Chapter 315: Chapter 314: Alien Spaceship! Chapter 315: Chapter 314: Alien Spaceship! Years passed, one after another…
The entire fleet had ventured into the vast expanse of space, with The Kunlun Mountain successfully utilizing several major gravitational fluctuations to accelerate the fleet to its intended speed, settling into regular navigation.
Its destination was… 187j3x2!
Zhang Yuan, although the commander of the Kunlun Mountain Fleet, also had his own ti for hibernation. About every five years he would hibernate for two, spending over half his ti in hibernation. But compared to the average civilian, he woke up far more frequently, and thus aged a bit quicker as well, a price of captaincy.
The daily tasks weren’t too busy, after all, even a ship as vast as the Kunlun Mountain was just that—a spaceship. Lacking a massive supply of resources, there was no way to undertake large-scale projects. The general duties of everyone onboard involved routine maintenance of the spacecraft, so straightforward research, or perhaps designing new machinery.
The laboratory materials were still sufficient; after all, nearly all resources could be recycled and reused, consuming only energy.
The spaceship was teeming with talent, not everything needed Zhang Yuan’s personal attention. If no special events occurred, Zhang Yuan was quite content to enjoy his leisure ti.
And so, 39 years of stability passed…
On this day, Xu Yuanyuan, a graduate student in Space Botany, along with several colleagues, were at the observatory’s radiation zone, cultivating a new generation of Space Mutant Plants.
Space travel, though mostly dull, occasionally presented sothing new. For example, when passing through the Kuiper Belt, observers spotted several large cots at a closest distance of about 800,000 kiloters.
Since no large planet had ford near the Kuiper Belt and the influence of the Constant Star was extrely weak without experiencing various complex astronomical phenona, its composition mostly represented the original components of the early Planet System, which was incredibly aningful for understanding the origins of stars.
Scientists once attempted to capture these teorites, but due to the fleet’s high velocity, the entire capturing operation ended in failure…
This attempt ended up stirring the entire ship, with many researchers left disheartened by the failure.
Later, at about 0.2 light years from the Constant Star, the fleet encountered a strange ion wind. Such ion winds had been experienced at the fringe of the Solar System, but no one knew why…
Despite extensive investigation, no scientific model could satisfy everyone.
After that, nothing major happened. Matter in interstellar space was scarce, and encountering a teorite the size of a little finger after traveling millions of years would be considered incredibly lucky.
“Five more months until hibernation, it always feels like these years have been unproductive.”
“Staying on a planet, you’d be doing the sa work…” A few girls chatted casually in their space suits, placing the soybean-sized seeds one by one into the culture dishes.
“Hey, can the seeds mutate beneficially?”
“It’s hard to say… If only we could find all the codes of genetic material, we wouldn’t have to rely on blind luck as we do now.”
“So stupid, I just don’t get it.”
DNA is an extrely complex entity for humans, each strand containing a vast amount of information. Vast is an understatent here; the sequence of base pairs is rely the most basic one-dinsional information, then there’s more complex two-dinsional information, and even three-dinsional space!
Thus, humans have yet to fully unravel the true mystery of genetic material.
Cultivating Space Mutant Plants is both a tedious and joyful task. Its principle is simple: using the radiation in space to induce mutations in plant seeds.
Most mutations are harmful, rendering the seeds completely inviable.
However, a few mutations are beneficial, resulting in extraordinary reactions. For instance, Pu Pu Grass, a widely used and tasty algae for air purification; Antimisia, a variant of banana producing large amounts of ethylene; small hemp, a cotton variant yielding twice as much produce…
Cultivating each new seed was like playing the lottery, carrying an inexplicable sense of anticipation. Even if most attempts didn’t hit the jackpot, the mont of finding a winner felt like reaching the pinnacle of life!
With the appearance of various beneficial Mutant Plants, people’s lives improved significantly.
These plants provided raw materials for industrial production, food for humans and animals, and acted as purifiers of the air environnt. They were indeed extrely important to humans.
After arranging all the seeds, suddenly, Xu Yuanyuan’s vision blurred, feeling as if sothing swept over her eyes.
In that instant, the entire world turned crystal red!
“Ah!”
She let out a small, sharp scream.
It felt as though a laser pointer had swept across her eyes, causing them to sting and ache, and tears uncontrollably burst forth.
She covered her eyes with a hand, and with the other eye, she suspiciously glanced around.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know…”
This patch of the starry sky was pitch black, dark as if one couldn’t see their hand in front of their face, except for the glow from the space suit, nothing could be observed.
She didn’t know if it was an illusion she had created or sothing else, but the redness and swelling of her eyes were very real, and there was still a burning sensation as if she had been scalded.
Xu Yuanyuan hurried back to the Mother Ship to the Hospital for an examination; the doctor who treated her was shocked to hear the details and, without delay, reported the discovery to the governnt’s relevant departnt…
“What, a girl’s eye might have been hit by a laser coming from outside?!”
Zhang Yuan was also shocked when he heard about the incident and promptly went to the Hospital to visit the girl.
The doctor at the Hospital replied, “It’s just a slight congestion in the eyeball, she should be fine after so rest; there’s no need for a prosthetic bionic eye replacent.”
“Okay, thank you. If it was a mishap involving a nearby Escort Ship, compensation and an apology will follow imdiately.”
But the entire incident sounded too bizarre!
Zhang Yuan initially thought that a communication laser from an Escort Ship may have accidentally struck soone, but minutes later, information from all nearby Escort Ships indicated no errors or mishaps had occurred.
“Report to the Captain, Yingsun 1, inspection is correct, no misfired communication lasers.”
“Report to the Captain, Yingsun 2, inspection is correct.”
…
Finally, the military also sent an investigation report, “Second confirmation, inspection is accurate, no misfired communication lasers.”
In order to prevent the large-scale exposure of communication signals, the Mother Ship communicated with Escort Ships using directed lasers, typically at a frequency of once per minute in the usual state.
Zhang Yuan took a deep breath; he quickly realized there might be other possibilities…
“If it wasn’t a mishap from Escort Ships, could there be another possibility?”
An… Alien Civilization!
Nearby, there might be an Alien Civilization, using low-frequency lasers for external detection!
The matter quickly escalated in severity.
He offered a few words of comfort, then hurried back to his Captain’s Room, issuing an urgent notice. He was able to infer this because the Kunlun Mountain Fleet also often used low-frequency lasers for external detection.
Space here was exceedingly dark; the nearest Constant Star was two light years away, with so few photons in the space that it was almost an abyss of darkness.
This darkness rendered regular observation equipnt completely incapable of surveying the environnt, hence the best thod of exploration was to use microwaves or lasers!
Using high-power microwave radar had quite an effective result, quickly illuminating everything in the vicinity. However, this high-power radar would also imdiately reveal one’s location, much like a giant bulb in the dark Universe, impossible not to be detected by others.
Therefore, using detection lasers beca an excellent choice.
This type of detection laser did not have high power but could be continuously emitted. When the laser ca into contact with a relatively smooth object, it would produce a series of diffuse reflection echoes. By analyzing these diffuse echoes, one could determine the object’s shape and location…
When Zhang Yuan considered this possibility, he felt both excited and apprehensive, issuing an imdiate command, “Attention, all spaceships please be aware, there may be an unknown Alien Civilization nearby, using detection lasers for exploration!”
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