96: All-Seeing Eye

When that jet-black, sharp-lined shuttle belonging to the Interstellar Affairs General Bureau pierced through the clouds and leveled off in the stratosphere ten thousand meters above, Lei Wen finally withdrew his gaze from the magnificent sea of clouds outside the porthole.

His fingers tapped lightly on the armrest of his seat, his mind still echoing with the shock brought by that deep blue sphere of antimatter two thousand meters underground.

That was not just light; it was imprisoned destruction, and also a tamed future.

""white flower"," Lei Wen whispered from his seat, "you saw the results Dr. Li displayed just now."

"Yes, Father. Data synchronization is complete, and a new physical model is being established." "white flower"'s voice was as indifferent as always.

"This thing cannot remain on Earth." Lei Wen said with a grave tone, "0.1 micrograms might still be within a controllable range, but once it enters the mass production stage, any minor failure in magnetic confinement could be catastrophic for the surface ecosystem. Even the granite strata of the Wuyi Mountains might not be able to fully absorb such an energy impact, not to mention the risk of human sabotage."

"Your concerns are very reasonable."

"Develop a top-level physical isolation plan." Lei Wen issued the instruction, "Outside of Earth's geostationary orbit, or directly at the Lagrange L2 point on the far side of the Moon, select a site to build a completely independent space station dedicated to antimatter research and production. Set the security level to top secret, taken over by fully automated security robots. Strictly forbid any biological entities from approaching, except for core research personnel."

"In addition," Lei Wen added, "the research and development of the antimatter engine must be physically isolated at the information level. All relevant data must not be transmitted via the public network and can only be transmitted point-to-point through dedicated quantum encrypted channels. I want to ensure that even if someone wants to steal this technology, they won't even be able to find the door."

"Instruction received, the relevant plan will be generated within three hours."

Having dealt with this major matter concerning the safety of humanity, Lei Wen slowly closed his eyes, enjoying this brief travel time.

Today's Earth is no longer the old world of twenty years ago that was divided into countless fragments by national borders and distances.

With the widespread adoption of supersonic silent engine technology and anti-gravity assisted takeoff and landing technology provided by Paradox Technology, the aviation industry has ushered in a complete revolution. Those old, noisy jet airliners that required long runways and were time-consuming have gradually exited the historical stage.

Replacing them are supersonic business shuttles capable of sub-orbital cruising at five times the speed of sound.

From Beijing to New York, from London to Sydney, the long flights that once easily took over a dozen hours are now compressed to within a short two hours.

Earth seems to have shrunk overnight.

High-level professionals and researchers have long been accustomed to this "global commuting" lifestyle. Having coffee in Paris in the morning, attending meetings in Shanghai at noon, and returning to sleep at home in New York at night has become the norm.

Corresponding to this is the dissolution of political barriers. Under the powerful promotion of the Earth Council and the Interstellar Affairs General Bureau, the vast majority of countries—especially those that have joined the Human Federation integration process—have long since abolished cumbersome border restrictions and visa systems.

Humanity can finally migrate and move freely on its own home planet.

One hour later, the shuttle landed smoothly on the internal landing pad of Leidian Industrial Park in Tianqiong City.

Lei Wen did not go home, but instead went straight to the core area of the underground factory by taking the deep-level elevator that only he had the authority to activate—that underground command room that belonged only to him.

He straightened his attire; although there was no one else here, he was about to face the highest authority of an interstellar civilization.

He walked to the center of the command room and stood still at a specific position.

""white flower", activate the high-dimensional quantum entanglement communication device."

"Connecting to Falem Homeworld... signal stable... synchronization rate 100%."

As a soft blue light flashed, the scene around Lei Wen changed instantly.

The cold underground metal walls disappeared, replaced by that spacious, bright Faleim Central Council conference hall, filled with future geometric aesthetics and a solemn atmosphere.

Outside the window was no longer the rock layers underground, but the bustling capital skyline of the Falem Homeworld and the stream of ships busy shuttling through the sky.

Beside that huge oval conference table in the center of the conference hall, which symbolized the highest power of the entire civilization, twelve council members were already sitting upright.

And at the very top of the conference table, that is, the "first seat" in the traditional sense, was currently waiting empty.

