The Star Knight

Opal began to yearn for the boundless and vast universe and starry sky. He began to ask himself, where can he go after leaving here?At the beginning, his mother came from the universe. Her spaceship was tattered and rusted. She seemed to be the only passenger on the spaceship. I don’t know why she gave birth to herself and never left star B-11.

The next day he left the mine early, brought the star map, and couldn't wait to come to Rector's shelter.

He pulled another cart of ore, but found that there was no one in the cave.

"Recter!" Opal yelled.

In the boundless and overwhelming wind, Rector stood on the endless stone field, his cloth robe fluttering in the wind.

He just stood there, motionless.

Opal watched from a distance for a while, and found that Rector had been standing in this posture for a long time.

A full hour later, Rector Fang opened his eyes and turned around.

Opal asked, "What are you doing?"

Rector said: "Meditate."

Opal: "Meditation?"

Rector: "Spread out your thoughts and spirit and explore unknown areas."

Opal nodded half-understood, and the two worked together to pour the ore into the atomic furnace. Rector said, "Three and a half percent."

Opal said: "I can only find these, the purity of the ore is not high."

Rector said: "The foreman didn't make things difficult for you?"

Opal said: "He doesn't care about it, he just trades it for food anyway. I just told him that I need to purify it myself."

He and Rector sat outside the cave, and Opal took a star map to check the zenith and asked, "Which planet is your home on?"

Rechter said: "The place I came from is a position that is not marked on the star map. It is on the central axis of the expansion point after the universe was formed in the beginning."

Opal said, "I didn't understand."

Rector asked: "Do you know how the stars come from?"

Opal: "I don't know, aren't they always there?"

Rechter: "Of course not. They first existed 200 billion years ago. At that time, the universe was still a point, without time and space. At a certain moment, it exploded, so time was emitted along the point of explosion, and energy Transformed into mass in the first few seconds, many planets were formed. And so stars were born."

Opal said, "What was that before they were born?"

Rector sneered: "There is no time before they are born, and of course it doesn't matter before."

Opal was a little confused, Rector said again: "In a normal state, time is an axis. When you ask about what happened before, you have to search in the direction of the end of the thread and relocate. Once you go back to the end of the thread, You can no longer find a line earlier. So before time was born, there is no time, and there is no before."

"Because the starting point of time is defined by human beings, you can regard time and space as a planet like B11. If you go all the way south, what will happen? Try to think about it."

Opal looked dazed, and Rector said: "You will walk to the South Pole, and the concept of 'South' is like 'before', you keep walking forward until you reach the starting point. There is no further south. Asking where is south of the South Pole is like asking what was before the beginning of time. It doesn't make any sense."

Opal seemed to understand something, but he was even more confused. Rector said again: "The place I came from is called the Temple of the Stars, and it is on the axis of the primordial burst point. The primordial burst point is a constant point. I gave it to you yesterday. star map, the coordinates of the central point it uses are different from the current general star map of the universe.”

Opal's mind was in a mess, and he asked subconsciously, "What's different?"

Rector said: "The reference point of your star map is the location of the Temple of the Stars. The first Star Knight believed that this was the center of the universe. All other civilizations are based on another place called 'Earth'." The point serves as a relative frame of reference, which is used to define coordinates on the star map."

Opal asked: "Can the earth move?"

Rector said: "Its movement is almost negligible compared to the movement between nebulae. But occasionally you use the star map of the Empire and the Republic to find a star, and you may find that it is not there because the earth revolution, the motion of the solar system, and the rotation of the Milky Way."

Opal was completely confused. He tried to start another topic and asked, "What do you usually do?"

Rector replied: "Learn, fight, and clear all the unstable existences in the interstellar space."

Opal said, "Like cleaning up your enemy? Will you kill him?"

Rector hummed, and fell into a long thought. Opal asked, "How did you fight?"

