Super Battleship Reborn

Before mastering the technology of element decay, whether it was the nuclear fusion that Xiao Yu mainly uses now, or the nuclear fission that was eliminated by Xiao Yu, there were quite strict requirements on the fuel. For example, nuclear fusion requires that the fuel must be hydrogen, while nuclear fission The fuel must be heavy elements such as uranium and plutonium.

But elemental decay does not require this. Any element can be used as fuel, that is to say, even the lightest element, hydrogen, can be used as fuel for elemental decay, but its efficiency is lower.

This means that during the long space voyage, when Xiao Yu lacks fuel, Xiao Yu can even directly dismantle the spacecraft and use its materials as fuel. Best of all, because of this property of elemental decay, its fuel can be recycled. For example, one kilogram of iron is decayed into 500 grams of hydrogen, and these 500 grams of hydrogen can still be used as fuel. In this way, Xiao Yu can even convert all the mass of the substance into energy for his own use .

In this way, the total efficiency of element decay is not much different from the efficiency of annihilation of matter and antimatter. It's just that the energy release process of the annihilation of positive and negative matter is relatively violent, and the decay of elements is relatively gentle. In Xiao Yu's plan, the anti-matter annihilation technology developed in the future will coexist with the element decay technology. The anti-matter annihilation technology will be mainly used in the manufacture of weapons and some instruments that require more energy per unit time. The element decay technology , it is mainly used for conventional power.

These two different energy acquisition methods will coexist on Xiao Yu's spaceship, each serving a different task.

At the current stage, Xiao Yu is developing elemental decay technology. Still in the laboratory stage, but it's a bit lower tech than antimatter manufacturing. It is expected to achieve large-scale application within hundreds of years.

At that time, the problem of insufficient power for faster-than-light navigation will be resolved. On the basis of elemental decay technology, Xiao Yu is expected to realize the long-awaited faster-than-light navigation technology.

In the silent universe, Xiao Yu's fleet sailed rapidly towards the aging star in the distance.

This star has fallen into an aging stage, and its mass is about 1.9 times that of the sun, which is not enough to support its supernova explosion. It will end its own life in a relatively gentle way.

It has become a red giant star. Because of the diffusion of the outer layer of material, its surface temperature began to decrease, so it appeared red. Its volume is very large, and its radius even reaches 60 million kilometers, dozens of times that of the sun. If it were placed in the position of the sun, it would directly swallow Mercury. Approaching Venus, turning the Earth's surface into a purgatory.

Xiao Yu knew that after billions of years, the sun would also have this frightening end.

In the early observations, Xiao Yu did not find traces of planets around this star, but Xiao Yu was not too worried. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it exists. If the planets cannot be seen, there is a high possibility that the luminosity of the star is too strong, covering the traces of the existence of the planets. Besides, it doesn't matter if there are no planets, as long as there is an asteroid belt. Or a slightly decent asteroid is enough for Xiao Yu to use.

Any asteroid with a diameter of more than ten kilometers. All have a mass of hundreds of billions of tons.

During the long journey, while Xiao Yu was doing intense research, he was also closely observing the surrounding stars. Xiao Yu believes that the war between Taihao and the Sweeper civilization will at least be a stellar-level catastrophe, which will affect all existences around the battlefield. At that time, there will inevitably be some unusual signs, such as the sudden explosion of stars, the sudden increase in brightness, X-rays from unknown sources, gamma-ray bursts, etc. That is to say, above Xiao Yu's current position, Xiao Yu Yu can also detect a little clue of this war.

This bit of information has no effect on Xiao Yu now, but after Xiao Yu's technology has developed to a certain level, Xiao Yu will be able to use this information to analyze the real combat power of the sweeper civilization.

Time, in the boundless silence, slowly slipped away.

After sailing for 150 years and more than 300 years in real time, Xiao Yu arrived next to the red giant star.

The current distance is nearly 30 billion kilometers.

Because the star enters old age, its volume expands, and its stellar activity begins to be intense, its stellar circle is much larger than that of the sun. Above this distance, it has entered its heliopause.

Here is the world of this aging star.

What caught Xiao Yu's eyes was a star as bright as the full moon above the earth. If you look at the sun at this distance, the brightness of the sun will be thousands of times dimmer than it, and it is only about the level of a bright star.

