"Zhonghua, don't worry. Sooner or later, we'll catch up to them and even surpass them."
"I'm not worried, I'm not. Oh, right, Academician Zeng, after all that, you still haven't said how to solve the communications problem. Listening to you has tied my brain in knots, and you still haven't gotten to the point."
Academician Zeng glanced at Wen Zhonghua and continued with a smile. "Some spatial physicists and I have already designed a new method of communication: a new communications network based on a fourth-dimensional spatial network. Don't ask how it works yet. Let me continue. For a lower dimension to enter a higher one, the simplest and most direct way is to raise the energy level. For a two-dimensional creature on a sheet of paper to enter three-dimensional space, all you have to do is punch a hole in the paper. But whatever method you use, it requires the application of force, which means energy. Of course, the energy level needed to go from two dimensions to three is very low, while going from three to four takes a much higher energy level. With each additional dimension, the required energy level increases exponentially. Why can electrons freely enter and leave three-dimensional space? Because their energy level is extremely high. Don't underestimate a single electron. If it were scaled up proportionally to a macroscopic size, its existence would be utterly terrifying."
"Academician Zeng, by that logic, wouldn't a nuclear explosion be able to break through three-dimensional space at any time? But that doesn't actually happen," Wen Zhonghua asked.
"My dear chief of staff, don't interrupt. Energy level and energy are two different concepts. A nuclear explosion or antimatter annihilation releases a great deal of energy, but its energy level isn't high. An electron has little energy, but its energy level is high. After confirming the existence of the fourth dimension, we used directional magnetic field line control technology to fix one of a pair of quantum-entangled particles in place, keeping it in our three-dimensional space at all times. Then we fed it energy, raising its energy level by several grades. That was when a remarkable phenomenon occurred. But first, I should explain our microscopic imaging technology. Older electron microscopes and the somewhat more advanced scanning tunneling microscopes couldn't directly observe microscopic particles such as electrons, because the shortest wavelength of visible light is around 380 nanometers, while an electron's diameter is 10^-6 nanometers. So no matter how advanced our conventional microscopes are, they can't see electrons. That didn't change until our directional magnetic field line control technology matured. Light is discontinuous, but force is continuous. Through precise control of a magnetic field, we were able to perceive the clear appearance of all microscopic particles. A force field is like a bucket of sand. If we put an electron into the bucket and pack the sand tight, a cavity with exactly the same shape as the particle will appear in the middle of the sand. That's the principle behind the magnetic force microscope."
Academician Zeng took a sip of water. After talking nonstop for so long to the two semiliterate science students, Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua, his throat was burning. Academician Xiao, meanwhile, quietly ate and drank. Apart from biology, the old academician's understanding of other subjects wasn't much better than Wen Zhonghua's.
"We used the magnetic force microscope to observe the energized particle and discovered a strange phenomenon: the particle kept changing shape. We surmised that this was because the projection of the particle's four-dimensional state into three-dimensional space was changing. It was like a kitten covered in ink rolling around on a sheet of white paper. From the perspective of two-dimensional space, the cat's shape would be changing constantly. We passed magnetic field lines into the particle and continued supplying it with energy. Then something strange happened. No matter how much energy we put in, the particle's energy level no longer rose. When we raised the energy level to the same level as the particle's, a passage that didn't belong to this world appeared on the particle. At the same time, another passage appeared at the other particle entangled with it."
"A four-dimensional passage!!!" Wen Zhonghua and Hu Yu shouted in unison.
"That's right, a four-dimensional passage. We supplied more energy and expanded it to one hundred-thousandth of a meter. Although that's ten times thinner than a strand of hair, it's a genuine passage through the fourth dimension, and we've already managed to transmit matter through it."
"Academician, if you make it a little bigger, we can get rid of curvature engines," Wen Zhonghua said, brightening.
