Rebirth of the Super Battleship

The latest observation results told Xiao Yu that the operational state of this star was not stable.

Generally speaking, in a stellar system with planets, the orbital trajectory of the primary star is not stable. For example, the Sun, its rotation axis is not a line passing precisely through the stellar center of mass but is slightly offset.

To use a simple analogy: take a piece of paper, cut out a circle, then pierce the paper with a pen, of course, not through the center, but somewhere offset from the center, and then start spinning it around the pen tip.

The way the star operated was just like that rotating circular piece of paper.

The cause of this phenomenon was actually very simple, the gravitational disturbance from the planets created a trend in the system toward forming a binary star system, causing the primary star's rotational axis to deviate from its center of mass. In fact, by measuring such gravitational disturbance phenomena, humans during the Earth era discovered hundreds of exoplanets.

But there was a problem that greatly puzzled Xiao Yu. Within twenty billion kilometers around this star, with the star itself as the reference center, Xiao Yu had found no celestial body of significant mass.

In other words, nothing existed that could produce a gravitational force sufficient to tilt the star's rotation axis.

Xiao Yu quickly reported this result to the attending scientists. This phenomenon immediately triggered a wave of lively discussion among them.

"First, we can confirm that this unusual phenomenon was not caused by a black hole. While black holes cannot be directly observed, they can be easily detected through gravitational lensing," Xiao Yu said. "Our hundreds of thousands of probes have already searched this star system thoroughly, yet have found no trace of any massive celestial object. So… what is going on?"

Xiao Yu had a vague intuition that this phenomenon was very likely connected to what the Trolor Civilization's testament had described, that ultimate defensive weapon called the 'New World.'

He could not help but begin pondering the meaning of this simple term, 'New World.'

"Couldn't the star's axial tilt be caused by its own stellar activity?" a scientist stood up and voiced his uncertain opinion.

"No, that's impossible," Xiao Yu refuted. "At this moment, at least three thousand probes are gathered around that star. Every move it makes is under my complete observation. Its current stellar activity is in no way sufficient to create such a major effect. Hm, let me calculate based on gravitational disturbance… the calculation result shows that, at a distance of four billion kilometers, there is a celestial body with roughly 0.3 solar masses pulling on it. Wait… wait a moment! The star's axial tilt phenomenon just disappeared! It's returned to normal!"

Just then, the probes sent back another piece of information that left Xiao Yu utterly astonished.

"How can this be? A celestial body with 0.3 times the mass of the Sun, how could it vanish in an instant? Th-this makes no sense." Staring at his observation results, Xiao Yu was dumbfounded.

A celestial body begins to rotate because it follows the principle of conservation of angular momentum, and if there is no external disturbance, its rotational axis must pass through its center of mass. At this moment, the star was displaying precisely such a state. Just a short while before, its rotational axis had still been slightly offset, but now, in an extremely short span of time, it had actually returned to normal.

All the scientists exchanged bewildered glances. This occurrence had already proven that the explanation proposed earlier, that the axial tilt was caused by the star's own activity, was incorrect. Perhaps stellar activity really could cause an axial tilt, but could stellar activity also immediately correct the tilt again?

This did not follow any logic, nor did it conform to any scientific principle.

"Look! Look! The axial tilt has appeared again!" Receiving another report, Xiao Yu was even more astonished and immediately relayed the information.

"No, something's not right!" Luka Four said. "Master, did you notice, this time, the degree of axial tilt is not the same as last time. Based on this rate of deviation, it means that right now, there is a celestial body with roughly 0.5 times the mass of the Sun, pulling on it from 12 billion kilometers away!"

"What in the world is going on!" At this moment, Xiao Yu was deeply frustrated. He realized that his proud technological capabilities and accumulated knowledge were completely incapable of making sense of this.

"This star system is indeed peculiar. It's basically certain that the so-called New World, and the Trolor Civilization's relic, are hidden somewhere here. But we can neither see it nor sense it. It's like a phantom, appearing and disappearing without a trace."

