Rebirth of the Super Battleship

Xiao Yu had been waiting for this message for a long time. He was desperate to gain some information about the information storm from it, to find a direction to strive toward.

But the arrival of this message once again plunged Xiao Yu’s heart into the depths of despair.

“Latest monitoring results indicate that the information storm from the Andromeda Galaxy will arrive at the Milky Way Galaxy ten years earlier than expected. Meanwhile, its danger level has been upgraded from Class B to Class A. All civilizations able to receive this message, please immediately import this information into your central computer. The program will automatically initiate the manufacture of simple superluminal communication devices. Afterward, please contact us. We will immediately dispatch personnel to escort you to a safe zone. Please note: this is your last opportunity.”

“Broadcaster: Guardian Alliance Headquarters.”

Staring at this message, Xiao Yu was speechless for a long time.

“Arriving ten years early… doesn’t that mean the information storm will strike in just five years? What should I do? What should I do?”

Xiao Yu’s heart was exceptionally heavy.

“I don’t know the mode of destruction, I don’t know how to avoid it—I know nothing. How am I supposed to respond?” Xiao Yu thought silently. The excitement of mastering the Grand Unified Theory was completely swept away by this message.

Once again, Xiao Yu convened the Luka scientists for a discussion.

During the meeting, Xiao Yu publicly presented the message. Instantly, the Luka scientists plunged into a heated discussion.

“Silence,” Xiao Yu said, signaling for all the Luka scientists to quiet down before continuing, “The purpose of convening this meeting is to discuss together: how should we respond to this impending crisis?”

The conference hall fell into a heavy silence. Not a single person spoke.

Xiao Yu sighed and said, “No one has any suggestions?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Luka Three stood up and said, “I’ll offer my opinion. At present, we know absolutely nothing about the information storm. Even if we want to prepare, we don’t know what measures to take. Thus, we can only discuss it based on known science.”

“Perhaps we can hypothesize that the information storm is a kind of astronomical phenomenon similar to a supernova explosion. Then we can adapt existing defensive methods for supernovae to our situation.”

“Good, continue,” Xiao Yu gestured.

Luka Three continued, “Everyone here should be familiar with information about supernova explosions, so I’ll skip the details. In essence, the main destructive force from a supernova is the intense gamma-ray burst, which would destroy all instruments within our ships. The immense energy carried could even melt our ships. When facing a supernova explosion at close range, the only viable survival strategy is to hide behind a celestial body and use it as a shield.”

“Therefore, I propose we find a star and hide our fleet behind it.”

After Luka Three finished speaking, he sat down.

Immediately, someone voiced opposition: “I think that will be useless. If simply hiding behind a celestial body could allow one to survive the information storm, would the Guardian Alliance be making such a grave announcement? Moreover, gamma-ray bursts travel at the speed of light, but the information storm’s transmission speed must exceed the speed of light. These are clearly two different phenomena. How can we apply defenses for supernovae to an information storm?”

Luka Three retorted, “Finding a star to hide behind is at least better than doing nothing and waiting for death.”

Another person stood up and said, “I would like to offer my opinion. Based on our current theories, faster-than-light transmission bypasses the limits of relativity by converting energy into gravity and bending surrounding space. In other words, space-warping is the primary mechanism behind faster-than-light transmission. If this information storm is propagating faster than light, perhaps it too relies on space-warping. Maybe we could create a simple warped-space layer to form a protective shield and thus avoid damage from the information storm.”

“I oppose that,” another person stood up and said. “Faster-than-light travel is technology a Level 4 Civilization must master. But remember, the Guardian Alliance is a Level 6 Civilization. If even they treat this so seriously, I don’t believe that a mere Level 4 technology could defend against the information storm.”

“Then are you suggesting we do nothing and wait for death?” Another Luka scientist argued back.

“No,” the man continued, “Since there’s no hope of defending against the information storm through our own means, we must rely on natural environments to survive. I support the idea of finding a star and hiding behind it.”