"I wish we could. Expanding it to just one ten-thousandth of a meter requires a nuclear power station with an output of 200 million kilowatts. That's nearly a third of the total installed capacity of our science ship's power system. To expand it enough for a Hunter-Killer to fly through, we'd have to bring ten Suns over and gather their energy with something like Dyson spheres. I finally understand why even great star region civilizations haven't fully mastered higher-dimensional passages. They can hardly carry hundreds or thousands of stars around with them. So four-dimensional travel is out of the question for now, but communication alone is feasible. The communications passages can be built very small and don't need to consume that much energy. It takes only 500,000 kilowatts of power to maintain a stable passage."
"Ah, I got my hopes up for nothing."
"Zhonghua, this is already very good. At least we've mastered the relevant technology. Sooner or later, we'll be able to travel through higher dimensions."
"This kind of passage is based in space, and its diameter is a million times that of a particle, so it won't be as fragile as one. Even if we travel under curvature propulsion at ten thousand times the speed of light, the passage won't be affected at all. What we need to do now is build a four-dimensional network and let electromagnetic waves travel through the fourth dimension. That will solve the communications problem. However, establishing communications between two locations won't be as convenient as using electromagnetic communications. We can open a four-dimensional passage on any particle, but our current technology can't track where the other end is. So if we wanted to establish communications with Alpha Centauri now, we'd first have to send a spacecraft to carry one end of an established passage there before we could transmit information. Of course, that's a matter for the future. There's no need for it now."
"Academician, since the passages are also one-to-one, they can only solve the problem of long-distance communications. We still can't establish direct communications between any two warships. If I wanted to command every warship in the Hunter-Killer fleet, or establish communications links between every warship, wouldn't we have to build 600,000 passages on each one?"
"General, of course we don't need 600,000. Four will be enough. How much energy would it take to maintain 600,000? Even if we had enough energy, I doubt the warships would have enough space. Suppose we have four warships, A, B, C and D. We connect A to B, B to C, C to D, and D back to A. That makes a ring network requiring four higher-dimensional passages in total, with two passage openings on each ship. Although A and C aren't directly connected, they can transmit information indirectly through B or D. By the same principle, however many warships we have, they can transmit information this way. We only need to install information relay equipment at the passage openings on each ship. The four-dimensional communications network we ultimately build will be like a large fishing net. Each node will be a warship, connected by four passages to the ships ahead, behind, to the left and to the right. That way, even if a hole appears somewhere in the net, it won't affect information transmission across the whole network."
"I see. Oh, right, Academician, will the passage openings move along with the warships? Have you tested it?"
"Of course they will. These are spatial passages, and there's space inside a warship too. When we move the ship, it's equivalent to cutting the space inside it away from the original space. A passage within that space will naturally move along with the ship."
"In that case, can we put it into use immediately?" Hu Yu asked eagerly.
"In theory, yes. There are still a few minor details that need careful design, but those are technical matters. It should take about a month or two to finish. We've also designed a passage shutdown system. If a spacecraft is abandoned because of a malfunction or destroyed in battle, its passages will be left behind. Leaving them unattended would be very dangerous for the fleet. For example, suppose we had to abandon a spacecraft here because of a malfunction without closing the higher-dimensional passages inside it. If a civilization discovered one of those passages someday, it could very likely use it to trace us back and track down our location directly. So we designed a passage shutdown system. For passages that are no longer in use, we cut off their energy supply, then travel under high-speed curvature propulsion for a few seconds. That completely severs the connection between the two ends. No matter how advanced the other party's technology is, they won't be able to trace us."
"There's another matter. Forcibly destroying a passage releases an enormous amount of energy, with a yield more than ten times greater than matter annihilation. That's what we've measured so far. Going from a lower dimension to a higher one requires energy to be absorbed, and conversely, falling from a higher dimension back into a lower one releases energy. We'll continue to study this in depth and hope to develop spatial weapons, or dimensional weapons, in the future. But don't get your hopes up for now. I have no confidence at all that we can solve this problem in the next few hundred or even a few thousand years. We'll have to wait for breakthroughs in other areas of fundamental science first."
"Academician Zeng, you've thought of everything. I really don't know how to thank you," Hu Yu said sincerely.
"What's there to thank me for? It's all for the fleet and the Chinese Nation. Besides, it's my job. It's the same for you, running around every day for the fleet. Oh, right, Academician Xiao has quite a few good things too. Don't you two want to hear about them?" Academician Zeng said with a smile.
