The bridge of the Starship, the panorama screen displayed the same scene as always, and the holographic projection in the center of the cabin showed no abnormalities.
In the corners of the panorama screen, there were more than a dozen picture-in-picture windows, all showing the shining Aldebaran.
On the holographic projection, the three layers of light remained, and the outermost layer was about to cover the Starship.
Everyone chatted idly, and even Ling Xiao, who was usually unrestrained and spoke before he thought, subconsciously avoided mentioning the impending gamma-ray burst.
Everyone knew what was about to happen, and they also knew that although red dwarfs were small stars, they would undoubtedly be able to block the gamma-ray storm. However, they couldn't feel at ease, a sense of impending crisis as if some villain was trying to harm them.
Well, perhaps "anxiety" was a more accurate word.
As the deadline gradually approached, everyone's nerves were as taut as a drawn bowstring, even Ou Zhanpeng was no exception. More than four hours in advance, he ordered everyone to remain at their posts, ready to receive the impact of the gamma-ray storm.
Although they had meticulously calculated in advance, who could guarantee that this thing would be so punctual?
Yu Jia couldn't help but scoff inwardly: "That's it? Experienced in battles?"
Ou Zhanpeng didn't want to be like this. He could face a powerful enemy calmly and unflinchingly. But today, he was facing an interstellar natural disaster, something entirely different from an enemy.
It was like fighting floods and earthquakes in the past. No matter how strong the army's combat power was, could it prevent the disaster from happening?
Of course not!
These were two completely different matters!
Everyone waited in anxious torment, the air felt as heavy and oppressive as solidified concrete, making it difficult to breathe.
When people are nervous, they consume more oxygen. Ou Zhanpeng pulled up the life support system's statistical data and found that the oxygen consumption rate was 1.6 times higher than normal!
If it were a less advanced warship, it might have suffocated to death from lack of oxygen before the ray storm even arrived.
Finally, the scheduled time arrived. On the holographic star chart, the light membrane representing the ray storm had engulfed the red dwarf.
"Here it comes, here it comes!" Ling Xiao unconsciously uttered.
Everyone's hearts jumped into their throats.
However, looking around, there was no change outside the ship.
After waiting patiently for a while, there was still no anomaly.
"Why is there no movement yet?" Ling Xiao's voice was very soft, but it was too quiet in the bridge, and everyone heard it clearly.
"What else could it be? The time was wrong." Gong Yiding's CPU was also fluctuating constantly.
His mechanical body used the most advanced shielding technology, and ordinary cosmic rays could not harm him, but it was hard to say about the gamma-ray burst.
Thus, he experienced the feeling of nervousness again, which was rare for him.
"Alas, I was just nervous for nothing!" Ling Xiao's anxious mood instantly calmed down, and he sighed with great regret.
Everyone was furious. At a time like this, what was there to regret?
However, he was a minority who was so carefree. The vast majority of people remained as nervous as startled rabbits.
There is great terror in the face of life and death, and in this world, only a very few can face death calmly!
The sigh's echo was still lingering in the bridge when Zeng Qiao suddenly exclaimed, "Here it comes, the radiation intensity outside the ship has increased!"
"Shield strength is decreasing!"
Everyone's gaze unconsciously turned to the satellite image, and they were shocked to see Aldebaran suddenly expand outward. A ring of light spread outwards at a speed visible to the naked eye. The image in the lens seemed to be covered with frosted glass, suddenly becoming blurry.
Everyone's hearts, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled back into their chests, but only Yu Jia frowned, "Something's not right!"
"What's not right?" Ou Zhanpeng asked.
Everyone instantly fell silent.
Yu Jia looked up, "The radiation intensity is too low..."
Before she could finish speaking, the satellite signals were interrupted one after another, and the images on the screen disappeared one by one.
"Radiation intensity rising!"
"Shield strength continues to decrease!"
"All satellites offline!"
"Radiation intensity exceeding measurement range!"
At this moment, the bridge was deathly silent, and everyone's gaze fell on Ou Zhanpeng.
Gamma rays were formless, but at this moment, the formless rays seemed like tangible arrows, piercing into everyone's hearts.
Ou Zhanpeng didn't know what to do either. He forced himself to calm down, "How are the shields?"
"72% remaining, it has stabilized," Ling Xiao said.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief simultaneously. The exhaled breaths gathered and were clearly audible.
Everyone froze, and then burst into laughter.