Rector frowned slightly, as if he was thinking about the method of explanation, and said after a long time: "Killing and destroying are two concepts, he is a star knight corroded by dark energy, his life is very long, and he has mastered some Unknown power. I set off from the sanctuary, looking for him for a long time, and finally he set a trap, we fought near a nebula, and finally I failed, that's it. These days, I am reflecting on how to deal with him Method."

Opal began to imagine the appearance of Rector fighting. He had never seen the universe, and he did not know how powerful Rector and his opponents were. Te's duel gets a little bigger.

Rector smiled, but he didn't say anything, Opal asked again: "How old are you?"

Rector said: "Thousands of years old."

Opal: "Impossible! Are you this old?"

Rector stared at the star dome, his pupils reflected the stars in the sky. Opal put down the star map and asked, "How long can I live? I heard them say that human beings will die at the age of one hundred."

Rechter said: "Everyone has their own lifespan. The length is not the most important thing. The key lies in what you have done and what you have experienced with your limited life. On the mayfly star of the Andromeda β galaxy, there is a kind of intelligent life body, their life span is only [-] seconds."

Opal: "!!!"

Rector smiled, his smile was handsome and gentle.

Opal: "Isn't that born and died?"

Rechter said: "The mayfly star is a neutron star, and their volume is as large as a microorganism. The speed of action is close to the speed of light, and the speed of thinking is also very fast. One second of ours is equivalent to 200 years of theirs. The ivory deep in the universe Scholars in the Tower tried to communicate with them using a particle wave transducer, but failed."

Opal asked, "Why?"

Rechter said: "Some people think that they know some ultimate laws of existence and death, but mayfly aliens refuse to communicate with alien intelligent life. Moreover, their speed of life and death is too fast, and their existence is too short, which is very difficult. Because you were still talking to one of the mayfly stars in the last second, and it has reproduced for dozens of generations with just a blink of an eye in the next second. Every second of the mayfly star has experienced [-] generations."

Opal laughed, and suddenly thought of something, and said: "Then don't they have a longer history?"

Rector said: "Yes, so some people speculate that the civilization of the mayfly star is the most advanced in this universe, and it even far exceeds the civilization level of the entire universe. Let's talk about it here, and in their history , has been developed for tens of thousands of years.”

Opal said, "It's amazing."

Rector said: "Go back and rest, your workload is too great, you need to rest early, and come to me tomorrow."

Opal nodded and waved goodbye to him.

Opal still went to work the next day, his mind was full of whimsical thoughts deep in the stars, perhaps for Recter, his life was also very short - just like a mayfly star.

What can I do to live longer like him?He couldn't help thinking about this question over and over again, but it touched a new question: What can one live for thousands of years?Do you repeat the work of mining, selling mines, and exchanging food every day?It is better to mine for thousands of years than to mine for only 100 years, no...he doesn't want to do it for even a minute.

He is right, the key lies in what you have done with your limited life, how many things you have experienced in this short 100 years.

"Hey, do you know." Opal said to his partner Locke: "Some people can live for thousands of years, do you believe it?"

Locke said: "Believe it, what can't you do if you have money? Last time the foreman said when he was drinking, as long as you save enough money, go to the Chiyan galaxy, find a life medical company, re-inject your genes, and modify your physical condition. As long as If you have money, you can live forever!"

Opal frowned and said, "How long can you live?"

Locke shrugged and said, "How do I know? It is possible to keep the cell division at the level of youth, 200 years, 300 years, 1000 years."

Opal asked, "How much does it cost?"

Locke said: "It is said that every genetic operation requires millions of energy units. You may die before you save that amount. Save enough money first, and buy a boat ticket."

Opal's thoughts flew back to the short life of the mayfly people, only [-] seconds, until the magnetic drilling machine stopped.

There were no more crystals to be mined in this mine, and the miners were very annoyed, and they took off their gloves one after another.

"I also want some bread and water." Opal Chaolock said, "Can you get me some?"

