Sword of Dawn

Page 670

Noy: "The 'star tower' is the ancient equipment we use to communicate with you. It is a relic left by the 'voyagers' in the sky above our planet. The pioneer group successfully awakened the star tower, but failed to change the status of their own group. Fate, at the last moment, they left the Star Tower to us as a gift."

Starbreaker: "We understand. In other words, you have not really mastered the technology of faster-than-light communication, and you can only rely on this 'legacy' to establish communication with us?"

Noy: "Exactly, we must rely on it to make our own voice among the stars - so the use of star towers has a special and honorable meaning in our group, and only a few qualified individuals can (here cannot translation) and achieve resonance.”

Due to the cumbersome process and the limited translation speed, the efficiency of this conversation is really not very high. When Gao Wen finished reading the latest information, the star interpreters far away in the Sorin command center were still working on the next step. The deciphering work at this stage gave both Gao Wen and Amber time to slowly think about the information revealed in those conversations.

"Sure enough, it's as we speculated before." Gao Wen breathed out lightly, and put the page aside, "They used the heritage of the sailors to send out signals... The technological level of this civilization is not It was as amazing as we imagined, and I think it's a little bit of a relief."

"Not only at the technical level...the frankness of their communication surprised me even more," Amber said with a frown, "They answered a lot of questions, and even revealed a lot of things on their own initiative. You must know that in their eyes, we are also a person who doesn't know the truth. 'Alien Civilization', but this group called 'Noi' doesn't seem to be so... afraid of it."

"In fact, we may be equally 'frank' in the eyes of the other party," Gao Wen shook his head with a smile, "Didn't we also prepare a lot of materials introducing ourselves and pass them on? It's just that all the materials have been passed on. Rigorous discussion to ensure that there is no harmful content in it - I believe the situation of "opposite" is similar. The first communication between two alien civilizations that have never been in contact with each other, both sides can only see the other party's candid display things, without being able to see the secrets that have been kept from the beginning, where the information on both sides is so closed that even asking questions on both sides is very limited, in this case, the conversation itself means candor."

Amber listened to Gao Wen's words thoughtfully, but at this moment, the printing device on the side began to spit out new content——

Starbreaker: "About the 'disaster' you mentioned, we already know something about it. On our planet, it is called a 'Magic Tide'-our scholars believe that it will cause intelligent creatures to have a negative impact on the world. The distortion of cognition, and then lead to the loss of control of the observer effect in the macroscopic field, and finally lead to the phenomenon of extinction of civilization, is this in line with your cognition?"

Noy (there is a long blank waiting here): "Yes, this is exactly what we want to warn you about! You already have a certain understanding of this, which is really good news."

Star Breaker: "So can it be understood that you know how to deal with the 'Magic Tide', but you can't do it alone, so you need to cooperate with us?"

Nuoyi (waiting blankly again): "At this stage, we don't have the technology to completely resist the magic tide, but we have some theories that may be able to protect the minds of intelligent creatures when the magic tide comes—but we really can't do this independently. thing."

Starbreaker: "We need a clearer explanation to judge whether this 'cooperation' should take place. What is your theory? Why can't you do it alone, but there is hope in cooperation with us? How do you judge a completely The strange 'alien civilization' can just help you complete this matter?"

Noy: "Because we must calculate certain parameters of the magic tide on an astronomical scale to ensure that the protection technology takes effect, and in order to collect the most original data, we need to establish at least two observation points.

"The distance between these two observation points must be greater than four light years—this is the basic scale of the magic tide during a complete shock.

"In this range, you are the only civilization that responds to us."

The content of the conversation on this paper ends here, and at the end of the paper there is a small footnote left by a line of technicians: the above-mentioned "light-year" unit has been converted.

Gawain raised his head and looked at Amber. Almost at the same time, they heard Beltira's voice from the magic net terminal next to the desk: "Do you think the things 'they' said are credible?"

