Opal began to yearn for the boundless vast universe and starry sky. He began to ask himself, where can I go after leaving here? At first his mother came from the universe. Her spaceship was tattered and rusted. She seemed to be the only passenger on the spaceship. She didn't know why she gave birth to herself and never left the B-11 star.
The next day, he left the mine early, took the star map, and couldn't wait to arrive at Lecter's shelter.
He pulled another carload of ore, but found that there was no one in the cave.
"Rector!" Opal shouted.
In the overwhelming wind, Lecter stood on the endless stone plain, his cloth robe fluttering in the wind.
He just stood there, motionless.
Opal watched from a distance for a while, and found that Recht had been standing in this position for a long time.
After a full hour, Rechtfang opened his eyes and turned around.
Opal asked, "What are you doing?"
Rickett said: "Meditation."
Opal: "Meditation?"
Lecter: "Spray out your own mind and spirit and explore unknown areas."
Opal nodded in understanding, and the two of them worked together to pour the ore into the atomic furnace. Rickett said, "3.5 percent."
Opal said: "You can only find these, the purity of the mine is not high."
Rickett said, "Didn't the foreman embarrass you?"
Opal said: "He doesn't care about this, anyway, it is exchanged for food, I just tell him that I need to purify it myself."
He and Lecter sat outside the cave, and Opal took the star map to check the ceiling and asked, "Which planet is your home on?"
"The place I came from was an unmarked location on the star map, which was on the central axis of the expansion point after the universe was formed," Recht said.
"I didn't understand," said Opal.
Rector asked, "Do you know how the stars came to be?"
Opal: "I don't know, haven't they been there all along?"
Rickett: "Of course not. They first existed 20 billion years ago. At that time, the universe was still a point, with no time and no space. At a certain moment, it exploded, so time was launched along the explosion point. The energy was converted into mass in the first few seconds, and many stars were formed. And so the stars were born."
Opal said, "What was that before they were born?"
Rickett snorted: "There is no time before they are born, and of course it doesn't matter before."
Opal was a little confused, and Rickett added: "Under normal conditions, time is an axis. When you ask what happened before, you must look in the direction of the end of the thread and re-point. Once you go back to the end of the thread, You'll never find a more advanced line. So before time is born, if there is no time, it doesn't matter before."
"Because the starting point of time is defined by people, you can think of space and time as a planet like the B11 star, and go all the way to the south, what will happen? Try to think about it."
Opal looked dazed, Recht said: "You will go to the South Pole, and the concept of 'south' is like 'before', constantly walking forward, to the starting point, so you stand at the South Pole, and then There's no further south. Asking where south of the South Pole is is like asking what was before time began."
Opal seemed to understand something, but he was even more confused. Rickett said: "My place is called the Sanctuary of the Stars, which is on the axis of the explosion point in the beginning. The explosion point in the beginning is a constant point, I gave it to you yesterday. , which uses coordinates of center points that are different from the current universal star map of the universe."
Opal's mind was a mess, and he asked subconsciously, "What's different?"
Rickett said: "The reference point of your star map is where the sanctuary of the stars is located, which the first star knights believed to be the center of the universe. And all civilizations other than that have another name called 'Earth'. The point is used as a relative frame of reference to define coordinates on the star map."
Opal asked: "Does the earth move?"
"It's movement is almost negligible for the motion between the nebulae," Recht said. "But every now and then you look for a star on the Empire and Republic star map and you might find that it's not there because of the Earth. Small errors due to the revolution, the motion of the solar system, the rotation of the Milky Way."
Opal was completely confused. He tried to start another topic and asked, "What do you usually do?"
Recht replied: "Learn, fight, and clear all the unstable existences in the interstellar space."
Opal said, "Like cleaning up your enemy? Will you kill him?"
Rickett hummed and fell into a long period of contemplation. Opal asked, "How did you guys fight?"
