The Star Knight - 3. third chapter

Opal began to yearn for the boundless vast universe and starry sky. He began to ask himself, if he left here, where can he go? At the beginning, his mother came from the universe. Her spacecraft was ragged and rusty. She seemed to be the only passenger on the spacecraft. I don’t know why she gave birth to herself and never left the B-11 star.

He left the mine early the next day, brought the star map, and couldn’t wait to come to Reckett’s shelter.

He pulled another cart of ore, only to find that there was no one in the cave.

“Reckett!” Opal shouted.

In the vast overwhelming wind, Reckett stood on the endless stone plain, his cloth robe fluttering in the wind.

He just stood there, motionless.

Opal looked away for a while and found that Reckett had stood in this position for a long time.

After a full hour, Reckett opened his eyes and turned around.

Opal asked: “What are you doing?”

Reckett said: “Meditation.”

Opal: “Meditation?”

Recht: “Spread out your own thoughts and spirits and explore unknown areas.”

Opal nodded as if understanding or not, and the two of them worked together to pour the ore into the atomic furnace. Reckett said: “3.5%.”

Opal said: “We can only find these, the purity of the mine is not high.”

Reckett said: “Did the foreman embarrass you?”

Opal said: “He doesn’t care about this. Anyway, he trades it for food. I only tell him that I need to purify it myself.”

He and Reckett sat outside the cave, Opal took the star map to compare the zenith, and asked: “Which planet is your home on?”

Reckett said: “The place I came from was an unmarked location on the star chart, and it was on the central axis of the expansion point after the universe was too early formed.”

Opal said: “I didn’t understand.”

Reckett asked: “Do you know how the stars come?”

Opal: “I don’t know, haven’t they been there all the time?”

Reckett: “Of course not. They first existed 20 billion years ago. At that time, the universe was still a point, there was no time and no space. At a certain moment, it exploded, so time was launched along the explosion point. Energy was transformed into mass in the first few seconds, forming many planets. So stars were born.”

Opal said: “What was it before they were born?”

Reckett said: “There is no time before they are born, and of course it doesn’t matter before.”

Opal was a little confused, Reckett said again: “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 it. Once you trace back to the end of the thread, You will never find any more forward line. So before time is born, there is no time, and it doesn’t matter before.”

“Because the starting point of time is defined by humans, you can think of time and space as a planet like the B11 star, going all the way to the south, what will happen? Try to think about it.”

Opal looked blank, Recht said: “You will walk to the South Pole, and the concept of’south’ is like’before’, constantly walking forward to the starting point, so you stand in the South Pole, and then There is no further south. Asking where is south of Antarctica is like asking what it was before the beginning of time. It makes no sense.”

Opal seemed to understand something, but was even more confused. Recht added: “My place is called the Temple of the Stars. It is on the axis of the primordial explosion point. The primordial explosion point is a constant point, which was given to you yesterday. The star map used by it is different from the current universal star map of the universe.”

Opal was in a mess, and subconsciously asked: “Where is it different?”

Reckett said: “The reference point of your star map is the position where the Star Temple is located. The first celestial knight believed that this was the center of the universe. All other civilizations use another one called’Earth’. The point serves as a relative frame of reference, which is used to define the coordinates on the star map.”

Opal asked: “Will the earth move?”

Reckett said: “Its movement is almost negligible for the movement between nebulae. But occasionally you use the empire and republic star map to find a star, and you may find that it is not there because of the earth. The revolution, the movement of the solar system, the rotation of the Milky Way, and the small errors produced.”

Opal was completely confused. He tried to open another topic and asked: “What do you usually do?”

Reckett replied: “Learn, fight, and eliminate all the unstable existence in the interstellar space.”

Opal said: “It’s like cleaning up your enemy? Will you kill him?”

Reckett hummed, and fell into a long contemplation. Opal asked: “How did you fight.”

Reckett frowned slightly, as if thinking about the method of explanation. After a long time, he said: “Killing and destruction are two concepts. He is a star knight corroded by dark energy. He has a long life and has mastered some of me. I don’t know the power. I set off from the temple and searched for him for a long time. Finally, he set a trap. We fought against a nebula, and finally I failed. That’s it. These days, I’m reflecting on how I dealt with him. Method.”

Opal began to imagine the appearance of Reckett fighting. He had never seen the universe, nor did he know how powerful Reckett and his opponents were. Imagine it, you can’t get away from the scene of the miners fighting. The only difference lies in Reker. The special duel became a little bigger.

Reckett smiled, he didn’t say anything, Opal asked again: “How old are you this year?”

Reckett said: “Thousands of years.”

Opal: “Impossible! Are you so old?”

Reckett stared at the star dome in a daze, the stars in the sky reflected in his pupils, and Opal put down the star map and asked, “How long can I live? I heard them say that human beings are about to die when they are 100 years old.”

Reckett said: “Everyone has their own life span. The length is not the most important thing. The key lies in what you have done with your limited life and what you have experienced. On the mayfly star of the beta Andromeda galaxy, there is a kind of intelligent life. Body, their lifetime can only live for zero and five seconds.”