Gawain glanced at Bertila, then looked down at the conversation record on the typed paper, and couldn't help frowning slowly: "There is too little information... Our research on the magic tide is actually quite superficial, even Even the first 'simulation laboratory' was planned not long ago, and these superficial understandings alone are not enough to determine whether these 'aliens' are lying..."

He squeezed the space between his brows, and began to think quickly, while continuing to say slowly: "...According to them, if you want to resist the evil tide, it seems that you must first conduct some kind of large-scale 'observation' on the evil tide. Set up observation points at two points four light years away to confirm a certain instant state of the magic tide... In other words, their theoretical 'protection means' should be an adjustable thing, perhaps the principle is To 'offset' the magic tide?

"It seems that although the 'pioneering group' in their mouth has left them a lot of knowledge, there are also a lot of 'knowledge loopholes', which makes them know more about the world than us in some fields, but they have no corresponding knowledge. solutions... or rather, solutions temporarily beyond their current capabilities..."

Bertila was silent for two seconds, before speaking slowly: "I don't know if they are willing to share their 'protective technology' with us first—or even just share their thinking in this regard, which should help us Judging the credibility of the matter."

"Let the Astronomers prepare for this issue," Gao Wen nodded, and then he thought for a while, "By the way, how do they plan to 'cooperate' with us—judging from the information revealed in the previous conversation , the distance between us and their planet is at least four light-years, and the only connection between us is this unreliable FTL communication. If they consider these actual conditions, then they should at least have a relatively close relationship. There are feasible solutions."

"Yes, the Starbreaker team has started editing the text."

What followed was a rather difficult waiting process. The silence in the study was almost only the sound of breathing. Gawain and Amber stared at the magic net terminal on the table and the printing device connected to the magic net terminal. Lightly tapping the armrest of the seat - until a few minutes later, there was a sudden click in the printing device, followed by a piece of white paper being slowly spit out with the sound of the machine shaft running.

Gao Wen and Amber's eyes fell on the piece of paper in an instant——

Starbreaker: "We do have the intention of cooperation, which is for the survival of both of us, but we must first understand your 'protection theory' to evaluate the feasibility of the whole thing. Please understand our caution—because We are also studying the magic wave, we don't have infinite energy."

Noy (waiting for a long time): "...we understand and are willing to share our thinking in this regard with you in advance.

"The destructive mechanism of the magic tide stems from its 'cognitive interference' to intelligent creatures, and our theory of 'protection' is based on this. We believe that if the 'cognitive' of intelligent creatures can be This disaster can be avoided by immobilizing in some state of non-interference, or by placing the mind of an intelligent being within a 'force field' that is effective against the tide.

"The knowledge left to us by the pioneer races speaks of a 'Mental Unity Field' device capable of covering the entire planet. For the past 400 years, we have placed all peoples under the shelter of this device, But now, the only thing this device lacks is the observation parameters of the magic tide.

"Therefore, we need your help."

Starbreaker: "...we have understood it, but we cannot give an answer immediately. Our leaders need to conduct a more careful understanding and evaluation, but please rest assured that the response will be given in the near future.

"Before that, we want to understand one thing first - if we really establish cooperation between the two sides, how should this cooperation be carried out? The distance between the two planets is so far away, and we only have one Unstable FTL communication link."

Noy: "We will send the technical information to you, including how to build the observation device for the magic tide, and the complete blueprint of the 'Mind Unified Field' device-although the latter may not be suitable for your ethnic group, but for you It must still have value.”

Looking at the handwriting on the printing paper, Gao Wen fell silent for a moment, his expression extremely serious.

A "Mental Unity Field Device", a technology that has the potential to ward off the tide of magic.

Does he want to?Of course he wants to!

The "Noi people" need the help of the alliance. It took them 400 years to complete a grand project that can protect the entire civilization. Now they have almost completed all the preparations, but they are stuck at the most critical step. Now All it takes is an observation point four light-years away, and they'll be able to activate the shield, and their civilization will be saved.

But they are not the side that "needs others", at least not completely - because compared with them, the future of the alliance is really uncertain. The "mind unification field" mentioned by the Nuoyi people... At this moment There is a fatal attraction to Gao Wen.

