Star Field

Energy storms swept through the shattered star rings, and metal debris tumbled silently in the vacuum. Shao Wei stood at the bridge observation window, his pale fingers tracing the cold data stream, his eyes reflecting the glaring spots from the distant explosion.

"The Third Sector's defenses have collapsed." His voice reached Siqi through the bone conduction headphones, as calm as if he were reporting daily weather data. "The Reaper Fleet will arrive in this system in seventy-two hours standard time."

Si Qi looked up from the tactical hologram, his black combat uniform making him stand tall and sharp. With a flick of his fingertips, he sent the final defensive command to each combat unit, then turned to look at the figure in front of the observation window.

"That's enough."

Behind them, the starship "Zhulong"'s intelligence core was operating at a speed hundreds of times faster than conventional computing power. This was beyond the reach of human technology—Shao ​​Wei's mental power, deeply integrated with the quantum computer, was now calculating the only way out of this almost certain defeat, at the cost of his own life.

"Your mental strength threshold is breaking the safety red line." Si Qi walked to his side and said in a low voice. He could feel the invisible energy fluctuations in the air, which were the ripples caused by Shao Wei tearing through the boundaries of his own consciousness.

Shao Wei didn't respond. The data stream accelerated through his pupils, finally settling on a near-zero probability: 0.000017%.

"There is a way." He finally spoke, his voice trembling slightly from the excessive consumption of mental energy, "but it requires you to completely let go of your conscious defenses."

Si Qi's eyes glared. For a psychic of their level, opening their consciousness was tantamount to handing their lives over to others. But he didn't hesitate, simply asking, "What's the success rate?"

"From zero to infinitesimal." Shao Wei turned around, a nearly insane smile on his pale face. "Want to bet, Commander?"

In response, Si Qi suddenly unleashed a mental force field. Two powerful consciousnesses collided violently in the center of the bridge, yet instead of repelling each other, they began to blend in a counterintuitive way. An energy storm erupted from their center, enveloping the entire bridge in a blinding white light.

When the light faded, Si Qi saw a completely different world. He could not only perceive Shao Wei's every thought, but even shared his near-future-predicting ability. At the same time, Shao Wei felt Si Qi's scorching, star-like spiritual power pouring into his own nearly depleted sea of ​​consciousness.

"Is this... twin consciousness?" Si Qi felt the strange flow of information rushing through his mind, and his voice was filled with shock that was hard to conceal.

Shao Wei wiped the blood from his nose, his eyes sharp as ever: "This is a temporary unstable state. We can only maintain it for three hours at most."

Three hours. Faced with the overwhelming Reaper fleet, that was laughably short.

"Then let these three hours become their nightmare."

Si Qi's lips curled up in a cold arc. When he looked up at the starry sky again, his eyes flickered with the wills of two people.

"Zhulong, activate the 'Guixu' protocol."

The AI's cold response echoed across the bridge: "Confirmed execution of final defense protocol. Warning, this protocol will deplete all energy reserves of this ship, including life support systems."

The starship began to vibrate violently. The outer armor plating peeled away layer by layer, revealing the complex energy matrix within. Meanwhile, the vanguard of the Reaper fleet had breached the last line of defense, and tens of thousands of warships surged towards the star field like a tide of death.

Just as the first wave of attacks was about to hit "Zhulong", the entire starship suddenly disappeared from the physical universe.

No, it didn't disappear—it transformed into a mental force field spanning several astronomical units, enveloping the entire Reaper fleet. Within this special realm constructed by twin consciousnesses, the laws of physics were completely rewritten.

Shao Wei's consciousness dominated the calculations and construction of the domain, controlling the trajectory of every particle. Meanwhile, Si Qi's will became the sharpest blade, ripping apart those warships that attempted to break through the domain.

They no longer needed to communicate verbally. As soon as a thought formed in Shao Wei's mind, Si Qi had already executed it. The Reaper fleet's vaunted numerical advantage was meaningless in this area—every concentrated fire attack was predicted before it was launched, and every tactical maneuver would fall into a carefully calculated trap.

"High-dimensional energy reaction detected." Shao Wei's warning appeared directly in Si Qi's mind, "They are trying to forcibly ascend to a higher dimension and escape."

Si Qi's response was filled with cold murderous intent: "Then let them see what true dimensional ascension is."

The twin consciousnesses began to burn in sync. This time, they held nothing back. The intensity of their mental force field instantly surpassed critical mass, dragging the entire star region into the boundary between reality and illusion.

