Chapter 450: A Note_1

The detection fleet had sailed for a week, shortening the distance between themselves and the gravity wave source to 10,000 kilometers.

At this point, the gravity wave signals from the emitting body were quite clear, allowing for precise positioning; however, radar detection showed no echoes in that position, and visible light observation turned up empty as well.

As the distance between them narrowed further, the crew aboard the Revelation fell into panic, before sailing they had imagined all sorts of scenarios, but they had never considered being close enough to almost touch their target, yet seeing nothing in their field of vision.

Until they were as close as 150 kilometers! At this distance, the visible light observation system spotted something, a small white dot at the position of the gravity wave emission.

So the Revelation dispatched an unmanned spacecraft to investigate, the distance quickly closing, until finally, the spacecraft hovered five meters from the target.

The high-definition holographic images it sent back allowed the crew of the two ships to see this thing that was shooting from outer space towards the Solar System: a small piece of paper.

That was the only way to describe it, its official name was "rectangular membrane-like object," eight and a half centimeters long, five and two-tenths centimeters wide, extremely thin, with no discernible thickness, its surface was white, and it looked just like a piece of paper.

Judging from the intensity of the gravitational waves it emitted, its volume should be as big as Europa.

Many had thought it was a colossal invasion spacecraft, and seeing this paper-like object from outer space made them all breathe a long sigh of relief, as they had been anxiously holding their hearts for a long time.

This thing could also be a weapon, potentially possessing the power to destroy the two detection spacecraft.

But to say it could destroy an entire star system, that was indeed too incredible to believe.

In appearance, it was so delicate and harmless, like a white feather floating through the night sky.

Tests showed that the paper did not reflect any frequency of electromagnetic waves; its whiteness wasn't due to reflected light from its surface but was a faint white light it emitted itself.

Electromagnetic waves, including visible light, could pass through the paper, which in fact was transparent. On close-up images, one could see the planets behind it.

But due to the interference from the light it emitted, and because the space background was so dark, from a distance, it appeared to be an opaque white.

At least on the surface, the paper seemed harmless.

Could this truly be a letter?

The spacecraft's mechanical arm tried to capture the paper with a sealed small claw. As the arm extended the open claw towards the paper, the hearts of the people on the two ships lifted again.

This scene felt vaguely familiar.

Something odd occurred: when the claw closed up to secure the paper within it and the mechanical arm retracted, the paper slipped out of the sealed claw and remained motionless in its original place.

The attempt was repeated several times, with the same result.

Neither the claw nor the paper was damaged; the mechanical arm felt no resistance, and the position of the paper did not shift at all.

At this moment, people realized that the paper was no ordinary object; it was like a phantom, not interacting with any object in the real world.

The technical officer in charge of this detection operation, Bai Ice, along with the chief military officer of this operation, Aleksei Vasily, decided to ride in the spacecraft together for a closer look.

Upon boarding the spacecraft, Vasily smiled and said, "Like us, your mentor must have experienced something like this, right?"

Bai Ice was Ding Yi's student; after Ding Yi's demise, he had undergone prolonged hibernation in accordance with his teacher's wishes, to witness for his teacher the grand finale of physics.

But now, everyone in academia knew that the forefront of physics was in the Solar System State.

The physics of the Solar System Federation had just concluded a chaotic phase; their experiments over recent years had debunked the theoretical knowledge provided by the Trisolarans.

Given the technical heights reached by the Trisolaran Civilization later, their foundational theories could not possibly be so wrong; this only indicated that in theoretical matters, they had deceived humanity.

It was only then that the Solar System Federation realized how far it had strayed. Looking back, they remembered that the Solar System State had once warned them that while Trisolaran technology could be referenced, their theories were not trustworthy.

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How could people accustomed to taking things for granted listen to such valuable advice?

Now, the Solar System State has become unrivaled in various theoretical and technological aspects, while the Solar System Federation has been busy correcting mistakes for the last few decades.

In total, they wasted half a century!

After Bai Ice was revived, the Solar System State extended an invitation to him, but the Solar System Federation, which had always advocated "science without borders," kept a tight hold on him.

As a leading physicist like Bai Ice, there was simply no way for him to go to the Solar System State in any form.

At this moment, Bai Ice fell silent upon hearing Vasily's words, feeling that in spirit, he was indeed connected with Ding Yi from two centuries earlier.

They were both heading towards a vast unknown, sailing towards an equally unknown destiny.

The spacecraft quickly reached the vicinity of the note, and the two men, suited up in their space gear, stepped out of the spacecraft to examine the tiny, pristine white surface closely.

Vasily reached out for the note, but Bai Ice immediately grabbed him.

"What are you doing?" Bai Ice demanded sharply.

"If it really is a letter," Vasily said as he pried Bai Ice's hand off with his other hand, "perhaps it requires the direct contact of physical beings like us to release its information."

As he spoke, Vasily's hand, clad in a space suit glove, touched the note. His hand passed through it, and the glove remained undamaged.

Vasily did not receive any telepathic information either.

He passed his hand through the note again and held it there, letting the tiny white plane divide his palm into two parts but still felt nothing.

Bai Ice also tried to touch the note: "It seems like a projection from another world, completely unrelated to ours."

Since it was impossible to grab the note, Revelation had no choice but to guide it into the ship by making contact, and then slowly adjusted its position so that the note was suspended in the ship's research cabin,

If they needed to move the note during research, they could only do so by moving the spacecraft itself.

Intensive research followed, but after more than twenty hours, the detection team knew almost nothing about the note, observing only one phenomenon:

The light and gravitational waves emitted by the note were weakening, suggesting that the emissions might be a type of evaporation.

Since these were the only indications of the note's existence, if they were to disappear, the note would as well.

At this moment, the early warning system of Revelation sounded an alarm: an unidentified ship was rapidly approaching.

Vasily immediately declared a battle readiness status, followed by a communication request from the other party.

The mode of communication was the now rare voice call, spoken by a middle-aged man with a magnetic voice:

"We are a scientific research team from the Solar System State. The two-dimensional foil in your warship is now very dangerous. Please leave the area immediately. If you evacuate now, you can catch up with Neptune's 'Ark Operation'!"

Vasily was taken aback before he asked, "What 'Ark Operation'?"

Bai Ice was more concerned: "What does 'two-dimensional foil' mean?"

"I am not authorized to answer your questions!" the other party said: "This is your last warning, please leave immediately, do not obstruct our containment experiment!

"Due to the urgency of the situation, you only have ten minutes to consider. After ten minutes, if you do not hand over the two-dimensional foil, I have the right to open fire on you!"

Vasily shouted, "Is this a declaration of war from the Solar System State?"

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