Apart from this, things such as "whether the alliance has the ability to create the mind unifying field device" or "how long will it take to create this thing" are things to be considered later.

But no matter how impulsive he was, Gao Wen couldn't make a clear response right now.

After all, all his understanding of this mysterious "Noi" civilization at present only comes from the conversation records on these few pages, and many technical-related contents mentioned in these conversation records still need real experts Let's discuss and verify as much as possible, and he also wants to hear the opinions of Typhon and the Silver Empire - as the actual leader of the alliance, he is destined not to be able to shake off his allies on this matter.

Just as he was constantly weighing in his mind, Gao Wen suddenly heard Belsetia's voice: "May I ask, what are they going to do if we don't cooperate? This 'Noi' civilization...is there any preparations?" option?"

Chapter 1436 Suddenly, Very Suddenly

In Sorin's command hall, Bertila stared blankly at the holographic projection in front of her, while her spirit spread throughout the facility. Everything that happened here, every piece of information flowing from the communication channel escaped. But her sight.

There are hardly any obvious fluctuations in expression on the face of this mimic avatar, but Bertila knows that he is not at all calm at the moment—talking with a civilization that is completely strange, even living on another planet It was an unprecedented experience. As long as she thought about the historical process behind this conversation across the stars, she felt every leaf in her trembling slightly on the treetops.

Those who followed the developments here through the remote network must have the same mood.

"The new text has been compiled, the transcoding has been completed, and it is being sent to Antavien." "Antavien sent a confirmation message, and the text has been sent, waiting for the other party's response."

There was a report from the command seat in the hall, and Bertila was still standing quietly at her position, calmly watching the holographic projection in front of her like a plant, and she saw a line of slightly Glowing text:

Starbreaker: "If we don't work together, what will you do? Do you have some kind of...alternative solution to this observation point problem four light-years away? This question is purely ours. curious."

After this, there was a period of blank noise that was longer than the previous waiting period, and the "Noyes" seemed to be discussing how to answer this question - separated by at least four light-years of star sea, she could not see what happened on the "opposite side" things, but she couldn't help imagining, imagining how those "aliens" were having the current conversation...

Did they also gather as many expert teams as Thorin Command Center did?Will they also have heated discussions and try to guess and interpret this ethnic group that calls itself the "Loren Alliance" across the Xinghai?Will they also feel the joy and tension like the mortals on this planet?

The society of the "Noyes"... Is there a wave of waves due to the sudden communication?Are their leaders also paying attention to this conversation across time and space?

Bertila slowly raised her head, but her "gaze" penetrated the tens of meters thick roof, wooden structure and layers of leaves above. From the perspective of a giant tree, the vast and boundless sky is like a giant curtain. It hangs over her perception, but even this seemingly vast and boundless sky is actually just an inconspicuous layer of atmosphere on the surface of this planet. The vast starry sky of ordinary people's imagination——

Four light years, this is a scale that makes all disputes, gains and losses, life and death in the world instantly seem small.As early as the Gondor era, the magisters were aware of the concept of the speed of light. However, until the destruction of Gondor, "light years" were still limited to a "conceptual unit of measurement"-it was so hopeless that at that time People can't even imagine what kind of travel method can travel on this scale, so this thing beyond understanding is finally classified as "the power of God" like other similar things...

Thinking about it now, the poor mental state of the gods on this planet is probably inseparable from the influence of these things that have been randomly classified as "miracles"... The mortals who were once ignorant only knew how to keep their heads down, but When encountering problems that cannot be explained clearly, they always blame the gods irresponsibly, but what can the gods do?They don't understand either, so they can only go crazy...

If there is no theocracy, if there is no more and more revelations about the operation mechanism of the gods in recent years, this kind of blindness may sooner or later lead to the doomsday no less than the magic tide.

