163: F-81 Galaxy

Inside the bridge of the Wanderer, the background noise that had been filled with various waveform simulations suddenly vanished. On the holographic screen, the brilliant and blurry "star rainbow," like a kaleidoscope, was rapidly receding, as the stretched and compressed light returned to its original wavelength and position.

"warp bubble dissociation countdown... 3, 2, 1."

"Return to conventional space confirmed."

The Navigator's soft, neutral electronic voice sounded.

Outside the porthole, the bizarre tunnel collapsed instantly, and the deep, cold, and eternal black starry sky reclaimed the field of vision.

And at the end of that darkness, a dim F-type star was emitting a slightly pale yellow-white light, welcoming this visitor from 81 light-years away.

"Finally, we're here."

Ilya von Klein poked her head out from a pile of messy data pads and snack bags.

The ten-month journey wasn't long for her; it could even be described as somewhat short. After all, during the Warp Drive, she had too many physical models to verify and too many new ideas to solve.

But at this moment, her attention was completely captured by the brand-new star system before her.

F-81 Star System.

This was a corner with almost no presence in old human Star Maps, but in the Faleim Civilization's shared database, it was marked as a "noteworthy" low-priority observation point.

"Begin system self-check, correct navigation errors." Ilya jumped off her chair and gave a big stretch, her long silver hair fluttering slightly in the simulated gravity. "Navigator, pull up the data for that big guy."

"As you command, Captain."

A 3D model of a gas giant quickly appeared on the screen.

This was the core reason Ilya had chosen this place as her first destination—F-81-03.

"What a freak..." Ilya looked at the parameters listed beside it, a light of inquiry flashing in her crimson eyes.

According to remote spectral analysis and gravitational perturbation calculations, the planet's mass was staggering, reaching 1.2 times that of Jupiter.

In conventional astrophysical models, a gas giant of such mass would usually maintain a massive volume due to its own strong gravity, or begin to ignite a faint fusion reaction to become a brown dwarf in its early formation.

But this planet did the opposite.

Its volume was very small, even smaller than Saturn.

"High mass, low volume, which means extremely high density." Ilya bit her fingernail, her brain working rapidly. "This doesn't fit the equation of state for gas, unless its core isn't ordinary rock or metallic hydrogen, but some kind of higher-density material? Or perhaps there's an anomaly in its core gravitational field, forcibly compressing the atmosphere?"

Either possibility was a fatal temptation for a physicist.

"And," Ilya's gaze shifted to the moon orbiting this strange giant planet, "there is life there."

F-81-03A.

This was a moon tidally locked by its primary planet's gravity, almost exactly the same size as Earth.

It sat on the outer edge of the F-type star's habitable zone, but thanks to the light and heat reflected by the giant planet and its own thick atmosphere, it maintained a liquid water environment suitable for carbon-based life.

"A Cradle guarded by a 'Monster Mother'," Ilya commented.

"Switching propulsion systems."

"Dark Matter Thrusters activated, target: F-81-03 outer orbit."

"Set cruise speed: 90% the speed of light."

A dark, deep black ring lit up around the engine nozzles at the rear of the Wanderer; it was the gravitational lensing effect produced by the Dark Matter Engine when interfering with real space.

The ship instantly gained a terrifying acceleration. If not for the Inertial Dampeners on board, Dr. Ilya would have turned into "Ilya-jam" in an instant.

The surrounding starlight underwent Doppler shifting again, but this time within conventional space.

From a perspective near the speed of light, the F-81 Star System ahead rapidly enlarged.

Along the way, Ilya glanced at the other members in the star system model.

A lava planet extremely close to the star, its surface temperature hot enough to melt lead, worthless; an ice giant wandering in the cold fringes, its atmosphere filled with ammonia and methane, unremarkable.

Ilya withdrew her gaze and focused all her attention on the increasingly large gas giant.

As the distance closed, the true face of F-81-03 gradually became clear.

It appeared as a faint grayish-blue; its atmosphere lacked the brilliant stripes of Jupiter, showing only lifeless cloud belts.

But through sensor analysis, Ilya could clearly observe that beneath this calm exterior lay hidden terrifying gravitational turbulence.

"Entering the gravity well range," the Navigator reported. "Strong tidal forces detected; shields have automatically balanced."

"Decelerate." Ilya ordered. "Cut into the orbit of moon F-81-03A."

The Wanderer began to slow down. The massive inertia was nullified by the Inertial Dampeners as the ship slid past the edge of the giant planet, and the vibrant blue-green moon appeared outside the porthole.

It was a beautiful planet.

Vast oceans covered the surface, and several continental plates were covered in green vegetation. Even from space, one could see the pure white clouds rolling in the atmosphere.

According to Faleim data, a civilization in its medieval era lived here.

Ilya had originally expected to see primitive city-states, grand stone buildings, or farmlands spread across the land.

However, just as the Wanderer was about to enter the moon's synchronous orbit.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

A sudden, sharp alarm sounded within the bridge without warning. A red warning light screen instantly popped up, obscuring Ilya's vision.

"Warning! Abnormal signal detected!"

"A large number of cloaked units exist in low-Earth orbit!"

"What?" Ilya was stunned for a moment, then reacted. "Cloaked units? Where would a medieval civilization get cloaking technology? Is it a Faleim observation station?"

"Negative." The Navigator's voice remained calm. "The signal characteristics do not match Faleim technology, nor human technology. This cloaking technology belongs to a dual physical shielding of optical and radar bands, but it is unable to hide under Level 5 detection scans."

