Chapter 219: Subspace Shakedown: Testing the Leap Disruptor

The research vessel made its way through the Desolate Star Region, guarded by over a dozen warships.

They arrived at an empty star system belonging to the Federation, one that hadn’t seen activity in ages.

After all, once this thing activates, it’ll disrupt a region with a diameter of 1.8 light years. No way they could run the test anywhere people live.

Otherwise, if some idiot happens to jump right into it, now that would be a real mess.

This place had always been one of those unsold stars owned by the Federation—already cleared out and off-limits to outsiders.

Even Federation citizens weren’t allowed in.

They had to prevent resource theft, after all.

At that moment, the Subspace Oscillator was deployed and activated.

“Is the test ship ready?”

“All set—three test ships in this system and another three on standby at Woma, eight light years out. We can start anytime!”

“Let Woma know: launch one test ship and have it jump here immediately.”

“Understood, Chief Lin!”

A lab-coated technician nodded and rushed off to handle the orders.

About a minute later—

A massive countdown appeared, projected across the bridge.

“Ten seconds!”

“Nine.”

“Eight.”

……

“One. Zero…”

“Confirmation from Woma—the test ship has entered the jump!”

“We’ve passed expected arrival time, but still no detection of jump energy forming, Chief Lin.”

From the looks of it, the device seemed to be working.

But honestly, there was no way to be completely sure.

No one had any idea what actually happened to that test ship. They couldn’t just stick someone inside it to find out, right?

Even if they did, that poor soul couldn’t exactly report back…

Assuming it truly worked, odds are that person would be lost somewhere between dimensions by now.

“No rush—tell Woma to send out the second test ship. This time, set its jump destination right at the theoretical edge of the disruptor’s range.”

“And put the third test ship’s target just beyond the theoretical interference range.”

The technician nodded again and set off to arrange it.

One minute later, the second and third test ships jumped from Woma one after the other.

A few seconds passed…

“Second test ship is lost. Third test ship is still operating, perfectly stable!”

“Send out the fourth test ship for a very short-range jump!”

“Yes, Chief Lin!”

Test ships four through six were parked not far away.

They sat smack in the middle of the disruption zone.

Theoretically, with subspace interference in play, the fourth ship shouldn’t have been able to form a jump tunnel at all—jumping would be impossible.

But that’s why you run the test—to see what would really happen.

“Chief Lin, fourth ship is ready!”

“Begin!”

“Copy!”

A massive projection flickered to life across the bridge, showing a live feed from inside test ship four.

In the next instant, space around ship four suddenly seemed to shrink, distorting in one jarring visual ripple.

Everyone recognized that sight at once.

Whenever a ship initiated or completed a jump, space would always appear to fold in just this way.

Of course, it wasn’t space actually collapsing. It was just rapid distortion creating a special visual effect.

Then, ship four vanished without a trace.

Wait—did the jump succeed?

On the bridge, over a hundred lab coats stood in utter disbelief.

By theory, that ship shouldn’t have been able to jump. Yet somehow, ship four pulled it off.

Was theory wrong all along?

If ship four got through, it meant the jump disruptor had failed.

Yet, almost the very moment ship four disappeared, it reappeared at the same spot—its twisted hull looking like a piece of braided dough—then went up in a violent explosion.

As for what happened in the end…

There wasn’t much left, just the charred wreckage of ship four where it stood.

So, turns out jumping was impossible through that zone—though the result was even worse than anyone expected.

At first, the scientists figured, at worst, disruption would just prevent ships from initiating jumps—nothing more.

But with this outcome, was it really just a case of ‘can’t jump’?

No, not quite. Actually, you could still try.

But as soon as the jump tunnel formed, it would collapse instantly. Worse, the ship would plunge in right as that happened.

The end result…

The moment the jump started, the collapsing tunnel would twist the entire vessel like a pretzel and hurl its remains out of the passage.

Imagine if a fleet, completely unaware of the existence of the Subspace Oscillator, tried mass jumps when the disruptor was triggered…

Yikes…

That’s nastier than a quantum bomb—way more efficient at wiping out ships!

Watching the wreckage on the monitor, someone did the math and drew in a sharp breath.

“Keep going. Have ship six do another short-range jump!”

“Yes, Chief Lin!”

Unlike the first five, test ship six wasn’t just equipped with a jump engine. It also carried a Jump Disruption Countermeasure.

“Jump Disruption Countermeasure is live. Subspace Oscillator parameters entered. Chief Lin, everything’s ready!”

“Begin!”

“Roger. Jump coordinates locked. Initiating jump engine. Three, two, one—jump!”

Space around ship six twisted for a moment, then the entire vessel simply vanished.

But almost at the same instant, a ripple appeared a million kilometers away—and there she was, the warship materializing out of thin air.

Sure enough, that was the same ship six that had just left.

What did that prove?

It meant the Jump Disruption Countermeasure actually worked!

“Chief Lin, we did it!”

“Not so fast. Tell Earth: I need a hundred more test ships fitted with jump engines. We’ve got a lot more scenarios to cover before calling this ‘reliable.’”

“Understood. I’ll make the arrangements.”

“Good. Inform the escort fleet we’re heading back as soon as we recover the device.”

“Copy that!”

——

Three hours later.

All equipment had been recovered.

Even a good chunk of ship four’s wreckage was brought along.

After all, whatever happened to that vessel inside the jump tunnel—everything it went through held serious value for their research. Of course they’d want to take some samples back for a closer look.

Once everything was ready, the fleet could head home at any time.

But…

“What’s going on? Why aren’t we leaving yet?”

“Uh… Chief Lin, the escort fleet’s asking us to double-check—are you sure the jump disruptor is actually shut down?”

Uh…

Seriously? Guess that last test rattled them.

Lin Yun could only shake her head.

But she couldn’t really blame them.

“Fine, just reassure them—the device is off. Tell them it’s safe to jump now.”

“Understood, Chief Lin!”