A brilliant star appeared in the corner of the view. The sunlight was weakened and filtered to prevent it from hurting the eyes of everyone on the bridge. Hao Ren let the data terminal adjust the lens of the external monitor and saw the situation around the star.
The so-called "Irem Planet" has long since disappeared. That planet was gradually dismantled into pieces thousands of years ago. Now it is a continuous floating island in space orbiting the original planet.
It seemed like a series of fragmentary conical stones of similar sizes floating in formation in space. Those elves resolutely decomposed them in order to mine the last bit of resources from the planet's underground and to replenish the planet's increasingly depleting energy cycle as much as possible.
Their entire planet, turning it into a fragmented state that can receive the maximum amount of solar energy and accommodate more people. Only after the rock formations deep in the mantle were dismantled and reshaped into this kind of floating island, they obtained precious
living space, and even more precious - the testing ground.
Those space floating islands have obvious traces of artificial shaping. Their main body is the rock of the planet itself, but huge artificial "hoops" can be seen around the floating islands. Those are already somewhat dim, and the material is somewhere between rock and metal.
The man-made structure not only maintains the stability of the floating island, but also creates an energy shield to protect the land below, and the energy shield itself can be used to filter sunlight. One side of the floating island is flat, and the other side is a huge ugly rock foundation.
, you can see ancient and huge mechanical structures among the rugged upside-down mountains. They are the floating island's power devices, gravity generators, energy stations, and material recycling factories. Those mechanical structures are probably thousands of years old, among which
It's unknown how much damage there is, but it's obvious that their manufacturer no longer has the energy or resources to repair it.
"Those are our homes." Hilda calmed down at this moment. She stood up and pointed at the picture on the holographic projection, "Some floating islands far away from the main living area are testing grounds. We used to test the space-time core and
A super-powerful magic accelerator, if we don't dismantle the planet like this, we won't even be able to find such a test site. The magic accelerator needs to be built on a solid and huge foundation, and conventional space stations cannot carry it, and it
Once an explosion occurs, it may even tear apart half of the planet, so it cannot be placed on the home star. In history, a generation of scholars tried their best to build a huge space platform to barely conduct such dangerous experiments, but a fusion furnace exploded
As a result, the platform crashed and almost destroyed the entire northern hemisphere's ecology. These experimental projects were suspended and were not restarted until the planet was reshaped - but that was also in the past. Now that the experiments on the space-time core and the magic accelerator have been stopped, we really
There are no resources left.”
"Those floating islands with bright energy shields are ecological islands, and there are ecological domes under the shields. We have preserved the ecosystems of the planetary era as much as possible and transplanted them into the huge artificial circulation system. These ecological domes provide us with
Precious complex organic matter, and at the same time... it is also the only remaining luxury for my people. Each Erim elf can rest in a dome for fifteen days a year, but no more. The carrying capacity of those domes has a limit, and
As some key systems age, they are actually about to shut down. If they shut down, I'm afraid we will have to rely entirely on factory-synthesized substances to survive, and this will kill a lot of people: the Erim elves are a slow-evolving race.
Healthy individuals have a lifespan of thousands of years, and the environment is deteriorating far faster than we can adapt. Whenever an ancient facility shuts down, a large number of old elves... and even prime-age elves will die."
"Those floating islands connected by bright beams of light are residential areas, and most elves live on those islands. They are specially designed with the lowest energy consumption, the most stable circulation system, and more reasonable building planning. In other words,
...It can be delayed longer. Most of the synthesis factories are on those floating islands. Even if other floating islands - such as the test site - are accidentally damaged, these residential areas can survive as much as possible."
The spaceship gradually approached the space islands in low-speed cruising mode. Hao Ren discovered that there was a group of special individuals among the floating islands: they were wandering on the edge of the island chain. The whole was dim, and the "hoops" on the borders of some islands had even been damaged and fallen off.
Since they disappeared, the remains of man-made buildings can still be seen vaguely on the floating islands, but the energy shield over the land has obviously been extinguished, and the land without a trace of light appears lifeless, like exhausted space rocks.
"what is that?"
"Death Land," Hilda sighed, "We have shaped these seemingly magnificent space entities, but that does not mean how skilled we are - these floating islands were built almost desperately under forced circumstances.
The technology is not mature enough, and even the theory is not perfect enough. The structures of many islands are different, because the original designers themselves did not know which kind of islands can last longer. Moreover, many floating islands were not constructed at the beginning.
It has defects, and if it breaks down later, it cannot be repaired, so floating islands continue to be damaged and burned out, and then it becomes like that."
Even Lily was quiet now. She was even a little afraid of the strange sight in front of her. She put her tail between her legs, but her ears stood straight up: "What about the people above?"
"Most of the time, they can be rescued and transferred to other islands," Hilda nodded. "This will increase the ecological pressure on other islands, so every time such a rescue and transfer is carried out, resource restrictions will be implemented for a period of time.
The bill mainly restricts newborns and reduces per capita supplies. Some elderly people will take the initiative to enter the "Prayer World" and let their bodies undergo euthanasia to make room for other young adults. There is no way, we must make the entire race as much as possible
stay alive."
"This place..." Hao Ren opened his mouth, and it took him a long time to figure out what to say, "It's more serious than I thought."
As an earthling and a rookie prosecutor who has not had time to experience too many events, Hao Ren cannot imagine how many unbelievable things are happening in the vast void. The disasters and doomsdays he sees from various stories are all...
It couldn't be compared to the chain of space islands in front of him. Before coming here, he had imagined how to help Hilda and her people - such as borrowing the empire's world gate system and his connections at Kuiper Station.
See if it is possible to transport some supplies here, or purchase some technology or spaceships that do not exceed the provisions of the "Civilized Non-Interference Act" from the traders of the Fiari Void Consortium and give them to these Irem elves. As a reviewer, he will
He has a certain amount of "Empire Ration Points" every month, but he has not used these things yet. He only heard that these ration points can be exchanged for extremely abundant supplies from major civilizations in the macro world, so he came up with the above-mentioned idea.
idea.
But now it seems that all his plans have to be revised.
These Irem elves can't be helped by more than a little material or a little belated technology.
"Your creativity and resilience are indeed commendable," the data terminal couldn't help but want to say something, "It's just that you failed to discover the secret of the hyperdrive - sometimes a fork in the technology tree can destroy a civilization, especially
For a race like yours whose congenital conditions are not well-off, as long as a technology is not developed in time, there is often no chance to turn around. It can be seen that you have worked hard, but... you still failed in the end."
Hilda sighed: "Yes, the last space teleportation test also failed."
When the Giant Turtle Rock Platform approached those island chains, it obviously attracted the attention of the Erim elves. Hao Ren noticed that the communicator suddenly reported a large number of unknown contact signals, and some bright light spots quickly emanated from several residential floating ships.
The back side of the island circled around and quickly approached the spacecraft. After the camera was pulled over, Hao Ren saw clearly that those were triangular aircraft with rough edges and shining gray-white metallic luster. Bright runes were flashing on the outer shell of each aircraft.
Obviously they are different from the spaceships in the general impression. Those are probably the spaceships made by the Erim elves, but it is a pity that they cannot span the long distance of tens of millions of light years.
These gray-white triangular aircraft quickly arrived around the Giant Turtle Yantai. Hao Ren slowed down the spacecraft to almost a standstill, so the "small spacecraft" dozens of meters long stopped and did not make any rash moves such as rapid detours.
.The pilots inside them must be in a state of great shock and tension. Everyone on the bridge can even feel this emotion permeating through the cold space and several layers of starship armor. (To be continued)