The Reaper fleet's sensors witnessed the most terrifying sight of their lives: countless "Candle Dragons" from parallel time and space appeared simultaneously, each emitting shuddering energy fluctuations. These projections were not illusions—in the special realm constructed by the twin consciousnesses, they were all real threats.

The fabric of space and time began to collapse. The Reaper fleet attempted to flee, only to find every possible escape route sealed. The weapons they launched self-annihilated upon crossing dimensions, and their shields were like paper-thin paper against the restructuring of reality.

When the last high-dimensional channel was completely closed in Shao Wei's calculations, Si Qi's will was like the scythe of the god of death, accurately cutting off the energy core of each enemy ship.

silence.

As the mental force field slowly dissipated, the "Zhulong" reappeared in the physical universe, leaving only floating metal wreckage in front of it. The Reaper fleet that once covered the sky and the sun had now become a cold space graveyard.

Inside the bridge, Si Qi knelt on one knee, panting heavily. Excessive exertion had blinded him, and his sea of ​​consciousness felt as if it were being torn apart. But the first person he looked at was Shao Wei, who was equally weak but still standing.

"We are still alive." Shao Wei's voice was so soft that it was almost inaudible, but his eyes gleamed with the light of survival.

Si Qi struggled to stand up and walked over to him. There was no celebratory hug, no ecstasy of surviving a disaster. He simply reached out and gently wiped the blood from the corner of Shao Wei's mouth.

"Next time you make a battle plan," his voice was hoarse from weakness, yet filled with unquestionable determination, "remember to calculate a higher probability of survival."

Shao Wei grabbed his wrist, a genuine smile appearing on his pale face: "Try your best."

Outside the porthole, the stars remained the same. And at the edge of the distant star field, a new threat was quietly brewing. But for them at this moment, this was enough—they had won another tomorrow, and the opportunity to continue fighting side by side.

That's enough.

The hum of the quantum engine echoed lowly through the corridors of the Zhulong, like the weary heartbeat of a starship. Siqi leaned back in the control chair, his fingertips unconsciously tapping the armrests, his gaze fixed on the slowly moving cursor on the holographic star map—the source of the anomalous signal they had recovered from the wreckage of the Reaper fleet.

"Analysis progress?" His voice was hoarse due to mental exhaustion.

Shao Wei stood before the data stream, his pale face shrouded in a faint blue halo. "78%. The signal structure doesn't conform to any known civilization's coding pattern." He frowned slightly. "It's... resisting analysis."

This resistance wasn't a technical firewall, but rather a repulsion instinctively borne by some living being. As the analysis algorithm delved deeper into the core of the signal, even the shipboard AI reported experiencing "cognitive interference."

Si Qi stood up and walked to Shao Wei's side. Without words, the remaining connection between their twin consciousnesses made them share a common sense of vigilance. "It could be a trap."

"Probability 87.4%." Shao Wei tapped his fingertips on the holographic interface, calling up the energy spectrum analysis of the signal source. "But the energy signature is completely different from the Reaper. More ancient, more... primitive."

At this moment, the signal analysis surpassed a critical point. The main screen was suddenly covered in a glaring red alert, and the shipboard AI's synthesized voice took on a rare, urgent tone: "Spacetime distortion detected! Coordinates locked onto this ship!"

Almost immediately, the previously stable starfield outside the observation window began to distort. Stars were stretched into strange streaks of light, and space rippled like the surface of water. The Zhulong's shields wailed harshly as they were torn apart by the turbulent flow of space and time.

"Start emergency jump!" Si Qi roared.

"The jump drive is not responding!" The navigation officer responded in panic, "We are anchored!"

Shao Wei's hands transformed into shadows on the console, his mental power forcibly connecting to the ship's systems once again. "It's not a technical lock... it's a biological anchor." His voice was strained against the invisible pressure. "That signal source... is alive!"

The starship structure began to groan under the strain. The core of the spacetime distortion was emerging from the void—not a ship, but a massive, translucent biological structure, extending its tentacles like an interstellar jellyfish. Its core shone with the exact same light as the signal's source.

"Void Mayflies." Shao Wei's pupils contracted. "I thought they were just legends."

These ancient cosmic creatures feed by devouring spacetime and time, typically dwelling in the interdimensional spaces. The appearance of this adult now suggests the Reaper fleet is merely bait—the true hunter has just appeared.

The mayfly's tentacles gently wavered, disintegrating the spatial structures wherever they passed. A tentacle swept across the side of the Candle Dragon, and the composite armor melted away like foam.

