Chapter 947: Chapter 947: Contact
To be honest, before today, I’ve never seen what a casually dressed Taville looks like. This research maniac’s classic image is deeply ingrained in my heart: a pristine researcher’s white lab coat, dainty lady’s glasses, and a scrupulous, swift military style of action. These three things together form the explosive spectacle of a shady city’s bright-eyed spectacle… Um, I better keep that thought to myself, the Empire’s scientists are generally no less dangerous than Hitler…
Giving Taville a vacation was something I hadn’t expected would result in seeing her in casual wear. To be honest, once she put on regular clothes and took off her glasses, it was like she became a different person. She had that same sharp military aura that felt familiar, but it clashed terribly with her soft, girly outfit. Frankly, she looked alright standing still, almost like a refined lady from behind…
This led to the situation where, without her glasses, I completely failed to recognize her. If she hadn’t spoken, I might have invented a half-sibling for Taville in my mind within ten minutes.
“Subordinate requests early return to the research institute,” Taville seriously repeated to me, “Regarding the ghost ship, I think I could find out more by conducting the analysis myself.”
“I won’t say no, the institute is indeed a bit chaotic without you,” I nodded slightly. She immediately showed a happy expression, but I added, “Speaking of which, complaining about the long break—honestly, if Ling Meng and Purple were half as dedicated as you, I’d be satisfied.”
Saying this reminded me of the unfortunate fox constantly sent over by Purple to cover for her. Lan had just gotten out of the medical center yesterday. Her tail fur seems to have fully grown back, yet she seems to have been left with severe psychological shadows. Now, anyone who stares at her tail for more than a minute will find her baring her teeth and charging at them on all fours, fluffing up defensively. Even I nearly got bitten. Currently, seventy percent of the stray dogs and cats in Shadow City have succumbed to Lan’s nine tails, with her becoming the undisputed queen of canines in Shadow City. I’m worried that if it goes on like this, she’ll revert to gnawing on raw meat strips one day. And Ling Meng recently has been skipping work too, leaving everything to Ibuki Suika and slightly goofy Moriya whom she tricked into joining the City Management Team, while she herself naps all day in the dormitory. Poor Suika, with her one lame leg, has been patrolling while leaning on some staff she found somewhere, with the City Management armband loosely tied on her horn, looking from afar like just a tattered cloth strip. She always stumbles around with a gourd of alcohol, causing many to worry that the City Management department is in financial distress. Every time Suika goes patrolling, she ends up collecting a handful of loose change…
Meanwhile, the silly girl actually thinks she’s making a profit.
As I’ve said before, Suika seems to have about eighty to ninety percent of her intelligence condensed into those big horns of hers.
Thinking about the two haughty part-timer girls, who always boggle one’s mind, made me quite glum. I’m worried what else they might pull after turning Lan into a fox-dog and Suika into the Beggar Gang elder, it seems about time for them to draft a thirty-thousand-word self-critique.
Of course, I hadn’t forgotten Taville awaiting my response. She requested an early return to work, and honestly speaking, this surprises no one. This research maniac, forcing her out of her lab was indeed as life-threatening as forcing Lilina to Zimbabwe to rescue the oppressed—it’s not exactly a vacation for her—didn’t you hear? She bought that pretty dress only because she had orders, she personally showed no interest whatsoever, whereas, you know, if the same were to happen to Qianqian, I’d bet she’d even shovel up the Tangbai Building with its foundation.
“Seems like even on vacation, you’re not really idle,”
I glanced at Taville. “You’re researching the ghost ship issue as well?”
“I just downloaded some information from the shared link,” Taville instantly stood to attention, entering reporting status, “I’ve always strictly complied with your order to take a break, but downloading data for scientific analysis from the shared link is one of my personal hobbies!”
“Alright, alright,” I waved to Taville. “Don’t always be so rigid; you should know I don’t like these formalities in informal settings. As for the ghost ship issue, any insights?”
“I suspect that the ghost ship fleet might be decelerating.”
Taville’s words startled me; I originally thought she had idly gathered some intelligence on the ghost ships, but she already conducted such comprehensive solo research!
“They’re decelerating? What do you mean?” I rubbed my chin and asked.
“Based on data collected from the Void Probes scattered throughout the Macro World Network, I conducted comparisons and predicted the ghost ships’ trajectory, leading to this conclusion. Although the fleet’s core Information Disturbance Source is indeed approaching the Macro World, its ‘velocity’ within the void is indeed decelerating. Currently, I can’t confirm whether the fleet intends to dock or turn around to escape, but it’s apparent they have no desire to engage with the Empire—this is merely a conjecture, with insufficient concrete evidence, theoretically speaking.”
“The ghost fleet still has operators, which we speculated,” I pondered, “But considering the entire fleet is braking… well, no one thought of that. How reliable do you find this conclusion?”
