61: Quality Zero

On Earth.

Mars exploration is in full swing.

The blood orchid industry is booming.

On the other side, the Faleim Far Star Fleet had already crossed the vast sea of stars and arrived at the penultimate stop of their journey.

Proxima Centauri system.

It was only 4.2 light-years away from their final destination.

On the vast scale of the universe, where distances often span tens of thousands or even hundreds of millions of light-years, this distance was as close as neighbors living across the hall in the same building.

When the graceful hull of the flagship rathia rippled through space like water and smoothly exited the Warp Drive state, a scene completely different from the Laika System appeared before all the Faleim People.

There was no young, vibrant blue-white F-type star like in the Laika System.

The center of the system was a small red dwarf emitting a dim red light—Proxima Centauri.

Its mass was only one-eighth that of the Faleimland star's holy fire, and its brightness was less than one-two-thousandth of the holy fire.

It was like a candle in the wind, about to burn out in the long night of the universe, barely maintaining the existence of this small star system with its faint light and heat.

"Truly a lackluster place."

On the bridge of the rathia, Chief Scientist Zeral's holographic projection looked at the somewhat shabby and deserted Star Map on the main screen and couldn't help but comment.

As an astrophysicist, he certainly knew that red dwarfs were the most common type of star in the universe, accounting for more than 75% of all stars in a galaxy.

Although their light was dim, their lifespans were astonishingly long, capable of burning stably for hundreds of billions or even trillions of years, far exceeding the ten-billion-year lifespan of medium-mass stars like the holy fire.

In a sense, they were the true elders of the universe.

However, longevity did not mean richness.

Only three known planets orbited this dim star, and their conditions were hard to describe as habitable.

"According to the fleet sensors, Proxima Centauri-4 is a planet similar to the Falem Homeworld, with only one-quarter the mass of the homeworld, and its orbit is too far, beyond the star's snow line; the surface is completely covered by a thick ice shell."

"Proxima Centauri-3 has seven times the mass of the Falem Homeworld; it is a small gas giant and has no exploration value."

"The most interesting one is Proxima Centauri-2," Zeral zoomed the image in on the planet closest to the star, "It is a rocky planet with a mass similar to our home planet, and it is perfectly located within Proxima Centauri's pitifully narrow habitable zone; theoretically, liquid water could exist on its surface."

"But the problem is," he shook his head, a trace of regret appearing on his face, "It is tidally locked."

Just as the moon always has only one side facing the Earth, Proxima Centauri-2 always has only one side facing its star.

This means one side is in eternal daylight, with the surface continuously scorched by the star's light—which, although weak, is full of deadly ultraviolet radiation—at temperatures high enough to melt lead.

The other side is in eternal night, with temperatures as low as minus one hundred degrees, where even the atmosphere would freeze into frost.

Only in the narrow ring-shaped zone between day and night, known as the "terminator line," could there potentially be temperatures and environments theoretically suitable for life.

"And," Zeral added the most fatal point.

"Red dwarfs like Proxima Centauri, although they look gentle, are often intermittently irritable, erupting with extremely intense superflares; the high-energy particle streams they release are enough to instantly destroy the atmosphere of a close-orbit planet and eliminate all life on its surface."

"So even if life had once been born on the terminator line of Proxima Centauri-2, it was very likely wiped out long ago in a sudden burst of stellar fury."

In summary, this is a barren star system full of uncertainties.

For any civilization trying to find a new home, this is definitely not an ideal choice.

"Talon," Zeral's projection turned to Talon, "I suggest we only conduct a short rest and data collection here; there is no need for deeper exploration of this system, as our goal is 4.2 light-years away."

Talon nodded, agreeing.

He also didn't think much of this lifeless-looking place.

"Order all ships in the fleet to exit Warp Drive state, engage conventional engines, and rest on the outskirts of the Proxima Centauri system for one standard week." He issued the command.

"During this period, all systems will undergo self-checks, and engines will receive comprehensive maintenance and calibration to prepare for the final leg of the journey."

The ten graceful falam warships began to decelerate, and the space-time bubbles enveloping them disappeared in an instant.

Their conventional thrusters, emitting a faint blue light, lit up in the pitch-black universe.

However, just as the crew of the Far Star Fleet prepared to begin their rare rest on this long journey.

A communication request from the Faleimland Homeworld Science Center, light-years away, suddenly interrupted this tranquility.

...

Falem Homeworld, the Highest Scientific Research Institute under the Central Council.

This place gathered the top and wisest brains of the entire Faleim Civilization.

Since the departure of the Far Star Fleet and the launch of the "Cornerstone" project in the Laika System, this place had entered a period of scientific explosion.