"Conventional weapons are ineffective!" The weapons officer's voice was desperate.

Si Qi and Shao Wei exchanged a glance, instantly reaching a consensus. The remnants of their twin consciousnesses were forcibly activated once again, though this time the connection was even more painful and fragile than before.

"Give me navigation authority." Si Qi's consciousness connected directly to the control system. In every gap in the curvature of spacetime calculated by Shao Wei, the Zhulong executed a seemingly suicidal maneuver, avoiding the deadly tentacles by a hair's breadth.

But this was far from enough. The glow of the Mayfly's core grew brighter, and a more powerful space-time storm was brewing.

"Its weakness lies within its core." Shao Wei's mental power struggled to explore the Mayfly's energy field, "but external attacks cannot penetrate the space-time barrier."

Si Qi looked at the rapidly decreasing shield energy on the tactical panel, his eyes growing colder. "Then we'll solve it from the inside."

This crazy proposal stunned Shao Wei for a moment, but he immediately understood Si Qi's intention. The greatest advantage of twin consciousnesses was that they could operate separately.

"I'll calculate the intrusion route." Blood oozed from Shao Wei's fingertips, and his overdrawn mental strength began to backfire. "But you only have ninety seconds. If you exceed this time, your consciousness will be trapped in the dimensional gap forever."

"That's enough."

Si Qi unlocked the safety lock and walked towards the individual assault cabin behind the bridge. Before the hatch closed, he looked back at Shao Wei. There was no farewell, only absolute trust.

The assault pod shot towards the mayfly like an arrow from a bow. At the perfect moment calculated by Shao Wei, it passed through a briefly opened rift in space and time and directly entered the monster's body.

The scene inside was beyond imagination. There were no organs or tissues here, only bubbles of space-time that constantly emerged and disappeared. Si Qi struggled to maintain consciousness amidst the dimensional turbulence, following the navigation signals transmitted by Shao Wei through his twin consciousness and charging forward.

Outside, Shao Wei single-handedly supported the defense of the Zhulong. Blood oozed from his nose and ears, but his movements in maneuvering the starship remained as precise as a machine. Every evasion, every counterattack, perfectly exploited the subtle shifts in the fabric of space and time.

"Thirty seconds left." He reminded through the consciousness link.

Inside the assault cabin, Si Qi finally saw his target—a constantly pulsating light core, the true form of the signal source. But just as he was about to attack, the light core suddenly released a powerful consciousness shock.

This wasn't a physical attack, but rather a direct contamination of the mind. Countless chaotic fragments of memory flooded into Siqi's mind—the final wails of a civilization devoured by mayflies, the eternal loneliness of the interdimensional space, and even more ancient, collective memories belonging to the mayfly race.

Si Qi's consciousness began to collapse. He saw Shao Wei lying in a pool of blood, saw the "Zhulong" disintegrate in flames, and saw countless failed futures flash before his eyes.

"It's an illusion!" Shao Wei's voice cleaved through the fog like a sharp blade. Through his twin consciousness, he shared some of the mental pollution, but the price was another mouthful of blood sprayed onto the console.

Si Qi suddenly woke up. The Mayfly's mental attack had magnified his deepest fears, but there was one thing it couldn't imitate—the absolute trust given by the person whose consciousness had merged with his.

The entire assault pod's energy instantly poured into the weapon system. A beam of light, condensed with the power of twin consciousnesses, pierced the core of the Mayfly.

Outside, the vast biological tissue began to shrink violently. The distortion of space and time dissipated like the receding tide. When the last ripple subsided, the starry sky returned to its original state.

Shao Wei accurately brought the assault cabin back to the bridge. When the hatch opened, Si Qi stumbled out, almost unable to stand.

Shao Wei's condition was even worse. He slumped over the console, his face as pale as paper, but his hands remained fixed on the interface. "The wreckage of the Mayfly... contains a large amount of pure spacetime particles," he reported weakly. "Enough to repair the Zhulong and even... upgrade its jump drive."

Si Qi walked up to him and silently held his trembling hand. Both of their mental powers were on the verge of exhaustion, but through their touching skin, a faint energy still flowed between them.

"Next time," Si Qi's voice was so soft that it was almost inaudible, "I'll do the calculation."

Shao Wei smiled softly and closed his eyes. "Deal."

The bridge gradually filled with the hum of repair systems. Outside the observation window, the remains of the mayfly slowly drifted away like stardust, reflecting the tranquility of the aftermath.