250: The keel was forged and the spirit of the "flowing silver" ship

In the third year of the "Voyage Plan," within the massive dock of the Bedrock Base, the outline of the hope had become clearly visible. The keel, stretching hundreds of feet long like the spine of a giant beast, lay across the center of the dock. It was cast entirely from a silver-gray metal created through the Fusion of high-purity star iron and various rare alloys, its surface shimmering with subtle star runes, making it incredibly sturdy.

However, as the ship's structure grew increasingly complex, a thorny problem arose for Senior Brother Li and the technical team—the control System.

For a starship so massive and functionally complex, relying solely on manual control was absolutely unrealistic, especially during deep space voyages that could last for years. They needed a powerful, reliable "brain" that could understand commands to assist or even lead the starship's daily operations, navigation, energy distribution, fault diagnosis, and a series of other complex tasks.

“According to the records in the Ancient Database, true starships all possess a ‘ship spirit’ or a ‘Master Intelligence’,” Senior Brother Zhang said during the technical seminar, pushing up his glasses and pointing to the complex energy circuit diagram on the light screen. “But we haven't fully grasped the core principles of that technology yet, let alone building one ourselves. Forcing an imitation would be too risky.”

“Could we use an improved version of the starnet beacon array as the control core?” Wang Wu suggested. “We're already very proficient in controlling the beacons now.”

“No,” Senior Brother Li shook his head. “The processing power of the beacons is limited; they're mainly for communication and relay. The data processing and real-time judgments required by the hope are more than a beacon array can handle; it would overload and crash.”

Just as everyone was frowning at the blueprints and arguing incessantly, a slightly hesitant voice spoke up.

“Um... I have an idea, but I don't know if it'll work.” The speaker was a somewhat introverted young technician in the base named Xiao Wu, who was usually responsible for looking after the Flowing Silver.

Everyone looked at him. Xiao Wu's face turned red, but he still plucked up the courage to say, “I... I've been observing those Flowing Silver for a long time. Individually, they might be a bit ‘simple-minded,’ but when they gather together, it seems... it seems like they can share information and learn from each other. Last time there was a problem with an energy circuit in the Industrial Zone, a few Flowing Silver got together and, as if they were discussing it, tinkered with it for a long time and actually fixed it themselves! Although the repair was a bit... unique.”

He paused, his voice getting even quieter. “I was wondering, could we... let them be the ‘ship spirit’? Not just one, but many of them, letting them ‘live’ inside the starship's control System to form a... living control network?”

The idea was so wildly imaginative that everyone was stunned for several seconds.

Letting a group of liquid metal lifeforms serve as a starship's control core? That sounded even more unreliable than asking Zhao Iron Pillar to do embroidery!

“Nonsense!” an older technician immediately rebuffed. “The behavior patterns of Flowing Silver are unpredictable. Letting them control the starship? What if they get bored halfway through the flight and ‘eat’ the ship?”

“Exactly! It's too dangerous!”

Xiao Wu lowered his head after being scolded, not daring to speak up again.

But Wen Youyi was lost in thought. He remembered the various miraculous performances of the Flowing Silver: their precise mining and construction capabilities, their sensitivity to and transformation of energy, and even their ability to purify Materials... They seemed like Chaos, but in reality, they appeared to follow some underlying logic based on energy and matter, and they possessed incredible learning and adaptation abilities.

“Maybe... it's not entirely impossible,” Wen Youyi spoke slowly, interrupting the discussion. “The key lies in communication and guidance. We've been living with the Flowing Silver for so long that we can already perform basic telepathic communication. If we can establish a more complete ‘language’ System that they can understand to execute complex commands, while setting ‘bottom-line rules’ that they cannot cross...”

He looked at Senior Brother Li and Senior Brother Zhang. “Combining the energy runes and signal encoding technology we're currently researching, can we design an ‘Instruction Set’ and a ‘Behavioral Framework’ exclusive to the Flowing Silver? Let them autonomously complete the maintenance, monitoring, and basic control of the starship within that framework.”

This line of thinking made the eyes of the two technical leads light up.

“Swarm intelligence under framework constraints...” Senior Brother Zhang muttered to himself, quickly scribbling on the light screen. “Theoretically feasible! We can decompose the various functions of the starship into countless tiny ‘task units’ and encode them with signals that the Flowing Silver can understand. They can be like a Swarm, each responsible for a small part and coordinating with each other through the ‘network’ we set up...”

“Yes!” Senior Brother Li also became excited. “And Flowing Silver itself has physical variability; it can repair hull damage and optimize energy circuits at any time! This is much more flexible than a rigid mechanical System! We only need to ensure that the core navigation, power, and weapon Systems have independent, absolutely reliable backup controls!”

Once the direction was determined, the technical team immediately threw themselves into the new research and development. They no longer tried to build a traditional “ship spirit,” but instead began designing a complex System that could deeply interact with the Flowing Silver collective and guide them into becoming a “living control network.”

Because of his familiarity with the Flowing Silver, Xiao Wu was exceptionally promoted to the core R&D team. He became one of the primary “translators” for communicating with the Flowing Silver, spending all day holding a pile of specially made “Teaching Stones” that could emit different energy fluctuations, patiently teaching those Flowing Silver to understand complex concepts like “forward,” “turn,” “energy distribution,” and “repair here.”

The process was exceptionally difficult. The “brain circuits” of the Flowing Silver were clearly different from those of humans, often leading to laughable misunderstandings. Once, Xiao Wu wanted to teach them the concept of “keeping the hull clean,” and as a result, a group of Flowing Silver almost licked the newly applied outer armor coating clean as if it were “dirt,” making Zhao Iron Pillar, who was in charge of the coating, scream in frustration.

But as time passed, under the coordination of Wen Youyi's Star Core Power and the tireless “education” from Xiao Wu and others, the Flowing Silver began to gradually understand those complex instruction frameworks. They started to be able to flow and disperse within the ship as requested, monitoring the operational status of energy nodes; they could spontaneously fill and reinforce small structural damages according to preset “Repair Protocols”; they could even coordinate to complete simple course adjustments during simulated drills!

When the first group of “trained” meritorious Flowing Silver successfully caused a section of the simulated hull to quickly self-repair and flatten after suffering a “meteor strike” during a test, the entire R&D team erupted in cheers!

They had found an unprecedented path! A path that combined miraculous biological characteristics with top-tier rune technology to create a living starship!

The future of the hope seemed to have become even brighter and more... unique.

(End of Chapter)