Countless drifting photons filled the spherical room, forming a strange three-dimensional image. Reclining at the center of this light-dimensional landscape was an adult male in a black bodysuit. He was the fleet's recorder, Feifei.
Fei Fei took a careful look at the light-dimensional model floating beside him. "Hmm-"
A thousand warships formed a sphere. The energy radiating from each vessel was layered and amplified through linking amplifiers, ultimately expanding into a vast, pale blue Energy Shield that protected this sanctuary. Beyond the shield lay endless darkness, engulfing and compressing the blue sphere.
"This is the command compartment of the 41st Detachment, Seventh Squad, Southern Star Domain. Fleet recorder Fei Fei reporting. As planned, we attempted to construct a defensive wall to intercept the darkness. The bad news is that the interception failed. Our long-range communications with the outside have been cut off, and the fleet's sensors cannot extend beyond the protective energy field surrounding our warships. This has left the fleet trapped deep in the darkness, unable to determine an accurate course forward. Faster-than-light travel is likewise restricted by the force field emanating from the darkness. If we can only travel at near-light speed, we will never escape this darkness expanding at the speed of light..."
"It seems more like a strange, lightweight life-form resembling a jellyfish-like organism that lives in the atmosphere, and we are currently inside its body..."
The entire Starwatch Disc gave Feifei a real-time view of the fleet's situation, allowing him to record its every action. The fleet had been amply supplied before departure, with enough provisions to sustain operations away from home for more than five hundred years.
What was more, its auxiliary technological equipment would allow the fleet to endure for thousands, even tens of thousands of years in a universe where matter was