"Marked on radar, processing heavy filtering and colorization for visualization."

Following the Navigator's operation, the image on the holographic screen changed.

The lunar orbit space, which had appeared empty, suddenly gained a dense mass of red outlines.

When the image processing was complete and the true image was presented to Ilya, even this well-traveled genius scientist couldn't help but gasp.

"This... is this really a medieval civilization?"

Those weren't ships; they were wreckage.

Over a dozen massive space station wrecks floated silently in F-81-03A's synchronous orbit.

The scale of each one was staggering; the smallest was over three kilometers in diameter, while the largest even reached the ten-kilometer class.

The design of these space stations was filled with a certain strange Gothic style.

They had sharp towers, complex flying buttress structures, and numerous dome-like compartments. The black metal skeletons reflected a desolate light under the starlight. The skins that should have wrapped around them had long since been destroyed, revealing tangled lines and corridors like internal organs.

"Enlarge the image!" Ilya shouted, lunging toward the console.

The image zoomed in rapidly.

She saw a shocking sight; these space stations hadn't been naturally abandoned but had suffered devastating blows.

Massive gashes tore through the core modules, the metal edges twisted and molten—clearly the result of being hit by high-energy weapons.

Some space stations had even snapped into several sections, barely maintaining their overall shape through weak gravitational pulls.

And floating around these massive wrecks were countless tiny fragments; those were the remains of warships.

Thousands of warship fragments formed a belt of death encircling these space stations.

Judging by the shape of the wreckage, these warships once possessed quite an impressive level of industrial design.

"A war happened here..." Ilya's voice lowered. "A grand-scale space war."

"Navigator, scan the age of these wrecks."

"Performing radioactive isotope decay measurement... scanning surface micrometeorite impact crater density..."

A few seconds later, the results came in.

"According to the measurements, these wrecks were formed approximately one million years ago."

One million years ago?

Ilya's brows knitted tightly together.

"This isn't right. This isn't right at all."

She pulled up the data provided by the Faleim Civilization regarding this star system.

[Civilization Level: Pre-FTL Civilization (Medieval Era). Remarks: This civilization seems to have mastered some inefficient way of using psionic energy; it currently lacks spaceflight capabilities.]

"Are the Faleim probes blind?" Ilya pointed at the wreckage on the screen. "No spaceflight capabilities? Then what are these multi-million-ton iron lumps floating in the sky? Building blocks stacked by God?"

A civilization with a space station cluster of this scale would be at least a mature space-age civilization, perhaps even on the threshold of the interstellar era.

How could they regress into that medieval civilization on the ground, riding wyverns and swinging longswords?

"Navigator, open a full-spectrum scan. I want to know exactly what's going on with those 'medieval people' on the ground."

"Scanning surface... data synchronizing."

High-definition images of the ground appeared on the screen.

Just as the data said, this indeed appeared to be a civilization in its medieval era.

There were many different humanoid races, some looking no different from humans.

Massive stone castles still stood on steep cliffs, with flags embroidered with complex heraldry hanging from the walls. Knights in plate armor rode creatures resembling wyverns on patrol in the sky, while the markets on the ground were bustling, with people dressed in coarse linen using primitive animal-drawn carts.

In the oceans, large wooden sailing ships were setting sail, with rows of dark cannons protruding from both sides of the hulls—products of the black powder era.

It looked like a typical medieval civilization.

But when Ilya turned her gaze toward those so-called "castles" and "temples," she found an anomaly.

Although those grand buildings appeared to be constructed of rock on the surface, under the deep scan of the ship's sensors, the interiors of the rocks actually encased high-strength alloy skeletons!

Furthermore, the layout and structure of those buildings, and even the temple atop the highest Holy Mountain in the center of the continent... were strikingly consistent with the style of those space station wrecks in orbit!

Then Ilya noticed a massive lighthouse on a seaside cliff.

What burned at the top of that lighthouse wasn't fire, but a crystal ball emitting a faint blue light.

After analysis, the Navigator said, "That is some kind of high-density energy battery, or a decaying micro-reactor core!"

A sense of absurdity welled up.

"It seems we've found a very interesting sample." The doubt in Ilya's eyes gradually turned into excitement.

"It should be a once-glorious space civilization that, for some reason, suffered a brutal civil war or an external invasion, resulting in the destruction of its orbital facilities. The survivors retreated to the ground and, over the long ages, lost their technology and regressed into their current state."

"They're like primitives living in the ruins of skyscrapers, using the laser guns left by their ancestors as fire pokers."

"But..."

Ilya turned her head and looked out the window at that gas giant, F-81-03, which was still emitting an eerie gravity.

"What does this have to do with that strange primary planet?"

"And why would a cloaking field be operating in an orbital graveyard that should be dead?"

The alarm just now clearly indicated "cloaked units detected."

Although these space stations are wreckage, some kind of interference wave still lingers around them. It is this interference wave that keeps them cloaked under ordinary optical and radar scans.

A million years have passed; what kind of cloaking system can operate for a million years without losing power?

"Unless... something here is still alive."

Ilya felt a chill, but also an uncontrollable excitement.

"Navigator, adjust course. We're going to get closer to those wrecks."

"Raise shields, charge the main cannon for standby."

"I'm going to see what kind of secrets are buried in this space graveyard."

The Wanderer moved slowly, like a silver fish swimming into the ruins of a shipwreck, cautiously approaching the steel waste floating above the blue-green planet.