Stars, Players and Immortals

Chapter 74 Void Insect Nests and Cosmic Storm Belts

After listening to Zhang Qiming's words, Saint Sophia finally couldn't help but ask the question that had been asked countless times before.

"You seem to be in a really too much of a hurry."

She looked at the young supreme commander across the large desk, her tone carrying an undisguised scrutiny and confusion.

"From initiating the Martian Revolution to integrating the three fleets, and now to vigorously promoting the separation of church and state, you have been working tirelessly to keep up with the times."

"The new government can take two or three years to slowly heal the wounds of the civil war and gradually integrate the resources of Mars."

"As for Terra, we can spend ten, twenty, or even more years negotiating, infiltrating, and dividing it, striving to subdue it without fighting."

Zhang Qiming said to her, "As I said before, we don't have that much time."

Saint Sophia's gaze was fixed on him, as if she were waiting for an explanation.

Zhang Qiming didn't say anything more. He simply raised his hand and pressed a hidden compartment on the side of his desk. A dark silver metal chip the size of a fingernail slid out, gleaming with a cold luster, its edges engraved with fine interface patterns.

He gently pushed the chip between the two of them.

"As I said before, before you are crowned the Mechanical Pope, I will tell you the main reason why I am so eager."

"I believe that after reading what's inside, you'll understand everything I've done."

Saint Sophia's pupils contracted slightly as she reached out and picked up the chip, her fingertips tracing the cool metal surface and intricate engravings.

"This is... a discrete chip?"

She paused, her tone clearly surprised: "And this process—it's not the church's standard method. You've already mastered the complete production line for separating wafers?"

The split-chip is the core miniature data carrier of Martian civilization. It is smaller than a credit chip, but it can store text, maps, images, audio, video, sensory records, and tactical commands.

Ordinary people need to access it through a neural interface or an external reader, but a mechanical professional like her only needs a trace of mechanical force to directly analyze all the data inside the chip.

In this highly cybernetic society, separate chips should have become the infrastructure for knowledge exchange, vocational education, medical training, and worker skills enhancement.

Its original purpose was to enable every ordinary person to equally access all the knowledge accumulated by human civilization.

However, the College of Cardinals has always maintained strict control over it.

The Church allows it to circulate in the ministry, military industry, fleet archives, and licensed technical guilds, but it does not allow it to truly enter the learning and working systems of ordinary people.

The reason is quite simple: if everyone can acquire knowledge through chips, the church will no longer be able to monopolize the foundation of knowledge.

Zhang Qiming looked at her, his tone calm but with an undeniable determination: "The Skydrive government will soon officially promulgate the General Data Chip Act."

Saint Sophia: "!!!"

"Separate chips will be fully incorporated into the legal production, registration, and distribution system."

Zhang Qiming then went on to explain his next plan.

"Chishiro will be responsible for developing a specific learning algorithm chip. Through a complex self-learning algorithm, it will simulate the rapid evolution of the neural network and enable the Martians equipped with the chip to master basic industrial, maintenance, medical, military, and prosthetic body maintenance skills in a short period of time."

"This will become part of rebuilding the education system on Mars."

Saint Sophia was silent for a moment, then slowly spoke, her tone carrying a hint of solemnity.

"If the central government really wants to do this, it must establish the strictest regulatory system. If this gets out of control, the consequences will be unimaginable."

After saying that, she looked down at the separated chip in her hand, a wisp of mechanical force rising from her fingertips and seeping into it along the interface lines on the edge of the chip.

The next second, the data from the chip was projected directly onto her retinal prosthetic layer, and a large number of models, star maps, observation records and risk assessments unfolded in front of her, with only two titles at the top.

Void Insect Nest

Cosmic Storm Belts

Saint Sophia initially held a somewhat scrutinizing expression, but her face quickly darkened after she saw the first file.

Void worms are deep-space parasitic life forms that nest in black holes and reproduce on habitable planets.

Larvae undergo their first metamorphosis in the shadow of a black hole, relying on disk radiation and tidal heat; subadults roam the starry sea in search of suitable colonies; adults form triplets in groups of three, transforming into a void triplet nest spanning hundreds of kilometers.

The chip model shows that after confirming that the target planet has sufficient biomass, the Triad will release highly corrosive cysts into the atmosphere.

Once the cysts enter the ecological cycle, they quickly pollute the soil, water, and all living organisms, transforming the protobiosphere into a larval hatchery.

If orbital blockade and spore removal are not completed in the early stages, a colony planet will be completely destroyed within weeks to months.

When Hagia Sophia saw this line, her breath hitched slightly.