Rector frowned slightly, as if thinking about the method of explanation, and said after a long time: "Killing and destruction are two concepts, he is a star knight corrupted by dark energy, his life is very long, and he has mastered some me Unknown power. I started from the sanctuary, looked for him for a long time, finally he set a trap, we fought near a nebula, and finally I lost, that's all. These days, I'm reflecting on what to do with him Method."
Opal began to imagine what Recht would look like fighting. He had never seen the universe, and he did not know how powerful Recht and his opponent were. He couldn't get away from the scene where the miners were fighting. The only difference was Reker Special duels have become a little bigger.
Rector smiled, he didn't say anything, Opal asked again, "How old are you this year?"
"Thousands of years old," Recht said.
Opal: "Impossible! Are you so old?"
Rickett looked at the sky in a trance, and the stars in the sky were reflected in his pupils. Opal put down the star map and asked, "How long can I live? I heard them say that human beings will die at a hundred years old."
Recht said: "Everyone has their own lifespan, the length is not the most important, the key is what you have done and experienced with your limited life. There is a kind of intelligent life on the Mayfly star in the Beta Andromeda galaxy. body, they live only 0.05 seconds in their lifetime."
Opal: "!!!"
Rector smiled, his smile handsome and gentle.
Opal: "Isn't that born and died?"
Recht said: "Mayfly stars are neutron stars, and they are as big as microorganisms, move at close to the speed of light, and think very fast. One second of ours is equivalent to two hundred years of them. Ivory in the depths of the universe The scholars in Tari tried to use a particle wave converter to communicate with them, but they failed."
Opal said: "Why?"
"Some people think they know some ultimate laws of existence and demise, but the mayflies refuse to have any communication with intelligent alien life," Recht said. "And they're dying so fast, and their existence is so short, it's very tricky. Because you were talking to one of the mayfly people in one second, and the next second with a slight blink of an eye, it has reproduced dozens of generations. Every second of the mayfly star has experienced twenty generations of replacement. "
Opal laughed, suddenly thought of something, and said, "Then don't they have a longer history?"
Rickett said: "Yes, so some people speculate that the civilization of the mayfly is the most advanced in this universe, and it even goes far beyond the civilization of the entire universe. Let's talk about it here, and in their history , has been developed for tens of thousands of years.”
"It's amazing," said Opal.
Recht said: "Go back and rest, you have too much work, you need to rest early, and come to me tomorrow."
Opal nodded and waved goodbye to him.
Opal still went to work the next day, and his mind was full of whimsy in the depths of countless stars. Perhaps for Rector, his life was also very short - like a mayfly.
What can I do to live longer like him? He couldn't help but think about this question over and over again, but he touched on a new question: what can we do in a few thousand years? Do you repeat the work of mining and selling mines in exchange for food every day? It's better to dig mines for thousands of years than for a hundred years, no... He didn't want to do it for even a minute.
He is right, the key lies in what you have done with your limited life, how much you have experienced in this short hundred years.
"Hey, you know what?" Opal said to his partner Locke, "Someone can live for thousands of years, do you believe it?"
Locke said: "I believe, what can't you do with money? The foreman said when he was drinking last time, as long as you save enough money, go to the Chiyan Galaxy, find a life medical company, re-inject your genes, and modify your physical conditions. As long as If you have money, you can live forever!"
Opal frowned and said, "How long can you live?"
Locke shrugged: "How do I know? It is possible to keep the cell division at the level of youth, two hundred years, three hundred years, one thousand years."
Opal asked, "How much does it cost?"
Locke said: "It is said that each genetic operation requires millions of energy units. Maybe you will die before you save that amount. Save enough money first and buy a ferry ticket."
Opal's thoughts flew to the mayfly's short life, only 0.05 seconds, until the magnetic drilling machine stopped.
There was no more spar from this mine, and the miners were very troubled, and they took off their gloves and came out.
"I want some bread and water." Opal said to Locke, "Can you get me some?"