Data continuously transmitted back from the Laika System regarding morse crystal, anomalous matter, and the ruins of that extinct civilization provided unprecedentedly valuable material for their various studies.

And today, a technological revolution that would allow the Faleim Civilization to enter the next stage in this universe was born here.

"Your Excellency Archon!"

At the highest scientific meeting, an old scientist with a status like a towering figure in the Faleim scientific community—Icarus—was excitedly reporting to Consul Price's holographic projection.

Icarus was the most senior scientist currently existing in the entire civilization; he was once Zeral's mentor and was already 8248 years old this year.

His face was flushed with an abnormal redness due to extreme excitement.

"We succeeded! We finally succeeded!"

"What succeeded, Icarus?" Price maintained his calm, as still as an ancient well, "Was the technical verification of the large stargate applied in this universe passed? Or was there a new discovery in the application of sub-recursive mesons?"

"Uh... it's not quite that big of a breakthrough."

"Our experiment on Higgs field interference succeeded!"

Once this conclusion came out, even for Price, a flash of undisguised surprise appeared in his blue eyes.

"Are you talking about... the experiment that can clear matter's mass?" He confirmed, "Does this mean that now that hyperspace theory is invalid, our fleet has a new means of faster-than-light travel?"

"Yes! Archon! It is not the pseudo-faster-than-light of Warp Drive, but a true faster-than-light travel with higher energy efficiency and theoretically no upper limit!" Icarus replied affirmatively.

He brought up a holographic report filled with complex formulas and four-dimensional models.

"Since we arrived in this strange universe, we have been trying to understand the most fundamental differences between this universe and our old one. We found that the quantum field structure of this universe is much simpler and smoother than our old universe, without so many complex dimensional folds, which is why we cannot use hyperspace engines."

"But this simplicity also provides us with an unprecedented opportunity."

"After years of high-precision observation and data analysis on all known quantum fields in this universe—from electromagnetic fields to gravitational fields, and then to the Higgs field that gives everything mass—we discovered a startling rule."

"The Higgs field of this universe, which is the energy field full of higgs boson that allows all elementary particles to gain mass after interacting with it, has fluctuations that are extremely regular and predictable!"

He zoomed the report in on a key formula.

"Based on this discovery, we designed a brand-new engine; its principle is not to distort space like a Warp Drive."

"But instead..." He took a deep breath and said the conclusion that would make any Earth physicist go crazy.

"To 'iron out' the fluctuations of the Higgs field!"

"This engine, which we named the Mass Eliminator, can temporarily cancel out the fluctuations of the Higgs field within a limited range around the engine by emitting a specially modulated inverse-phase resonance wave, thereby eliminating the higgs boson of all matter in this range!"

"Your Excellency Archon, do you know what this means?" Icarus looked at Price, his eyes shining with excitement.

Price said slowly: "According to the Standard Model, without the higgs boson, matter will lose mass."

"Exactly!" Icarus clapped his hands excitedly, "When the rest mass of a warship is theoretically cleared to zero, it will no longer be restricted by the speed of light barrier!"

"With just an extremely tiny thrust, it can instantly accelerate to the speed of light, or even exceed the speed of light!"

"It will become a pure energy body, moving on a higher dimension of this universe!"

"This is not sailing in space," Icarus summarized in a tone that was almost like a chant, "Ordinary navigation in higher dimensions manifests in our four-dimensional space as teleportation! In other words, our warships are in a state of intermittent instantaneous teleportation in cosmic space."

This subversive theory made the eyes of all the council members present shine.

Once this technology matures and is applied.

The Faleim Civilization's concept of interstellar travel will be completely rewritten.

Whether it is the hyperspace of the old universe or the Warp Drive currently in use, essentially it is space pushing the warship; the warship itself has no speed, so the crew in faster-than-light travel has little difference in their perception of time compared to people on the homeworld.

But this kind of true faster-than-light travel might cause a phenomenon.

That is, people on the ship will feel that the warship has arrived at its destination just after departing, while people on the homeworld have already spent many years.

"What is the maturity of this technology?" Price asked immediately after digesting this shocking news.

"We have successfully cleared the mass of an atomic nucleus for a trillionth of a second in the laboratory." Icarus replied, "There are still huge engineering challenges to scale it up to the size of a starship, but we already have complete theoretical and engineering blueprints."

"Very good." Price nodded, "The scale of this universe is much larger than we imagined, far exceeding our old universe; this faster-than-light engine is exactly what we need."

"Turn the laboratory product into a practical technology as soon as possible."

"Of course." Icarus nodded and said.

"Once we apply this technology, we can go to the neutron stars and black holes of this universe sooner to establish research stations and study the extreme physical laws of this universe."