A slight buzzing sound suddenly interrupted Bertera's slightly divergent thinking. She immediately looked at the holographic projection in the center of the hall, and saw a line of text being continuously translated into a common language slowly emerging on the screen— —

Noy: "Yes, we have alternatives—in other words, your response is a surprise to us. From the very beginning, we have followed the premise of 'no other intelligent civilization within the predetermined range can provide assistance' to develop a self-rescue plan.

"Many, many years ago, we have sent out 'observers', who will go to the nearest standard measuring point from our planet and send the magic tide readings there back to our home star...

"To this day, observers have traveled in space for 120 years, but this long journey of four light years has not yet reached the end... It has entered the deceleration process, but there is still a certain distance from the scheduled observation point."

The text on the holographic projection stopped beating, and the entire hall suddenly fell into a strange silence. Bertila realized a certain fact revealed behind this text, which made her eyes widen.

In the next second, she heard Gawain's voice suddenly coming from the communication device: "They are capable of space travel—this civilization has passed the 'rite of passage', so start asking immediately."

Gao Wen, who was far away in the south, had already stood up from his chair at this time, and even Amber next to him was staring at the magic net terminal on the desk. When the "original plan" had been implemented for 120 years, what shocked Gawain the most was that they were able to carry out interstellar travel itself!

Stepping out of the planet and stepping into the universe - on the planet where the Loren continent is located, this behavior means that the mortal civilization has completely cast off the shackles of the gods and entered adulthood. And knowing every season of intelligent species that has existed on this planet's history, this process will obviously not be unique.

As long as other planets follow the same laws of the universe as Loren, as long as the thinking logic of other intelligent races is not deviated to the point that it is completely incomprehensible to the Loren races, then even if it is a few light-years or hundreds of light-years away "Aliens" must also have this process of "primitive worship-birth of gods-two-way shackles-adulthood", and in the final stage of this process, they will face "disobedience failure" and "civilization survival" An alternative situation.

This is not an easy process. The dragons of Tarrond have used the heavy status quo to prove to the world the price of taking a wrong step in this process, but the experts of the Theocratic Council believe that the price is lower and easier. There is a path to realization, as long as you walk on the right path in the early stage of breaking free from the shackles, it is not unimaginable to cross the coming-of-age ceremony at a relatively low cost-but on this planet, it seems that there has never been There have been such instances, and the countries of the alliance can only feel their way forward on this road.

The starbreakers on the other side of the Thorin control hall had already begun to prepare the text of the question to "Noi", while Gao Wen controlled the sudden excitement and sat down slowly again.He took a deep breath, feeling his heart beating back to normal little by little, and his eyes scanned the particularly warm printing paper again——in those short words, what was revealed was another country that was struggling as much as the Loren kingdoms. The surviving civilization has continued the journey of self-rescue for thousands of years.

Interstellar broadcasts that have lasted for 400 years, and observers who have traveled in space for 120 years... This group called "Noi" seems to be as tough as the living beings in the Loren Continent—as left by the sailors. As the poem warned, they did not indulge in this illusory peaceful night.

As for the time scales of "400 years" and "120 years" mentioned in these conversation records, they are the same as the "light years" before, and have been calculated by the starbreakers and the giant tree of Sorin The nodes have been converted into units - the information that Gao Wen has seen here has been converted into Loren's calculation units.

Sir Scott Planting, who interpreted the alien "dictionary" at the Viplandon Observatory hundreds of years ago, is a professional scholar. Star twinkling is the "standard time scale" of reference values, and at this point, pioneers have paved the way for future generations.

There was a light clicking sound from the printing device, and then the shaft and gears began to rotate, and Amber subconsciously called softly: "There is something coming over there!"

Gawain controlled his excitement, and immediately pulled out the printing paper after it left the machine. On it was the latest conversation record between the starbreaker of the Thorin Control Center and the "Noi people":

Starbreaker: "We have some questions that may seem presumptuous, but this will help both of us to understand each other better—excuse me, do you have 'gods' in your world?"

Noy: "Yes, of course, we have our own religion and belief system—it seems that there are also gods on your side?"

Starbreaker: "Yes, we also have our own gods. Then the second question, when you... sent 'observers' to the universe four light years away, didn't it cause the gods to lose control?"

