Chapter Summaries

Lü Yongchang’s team shifted from dense helium to dense hydrogen after Ding Chengwang improved the strong interaction and grand unified field control devices. Their experiment successfully produced a growing sheet of dense hydrogen material, leaving the team celebrating a new high-strength armor material.

• Lü Yongchang selected helium atoms for dense armor because they were stable, abundant, and relatively light, while viewing hydrogen as a stronger next-generation option.
• Ding Chengwang improved the control precision of the Strong Interaction Control Device and Grand Unified Field Control Device enough to make dense hydrogen production possible.
• The Materials Research Center converted its Dense Helium Production Device into a Dense Hydrogen Production Device in one month.
• Lü Yongchang began the dense hydrogen experiment as the device sprayed hydrogen atoms onto a light panel and the fields compressed and stabilized them.
• The dense hydrogen sheet expanded from a square micrometer to a square meter, and the laboratory staff applauded the successful experiment.

Human Civilization completed its first star-class starships, prompting Lü Yongchang to consider the Milky Way Galaxy’s unknown dangers and propose an expedition to Andromeda. Fang Xu and most academicians opposed leaving, and the chapter ended with Fang Xu arguing that humanity should grow stronger in the Milky Way first.

• Human Civilization began producing strong interaction material-dense hydrogen and completed designs for level six star-class starships.
• Lü Yongchang studied the new ships’ capabilities and wondered why humanity had not encountered another level six civilization in the Milky Way Galaxy.
• Lü Yongchang proposed leaving the Milky Way Galaxy for an expedition to the Andromeda Galaxy, and Fang Xu vehemently rejected the plan.
• Lü Yongchang argued that the Cleaners Civilization and the Gardener Faction Civilization could still pose a threat despite their long silence.
• Fang Xu countered that they might have left and urged Lü Yongchang to let Human Civilization develop into a level seven civilization before leaving the Milky Way Galaxy.

Lü Yongchang persuaded Fang Xu and the academicians to support the expedition beyond the Milky Way, then revealed plans for a Star-Class Home Fortress to carry humanity to Andromeda. The Academy of Sciences and Parliament would vote first, followed by humanity, while most vassal civilizations would remain behind.

• Lü Yongchang challenged Fang Xu's reluctance to leave the Milky Way, arguing that humanity needed to keep advancing to survive future threats.
• He Bilin and the other academicians agreed to the Expedition Plan, and Fang Xu eventually agreed as well.
• Lü Yongchang unveiled his preliminary design for a Star-Class Home Fortress that could carry over ten billion people to Andromeda at 500 times the speed of light.
• Lü Yongchang said votes among the Academy of Sciences, Parliament, and all humanity would begin the next day.
• Lü Yongchang told Fang Xu that only a few valuable vassal civilizations would join the voyage, while the rest would stay in the Milky Way.

The Human Federation approved its first intergalactic expedition, and preparations began for a departure planned six hundred years later. As humanity expanded to gather resources, a small Starship entered a desolate region marked as dangerous.

• Lin Shuguang and the Human Federation Parliament approved Lü Yongchang’s expedition plan, which citizens endorsed by more than 99%.
• The Human Federation began preparing its expedition fleet and supplies, with departure scheduled for six hundred years later.
• The Megastructure Engineering Department launched Phase III Dyson Sphere construction to gather antimatter, while the Academy of Sciences screened target stars for inhabited worlds.
• Human Civilization expanded its territory and brought several low-level civilizations into its resource-gathering effort.
• A small Starship arrived at the edge of a desolate, supernova-scarred region and entered it after confirming its orders.

In 4400, Lü Yongchang reviewed the Dead Silent Region, the scar left by the Cleaners and the Gardener Faction’s war, and decided to send a Survey Starship to check it before the Human Federation launched its Expedition Plan. He adjusted the Human Fleet’s route to begin at the Solar System and retrace humanity’s old escape path toward Andromeda.

• The Human Federation expanded across 1,800 light-years and deployed Dyson Spheres throughout the barren region left by the ancient war.
• Lü Yongchang examined the star map and recognized the Dead Silent Region as the site of humanity’s escape from Gliese 555 during the conflict between the Cleaners and the Gardener Faction.
• Lü Yongchang looked beyond the region to the Solar System, humanity’s birthplace, and considered its spiritual importance before the Expedition Plan.
• Lü Yongchang ordered a latest-model Survey Starship to survey the surrounding hundred light-years and verify the region’s safety.
• Lü Yongchang adjusted the expedition route so the Human Fleet would depart from the Solar System and retrace humanity’s old escape route toward Andromeda.

