Rebirth of the Super Battleship-Chapter 690: Dyson Sphere
At this moment, Xiao Yu was at the junction of the Milky Way’s edge and intergalactic space, while the star that had suddenly disappeared was near the edge of the Milky Way. It was a very ordinary red dwarf, with very low mass, temperature, and luminosity. It had no attendant planets, and scarcely any asteroids or interstellar dust orbiting it. It was circling in lonely isolation around a nearby binary system, like a grain of sand abandoned by someone.
This type of star was the most numerous and least conspicuous in the Milky Way. Whether for low-level civilizations or high-level civilizations, it had little value. For low-level civilizations that hoped to obtain survival resources from stellar radiation, its habitable zone was too small and too close to the star, with too much harmful radiation. For mid-level civilizations that sought resources from rocky planets or asteroids, it had only a bare primary star, with no decent planets and no value. For high-level civilizations that used stars as fuel, such as Xiao Yu, it was too small to be worth the effort. In short, it belonged to the kind of star in the Milky Way with the least presence and the least attention.
But now, given that Xiao Yu was making every effort to search for the Guardian Civilization’s traces, its disappearance was enough to attract Xiao Yu’s attention. Although it was only a red dwarf, anything that could make such a star vanish would at least have to be a Level 6 civilization. Moreover, the process of its disappearance had certain peculiarities.
Xiao Yu saw that it first vanished from the visible light band and various radiation bands, and then after a period of time, it disappeared from the gravitational wave aspect. From this, Xiao Yu easily drew a conclusion. An unknown existence was attempting to conceal it. This civilization had adopted some method to first screen out its radiation bands. After that work was complete, it used gravitational screening technology to screen out its gravity as well, causing it to lose its trace from the large-scale visible universe.
This phenomenon immediately aroused Xiao Yu’s interest. Xiao Yu almost instantly made a conjecture. “There is a high probability that this was done by the Guardian Civilization. Perhaps the Guardian Civilization is collecting these inconspicuous stars, making them vanish into thin air, then quietly transporting them away to serve as nodes along the star route. Follow it. As long as I keep on it, I can certainly find where the Guardian Civilization is hiding.”
Xiao Yu made a decision at once. He immediately dispatched several specially built stealth micro-ships toward that location. Xiao Yu knew that the Guardian Civilization likely had not yet discovered his presence. Because if the Guardian Civilization already knew that he had laid a heaven and earth sized net here, how could they still be capturing stars in this region?
“So long as they have not discovered me, it is fine. From now on, all probes enter stealth state. Aside from the tracking ships, all other types of ships also enter stealth state.” Xiao Yu rapidly issued the order. Xiao Yu’s main force did not move, and he sent out only a few of the most stealthy small ships. Dispatching the main force would easily be discovered, whereas sending stealthy small ships to acquire positional information first and then sending the main force to encircle and annihilate would be most appropriate.
Three ultra-miniature ships, each about the size of an Earth era desk, adopted a special curvature flight mode and began heading toward the place where the star had disappeared. A star in transit could not move too fast, and at the speed of these small ships it would be enough to catch up and then quietly shadow it. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶
The probes near this star were quietly watching it, providing directional guidance for the tracking ships that were on their way. During the time it took for the tracking micro-ships to arrive, one of Xiao Yu’s conjectures was confirmed. Yet the confirmation of this conjecture made Xiao Yu even more puzzled.
Although this concealed red dwarf had been screened out from radiation bands and gravitational waves, a star could not truly disappear from the universe. It would always leave some traces. Up to this point, it had already traveled more than ten light-years, yet over this distance, the probes Xiao Yu had deployed in advance could still detect it.
This was strange. Since the concealed star could still be observed by Xiao Yu at a distance of ten light-years, then during the previous large-scale carpet search, why had Xiao Yu been unable to find the nodes of the star route laid by the Guardian Civilization? Judging from the current situation, there was only one reason Xiao Yu had not found them. The Guardian Civilization simply had not set up nodes here.
This was the conjecture of Xiao Yu’s that had been confirmed, but it was precisely this that left him more perplexed. If one intended to voyage to the Andromeda Galaxy, one would certainly set nodes within this region. Setting the nodes outside this region was not impossible, but what would be the rationale? Doing so might be beyond some people’s expectations, but the price to be paid would be too great, like an Earth human planning to travel one thousand kilometers north yet placing the first supply point one hundred kilometers to the south.
