I proposed to go to Shadow City with Sandora not to go shopping to relieve boredom, but to see the development of several major projects: the mass production and installation of the Executioner-class spaceship, the progress of the deep dive plan, and the progress of the King's Lander star. The reverse engineering of the ship, as well as the progress of the Seventh Legion, these projects are the most important tasks of the new empire at present. I have been going out for a few days to say whether it is long or short. I guess there should be some new progress in these things. up. Of course, another reason besides this is that I can go out with Sandora in the future: I haven’t been alone with her in a long time. Although the noisy house is very happy, I have to say that bears are such creatures. It really is the destroyer of a couple's private life
The blueprints of the Executioner-class spaceships have been sent to the major starship factories, and Xiling hosts supervise one-on-one and speed up production. The first batch of manufactured spaceships have been sent to the Seventh Army in batches Forces) and the Royal Fleet. In this way, the number of new warships that can be allocated to each legion is of course not many, but these spaceships are only for the commanders of each legion to familiarize themselves with their performance, and to prepare for the future development of new tactics and tactics with this new type of warship. If it is actually installed, it will naturally be given priority to the three important units of the Royal Fleet and the First and Sixth Legions.
What I am most concerned about is the deep diving plan. When I set off, I happened to catch up with the second-generation deep diving ship trial. It is a great pity that I couldn't witness it with my own eyes. I have heard about the trial process from Sandora. It was quite smooth, and the two subsequent dives exceeded the target, so as soon as we came out of the headquarters, Sandora and I ran to the research center to find Tavel.
It is worth mentioning that besides Sivis, who received Sandora and me at the headquarters was Tavel: the latter appeared as a new warship technical advisor and chief R&D staff, and in the research institute's deep dive At the project center, it is still Tavel who receives me and Sandora. This time, she is the technical consultant of the deep dive project and the chief developer of the deep dive ship. I guess I will go to the reverse engineering laboratory with Sandora later. It will be Tavier who will arrive. At that time, her identity is the project director of the reverse engineering project of the King's Lander. I can't get to the bottom of it, otherwise there will be too many slots and it will be easy to choke to death. Doesn't Tavier, a workaholic, have an energy limit
The deep diving project center occupies an entire floor in the research institute and is divided into several departments, including the technical group of the deep diving ship, the research and development and production group of various deep diving equipment, the abyss research group, the deep diving information collection and analysis center, There are a lot of groups that I can understand and do not understand. The reason why so many divisions of labor are needed is because the Deep Dive Project itself is a very wide-ranging thing. It needs the most advanced energy supply in the empire. The most advanced shield technology, the most advanced communication array, sensitive sensors that can work normally in the abyss environment without being infected, and even need technical support from the abyss technology from the fallen apostles, these things are combined into a deep diving ship , The final collected data needs to be specially analyzed by another group of experts who specialize in the study of the abyss. Such a plan spans a large number of high-tech fields, and requires experts in all fields to cooperate 100% with other teams. The Chief Scientist of Skills, Tavel is the team leader and office director of all the above project teams
Sandora and I went straight to the Tonghe Office of the Deep Diving Project Center, but when we opened the door and walked in, we found two people inside: a square-faced uncle with a serious expression, this is Harlan, and the other with white hair but The hale and hearty old man—the ancestor Ansers.
I didn't expect these two to be there. It seems that they are discussing something related to deep diving: Anses is also one of the staff members of the deep diving project, so he is also present. When I thought that when Sandora and I listened to Tavel's report on the launch of the new spaceship at the headquarters ten minutes ago, the lady with glasses was also having a meeting with the two of them here at the same time and commanding work in a dozen other departments, I couldn't bear it. I can't help but sigh: schizophrenia is really a useful ability. Now that Tavel is perfect in all aspects, he is short of falling in love with himself.
"Yo, I'm busy." I greeted the people in the room as usual (of course, if you say you're not doing it right), and finally my eyes fell on Tavel. "Well, I haven't seen you for ten minutes and now we meet again."
Harlan nodded to Sandora and me with a smile, and Tavel and Anses stood up and saluted us: It stands to reason that it would be strange for the ancestors to salute their descendants, and Sandora was also determined at first. Do not accept the tribute from the ancestors, but now Ansers has officially returned to his post as a "soldier", and the old man himself hopes to act in accordance with the standard imperial authority system, so he will salute the ruler of the new empire—now even Sandora can only accept it. After all, for the Apostles of Xiling, the authority system is a higher priority than personal relationships.
"The No. 2 deep-diving ship seems to be in good working condition?" Sandora and I sat down opposite Tavel, and I asked the question I was most concerned about, "Have you found anything new in it?"
