After a period of time, the volume of the organism at the end of the tentacle expands to be equivalent to an African adult elephant. After reaching this size, the tentacle leaves the ice meteorite, and a conical organism is detached. The lower disk of the creature firmly adsorbs the surface of the ice meteorite.
The skin of this organism is dark black, and the whole structure is supported by high-strength metal bones. The shape caused by the difference between internal and external air pressure is slightly expanded, which looks like those cone tents during camping in the wild.
This creature is a variant of the hive. Strictly speaking, it is still a hive and undertakes the work of processing materials for the population, but it is no longer similar to the appearance of a volcano. The opening at the top is closed, because such a design is not needed in the vacuum environment of outer space.
The cone structure, which is originally designed to look like a volcano, is to emit the seabed sediment that is inhaled into the body, and then later, it is to emit enough heat into the atmosphere and warm the surface environment of the planet.
But in the universe, the design of the volcanic appearance is useless. The honeycomb responsible for processing resources does not need to emit anything like the universe. The essence of honeycomb processing is the industrial production of microscopic substances driven by light energy, and there is no industrial waste.
The newly born beehive looks at the vast world around him. The stars are dotted in the dark and secluded time and space, and the veil composed of the nebula covers it lightly, with more mysterious colors.
Many creatures may not be able to reach such a world in their lifetime. They will only be trapped on the surface of the planet and look at the world above their heads in vain.
"I'm... so hungry..."
"Give it, eat this."
Extending out the tentacles, the collector broke a small meteorite that had already been prepared into multiple pieces and fed it to the hive in batches. After devouring these meteorite fragments, the hive quickly strengthened itself.
"I continue to look for other suitable ice meteorites. You are responsible for creating more material resources for collecting asteroid belts. Do you understand?"
"I see. Leave it to me."
After the hive has grown to a certain scale and can breed some simple cosmic creatures, the collector stops feeding. At this time, the hive is not fully developed, but this is enough. Later, self-growth and resource collection can be faced and solved independently.
The collector who was ready to leave finally told the hive.
"If you encounter a problem that can't be solved, think about how to solve it independently. If you really can't think of a solution, contact me, and I will tell you how to deal with it."
"Okay, if such a thing happens, I will ask for help."
The anti-matter propulsion was restarted, and the collector began to stay away from the ice meteorite, leaving the hive to develop alone, moving deeper into the asteroid belt and searching for other ice meteorites.
To speed up the progress of resource collection, of course, it is impossible to just bury a hive on an ice meteorite. The collector looks for multiple ice meteorites and let multiple hives expand synchronously. This is like the ripples of water. Large ripples are not as fast as many small ripples covering a pond.
The collector groped for meteorites one by one, searching for the ice meteorites he wanted to find.
After such a search, the collector gradually found a strange thing. It did not pay attention to this strange thing at first. Because it was too inconspicuous, it was not until the hive was buried on the first ice meteorite that it began to pay attention.
"It's strange why the purity ratio of these metal meteorites is surprisingly high, not like natural formation, but like artificially refined products."
meteorites can be roughly divided into three categories: metal meteorites, non-metallic meteorites, and composite meteorites mixed with metals and non-metals. The definition of metal meteorites means that metal substances account for more than 10% of the proportion of its meteorites - a simple understanding is that an entire meteorite is a metal body. Even if there is a non-metallic substance, then It's just that when drifting in the universe for a long time, a thin layer of non-metallic material is attached to the surface.
Of course, collectors will not be surprised that metal meteorites have too high metal specific gravity. It is strange that the specific gravity of these metal meteorites is not only one metal, but a large category. Metal meteorites are alloys of a pile of messy metals melted together.
Now, the metal meteorites detected by the collector are too clean, unlike any mixture. The metal meteorites are just covered with a layer of carbonate, which is an alloy composed of carbon and iron.
"Maybe there is a special formation mechanism... Let me think about it."
The collector who explored all the way kept thinking about the reasons for the formation of these metal meteorites while constantly, which is also a way to pass the boring time and increase his knowledge by the way.
Suddenly, the collector received a series of radio communications. The source of the communication was the other end of the asteroid belt, and the collector connected the communication.
"Where have you been?"
"About one twentieth of the position, ice meteorites are very rare on my side. So far, I have only found a resource meteorite for starting up."
The collector truthfully explained his situation to his peers, but what the collectors expected was that the same clan acting together on the other end did not gain much.
"I'm less than you. I'm just four. It's really strange. According to past experience, there should be a lot of ice meteorites in this asteroid belt. This asteroid belt is not too close to the star."
Even if there is no contact with the life field, the collector can feel the deep doubtful emotion in the other party's heart from the message from the same family.
"Is it going to go on like this?
OK, the development progress will slow down. The same family replied.
"Why don't you... declare a batch of ice shells to other people?" The collector proposed so.
There are satellites in this stellar system, and two of these satellites are ice planets, more than 80% of which are solid ice, and the whole is water balloons, but they are frozen.
"How can that work? is a resource used to transform the planet's environment and speed up the progress of the asteroid belt. Isn't that a waste?"
The same clan opposed this proposal. They are developing in the asteroid belt, not a terrestrial planet with a harsh environment. Isn't it a waste to use water resources here?
"Otherwise, do you have a better way?" The collector asked rhetorical questions.
"But... how can these ice shells be obtained by the same family in the asteroid belt? The asteroid belt is not as good as a planet. They are scattered and sparsely distributed among each other, but they look dense at the macroscopic level. Ice shells will pass through the meteorite belt, resulting in a waste of resources.
Although the same family was persuaded by the collectors, it is also a problem to transport the ice meteorite to the asteroid belt and be successfully received. First of all, the previous ice shells cannot be used, because most of these ice shells must pass through the asteroid belt and go straight to the direction of the star, so the ice shell rain is not It makes sense.