pjbooks Chapter 502: Day 2 of the voyage!
Chapter 502: Day 2 of the voyage!
There are no reference points in the maintainer's private passage.
The blue light curtain on the tunnel wall swept across at a fixed frequency, one frame every 1.7 seconds.
The interplay of light and shadow creates an illusion, making people mistakenly believe that the mecha is moving at high speed, when in reality the chaos has already exceeded the speed of light.
On the second day of the voyage, at 9:00 AM standard time.
Guan Xing woke up in the secondary seat, removed the restraint strap, and casually retrieved the recording pen.
Gravity is constant within the channel, but small objects may be slightly deflected by the turbulence.
What time did you go to sleep?
Two points.
Guan Xing didn't ask any further questions; she glanced at the navigation log.
No abnormalities were observed; the light curtain on the channel wall remained stable, and there were no external energy fluctuations.
Zhang Yan moved his shoulders and neck in the main seat.
Driving continuously for six hours is nothing; the real impact comes from the five days of intensive training at Guixu.
The upper right corner of the system panel lit up briefly.
The quantum entanglement channel received a feedback message.
The sender is an Earth terminal; the delay of fourteen hours is normal.
Zhang Yan clicked on it.
Nie Qingcheng's reply took longer than he had expected.
The first paragraph describes her work. She asked whether the Guixu technical files had been completely transferred, whether the Guanxing team had backed them up, and whether the Tiangong final external frame parameters needed to be synchronized with the military system.
The second paragraph asks about the flight status, the mech's energy consumption, and the rest situation during stargazing.
The third paragraph consists of only one line.
"The pork ribs have been bought and are waiting for you in the fridge."
Zhang Yan stored the communication content in an encrypted file.
The stargazer didn't look over, but she cleared her throat.
"What are you laughing at?"
"I didn't laugh."
"Your lips twitched for more than three seconds."
"You're still keeping track of time?"
Guan Xing didn't reply; she tucked her pen into her collar.
Zhang Yan replied to each and every one of them.
The technical files have been fully backed up, with one copy stored at Tiangongxin and another at the independent stargazing terminal.
The external frame parameters are not yet synchronized with the military. Once we return, Nie Qingcheng will decide on the scope of authorization.
After typing all that, he looked at the line of text again.
Spare ribs, refrigerator, waiting for you.
Three words are more effective than a love letter.
He turned off the communication panel.
The driving mode remains manual, and no operation is required within the channel. However, the synchronization rate of the Heavenly Craftsmanship Heart will passively increase in manual mode.
Even if it's only 0.01% at a time, it adds up.
Data from stargazing has already been deployed.
"Did you see the rating change for Eye of the Abyss?"
"I've seen it."
What do you think?
Zhang Yan leaned back in his chair, repeatedly looking at the words "potential level".
At the edge of the Milky Way's spiral arm, for the first time in 30,000 years.
"A double-edged sword."
Guan Xing twirled the pen between his fingers.
"In the vast ocean of the universe, rating systems are similar in function to rich lists."
"Being on the list has a deterrent effect, but it also brings trouble."
Zhang Yan nodded.
"The most direct consequence of moving from the observation level to the potential level is a surge in followers."
"Previously, only low-level civilizations and anonymous buyers were watching our activities, but now even the big players might come and take a look."
Observing the stars revealed the details of the Cosmic Ocean Agreement.
"Once the rating reaches the potential level, it will be included in the initial contact schedule."
"But there's a complicated scheduling mechanism: high-rated slots can be moved up on time."
Zhang Yan continued, "Yes."
Guan Xing nodded.
"Earth's original first contact was within one hundred standard years."
"If a high-level civilization submits an observation request, it may be delayed for less than ten years."
The cockpit quieted down, with only the low-frequency hum of the thrusters.
"So what's the best strategy now?" Guan Xing asked, looking at him.
"Don't move," Zhang Yan replied.
"After returning, I will not respond on public channels, issue announcements, or accept new transactions."
"Let the rating change settle naturally."
"What about Nie Qingcheng?"
"She'll be more conservative than I am."
Zhang Yan recalled the last announcement about Guixu. Nie Qingcheng didn't say anything at the time, but in the post-event review, she only mentioned that they would discuss it next time.
Guan Xing put his pen away.
"Okay, let's stick to a low-key approach for now, and decide on the final decision after you two have finished discussing it."
She glanced at the navigation log again.
