"Everyone," the commander-in-chief glanced at the attendees. "We are currently discussing a spaceship that does not exist to the outside world. All records of this meeting must be stored offline in a register. Any form of online sharing is strictly prohibited."
Everyone nodded when they heard this, except for the strange creature made up of a series of balls, where each ball rotated up and down independently.
"The drone we sent out was operating normally before entering the subspace, but it ultimately did not send back a message at the scheduled time."
"Since no response was received from the forward drone, the captain of the Apollo-class ship promptly activated the covert action device."
Following the commander's words, the projected image of the Apollo-class stealth special forces ship began to fade into intangibility. Space fluctuated slightly around the ship, until the entire vessel became translucent.
"The Covert Action Device is the latest equipment developed by the Alliance's Technical Department. It can, to a certain extent, mitigate a spacecraft's impact on the outside world, thereby achieving the purpose of invisibility. Compared to the space warp devices used by air mines, the Covert Action Device has limitations when dealing with high-powered directional detection, but it is more mobile. Sorry... I'm digressing."
The commander-in-chief explained the basic specifications of the Apollo class to everyone, then lightly swiped his finger. The holographic projection immediately changed. The Apollo class, which had originally dominated the image, quickly shrank, eventually becoming a small icon. Encased within this icon was a strange space.
The spacecraft seemed to have entered the interior of a magnificent nebula. Purple mist filled the entire area as far as the eye could see, and faint starlight could be seen in some areas in the distance where the mist was thinner.
"The Ministry of Navigation has compared the starry sky background of the video and has not yet reached any conclusion."
"That is to say... this is not our universe." Bai Yi hesitated for a moment and stated his conclusion.
"At least it's not within the scope of our known universe." The commander-in-chief affirmed.
Just how big is the universe? No one knows. The latest telescopes have observed galaxies 120 billion light-years away, but they haven't yet reached the edge of the universe. While current theories suggest the universe is a closed system with a boundary, no one knows where that boundary lies.
Even as his mind wandered, the image on the holographic projection didn't stop. The purple mist slowly drifted along with the passage of time, but suddenly, as if being pushed from the inside out, the mist began to spurt towards the camera.
When the thick fog that blocked the view cleared, the camera captured a purple crystalline structure.
This scene lifted everyone's spirits.
"Crystal Storm?"
A border guard said in surprise.
"Have we entered their lair?"
"No." The commander shook his head. The projected image continued to change, this time showing a corner of the Milky Way. The Milky Way was located on the right side of the screen, while on the far left was a small symbol, indicating the wandering galaxy that had been named the Crystal Cluster. A cylindrical tunnel connected the two, representing a distance of 5,000 light years.
"Everyone, please look here. This is the Milky Way and the gathering place of crystals."
The commander-in-chief pointed his finger at a small dot in the middle of the road, close to the direction of the crystal gathering place.
"This is the location where the Apollo 11 returned its signal, and it's also where the footage we just saw was taken."
Bai Yi looked at the location of that point and asked, "So the crystal storm has advanced 1,000 light years towards the Milky Way, but we knew nothing about this before."
"At this rate, the Crystal Storm will reach the outer defenses of the galaxy in a few years!"
Another border guard shouted, and judging from the tone of his voice, he should be a guy with a bad temper.
"The First Fleet should be dispatched immediately to prepare for war!"
However, his words were not recognized by many people.
"Be patient." The commander-in-chief stretched out his hand to signal him to be quiet, then pointed to another old man next to him and said.
"This is Dr. Max, an expert in space and high-energy physics."
The attention of the entire audience immediately focused on the elderly man. He looked extremely old, his skin sagging and wrinkled. His sparse hair draped messily across his forehead, barely hiding a few age spots.
His eyes had obviously been modified, and in the dim indoor environment, his left eye could see a light blue light flashing with a sense of technology.
Bai Yi suspected he was at least 500 years old. If he wasn't from Earth, but an immortal from another planet, he would probably be over 1,000 years old.
"Hello everyone, my name is Max. I'm an expert in space and high-energy physics, and I've also won the Tide Medal, the highest honor in the field of quantum mechanics." The old man's self-introduction was brief and powerful, even adding one more sentence than the commander said.
"Let me introduce to you the state we call strange space." His voice sounded old but full of energy, not at all as decadent as his appearance.
Following his words, the holographic projection returned to the original video. Following the old man's instructions, the video quickly advanced until the angular crystal emerged from the mist.
Pop.
Dr. Max hit the pause button.
He pointed at the diffuse mist in the picture and said, "Based on the data obtained by the sensors on the Helios, we believe that the Helios must have entered a space bubble between the subspace and the local universe."
Perhaps fearing that his description was not vivid enough, Max gave another analogy.
"You can imagine our universe as a puddle of soapy water, and this space bubble is a soap bubble arched up on the plane of this universe. However, one end of this bubble is connected to this universe, and the other end is in another plane."
"What about the subspace?" someone asked.
Hearing this, Dr. Max gently pinched the index finger and thumb of his right hand, and a virtual projected surface appeared at his fingertips. As his hand moved, it came above the sea of soap.
"Here, the subspace."
As he said this, he moved the patch representing the subspace above the sea of soap.
"It could also be here. Our current science is unable to provide a reasonable explanation for the Warp. Although we have begun to understand and utilize it, we still know nothing about its specific location and nature."
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