Locke looked at the foreman in the distance and said, "Why have you eaten so much recently? I heard you picked up a man in the desert? Where did he come from?"

Miners passed them, talking to each other.

"Another round of mine star bidding is about to begin."

"It all depends on the above. I think this year is a bit overhanging. There are not many mines in B11. You see, they have almost been dug. If they change hands, no one will want them."

"The entire outer planetary system was contracted out during the bidding last year, and the competition here is relatively less intense."

Opal motioned Locke to keep his voice down, and said, "He came from the universe, I don't know anything else, he was injured."

Locke said: "You let him come over to mine."

Opal said, "No, he wouldn't do such a thing."

"What else? Food and water are expensive," Locke said.

Opal said, "I'll trade today's mine, and you can change it for me. I don't want Hicks to know."

Locke glanced at the foreman in the distance again. Foreman Hicks' face was gloomy, and he was obviously in a bad mood because the mining was exhausted.

"He will find out sooner or later, and your energy points will be deducted then." Locke said.

Opal said, "I'm not afraid of him."

Locke trembled, and Opal said: "Listen, Locke, do me this favor, and I will repay you."

Locke said helplessly: "No, you wait here."

Locke went to get a list, and the foreman counted the ore impatiently. It was an extra exchange for Opal. He exchanged a lot of bread with two large carts. I don't know how long it will take to find a new source of minerals next time.

And the long winter is coming, the merchant ships of the Red Flame Galaxy will land on B11 once, and sell them cold supplies at high prices.In the rest of the time, Opal will follow the miners who stay here to find new mines, and the foreman will go back to another planet for the winter.

"There is no ore today." Opal explained to Rector on the rock slope: "I changed something to eat, winter is coming soon."

Rector nodded and said, "Well, thank you for your hard work."

The rotation axis of the B11 star is tilted at 23 degrees to the revolution angle, which results in short days and long nights in winter.The temperature dropped slowly, and Opal and Rector sat on the cliff to have dinner. These days, he could only eat one meal a day, and the rest of the rations were given to Rector.

Opal glanced at him from time to time, and always felt that it would be impolite to call him by his first name. Rector must be a person of status. On B11, the foreman is called "Master Hicks", while businessmen from other galaxies, To be called "Sir", even so, they are not necessarily willing to trade with the miners.

Rector said: "If you want, you can call me teacher. But I believe that we are equal and there is no distinction of status."

Opal was taken aback, and asked, "How can you know what I'm thinking?"

Rector smiled slightly and said, "Are you thinking about this? I'm just talking casually. A teacher means someone who teaches you knowledge."

Opal said: "I understand, my mother told me."

Rector nodded, and Opal asked, "What do you want to teach me today?"

Rector asked, "What do you want to know?"

Opal said: "Let's talk about those empires, republics, etc., how they live and what they usually do..."

"You will know those things one day. The future is not far away." Rector said slowly, and lay down on the open ground on the cliff.

Opal lay down with him, and said sideways: "Teacher, how did you get to those planets? Do you know many people? Do they respect you?"

Rector didn't answer, just pointed to the brightest star on the zenith and said, "Opal, do you know that the stars you see are not what they are now."

Opal followed what he expected, and hummed blankly.

Rechter said: "The fastest speed in the universe is light, and nothing can exceed the speed of light."

Opal said: "I know this, and my mother also said that the best spaceship can't fly faster than light."

Rector nodded and said: "According to the ancient mass-energy theorem, all objects with mass cannot move faster than light. Our location is very, very far away from the Andromeda star you see, even if it is in the universe. It will take 300 million years for the fastest light to come here from α star."

Opal: "..."

Rechter said: "Suppose that a long time ago, a beam of light was emitted from the alpha star, and after 300 million years, it finally reached our planet and entered your eyes, then what you see is that it was 300 million years ago. look, can you understand?"

