals will be more accustomed to this kind of ultra-long-distance transmission and temporary downloading," the voice coming from the communicator was calm, "After all, your soul was digitized thousands of years ago."
"There is also a difference between the Immortal and the Immortal," Renee waved her hand, "What's more, this is not only related to the derivatives, but also to the personal constitution. I am an ordinary person, and I am not the same as that person who has forty thousand years. There is no comparison with the old man who can still download and farm all over the galaxy at an advanced age."
"I don't know much about you immortals," the voice from the communicator paused, "Okay. Now you should be over the download dizziness. Let’s start reporting the situation. What have you discovered?”
At the captain’s seat, the slender girl’s expression finally became slightly serious, and her eyes swept over the control The parametric projection was displayed on the stage, and then he looked at the cabin wall in front that had been switched to optical penetration mode. As far as the eye could see, there was only a vast darkness and a distant and cold sea of stars.
"I was about to report this strange situation," after a moment of silence, Renee shook her head and said, "There is nothing here."
"Nothing"
p>"Yes, it is empty and desolate. This is just a vacuum zone." Renee breathed out softly. "I confirmed that the coordinates are correct. The location reported by the remote detector is here. There should be a star here. A planet teeming with life, a lush planetary system, a burning star but I saw nothing."
"Could there be something wrong with the Marginal Wanderer's jump process? z377s15 is an old antique. The last time it passed the border of the convoy was four thousand years ago, during the era of the Sixth Great Development. "
"I have checked the log of the jump system. Now my nerves are still connected to the ship. I control the status of the ship just like I understand my own body. This old antique is very healthy. There will be such low-level errors," Renee shook her head. "I have sent the log data and the observation situation here back to the fleet, and I think this side may need a little help."
" Understood," the voice coming from the other side of the communicator carried a hint of unexplainable seriousness. Obviously, it is not a trivial matter that a living planet that originally appeared in the detector has now "missed". The level of weirdness was enough to make the servo brain partner who had worked with Renee for thousands of years become serious. "The board of directors of the ship group is aware of the anomaly discovered by the marginal wanderer z377s15, and it is expected that a senior advisor will take over the matter."
The communication channel was temporarily quiet. The slender girl on the captain's seat breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed during the short wait. She sat back on the large seat. Due to the remote thought transmission, The slight feeling of fatigue gradually dissipated.
The cool starlight brushed across the hull of the Marginal Rover. In the simulated perception transmitted simultaneously by the nerves, the starlight seemed to be directly touching her skin.
The rover starships of the previous era seemed to have some kind of defect in nerve conduction and simulation. This imprecise touch made Renee feel a little dazed for a while. She gave up thousands of years ago. With her "original" body, like many of the Loren race, she entered the Immortal Matrix and became a member of the Immortal. After that, her way of perceiving the world changed greatly, becoming more accurate and The broad data stream has replaced the inefficient nervous system of the original body. Even if she occasionally comes to the material world through downloading, she still has an advanced neural enhancement system to help her process environmental parameters. She uses an outdated perception system like she does now. It was a long-lost and novel experience for her to face the cosmic environment head-on.
Her thinking couldn't help but be a little divergent.
It is said that in the ancient times, when immortal technology had just emerged, this kind of mental digital conversion was an extremely rare privilege. At that time, only very outstanding and great people had the opportunity to enter immortality. The Immortal Matrix has become the firm trump card behind civilization, and the Immortal technology at that time had many flaws. People uploaded to the Internet were almost considered to have no chance of "returning to the world" again, but now< /p>
Forty thousand years have passed, and the so-called immortals have long become an ordinary "derivative branch" of the Lorennoi Federation. Within the huge territory of the United Fleet spanning the sea of stars, The thinking nodes of the immortals expanded and spread along with the fleet's route, and they were engaged in various jobs that suited them.
For example, participating in an interstellar adventure, joining the Eternal Legion, farming across the galaxy, or undertaking long-term online game power training.
There are countless immortals. It can even be said that the entire Lorenoy Federation is an immortal empire, but there are very few immortals like Renee who have signed up to become the "captain" of the Marginal Wanderer. See.
Because immortals do not like to be alone, the prosperity and close connection of neural networks will make them instinctively reject the "touch" of leaving the group and sailing beyond the borders of civilization, and wandering on the margins The "post" responsible for collecting intelligence outside the ship's route is destined to be lonely.
But some things have to be done by someone and they need experienced people.
"I wish I were a siren," Renee said after being dazed under the stars for a long time, and finally couldn't help but sigh, "They are so heartless and happy. I really can't be a giant dragon. Okay, they will jump on the voyage and develop the ship and fly for eighteen hundred years, just like going for a walk."
"I don't think the Kraken is suitable to become a marginal wanderer," a partner suddenly came from the communicator. The voice was as calm and indifferent as ever, "They always die suddenly from unknown AoE during apparently very safe missions. The frequency of sudden death is even faster than flipping through a book, and they always cause some equipment damage. They Your life may not be valuable, but remote mental transmission takes up the bandwidth of the neural network."
"If the chief navigator hears your words, something big will happen. I tell you, she has to. Fill your life-saving tube pump with salt water, and your brain will be salty by then."
"Don't say such terrible things," came the still indifferent response from his partner through the communicator, Then the other party suddenly paused for a moment, "The consultant who went to assist with the on-site investigation has arrived."