The Academy of Sciences developed Spatial Shield technology to protect the Human Fleet from spatial attacks, and prepared to test it at the Spacetime Research Center. Lü Yongchang gave the order to generate the shield, leaving the trial run underway.

• The Academy of Sciences continued researching spacetime technology to prepare for the long intergalactic expedition.
• The Spacetime Research Center developed Spatial Shield technology after years of experiments with Klein bottle structures.
• Lin Yongnian prepared the first Spatial Shield trial while Lü Yongchang inspected the generator.
• The academicians completed their system checks, and Lü Yongchang ordered them to attempt to generate the Spatial Shield.

Lü Yongchang and the academicians tested the Spatial Shield, confirming that it could block spatial rifts and conventional attacks but overloaded under more than ten maximum-power rifts. The chapter concluded that the shield would serve as an instant-trigger defense because it faded over time and blocked the protected ship’s own attacks as well as incoming strikes.

• Lü Yongchang observed the first Spatial Shield form and gradually erode as space repaired itself.
• The academicians fired a spatial rift at the shield, which absorbed the attack without a ripple.
• Lü Yongchang ordered continuous fire and increased the Spatial Rift Generator’s power to test the shield’s limits.
• The shield withstood several maximum-power rifts, but overloaded and was destroyed when ten rifts struck in rapid succession.
• The researchers concluded that Spatial Shields could defend against spatial and conventional attacks, but would be used as temporary, instant-trigger protection because they faded and blocked attacks in both directions.

The Dimensional Laboratory successfully developed an algorithm to predict and control where a human-built Klein Bottle’s outlet appeared. Lü Yongchang visited the laboratory and learned the outlet could currently be placed no farther than five hundred meters from the inlet.

• Lin Yongnian told Lü Yongchang that Song Yunzàn’s team had organized a four-dimensional algorithm for predicting and controlling the Klein Bottle’s outlet.
• Lü Yongchang and Lin Yongnian hurried to the Dimensional Laboratory to see the experiment.
• Song Yunzàn showed them light passing through the Klein Bottle’s inlet and emerging in a second experimental area five hundred meters away.
• Song Yunzàn explained that computational model No. 193741 had succeeded after more than five hundred tests, but the outlet’s maximum distance remained five hundred meters.
• Lü Yongchang congratulated Song Yunzàn on the team’s achievement, and Song Yunzàn replied that it was what they ought to do.

Lü Yongchang and Lin Yongnian studied the unstable Klein bottle model and considered using it to let weapons bypass Spatial Shields, but Song Yunzàn demonstrated the dangers of sending objects through it. Meanwhile, a Survey Starship found no signs of civilization in the Dead Silent Region as it completed its inspection ahead of Human Civilization’s planned arrival.

• Lü Yongchang proposed applying Klein bottle technology inside Spatial Shields, and Lin Yongnian realized it could let fleets attack while their shields remained active.
• Lin Yongnian suggested using the technology for weapons, but Song Yunzàn explained that the unstable structures could only pass light beams and suspended dust.
• Song Yunzàn showed how a probe passing through the Klein bottle caused it to collapse, then pointed out an old probe embedded in the Central Control Center wall after a past accident.
• Lü Yongchang and Lin Yongnian moved away from the damaged wall while Song Yunzàn reassured them that the mishap was minor.
• A Survey Starship completed repeated scans of the Dead Silent Region and found no traces of the Cleaners Civilization, the Gardener Faction, or any other civilization.
• The Survey Starship transmitted its data to Kepler-452 and prepared to return, ahead of Human Civilization’s planned fleet arrival in 4605.

Lü Yongchang and Song Yunzàn investigated the unstable Klein bottle model while Probe Ship 129C vanished without warning in the Dead Silent Region. The Federation canceled its level-one alert after finding no evidence of an attack, and Lü Yongchang and the others realized the disappearance resembled the Klein bottle phenomenon.

• Lü Yongchang identified three or four suspicious areas in the Klein bottle model and asked Song Yunzàn to send him the experimental data.
• Probe Ship 129C vanished while surveying the Dead Silent Region 1,800 light-years from the Kepler-452 Stellar System, and its tachyon signals stopped.
• Zero activated a level-one combat readiness alert, and Lü Yongchang demanded the probe ship’s final data and any footage of an attack.
• Lü Yongchang reviewed the readings with Lin Yongnian and Song Yunzàn, found no signs of an attack, and ordered the alert canceled.
• Lü Yongchang, Lin Yongnian, and Song Yunzàn recognized that the probe ship’s disappearance resembled the Klein bottle phenomenon.