“Over ninety percent,” Taville nodded with confidence, “I’m adept at analyzing vague data and have developed complex void data models. According to these models, the ghost fleet is indeed decelerating.”
“Decelerating, avoiding contact with the Empire… By the way, when Lan engaged with the ghost ship, it retaliated, but when those Imperial patrol ships Lan had with her showed up, those three clearly manned ghost ships vanished like they were fleeing! They indeed…”
I felt some assumptions clear up suddenly. Taville’s analysis stands a good chance of being correct, but just then, Sandora’s urgent call buzzed into my spiritual connection: “Ah Jun! Important intel, the first probe might have made contact with the ghost fleet entity!”
I was slightly surprised but quickly steadied myself, smiling gently at Taville: “Your conjecture might just be spot-on, but now we probably don’t have to guess. We should be able to confirm the ghost ships’ origin directly: The probe has found their base.”
“Because the Empire will always harvest success,” Taville’s lips curved slightly upward, and then she didn’t forget her request, “Your Majesty, may I return to the research institute?”
“Provided you verify there’s nothing wrong physically…” I glanced at Taville, yet didn’t voice the rest: Taville seemed in fine spirits, as an Angel Envoy, she isn’t worried about her health. In her words, a comprehensive ten-hour adjustment suffices for a full vacation. I don’t doubt Taville can take down a Terminator under ten seconds in her current form. If she still insists on returning to the research institute, I’ve no objections. “Alright, seems continued work is more fulfilling for you—Imperial Chief Researcher Taville, your holiday ends prematurely; return to your post—but mind your health, muck up any more projects, and Sandora might really penalize you.”
This workaholic immediately beamed and saluted: “Yes! Taville redeploys!”
I’ve never seen anyone so thrilled being called back to overtime, if someone like her existed in any private company, they’d be hated for sure… normal folk around her would just chew her out.
I had just wandered outside for a short while before urgently returning to the Command Center. Sandora, along with a bunch of Commanders and most of the family, were already waiting here. Even Qianqian and Lilina were present. In the largest command hall, there was a massive holographic projection device, where a group of people gathered around pointing and discussing matters, resembling young ladies and brides picking cabbages at the market. Several Commanders were retrieving data or assigning tasks at information terminals around, creating a lively scene.
Upon inquiry, I found out that when Sandora contacted me, only one probe had seemingly come into contact with the main body of the Ghost Fleet. But within the few minutes it took me to arrive at the Command Center, numerous probes started transmitting a large amount of information. It seemed as though the previously dispatched batch of probes had agreed to discover a multitude of Ghost Ships simultaneously—perhaps indicating that the Ghost Fleet was structured in a dispersed cluster manner. It consisted not of a single “cluster” but many fleet clusters forming a unified core.
The data sent back by the probes included not only rough information such as the Ghost Fleet’s quantity and coordinates but also very clear video footage. Sandora and the others were now studying and discussing the clearest and largest cluster image.
“Wow, Ah Jun, you’re here!” Qianqian was the first to notice me, joyfully bounding over and giving me a peck on the neck. I reckoned she could often spot others first because she rarely focused on anything in particular—see, Little Baobao was still bending over, meticulously counting how many tiny bright dots were on the screen.
…Speaking of which, Little Baobao successfully sneaked into the military zone again.
“Are these the Ghost Fleet’s lairs?”
I glanced up and almost fainted at the second half of my sentence, “Holy crap! How many ships are there?”
Sandora zoomed in on the image, adjusting the Ghost Fleet’s projection to the maximum and changing the entire fleet’s background to transparent, making all the Ghost Ships astonishingly clear in front of us, and the scale was astonishing.
“This is just a part of it; the entire Ghost Fleet is at least ten times this size.”
Sandora said solemnly, and on the holographic display was a massive cluster of millions of starships, along with an extraordinarily large and peculiar fortress at the center.
“Billions of starships… and they’re all this massive…” I felt sweat breaking out on my forehead, “Is there a scale, can anyone tell me how big that black lump is?”
I was referring to the black fortress in the center of the image. From the depiction, the main part of the Ghost Fleet was arranged in a spinning top-like formation with countless starships forming an upside-down, flat disc like a swarm of bees. The most peripheral ships were large in number and small in size, while the inner ships grew increasingly enormous. It’s hard to explain how a drifting Ghost Fleet maintained such a stable formation, unless they still possessed some level of autonomous control. Amidst the central cluster was an enormous, misformed black “thing,” resembling a swollen lump of flesh with irregular surfaces. Layer upon layer of black streamlined structures piled into a roughly spherical shape, shimmering with lights and massive red fissures.
“Looks like a rotten potato,” Qianqian muttered dispassionately about the ugly gigantic lump, “Really hideous.”