The light curtain frequency is stable and the energy consumption is normal.
"I'm going to check the warehouse; I need to double-check the storage status of the Mo Bing."
"go."
Guan Xing left the main seat.
Only Zhang Yan and the sound of the thrusters remained in the cockpit.
He took the metal box out of his inner pocket and placed it on the edge of the control panel.
Without opening it, my fingertip lingered on the shallow mark on the lid for two seconds.
That mark was left intentionally by Nie Qingcheng.
She used scraps of the primordial fragments to polish the box, stopping at the last step, leaving a mark the width of a fingernail.
She said that perfect things are unmemorable, while imperfections are what make people remember the creator.
Zhang Yan put the metal box back into his pocket.
It was 2:47 a.m. on the third day of the voyage.
Zhang Yan was on duty, while Guan Xing rested in the secondary seat.
The cockpit was set to low-light mode, with only the control panel instruments emitting a faint glow.
The blue light curtain on the corridor wall swept past as usual, one frame every 1.7 seconds.
Until frame 2314.
The light screen alternates between bright and dark; this is neither a malfunction nor flickering.
It was a continuous ripple that stretched from the left side of the passage wall to the right, with a length of more than two hundred meters.
A prompt appears on the system panel.
[Detection of external gravitational disturbances in the channel]
[Source: Large mass object passing by on the outside of the passage wall]
Threat Rating: None
[Disturbance type: Gravitational pull, passive influence, non-directional]
Zhang Yan straightened up.
A 200-meter ripple indicates that a large object passed by outside the passage, and it was very close.
The channel walls can filter out most interference, but gravity penetrates everything.
"Stargazing."
The sound of the fastener being opened came from the second seat.
"I saw it."
She was already awake; the abnormality in the passageway wall had triggered the mild alarm she had set.
The two stared at the system panel.
The ripples lasted for eleven seconds, then disappeared, and the channel returned to normal.
Zhang Yan retrieved the parameters of the disturbance source, including its mass, velocity, direction, and acceleration.
The quality estimates are not very comfortable.
The stargazer spoke first: "Planetary level?"
"A subplanet," Zhang Yan said, "but with its own power."
She frowned. A sub-planetary-mass object was moving at high speed near the hyperspace path, and it was even autonomously powered.
"The White Light Patrol?"
Zhang Yan shook his head: "The spectrum doesn't match."
He superimposed the direction of the disturbance source onto the star map, and a white trajectory swept across the outside of the channel, pointing into the distance.
Zhang Yan's hand stopped on the control panel, and Guan Xing saw it too.
The direction of movement of the disturbance source is at a 12-degree angle to the predicted flight path of the parent community.
They are not on the same line, but the angle is very small.
"Twelve degrees." The stargazer's voice trailed off. "A coincidence, or is there a connection?"
Zhang Yan highlighted the data in red and archived it.
"It's uncertain, but there are no known migration routes in this area on the Guixu navigation map."
"What could that be?"
Zhang Yan leaned back in his chair, going over all the known information in his mind.
It is neither a White Light Patrol, nor a colony, nor a known interstellar entity in the Ruins database.
A new variable.
"Mark it, archive it, and leave it for now," he decided.
"I'll watch it with Nie Qingcheng after we get back to Earth."
Guan Xing nodded.
She knew when to press for answers and when to wait.
The blue light curtain on the channel wall resumed its regular frequency, moving evenly at one frame every 1.7 seconds.
Chaos continued to glide deep into the passage, less than two days from the solar system.
Guan Xing disassembled the gravitational perturbation data four times on the workbench.
The first time I looked at the velocity curve, it showed uniform motion with no signs of acceleration or deceleration.
Looking at the mass distribution a second time, it's too uniform. It's rare for a natural celestial body to have such a regular distribution; it's more likely for a man-made object.
On the third viewing of the spectrum residue, a small amount of electromagnetic imprint remained in the gravitational perturbation.
She pieced the fragments together, obtaining a fragmented outline.
"It's neither high-dimensional energy nor conventional nuclear fusion propulsion," Guan Xing said, pushing open the data tablet. "It's somewhere in between."
Zhang Yan chimed in, "Hybrid power? It could also be a third option."
The two exchanged a glance, but neither went any further.
If we don't have enough data, continuing to extrapolate will only waste time.
"Let it go," Zhang Yan said.
"Let's put it aside," Guanxing agreed.
She named the file "Unknown 12 Degrees" and then encrypted and archived it.