That position once belonged to Consul Price, but ever since Lei Wen's identity was revealed twenty years ago, that position has forever belonged to "the guide".

When Lei Wen's holographic image appeared in that seat, all the Faleim People, including Price, stood up in unison and performed a solemn chest-touching salute toward Lei Wen.

"Salute to you, Great Guide."

Their voices were uniform and loud, filled with heartfelt reverence.

Lei Wen nodded slightly, signaling everyone to sit down.

Price was now sitting at Lei Wen's right hand; in Faleim political etiquette, this is the position of the Chief Executive, second only to the spiritual leader.

Twenty years of time is but a fleeting moment for the Faleim People, who have lifespans of thousands or even ten thousand years; time has left almost no traces on their faces. Price was still that handsome, dignified figure with golden hair and long ears, only his eyes held a bit more composure and confidence.

"Let's begin." Lei Wen said gently.

Price nodded, tapped his finger lightly on the tabletop, and a grand holographic Star Map unfolded above the conference table.

That was the Star Map of the Faleimland System and its surrounding star regions.

Unlike the solitary point of light from twenty years ago, on today's Star Map, with Faleimland as the center, more than thirty star systems were densely lit up around it.

"In the past twenty standard years, the recovery speed of our civilization has exceeded expectations." Price reported, with a hint of pride in his tone.

"Our engineering fleets and scientific research fleets have completed comprehensive exploration and preliminary development of the thirty-four surrounding star systems. In the stellar gravity well of each star system, we have established standard stellar bases as outpost nodes."

As he explained, the light points on the Star Map magnified one by one, showing the busy scenes inside those star systems.

"We have established automated mining stations on hundreds of mineral-rich planets and moons. The output of strategic resources such as special alloys, rare crystals, explosive particles, and alien natural gas has recovered to about 5% of the empire's peak period. Although this number sounds small, for us who only possess one home star system, it is already enough to support the maintenance of a huge fleet and a new round of construction."

"In addition, we have established research stations in the orbits of several gas giants, utilizing their unique extreme environments to conduct high-energy physics experiments."

Speaking of this, Price's eyes revealed a trace of regret.

"However, it is regrettable that among these thirty-four star systems, we have not discovered a single habitable planet, not even those quasi-habitable planets that require mild modification."

"We have also not discovered any traces of intelligent civilization, not even primitive civilizations of the Stone Age."

"This universe seems to be much more desolate and lonely than we imagined."

Lei Wen listened quietly, feeling some sighs in his heart.

The universe is so vast; life is indeed an extremely rare miracle. Cradles like Earth and the Falem Homeworld might not be found in many of the hundreds of millions of star systems.

"Resources are the blood of civilization. Since the blood is already sufficient, we have the capital to go further." Lei Wen consoled, "As for life, loneliness is the norm. It is precisely because it is rare that it is precious."

Price nodded, then his expression became serious, and he brought up another design drawing.

That was a giant space structure with an extremely complex structure, breathtakingly grand.

It looked like a polyhedron composed of countless huge metal rings and precision antennas, with a miniature artificial singularity wrapped in the center, and countless streams of data light shuttling through it.

"the guide, given that the current resource reserves have reached above the safety warning line, and our fleet is temporarily unable to conduct long-distance faster-than-light expeditions, the Central Council, after careful discussion, proposes to launch the first step of the mega-structure construction plan."

"We plan to build a sentry surveillance array in the resource-less star system named Kaifulan."

sentry surveillance array.

Hearing this name, Lei Wen's eyelids twitched slightly.

In the game "stellar universe", this is one of the ultimate intelligence buildings in the late game.

"Explain its functions and principles in detail, Price." Lei Wen said, "Although I know its purpose, I need to know how you achieved it under the physical laws of this universe."

Price signaled the Chief Scientist Zeral beside him to explain.

Zeral stood up, saluted Lei Wen, and then brought up a set of formulas and models so complex that they would cause brain overload for Earth's top physicists at a single glance.

"Great Guide, this is the improvement we have made to the original sentry surveillance array technology over the past twenty years, combining the physical characteristics of this universe."