After this question, there seemed to be a long blank waiting on the side of the "Noi people". In addition to the "blank waiting" mark on the printing paper, there was a long series of ellipsis. Gawain didn't look until almost the end of the paper. To the reply from the "Noi people":

"The observers we send out are our gods."

This time, not only Gao Wen suddenly stood up, but even Rosetta Augustus and Belsetia Morningstar, who had been listening quietly in the communication interface, stood up suddenly in shock.

It was as if the world view was shattered and reshaped in an instant, and the natural laws that had always been taken for granted were turned upside down. Even Rosetta, who always maintained a serious posture with a straight face on weekdays, was staring at this moment, and the hall of the Sorin Control Center was even more There was silence for a moment, and the subversive facts took away the words of many people, and this strange silence was finally interrupted by Tyre, who was hanging up and listening so far:

"Antaveen sent a message, and the core temperature of the superluminal communication array has risen sharply-the hardware is about to reach its limit!"

Gawain woke up instantly.

Antaveen's FTL communication array is not in good condition, it can only be said to be barely usable, although the Krakens have optimized its working mode as much as possible, and have adjusted the information sending and receiving mode to a low frequency with lower load For the communication process, a large amount of coding work was allocated to the computing center of the Sorin giant tree, but this only delayed the burning time of the main antenna as much as possible.

In fact, it is already a miracle that that thing can persist until now, but the conversation with the "Noi people" brought so much shocking information that Gao Wen subconsciously forgot about it.

"Explain that the communication is about to be interrupted, and at the same time ask another question!" Gao Wen spoke quickly, "Ask about their relationship with the gods!"

In the lobby of the Sorin Control Center, the starbreakers completed the compilation and conversion of the text at an unprecedented speed. The data transmission system lived up to expectations and sent the converted code to Antaveen. After a short delay, a period of inquiry The information that travels through the interstellar space oscillates, passing over the stars in an instant at a speed far exceeding the speed of light.

Starbreaker: "Due to equipment cooling requirements, our communication system will be temporarily closed for maintenance and will be restarted in the near future. Before that, we would like to know a question: What is your relationship or relationship with the gods?"

And almost as soon as this question was sent, Tyre's voice came to everyone's ears: "The main antenna is burned, and the FTL communication array is shut down."

"Adjust the sensitivity of the monitoring antenna to the highest," Beltira, who was standing in the control hall, immediately shouted loudly, "Notify the monitoring station of the Ancestor Peak to assist in capturing the signal—don't miss the reply from the 'Noi'!"

Although only Antaveen's FTL communication array can send out signals, the "listening stations" set up in other areas can still receive the communication signals. Now that the main antenna has been burned, the Alliance has temporarily lost its initiative. The ability to communicate, but at least... everyone still has a chance to hear the reply from "them".

Every second that followed seemed as long as a thousand years, everyone—whether it was the technicians in the Sorin Control Center, or the three empire leaders far away in the capital of the Three Empires, or the goblin technicians far away on the Ancestral Peak Ladies and gentlemen, everyone held their breaths and fell into silence, as if they were afraid that taking a breath would interfere with the invisible signal in the starry sky. This tense atmosphere lasted until the indicator light in front of Bertila representing the signal received by the main antenna started. flashing.

"The main antenna has received a signal!" "The star breaker is deciphering!"

After a while, the reply from the "Nuoyi people" finally appeared in everyone's eyes——

"We have achieved coexistence with our gods, living together on the mother planet."

In the study room covered with blue velvet carpet, Gawain slowly put down the paper in his hand, leaned on the high-back chair and said slowly, thoughtfully: "It seems... this is the answer."

"Coexistence has been achieved..." Amber frowned and muttered, "They used the word 'realized'... Does it mean that their relationship with the gods was also very 'dangerous' before, after some hard work Only then did they reach this relatively good state? And what do you think they mean by 'coexistence'?"

"Except for the Nuoyi people themselves, any of our guesses are wild guesses," Gawain shook his head lightly. "The information we have now is enough for us to think for a long time."