Opal: “!!!”

Reckett smiled, his smile handsome and gentle.

Opal: “Isn’t that dead at birth?”

Reckett said: “Mayfly stars are neutron stars, and their size is as big as microbes, they move close to the speed of light, and they think very fast. Our one second is equivalent to their two hundred years. The ivory deep in the universe. The scholars in Tali once tried to use a particle wave converter to communicate with them, but failed.”

Opal said: “Why?”

Reckett said: “Some people think they know some ultimate laws of existence and extinction in the universe, but the mayfly people refuse to communicate with alien intelligent life. Moreover, their life and death speed is too fast, and their existence is too short. This is very tricky. Because you were still talking to one of the mayfly stars in the last second, and just blinking your eyes in the next second, it will multiply for dozens of generations. Every second of the mayfly stars, it has undergone twenty generations.”

Opal laughed, and suddenly thought of something, and said: “Then they have a longer history?”

Reckett said: “Yes, so some people speculate that the civilization of the mayfly star 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 It has been developed for tens of thousands of years.”

Opal said: “It’s amazing.”

Reckett said: “Go back to rest, your workload is too much, you need to rest early, and come see me tomorrow.”

Opal nodded and waved goodbye to him.

Opal still went to work the next day, his mind was filled with countless strange ideas from the depths of stars, perhaps for Reckett, his life was also very short-like a mayfly star.

What can I do to live longer like him? He couldn’t help thinking about this question again and again, but he touched on a new question: What can he do if he lives for thousands of years? Do you repeat the work of mining, selling, and getting food every day? It is better to dig mines for thousands of years than to dig for a hundred years, no… he didn’t want to do this for even a minute.

He was right. The key lies in what you have done with your limited life and how many things have been experienced in this short hundred years.

“Hey, do you know.” Opal said to his partner Locke: “Do you believe that someone can live for thousands of years?”

Locke said, “Believe it, what can’t be done with money? The foreman said when he had a drink last time, as long as you save enough money, go to the Chiyan Galaxy, find the Life Medical Company, and reinject your genes to modify your physical conditions. If you have money, you can live forever!”

Opal frowned and said: “How long can you live?”

Locke shrugged and said: “How do I know? It is possible to keep the cell division at the level of the young age, for two hundred years, three hundred years, or one thousand years.”

Opal asked: “How much does it cost?”

Locke said: “It is said that every gene surgery requires millions of energy units. Maybe you will be dead before you save that number. Save enough money first and buy a ferry ticket.”

Opal thoughts flew to the mayfly starman’s short life, only 0.5 seconds, until the magnetic drilling machine stopped.

There were no more spars from this mine, and the miners were very annoyed and took off their gloves one after another.

“I want some bread and water.” Opal Chaolock said, “Can you get me some?”

Locke looked at the foreman in the distance and said, “How did you eat so much lately? I heard that you picked up a man in the desert? Where did you come from.”

The miners passed by them and talked to each other.

“Another round of mining star bidding will begin.”

“It all depends on the above. I think this year is a bit overwhelming. There are not many mines left in B11. You see, it has been digging almost the same, and no one wants to change hands.”

“The entire outer planetary system was contracted during the bidding last year. The competition here is relatively less intense.”

Opal motioned to Locke to speak quietly, and said, “He is from the universe. I don’t know anything else. He is injured.”

Locke said: “You let him come over to mine.”

Opal said: “No, he wouldn’t do such a thing.”

Locke said, “Otherwise? Food and water are expensive.”

Opal said: “I’ll trade today’s mine, you help me change some, 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 digging of the minerals was exhausted.

“He will find out sooner or later, and will deduct your energy points.” Locke said.

Opal said: “I’m not afraid of him.”

Locke shivered, and Opal said, “Listen, Locke, do me this favor and I will repay you.”

Locke said helplessly: “No, you are waiting here.”

Locke went to get a list, and the foreman impatiently counted the ore, which was obtained by Opal in exchange for extra. He used two large carts and mines for a lot of bread. He had to find a way to solve the food and drinking water of Reckett in advance, otherwise I don’t know how long it will take to find a new mineral next time.

And the long winter is coming, the merchant ships of the Chiyan galaxy will land once on the B11 star and sell them warm supplies at high prices. For the rest of the time, Opal will follow the miners who stay here to find new mines, and the foreman will go back to another planet to spend the winter.

“There is no ore today.” Opal explained towards Reckett on the rock slope: “I changed something to eat. Winter is coming.”

Lake said in a special note, “Well, thank you for your hard work.”

The rotation axis of the star B11 is inclined at 23 degrees and a half to the revolution angle, which results in short days in winter and long nights. The temperature dropped slowly, and Opal and Reckett sat on the cliff to have dinner. These days, he could only eat one meal a day, and Reckett gave the rest of the ration.