The shields blocked the rays, and the battleship was safe. Their mood naturally relaxed a lot.
But before everyone's mood could stabilize, the red dwarf outside the ship suddenly fluctuated violently, like a gust of wind blowing across a calm water surface. Waves surged on the surface of the star, and light shimmered.
In just a moment, a massive amount of stellar matter erupted like a volcanic eruption, like a fire dragon spanning half of the star.
Most of the scattered stellar matter fell back to the stellar surface, but a large amount of stellar matter was ejected outward. There was a deathly silence on the Starship.
The next second, a hoarse roar shattered the silence: "Shield strength continues to decrease, stellar luminosity increased, 1.8 times... 2.6 times... 4.1 times!"
"Ultraviolet radiation intensity rising... 11,400 times?" As he said this, Ling Xiao's voice faltered greatly.
He looked up at the red dwarf, whose luminosity was still increasing, and then at the data read by the detection equipment, and was suddenly filled with immense doubt.
Is it really so many times?
Yu Jia's face turned ashen, and she screamed uncontrollably, as if she were walking alone in the middle of the night and encountered a ghost seeking her life, "Run, run quickly!"
Ou Zhanpeng also realized something was wrong. Before Yu Jia could even shout, he had already maneuvered the battleship away from the red dwarf.
It was a joke. Although red dwarfs were small in the stellar family, they were an undeniable behemoth to the Starship. If it hadn't been for luck earlier, and the flare eruption direction was wrong, the Starship would have been covered in stellar matter.
No matter how strong the Starship's shields were, it was still just a warship. Facing such a certain death situation, there was absolutely no chance of survival.
Ou Zhanpeng still felt uneasy. He tapped his fingers a few times to activate the jump system, intending to leave this place first.
A wise person does not stand under a dangerous wall. At such a time, it is safer to hide far away.
However, the equipment was indeed activated, but there was no change in front of the battleship, and it did not open a wormhole as it usually did.
This unexpected result caused Ou Zhanpeng's brain to go blank for a moment. After regaining his senses, he tried again, but there was still no change.
It's broken!
Realizing that something was wrong, Ou Zhanpeng immediately checked the equipment. However, there were no problems with either the power system or the jump device.
Trying again, there was still no movement.
He swallowed quietly, his mind in a mess.
This was not the first time he had encountered such a situation, but before, it was always a man-made spatial lockdown. This time, the reason was the gamma-ray burst.
Let alone the inability to open wormholes being unrelated to the ray burst, although there was no direct evidence, the relationship between the two was already as clear as it could be.
Eliminating all impossibilities, whatever remained, no matter how unbelievable, must be the truth – the battleship had to rely on the star's cover to survive the gamma-ray burst, but the star had a problem at this very moment, and it could give the Starship a killing blow at any time.
Good things never come singly, and misfortunes never come alone. The ancients truly spoke wisely!
But is the Starship trapped here like this?
Ou Zhanpeng felt like crying without tears. The Starship had always been his greatest reliance, and he never thought that the Starship would also have a day when it was powerless.
This was like digging his own grave!
Ou Zhanpeng's intestines were green with regret, but regret was the most useless thing. The only way forward was to grit his teeth and persevere, hoping that the red dwarf would not be so turbulent.
Fortunately, it was only the initial burst now, and the main burst was still to come. As long as they could hold on until the end of the initial burst, they could escape this hellhole!
Thinking of this, Ou Zhanpeng's thoughts stabilized a bit. He leaned closer to Gong Yiding's ear and whispered, "The wormhole can't be opened. It should be related to the ray burst. Can you study it?"
This kind of opportunity would never come again if missed.
Gong Yiding understood immediately. He wanted to study spatial lockdown technology!
He immediately nodded, "I'll go arrange it!"
Gong Yiding left the bridge, and Ou Zhanpeng asked again, "How are the shields?"
"Recovering," Ling Xiao said, "it's just a bit slow."
"It's good that it's recovering. Slow is slow," Ou Zhanpeng sighed in relief, thinking that at least there was some good news.
At this moment, the Starship was like a small boat in a storm, in danger of capsizing at any moment, but as long as the shields were still there, the battleship's safety was guaranteed.
Ou Zhanpeng really wanted to stay away from the dangerous red dwarf, but after hesitating for a while, he dismissed the idea.