At this moment, Bertila's voice sounded from the magic net terminal: "We have received... another call from the Nuoi people. They seem to want to confirm whether we are offline."

The corner of Gao Wen's mouth trembled slightly. At this moment, he seemed to feel a faint embarrassment filling the universe...

"Keep monitoring and recording," he sighed helplessly after a moment of silence, "we can't respond right now."

While speaking, he looked up at Tyre in another communication interface.

"Antaveen over there..."

"It's being repaired," Tire waved his hands without waiting for Gawain to finish speaking, "The big witch Hathaway has already got into the main antenna."

"...Okay, you guys come on."

Chapter 1437 The Information They Revealed

The monitoring system switched to the normal monitoring and recording mode, and many people in the hall of Sorin Command Center heaved a long sigh of relief—this extraordinary interstellar communication has finally ended smoothly. Personally speaking, they may need many days to calm down and slowly think about the meaning of what happened today, while for others, the "dinner" has just begun.

Deep in the neural network, in a special encrypted space, an invisible wind suddenly blew up in the boundless field of pure white flowers. Gao Wen's figure first appeared beside the white round table with light golden lines and exquisite hollow decorations, and then his gaze Looking across the table, I saw a piece of light green flower vines rapidly fading from the air, and the figure of Belsetia Morningstar was emerging from it, followed by another deep black solemn door descending from the sky. After the door opened, Luo The figure of Seta Augustus stepped out of it.

Gao Wen's eyes subconsciously lingered on the two empire leaders for a few seconds.

These two...how much krypton did they spend after going back from the last meeting?

But soon he put aside this slightly divergent thinking, and turned to speak seriously: "All the records of the Xinghai Communication have been sorted out and sent to you, and there is also a file in the corresponding database of the Xinghai Project. , which can be accessed at any time."

"I have already received it." Rosetta Augustus nodded slightly while maintaining his usual serious and indifferent expression. "When will the communication device on Antaveen be able to be used again?"

"They have prepared the vulnerable parts of the main antenna in advance, and the repair can be completed in less than a week," Gao Wen said immediately, "In other words, we have less than a week to slowly digest what we heard today. ...astonishing content."

Listening to Gao Wen's words, the corners of Belsetia's mouth twitched slightly, and she muttered in a low voice with a strange expression: "Amazing...it's really quite amazing. The civilization that calls itself 'Noi' has mentioned too many unimaginable things. Do you think this information is credible?"

"Frankly speaking, I have three doubts about all the forces that I come into contact with for the first time," Rosetta frowned. He sat down in his own seat, and a cup of hot black tea appeared on the table in front of him. "But when it comes to what the other side showed in this exchange ... I think we'd better assume they're all true."

Belsetia also took her seat, and looked at Lord Typhon in front of her: "It seems that we have similar views... Regardless of whether this group of people who call themselves 'Noi' are really as honest as they appear, in the Regarding the issue of the magic tide, we'd better make all the preparations."

"They said that they have a way to protect the minds of the groups on the planet when the tide of evil comes, and they mentioned a device called the 'unified mind field'," Gawain kept recalling the contents of the previous communication. Shi Shi said thoughtfully, "If what they said today is true, then sooner or later they should send over some 'technical information' related to it..."

Rosetta shook the teacup in her hand, watched her reflection gradually shatter in the water, and said slowly while thinking: "Let's not mention whether there may be any traps hidden in it, let's assume that this 'Mind Unification Field' device It is true, assuming that the effect of this thing against the magic tide is also true, whether we can really use it is also unknown...'Noi people' said that it took them 400 years to build this protective device, This is still in the case of sufficient technical reserves, how long will it take us to put something of the same scale here?

"Now we don't know the technical level of the 'Noi people'. Although they seem to have the ability to step out of the planet, their society is obviously influenced by the mysterious 'pioneer group', and their technological development is extremely difficult. Judgment... They may be much more advanced than us, or they may just be superficial, and even their understanding of the magic tide may not be correct.