Xiao Yu has already launched thousands of satellites, intending to investigate the sphere of influence of this star. But the result of the investigation disappointed Xiao Yu.

It...it doesn't have any planets, not even the asteroid belt? How many asteroids are there? Faced with this result, Xiao Yu felt a little inconceivable.

Under the detection of thousands of satellites, the sphere of influence of this star is clearly visible in front of Xiao Yu. After some searching, Xiao Yu not only failed to find any big planets, but also few asteroids. Not to mention comets and the like, the shadows can't be seen.

Only a few asteroids with a diameter of no more than ten meters were found, and they were slowly orbiting this star.

This is really unbelievable. Such a scenario is basically impossible to happen on the stars inside the river system. Perhaps... it is because the matter around the river system is inherently thin?

Xiao Yu pondered slowly, and slowly narrowed the distance to the star.

If possible, Xiao Yu really didn't want to get too close to this aging and crazy star. But there is no way, other than this star, the nearest star is more than 200 light-years away. At this moment, Xiao Yu's fuel is really not enough to support him to start such a long-distance voyage.

Then, entrenched around this star became the only choice. After all, around stars, there will always be more or less residual matter, and at worst, there is still solar energy that can be used. Without this star, there really is nothing.

Under such consideration, Xiao Yu made up his mind to stay around this star for a while. It's not too late to leave after I have mastered the technology of elemental decay and faster-than-light navigation.

At that time, Xiao Yu will be able to obtain sufficient fuel by dismantling the spacecraft, and the voyage of several hundred light years is no longer an insurmountable long distance for Xiao Yu.

The matter is really too thin. However, since stars can be formed, it proves that there used to be enough matter here. There is no big planet, which can be explained. There are not even asteroids, which is really unreasonable. .” Xiao Yu thought slowly.

It should have formed inside the river system, and then was thrown to its current position during the long gravitational battle. It may be that during the long journey, its planets, or interstellar matter, were captured by other stars . But this is still not enough to explain why its interstellar space matter is so thin.

While thinking, Xiao Yu was approaching the star at a speed of about one hundred kilometers per second.

At this speed, invisible interstellar dust kept hitting Xiao Yu's spacecraft, and a small amount of X-rays were emitted. At the same time, Xiao Yu detected that his fleet was being slowly decelerated.

After seeing this phenomenon, Xiao Yu suddenly realized.

It turned out to be like this... The stellar matter of this star was thrown out, causing the entire star system to be filled with dense interstellar matter. Under the constant impact, the orbital speed of the planets or asteroids orbiting it will increase. It is gradually slowed down, loses momentum, and then slowly approaches this star, and is finally swallowed by it...

It turned out that the stars orbiting it were not captured by other stars, but were eaten by himself...

It's such a pity that you have eaten up all the material, leaving nothing for me. Xiao Yu lamented in his heart.

In this star system, the concentration of interstellar dust is very high, but this is only compared with the interstellar space. In fact, the space here is not an exaggeration to say that it is a vacuum. It is basically impossible to obtain enough matter by collecting interstellar dust.

That is to say, in the next period of time, except for the stellar energy, Xiao Yu will basically not be supplemented by other substances.

Something is better than nothing, let's count a little bit. Thinking about it, Xiao Yu slowly slowed down his speed until it reached about ten kilometers per second, and adjusted his orbit to revolve around this star.

It is about two billion kilometers away from it. Here, its brightness far exceeds that of the sun. It is like a huge fireball hanging in the dark space.

After entering a stable orbit, Xiao Yu started his own work.

Xiao Yu first manufactured a batch of stellar energy collection instruments, and tried his best to save his own fuel. Then he took out the various parts of the large particle collider and rearranged them around the star for his own research. for.

This time, we must research the elemental decay technology and the faster-than-light navigation technology. Xiao Yu secretly made up his mind.

At this moment, Xiao Yu suddenly received a message.

This information is still sent through space broadcasting. After it entered Xiao Yu's mind, it was automatically translated into a language that Xiao Yu could understand.

From this message, Xiao Yu noticed something familiar.

Guardian civilization! I am a Taihao civilization from the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy. I am fighting your old enemy. Come to the tail of the Orion cantilever in the Milky Way to help me!