170: Time-Traces Starfield and Resonance Echoes

Consciousness was pulled and shredded in the torrent of time, then reconsolidated within the chaos.

As Lin Mo's senses reconnected with reality, a violent dizziness and a sense of spacetime displacement hit his nerves like a tide. Inside the bridge, the lights flickered, and alarms sounded sparsely with a post-disaster weakness. The air was thick with the scorched smell of overloaded circuits and the hum of the life support system running at full capacity.

"Report status!" He forced himself through the discomfort, his voice hoarse.

"Jump... ended? Emergency engine shutdown, cooling in progress! Structural integrity... eighty-seven percent, multiple non-critical damages!" The operator's voice carried a sense of lingering shock.

"Time reference... resynchronizing. According to star map comparison, we have... deviated from the original coordinates by over seven thousand light-years!" The navigator's voice was full of disbelief.

"The regulatory environment is stable, but... there's a difference of about 1.3 percent in the flow of time compared to the external baseline; local time passes faster." Dr. Einstein's virtual image flickered, his tone grave. "We've been thrown into an... isolated star field with a different flow of time."

Lin Mo looked out the porthole. The scene before him was not any known star map region nor pure time turbulence. It was an unfamiliar star system with two intertwined red giants in their twilight years, their dark red light casting an old, oppressive hue over the entire star field. Within the system floated a large amount of unnaturally formed, colossal metallic wreckage. Their strange shapes and styles were entirely different from any known civilization, their surfaces covered in thick cosmic dust and deep 'wear' marks that seemed to be left by accelerated time erosion.

The entire star field gave off an eerie feeling of being extremely ancient, forgotten, and where time passed faster.

"Detected a weak regulatory resonance signal homologous to the key fragments!" the sensor officer suddenly shouted, his voice filled with excitement. "The signal source... points to a large artificial structure near the third planet's orbit in this system!"

The main screen immediately locked onto the target. It was the wreckage of a space station like a giant ring, or more like a broken "collar," silently floating in the planet's orbit. Its scale was immense, several times larger than the watcher, and despite the severe damage, one could still feel the grandeur and advancement it might have once possessed.

"Is there a reaction from the key fragments?" Lin Mo asked immediately.

Within the isolation field, the halo on the surface of the three key fragments flickered in a slow and steady rhythm, as if in a silent conversation with the giant ring structure in the distance. They no longer vibrated violently but emitted a resonance of "confirmation" and "guidance."

"Yes. They are guiding us there," Ling Shuang confirmed. Her face was still somewhat pale, as the time jump seemed to have a greater psionic impact on her, but her eyes were sharp. "And... I feel that there's not just resonance there, but also... some kind of 'waiting'."

"What about the Assimilators? Any signs of them tracking us?" Wu Yong was more concerned about the immediate threat.

"No Assimilator signals detected within range. The disturbance from the time jump might have temporarily interfered with their tracking or thrown them into another timeline," reported the duty officer.

This was a stroke of luck amidst misfortune. But no one dared to relax; the Assimilators were like shadows in the universe, liable to descend again at any moment.

"Repair damages, raise combat readiness. Dispatch scout units for a preliminary scan of the target ring structure," Lin Mo ordered. "Ling Shuang, concerto keystone, try to establish a deep connection with the fragments to gather more information about this place."

Scout drones, like a swarm of bees leaving the hive, flew silently toward the giant ring wreckage. The images sent back were even clearer: the ring was made of an unknown dark metal, its surface covered in incomprehensible geometric patterns and interfaces. Many areas showed obvious signs of breakage and melting, as if it had undergone a tragic internal explosion or external attack. It rotated silently, like the skeleton of a dead behemoth.

"Scans show a weak energy reaction inside the structure, with a pattern... highly consistent with the resonance frequency of the key fragments. No active defense systems or life signs detected," the reconnaissance report came in.

"Doctor, analyze the environmental data. Are there any records of this star field or these ruins?" Lin Mo turned to Einstein.

Einstein was quickly cross-referencing the database, his brow furrowed. "No direct records. However... based on the semiotic features of the architectural style and this unique environment of accelerated time flow... I suspect this might be an earlier outpost of the Weaver, or... a failed 'protocol node' testing ground. The Khazar Civilization's knowledge base makes vague mentions of facilities that attempted to stabilize the 'silent veil' early on, which would produce local time flow anomalies due to regulatory conflicts."

A forgotten, ancient ruin of the Weaver? That made sense.

Just then, Ling Shuang and the concerto keystone, who were deeply connected to the key fragments, made a discovery almost simultaneously.

"Inside the ring structure... there's a core area where the resonance signal is strongest. Something... seems to be sealed there," Ling Shuang said, her eyes closed as if she were seeing through the massive metallic construct.

[Encrypted information packet detected, attached to the underlying rules of the ring structure,] the concerto keystone's consciousness fluctuated. [Unlocking using the resonance of the key fragments as a key.]

A fragmented, noisy stream of information was cracked and projected onto the main screen:

"...Star Field of Time Traces... Protocol Stability Test Site... failure... time anchor out of control... acceleration... decay..."

"...fourth fragment... 'core of constancy'... used to stabilize local time flow... installed in... Ring Heart Control Room..."

"...Warning... the runaway time flow has spawned... 'Time Molts'... they guard the fragment... regarding it as... a sacred relic..."

"...'Time Molts'... non-malicious... manifestations of time scars... avoid conflict... seek... understanding..."

The information cut out again.

The fourth key fragment, the "core of constancy," was indeed here! But it was guarded by the so-called "Time Molts."

"'Time Molts'... manifestations of time scars?" Wu Yong chewed on the words. "Doesn't sound like something easy to deal with."

