Chapter 237 Conjecture

"Since nanomachine clusters are not considered dangerous technology..."

Isa's soft voice came from the right: "Is it possible that we encountered an attack from another advanced civilization?"

Seeing Chen Fan and Song Ziliang looking at her at the same time, Isa's expression became visibly flustered.

She waved her hands repeatedly, and her originally soft voice became hesitant: "I, I just said it casually..."

"No."

Chen Fan's eyes lit up and interrupted Isa's words: "This is not a casual remark!"

Song Ziliang in the holographic projection also nodded gently: "If a third-party civilization is introduced, then it can be explained."

"The harm of nanomachine clusters to level eight civilizations is limited, but if an accident occurs on the battlefield, its harm will be instantly magnified."

Chen Fan nodded thoughtfully, and reached out to write down the code names of civilizations on the holographic panel beside him.

The first is the broadcasting civilization that has mastered the cross-universe broadcasting technology.

As a suspected level nine civilization, the other party is most likely not in this universe.

Not to mention Chen Fan, even the Academy of Sciences can't find the specific location of this civilization at present. Since the broadcast civilization emerged, the Human Union Academy of Sciences has launched a full-scale search and tracking of it.

But...

until now, the Human Union Academy of Sciences has not even successfully deciphered the text transmitted by the broadcast civilization, let alone revealing the true face of the broadcast civilization.

The second is the 42-second signal civilization.

The 42 civilization, which is closely related to the birth of [Source], is likely to be in the universe bubble. The basis for judgment is very simple-the other party is still using electromagnetic waves and tachyon broadcasting, two relatively low-level communication methods.

Then there is the Roca civilization.

Whether it is the artificial intelligence crisis or the black tide, in the final analysis, they are actually related to the Roca civilization.

Even the tachyon broadcast calling the 42 civilization was launched by the tachyon broadcasting tower of the Roca civilization.

Finally, there is the hypothetical hostile civilization of Roca.

According to Song Ziliang's guess, this hostile civilization took advantage of the backlash of the black tide to attack the Roca civilization, causing the Roca civilization to fall into extinction.

In order to survive, the Roca civilization had to send a large number of civilization fire ships into the universe.

Chen Fan frowned, looking at the holographic panel in front of him that was filled with text.

The situation was clear.

Whether it was the broadcasting civilization, the 42 civilization, or the hypothesized hostile civilization, all three had some connection with the Roca civilization!

Under Song Ziliang's gaze, Chen Fan hesitantly stretched out his hand, drew a big cross on the symbol of the hostile civilization, and at the same time put a question mark on the symbol of the 42 civilization.

"You are..."

Song Ziliang seemed to realize something: "Do you think Civilization 42 is the hostile civilization?"

Chen Fan nodded hesitantly: "Don't you think it's a coincidence?"

"All three civilizations are related to the Roca civilization, and one of them is something we imagined without any basis."

"Don't add entities unless necessary."

"I am more inclined to link this imaginary hostile civilization with Civilization 42."

Song Ziliang nodded slightly: "What you said makes sense. "

He pondered for a moment, turned his head and glanced at the holographic panel on his side: "You are almost at the EL001 star gate now, right?"

Seeing Chen Fan nodded in affirmation, Song Ziliang took a deep breath.

"Go back."

"Your investigation mission has been updated. Investigate the truth about the TE913 research vessel as soon as possible."

"In addition, the text decryption work at the Academy of Social Sciences has made considerable progress. It is estimated that it will not take long to complete the decryption of the first batch of text."

"Then we will be able to figure out what information the broadcasting civilization is trying to convey."

As soon as the voice fell, the familiar stargate prompt sound appeared beside Chen Fan.

[Authentication passed: Official investigator Chen Fan. ]

[Stargate guidance program has been activated, jump destination: EL13697101 universe. ]

[Passing channel: 017, current queue: 158716, estimated waiting time: 15 minutes. ]

Chen Fan subconsciously raised his head and looked out the porthole.

Under the control of the shipboard computer, the [Varilla] quietly sailed into a virtual channel constructed by light. In the channel, starships with a scale of less than 500 meters were lined up one after another and moved slowly forward.

Next to this channel, there are a large number of starships ranging from 500 to 1000 meters in size - the channels are arranged according to the size of the starships.

Chen Fan cast his eyes further away, and starships of 10,000 meters, 100,000 meters, or even larger sizes, all lined up and slowly drove towards the huge star gate in front.

It was like a line of cars entering the highway.

"I'll open a priority channel for you."

In the holographic projection, Song Ziliang chuckled and stretched out his hand to operate the panel on his side.

[Priority channel authority detected, channel has been changed to: 01, current queue: 0]

As the holographic prompt information above the main console changed, [Varilla] also began to evacuate channel 017.