"It's deeper than the previous dive, but because the 'space concept' in the pure abyss environment is vague, we don't have an accurate measurement method to calculate how far the deep dive ship has sailed, so there is no way to use an accurate one for the time being." Unit to describe the specific depth of the dive." Tavel shook his head with a little regret, "There are indeed new discoveries, but they are all within the range of previous estimates: as the depth of the dive continues to deepen, the pressure on the deep dive ship It will increase, and the chaotic factors in the abyss will accelerate the destruction of the shield of the deep diving ship. Not to mention touching that area of the Abyss that is uncharacteristically calm. We also discovered a not-so-good situation."
I had expected all the situations that Tavel mentioned earlier, but now she specifically mentioned a "not so good situation" which suddenly made people nervous, and I frowned: "What's going on?"
"We found that the abyss environment has two weird characteristics of 'inhomogeneous' and 'discontinuous', and these situations cannot be explained and cannot be avoided so far." Harlan glanced at Tavel, turned to Sandora and me and explained, "The abyss The apostle is more familiar with the things behind that gate, so I have also participated in this project recently. I witnessed the dangerous situation with my own eyes during the last deep dive: the pressure on the deep dive ship increases with the dive. Large, this increasing trend was stable at the beginning, but after the dive reached a certain critical value, the curve sent back by the equipment began to drift, fluctuating high and low, and even breaking, just like this—”
As Harlan said, he presented a holographic projection in front of Sandora and me. Aside from those complicated tables and constantly refreshing data, the most noticeable thing on this screen is a continuously declining curve.
"The curve represents the shield margin of the deep-diving ship. The shield of the deep-diving ship will be continuously eroded in the abyss environment. Every time the shield is refreshed, its remaining stability and psionic energy strength are the shield margin. The shield The higher the margin, the safer the spaceship is. When the submersible is in a fixed position, its shield margin will also become a fixed value. As the 'depth' of the dive increases, the shield margin will also become a fixed value. Of course, the amount will continue to decline, which forms a graph" Harlan pointed to the graph and explained to Sandora and me (of course, it is more likely to be explained to me specifically) "There are three horizontal lines here, representing three Above the first critical value means that the shield margin is very safe. The energy circulation of the spacecraft itself will generate sufficient self-sustainability to ensure that it can stay in the abyss environment for any length of time. If it exceeds this critical value, the shield will The margin is slightly dangerous. The spacecraft will use most of its energy to repair the shield, but it can still perform tasks smoothly. Exceeding the second critical value means serious danger. The spacecraft’s shield refresh must reach the limit to ensure safety. The remaining shield is almost only 10% of the full load, which means that the shield may be extinguished at any time. In this case, the deep-submersible ship can only perform missions for a short time and must float up immediately, otherwise the system will It will be overloaded, and the third critical value means that the spaceship is about to die - the shield refresh cannot keep up with the pollution speed, and the margin falls below zero. Every time a new shield is refreshed, it will have an abyss reaction, so this value will even change is a negative number. In this case, the structure of the deep submersible ship has begun to be polluted, and there is no possibility of returning. It can only continue to perform tasks for a short period of time before it completely collapses. In the last mission, the graph was at the first critical value The above is normal, but look at the period between the second and third critical values, it jitters like a line graph, and even continues to rise."
I looked at that significant graph, it fell steadily at a very smooth rate from the highest point to the first red warning line, and it also stabilized for a long distance after crossing the first warning line, however After a certain moment, this smooth curve suddenly jittered, ups and downs irregularly, and when it approached the second critical point, it was already shaking like late Parkinson's.
"There is a discontinuous zone in the depths of the abyss, which changes from time to time and is unevenly distributed. It was not mentioned in the old empire materials we found at the beginning." Tavel shook his head, "If the abyss is regarded as a deep sea divided into many layers and each Each layer has different concentrations, so the boundaries between these layers are not fixed. They not only drift at any time, but even reverse suddenly: the pollution suddenly decreases, then suddenly increases, and then suddenly decreases again, forming a That part of the curve that jitters violently."
Sandora immediately realized the danger of this situation: "That is to say, after the deep-diving ship dives to a certain level, it is very likely to 'slip' and fall into a desperate situation?"
Tavel nodded solemnly: "That's it. After the deep submersible ship reaches its design limit'depth', the situation will become extremely dangerous. Although it can work at that depth in theory, the abyss may drift at any time. This drift It is also unpredictable, our equipment is likely to be involved in the vortex of destruction before it can react, and the chance of escaping is basically zero. Theoretically, this is the case."
This is a situation that has never been encountered in the first deep dive, and it is also a huge challenge, which means that the actual working depth of the deep diving ship must be much smaller than its design strength: otherwise the ship will have full strength at any time. possible. I looked at the graph, and the place where it jittered the most was almost like graffiti. Looking at it made people frightened: "There must be a rough limit for this fluctuation range?"
"Basically it will not exceed 5% of the full value of the shield." Tavier exhaled, "but it does not rule out that there will be more unstable discontinuities in the deeper depths. We know too little about the depths of the abyss, and the old There is also a lack of records in this regard in the materials of the empire.”
