The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren was startled for a while when the MDT sounded. “The drone cluster? What have they found?”

“A group of drones in the L-B-35 exploration program found traces of suspected original superluminal engines on the flight path. It was left behind decades ago judging from the degree of dissipation.”

“A few decades ago? You sure?” Hao Ren asked, his face suddenly looked serious.

“All intelligence collected by the drone cluster is a result of meticulous calculation, it is unlikely to go wrong,” the MDT said while projecting the details of the findings. “The drone cluster thinks we may have found the survivors in exiles who could still be highly civilized.”

Hao Ren’s eyes affixed on visual projected by the MDT. It was the scene of space where unfamiliar nebula and the cosmic landscape shone in the distance, and in between these stars, there was a dimly distorted, discontinuous strip of space. The discontinuous strip of areas was colorless, but it changed the surrounding light like a lens and thus was observable. The MDT explained the phenomenon on in the visual, “The original superluminal engine propelled the spacecraft by changing the curvature of the space, but the immature technology was not able to recover the spatial curvature near the start and end of the flight, so after they entered or left the hyperspace, it left behind a twisted lens phenomenon. Usually, these lens effects will dissipate in decades or hundreds of years.”

Hao Ren remembered that he had read in other technical materials the advantages and disadvantages of the original superluminal engine. He not only knew about this kind of “lens trail” phenomenon that the MDT mentioned, but he also knew that at many relatively backward civilization spheres, people tracked the target spacecraft based on this twisted lens phenomenon. Mercenaries and pirates were masters of it. But other people at the scene might not have learned this.

Lily was surprised. “Whoa, if this low-tech spacecraft shuttle around, wouldn’t space be like a sieve?”

“The universe is very a big place. The original engine wouldn’t be able to do any damage to it,” the MDT said, shaking its body a little. “Is there a sea of space junks around the earth? Humans are still launching spacecraft into space. As long as you powerful enough technology to solve the mess left by the predecessors, all long-term problems are not problems. It is short-sighted thinking, but many civilizations are like this. However, the lens tail left behind by the original engine has its bad effects, so the civilizations that have just developed the superluminal technology will usually set some rules. For example, no spacecraft shall enter hyperspace state around the parent star, but fly at sub-light speed until beyond a certain safe distance to accelerate again. Anyway, they always have a way.”

As Hao Ren already this knowledge in his mind, he just focused his attention on the lens phenomenon that remained in space. It was a piece of inspiring evidence. If an artificial engine indeed generated these trails, it meant that at least there still were highly-developed civilizations in this universe!

Unlike the civilizations of Holletta and Zorm, which were in a state of extinction or materially destroyed, the civilization that left behind these lens effects was a race that could sail at superluminal speed and move through the deep universe!

Hao Ren felt a sudden sense of excitement. He could not wait. “Only found the trails? Can you lock them down?”

“At present, only these trails. The LB-35 exploration series is the fleet of a newly completed outpost. It is millions of light years away and not manage to expand in the local area, so there is very little information that has been collected. But more drones have warp-jumped from the nearest support node to the area, and they should be able to find clues after expanding the search area. Now we should hope that these lens trails are the exit point rather than an entry point into hyperspace.”

Nangong Wuyue could not wrap her brain around it, asking, “Why?”

Hao Ren explained, “If it is a trail of an exit point of hyperspace, it means that the spacecraft is currently traveling at sub-light or lower speed, and we would be able to directly and easily observe in the physical universe. But if it is the trail left behind after doing the wrap-jump, the spacecraft might have been flying at superluminal speed for decades, the search range will be an astronomical vast, and the spacecraft would never be found.”

Nangong Wuyue thought for a while, lowered her head and continued her meal. “I was just asking,” she said.

Still not satisfied, Hao Ren turned to the MDT. “Where is the L exploration series? Are there any traces of the First Born or other guardians?” he asked.

The MDT hovered in the air. “In a galaxy newly listed in the exploration plan. The drones were dispatched there to search for the original coordinates of the planet Inferno. These lens trails are an accidental discovery. There are no signs of the First Born nor other destroyed civilizations. It is a safe, deserted region. If the exiles have fled in that direction, they will have a high chance of surviving—provided that the black battleships of the guardian giants haven’t tracked them down. Do you want me to prep the spacecraft and go to check the area out?” it asked.

Hao Ren got to his feet immediately. “Right away. We can’t afford to delay.”

Lily looked up from her bowl of noodle soup, the noddle-chicken drumstick was still in her hand, looking pitiful. “Can you wait for me to finish this?”

“We’re not as hurry as not to let you finish your meal,” Hao Ren said.

The husky’s face immediately turned from cloudy to sunny: it was so easy to read her mind.

The MDT had prepped the spacecraft, without further delay, they set off to the frontier of the drone cluster. It was an unprecedented trip, as everyone in the family was onboard this time. It was a coincidence though; everyone happened to be free at the same time—not just the fish and the cat but also the Nangong couple.

Hao Ren thought of the restaurant of the Nangong couple. He asked, “We will be spending at least three days there regardless of the progress of the drone cluster makes. Will there be a problem with your restaurant?”

Ayesha smiled and shook her head. “Business has been slowing down during the winter. There are mostly the elderly in Southern Suburb, and it has been snowing for the past two days, they’re not eating out, and so we might as close for a few days.”

Hao Ren agreed. The Nangong family restaurant was located in the ghostly town of Southern Suburb where it was more like a retirement place. The old folks would typically order a dish of peanuts and hog the tables in the restaurant for hours. It was not a money-making business anyway, so it was good that the couple was willing to take time off.

Going for a mission trip did not sound like taking a break.

Nangong Wudi smiled. “More importantly, my wife and I have wanted to go back into the field for a long time. We feel sorry to see the kids risking their lives out there while we idled at home,” he said.

Vivian immediately said, “I’m not a kid.”

Lily looked at Vivian with a weird look on her face. “He means you look young, shouldn’t you feel happy?” she said.

Hao Ren was not interested in the chatter. Calling up the database of the drone cluster, he checked out the situation of the drone cluster at the destination.

He still remembered the scene where he released the first group of drones two years ago. At that time, there were only a few prototype drone modules that looked dumb and like a coffin. The early type drones departed from the Petrachelys, flew into the cold universe like a bunch of clueless worker bees, and acted as Hao Ren’s eyes and ears to explore the post-disaster cold world. At that time, the drone cluster was still weak and insignificant. He could hardly imagine how long they had come after these two years. He was even worried that those lonely drones would encounter dangers at the beginning of the mission and were lost due to various reasons. So he had formulated a large number of alternative measures for this purpose.

Like many novice employees, he lacked confidence at that time.

But to this day, those ‘worker bees’ had developed into a mighty force in this universe, and it justified Hao Ren’s decision to send out the drones in the first place.

He called up the star chart, displaying the range of millions of light years, and the many light dots that represented the information nodes. Unlike the randomly distributed, chaotic natural nebulae, these light dots were a neat, dense, and well-organized colossal matrix.

It was an empire: the drone empire.