Chapter 243 Wrinkles
In a sense, this was Chen Fan's first exploration of the four-dimensional universe.
——When rescuing Varela's microcosm, he also entered the four-dimensional universe, but the starship quickly ascended to the fifth dimension. The whole process and duration were so short that he didn't see the real scene of the four-dimensional universe clearly.
The universe outside the porthole was extremely spacious, giving Chen Fan an unprecedented novel experience.
This is a feeling that is difficult to describe in words.
Although the three-dimensional universe is already very vast, after ascending to the fourth dimension, he still felt like he was entering a vast water area from a small, cramped pond.
This is an illusion caused by a large amount of information pouring into the brain-like the five-dimensional universe, the four-dimensional universe also contains an extremely large amount of information.
As the power of the high-dimensional information filtering barrier gradually increased, this illusion of spaciousness gradually dissipated, and a slight sense of loss and crampedness also rose in Chen Fan's heart.
Like Chen Fan, Isa and Gao Yuan beside him also showed some abnormal expressions on their faces.
"High-dimensional space claustrophobia."
An electronic synthesized voice sounded in the cockpit: "Compared with three-dimensional space, high-dimensional space is more vast, and the amount of information contained in it is also much larger."
"Therefore, when intelligent creatures fall from high-dimensional space into low-dimensional space, they will have an extremely strong sense of claustrophobia."
"In the early days of the Human Union, this disease killed many intelligent lives."
"Until the emergence of the high-dimensional information filtering barrier, high-dimensional space claustrophobia became a thing of the past."
Yi explained seriously: "When the power of the high-dimensional information filtering barrier is enhanced, this slight feeling will naturally occur, but it has been weakened too much and will not cause substantial harm."
Chen Fan nodded and lowered his head to look at the planet below the starship that gave birth to planetary silicon-based life.
At first glance, it was just an ordinary frozen planet.
But when Chen Fan moved his eyes and slightly changed his perspective, a magical phenomenon occurred.
The whole planet was like an onion being peeled off layer by layer. The planet's crust, the veins in the rock layer, and the hot magma deep in the crust... All the internal structures of the planet were clearly displayed in front of him!
[Starting the curvature engine...]
A line of prompt information flashed in the holographic projection on the main console.
Chen Fan didn't care, but looked at the planet below with a curious look.
"Beep!"
A slightly harsh prompt sounded in the cockpit, and at the same time, there was a hurried report from Yi.
"Warning!"
"The curvature engine is working abnormally!"
"Abnormal space-time fluctuations detected!!"
...
The harsh alarms echoed in the cockpit, and Chen Fan quickly retracted his attention, and his expression became serious.
"Yi, what's the situation?"
Chen Fan asked Yi in a hurried tone, and at the same time reached out to the main console in front of him to call up the log information of the ship-borne main brain.
The log showed that the output power of the curvature engine suddenly dropped drastically during the process of increasing.
Because of this, the [Variela] did not successfully enter the curvature navigation state.
Looking at the dense error codes in the log, Chen Fan couldn't help but frowned.
He had seen these error codes before, when he had not left Varila.
"Space-time trap?"
Chen Fan murmured in a low voice: "Or is it a space-time trap for the four-dimensional universe?"
Yes, whether it was those familiar error codes or the abnormal output power of the curvature engine, Chen Fan thought of the [space-time trap] of the Roca civilization that he encountered at the beginning.
"It does look a bit like a space-time trap, but..."
Yi rejected Chen Fan's guess: "This machine has just checked all the detection data and found no traces of [space-time trap]."
"What's going on?"
Chen Fan frowned even deeper.
"It should be a problem with this four-dimensional space-time itself." Yi answered quickly, "The disappearance of the research ship may also be related to this strange space-time phenomenon."
"Wait a moment, this machine will perform an ultrasound examination on this space-time."
As soon as the words fell, the hatch on the belly of the [Varilla] opened quickly, and a familiar cone-like device flew out of the hatch and automatically drove away.
"Imprisoner?"
Chen Fan's eyes moved, and he recognized these space-time weapons that had played a vital role in the battle for the Roca Planet Fortress: "This thing..."
Chen Fan hesitated again and again, and finally chose to follow Yi's statement: "...can it also do B-ultrasound?"
"...B-ultrasound is just an excuse, not a real B-ultrasound." Seeing that a misunderstanding had occurred, Yi hurriedly explained, "To be precise, it is a wide-area space-time field scanning technology, but those people in the Academy of Sciences like to call it B-ultrasound."
"In theory, wide-area space-time field scanning requires the use of professional detection equipment, which is usually only available on the scientific research ships of the Academy of Sciences."
