As the four-month process of acceleration, inertial flight, and deceleration came to an end, the dark blue dot in front of the Flint gradually enlarged and now became a cigar barrel about 20 cm long.
Liu Haiyang once again came to the porthole of the observation cabin, took a look at the tiny bright spot at the tail of the shuttle, and then began the daily cycle of inspection and maintenance work on the spacecraft's external armor - yes, this time he went outside the spacecraft wearing an exoskeleton.
That tiny bright spot was marked as a "water ice meteorite" in a small light blue box on the exoskeleton helmet display. The relative distance remained constant at about 208.6 astronomical units, but he knew that it was actually the Endless Galaxy.
This distance seems far, but it is actually very close.
In fact, the Diamond Star, where the Flint is about to dock, is only a part of the mother ship's short-range early warning system. At this distance, if something unexpected happens, the mother ship will only have a short time of 28.8 hours at most. Apart from initiating the emergency avoidance procedure, there is almost no other way. Therefore, the mother ship, or the fleet, needs and must have a larger-scale early warning system.
Beyond the research vessels, there were several "national-class" strategic cruisers accompanying them as control nodes. Further out, countless unmanned combat craft, orbiters, and drones formed a space array. It was said that the farthest reconnaissance drones had already spread beyond Ikkozuki, but many had long since lost the ability to change course. Their extended service was simply due to the mothership's good fortune, having not accelerated for millennia, and the subsequent launch of new models that had not yet reached their intended locations.
Of course, an early warning system of this scale is no different from a paper-made system for a possible future subluminal or even superluminal civilization. Perhaps it's simply a modern invention for peace of mind—at least for Liu Haiyang, that's the case. In ancient times, or rather, during Liu Haiyang's era, when the community planned everything for humanity, the mothership was a solitary spacecraft from the outset, never equipped with any additional equipment. This wasn't a lack of consideration, but rather the conclusion of expert research: it didn't require such equipment.
But it doesn't matter. The mothership carries enough redundant resources when it sets sail, and these small-scale wastes can be completely ignored.
I still don’t want to think about this anymore. Every time I think about it, I feel like I’ve lost out. . . . .
Liu Haiyang focused his attention on the work at hand. After all, this job was hard-earned. As a commissioner from the ancient Countermeasures Agency, those modern people hardly let him do anything.
When he recovered two years ago and saw his name appear in the history textbook, he was very proud and said a lot of words that seem embarrassing when he thinks about it now.
Not being understood would be one thing, but not being needed made him very distressed.
No, it can’t be described as “distressed” exactly, the emotion should be more like “boring” and “boring”.
As he peeled off a palm-sized piece of MCISB (Multi-layer Composite Ionization Shield), he recalled a question an old friend had asked him before he went into hibernation: "Old Liu, I've been wondering lately: if an ancient person traveled through time to the present, assuming their IQ and mental state were normal, what kind of work would they be able to do after simple training?"
Now he could probably answer: any service-oriented tertiary industry job was impossible, the primary industry was the most likely, but it would require a patient master to help for a few years, the secondary industry had some possibility, it depended on the time traveler's learning ability and adaptability, but most likely he could only get the lowest-end position.
Liu Haiyang currently performs this kind of work, a task that any maintenance robot can handle—a dull, tedious, mechanical, and predictable task. If value were defined solely by work, he couldn't even compare it to a single machine, because a maintenance robot today can simultaneously operate tens or even hundreds of thousands of subunits, while he can only achieve a fraction of the performance of a single subunit.
Simply put, without the Spark Project, he would be a worthless waste to future society.
With the Spark Project, the entire future society is his value.
"Beep beep beep, all boats informed, meteor shower ahead, moderate intensity, three minutes remaining, external operations, please avoid."
The safety cable connecting his exoskeleton to the shuttle faithfully transmitted the information released by Flint when Liu Haiyang was replacing the third MCISB, and it was updated every thirty seconds thereafter.
Liu Haiyang remained calm upon learning this. He knew the nearest pressure chamber was 25 meters away, leaving him no time to retreat to the submarine. He used the remaining time to complete his unfinished work, then manually flipped open an outer armor plate and placed it in the direction of the Flintstone's advance. After a moment's thought, he adjusted the angle to ensure sufficient effective penetration.
The so-called meteor showers, in most cases, weren't meteorites moving in the spacecraft's path, but rather the spacecraft crashing into a stationary meteorite cloud. Hiding in the shadow of the spacecraft made it virtually impossible to be hit by these meteorites, unless one had won the grand prize in the three-color ball lottery.
A moderate meteor shower means the spacecraft has a certain probability (approximately 1% per square meter) of being hit by a meteorite, but it won't affect the flight path or the spacecraft's structure. If Liu Haiyang remembers correctly, the external armor of current spacecraft can easily withstand such an impact, so all he has to do now is lie quietly on the surface of the spacecraft, using the smallest possible impact area to enjoy this almost zero-distance meteor shower.
After doing all this, there were only a few seconds left for the Flint to report. Looking at the vast and deep universe, Liu Haiyang habitually opened the electromagnetic adsorption module on the back of the exoskeleton, and put his hands on his head, curled up his lower limbs, and rolled into a ball.
Soon, a "bang" sound came from somewhere behind him on the right. It was dull and unusual, a bit like the sound of metal hitting stone.
The exoskeleton detected a rapid rise in Liu Haiyang's heart rate and began to sound an alarm: "60, 80, 120, warning, oxygen consumption increased!"
"Bang!" A piece of debris hit the edge of the open armor plate above his head, leaving a scratch and then breaking into several pieces.
Liu Haiyang's motion vision became very sharp. His eyes focused on one of the fragments earlier than the exoskeleton data core. His brain worked at high speed, accurately analyzing its possible source from the image - it was part of the anti-attack system of a "Smart Eye" drone.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com