Gamma rays were not affected by external factors such as magnetic fields, nor were they easily reflected or refracted. Theoretically, as long as the star blocked Aldebaran, the Starship's safety would be guaranteed.
However, the farther away they were, the more difficult the coordination between the battleship and the star would be. The Starship had to compromise between distance and safety, maintaining a sufficient warning distance to prevent stellar activity from endangering the battleship.
At the very least, it would give the battleship enough warning time.
These were not problems. The problem was that without opening the wormhole, they could only fly by conventional means. In just ten days, even if the Starship exerted all its strength, it could not fly very far. It was better to stay here honestly rather than waste time, effort, and energy.
Ou Zhanpeng felt incredibly frustrated. What made him even more upset was that the red dwarf's activity not only showed no signs of stopping but was becoming more intense and severe.
Wasn't this trying to kill him?
Ou Zhanpeng no longer cared about ray bursts or not. His entire attention was focused on the changes in the red dwarf, for fear that this thing would throw a flare and directly vaporize the Starship.
Yes, being submerged by stellar matter was equivalent to falling into a nuclear reactor... Hmm, no, nuclear reactors did not have such high concentrations.
It would be equivalent to falling into a stable nuclear explosion site, and one with unlimited reaction material. No matter how powerful a warship was, it couldn't withstand it!
Tiredly rubbing his temples, Ou Zhanpeng commanded in a low voice, "From now on, everyone will be on a three-shift rotation. Pay close attention to the situation of the red dwarf, and notify me immediately if any abnormalities are found!"
The Starship could only be operated by him. Others could be on duty, but he could not. He had to be on duty twenty-four hours a day without any slack.
At this moment, Ou Zhanpeng deeply felt the malice from the Prophet.
Why didn't you arrange a few more people! You can't just pluck all the wool from one sheep, let alone a person?
Captain Ou had indeed considered whether he could find a way to train more deputies, but after so many years at the Starship Base, he could not find the specific method!
Up to now, he still didn't know what the Prophet had done to him, where those physical changes and the authority to control the Starship came from.
Ou Zhanpeng had once suspected that a biological chip had been implanted in his brain by the Prophet, but no matter what kind of examination, he could not find any abnormality.
He couldn't just cut open his head and slice his brain to find what was wrong, could he?
Two-thirds of the bridge officers retreated, leaving only one-third to hold their posts, with shifts changing every four hours.
During this period, the red dwarf erupted three more times, each time causing chaos on the Starship.
The first two times were just false alarms, but the third time was perilous, with ejected stellar matter coming straight towards the Starship.
The shrill alarm blared madly, instantly waking Ou Zhanpeng from his semi-sleep. He opened his eyes and instantly lost all sleepiness, quickly maneuvering the battleship to dodge.
The detection system had already provided a safe direction, and the battleship sped away from the danger zone at full speed.
However, the time left for the Starship was too short, and there was no possibility of flying out of the danger zone.
The ejected stellar matter quickly spread outward after leaving the red dwarf, forming a large area of high-temperature plasma clouds, which then turned into a high-intensity particle storm.
However, the high intensity here was only to describe the danger. Compared to the gamma-ray burst raging in the void, it was like comparing a winter melon to a pea, or a foxtail millet to a cypress.
The particle storm, moving at a speed slightly slower than the speed of light, was astonishingly fast. The Starship had no time to dodge and could only maximize its shields and prepare to withstand it head-on.
Ou Zhanpeng stared intently at the holographic projection, finding a gap of relatively weak intensity in the particle storm. He suddenly steered the battleship downwards, and like a slippery loach, it drilled into the gap, twisting and turning up and down, like a fish dodging obstacles.
Outside the ship, the shields shone brilliantly, and the sounds of shield energy decreasing were endless.
Ou Zhanpeng turned a deaf ear, fully focused on controlling the battleship. When the shield energy dropped to 61%, the front suddenly cleared, and the particle storm ended.
It came and went as quickly as it arrived, lasting less than a minute.
"Why so fast?" Ling Xiao couldn't help but ask.
Everyone was working in space. They were not astronomers, but they did not lack basic common sense.
Yu Jia, out of professional habit, immediately explained, "Red dwarfs are small in volume and mass. They have already erupted several times, just like volcanic eruptions, dispersing most of the accumulated energy. Therefore, both in scale and duration, this eruption is not as significant as the previous ones."
Her explanation was clear, but her brow furrowed even tighter, "Captain Ou, can you open a wormhole again?"