"Go on, go on. Academician Xiao, keep it simple and clear. After a whole night of Academician Zeng's theory lessons, my brain's tied up in a tangled mess. Give me something I can understand, so my brain cells can relax," Wen Zhonghua said carelessly.
"Don't listen to Academician Zeng's persuasion. There's nothing good about it. When it comes to biology, especially the creations of our biological ship, it's better not to use them unless we absolutely have to." Academician Xiao Yi put down the teacup and smiled.
"Academician, please don't be modest. Let us hear all about it tonight," Hu Yu said with a smile.
"Young people are always curious. I hope you're mentally prepared. We have indeed had a few small results recently. First, we've picked up cloning technology again after it was suppressed for centuries. Thanks to advances in genetic technology, cloned animals no longer have shortcomings such as short lifespans, frequent illnesses and low intelligence. Apart from memories, they're identical to normal animals in every way. We've conducted tests on animals and on the captured beings from four civilizations. The other experimental results are all new genetically engineered species-aliens, you understand. To improve their ability to adapt to interstellar environments and their combat strength, they look ten times more terrifying and disgusting than you can imagine. But none of the products so far can reproduce, so they can't meet the numerical requirements. We're still working on improvements. Still, I hope we never have to use these technologies. Used poorly, biology can be a disaster, just like the Insect Race. For all we know, the Insect Race was an uncontrollable failed creation of some advanced civilization."
With that, Academician Xiao pulled up pictures of the creatures on a personal terminal. How could these be called creatures? They were outright patchworks of different species. The most hair-raising of them had an enormous flat body like a centipede's. At the front were a crab's pincers, an octopus's tentacles and a pair of hands resembling those of a dried human corpse. It had a crocodile's head, with fangs filling its mouth, and huge, pus-oozing fleshy growths like a toad's on its back. Hind legs as powerful as an elephant's held its entire body upright, while an enormous tail kept it balanced. The creature was covered in slime. The others were no better. Some were patchworks, while others were original creations. Every one of them challenged the limits of human sight and psychological endurance. The biologists' mental fortitude was truly admirable: they spent every day with these things and could still eat.
"Academician Xiao, cloning without memories could be useful for colonization, but what can those alien creatures do? Surely we're not going to have those things occupy a planet," Wen Zhonghua asked.
"Of course we wouldn't use them to wage war against other civilizations. But don't forget, our enemy at the beginning and our enemy in the end are both the Insect Race. We've been trying to develop the most powerful creatures, and perhaps through them we can glimpse some information about higher-tier insects and provide support for our future struggle against the Insect Race. The Destroyers said that the swarms have shown unusual activity again in the last few tens of thousands of years and could erupt on a massive scale again at any time. We're still very weak, and we know almost nothing about the higher-tier swarms, so all we can do is prepare in every way we can, just in case."
"Academician Xiao, you need to be very careful too. Those things are dangerous," Hu Yu said with concern.
"Don't worry about that. We have strict production procedures and only proceed when absolute safety is assured. Otherwise, the victims might not just be the people aboard our biological ship, but the entire fleet."
"Old Hu, quick, quick, slap me!" Wen Zhonghua suddenly shouted.
"Zhonghua, have you gone mad? Why would I slap you for no reason?"
"Hurry up, WC, slap me!!!"
"Chief of the general staff, are you feeling unwell?" Academician Xiao asked, looking thoroughly puzzled. Everyone else was also staring at Wen Zhonghua as though he were a curiosity.
When Wen Zhonghua saw that everyone was ignoring him, he gave himself a hard slap and rubbed his eyes.
"Look! I think I've gone mad. Is that an immortal?" Wen Zhonghua shouted, pointing at the porthole.
Everyone looked where he pointed. In an instant, their blood vessels burst and their hair stood on end. A huge object glowing cyan was flying just outside the porthole, pressed close against it. Looking carefully, they saw that the glowing cyan object was actually an enormous ox. Standing on its back was a human old man with white hair and a white beard. The old man was pointing inside the porthole, his mouth opening and closing incessantly, his face full of anger, as though he were cursing Hu Yu and the other three.