The year is 2620 in the Earth calendar.
A weary fleet is slowly slowing down.
After a century-long interstellar journey, these starships are no longer as gleaming as they once were, their surfaces bearing the marks of time.
Ahead of the fleet was a star emitting a gentle light—a red dwarf.
Gliese 3929 is the designation given to it by human civilization.
This is the destination of the human fleet's current interstellar voyage.
According to the plan formulated by the Academy of Sciences, the human fleet will rest and recuperate in the Gliese 3929 star system.
After replenishing the necessary supplies, we will then head to find the black hole 95 light-years away.
...
[Target star system approaching, probes being deployed...]
Inside the Earth, a line of text flashed across the holographic projection in the central computer area.
The next moment, under Zero's control, a large number of probes emerged from the starships one after another.
Thanks to their small size and the powerful propulsion of their antimatter engines, these probes sped toward the nearby Gliese 3929 star system at a speed far exceeding that of the fleet.
The detector has been successfully released, the preset program has been initiated, and the wake-up procedure is in progress...
...
Bright lights, a slightly stiff synthesized electronic voice, and a robot's constantly changing gestures...
Lu Yongchang stared at everything in front of him in a daze.
My memory is still stuck in the days when the tail-cutting plan was successfully implemented.
He lowered his head and gently moved his fingers.
Su Yutong's body heat seemed to still linger on his fingers.
But the year has already arrived in 2620.
The 64-year span brought Lü Yongchang an extremely complex sense of dislocation, which in turn brought a sense of unreality and illusion.
"Professor, please cooperate in answering this question. I need to assess your mental state."
Perhaps noticing that Lü Yongchang hadn't responded, Zero's synthesized electronic voice suddenly grew louder.
Lu Yongchang shivered slightly, and his unfocused eyes gradually regained some vitality.
"Are there any anomalies in the direction of Proxima Centauri?"
Once his mental state improved slightly, Lü Yongchang remembered the purpose of setting up the wake-up program in the first place.
The fleet is too far from the Proxima Centauri system; even light would take more than thirty years to travel that distance.
To ensure that all possible anomalies could be observed, before his second hibernation, he gave Zero an order—to awaken him again when the human fleet was about to arrive at the Gliese 3929 star system.
Lu Yongchang laboriously moved his somewhat stiff body and struggled to "float" out of the hibernation pod.
Looking at the few drops of deep-sea liquid floating in the air around him, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind.
Once we reach the black hole and solve the superstring gravitational field equations, we must put artificial gravity technology on the agenda as soon as possible.
But... what would a black hole be like?
Humans have never observed a black hole with the naked eye!
Perhaps due to the long period of hibernation, Lü Yongchang's thoughts seemed extremely disjointed.
In less than a second, his thoughts "flew" to a distance of 95 light-years.
He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't even notice the holographic image unfolding in front of him.
Zero's reminder sounded again, pulling him back from his wandering thoughts: "Professor, all observations have been compiled."
...
Coming to his senses, Lü Yongchang raised his hand and carefully reviewed the complex observation data.
The continuous observation over 64 years has generated an enormous amount of data. Even after filtering and streamlining, reviewing all of this data would still be a considerable undertaking.
On March 26, 2588 Earth calendar, the target star system exhibited its first anomaly.
The highlighted text quickly caught Lü Yongchang's attention.
With a slight twitch of his finger, Lü Yongchang brought up the observation records from the optical telescope.
The holographic image instantly went dark.
An endless, ethereal universe appeared before his eyes.
In the center of the image is a star with extremely dim light.
Not far to its side are two brightly lit planets orbiting each other.
This is the Alpha Centauri triple star system.
Lu Yongchang paid no attention to the two vibrant binary star systems; his entire focus was on the dim star in the center of the image.
Time passed by, second by second.
As the progress bar was about to reach that crucial point, he subconsciously held his breath.
Wow!
Suddenly, the dim, almost imperceptible star emitted an extremely brilliant light!
No! That's not right!
As the optical telescope was continuously adjusted, Lü Yongchang clearly observed that this extremely intense light was coming from the side of the star!
Because the two are so close together, at first glance, it is easy to mistake them for the bright light emitted by Proxima Centauri!
This sudden flash of light reached its peak brightness in just three seconds!
It not only overshadowed Proxima Centauri, but also outshone the Alpha Centauri binary system not far away!
For a short time, its brightness even surpassed that of the brightest star in the sky!
At this moment, the Proxima Centauri system became the most conspicuous presence in this starry sky!
It comes quickly and goes quickly.
A few seconds later, the sudden flash of light gradually dimmed.
Proxima Centauri gradually returned to its original unremarkable appearance.
The observation record has ended.
Lu Yongchang exhaled a deep breath of the stale air that had been trapped in his lungs, a hint of bitterness in his eyes.
"Is this the power of thirty two-dimensional fragments erupting simultaneously...?"
"Three seconds..."
"It only takes three seconds to create a two-dimensional planet..."
Lu Yongchang muttered to himself with a bitter expression.
These are just some insignificant two-dimensional fragments on the [painting].
If we compare a painting to a human being, these two-dimensional fragments might be equivalent to some skin flakes.
Even so, the destructive power it causes is beyond the reach of human civilization!
He could hardly imagine just how powerful the complete [painting] was!
And what kind of means does the Cleaner Civilization, which injured it, possess?
What a magnificent spectacle a war between two advanced civilizations must have been!
With this question in mind, Lü Yongchang gently waved his hand, swiping the optical observation screen in front of him aside.
His gaze fell upon the remaining data that was marked with zero.
Time slips away, bit by bit.
One by one, useless data points were set aside by Lü Yongchang.
Suddenly, Lü Yongchang stopped abruptly.
“Abnormal gravitational waves…”
Looking at the observation data in the holographic projection, Lü Yongchang felt a sense of anticipation.
"Zero, extract all the abnormal gravitational wave data from the past 64 years!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