A level one battle alert mobilized the Human Federation’s forces, but Zero quickly lifted it after Lü Yongchang revealed that the alarm had been a false judgment. The academicians then hurried to the Central Research Institute to investigate a survey ship’s possible discovery of an enormous natural Klein bottle structure.

• Fang Xu and the academicians saw the level one battle alert and rushed to evacuate toward the [Earth].
• Zero mobilized the Human Federation’s warships, but the alert was lifted before ten minutes had passed.
• Lü Yongchang explained that Zero had made an error after a major discovery, and Fang Xu learned that a survey ship might have found a natural Klein bottle structure.
• Academicians boarded anti-gravity vehicles and flew to the Central Research Institute at Kepler-452b’s South Pole.
• Scientific research vessels and engineering ships departed the Kepler-452 Stellar System carrying supplies.

Lü Yongchang sent three probe ships to investigate the region where Probe Ship 129C disappeared, hoping to determine whether it had entered a natural Klein bottle structure. After the fleet found no trace of the structure or the missing ship, he ordered a search for its wreckage, while the researchers feared that their hoped-for shortcut into higher-dimensional space was lost.

• Lü Yongchang considered why Probe Ship 129C had sent no tachyon signal and weighed several explanations for its disappearance.
• Three probe ships arrived at the Dead Silent Region and carefully searched the area where 129C had vanished.
• The probe ships found neither a Klein bottle structure nor any wreckage, making it seem that 129C's entry had caused the structure to collapse.
• Lü Yongchang ordered the probe ships to search the entire Dead Silent Region for 129C's wreckage.
• The probe ships increased their Warp Drive power and began the wider search as Lü Yongchang and the Dimensional Laboratory researchers grew dispirited about their lost shortcut.

Lü Yongchang investigated an anomalous spacetime structure resembling a severely twisted Klein bottle after Survey Ship 1531C vanished. He determined the structure appeared when spacetime fluctuated strongly, then watched it dissipate again as the survey ships increased their warp output.

• An alarm reported that Survey Ship 1531C had disappeared and an anomalous spacetime structure had been detected, so Lü Yongchang ordered the other two ships to shut down their warp drives.
• Lü Yongchang and Song Yunzàn identified the structure as a deformed Klein bottle entrance with no visible exit, while the Institute learned that the structure had vanished.
• Lü Yongchang compared the survey data and concluded that the structure appeared when spacetime fluctuated significantly, then ordered the ships to recreate the fluctuations near 1531C’s disappearance point.
• The survey ships gradually increased their warp output until they detected the structure again, and Lü Yongchang observed that it became more distorted as the output rose.
• When the warp output reached a threshold, the structure dissipated once more, and Lü Yongchang studied the data for clues to its mechanism.

Lü Yongchang and the Academy of Sciences discovered how to stabilize the distorted Klein bottle’s three-dimensional entrance and prepared to send a survey ship through it. The entrance appeared as a smooth, dark sphere, though Lü Yongchang remained puzzled that its exit was not visible.

• Lü Yongchang found that the Klein bottle appeared when the survey ship’s warp drive operated within a specific output range, and the team began scanning it without sending another ship inside.
• In 4402, research and engineering vessels built a ring-shaped research project around the structure, supplying more precise equipment and data.
• After two years of research, Lü Yongchang’s team modeled part of the structure and concluded that spacetime forces had likely destroyed the two missing survey ships.
• Lü Yongchang discovered that a bulge in spacetime, rather than ordinary fluctuations, caused the Klein bottle to appear.
• The Grand Unified Field Control Device created a stable outward bulge, revealing the entrance as a smooth, dark sphere.
• Despite noticing that the exit was not visible, Lü Yongchang ordered a survey ship to deploy toward the Klein bottle’s entrance.

Lü Yongchang sent a fleet through the Klein bottle and discovered that its far side was a lightless, enclosed space containing wreckage from earlier probes. The ships’ inability to travel beyond its boundaries led him to suspect that the space was a micro-universe.

• Under Zero’s control, Survey Ship One entered the Klein bottle, and its observation feed showed a region of near-total darkness.
• Lü Yongchang ordered the remaining ships to shine their searchlights into the entrance, illuminating the Klein bottle’s bright exit and some of the surrounding space.
• Survey Ship One found the wrecks of Probe Ship 129C and Probe Ship 1531C, confirming that the distorted entrance had destroyed probes that strayed into it.
• Survey Ship One and the other ships and probes encountered an invisible boundary that prevented them from moving farther.
• Lü Yongchang recognized that the enclosed space might be a micro-universe.