"We know that in this universe, the speed of light is the upper limit of information transmission. If we only rely on optical telescopes or conventional radar, the scene we see one hundred light-years away is actually history from one hundred years ago, which has no strategic value for the rapidly changing interstellar situation. While tachyon detection can shorten detection time, the distance limit of tachyon sensors is an insurmountable hurdle; the detection range of all our tachyon sensors cannot exceed 10 light-years."

"However," Zeral's finger traced a graceful arc, "we have discovered that although the spatial structure of this universe is smooth, at a higher dimensional level, the propagation of gravitational waves has a special echo effect."

"We have named this effect omnidirectional high-dimensional neutrino resonance."

Zeral pointed to the miniature artificial singularity in the center of the design drawing.

"The core of the sentry surveillance array is to use this miniature singularity bound by a force field to artificially create a high-frequency gravitational wave oscillation capable of penetrating the three-dimensional space barrier."

"This oscillation will not spread at the speed of light like ordinary gravitational waves, but will instantly produce a quantum-level resonance with all matter in the surrounding space through the shortcut of high-dimensional space."

"Simply put, it is like a super sonar that fires countless invisible tentacles in all directions."

"Whether it is a warship cruising at sub-light speed, a change in a planet's orbit, or even a solar flare on the surface of a star, as long as it is matter, as long as it has mass, it will disturb space, thereby interfering with the high-dimensional resonance waves we emit."

"By capturing and analyzing these extremely faint echoes, we can build a holographic dynamic view of the surrounding space in real-time while ignoring the delay of the speed of light."

Zeral paused and gave a specific indicator.

"According to our design, after the first stage of the sentry surveillance array is built, the effective detection radius will reach one hundred light-years."

"Within this range, any movement cannot escape our eyes."

"We can monitor in real-time the fleet movements, planet development progress, and even capture residual signals of faster-than-light objects in all surrounding star systems."

Lei Wen took a deep breath after listening.

Real-time monitoring radius of one hundred light-years.

What does this mean?

This means that if Earth were within the monitoring range of the Faleim People, if Earthlings launched a warship this morning, the Faleim People could see it on the screen almost simultaneously, without having to wait for light to travel for years.

Within a certain range, this is an absolute intelligence hegemony.

In interstellar warfare, having such a field of vision is equivalent to having a God's-eye view.

You can clearly see every move of the enemy, predict their strategic intentions, and even launch a preemptive strike while the other side is still gathering forces.

"I remember the probe that intruded into our home star system twenty years ago." Price added, "That was our shame, and also our wake-up call. We still don't know where it came from, and we don't know any information about that unknown civilization."

"The establishment of the sentry surveillance array is to prevent such things from happening again."

"As long as it is built, no matter which direction that unknown civilization comes from, even if they are still gathering dozens of light-years away, we can discover it at the first moment."

Lei Wen nodded, expressing approval.

"This is a very strategically far-sighted decision. I approve this plan."

"Are there any problems with resources?"

"No problem, the guide." Council Member Cridel, who is in charge of industry, replied, "Our current resource output is already enough to support the first stage of construction, and the engineering fleets are ready and can set sail at any time."

"Very good." Lei Wen felt a sense of relief as he looked at these motivated Faleim People.

They did not degenerate because of comfort; instead, they always maintained a sense of crisis and enterprising spirit.

"However," Lei Wen suddenly thought of something, and a smile curled at the corner of his mouth, "since you are building such a big guy, perhaps... you can leave an interface for Earth as well?"

Price was stunned for a moment, then reacted.

"Do you mean to share a portion of non-sensitive Star Map data with Human Civilization?"

"Correct." Lei Wen said, "Humanity's telescopes are still at a relatively primitive stage. If they could occasionally take a look at the current universe, even if it is only a small part, it would be a huge shock and inspiration to their worldview."

"Since it is your request, we should naturally comply." Price replied respectfully.

"We will reserve a dedicated data port for Human Civilization, allowing them to also share in part of the sentry surveillance array's vision through that communication device at the embassy."

After the meeting ended, Lei Wen disconnected.

Looking at the familiar metal ceiling of the underground command room, he let out a long sigh of relief.

The Faleim People are building their galactic miracle.

And humanity cannot stand still.

Antimatter technology, interstellar navigation, and even future faster-than-light engines...