Locke looked at the foreman in the distance and said, "Why have you eaten so much recently? I heard that you picked up a man in the desert? Where did it come from."
Miners passed by them, talking to each other.
"Another round of mining star bidding is about to begin."
"It's all up to you. I think this year is a bit of a hang-up. There are not many mines in B11. You see, it's almost dug. If you change hands, most of them won't be asked."
"The entire exoplanet system was covered when bidding last year, and the competition here is relatively less intense."
Opal motioned to Locke to be quiet and said, "He came from the universe. I don't know anything else, and he was injured."
Locke said: "You let him come over to mine."
"No, he wouldn't do such a thing," said Opal.
"Otherwise? Food and water are expensive," Locke said.
Opal said: "I will exchange mine for today, and you will exchange it for me. I don't want Hicks to know."
Locke took another look at the foreman in the distance. Foreman Hicks' face was gloomy, and he was obviously in a bad mood because the mining was running out.
"He will find out sooner or later, and he will deduct your energy points," Locke said.
"I'm not afraid of him," Opal said.
Locke shivered, and Opal said, "Listen, Locke, do me this favor, and I'll repay you."
Locke said helplessly: "No, you wait here."
Locke took a list in the past, and the foreman impatiently counted the ore, which was exchanged by Opal. He used two large car mines to exchange a lot of bread, and he had to find a way to solve Recht's food and drinking water in advance, otherwise I don't know how long it will take to find a new mine next time.
And the long winter is coming, and the merchant ships of the Chiyan Galaxy will land on the B11 star once and sell them cold-proof materials at high prices. For the rest of the time, Opal would follow the miners who stayed here to find new mines, while the foreman would go back to another planet for the winter.
"There is no ore today." Opal explained to Lecter on the rock slope: "I changed something to eat, winter is coming."
Rickett nodded and said, "Well, thank you for your hard work."
The rotation axis of the star B11 is inclined at 23 and a half degrees to the orbital angle, which results in short days and long nights in winter. The temperature dropped slowly, and Opal and Recht were sitting on the cliff for supper, these days he could only eat one meal a day, and the rest was given to Rector.
Opal glanced at him from time to time, and always felt that it was not polite to call him by his first name. Rector must be a person with status. On the B11 star, the foreman was called "Master Hicks", and the merchants from other galaxies, To be called "Sir", Rao is so, and they are not necessarily willing to trade with miners.
Rickett said, "You can call me teacher if you want. But I believe that we are equal and have no status."
Opal was startled and asked, "Why do you know what I'm thinking?"
Rickett smiled slightly and said, "Are you thinking about this? I'm just talking about it casually. What the teacher means is the person who teaches you knowledge."
"I understand, my mother told me," Opal said.
Rickett nodded, and Opal asked, "What do you want to teach me today?"
Rector asked, "What do you want to know?"
Opal said: "Let's talk about those empires, republics, etc., how do they live, what do they usually do..."
"Those things, you will know one day, the future is not far away." Lecter said slowly, lying down on the open ground on the cliff.
Opal lay down with him and said sideways: "Teacher, how did you get to those planets? Do you know many people? Do they respect you?"
Rickett didn't answer, he pointed to the brightest star on the zenith and said, "Opal, you know what, the stars you see are not what they look like now."
Opal followed what he was expecting and hummed blankly.
"The fastest thing in the universe is light, and nothing can go faster than the speed of light," Recht said.
Opal said: "I know this, and my mother also said that the best spacecraft can't fly faster than light."
Rickett headed: "According to the archaic mass-energy theorem, all objects with mass cannot move faster than light. Our location is very, very far away from the Alpha Andromeda star you see, even in the universe. It also takes three million years for the fastest light to come here from the alpha star."
Opal: "… "
Rickett said: "Suppose a long time ago, a beam of light shot from the alpha star, after three million years, finally reached our planet and entered your eyes, then what you see is that it is in three million Do you understand what it looked like years ago?"