Lü Yongchang and the academicians investigated a suspected micro-universe and found it was a spherical space about one light-year across. Its potential as a refuge and supply base for Human Civilization’s 5,000-year voyage to Andromeda inspired them, though they still knew almost nothing about how it worked or how to move it.

• Lü Yongchang used survey data to test his theories about micro-universes while Fang Xu took command of the survey operation.
• Zero directed survey ships and probes to map the micro-universe’s boundaries.
• The survey established that the micro-universe was a sphere approximately one light-year in diameter, exciting the academicians.
• The academicians imagined placing stars, planets, factories, and the fleet inside the micro-universe to support the voyage to Andromeda.
• The academicians recognized that they could not yet determine whether the micro-universe was stable, move it, or even place stars inside it, but their enthusiasm for studying it grew.

Lü Yongchang used probe data to explain the micro-universe as a bubble in higher-dimensional space that had broken free from the main universe. He warned that its entrance would soon vanish, but said Human Civilization had at least five hundred years to find a way to pull it back.

• Lü Yongchang confirmed that the closed spherical space was a micro-universe one light-year in diameter.
• Lü Yongchang presented a new spacetime model in which universes were bubbles on a higher-dimensional brane and micro-universes could form and drift away.
• Lü Yongchang explained that spacetime turbulence from the war between the Cleaners and the Gardener Faction had freed the micro-universe from the main universe.
• Fang Xu asked whether the micro-universe could be pulled back and worried that its Klein bottle entrance would disappear.
• Lü Yongchang said the micro-universe had likely been free for less than two thousand years and that Human Civilization had at least five hundred years to find a countermeasure.

Lü Yongchang and the Academy of Sciences developed [Kuafu], a megastructure designed to tow a wild micro-universe back into a stable relationship with the greater universe. In 4418, [Kuafu] prepared to begin its first Micro-Universe Capture Experiment.

• Lü Yongchang explained to Lin Yongnian that a micro-universe drifting freely beyond the hyperspatial membrane would be safer from enemy access than one connected to the greater universe by natural Klein bottle structures.
• A survey ship discovered a wild micro-universe one light-year in diameter, prompting the Academy of Sciences to halt resource collection and redirect its plans.
• Lü Yongchang's Spacetime Research Center proposed using gravity to tow the micro-universe, and the Academy of Sciences developed a gravitational kite string by 4415.
• Human civilization's advances in higher-dimensional spacetime theory and the Grand Unified Field Generator brought it to the quasi-level seven stage.
• Zero's engineering ships and robots completed the Micro-Universe Towing Platform [Kuafu] in a dead star region 1,800 light-years from the Kepler-452 Stellar System.
• Lü Yongchang ordered [Kuafu] to activate at full power and begin the first Micro-Universe Capture Experiment.

Lü Yongchang and the Human Federation successfully captured the micro-universe with [Kuafu] and began testing whether they could tow it at faster-than-light speeds. The micro-universe remained stable as [Kuafu] reached 800c, strengthening the Expedition Plan’s prospects.

• Lü Yongchang commanded the Antimatter Reactor to power the Grand Unified Field Generators, creating a gravitational thread that captured the escaping micro-universe.
• A being inside the large bubble noticed the tiny gravitationally tethered “kite” and watched it stop escaping.
• The Human Federation celebrated the successful capture, and Lü Yongchang ordered the Micro-Universe Towing Experiment to begin.
• [Kuafu] enveloped itself and the micro-universe entrance in a Curvature Bubble and accelerated beyond the speed of light.
• [Kuafu] reached its maximum cruising speed of 800c while the micro-universe remained stable, and Lü Yongchang relaxed as the Expedition Plan’s chances improved.

The Human Federation successfully tested its ability to capture and release a star using [Star Pickers] and [Kuafu]. Lü Yongchang then launched the Star Capture Plan and sent the fleet toward the Imperial Fortress to fulfill an earlier agreement.

• The Academy of Sciences selected a small red dwarf for the Federation’s first Star Capture Experiment.
• Under Zero’s control, more than five hundred [Star Pickers] worked with [Kuafu] to draw the red dwarf into the Klein bottle micro-universe.
• The fleet released the red dwarf back into the greater universe, and the Academy confirmed that the experiment had succeeded.
• Lü Yongchang ordered the Star Capture Plan to begin and sent the [Star Pickers] to the Imperial Fortress to bring a star there.