Chapter 402: The Fleeing Ark: A Rift in Time and Space

Before the Ice Age, the Ark spaceship had already fled.

Although it set off first, its speed of just 800 kilometers per second meant that by the time Du Qiu unlocked the Civilization Bastion, it couldn’t outrun the later exodus fleets of various nations equipped with Dream Technology’s Heaven Realm-class ships.

Thus, Du Qiu was naturally skeptical when a distress signal from the Ark spaceship was detected 90 light-years away from the Solar System.

Sending a Consciousness Warship to investigate wasn’t just about fearing a time-space storm or training the crew of the Consciousness Fleet—it was about worrying over a potential trap.

Only an opponent clever enough to set a trap with the Ark spaceship could leave Du Qiu completely clueless about the mastermind behind it.

The images transmitted from afar had left Du Qiu utterly stunned.

After all, from his perspective, the Ark spaceship shouldn’t have encountered a time-space storm; with its speed, it shouldn’t even have managed to escape the bounds of the Solar System’s Oort Cloud, let alone encounter such a phenomenon.

Yet now, the Ark spaceship was reported to have endured a time-space storm, an observation that made Du Qiu’s scalp feel as if it were on fire.

Could it be that his long-held theories about time-space storms were completely off?

Had time-space storms really been capable of extending their effects to within one light-year of a star system?

However, as the Transformers delved deeper into the spaceship, Du Qiu began to suspect that things were not adding up.

Warships and spaceships that had endured a time-space storm typically experienced one day inside the storm as many years passed outside.

In other words, time flowed slower within the storm than in the normal world outside.

Moreover, the rate of time flow seemed to vary with the storm’s intensity—it wasn’t uniform.

Otherwise, the three Small Fleets rescued by Dream Technology couldn’t have appeared in different years.

But the current state of the Ark spaceship suggested the opposite, as if it had weathered countless ages.

Fortunately, the spaceship’s main computer was still operational, though its energy reserves had been depleted. Once new power was provided, the main computer reactivated and recovered footage of Young Morgan.

“I am David Morgan, from the Morgan family of Earth. I am the last patriarch of our family and the only surviving human aboard this ship.”

“Whoever is watching this, regardless of your form of intelligence, if possible, please guide our spaceship back to Earth in the Solar System.”

“We were located in the third spiral arm of the Milky Way…”

“I’m not sure what befell our ship as we left the Solar System, but it wasn’t long before the Solar System vanished from our view.”

“It was as if the ship had been swallowed by endless darkness. No matter which direction we flew, there was nothing but darkness.”

“We never encountered another star system until we had exhausted all our resources!”

During this ordeal, with no way out in sight, infighting broke out among the passengers until only I remained.

……

In this boundless darkness, the ship had been drifting for a full 60 years. My body was failing, and the ship’s energy was nearly depleted.

I recorded this video in the hope that one day, Dream Technology’s fleet might find me and watch it.

Additionally, I set up a radio transmitter to send a periodic distress signal, hoping that Dream Technology’s fleet would pick it up.

What I want to say is that our understanding of the universe is far too superficial. Please, exercise extreme caution in your explorations…

When Young Morgan’s voice echoed through the command center, everyone was stunned.

The video left by Young Morgan not only failed to unravel the mystery but instead deepened it for everyone.

Why had the Ark spaceship not left the confines of the Solar System’s Oort Cloud, yet plunged into an abyss of darkness?

How could it, even after 60 years of travel, not encounter a single star?

Clearly, what Young Morgan described was not a time-space storm—the latter would be riddled with meteor showers, rogue planets, and even terrifying neutron stars.

Instead, Young Morgan witnessed nothing but endless darkness, an observation unknown to any of the fleets that had braved a time-space storm.

The Tur Fleet’s navigation logs made no mention of such anomalies.

The key difference lay in the flow of time. In the region Young Morgan described, time passed at least twice as fast as normal, unlike the time-space storm where time slipped by slowly.

Since Dream Technology’s flagship fleet had left the Solar System only a little over 30 years ago,

while the Ark spaceship had been drifting for more than 60 years.

Du Qiu suddenly said to Song Yuanting, “Notify the Consciousness Fleet—have those two warships activate their space energy detectors and start searching.”

Song Yuanting immediately understood Du Qiu’s intent and set things in motion.

The two warships quickly sprang into action, each maneuvering in circles in different directions. They had evidently activated their space energy detectors for the search.

It didn’t take long before an energy anomaly was detected 100,000 kilometers from the Ark spaceship.

Neither warship drew near; both maintained a distance of over 50,000 kilometers from the anomaly.

Fortunately, the energy anomaly didn’t possess the gravitational pull of a black hole, so there was no danger of being drawn in.

Considering that the Ark spaceship likely emerged from that very point, perhaps this was an exit of some sort.

Du Qiu, studying the images transmitted from ahead, mused, “Deploy a few Intelligent Warships to tow the Ark spaceship back.”

He continued, “Also, instruct the Consciousness Fleet to take control of a Landing Ship loaded with Transformers and send it to that anomaly.”

He added, “Let’s see if the anomaly permits ingress or if it only allows exit.”

Song Yuanting hesitated for a moment before asking, “Why not send an Intelligent Warship in instead?”

Du Qiu replied, “If it can really get in, I want to test whether the consciousness can still be controlled remotely.”

“Understood. You want to find out if consciousness can traverse space via teleportation,” Song Yuanting confirmed.

Once Du Qiu’s intentions were clear, Song Yuanting promptly issued the order.

Soon, one Landing Ship detached from one of the two warships and headed straight for the energy anomaly.

As it drew closer, everyone in the command center held their breath.

In the endless void, the Landing Ship slowly approached the anomaly.

When it was just 50 meters from the coordinates marked by the space energy detector, the void seemed to twist.

Then everyone watched in shock as the Landing Ship gradually vanished.

“We’ve lost contact with the Landing Ship via our ultra-dimensional communications!”

The Space Bastion’s central AI reported immediately.

“Quick! Project the personnel responsible for the consciousness control system on that Landing Ship and the Transformers—let them explain what their senses detected.”

Du Qiu issued the command directly to the central AI.

At that moment, the officers from the Consciousness Fleet who had been tasked with the remote control were in a chamber aboard the Space Bastion.

Once their statuses were projected, Du Qiu began scrutinizing the data.

These crew members, who were originally awake and controlling the Landing Ship with their minds, had now all slipped into a sleep-like state.

Du Qiu asked, “Central AI, what are their vital signs saying?”

The AI responded, “Sir, all indicators are normal. Their brain activity frequencies remain unchanged, clearly still engaged in operating the Landing Ship.”

Du Qiu pressed on, “Apart from those controlling the Landing Ship, what about the operators handling the Transformers? Are their consciousnesses active?”

The AI replied, “Sir, out of those, only two have active consciousness. The others have not yet awakened.”

Hearing this, Du Qiu nodded and said, “So it appears that two units of the Transformers are currently under controlled operation.”

He then instructed, “Try extracting the visual feed from the minds of those with active consciousness.”

The AI responded, “Understood. I’m retrieving the data and will project it momentarily.”

Soon enough, several images were projected in the command center.

Du Qiu believed that the most valuable aspect of consciousness control was its ability to transcend space and time in transmitting images.

Thus, he instructed Kawanohoroharu and Hao Ren to devise a method to extract remotely the visual data from the brain’s perceptions, thereby enabling interdimensional exploration and communication.