Opal nodded slowly, and Rickett said, "Even if you drive the fastest spacecraft in the universe, 'Sol', traveling at sub-light speed, it will take millions, even tens of millions of years to travel between each galaxy. years."
Opal said blankly, "So how did you travel?"
"Use the stargate," Recht said.
"Our world is called the four-dimensional space. The three coordinate axes establish the three-dimensional space, plus the fourth-dimensional time axis, which is the universe we live in now."
Opal understood a little bit and asked, "Is the space door a door... Uh, I mean entering from this side and coming out from there, you can cross a long, long distance."
Recht said: "It can be understood that 20,000 years ago, the ancestors of human beings found the fifth dimension that connects with our space. This is a history, you don't need to be too clear, just remember."
Opal listened quietly, and Recht explained: "The cause of the incident was that a group of scientists discovered particles faster than the speed of light when conducting particle collision experiments. After hundreds of years of repeated surveys, they found that it satisfies the Under certain conditions, the fifth-dimensional space is entered in the middle of the way, and the fifth-dimensional space shows very strange properties in space and time."
"If you succeed in entering, just go a short distance in the fifth dimension, and then come back to our four-dimensional world, you will find that you have traveled a considerable distance... see clearly, I give it to you Make an analogy."
Rickett pressed his wrist, and a beam of light shot out from his bracelet, towards the opposite cliff, he explained casually: "The stone wall opposite is a two-dimensional plane, the light spot is on the left, and we are in a three-dimensional world, more than Two-dimensional space is higher."
"Yeah." Opal nodded.
Rickett turned his wrist slightly, and the light spot moved hundreds of meters in an instant, and the landing point changed to the end of the cliff on the right.
Recht said: "The light spot is the projection of the three-dimensional world on the two-dimensional plane. As long as I make a small movement in a higher-dimensional space, in half a second, the angular velocity can make it translate hundreds of meters. As long as If the projection relationship is successfully established, two centimeters in three dimensions can be directly equal to two hundred meters in a two-dimensional plane."
"And in the same way, after forming a projection connection to the fourth dimension in the five-dimensional space, you travel one kilometer in the five-dimensional space, which is equivalent to traveling several light-years in the four-dimensional space. This is the membrane principle of multi-dimensional projection angular velocity."
Opal immediately said: "I understand!"
Lecter smiled and said: "To explore in our universe, you must use a higher dimensional space. The principle of the star gate is to let you briefly enter the fifth dimension and open a tunnel in this dimension, After a short journey, you will come out of another corresponding star gate, so you and your spaceship can span a distance of millions or even tens of millions of light-years."
"This theory has been put into practice in the civilization of ancient human beings. The day the first pair of star gates was successfully navigable was the beginning of the Light Era. The ancestors of human beings developed a spaceship, began to explore the entire universe, established the original star gate, and more The people left the earth, colonized the interstellar space, and spread their branches and leaves. Now is the year of the Light Era 20103. After 20,000 years of evolution, human technology has become what we see today."
Opal's eyes were full of amazement.
Neither of them spoke. After a long time, Opal asked again, "If I'm going to space roaming, do I have to go through the Stargate? Where is it?"
"There are tens of thousands of Chiyan galaxies." Rickett said: "The spaceships are equipped with locators, which form a criss-cross network among all galaxies. As long as you enter space, you can find them anytime, anywhere. It. In fact, there is one at 7.5 light minutes from here, but very few people use it, and most people don't even know the existence of this channel."
"There is no need for specific procedures to enter and exit the Star Gate, but if you land on a civilized planet, you need a specific pass to pass through the outer atmosphere space station. Without a pass, it will be difficult to move in the universe."
Opal sighed softly, closed his eyes, the night wind was getting cooler, and after a while, he fell asleep unconsciously.
Today, Recht did not let him go back, but picked him up and carried him into the cave where he was living. The atomic furnace radiated a warm orange light.