Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 316 - Chapter 316 Chapter 315 The Pitch-Black Spaceship

Chapter 316: Chapter 315: The Pitch-Black Spaceship Chapter 316: Chapter 315: The Pitch-Black Spaceship After hearing this news, many people had already arrived in succession, including some communication personnel, government officials, and military staff. Soon, Zhang Yuan led these people into the large conference room next door, and the discussion was as lively as a marketplace.

People were excited that they had so quickly encountered an alien civilization that also used Cosmic Strings for navigation.

For humans, 39 years was a relatively long time, but in the Universe, it was just a drop in the ocean.

Humans were worried that the other party might have already discovered The Kunlun Mountain, especially since a laser had hit the human’s eyes, it was highly probable that many more lasers had targeted other parts of it. Even though there were some sensitive sensors on the surface of the spaceship, if the lasers did not hit these sensors, the other party would still be completely unaware of them.

And the humans did not yet know the position of the other party–this asymmetry of information posed a great security risk!

“Even if the other party has launched an attack, we wouldn’t know,” Zhang Yuan said with a frown, speaking seriously, “The situation is very delicate right now. The Kunlun Mountain might have already been exposed, and we still don’t know the location of the other party. Five minutes ago, I had already ordered a low-power laser probe in that direction, but we haven’t found any so-called alien spaceship yet…”

“It might be because the distance is too far; we may need a long time to locate it.”

The speed of light in the Universe being limited, 5 minutes–that is 300 seconds–would span back and forth within 150 light-seconds, yet no alien spaceship was found.

Colonel Guo, the military commander of the fleet, added, “But it might also be for other reasons… If the exterior of their spaceship is rough enough with a special coating, it’s possible for the lasers to be absorbed.”

“Oh, right, there are such coatings in some regions on the surface of The Kunlun Mountain… But completely absorbing them is quite difficult.”

At this point, Zhang Yuan suddenly thought of something and spoke even more gravely, “No, it’s not very likely that The Kunlun Mountain has been exposed; there’s over a 99% chance that it has been!”

“Don’t forget, we are currently traveling at 10% of the speed of light! With such a high speed, even the few particles in the Universe are enough to produce a significant infrared radiation with The Kunlun Mountain. No wonder they could find The Kunlun Mountain from so far away and even fired an exploratory laser…”

This was something they had paid a lot of attention to when initially designing The Kunlun Mountain because for a spaceship moving so fast, even sparse particles in space were worth paying attention to.

Thus, the entire front half of the spaceship was designed in a very sleek, streamlined shape, with a certain coating and a small magnetic field protection on the collision surface, not for aesthetics, but based on certain principles of dynamics.

Just like an airplane traveling through air, a streamlined spaceship has a smaller collision area, which is more convenient than a spherical one.

This speculation quickly made everyone even more tense.

“Then, could we possibly observe the other party this way? If they are also traveling at such high speeds.”

However, according to the Astronomer’s infrared observations, there was nothing, absolutely nothing!

This news was even more shocking; some even doubted if that girl was just spouting nonsense. Or maybe… there was no such thing as an alien spaceship at all.

“Or maybe it’s for another reason, such as the other party being in a stationary state, or using some technology unknown to humans, avoiding this kind of infrared radiation…”

“I think there’s no need to discuss so much; we could just detonate a large Flash Bomb!” Just when everyone was at a loss, Li Zhendong, who was sitting below, suddenly stood up.

“If there’s no alien spaceship, then detonating it would not matter much. If there’s an alien civilization here, even if we lose some etiquette, we must quickly find them, we must!”

“Safety is most important!”

Zhang Yuan glanced at him and quickly made up his mind. Yes, rather than being stuck here debating and wasting time, it was better to act immediately!

A Flash Bomb after all–what if it caused a misunderstanding?

Could it really lead to an instant battle?

If it did lead to a battle, then facing such a civilization, a battle would be inevitable sooner or later.

At a command, a massive Flash Bomb was swiftly launched, exploding into a white blaze in the dim Universe.

One hour, two hours, three hours… The speed of light in the Universe is quite limited, information is delayed, and it’s not possible to clearly see the surroundings immediately.

Thus, people could only wait quietly and tensely, with all the surveillance equipment fully activated, everyone’s eyes bulging as if staring harder could make them see clearer.

Seven hours later, everyone was stunned; 3.2 billion kilometers ahead, there emerged a… black spaceship!

3.2 billion kilometers, even at the speed of light, would take over ten thousand seconds.

The length of this spaceship was around 3.5 kilometers, entirely black, like a lump of charcoal. Its size was a lot smaller than The Kunlun Mountain. Its traveling speed was not fast, around 30 kilometers per second, so it didn’t collide with particles in the Universe to produce noticeable infrared radiation.

Zhang Yuan rubbed his temples and secretly let out a sigh of relief, now that it had been completely located, there wasn’t too much to worry about. Attacking was always simpler than defending, and The Kunlun Mountain had a complete fleet.

“Considering Cosmic Strings as the Universe’s natural highways, encountering interstellar civilizations is more likely, and look, we’ve encountered one now.”

Both parties were 3.2 billion kilometers apart, even with light-speed weapons, there would be a delay of over ten thousand seconds before impact.

Over ten thousand seconds of delay made it impossible to hit any target. It was a comparatively safe distance, unless some randomly fired exploratory lasers managed to fortuitously hit The Kunlun Mountain, the likelihood of weapon-grade high-energy laser weapons hitting a target was not great.

“Looking at the structure of this spaceship, it might be equipped with an interstellar ramjet engine,” a military expert suddenly mentioned, “Look at this configuration, when unfolded it appears to be funnel-shaped, capable of using a magnetic field to collect particles in the Universe. This is a highly effective traveling technology that we have not mastered… indicating that this civilization’s technological strength may be a notch above ours.”

An interstellar ramjet engine…

Zhang Yuan took a deep breath and said, “First, let’s calculate, based on our current trajectories, how close we will get. If it’s too close, we might need to change course slightly.”

“Let’s continue to operate our microwave engine, illuminating this entire starry sky, so they can’t keep hiding…”

The calculated results were quickly available. Information expert Li Zhendong, frowning, said, “30 hours from now, the distance between both our fleets will be at its minimal, at that time, the distance will be approximately 620,000 kilometers… At that distance, laser weapons can hit the other side in two seconds!”

“The same logic applies, their light-speed attack can hit us in two seconds.”