Gradually, another conjecture surfaced in Xiao Yu’s mind. But this conjecture was too far-fetched and contrary to common sense, and Xiao Yu did not dare to be certain yet.
After one year, Xiao Yu’s tracking ships finally caught up with that star. With the aid of extremely faint reflected starlight nearby, Xiao Yu saw the star’s current appearance.
It had completely changed its appearance, and Xiao Yu knew that this change came from external force. A spherical film of unknown black material had enveloped the entire star. It was precisely this film that cut off the vast majority of the star’s radiation, including light, infrared, ultraviolet, neutrinos, gamma rays, and so on. At the same time, this film had excellent light-absorbing properties. When external starlight shone upon it, only a very small portion would be reflected back. This meant it was extremely difficult to detect in the light band. If the tracking ships had not been equipped with extremely sensitive optical instruments, Xiao Yu would not have been able to see it at all.
Upon this black film sphere there were faint protrusions, with some apparatus-like structures built there. For fear of being discovered by them, Xiao Yu did not dare get too close. But even at such a distance, Xiao Yu could roughly surmise that those things should be gravitational screening instruments, as well as related equipment that sustained the operation of the film, and devices that could bring an entire star into curvature flight.
“Dyson sphere? You really thought of this.” Xiao Yu thought with a touch of bafflement.
The Dyson sphere was a concept from Earth era humanity. Humans imagined building a great sphere to enshroud an entire star, thereby harvesting all of the star’s radiative energy for their own use. Yet in Xiao Yu’s course of development, such a thing as a Dyson sphere had never appeared, because it was unnecessary. From the advent of elemental decay technology onward, energy had not been a shackle for Xiao Yu. With the abundant matter of the Milky Way there for Xiao Yu’s use, why go to the trouble of building a Dyson sphere? What Xiao Yu had not expected was that in the hands of the Guardian Civilization, the Dyson sphere actually had another function.
That was concealment, making a star disappear without a trace.
This action by the Guardian Civilization made Xiao Yu recall certain events in human society during the Earth era. In some eras and in places with poor public security, at night it often happened that someone walking along would suddenly be covered by a sack and then dragged away in the dark. Thinking of it now, the plight of this star at this moment was strikingly similar to those abducted back then.
After silently sighing inwardly, Xiao Yu piloted his small ship to continue following behind. By this point, Xiao Yu was already basically certain that the party bagging the star and abducting it had at least a ninety-nine percent likelihood of being the Guardian Civilization.
Up to now, Xiao Yu had already shadowed this star-capturing team for more than one hundred years, and both sides had traveled more than eight thousand light-years. When this team had traveled more than five hundred light-years, Xiao Yu’s main force had already quietly set out to follow behind. Five hundred light-years, for Xiao Yu, was only a little over three years of travel.
“So they really did not build the star route nodes within this region.” As the distance of travel grew greater and farther beyond the range he had demarcated in advance, that conjecture in Xiao Yu’s heart became ever more certain. “It seems your target for the intergalactic voyage is not the Andromeda Galaxy.”
It seemed that from the very beginning, when he heard the Guardian Civilization intended to undertake an intergalactic voyage, Xiao Yu had subconsciously assumed that their destination was the Andromeda Galaxy. Because people advance toward higher places, and in the local group of galaxies, the Andromeda Galaxy was the only one larger than the Milky Way. Voyaging beyond the galaxy, it would undoubtedly be within Andromeda that there was greater room for development. Yet the Guardian Civilization had done the unexpected and had not chosen the Andromeda Galaxy as their destination.
Up to now, Xiao Yu was basically certain of this point, but as to where exactly the Guardian Civilization had chosen as their destination, Xiao Yu still did not know. Only after seeing the positions of the Guardian Civilization’s star route nodes could he infer it.
Time trickled by. After this star had been dragged along for more than two hundred years, the Guardian Civilization’s star-capturing squad finally came to a halt. From his hiding place, Xiao Yu saw that in this location there were already at least several thousand similar stars gathered here.
