Chapter 345: Unseen Movements in the Void

Professor Weitman projected photos taken by the astronomical telescope via holographic display in the hall of the Mars Base Command Center.

“Boss, this image is from before. The bright spot here is the White Spot we’ve been monitoring. The next photo is the latest—take a look at the same area.”

Du Qiu listened to Weitman’s explanation while comparing the two photos, his heart gradually sinking.

In the latest photo, the original White Spot now shows an even larger bright area—over three times larger than before.

“Professor, does this mean that part of the enemy fleet might have kept their engines off earlier?”

Weitman replied, “It’s possible.”

“Can’t you be sure?” Du Qiu countered.

“Mainly because the White Spot hasn’t shown any signs of moving. I can’t confirm it as the exhaust plume of a space fleet.”

Du Qiu frowned, “But in the dark void between two major star systems, there’s no reflective material that could create such a bright spot.”

“Unless it’s the Meteor Warship at play, I just can’t accept this unmoving White Spot as the exhaust of a space fleet,” Professor Weitman admitted, voicing his doubts.

After a pause, Du Qiu said, “Have you monitored the surroundings of the White Spot? Is it possible they have stealth warships nearby?”

Weitman answered, “It’s conceivable that they light up their engine trails at the White Spot to finish accelerating, then switch to inertial cruising while engaging cloaking systems. That would leave us with no trace.”

“But as I mentioned, the White Spot has hardly shifted…”

Du Qiu interrupted, “No, listen—Professor, the White Spot is now more than three times larger. Our calculations show that such a vast bright area must cover at least tens of millions of kilometers. Doesn’t this imply that the enemy ships accelerated over tens of millions of kilometers before shutting down their engines to coast on inertia?”

Du Qiu wasn’t the amateur astronomer he once was, nor a rookie in interstellar warfare. After studying countless battle cases and running extensive invasion war simulations, he was now well-prepared for the impending counterattack.

Weitman paused for over ten seconds. “Boss, you make a compelling argument, but if the enemy fleet only accelerated tens of millions of kilometers, the speed achieved would still require additional time to reach the Solar System.”

Du Qiu’s excitement grew. “Exactly. Your task now is to calculate their speed after accelerating over tens of millions of kilometers, using a rate of 5000 kilometers per second.

Within a specified zone, keep a close watch for any new bright spots—that will indicate the enemy’s position.”

“Boss, that’s a brilliant plan. I’ll immediately organize segmented monitoring to ensure the enemy fleet never slips out of our sight.”

Ending the call with Weitman, Du Qiu felt an uneasy premonition stirring inside him.

Yet after some thought, he couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong.

Nonetheless, he took precautious measures by ordering Stardust to ramp up the production and deployment of detectors.

His aim was to cover the entire Solar System with sensors capable of monitoring battlefield conditions—and, if time allowed, even extend them into several key areas beyond.

Once this was arranged, Du Qiu threw himself into the research, production, and deployment of a new superweapon—a true trump card of Dream Technology.

That very weapon was his foundation of confidence in facing the invading fleet.

Time flew by, and soon three months had passed.

Detectors were being deployed throughout the Solar System, monitoring every speck of the void.

Moreover, some of these detectors had already been extended beyond the Solar System.

Because of this, even the Heavenly Spacecraft—safely beyond the Kuiper Belt’s escape zone—could still maintain communication with the Mars Base.

The Heavenly Spacecraft travels directly outward from a specific angle relative to the Solar System’s ecliptic, a path that completely bypasses the gravitational pulls of the major planets.

This flight mode demands enormous energy. With Metallic Hydrogen onboard, its endurance is estimated at around 200 years.

In other words, the energy supply isn’t sufficient to take it to a nearby star system.

Thus, before leaving the Oort Cloud, the Heavenly Spacecraft must constantly harvest hydrogen from the void.

After all, once in true interstellar space between star systems, hydrogen isn’t as abundant as it is within the Oort Cloud.

Still, Du Qiu had already handed the latest nuclear fusion engine technology over to the research institute. In the past three months, production was completed and now the Heavenly Spacecraft was ready to replace its main engine module.

With the new nuclear fusion engine, which utilizes a non-working-fluid radiant energy method to achieve powerful propulsion, the Heavenly Spacecraft’s speed would jump from 3000 km/s to 8000 km/s.

Taking advantage of this upgrade, Ning Shuangshuang was on a holographic video call with Du Qiu.

“Are you saying that even now, we haven’t detected any sign of the invading enemy?” Ning Shuangshuang couldn’t hide her shock.

Du Qiu nodded, “Yes. It’s as though they never existed. Our detection capabilities beyond the Solar System are still quite limited; we can only monitor several key sectors.

Yet over the past three months, none of these sectors have shown any signs. After the White Spot suddenly enlarged two months ago, it soon returned to its original size.

I suspect the enemy departed from that area, and after accelerating, shut down their engines to begin inertial flight.”

“Are we completely unable to detect space warships coasting inertially through interstellar space?” Ning Shuangshuang asked.

“It remains challenging. Our gravitational wave detectors can pick up anomalies from massive objects, but a space fleet isn’t a single massive body—our detectors simply aren’t sensitive enough.”

Du Qiu felt a headache coming on. The quantum radar, cloned from Dreamland’s alien civilization, might suffer from substandard material parameters, and its detection range couldn’t match that of the original equipment.

On Dreamland’s alien main fleet, the detection range reached an astonishing 5 light-years.

But the system Du Qiu produced only reached 10 astronomical units—and that was mounted on a warship.

Meanwhile, the Wyvern Fighters had an even more limited detection range of just 2 astronomical units.

Consequently, even though the Wyvern Fighter patrol fleet had ventured as far as 300 astronomical units from Earth, they were still a long way from the White Spot.

Of course, there’s another possibility—the enemy might be in superluminal flight, essentially enclosed within a moving curvature bubble, which Dream Technology cannot detect.

However, if that were true, they should already have reached the Solar System and exited that state. Du Qiu knew that fleets in the initial phase of superluminal flight can’t sustain such speeds within a star system.

Yet, the surveillance network around the Solar System had picked up nothing.

“Du Qiu, could it be that we completely misjudged? Maybe the Meteor Warship didn’t come from that White Spot, but rather from somewhere far beyond?”

Ning Shuangshuang hesitated before finally voicing her thought.

An invading fleet might be stationed 3 light-years beyond the Solar System, waiting for the Meteor Warship’s reconnaissance.

And once contact with the Meteor Warship is lost, what would their next move be?

Listening to Ning Shuangshuang, Du Qiu pondered deeply, his mind racing through simulations of the impending war scenario.

Ning Shuangshuang’s reminder struck a chord—he had always assumed the invading fleet was near the White Spot. What if they approached from a different direction?

Previously, Dream Technology couldn’t provide all-around monitoring of the Solar System; even if signs of an invading fleet appeared in one direction, it was rare to capture them precisely.

Had the Oumuamua Meteorite not resembled an artificial object so closely, he might never have ordered the Wyvern Fighters to intercept it.

Likewise, Weitman and his team wouldn’t have scanned the direction from which the Oumuamua Meteorite departed, thereby missing the anomalous White Spot.

Yet we never surveilled the direction from which the Oumuamua Meteorite arrived. What if the enemy split into two groups right from the start?

At that thought, cold sweat broke out on Du Qiu’s brow.