Chapter 269 "Ordinary" spaceship passing by
The unknown light beam that is approaching rapidly is not known to the public, but it has caused panic in some high-level countries on this planet.
There are not many countries here that have enough strength to support accurate space observation, and only these big countries can find that it seems that "alien" has really appeared.
It's just that the aliens didn't come in person, but the aliens attacked.
No matter how you look at it, that light beam doesn't look like a "good greeting".
"How about it, what's the latest information?"
The director of the astronomical observatory came to the institute in a hurry without even putting on his clothes, and asked about the current situation.
He actually knew the general situation through communication on the road, but he was still afraid of missing any new news during the journey.
The researcher quickly replied:
"According to calculations, the source of this light beam is about five light-years away from the 'Tianzhuxing', and according to the news before the 'Seeker 1' was destroyed, it is not actually a 'beam', but a kind of Luminous life forms traveling at sub-light speed..."
After listening to the answer, the director could not help but confirm again: "The 'Seeker 1' was destroyed?"
This is news that he has never heard before, and it seems that during the time he came from abroad, something new happened.
"...Unfortunately, the 'Seeker One' happened to be on the path of the 'beam'. Judging from the time, it should have been destroyed at this moment..."
This unfortunate news caused the director to be silent for a moment, because it means that all their efforts on "Exploring the Starry Sky" so far have come to naught.
However, he also knows that the current priority is not this matter, but the "beam" that may bring disasters to destroy the world.
So his aura froze, and he quickly took on the demeanor of a leader, stabilized the flustered emotions of everyone in the office, and continued their work in an orderly manner.
And he himself is also staring at the data of each item, and at the same time he does not forget to listen to the reports of his subordinates. Although his face is expressionless to calm people's hearts, his inner mood changes again and again.
Judging from the report, the string of mysterious light beams is approaching the star at sub-light speed.
In addition to this, they also discovered an impossible fact, that is, the string of "beams" was traveling at a "superluminal speed" before.
Because the observatory of another country on the other side of the planet discovered that judging from the trajectory of the light beam, it moved an incredible distance a few months ago, which can only be achieved by exceeding the speed of light.
This completely overturned the law of "the speed of light cannot be surpassed" they knew, but the fact was right in front of their eyes.
What makes the director think now is "why it suddenly slowed down".
According to the data of "Seeker 1", those beam-shaped illuminants are flying at a sub-light speed close to the speed of light. At the beginning, they still had a speed that was almost the same as the speed of light, but it has dropped a lot until now.
Even though several hours have passed since the discovery, the "countdown to strike" calculated by astronomical observers remains unchanged at 19 hours, which seems to form a dynamic balance.
But this is not what they want. After all, there will be an upper limit for deceleration, and then it will be a real "countdown".
Even if they don’t know what effect this beam-type light will have on the stars, they must prepare for the worst, such as…the stars go out and the world enters eternal winter night.
"...What could it be? Maybe this beam-shaped luminous body can move forward by changing the curvature of space-time? Or is there a space wormhole leading here on its way?"
As the director of an astronomical observatory, in addition to his own scientific literacy, he also likes to read various scientific magazines in his spare time, including many science fiction novels.
He quickly thought of those "theoretical machines" that only existed in fantasy, and at the same time, he also remembered a concept put forward by a famous figure in the past, a star-hunting scholar:
"—Even the speed of light is too slow in the universe. If there is a "super-light space" in the universe, where the speed of light can be easily surpassed, then our development may be very different."
"...Could it be a 'faster-than-light space'?" The director thought about it, shook his head again, and laughed at himself: "How could I remember this madman's nonsense, let's look at reality first..."
Afterwards, the director himself also threw himself into the intense work, and quickly put aside the idea just now.
Just like that, a few more hours passed.
The tense atmosphere seems to overflow from the astronomical observatory, and even the home of the star-hunting scholar is full of a similar atmosphere.
At this time, he was calculating something on the computer in the study, but the configuration of this computer was obviously not very high, and the program that was too slow soon made the star-disgusting scholar slap the table, and angrily took out a pen and paper to calculate manually.
However, at this moment, the communication device he rarely used suddenly rang. After he connected impatiently, he found that the other party was his student.
"Teacher! The monitoring is still on, to make a long story short, the strike is coming—"
Before he finished speaking, the communication was cut off quickly, and this also made the star-hustling scholar stand up and rush to the door.
There is still no change in the sky, but the planet-disturbing scholar is extremely disturbed, because he always feels that besides the "strike", there is something "other" coming.
And the high-level officials of this country came to the astronomical observatory under increasing pressure, planning to hold a meeting directly on the spot to discuss solutions while obtaining new information.
"The World Joint Headquarters is holding a meeting, and those leaders are still talking secretly, but the result probably won't change...Has the nature of the beam-shaped luminous body been analyzed?"
"There is already a hint that the luminous body may have the property of being able to absorb and transform stellar matter. Perhaps the 'eternal winter night' we first guessed is coming..."
"Is there no way to stop it halfway? Our nuclear weapons, the space station, everything, can be used in this crisis."
"...It's probably impossible. Maybe we can pray to some passing alien civilization to help us solve this problem? Let's forget it. While there is still time, the underground shelter should also come in handy."
Among them, some people had the idea of escaping from the beginning, and even secretly arranged for their relatives to take refuge, leaving a crowd of unsuspecting people outside.
But such is the reality here, those with power in their hands are always "one step ahead".
But when these high-level officials were discussing in low voices, a staff member here discovered a series of extremely abnormal reports.
"Just, just now, about 400,000 kilometers above our planet, a terrifying reading of space-time curvature appeared, almost equivalent to the appearance of a black hole there—"
Accompanied by these astonishing words, the star-disgusting scholar, who was a long distance away from the astronomical observatory, also shrank his pupils sharply.
Relying on his excellent eyesight, he saw a spot of light that seemed to be fading from the "dark curtain" in the distant sky.
He directly took out his self-made telescope and looked over, and then saw a "spaceship" that only existed in fantasy appeared there out of thin air.
It looks ordinary, but it seems to carry the weight of a civilization, "passing" over here.
(end of this chapter)