Unknown Object Ahead

Although it was called a meeting, in reality, Yue Yuan did most of the talking, and with a single sentence, he brought the matter to a close.

His decision was quickly put into action.

After the meeting, the human Great Fleet made a course change between stars according to the new route.

Time flies, and humanity has crossed five stars along the new route, but as before, no signs of Alien Civilization have been found.

At this point, even those who had persisted in their exploration began to waver. Of course, they only wavered; they did not give up. Instead, at this critical juncture, they put forward new ideas, suggesting that humanity might have made a mistake, and that the so-called Alien Civilization relics might not actually be on this planet.

This view has gained the approval of many, but it's just that—approval. Those who agree with it have lost much of their enthusiasm for continuing the search for relics.

If, as the new perspective suggests, the remains of Alien Civilization are not located on any planet, then the difficulty of exploration will inevitably increase exponentially. With humanity's current capabilities, exploring all the planets within a Star System is not difficult, but searching the entire space within Star System is much more challenging.

That area is a three-dimensional sphere; humanity simply doesn't have the capability to cruise every location in space. And that's a conservative estimate. If we include the so-called remnants of Alien Civilization in interstellar space, the difficulty would be many times greater than finding a needle in a haystack.

Humanity has absolutely no ability to explore a space spanning an entire star system.

And so, the Great Fleet, having once again failed to find its way, set sail again, carrying the new hopes of countless people, chasing the light of the stars and disappearing into the vast sea of stars.

"After many trips and detours, I still have gained nothing, and there has been no progress in basic science either. It seems that I have to speed up my departure from this star system." On this day, Yue Yuan leaned back on the sofa, fiddling with the projection screen in front of him through the control terminal.

The screen displayed a star map. As Yue Yuan manipulated the map, it began to zoom in and out, quickly bringing a star more than 700 light-years away to his view.

According to the star map, the region where this planet is located has a relatively high density of stars, and the surrounding stars are about 7 to 10 light-years away.

Of course, if we had headed towards the location of our Solar System, the interstellar intervals would have been even smaller, but humans dared not go that way.

Therefore, finding such a star field is quite good.

At this time, the Great Fleet had once again arrived between the two stars. In about eleven or twelve years, it would reach the next Star System. Yue Yuan planned to make a major resupply there, and then have the entire fleet embark on a hibernation voyage, striving to go as far as possible in one go.

Almost all scientists believe that human technology has now reached the peak of Level 3 Civilization, and that as long as the Grand Unified Theory is not realized, human technology will not undergo any further qualitative changes.

Since it's a waste of time for everyone to keep going and explore stars one by one, why not just go on a hibernation journey, take a few naps, and arrive at our destination to start the New Particle Collider project?

That way, life won't be wasted.

Yue Yuan's idea was good, but he didn't have the chance to implement it because just as he was fiddling with the star chart to determine the latest route, an urgent report reached his ears.

"Commander Yue, come to the Command Center immediately! We've spotted something strange right in front of the Lyra. It's very close and has been there for a long time. We're calculating the distance between it and the Lyra. Good heavens, it's only 0.16 Astronomical Unit away! We might not be able to avoid it."

This was a direct call to himself. The caller was the officer on duty today, and his tone sounded very urgent, which Yue Yuan could tell.

The moment the voice of the duty officer faded from my ears, the emergency alarm inside the Lyra rang out, accompanied by the voice of the Lyra's Strong Artificial Intelligence, 'Tianhe Light'.

"Warning! Warning! Warning!"

"Object detected ahead of the warship, relative distance 23,936,000 kilometers. Relative velocity being calculated. The Lyra is about to perform Attitude Adjustment evasive maneuvers. All crew members, please prepare for high-G impact!"

"Warning! Warning! Warning!"

"Object detected ahead of the warship, relative distance 23,936,000 kilometers."

The announcement was repeated three times throughout the ship.

Upon hearing this sound, Yue Yuan knew he wouldn't make it to the Command Center in time, but it didn't matter. His office also had the necessary equipment, and the warship's status data could simply be transmitted to the Command Center.

In fact, wherever Yue Yuan is on the Lyra, that can be the captain's command post. It's just that he usually works in the Command Center.

He immediately pressed a button on the sofa, and then typed away on the keyboard in front of him. As a result, many mechanical structures extended from the walls of his office and the area where the sofa was, turning the sofa into a cushioned seat.

At the same time, data from the Command Center was connected to the projection screen in front of him, allowing Yue Yuan to see the various situations of the warship as if he were in the Command Center.

"What is this?" After the data synchronized with the Command Center's large screen and the screen in front of him, Yue Yuan saw something on the screen that he couldn't quite make out.

With just one glance, Yue Yuan knew that this image was not information from the Neutrino Detection radar, but rather a picture composed of information from an optical telescope.

Space meteorite?

That shouldn't be the case. How could there be a space meteorite in such a vast interstellar space? And why did it only detect Lyra when it was so close? Most importantly, it wasn't detected by the Neutrino Detection radar, but by the optical detection module.

In other words, this thing evaded the Neutrino Detection of the Lyra! Could it be some kind of unknown creation?! Thinking of this, Yue Yuan's heart skipped a beat, and his mind immediately became extremely calm.

Is it really such a coincidence that we encountered some kind of creation in this interstellar environment?

Moreover, Yue Yuan keenly noticed that in the human Great Fleet's navigation formation, the Lyra was not the lead ship; there were many other warships ahead of the Lyra, although not directly in front.

In other words, this thing not only bypassed the Neutrino Detection radar of the Lyra, but also bypassed the radar of the entire fleet.

At 0.16 Astronomical Unit, at the current speed of the Lyra relative to its originating star, if the object were stationary in space, it would collide head-on with the Lyra in less than eighty seconds.

Of course, it is unlikely to be stationary under normal circumstances; it must be moving at a speed relatively normal to Star System, except that the direction of this speed is exactly in the direction of Lyra's movement.

Just then, a pressure exceeding 35G came from below. Clearly, the Lyra's steering thrusters had activated, initiating a high-thrust evasive maneuver.

"Attention all crew members, the Lyra is in the process of evasive maneuvering. Main/secondary/steering propulsions are normal. Full maneuvering, start at full rudder! The Lyra's relative speed is 48.9% of the speed of light, and its velocity vector deflection is 0.0012." The voice of 'Tianhe Light' that followed sounded slightly more urgent.