"How could this happen?" Academician Zeng muttered to himself.
The first day has passed, everything is normal, the speed has dropped to 400 times the speed of light.
The next day passed, and everything was normal, except that the speed had dropped to 320 times the speed of light.
"Return to base! Return to base! Return to base immediately!" Commander-in-Chief Zhang Yuanshan shouted loudly. "In this condition, there's absolutely no need to complete the entire race."
After the third day, the travel speed dropped to 260 times the speed of light.
On the eighth day, the Wind Master finally reached the test launch point above Earth Two, at a speed of 28 times the speed of light. At this point, the Wind Master was completely unrecognizable, its size having expanded more than ten times. No wonder the Wind Master's speed was getting slower and slower; it was all the fault of the warp drive.
The principle of warp drive is similar to that of massive celestial bodies; both attract surrounding matter to fall. When flying in Nebula Region, the Wind Master is like a magnet moving through a pile of iron powder. The farther it moves, the more iron powder it attracts, and the slower its speed becomes. The reason why the Wind Master's speed changes less and less is also related to its travel speed. The slower the speed, the less matter it attracts, and the smaller the speed change is.
No wonder the Fish Horse Star warship didn't enter the Nebula Region; they knew this would happen all along, Hu Yu thought to himself as he looked at the Wind Master, which was swollen beyond recognition. Even with an anti-gravity shield, these substances were useless. Anti-gravity shields couldn't be activated during warp drive as they would conflict with the warp engine. The warship absorbed the substances, and the anti-gravity shield couldn't remove them; it was merely a force field shield.
"General, I'm sorry, we didn't consider this thoroughly beforehand." Needless to say, everyone understood the reason for the decrease in speed, and could only explain the situation to Hu Yu.
"It's not your fault. This is the first time anyone has encountered this situation. Let's all figure out a solution together."
"No, that's not right, that's not right," Academician Zeng suddenly said.
"Academician, what's wrong?"
"The warp drive absorbing too much material increases the ship's mass, which will reduce its speed. Because the Wind Master is smaller this time, the warp drive we designed is not as powerful as the Wind Master generation. However, this is definitely not the only reason for the speed reduction. Have you all forgotten that the Wind Master was already halved when it passed the first checkpoint, and it only gradually decreased in the following days? This means that what should have been a five-minute journey took ten minutes. This data is seriously flawed."
Upon hearing Academician Zeng Zeng's words, everyone immediately realized that even if too much adsorbed material affected the speed, it was impossible for the speed to drop by half in just ten minutes.
"Also, I just observed the route that was originally a five-minute journey. Although there was a lot of matter, there was definitely not enough to cause the Wind Master to slow down by half."
"Academician, it's possible that this Wind Master also has a problem," said Commander-in-Chief Zhang Yuanshan.
"Maybe, let's get it checked first."
Upon hearing the commander-in-chief's words, a large group of engineers who had been waiting there immediately prepared to enter the Wind Master ship to conduct various inspections. Now everyone suspected that the Wind Master had a malfunction from the beginning and was being put into operation with defects. This was a questioning of their work, and they absolutely could not allow such a mistake to happen. Even if it did happen, they would find the error and rectify it as soon as possible.
With the help of the machines, the engineers quickly removed the substances from the surface of Wind Master Wind Master, finally restoring it to its original appearance. Then, the engineers went inside the warship and began to work. 24 hours passed, and the engineers did not eat or drink. They tested and checked all the components again and again, even checking the protective coating on the surface of the hull. Normal, normal, everything was normal.
The engineers began to have doubts. After a final, thorough inspection of the Wind Master from the inside out, they still found no problems. Everything was almost perfect, so the engineers had no choice but to report the results.
Academician Zeng and the other academicians were also puzzled by the results. They had absolute faith in the engineers' professional competence and ethics. The only explanation was that the problem of the reduced speed was hidden very deeply, so deeply that even these senior engineers could not find the problem.
"Academician, Commander-in-Chief, let's try another ship," Hu Yu said.
"That's all we can do."
Another Wind Master quickly arrived at the departure position. This time, the engineers insisted on checking the ship before the test voyage. The first test voyage failure had already made them feel very embarrassed. Although it might not have been entirely their fault, from any perspective, they absolutely could not allow a second failure to happen.
Three hours later, the engineers disembarked from the warship, indicating that it was ready to set sail. However, five minutes later, the Wind Master still hadn't reached the first inspection point. It wasn't until ten minutes later that the Wind Master passed through the first inspection point. Academician Zeng then issued the order to return to port. Another ten minutes passed, Wind Master returned to the starting point of the trial voyage.
The Wind Master returned to the starting point didn't absorb much substance; it was merely like a layer of dust settling on an item that hadn't been used for a long time. It was definitely not enough to affect their speed, and in fact, it reduced it to half speed.
This time, all the engineers' faces turned red. They couldn't believe it. The failure rate of the Wind Master was less than one in ten thousand, and the probability of two ships failing at the same time was as high as one in a hundred million. This was even smaller than winning the lottery in Earth's time. In addition, they had already conducted rigorous inspections and tests. How could there be any more problems?
"Academician, Chief Commander, could it be that there's a problem with the distance to the testing port?" Finally, a young engineer raised the most unlikely question.
"That's impossible," Commander-in-Chief Zhang Yuanshan quickly replied, "There are only three detection points, placed at five, ten, and fifteen minutes respectively, using a speed of a thousand times the speed of light. They will be used to detect key data during the warship's initial launch phase. Each detection point has undergone multiple tests and verifications, with an error margin of no more than one hundred meters."
"Academician, Commander-in-Chief, let's try another ship," Hu Yu suggested again.
"All right."
Soon, the third Wind Master took 20 minutes to circle around the first checkpoint and return to the starting point. The fourth, fifth, and sixth ships all did the same.
"Academician, could it be a problem with the warp drive?" Chief Commander Zhang Yuanshan asked.
"It shouldn't be. I've reviewed every detail, from the design drawings to the manufacturing process, over the past few days, and we've also remodeled it using computers, and there are no problems. It seems the issue isn't in those areas. Okay, everyone, you can leave now; I need to think about it."
Back in the Science City, Academician Zeng immediately began discussing with the academicians in charge of navigation the various possible causes of the problem. More than a month later, the academicians almost completely redesigned the blueprints of the Wind Master. Fortunately, with the assistance of a supercomputer, otherwise the time would have been increased by at least a hundred times. Various reviews, calculations, modeling and testing, just like the engineers, did not find any abnormalities.
Out of caution, Commander-in-Chief Zhang Yuanshan personally piloted the small spaceship, using its conventional power engine to fly at 0.2 times the speed of light towards the first detection port. It took 417 hours to locate the satellite at the first detection port, with accurate distance. Using radio testing, 16.8 hours later, a reply from Earth Two was accurately received, confirming the accurate distance.