Rebirth of the Super Battleship

Xiao Yu's vigilance had never disappeared and had never relaxed. The abnormal situation here had aroused his alertness.

"At this moment, it's still better to convene everyone for a discussion," Xiao Yu pondered. "My personal wisdom is ultimately limited."

"Luka Two, bring those elite psychosocial sciences division scientists under your command to the main conference room. Luka Three, Luka Four, Species Number Two's Senya, Species Number Seven's Richie, Species Number Eighteen's Murphy… attend as observers," Xiao Yu issued his orders.

Because, to begin with, Xiao Yu's people from over a hundred races were too few in number, and the Home One's carrying capacity was sufficiently immense, they all currently lived aboard the same Home One starship, albeit on different floors. On each floor, Xiao Yu had created distinct survival environments and ecological systems. When it was necessary to convene a collective meeting, they would don survival suits specially designed for their respective races and gather in the same place, the main conference room, for discussion.

"Today I've gathered everyone because we've encountered a new problem… as you can all see," Xiao Yu projected some information retrieved by the probes onto each attendee's personal terminal, then continued, "this is the location we reached by following the coordinates provided by that box. But this place is too empty, unusually empty. Here are some of my thoughts for your reference."

As he spoke, Xiao Yu laid out his two hypotheses and then summarized, "The war between the Trolor Civilization and the Sweepers Civilization must have been far larger than we expected. Even our war with the Molian Civilization left scars across entire star systems that have yet to fade, let alone a war between entities of this level. To completely erase all traces of such a war would require enormous effort and an extremely long time. I don't believe any civilization would waste resources on such meaningless tasks. So that leaves a question. Why would they do this?"

A wave of discussion swept through the Grand Hall. Although these intelligent beings had vastly different physiological structures and social cultures, they all shared one thing in common, they communicated through spoken language and writing. Xiao Yu's perfected translation system allowed them to communicate with each other as smoothly as if they were longtime friends.

"I don't think this was intentionally done by a civilization of intelligent beings," said Richie of Species Number Seven. "In fact, while this sort of situation isn't exactly common in the universe, if you search carefully, you can indeed find such places without too much difficulty."

"Perhaps you're overlooking something," Xiao Yu said softly. "In the observational data, this star's stellar activity is slightly more intense than what our detailed calculations, factoring in its lifespan, mass, and heavy element abundance predictions. Look here."

"Focus on the area circled in red. Look closely at how it differs from the surrounding regions," Xiao Yu said. "Can't see it? Then look at this."

Displayed on the computer terminals was a photo showing the star in yellow-white hues. In the image, sunspots, coronal mass ejections, and streams of high-energy particles tracing the magnetic field could all be seen clearly. But for a star, all of this was perfectly ordinary. The area Xiao Yu had circled in red appeared just the same, without any visible peculiarity. All the scientists exchanged looks of puzzlement, unable to discern what Xiao Yu meant.

With a single command from Xiao Yu, the three-dimensional holographic image zoomed in again. This time, the circled region revealed its distinction.

The color there seemed just a bit whiter than the surrounding area.

"This area is hotter."

Even the psychosocial sciences division scientists present knew some basic astrophysical knowledge. Naturally, they understood that a whiter color indicated a higher temperature than yellow.

"Yes. This region's temperature is abnormally higher than the rest, which is why it appears white," Xiao Yu said. "But this phenomenon has no explanation in our theories of stellar evolution. Or rather, combining the current circumstances, I can propose one explanation: approximately five hundred thousand years ago, a moon-sized celestial body collided with this spot. The abnormally high temperature here is the residual heat from that massive impact."

The conference room once again fell into silence. All the attending scientists were thinking rapidly. After a moment, Luka Three spoke. "This explanation is very reasonable. According to our theories of stellar evolution, it is entirely acceptable, there are no contradictions."

"Then, there is one more matter," Xiao Yu said. "According to the information from that box, the Trolor Civilization and the Sweepers Civilization happened to have fought their final battle here five hundred thousand years ago. With that piece of information added in, does anyone still believe that the emptiness here formed naturally?"

"First of all, this star system possessed a moon-sized asteroid five hundred thousand years ago. And if there was a celestial body the size of a moon, that means there must have been more bodies, large planets, small asteroids, there is no way it could have been so empty. Furthermore, a moon-sized body could not have collided with the star without cause. Most likely, it was affected by the war and crashed into the star. So two things can be confirmed, first, this place was not empty in the past; second, the war described by the Trolor Civilization truly happened."

"Then how should we explain this phenomenon now? Why… is this place so empty? What were they trying to do by doing this, what purpose did it serve?"

After going around in circles, the question returned to the starting point. Xiao Yu asked it again and looked expectantly at all the scientists present.

"Since all the current evidence points toward the Trolor Civilization being genuine and credible, perhaps we can speculate from a benevolent angle," said Senya of Species Number Two.

"Hmm? A benevolent angle? I see." Hearing Senya say this, Luka Two seemed to be inspired by something and immediately stood up. "Perhaps, the reason they did this was simply to draw the attention of certain beings who know the inside story."

"Why?" Xiao Yu countered.

"The reason is very simple." Luka Two, now that its train of thought had opened up, looked somewhat excited and continued, "If you had not received that box, would you have paid any attention to this place?"

"No," Xiao Yu answered crisply. "Such a desolate region holds no value to me or to any other civilization. Even though its emptiness is a little unusual, it is not beyond explanation. We wouldn't have come near it at all, much less discovered that a certain area of this star has a higher temperature than others."

"Then… what about after you received the box?" Luka Two asked again.

"Mm… I understand now." Xiao Yu instantly realized as well, and couldn't help feeling a hint of excitement. He continued, "Then, the heritage of the Trolor Civilization must be right here."

"Yes." Luka Two nodded slightly.

"What are you talking about?" Luka Four, who was sitting as an observer nearby, asked curiously.

"This Trolor Civilization adopted a very clever little tactic to keep their heritage safer," Luka Two said softly, as if with great emotion. "By doing this, on the one hand, they increased the security of their legacy, and on the other hand, they provided the Dwarf Race with a kind of clue, think about it, for civilizations who didn't know the inside story, the emptiness here would only make them stay away, assuming it held no value. That way, they maximized the protection of their heritage. Meanwhile, by launching that box toward the Dwarf planet, they ensured that for the Dwarf Race, who knew the truth, this emptiness became a clear signal, their heritage is here, no doubt about it."

"Luka Two is absolutely right. That is also my thinking. Senya, you did well," Xiao Yu encouraged Senya, then continued, "This explanation is very reasonable and logical. Now, there remains only one question, where exactly is their relic?"

This star system was extremely empty. Other than the main star, there were no celestial bodies of any significant size. It could be said that, with Xiao Yu's hundreds of thousands of probes searching, anything larger than ten meters in diameter would have been found. But the result of the scans was that there was nothing at all.

"If our reasoning is correct, then to allow the Dwarf Race who received the clue to successfully retrieve the relic, they must have left other hints. You must understand, this was a gift prepared for the Dwarf Race after they reached Level 4 Civilization. We are a preliminary Level 5 Civilization now, there's no reason the Dwarf Race could find it but we cannot," Luka Two said, frowning and thinking carefully.

The conference room was filled with silence. Everyone, Xiao Yu included, was deep in tense contemplation.

Suddenly, receiving the latest probe intelligence, Xiao Yu's spirits lifted. He murmured, "I've received the clue. The clue is on this star itself."

After synthesizing all observational data, Xiao Yu had discovered a peculiar phenomenon. The motion of this star's orbit was not stable, as if there were an invisible star beside it, using its gravity to disturb it.