“Anyone with trypophobia couldn’t bear this sight,” Miss pointed at the innumerable starships.
In the background, probes cautiously measuring all the warship sizes and energy reactions deduced a conclusion: that giant, black rotten potato-like fortress was at least three times the size of Earth, and the largest among the countless starships around it was nearly as gigantic as an Eternal-class Mother Ship!
Of course, such enormous Mother Ships were also quite scarce in this fleet, potentially only serving as strategic weapons, while the majority of the Ghost Ships were roughly similar in size to the Empire’s small to medium-sized warships. Simultaneously, the probes began analyzing these warships’ theoretical combat strengths, primarily through measuring their energy intensities, forms, and hull structures to initiate preliminary calculations of the target ships’ combat capabilities.
“Sixty percent are unarmed or have only a few anti-aircraft guns,” Sivis responsible for analyzing the Ghost Ships’ combat ability had already drawn conclusions. She magnified certain Ghost Ships’ images in front of us, and I noticed they were predominantly comprised of thick, round hulls. These hulls were rarely used as main battlecruisers; usually only Frontier-class fortress ships had such sturdy designs, and the Ghost Fleet’s short and bulky ships were clearly civilian transport or colonization vessels. “The primary energy reactions from all Ghost Ships are of impure Ghost Energy. Compared with the Void decay Ghost Energy used by the Empire, this energy has too many impurities and lower efficiency. This suggests that their creators haven’t fully mastered the technology for establishing super space-time reactors and directly turning Ghost Energy from the Void environment but have to simulate early world conditions using reactors placed on the Main Material Plane to refine a small amount of Ghost Energy.”
“This indicates that the technological level of the Ghost Ships differs from the Empire by about two tiers,” Sandora explained to me, “One often categorizes technology into levels based on the method of energy mastery. Taking Ghost Energy as an example, recognizing and trying to utilize Ghost Energy is considered Junior. Unlocking and exploiting ready energy from some rare ‘Energy Fields’ in the Universe is another step forward. Another level higher is establishing reactors on the Main Material Plane to master the Ghost Energy refinement process independently. Rising further is the preliminary understanding of super space-time reactor technology, enabling Ghost Energy extraction from the World Border. Then there’s the pinnacle level of the Empire, easily generating energy within the Void itself. The Xyrin Apostle basically achieves the highest tier, and the next would be directly controlling the Void. These Ghost Ships, despite being far from the Empire, are still products of an Advanced Civilization. Yet, how they compare in prowess to the Empire remains unknown, as no one knows how vast these Ghost Ships were initially.”
“This fleet is already very close to the nearest Imperial Outpost,” Sandora added. “But strangely, they seem to be slowing down. Oh, here’s a simpler explanation: in the Void, there are essentially no concepts of speed and distance, only that this fleet is slowly deviating from the Imperial Dominions’ ‘information characteristics.’ This is a tendency requiring advanced statistics to discover, as the Ghost Fleet attempts to bypass the Macro World. Unfortunately, this is almost impossible… The Macro World Network is too vast. The Ghost Fleet is in an unsolvable collision zone and would surely collide unless they precisely know the Macro World Network’s map.”
I thought this was exactly as Taville predicted. Just that Sandora, with a group of Commanders handling first-hand intelligence, detected this tendency, while Taville only downloaded some materials from the broadcast network and analyzed such complex statistics alone before bedtime… Comparing made me miserable; some things indeed should only be handled by professionals.
“In any case, we should personally check the situation,” Big Sister proposed after seeing no one speaking. “I find these ships too peculiar, worthy of a personal investigation.”
Everyone agreed, and Sandora immediately ordered preparations for the Royal Fleet’s departure. The First Family would personally explore the Ghost Fleet’s status while Pandora began mobilizing her Guard Corps. I quickly patted this little girl’s head, saying it wasn’t a fight, and asked whom she’d be fighting with her army.
Pandora’s explanation was straightforward: if those things crash into us, surely they’ll cause trouble, so if there’s no other way, it’s better to blow them up first…
You see, how relaxing it is to have Pandora’s logic—no matter the problem, just blow it up first. If I had that mindset during my high school exams where I had to retake five courses…I might be negotiating a reduced sentence by now…
The Royal Fleet and Pandora’s Guard Heavy Equipment Corps were always in a state of battle readiness, with the spaceship energy and control systems constantly prepared, completing preparations within ten minutes after the order was given. The only thing that took a bit more time was me spending five minutes catching Little Baobao: that girl insisted on coming along to play no matter what.
The fleet entered the Void State and found the Ghost Fleet in less than seven to eight minutes, just as the intelligence suggested; these Void drifters had strayed perilously close… (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re invited to Qidian () to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)