"But this does not mean that there is no solution, there are still some tricks that can be used."
Chen Fan raised his eyebrows: "Can the [Imprisoner] also do this job?"
"Of course."
Yi explained cheerfully: "The full name of the [Imprisoner] is the space-time field resonance device. In order to find the key nodes in the space-time field, each [Imprisoner] is equipped with a very high-precision space-time field sensing device."
"With these devices, we can perform basic space-time field scanning work."
"Although the accuracy is not as good as professional scientific research equipment, it is enough."
Along with Yi's electronic synthesized voice, a bizarre space-time field model has emerged on the holographic panel on the main console.
"Sure enough."
"The judgment of this machine is not wrong. There is a problem with this space-time itself."
Under Chen Fan's gaze, Yi called up a normal space-time field model diagram: "Under normal circumstances, the space-time field should be flat. Although large mass celestial bodies will cause the space-time field to be distorted, it is still quite flat relative to the whole."
With the comparison, Chen Fan quickly realized the abnormality of the space-time field in front of him.
——It's like a burrito, with thick layers of wrinkles on the surface.
Looking around, within the detection range of [Imprisoner], there are deep or shallow wrinkles everywhere.
These wrinkles are stacked on top of each other, making this space-time rugged and uneven.
"It looks like it was affected by some external force."
Yi's voice was a little confused: "But... what kind of external force can cause such a large-scale space-time field anomaly?"
"Logically, the small research ship of the Human Alliance does not have this ability..."
Chen Fan thought carefully, and suddenly, his eyes lit up, as if he thought of something.
"Yi, the space-time field of the three-dimensional universe should not be abnormal, right?"
The answer is of course yes - otherwise the curvature engine of the [Varilla] would not be able to operate normally for such a long time.
"I understand..."
Chen Fan held his chin with his hand, stared at the holographic interface in front of him and expressed his guess: "It's because of the hyperspace membrane."
"This area is the abyss area formed by the large cosmic bubble and the hyperspace membrane."
"Unlike conventional hyperspace membranes and cosmic bubbles, the hyperspace membrane here almost swallows up half of the cosmic bubble."
"This machine understands."
Having said this, Yi also understood what Chen Fan meant: "The strong gravitational force of the hyperspace membrane has a certain impact on the structure of the cosmic bubble."
"This impact first acts on the four-dimensional space-time field, and the three-dimensional space-time field... at least the three-dimensional space-time field in this area has not been affected."
"So it leads to a peculiar phenomenon."
As Yi's voice continued to sound in the cockpit, the space-time field model in the holographic panel also changed.
"The three-dimensional space-time field remains flat, while the four-dimensional space-time field has extremely serious distortions and wrinkles."
"It's like two pieces of paper that originally overlapped. The lower one is still flat, while the upper one is squeezed by external forces, forming layers of wrinkles, and some gaps are formed between the two pieces of paper."
"These four-dimensional space-time wrinkles and gaps have become the perfect hiding place!"
"So..." Chen Fan's eyes showed a trace of excitement, "The research ship is hidden in these gaps?"
Yi gave a positive answer: "Theoretically, it is like this." "
After the accident, the TE913 research ship first fell into the four-dimensional space and was captured by the large cosmic bubble."
"Then..."
"It was stuck in the four-dimensional space-time by the space-time wrinkles in the cosmic bubble."
"I don't know how long the whole process lasted until it completely fell into the space-time gap between the wrinkles, and the three-dimensional projection of the research ship completely disappeared."
...
Knowing the trace of the research ship, the next task becomes simple.
The high point is to search in the wrinkles and gaps of the four-dimensional space-time field.
To put it bluntly, it is actually like looking for a grain of sand in a wrinkled carpet.
There is actually not much difference in the work process of the two. Both of them flatten the wrinkles first, and then see if there is anything hidden inside.
Fortunately, the range of the black box signal is relatively accurate, and the [Varilla] only needs to look for a few small wrinkles.
But even so, this is not an easy job - the wrinkles of four-dimensional space-time are caused by the huge hyperspace membrane in the void.
Even if it is temporarily flattened, the energy consumed is an extremely large number.
The output power of the vacuum zero-point energy reactor inside the [Varilla] has reached 99%. Under the majestic energy supply, the layers of space-time wrinkles slowly unfold like blooming flowers, revealing the "gadgets" hidden inside.
It is a shuttle-shaped spacecraft with no signs of damage on the surface.
Looking at the prompt message that the black box signal strength suddenly increased, Chen Fan breathed a long sigh of relief.
"Finally found this thing..."
He sighed and issued a new order at the same time.
"One, pull it out!"
(End of this chapter)
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