"There was about a ten-second interval between the two occurrences of axial tilt. According to our calculations, one of the orbits was at four billion kilometers, and the other was at twelve billion kilometers. The distance between those two orbits is eight billion kilometers. Eight billion kilometers! In ten seconds! That's eight hundred million kilometers per second, this is over two thousand six hundred times the speed of light! How is this possible!" In the conference room, someone exclaimed.

That exclamation immediately drew the attention of everyone present. Each scientist carried out a simple calculation, and they all arrived at the same conclusion. Instantly, the atmosphere in the conference room became heavy.

"I don't know if you still remember the Taihao Civilization from the Large Magellanic Cloud," Xiao Yu's voice carried a hint of bitterness. "They actively went to seek out the Sweepers Civilization's battlefield and then realized their own strength wasn't as great as the Sweepers. In the end, they sent out a distress signal. That distress signal was received by the Guardian Civilization, who then issued a universal summons, calling on all civilizations in the Milky Way capable of participating in war to join forces to encircle the Sweepers."

"I remember it very clearly," Luka Three took over, speaking slowly. "At that time, only our Luka Race was following you, Master. I still recall the contents of the Guardian Civilization's Milky Way Summons. It basically said that any civilization capable of traveling at more than one hundred times the speed of light could proceed to the battlefield themselves. Those unable to achieve that could go to the Guardian Civilization's gathering point, where the Guardians would transport them."

"This information implies a very clear reality," Luka Four continued, "From this, we know that even for the veteran and powerful Level 6 Civilization, the Guardian Civilization, one hundred times light speed was already a significant threshold. Likewise, we can infer that the Guardians' speed wouldn't exceed one hundred times light speed by very much. But… this thing's speed reached over two thousand six hundred times light speed. Do you realize what that means?"

"Speed, in a certain sense, represents technological strength. That much, I do understand," Luka Two said. "It's certain that even the Sweepers Civilization is far from reaching this speed. In fact, based on our speculations, if the Sweepers Civilization could achieve one hundred and fifty times light speed, that alone would already be astonishing. Two thousand six hundred times? That, this would only be possible for a civilization that has reached Level 7. But… if the Trolor Civilization truly was a Level 7 Civilization, how could it have been so miserable under pursuit by the Sweepers? Even if they couldn't win, who could possibly catch them if they fled?"

Two thousand six hundred times the speed of light was a terrifying velocity, a level that Xiao Yu did not even dare to look up to. In Xiao Yu's estimation, only a Level 7 Civilization possessed the capability to complete a voyage between galaxies. The most important limitation was the problem of speed.

Even at the maximum speed of the Sweepers Civilization, one hundred and fifty times light speed, it would take over fifteen thousand years to travel from the Milky Way to the Andromeda Galaxy. That duration might not be excessively long, but the fatal issue was the impossibility of resupply during such a lengthy journey.

This resupply problem could not be solved simply by carrying sufficient materials. Xiao Yu had once wondered, why would resupply be an issue? With the Sweepers' technological prowess, he believed they were fully capable of bringing along an entire star on their voyage. Wouldn't a star be enough to fuel their consumption?

However, as technology advanced and he came to fully understand the principles of curvature flight and the rate of energy expenditure, Xiao Yu realized he had been wrong. The reason was very simple, supplies have mass, and the greater the mass, the more energy is required to sustain curvature flight. To make a star travel at one hundred and fifty times light speed, how unimaginable would the energy cost be?

Even if all the mass of that star were converted into energy, it still would not be enough to sustain curvature flight all the way from the Milky Way to the Andromeda Galaxy.

So, for intergalactic voyages, it seemed there was only one remaining path, conventional travel. Cruising at sub-light speeds, it would take as long as three million years to cross from the Milky Way into the Andromeda Galaxy. This method really could accomplish an intergalactic journey, but the problem of consumption along the way remained, arrival was possible, but whether the beings who arrived were living or simply corpses was impossible to guarantee.

But if your speed could reach two thousand six hundred times the speed of light? That meant traveling from the Milky Way to the Andromeda Galaxy would take less than nine hundred years. Nine hundred years would pass in a flash, truly not a long time.

But, how could the Trolor Civilization possibly have possessed such formidable strength?