Chapter Summaries

The Rhomboid Crystal explained that Dark Matter was concentrated around galaxies and that a Level Six Civilization depended on it to travel. It warned that leaving the Milky Way could cut off the energy needed for Warp Speed Travel, leaving the Precursor Civilization’s reach uncertain.

• The Rhomboid Crystal praised Humanity’s theories about Dark Matter Halos while noting that many were incorrect.
• The Rhomboid Crystal displayed a holographic image of the Milky Way Galaxy, and the scientists realized it was illustrating the role of Dark Matter.
• The Rhomboid Crystal explained that Dark Matter’s gravity helped hold galaxies together and was densest near them.
• The Rhomboid Crystal said Level Six Civilizations relied on Dark Matter technology and might run out of energy beyond the Milky Way.
• Yue Yuan and the others understood why the Great Voyage was dangerous and felt despair at the universe’s vastness.

The Rhomboid Crystal told the Lyra’s crew about Dark Matter and the immense journey the Precursors and other advanced civilizations had begun beyond the Milky Way. It explained that it had entered the sealed spacecraft through its civilization’s characteristic Quantum Macro Tunneling technology.

• The Rhomboid Crystal explained that civilizations lived within Dark Matter Halos and that the Great Voyage had gone far beyond the Andromeda Galaxy toward an unknown destination.
• Yue Yuan imagined a vast fleet of civilizations leaving the Milky Way in search of hope, and the crew reflected on the Great Voyage.
• The Rhomboid Crystal said that civilizations thirty billion years earlier could use Quantum Entanglement for long-distance communication, reducing suspicion among low-level civilizations.
• A scientist asked how the Rhomboid Crystal had entered the sealed Lyra, and it denied using four-dimensional space-jump technology.
• The Rhomboid Crystal revealed that it had used Quantum Macro Tunneling, a characteristic technology that made its civilization powerful and attracted other Level Six Civilizations to the Great Voyage.

Yue Yuan learned that characteristic technology was a technological path that other civilizations could not comprehend, and that the Rhomboid Crystal’s civilization possessed Quantum Macro Tunneling. The Rhomboid Crystal could not determine whether humanity had a special talent, leaving Yue Yuan to reconsider the strength of advanced civilizations and the value of life planets.

• The Rhomboid Crystal explained that characteristic technology could not be replicated by other races because they could not understand it.
• Yue Yuan wondered whether humanity’s talent, once mentioned by the Awakeners, referred to an aptitude for characteristic technology, but the Rhomboid Crystal could not answer.
• The Rhomboid Crystal said it had found no human technology beyond the comprehension of other civilizations at humanity’s level, and that characteristic technology rarely emerged among Low-level Civilizations.
• Yue Yuan asked whether characteristic technology made Level Six Civilizations difficult to defeat, and the Rhomboid Crystal said its Quantum Macro Tunneling gave its civilization an advantage over ordinary Level Six Civilizations.
• Yue Yuan connected the explanation to the powerful civilizations in the Silver Heart Alliance Broadcast and considered why the Alliance targeted Low-level Civilizations and prized Life Planets.

The Rhomboid Crystal said goodbye to Yue Yuan and the Human Civilization after explaining that it would continue the Drift Bottle Project and carry information about the Great Voyage to future civilizations. It vanished from the Lyra, leaving Yue Yuan and the others reflecting on the Precursors and their own place among cosmic civilizations.

• Yue Yuan asked whether civilizations with technology like the Precursors might exist today, and the Rhomboid Crystal said both possibilities existed before preparing to leave.
• The Rhomboid Crystal explained that it would continue its mission of carrying information about the Great Voyage to future civilizations, and Yue Yuan promised that humanity would remember the mission.
• The Rhomboid Crystal urged Human Civilization to leave information for civilizations that came after them, explaining that the Precursors had shared the Great Voyage plan because of the despair they had faced.
• Yue Yuan and the others considered how the Precursors had endured a billion years of research and had chosen to guide later civilizations rather than prey on them.
• The Rhomboid Crystal said goodbye and vanished into tiny pixel-like blocks, while the Lyra's instruments failed to determine where it went.
• Yue Yuan looked at the dazed crowd and reflected on how the Precursors had shown kindness and guidance, unlike hostile civilizations humanity had encountered.

The Rhomboid Crystal left humanity a key to a Small Universe containing creations of its civilization, then departed for good. Yue Yuan secured the key and ordered the crew to investigate the starfield map, which appeared to show the Milky Way as it was thirty billion years ago.