Then, her gaze fell on the next coordinate.

[Current observation target: Tianyuan 4 direction]

[Distance from the Solar System: Approximately 10.47 light-years]

[Status: Subadult cluster carrying larval units, moving towards the solar system]

[Estimated arrival time: 3-5 days per standard Terran year]

She suddenly looked up.

Zhang Qiming sat opposite him, his expression unchanged.

"This intelligence comes from the Jingwei, humanity's first intergalactic ocean-going scientific research vessel."

"The Jingwei satellite captured these images while conducting long-range observation missions in the Tianyuan direction."

Saint Sophia stared at the image of the swarm of insects on the chip.

These things resembled black shadows in deep space, their outer skin gleaming with a dark purple sheen, their surfaces constantly refracting the starlight from the surrounding background.

When a regular sensor scans it, it only gets a blank area covered by noise, like an inconspicuous dark spot in the depths of the universe.

Zhang Qiming continued, "Currently, the main methods for observing planets on Mars and Terra are optical arrays, electromagnetic bands, particle counting, and basic deep space radar."

"To put it bluntly, we're still at the stage of looking up at the stars with telescopes and basic sensors."

"The Void Worm's outer skin has a natural shielding ability, which can disrupt electromagnetic observation, infrared imaging, and conventional particle echoes."

The Jingwei probe was able to detect them because it was close enough, had a good angle, and also relied on subsequent data reconstruction to supplement part of the model.

"If humans want to reliably monitor the Void Worm's flight path in the future, they must develop a gravity sensor as soon as possible."

Saint Sophia's fingers slowly clenched. She was now feeling the pressure and finally understood why Zhang Qiming was so eager.

"So, that's why you're in such a hurry to unify Mars and Terra?"

Zhang Qiming looked at her and asked in return, "Do you think these bugs will give Mars and Terra time?"

Saint Sophia fell silent, and the second file in the chip began to unfold.

It was a model of a massive storm belt, resembling a gray-blue vortex tearing through the sea of ​​stars, enveloping five hundred border galaxies, including our solar system.

The inner layer of the storm was constantly flashing with electromagnetic turbulence, hyperspace creases, and high-energy particle tides, like a shrinking cosmic wall.

Cosmic Storm Belts

[Coverage Area: Border Star Region, Five Hundred Worlds]

[Main impacts: Blocking external sensors, interfering with hyperspace travel, weakening interstellar communication, and increasing ship maintenance burden]

[Long-term trend: Inward contraction]

[Expected Danger Window: Within 100 Years / Standard Terra Year]

Zhang Qiming said in a low voice, "The void storm belt you saw on the separated chip is like an invisible iron curtain, separating the five hundred worlds containing the solar system from the entire universe."

"People outside can't see us clearly, and we can't see people outside clearly either."

"It sounds like protection now, but it's shrinking inward at a visible rate."

"If humanity cannot develop technologies to withstand storms, traverse storms, and stabilize hyperspace routes within a century, then Mars and Terra will sooner or later be trapped in this ever-shrinking star system."

Saint Sophia's gaze grew increasingly solemn. She was now feeling immense pressure. It turned out there were so many strange and monstrous beings outside the solar system!

Zhang Qiming added, his tone tinged with a cold heaviness: "What's even more troublesome is that the Five Hundred Worlds are not inhabited only by humans."

The chip screen suddenly switched, and several blurry images labeled "[Jingwei Top Secret Voyage Record]" popped up.

In the unfathomable depths of space, a cold, unknown probe swept across the channel, followed by several indistinct ship silhouettes flashing past at great distances.

"During its several secret voyages, the Jingwei has come into contact with the detection methods of other civilizations on multiple occasions."

"We avoided their scanning thanks to our independently developed stealth field generator; we are still far enough apart, and our respective hyperspace travel technologies are not yet fully mature, so we can coexist peacefully."

He looked up at Hagia Sophia, his eyes sharp as knives.

"But this distance won't last forever."

"Once their hyperspace technology advances further, once the storm belt continues to shrink, and once the civilizations in the five hundred worlds inevitably begin to collide with each other, human civilization will no longer be able to hide."

Saint Sophia slowly lowered the separation chip; she felt a little numb.

The Void Worms will be at our gates within three to five years, and the cosmic storm will shrink to a lethal threshold within a century. Other civilizations in the five hundred worlds have already begun to probe and rub against each other.

With undercurrents surging within the solar system and Terra stirring up trouble, humanity is truly beset by internal and external troubles, facing both immediate and long-term anxieties, leaving no room for respite.

If we don't hurry now, we'll all explode on the spot!