Zero and One Signal?
As humanity continued its Star Path, embarking on the final leg of its 347-light-year voyage, the Lyra received a message from a Probe Spaceship Squad squadron on the periphery of the Great Fleet. Because the Great Fleet was Warp Speed Travel, the message was not transmitted via Electromagnetic Wave, but rather through Tachyon Communication, a technology only Level 4 Civilization could utilize.
Humanity's communication systems have now been fully upgraded, with communication between spaceships and warships now replaced by Tachyon Communication. However, traditional communication systems have not been completely abandoned and are still in use inside every ship.
Human-internal Network System are actually included within traditional communication systems. Traditional electronic communication systems are simply too convenient, and there are absolutely no latency issues when used inside a spaceship.
As for communication between spaceships, there's no way to do it. It's not that traditional Electromagnetic Wave communication will fail after a spaceship enters Warp, since both spaceships are in Warp, and from the perspective of light, the two spaceships are actually stationary.
The problem lies in communication between spaceships traveling at Warp and those not traveling at Warp. Traditional optoelectronic communication cannot solve this problem, so Tachyon Communication is the only option.
Therefore, modern Human Civilization uses a combination of two communication methods: Tachyon Communication between ships and traditional Electromagnetic Wave internally. As for why Tachyon Communication isn't used internally within ships as well? The reason is simple: humans lack Tachyon conductors, similar to photoconductors, for use as circuits.
However, when the signal was transmitted to the Lyra, the scientists who saw its form were initially bewildered. They had no idea what information the signal carried, only that it was definitely not a signal form that could occur in nature.
According to the Probe Spaceship Squad's report, what they received was not an Electromagnetic Wave signal, but Tachyon signal from Tachyon Communication.
Those familiar with the Four Fundamental Forces know that only Electromagnetic Force and Gravity are long-range forces in the macroscopic universe. Therefore, there are only two types of waves that can propagate in the universe: Electromagnetic Wave and Gravitational Wave.
Tachyon do not propagate as waves; they are simply Faster-Than-Light Particle carrying identifiable information. Their detection mechanism is somewhat similar to that of Neutrino Detection. However, their operational mechanism is quite different, or rather, broader in scope, which is why they can be used for Tachyon Detection.
The basic principle of Tachyon Detection is somewhat similar to that of radar Electromagnetic Wave reflection detection. It involves projecting a stream of Tachyon from a warship into space, or in other words, directional projection. Since Tachyon travel faster than light, no force is required.
These Tachyon that spread out will encounter all sorts of things in the universe, such as planets, spaceships, Molecular Cloud, Gravitational Wave, etc. Yes, Gravitational Wave, which are part of spacetime fluctuations, can also be reflected back, and the reflectivity is much stronger than that of other objects.
These Tachyon, used for communication and detection, seem to be highly sensitive to changes in spacetime. Humans don't know why, only that this effect is the reason.
Tachyon that act on macroscopic objects are reflected and captured by receivers in the same detector system. These reflected Tachyon exhibit different spin properties depending on the objects they come into contact with. Humans achieve Tachyon Detection by detecting these properties.
What's amazing is that this touch reflection does not affect macroscopic objects, and there is not even a pressure similar to "light pressure". Therefore, a spacecraft without Tachyon Detection will not realize that it is being detected by Tachyon Detection.
Tachyon seem to be more closely related to Gravity, one of the Four Fundamental Forces. They are born from the Grand Unified Force Field, but their response to electromagnetic fields is not as strong as that to Gravity Field.
Therefore, Tachyon Detection can clearly detect celestial bodies in the distance, but it is much more difficult to detect objects like spacecraft, especially those farther away. For example, current Tachyon Detection Tachyon Detection Technology can achieve almost zero-latency communication across distances of 2 light-years, but its effectiveness is halved when used for detection because Tachyon need to be deflected back.
If we go any further, the Tachyon generated by humans will become distorted, and we will not be able to obtain any information from their properties.
So generally speaking, receiving Tachyon signal basically means that the Tachyon emitter is within 2 light-years of the receiver, assuming that the receiver's Tachyon Technology is as advanced as that of humans.
Because humans can't receive Tachyon signals any further away. This is another characteristic of Tachyon: the distance they travel in space is positively correlated with the strength of the Grand Unified Force Field that generates them. Once they exceed their fidelity distance, they disappear directly into the universe, as if they were absorbed by space itself and would never leave a trace.
Because of these properties, Tachyon are not suitable for cosmic broadcasting unless there is an extremely powerful Tachyon Generator that can reach thousands of light-years, but it is obvious that such a scenario is very unlikely.
Although humanity hasn't made much progress in Tachyon technology, based on our understanding of the universe, we know it's impossible. Because if such powerful Tachyon Detection existed, it would mean that a Type IV or Level 5 Civilization would be able to clearly detect things within a radius of thousands of light-years centered on itself. With that capability, Low-level Civilization and Life Planet would have been wiped out long ago; they wouldn't have had any chance to develop.
Therefore, the possibility of Tachyon Broadcast is unlikely, which is why humans were indeed startled when they received this message, which was clearly sent by Sentient Life.
Judging others by one's own standards, two light-years is far too close.
If the Unknown Civilization emitting the Tachyon signal is just ahead, then at humanity's current travel speed, we could collide with it head-on in two months.
Understanding the seriousness of the situation, as soon as they received the information from the Probe Spaceship, the scientists on the Lyra and other warships and Research Ship immediately returned to their posts and began to analyze the unknown information.
The first thing to consider is the direction from which the information source comes.
Tachyon are highly directional. If a human Probe Spaceship receives a signal from a certain direction, the signal source must be from that direction. This is easy to determine.
It was located to the side and slightly ahead of the direction in which the human Great Fleet was advancing, at an angle of approximately forty-five degrees.
Tachyon Detection is convenient as it can detect information Beyond the Light Cone, but it also has a drawback: if the opponent is a fleet, then at the same time you detect the opponent, the opponent will also know of your existence, which is equivalent to both of you being spotted in the other's radar at the same time.
Of course, if the other party is a probe, then the humans that have been illuminated now should only be the Probe Spaceship Squad that received the Tachyon signal, because the main body of the human Great Fleet is a certain distance away from the Probe Spaceship and has not received the Tachyon signal.
Humans who examined the Tachyon signal quickly noticed its strangeness: it was segmented, with distinct time intervals between each segment, but the duration of each interval varied. The reason for this signal was that the Tachyon transmitter did not emit Tachyon continuously, but rather emitted them intermittently, pausing between each emission.
This emission pattern seems intentional, as Tachyon Detection doesn't require such an emission. To humans, this signal pattern appears more like a series of 1s and 0s than the continuous Tachyon signal from Tachyon Detection.
What's the meaning?
Human scientists have some doubts.