• The Rhomboid Crystal gave Human Civilization a Small Universe Key and explained that it opened a Small Universe left behind in the Milky Way, then said goodbye and vanished.
• The key materialized aboard the Lyra and drifted through the Command Center as the crew examined it.
• Yue Yuan ordered the staff to use a Mechanical Arm to secure the key in a transparent container.
• Yue Yuan directed everyone to examine the starfield positioning map left by the Rhomboid Crystal.
• The crew compared the map with humanity's star charts and found that it might depict the Milky Way thirty billion years earlier.

Yu Nanfeng and the scholars debated whether the Rhomboid Crystal’s ancient star map could lead them to its marked location. Gan De explained that locating it might be possible through star identification, but they first needed to understand how a Small Universe moved relative to the Milky Way Galaxy.

• Yu Nanfeng argued that the Rhomboid Crystal’s star map was likely too old to locate because the Milky Way Galaxy had changed over billions of years.
• Li Zenglu explained that computers could simulate the galaxy’s past only with sufficient data, and that existing estimates would produce enormous errors.
• Gan De said they could search for stars shown on the map using pulsars and stellar properties, with help from computer and stellar evolution experts.
• Gan De asked whether a Small Universe stayed fixed within the Milky Way Galaxy or moved with the galaxy’s rotation.

After scientists studied the star map in the Rhomboid Crystal, they argued that the Precursor's Small Universe might still be bound to the marked stars through Gravity. Yue Yuan supported building a Sky Survey Telescope Array to search for it and advance human science, while Liu Miyan remained focused on the failure of quantum entanglement communication.

• Gan De found that the Rhomboid Crystal's star map contained detailed stellar data but no information about the Small Universe.
• A scientist argued that the Small Universe could remain at the mapped location by using Gravity's hypothesized infinite extension to stay bound to the stars.
• Yue Yuan recognized that searching the map could improve stellar models, expand humanity's star database, and test the theory of Gravity's infinite extension.
• Astronomers proposed a Sky Survey Telescope Array combining optical instruments with advanced gravitational wave detectors, and the gathered scientists supported the plan.
• Yue Yuan suggested building the array on a grand scale alongside the planned Super Large Hadron Collider, while Liu Miyan stayed silent and worried about failed quantum entanglement communication.

Humanity discussed its future construction plans aboard the Lyra while, elsewhere in the Milky Way, a Star Gleam-wrapped warship confronted a hidden entity in a sparse region beyond the Galactic Disk. After the entity struck at the warship, the warship evaded and insisted that it had come peacefully and could leave whenever it wished.

• Yue Yuan directed the group aboard the Lyra to choose a site for humanity's New Particle Collider and plan the fleet's next destination.
• A Star Gleam-wrapped warship appeared in a sparse region of the Milky Way and called on an unseen entity to reveal itself.
• The warship threatened to force the entity out, but it vanished as a Black Line appeared where it had been.
• The hidden entity accused the Silver Heart Alliance of arrogance and said it would teach the warship to calm down.
• The warship reappeared several Astronomical Units away, evaded the strike, and said it had come to talk and could leave if it wanted.

A warship of the Silver Heart Alliance contacted Deformed Metal, a wary entity from the Silicon-Based Commonwealth, to discuss an extragalactic civilization searching for something in the Milky Way Galaxy. Deformed Metal rejected cooperation, but the Alliance sent it the civilization’s coordinates anyway.

• The Silver Heart Alliance warship questioned Deformed Metal about its distrust and offered to discuss why it had come.
• Deformed Metal transformed into several machine forms and moved its Small Universe away as a mass of metal engines arrived and entered Warp.
• Deformed Metal said it feared the Silver Heart Alliance might expose its coordinates to the Harvesters.
• The Alliance said it wanted to discuss an extragalactic Level Six Civilization searching for something in the Milky Way Galaxy.
• Deformed Metal refused to get involved, so the Alliance sent it several coordinates where the civilization had been spotted.

The Silver Heart Alliance tried to recruit the Silicon-Based Collective into a campaign against the Harvesters, while the two sides argued over their past defeat and the loss of the Quantum Lifeform. Deformed Metal remained tempted by the alliance because the Harvesters’ Electron Warships still threatened the silicon-based civilizations.

• The Silver Heart Alliance sent Deformed Metal coordinates and information about an extragalactic civilization, warning that the Harvesters might have discovered it.
• The Silver Heart Alliance argued that the newcomers could provide an opportunity to eliminate the Harvesters, but Deformed Metal blamed the alliance for the Quantum Lifeform’s death and their defeat millions of years earlier.
• The Silver Heart Alliance mocked the Silicon-Based Collective for fearing Electron Warships, and Deformed Metal threatened the alliance in response.
• Deformed Metal asked who would confront the Harvesters’ Electron Warships without the Quantum Lifeform, while the Silver Heart Alliance pressed its appeal.
• The chapter recounted how Electron Warships had shattered the silicon-based civilizations’ strength, leaving survivors afraid to travel freely through the Milky Way Galaxy.