Under the "watch" of starships, this conspicuous khaki starship drove straight to the empty channel 01, and drove all the way to the star gate in front without any obstacles.

...

[Stargate jump has ended. ]

[Current coordinates: EL13697101 star gate. ]

After passing the familiar star gate passage, Chen Fan finally saw the miniature star gate in front of his house, which was only 200 light years away.

"Brother Fan!"

As soon as the [Varilla] left the preset course of the star gate, Mochi's voice rang out in the cockpit: "How is it? Did the job report go well?"

Hearing the word "job report", Chen Fan's originally calm face suddenly became weird.

Whose job report work is conducted on the sample scanning instrument in the biological laboratory? !

It's called a job report, but in fact it's just an excuse to trick him into doing research!

"Ahem!"

Chen Fan calmed down and replied in a natural tone: "It went smoothly."

"The evaluation of the first investigation mission was quite good. I can pay you back the credit points I owed you before."

As he spoke, Chen Fan operated on the smart terminal interface in front of him.

The moment he pressed the transfer button, Chen Fan felt his heart twitch.

This was the hard-earned money he had worked so hard to earn! !

"I really envy you investigators..." Mochi looked at Chen Fan's easy transfer, and envy was written all over his face, "These credit points are too easy to come by."

"Unlike those of us who get a fixed salary, sitting here every day and don't know how to kill time..."

Chen Fan's eyes twitched suddenly.

Too much!

This is a bit hurtful! !

"Help me open a wormhole."

Chen Fan calmly changed the subject: "The coordinates have been sent to you. I have to find the missing research ship."

Moshu's face became serious, and he hurriedly operated on the console in front of him: "Yes, yes, the investigation mission is more important."

...

EL13697101 universe, unnamed empty area.

The space-time fluctuations generated by the wormhole slowly drifted in the vast universe, and finally dissipated in the tiny waves of the space-time ocean.

A khaki starship appeared very abruptly in this extremely deserted but dim universe.

This is a hollow structure in the universe.

What is a hole?

It's very simple, it's an empty area with almost no galaxy structure.

In the vast universe, this phenomenon is very common-there are dense galaxy areas, and naturally there are galaxy vacuum areas.

"Yi, have you searched for the research ship signal?"

Chen Fan couldn't wait to ask Yi as soon as the starship left the wormhole.

He couldn't wait to solve this big problem that had been weighing on his mind for nearly half a year.

Compared with the investigation mission on Varela, this investigation mission was too simple. With clear signal coordinates, he only needed to find the crashed research ship, and then let Yi complete the reading and summarization of the black box data.

This was the task that an investigator should do!

The previous mission was not what a normal investigator should do?

Fighting wits and courage with artificial intelligence without any weapons...

Thinking back now, Chen Fan still felt a little scared.

"It has been retrieved."

An electronic synthesized voice sounded in the cockpit: "But..."

"The signal strength is quite weak, even weaker than the signal received in the abyss."

"This machine believes that this is not a normal phenomenon."

The relaxed expression on Chen Fan's face changed slightly.

The signal strength is abnormally weak?

No...

Is there something wrong again? !

Chen Fan shook his head and threw his worries behind his head: "Just go over and have a look."

"Since the signal can still be detected, a good research ship can't disappear, right?"

"Received."

[Varela] quickly entered the curvature state and rushed towards the real coordinates of the signal.

…

“It’s a little too empty here…”

Chen Fan looked at the scenery outside the porthole and murmured subconsciously.

Since it came out of the wormhole, the Varela has crossed thousands of light years.

In the thousands of light-year journey, Chen Fan didn’t encounter a galaxy.

Not even a small star system or a star.

Not to mention stars, except for some scattered, lonely meteorites, not even a decent planet can be seen.

“In the macroscopic void structure of the universe, this is a normal phenomenon.”

An electronic synthesized voice sounded in the cockpit: “Most cosmic voids are larger than 100 million light years in size, and there are no galaxies in them. If you are lucky, you may encounter a few wandering stars or planets.”

“Because of this, this kind of void structure has become a forbidden place for civilization.”

Chen Fan did not speak, but just stared silently in front of the porthole.

The cockpit returned to silence again, and Isa and Gao Yuan, who were originally chatting and joking, fell into silence at the same time.

As the distance to the signal source got closer and closer, Chen Fan's mood gradually changed from excitement at the beginning to trepidation.

What kind of crisis did the TE913 research vessel encounter?

Will the next investigation be dangerous?

One question after another emerged in Chen Fan's mind.

"There is a planet ahead."

The electronic synthesized voice sounded, breaking the silence in the cockpit.

"A solid rocky planet."

Yi added again: "The signal source is near this rocky planet."

(End of this chapter)