Chapter 241 Irem
For a moment a brilliant star appeared in the corner of the view, and the sunlight was weakened and filtered to prevent it from hurting the eyes of everyone on the bridge. Hao Ren let the data terminal adjust the lens of the external monitor and saw the situation around the star.
The so-called "Irem Planet" has long since disappeared. That planet was gradually dismantled into pieces thousands of years ago. Now it is a continuous floating island in space orbiting the original planet. It seemed like a series of fragmented cone-shaped stones of similar sizes floating in formation in space. In order to mine the last bit of resources from the planet's underground, and to replenish the planet's increasingly depleted energy cycle as much as possible, those elves resolutely decomposed their entire planet and turned it into a system that could receive the maximum amount of solar energy. A shattered state that can accommodate more people. After the rock formations deep in the mantle were dismantled and reshaped into this kind of floating island, they gained precious living space, and even more valuable - a testing ground.
Those space floating islands have obvious traces of artificial shaping. Their main bodies are rocks from the planet itself, but huge artificial "hoops" can be seen around the floating islands. Those are already somewhat dim and made of materials between rocks and metals. The artificial structure not only maintains the stability of the floating island, but also creates an energy shield to protect the land below, and the energy shield itself can be used to filter sunlight. One side of the floating island is flat, and the other side is a huge ugly rock foundation. Between the uneven and overhanging mountains, you can see ancient and huge mechanical structures. They are the floating island's power device, gravity generator, and energy station. and material recycling plants. Those mechanical structures are probably thousands of years old, and there are countless damaged parts, but it is obvious that their manufacturers no longer have the energy and resources to repair them.
"Those are our homes." Hilda calmed down at this moment. She stood up and pointed at the picture on the holographic projection. "Some floating islands far away from the main living area are testing grounds. We used to test the space-time core and The ultra-powerful magic accelerator, if we don't dismantle the planet like this, we won't even be able to find such a test site. The magic accelerator needs to be built on a solid and huge foundation, and conventional space stations cannot carry it, and it Once an explosion occurs, it may even tear apart half of the planet, so it cannot be placed on the parent star. In history, a generation of scholars tried their best to build a huge space platform to barely conduct such dangerous experiments, but a fusion furnace exploded As a result, the platform crashed and almost destroyed the entire northern hemisphere's ecology. These experimental projects were suspended and were not restarted until the planet was reshaped - but that was also in the past. Now that the experiments on the space-time core and the magic accelerator have been stopped, we really There are no resources left.”
"Those floating islands with bright energy shields are ecological islands, and there are ecological domes under the shields. We have preserved the ecosystems of the planetary age as much as possible and transplanted them into the huge artificial circulation system. These ecological domes provide us with Precious complex organic matter, and... also the only remaining luxury for my people. Each Erim elf can rest in a dome for fifteen days a year, but no more. There is a limit to the carrying capacity of those domes, and As some key systems age, they are actually about to shut down. If they shut down, I'm afraid we will have to rely entirely on factory-synthesized substances to survive, and this will kill a lot of people: the Erim elves are a slow-evolving race. Healthy individuals have a lifespan of thousands of years, and the environment is deteriorating far faster than we can adapt. Whenever an ancient facility shuts down, a large number of old elves... and even prime-age elves will die."
"Those floating islands connected by bright beams of light are residential areas, and most elves live on those islands. They are specially designed with the lowest energy consumption, the most stable circulation system, and more reasonable building planning. In other words, ...It can be delayed even longer. Most of the synthesis factories are on those floating islands. Even if other floating islands - such as the test site - are accidentally damaged, these residential areas can survive as much as possible."
The spacecraft gradually approached the space islands in low-speed cruising mode. Hao Ren discovered that there was a group of special individuals among the floating islands: they were wandering on the edge of the island chain, and the whole was dim. The "hoops" on the borders of some islands had even been damaged and fallen off. After disappearing, the remains of man-made buildings can still be vaguely seen on the floating island, but the energy shield over the land has obviously been extinguished, and the land without a trace of light appears lifeless, like exhausted space rocks.
"what is that?"
"Death Land," Hilda sighed, "We have shaped these seemingly magnificent space entities, but that does not mean how skilled we are - these floating islands were built almost desperately under forced circumstances. The technology is not mature enough, and even the theory is not perfect enough. The structures of many islands are different, because the original designers themselves did not know which kind of islands can last longer. Moreover, many floating islands were not built at the beginning of their construction. There are defects, and if they break down later, they cannot be repaired, so floating islands continue to be damaged and burned out, and then it becomes like that.”
Even Lily was quiet now. She was even a little afraid of the strange sight in front of her. She put her tail between her legs but her ears stood straight up: "What about the people above?"
"Most of the time, they can be rescued and transferred to other islands," Hilda nodded. "This will increase the ecological pressure on other islands, so every time such a rescue and transfer is carried out, resource restrictions will be implemented for a period of time. The bill mainly restricts newborns and reduces per capita supplies. Some elderly people will take the initiative to enter the "Prayer World" and let their bodies undergo euthanasia to make room for other young adults. There is no way, we must make the entire race as much as possible stay alive."
"This place..." Hao Ren opened his mouth, and it took him a long time to figure out what to say, "It's more serious than I thought."
As an earthling, a rookie prosecutor who has not had time to experience too many events, Hao Ren cannot imagine how many unbelievable things are happening in the vast void. The disasters and doomsdays he sees from various stories are all... It can't be compared with the chain of space islands in front of you. Before coming here, he had thought about how to help Hilda and her people - such as borrowing the empire's World Gate system and his connections at Kuiper Station to see if he could deliver some supplies here, or from Those merchants of the Fiari Void Consortium purchased some technologies or spaceships that did not exceed the provisions of the Civilized Non-Interference Act and gave them to these Irem elves. As a censor, he had a certain amount of "Empire Ration Points" every month. But he hasn't used these things yet. He just heard that these ration points can be exchanged for extremely abundant supplies from major civilizations in the macro world, so he came up with the above idea.
But now it seems that all his plans have to be modified.
These Irem elves can't be helped by more than a little material or a little bit of belated technology.
"Your creativity and resilience are indeed commendable," the data terminal couldn't help but want to say something, "It's just that you failed to discover the secret of the hyperdrive - sometimes a fork in the technology tree can destroy a civilization, especially For a race like yours whose congenital conditions are not well-off, as long as a technology is not developed in time, there is often no chance to make a comeback. It can be seen that you have worked hard, but... you still failed in the end."
Hilda sighed: "Yes, the last space teleportation test also failed."
When the Giant Turtle Rock Platform approached those island chains, it obviously attracted the attention of the Erim elves. Hao Ren noticed that the communicator suddenly reported a large number of unknown contact signals, and some bright light spots quickly emanated from several residential floating ships. The back side of the island circled around and quickly approached the spacecraft. After the camera pulled over, Hao Ren saw clearly that those were triangular aircraft with rough edges and shining gray-white metallic luster. Bright runes were flashing on the outer shell of each aircraft. Obviously it is different from the spaceship in the general impression. Those should be the spaceships made by the Erim elves, but it's a pity that they can't span the long distance of tens of millions of light years.
These gray-white triangular aircraft quickly arrived around the Giant Turtle Yantai. Hao Ren slowed down the spacecraft to almost a standstill, so the "small spacecraft" dozens of meters long stopped and did not make any rash moves such as rapid detours. . The pilots inside them must be in a state of great shock and tension. Everyone on the bridge can even feel this emotion permeating through the cold space and several layers of starship armor.