The Silver Heart Alliance tried to recruit the Silicon-Based Collective into a coalition against the Harvesters, claiming the alliance had a fifty-percent chance of destroying their Electron Warships. It revealed that the Remnants and other civilizations would join the effort, leaving the Silicon-Based Collective shocked and demanding that the Alliance stop speaking about him.

• The Silicon-Based Collective refused to confront the Harvesters' Electron Warships and challenged the Silver Heart Alliance over its plans.
• The Silver Heart Alliance said it had at least a fifty-percent chance of destroying the Electron Warships, and the Silicon-Based Collective questioned whether it had misled the Extragalactic Civilization.
• The Silicon-Based Collective realized the Silver Heart Alliance wanted it and the Perseus Commonwealth to help find the Extragalactic Civilization.
• The Silver Heart Alliance said the Extragalactic Civilization likely possessed Characteristic Technology and revealed that an insectoid civilization, a Gaia Consciousness, and the Remnants would also join the coalition.
• The Silicon-Based Collective reacted with astonishment to the Remnants' presence, and the Silver Heart Alliance began to explain why he needed to be invited before he told it to shut up.

The Silicon-Based Collective agreed to cooperate with the Silver Heart Alliance against the Electron Warship, despite doubting their claimed chance of success. Its leader also planned to use the alliance to find a route out of the Milky Way Galaxy.

• The Silver Heart Alliance told Deformed Metal that the Zerg Civilization was controllable and sent him coordinates where the Remnants had appeared.
• Deformed Metal agreed to investigate the Remnants and arranged to meet the Silver Heart Alliance again in six hundred years.
• The Silver Heart Alliance said the Gaia Consciousness could explain the plan against the Electron Warship, then departed for the Perseus Commonwealth.
• After returning to his fellow Deformed Metal clusters, the leader admitted he expected the Silver Heart Alliance to sacrifice the Parasitic Zerg Civilization but accepted the risk for a chance to destroy the Electron Warship.
• The leader told the Silicon-Based Collective that finding the route from outside the galaxy was another goal of their cooperation, in case they needed to escape the Milky Way Galaxy.

The Silicon-Based Collective cleared the trail to a Small Universe after the Silver Heart Alliance warship left, then moved the Small Universe to an unknown destination. The warship headed for the Perseus Arm, while the Awakeners continued their hidden search for the Previous Generation Voyager.

• The Silicon-Based Collective's leader learned that the Star River had left for the Perseus Arm without escort ships and worried that the Silver Heart Alliance had acquired Characteristic Technology.
• The leader told the Dragging Small Universe Team to wait until it had cleared the flight trail before changing direction.
• The Silicon-Based Collective's Deformed Metal pieces became Warp Engines and carried the Small Universe toward an unknown destination.
• The Silver Heart Alliance warship crossed between spiral arms toward the Perseus Arm, aiming to reach the Perseus Commonwealth through its contact points.
• The Awakeners continued exploring the Milky Way Galaxy in small groups or alone as they searched for traces of the Previous Generation Voyager.

The Awakeners learned that the Silver Heart Alliance had exposed their arrival in the Milky Way Galaxy through Gravitational Wave broadcasts. They debated how to respond, with some urging caution and others arguing for a preemptive strike as they continued searching for traces of the Previous Generation Voyager.

• The Awakeners searched the Milky Way Galaxy for Wormholes using active Gravitational Wave detection, but found only Dead Wormholes without signs of the Previous Generation Voyager.
• The Silver Heart Alliance spread news of the Awakeners' arrival through Gravitational Wave broadcasts, and the Harvesters received the information as well.
• An Awakener reported the broadcasts on the internal channel, and the Awakeners realized another Milky Way civilization had discovered them.
• The Awakeners debated whether the Silver Heart Alliance, the Harvesters, or the Silicon-Based Collective posed a serious threat.
• One Awakener urged the group to strike first and crush the civilizations watching them, while others emphasized caution and their mission to find the Previous Generation Voyager.

The Awakeners agreed to prepare for a coming clash with an unidentified Milky Way Galaxy civilization while discussing Huan’s observation of Human Civilization and headquarters’ decision not to interfere with its development. As more Awakeners searched for the hidden Silver Heart Alliance, they found its forces difficult to detect or track.

• The Awakeners decided to accelerate their work and suspend missions in three hundred years so they could confront the hidden enemy.
• They learned that Huan was observing Human Civilization because awakening might suppress its potential, and headquarters wanted it to follow its own path.
• An Awakener argued that the Triangulum Galaxy needed companions for future voyages, but Human Civilization would first have to reach Level Six.
• An Awakener set out to investigate a Space Broadcast point and learn what the hidden enemy was spreading through the Milky Way Galaxy.
• Awakeners and Silver Heart Alliance warships appeared across the Milky Way Galaxy, but the Awakeners failed to locate or track the concealed Silver Heart Alliance forces.