I glanced at Harlan, who was meditating next to me, and suddenly remembered something: the first generation of deep-diving boats was designed by Occam, and Harlan was Occam’s old owner, so why didn’t Harlan know about this? Does a continuous band exist
"I really don't know." Hearing my question, Harlan spread his hands and said, "I'm also wondering what's going on. I also participated in the deep dive plan of the old empire. Although I never asked about technical details, at least I have read all those reports, and no one has ever mentioned any discontinuities, such a major impact, once it occurs, it is impossible to be concealed."
Sandora rubbed the center of her brows, thoughtful: "Then there are only two explanations: first, the discontinuity zone is not a common phenomenon, and we still don't know what kind of structure the 'space' inside the abyss is. So it is very likely that the deep diving ship we made just broke into a dangerous zone; second, the discontinuity zone is not a long-term phenomenon, maybe there was no such thing in the old empire period, it only appeared in the abyss after the establishment of the new empire .If the second hypothesis is true, then our understanding of the abyss may be subverted.”
"The abyss is also evolving?" Harlan glanced at Sandora.
"At least it's not 'dead'" Sandora touched her right arm seemingly unintentionally: that's where she sealed her abyss power "We always thought that the gate of the abyss has only one appearance, but now we know The gate of the abyss that destroys the home world is different from all the gates of the abyss that we know today. We always thought that there was nothing in the abyss, but now we find that the bottom of the abyss is calm. These are all challenging common sense. So I I don't mind my common sense being subverted again: the abyss is likely to be constantly evolving, it grows and changes, and the surface seems to be unchanged through the ages, but the interior should have ushered in a certain cycle."
I let Sandora's statement make my hair stand on end, but I have to admit the existence of this possibility, and at the same time, I also remembered the scenes I observed in the first deep dive test: there are strange "clouds" in the abyss There are also places where pollution is highly concentrated, and now it seems that it is also a kind of "inhomogeneity", although it is not worth mentioning compared with the "discontinuous zone" observed today, but that kind of unevenness has already made We suspect that some kind of "change" is going on inside the abyss
Perhaps as Sandora said, the abyss is not "dead", it is always changing, and may be about to usher in a certain cycle.
"That's it for the time being, observe the situation of the discontinuous zone at any time, and grasp its laws as much as possible. This is the only way to do it before further research on the abyss." Sandora tapped the table lightly, and then looked at Tavel "Hurry up and build the No. 3 deep-diving ship. If the ship 'misses' and collapses to the bottom of the abyss, at least we can have a spare on hand."
Tavier nodded, then raised his finger to Ansers: "Your Majesty, there is one more thing"
You listen to this statement, Your Majesty "you"—except for Tavel and Ansers, the other three are emperors. This grand occasion can only be realized by a miraculous regime like the Xiling Empire.
"What's the matter with you, ancestor?" I looked up at Anses, but Tavier almost scared me to the ground with a sentence next to him: "The ancestor hopes to conduct a manned deep dive with the next batch of expedition teams."
I broke out in a cold sweat at the time, and grabbed Ansers' arm and shook it vigorously: "Master, this is different from what we agreed at the beginning! Didn't we agree to only watch the fun outside?!"
"I'm not a whim." Anses waited patiently for me to finish wandering before he said with a smile, "I know we're a bit stubborn and have caused you a lot of trouble, but there's a reason for this situation."
"The reason?" I couldn't help looking at Tavel, "What's going on?"
"Let me explain," Harlan interrupted suddenly, "First of all, you know that apostles who have been polluted have higher resistance to the abyss, right? Keep awake for a long time in the abyss environment. Although the fallen apostles are not completely immune to the destructive power of the abyss, compared with ordinary creatures, our resistance is already high to the point of semi-immunity. Therefore, the first batch of people in the plan Deep dive members are those of us who have been transformed."
I nodded, I knew this. The No. 2 deep-diving ship made by Tavel already has the conditions for manned voyage. Although it is not perfect, it is more than enough to perform short-term missions. people experiment. Initially, the candidates for this deep diving team were ordinary Xiling technicians, but Harlan offered to replace this part of the personnel with the high-level fallen apostles (former fallen apostles) he brought. The reason is simple: the fallen apostles They have high resistance to the abyss, even if the spaceship malfunctions or the internal purification mechanism fails, their chances of survival are very high.
Could it be that the reason for the ancestors to participate in the manned test is "resistance"
Seeing the expression on my face, Harlan knew what I guessed. He nodded simply: "Resistance, we accidentally found that the resistance of the ancestors to the abyss is even far higher than that of the abyss apostle, and the concentration in the abyss is lower than two standards. In the case of a unit, they can even directly contact the source of pollution without any protective equipment: usually, pollution of this intensity is already fatal to mortals."
Sandora and I were dumbfounded. (to be continued