Hearing her partner's words, Renee immediately adjusted her somewhat lazy sitting posture and followed her gaze. She cast it towards the distant sea of stars, and almost at the same time, she noticed the strange changes in light and shadow around the starship.
Threads of shadow are gathering. Although it is the dark and endless space here, the thicker shadow still emerges from the darkness in an incomprehensible way, and quickly moves around Renee. The perception condenses a gesture that can be accepted by the mortal mind.
The slender girl on the captain's seat was suddenly a little surprised, and subconsciously blurted out "It's you"
The tall mountain-like existence that condensed in space "Listen" When Renee exclaimed in the spaceship, He turned his head slightly, his face seemed to be covered by clouds, and a pair of amber eyes showed a smile under the clouds, and His voice was directly transmitted into Renee's "They are very busy, I just have time. Moreover, I saw the data you sent back, I'm afraid my power is needed here."
"You mean Shadow" Renee blinked, Looking at the majestic figure in space through a series of barriers, armors and sensors of the starship, looking at the ancient being who was named a god in ancient times., "But I have just scanned the entire airspace with a multi-frequency scanner, and there is nothing here."
"The Marginal Rover's scanner has its limits, and it can deal with the camouflage constructed by most low-level civilizations." , but if the civilization building the disguise has touched some more powerful forces, the universal scanner carried by the rover will not be so effective."
The towering figure in space smiled. He intended to leave these words, and then he turned around and looked at the vast darkness in front of the Marginal Wanderer.
After a long time, a sigh suddenly entered Renee's mind.
The girl at the captain’s seat seemed to understand something.
"They are right here"
"Yes, right in front of you," the towering figure shrouded in clouds and mist gently raised its arm and pointed The darkness in the distance is "shrouded on the other side of light and shadow."
"Incredible technology," Renee slowly opened her eyes, "This is some kind of defense method for a civilization that has developed to a very high level. Why didn't they react at all to our appearance?"
The towering figure in the space did not answer for a while. He was silent for a long time, and then suddenly mentioned something that seemed to be irrelevant. "Renee, you learn The history of ancient history forty thousand years ago, before the age of sailing, when Loren and Noi were both trapped in their respective home planets."
"Learned it." Renee nodded slowly, "I still remember that there were a lot of extracurricular readings in that class, including a set of ancient readings called the Emperor's Holy Words."
"She actually gave the Holy Words to "Tuck it in for extracurricular reading." The towering figure in the space was startled for a moment, but then shook his head slightly, "Forget it, they are happy with it anyway. In short, it is not important. What is important is that during that period of history, the Loren civilization had met. After facing a crisis, a choice, and a trap that was summed up by later generations as one that can end all futures and terminate all roads, do you still remember?"
Renee was slightly startled, followed by a powerful memory retrieval implant The body fluids came into play, and she quickly remembered the knowledge she had learned thousands of years ago. "You mean the cradle trap?"
"Yes," the voice that came into the girl's mind seemed to carry a soft voice. Sigh, "A group of lunatics once tried to build an eternal cradle and avoid the annihilating natural disasters in the universe by covering the entire planet in some kind of barrier that would never be opened. They hoped to give up future development in exchange for eternity. It even set off a world war that was almost catastrophic for the Loren civilization at that time."
Renee listened quietly, and finally gradually came to her senses, she widened her eyes With his eyes open, all the sensors on the Edge Rover instantly pointed at the dark and empty space ahead. "Wait, you mean"
"A barrier, based on some powerful shadow power." Although the principle of the constructed barrier is different from that of the crazy plan forty thousand years ago, the essence is so similar."
In space, the nameMs. Ye's majestic figure let out a sigh. She already knew the secrets hidden in this space, so all the secrets disappeared in her sight. A curtain of light and shadow disappeared in the edge wanderer's sensors.
Renee saw the blazing star that had appeared in the probe but now disappeared, the planetary system orbiting the star, and the planet that was described in the report as "vital" "Blooming" little planet.
"When did the rover probe send back its report?"
Ms. Ye's voice suddenly came to mind. Renee was stunned for a moment and quickly answered, "About three hundred years." Not long ago, a remote detector reported that it had discovered life here, but then lost its sense of this area. Later, the marginal rover z377s15 judged that it was of investigative value, and wandered here for a full three hundred years. I came to look for the coordinates reported by the detector at that time. It was not until a few hours ago that it found this place and called me over."
"Three hundred years. Considering the latest oscillation cycle of the demon tide, they at least There are more than two centuries to slowly prepare and develop to meet the challenges of adulthood."
Ms. Ye said, finally letting out a long sigh.
He walked to the side of the void, as if to let Renee see more clearly the dead planet illuminated by the stars.
“Not all eternal cradle will overturn in the demonic tide, but as long as it overturns, almost no civilization can survive in its infancy. Maybe it’s just a small crack, maybe it’s just a small crack in the design. A trivial flaw, when it breaks out, a civilization that voluntarily gives up on the future will be doomed to be unable to recover."
Renee sat quietly on the captain's seat of the Marginal Wanderer, the cold star. The brilliance spanned the far distance, and together with the fierce sun that was so close at hand, illuminated the outer shell of the starship and touched her five senses.
She looked at the small planet shrouded in the sun, and at how glorious and prosperous it once was.
Now there is only a piece of scorched earth and countless grotesque depressions and hideous features. The surface of the rift valley.
In the 40th millennium after the United Fleet set sail, in front of Renee the Marginal Wanderer, a civilization chose the Cradle of Eternity.
Pretending to be a Children’s Day gift,