Humanity abandoned its broad search for Alien Civilization ruins and began a long journey toward the Predetermined Star Region, where it planned to build the New Particle Collider. During the voyage, most people stayed awake as human and Crimson Flame Civilization scientists began the collider’s design work.

• Humanity left one Strong Artificial Intelligence Exploration Team behind to continue searching for Alien Civilization ruins while the rest of the civilization headed to the Predetermined Star Region.
• The New Government made hibernation optional during the centuries-long voyage, and many people chose to remain awake despite the increased supply burden.
• Yue Yuan and the scientists continued preparing the New Particle Collider project during the journey.
• Humanity brought the Crimson Flame Civilization’s scientific teams into the project framework to work on its scientific problems.
• The Crimson Flame Civilization’s scientists were stunned by the collider’s scale but joined the effort to investigate the Grand Unified Theory.

Humanity organized the Millennium Project to build the New Particle Collider, completing its designs and preparing surveys, mining, and construction across several star systems. More than a century into the fleet’s voyage, exploration teams were scouting the Target Star Region, while the Great Fleet continued toward its destination with less than a hundred years remaining.

• The New Government outlined the Millennium Project’s design, testing, mining, and construction phases, involving specialists and civilians across humanity.
• Humanity planned to mine six to eight nearby star systems with human crews and Strong Artificial Intelligences, rotating the AIs after several centuries of work.
• After more than a hundred years, experts completed the project’s first phase, and advance exploration fleets began surveying stars in the Target Star Region.
• Humanity’s Great Fleet continued its voyage without encountering alien civilizations, ruins, or life-bearing planets.
• The Great Fleet approached the Target Star Region with less than a hundred years remaining before its arrival.

Humanity began constructing a movable, modular New Particle Collider in deep space, coordinating resource extraction across nearby star systems. As the fleet organized its next mining teams, the Crimson Flame Civilization asked to join the project.

• The Human Civilization Great Fleet stopped in deep space near a resource-rich Yellow Dwarf Star to support the collider construction project.
• Humanity chose a modular design using Alloy No. 1 so the enormous New Particle Collider could eventually be dismantled and moved.
• Eight newly built Strong Artificial Intelligences and their patrol teams departed to begin mining in eight assigned Star Systems.
• The Human Civilization Great Fleet began organizing a second batch of Strong Artificial Intelligence resource extraction teams using its stockpiles.
• The Great Commander of the Crimson Flame Civilization applied to let members of the Crimson Flame Civilization join the construction effort.

Yue Yuan approved the Crimson Flame Civilization’s participation in mining the eight Target Star Systems, allowing humanity to redirect some manufacturing capacity from Strong Artificial Intelligences to mining equipment. As the Millennium Project ramped up, the Great Fleet gathered resources for its enormous Particle Collider, demonstrating that humanity had the industrial capacity to build a complete Dyson Sphere.

• Yue Yuan investigated the Crimson Flame Civilization’s request to join the Millennium Project and decided its lifeforms could safely participate in mining.
• Yue Yuan and the Think Tank agreed to assign Crimson Flame mining teams to planets across all eight Target Star Systems rather than let them develop a system alone.
• Humanity reduced planned Strong Artificial Intelligence production and redirected manufacturing capacity toward mining equipment and Engineering Ships.
• Resource shipments from the Target Star Systems steadily supplied the human Great Fleet as the Millennium Project entered its initial stage.
• Humanity’s effort to mine the Rocky Planets and build a 6,674-Astronomical-Unit Particle Collider revealed that it had the basic industrial capacity needed to construct a complete Dyson Sphere.

Human Civilization poured its resources into a New Particle Collider spanning thousands of Astronomical Units, hoping to break through the Grand Unified Theory barrier despite the risk of failure. As construction began, Strong Artificial Intelligence and robot armies drove the enormous effort to mine the resources it required.

• After defeating the Crimson Flame Civilization and absorbing most of its population, humanity united researchers from several species in the United Academy of Sciences to pursue the Grand Unified Theory.
• Humanity explored for a thousand years and made breakthroughs such as developing the nanobot swarm Little Grey, but it still could not grasp the Grand Unified Theory.
• With its industrial capacity strengthened by Little Grey and mature Strong Artificial Intelligence manufacturing, humanity approved the New Particle Collider project, which required mining metal from eight Star Systems.
• Scientists recognized the project as a gamble: success could make humanity a Level 4 Civilization, while failure could trap it in futile experiments and eventual decline.
• Strong Artificial Intelligence directed vast robot armies to mine planets day and night, beginning the massive resource extraction needed for the collider.