"Since they aren't malicious, perhaps we can communicate," Ling Shuang offered a different opinion. "The resonance of the key fragments seems to soothe the environment here; maybe it will work on the 'Time Molts' too."

"We can't pin all our hopes on communication," Lin Mo decided. "Prepare an exploration team. I'll lead it personally, with Ling Shuang, an elite marine squad, and an engineering team. Dr. Einstein and the concerto keystone will provide remote support. Commander Wu, the fleet will provide cover from the periphery. If a crisis arises that we can't handle, or if the Assimilators appear, you have the authority to decide whether to intervene or evacuate."

"Commander!" Wu Yong tried to dissuade him again. The Commander repeatedly putting himself in danger did not comply with safety regulations.

"The puzzles here might involve deeper rules; I need the 'Genesis Blueprint' authority present." Lin Mo's tone was beyond dispute. "Execute the order."

Soon, a landing craft reinforced with temporal shielding, carrying the exploration team, detached from the watcher and headed toward the giant ring wreckage.

The approach was unusually smooth; the ring structure showed no reaction, as if it were truly dead. The landing craft followed a relatively intact docking tunnel found by the scout units and slowly entered its interior.

The interior was even more dilapidated than the exterior. The wide corridors were filled with debris and solidified, unidentified black substances. The walls were covered in corrosion and energy burn marks, and in some areas, the dark red starry sky outside was visible. The air was filled with a stale scent and a sense of heaviness... as if tens of millions of years of time had been compressed here.

The key fragments were placed in a portable strong-interaction force field container, carried by Lin Mo himself. The deeper they went, the clearer the resonance of the fragments became, guiding them through the intricate, maze-like corridors toward the core area of the ring.

Along the way, they saw some unsettling signs: the corrosion marks in some areas showed an unnatural, almost life-like wriggling pattern; occasional brief, distorted afterimages flashed in the air—echoes of activity at some point in the past; the temperature also fluctuated, as if the flow of time here was not uniform.

"Abnormal spacetime fluctuations detected!" a technician in the team suddenly shouted. "The corridor ahead, the time flow is extremely unstable!"

In the corridor not far ahead, the space showed a wave-like distortion, with light refracting weirdly within it. A metal plate that had fallen from the ceiling, upon entering that area, actually accelerated in rusting and turned to dust at a visible rate, only to revert to its original state in the next moment as if rewinding, repeating the cycle.

"It's a time turbulence zone! Go around it!" Lin Mo ordered immediately.

The exploration team carefully avoided these dangerous areas and, guided by the key fragments, finally reached the "Ring Heart Control Room" mentioned in the information.

It was a massive, heavy alloy door engraved with complex patterns similar to those on the surface of the key fragments. The door was tightly shut, but in its center, there was a clear indentation that matched the shape of the fragments in the container Lin Mo held.

"It seems a key is needed to open it," Ling Shuang said.

Lin Mo took out the container and exposed the three fragments. As the fragments approached the door, the patterns on the door lit up one by one, emitting a soft light. With a low rumble, like a sleeping behemoth waking up, the heavy door slowly slid open to both sides.

The scene behind the door made everyone gasp.

The interior of the control room was vast, with a giant, non-operational ring-shaped console in the center. The space above the control room was not a ceiling but a slowly rotating sphere composed of countless solidified temporal light streams, like a vortex—the "Core of Time Traces" formed after the local time anchor went out of control!

Floating within the control room were dozens of translucent "creatures" with constantly changing forms, composed of distorted time. They had no fixed features; their bodies were like flowing hourglasses, with fragmented historical snippets flickering inside them. They emitted sadness, confusion, and a stubborn will to protect—the "Time Molts"!

They seemed to be awakened by the opening of the door and the resonance of the key fragments, all "looking" toward the intruding exploration team. There was no attack, but a powerful force field—a mixture of time dilation and mental pressure—instantly enveloped everyone!

The team members felt their movements become sluggish, their thoughts as if mired in mud, and even raising their weapons became extremely difficult.

"Don't attack!" Lin Mo shouted immediately, while simultaneously exerting his "Genesis Blueprint" authority to prop up a small, relatively stable regulatory area around the team, resisting the erosion of the time field. He held high the container with the key fragments, letting the stable and gentle resonance wave spread out.

Ling Shuang also immediately deployed her psionic power, not to fight, but to try to contact and understand the chaotic consciousness of those "Time Molts." What she felt was the loneliness brought by the endless passage of time, the attachment to this out-of-control home, and... the persistent protection of the diamond-shaped fragment embedded in a complex device on the central console, which emitted stable time fluctuations like a heart—the "core of constancy."

"They... are afraid," Ling Shuang conveyed the message with difficulty. "Afraid that if we take the 'core,' the last temporal structure here will completely collapse, causing them to... lose their basis for existence."

Communication became the only option.

Lin Mo focused his mind, using the resonance of the key fragments as an amplifier to transmit his thoughts: "We come for the 'final protocol.' We need the 'core of constancy' to fix a greater crisis and prevent more tragedies like this from happening. We don't intend to destroy this place; perhaps... we can help stabilize the temporal structure here?"

The agitation of the "Time Molts" subsided slightly, but they were still full of distrust. One of the slightly larger "Time Molts" floated closer, a stream of information containing questioning and conditions flooding into Lin Mo and Ling Shuang's consciousness:

"Outsiders... promises... empty. Prove... your... ability. Stabilize... 'Core of Time Traces'... even if... only... temporarily. Then the fragment... can be... taken."

They were demanding the exploration team first demonstrate the ability to stabilize time turbulence!

This was undoubtedly a massive challenge. A runaway time anchor that even the "Weaver" had failed to fix—could they stabilize it temporarily?

Everyone's eyes turned to Lin Mo and Dr. Einstein.

The true test was only just beginning.