Opal nodded slowly, Rector said: "Even if you drive the fastest spaceship 'Sol' in the universe, traveling at sub-light speed, it will take millions or even tens of millions of years to travel between galaxies. years."

Opal asked blankly, "Then how did you travel?"

Rector said: "Use the star gate."

"Our world is called a four-dimensional space. The three coordinate axes establish a three-dimensional space, plus the fourth-dimensional time axis, which is the universe we live in now."

Opal understood a little bit, and asked: "Is the space gate a gate... Uh, I mean, you can go in from this side and come out from that side, and you can cross a long, long distance."

Rechter said: "It can be understood that 2 years ago, the ancestors of human beings found the fifth dimension connected with our space. This is a piece of history. You don't need to be too clear, just remember it."

Opal listened quietly, and Reckert explained: "The cause of the incident was that a group of scientists discovered a particle faster than the speed of light during the particle collision experiment. After hundreds of years of repeated investigations, they found that it satisfied Under a certain condition, it enters the fifth-dimensional space in an instant on the way, and the fifth-dimensional space shows very strange properties in terms of time and space."

"If you enter successfully, you only need to advance a short distance in the fifth dimension, and then return to our four-dimensional world, you will find that you have traveled a considerable distance...See clearly, I will give Make an analogy."

Rector pressed his wrist, and a beam of light shot out from his bracelet, projecting it towards the opposite cliff. He casually explained: "The opposite stone wall is a two-dimensional plane, and the light spot is on the left, while we are in a three-dimensional world. Two-dimensional space is higher."

"Yeah." Opal nodded.

Rector slightly turned his wrist at an angle, and the light spot moved hundreds of meters in an instant, and the landing point changed to the end of the cliff on the right.

Rector said: "The light spot is the projection of the three-dimensional world on the two-dimensional plane. I only need to make a small movement in the higher-dimensional space, and within half a second, the angular velocity can make it translate hundreds of meters. As long as Successfully establishing a projection relationship can make two centimeters in three dimensions directly equal to 200 meters in a two-dimensional plane."

"And in the same way, after forming a projection connection with the four-dimensional space in the five-dimensional space, you travel a kilometer in the five-dimensional space, which is equivalent to traveling several light-years in the four-dimensional space. This is the membrane principle of the multi-dimensional projected angular velocity."

Opal immediately said: "I understand!"

Rector smiled and said: "To explore in our universe, you must use a higher dimensional space. The principle of the Starfield Gate is to allow you to enter the fifth dimension for a short time and open a tunnel in this dimension. After a very short distance, you will come out from another corresponding starfield gate, so you and your spaceship can cross the distance of millions, or even tens of millions of light years."

"This theory was put into practice in the civilization of ancient humans. The day when the first pair of star-space gates successfully navigated was the beginning of the Era of Light. The ancestors of mankind developed the spaceship, began to explore the entire universe, established the original star-space gate, and more Humans left the earth, colonized the interstellar space, spread their branches and leaves, and now it is 20103 in the Era of Light, after 2 years of evolution of human technology, it became what we see today."

Opal's eyes were filled with amazement.

Neither of them spoke. After a long time, Opal asked again: "If I want to travel in space, do I have to go through the Star Gate? Where is it?"

"There are tens of thousands of them in the Chiyan galaxy." Rector said: "The spaceships are equipped with locators, which form a criss-cross network among all the galaxies. As long as you enter space, you can find them anytime, anywhere." It. In fact, there is one seven and a half light minutes from here, but very few people use it, and most people don't even know that this passage exists."

"No specific procedures are required to enter and exit the Stargate, but if you land on a civilized planet, you need a specific pass to pass through the outer atmosphere space station. Without a pass, it will be difficult to move a single step in the universe."

Opal sighed softly, closed his eyes, the night wind was getting cooler, and after a while, he fell asleep unknowingly.

Today Rector did not let him go back, but picked him up and carried him into the cave where he lived. The atomic furnace emitted a warm orange light.