Opal glanced at him from time to time, always feeling that it was not polite to call him by name. Reckett must be a person of identity. On the B11 star, the foreman is called “Hicks Lord”, and the merchants from the other galaxies, To be called “Mr.”, this is the case, and they are not necessarily willing to trade with miners.

Reckett opened his mouth and said: “You can call me a teacher if you want. But I believe that we are equal and there is no difference in status.”

Opal was startled and asked: “Why do you know what I’m thinking?”

Reckett smiled slightly and said, “Are you thinking about this? I just said casually, the teacher means someone who teaches you knowledge.”

Opal said: “I understand, my mother told me.”

Rick nodded, and Opal asked: “What do you want to teach me today?”

Reckett asked: “What do you want to know?”

Opal said: “Let’s talk about those empires, republics, and so on, how they live and what they do…”

“Those things, you will know one day, the future is not far away.” Reckett said slowly, lying down on the open ground of 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?”

Reckett did not answer, and pointed his finger at the brightest star on the zenith and said: “Opal, did you know that the stars you see are not what they are now.”

Opal followed what he was expecting and mumbled blankly.

Reckett said: “The fastest thing in the universe is light. Nothing can surpass the speed of light.”

Opal said: “I know this, and my mother also said that the best spacecraft can’t fly faster than light.”

Recker said: “According to the Primordial 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: “…”

Reckett said: “Suppose a beam of light shot from the alpha star a long time ago, after three million years, finally reached our planet and entered your eyes, then what you see is that it is three million years old. Can you understand what it looked like years ago?”

Opal nodded slowly, Reckett said: “And even if you drive the fastest spacecraft in the universe, “Sol”, to travel at sub-light speed, it will take millions, even tens of millions of years to move between each galaxy. Years.”

Opal said blankly: “Then how do you travel?”

Reckett said: “Use the Star Gate.”

“Our world is called a four-dimensional space. Three coordinate axes establish a three-dimensional space. Together with a fourth-dimensional time axis, this is the universe we live in now.”

Opal understood a little, and asked, “Is the Space Gate a door… Well, I mean you can go in from here, and come out from there, you can cross a long, long distance.”

Reckett said: “It can be understood that 20,000 years ago, the ancestors of mankind found the fifth dimension that connects with our space. This is a piece of history. You don’t need to be too clear, as long as you remember it.”

Opal listened quietly, and Reckett 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 Under certain conditions, it enters the fifth-dimensional space at an instant in the middle, and the five-dimensional space shows very peculiar properties in time and space.”

“If you successfully enter, you only need to advance a short distance in the fifth dimension, and then return to our four-dimensional world, you will find that you have traveled a considerable distance… Make an analogy.”

Reckett pressed his wrist, and his bracelet shot out a beam of light on the opposite cliff. He casually explained: “The opposite rock wall is a two-dimensional plane with the light spot on the left, and we are in a three-dimensional world. Two-dimensional space is higher.”

“Yeah.” Opal nodded.

Reckett slightly turned his wrist at an angle, 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.

Reckett said: “The light spot is the projection of the three-dimensional world on the two-dimensional plane. I only need to make a small movement in a higher-dimensional space, and within half a second, the angular velocity can make it translate hundreds of meters. Successfully establishing a projection relationship can make two centimeters in three dimensions directly equal to two hundred meters in a two-dimensional plane.”

“Similarly, after forming a projection connection to the four-dimensional space in the five-dimensional space, if you travel one kilometer in the five-dimensional space, you have traveled a few light-years in the four-dimensional space. This is the film principle of the multi-dimensional projection angular velocity.”

Opal immediately said: “I understand!”

Reckett smiled and said: “To explore in our universe, we must use higher dimensional space. The principle of the Stargate is to let you briefly enter the fifth dimension and open a tunnel in this dimension. After a short journey, you exit through another corresponding starry sky gate, so you and your spacecraft can cross a distance of millions, or even tens of millions of light-years.”

“This theory was put into practice in the civilization of ancient humans. The day when the first pair of starry sky gates was successfully navigable was the beginning of the light era. The ancestors of mankind developed the jump spacecraft, began to explore the entire universe, established the original starry sky gate, and more People of all ages left the earth to colonize the interstellar space and spread their branches and leaves. It is now in the Light Era 20103. After 20,000 years of evolution in human science and technology, it has become what we see today.”

Opal’s eyes were full of wonder.

Neither of them spoke. After a long time, Opal asked again: “If I want to roam in space, do I have to go through the Stargate? Where is it?”

“There are tens of thousands in the Chiyan galaxy.” Reckett said: “Astronauts are equipped with locators, which form a crisscross network among all galaxies, and you can find them anytime and anywhere as long as you enter space. It. In fact, there is one at seven and five minutes away from here, but few people use it, and most people don’t even know the existence of this channel.”

“Access to the Star Gate does not require specific procedures, 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 colder, and after a while, he fell asleep unknowingly.

Today Rector didn’t let him go back, but picked him up and carried him into the cave where he lived, the atomic furnace exuding a warm orange light.