In the massive conference hall filled with hundreds, Luka scientists stood up one after another to voice their opinions. Xiao Yu quietly listened to all of them.

“I believe we should follow the Guardian Alliance’s instructions, import that piece of information into the central computer, and let the Guardian Alliance save us!” Amid the heated discussions, suddenly, a young Luka scientist stood up and shouted emotionally.

The moment his last word fell, the hall instantly fell silent. Hundreds of Luka people looked at each other; not one spoke.

“Why are we so wary of the Guardian Alliance?” the young man shouted again. “We’ve lived under the Guardian Alliance’s protection before! Even though Master is a special existence combining soul and computer, who can be sure the Guardian Alliance would be hostile to Master? Or perhaps, we can hide Master, pretending that we are merely an ordinary Technological Civilization?”

“This is not a decision we can make. The final decision rests with Master,” Luka Two, the leader of all the Luka people, said after a brief silence.

Hundreds of gazes turned toward Xiao Yu’s holographic image at the front.

Xiao Yu fell into deep contemplation.

In the silence, Luka Three spoke slowly: “Regardless of Master’s ultimate decision, I choose to stay with Master.”

“I am a new generation of Luka, born during interstellar travel. I have never lived within the Guardian Alliance’s safe zones, but from the accounts of my elders, I have some understanding of life there.”

“Living under protection is not as wonderful as it sounds. In the safe zones, in order to earn Alliance Contribution Points to ensure survival, we had to sacrifice valuable research time to complete endless tasks. When facing higher civilizations, we had to bow and scrape, doing everything possible to satisfy their greed. Even a small offense could bring retaliation, being assigned dangerous missions, leading to the deaths of thousands of our kin. Among civilizations of the same rank, there were endless conspiracies and intrigues. Once you joined the Guardian Alliance, you could never leave; you would be forced to continually contribute your strength until the extinction of your race.”

“I don’t know if everyone has noticed, but within the Guardian Alliance, we lost the dignity of being an independent civilization. Technological advancement was no longer achieved through our own research but was obtained by trading Alliance Contribution Points. We gained safety, but at the cost of losing the ability to develop independently.”

“That kind of life is not what I want. Compared to that, I much prefer our current life. No oppression from higher civilizations, no exhausting struggle for basic survival. We can devote ourselves entirely to technological research, and watch ourselves grow stronger bit by bit through our own efforts. Isn’t that wonderful? As Master’s people say: ‘There is no such thing as a free lunch.’ If you gain the Guardian Alliance’s protection, you must pay the corresponding price. Nothing so good comes for free.”

After Luka Three sat down, the hall once again fell silent.

“I agree.”

“I agree.”

“I agree. Staying in the starry sky, we might not necessarily die. But returning to the Guardian Alliance, we will certainly lose the wonderful life we have now.”

One by one, all the Luka scientists stood up. Whether they were elderly scientists with wrinkled faces or young scientists full of vigor, they spoke the same words.

“Rather die under the stars than return to the Guardian Alliance.”

“Of course, the final decision rests with Master,” Luka Two added.

Xiao Yu remained deep in thought. As he reflected, he carefully revisited every event he had experienced since leaving Earth and up to the present day, tens of thousands of years later.

“Based on what the White Dwarf Alien Beast said, my existence seems to be the result of some super-civilization’s deliberate experiment—and I am a successful test subject.”

“From the initial manipulation that led me away from the Solar System, to the White Dwarf Alien Beast, to the corpse of the Earth woman in the 90s Model Spaceship—it all seems linked together by a single thread.”

“Someone has been secretly watching me.”

“I wonder: was encountering the Earth human souls who became the Specter Race a coincidence, or inevitability? Did my kin sense that I was in danger and come to rescue me on their own, or were they guided by some entity, tipped off by the presence behind the scenes?”

“If so, it raises a very important question—what will they do during this crisis?”

“I think… they probably won’t just stand by and watch me get consumed by the information storm and die. Therefore… what method will they use to help me survive this disaster?”