Kabuli
The Great Silence Barrier had been shut down, but the clamor of the stars would not reach them instantly.
It covered a radius of eight billion kilometers. When the generator shut down, the entire barrier began disappearing from the inside out.
It broke down at the speed of light, but it was so vast that vanishing completely would take seven and a half hours.
Yet just five hours later, beyond the Kuiper Belt at the edge of the Solar System, a ripple of rainbow colors suddenly appeared on the surface of a pitch-black celestial body that reflected no light.
This dark celestial body was small, only half the size of the Moon, but its enormous repulsive field affected the celestial bodies at the edge of the Solar System.
In a vacuum, this repulsive field was the equivalent of a gravitational field in reverse.
Any matter approaching it would experience repulsive acceleration, eventually veering away or being flung back.
If approaching a massive celestial body was like being caught in a whirlpool, accelerating as one fell, then approaching a wormhole was like climbing a mountain under a heavy load. One slip, and one would roll back down, picking up speed.
The rainbow spectrum sprayed outward, stretching like chewing gum until it formed a rainbow bridge.
The phenomenon did not last long, of course. The rainbow bridge gradually faded, then vanished entirely.
A fleet of cargo ships flew out along that bridge.
Nine merchant ships emerged in single file, led by Aomazo's flagship.
"Dis... Dis!"
"Why aren't you answering?"
Aomazo paced anxiously around the Control Room.
He had initially been quite relaxed, even finding time to fool around with Hawking.
But during the return trip, he had suddenly received a reprimand from his superiors. Something had happened at the Moon Base.