"Three, two, one, launch!" Ou Zhanpeng commanded. The Starship rebooted its spacetime bubble, and an invisible boundary slowly formed, expanding outwards from the Starship. It first enveloped Io, then Jupiter.
Inside the boundary, there was no particular feeling in the base. Ou Zhanpeng felt a knot of anxiety in his stomach, constantly worried that the spacetime bubble reboot would fail. However, he soon noticed a distinct change in the images outside the boundary—the speeds of Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto slowed down, being constantly overtaken by Io, like a rabbit running wildly, flying past slow-moving turtles.
Everything outside the boundary moved at a maddeningly slow pace.
Ou Zhanpeng had no time to pay attention to this. He immediately found Gong Yiding and announced the successful activation of the spacetime bubble. But when Gong Yiding asked him about the ratio of difference between the inside and outside of the boundary, Ou Zhanpeng couldn't answer at all.
This was the difference between researchers and grunts. The former, no matter what problem they encountered, wanted to investigate the reason, to ask why.
The latter never cared about so much, only asking if it was easy to use.
Regardless, restarting the spacetime bubble was a good thing. Gong Yiding summoned all the researchers and assigned the research tasks.
"In the past, we were always forced to run by aliens. If we didn't run, we would be beaten, and our nation would be annihilated. We could only use all our strength to fight and rush. Now we have time, and we must make up for the missed lessons one by one!"
Gong Yiding said this to Ou Zhanpeng.
Ou Zhanpeng strongly agreed. Anyway, he didn't understand research, so he directly threw all the work to Gong Yiding and became a hands-off boss.
Professional matters should be handled by professionals; amateurs leading experts is unacceptable!
However, not all research was arranged by Gong Yiding. Ou Zhanpeng also made a few requests. First, shield research must be put on the agenda, and human energy shields must be developed as soon as possible.
Preserving oneself is the prerequisite for defeating the enemy, so shields are naturally of utmost importance.
Second, wormhole research must be expedited.
Since ancient times, speed has equaled mobility, and in space combat, wormholes equal mobility. Their importance is no less than that of shields.
Third, alien weapons and equipment.
This suggestion was jokingly called the "Ou's Three Researches" by the researchers.
However, Ou Zhanpeng only had the power to suggest; whether to listen or not was up to Gong Yiding. As a result, out of the more than two thousand researchers in the base, three-quarters were in a state of free research, and the remaining quarter only worked on the "Three Researches" incidentally while conducting other research.
But, speaking of which, most of the research on the Starship was related to military affairs. Perhaps a technology that seemed completely unrelated might make a breakthrough, ultimately leading to a leap in the "Three Researches."
For example, regarding the White Ship, researchers discovered that it had two wormhole systems. One was for long-distance jumps, requiring immense energy, precise coordinates, and a lot of time to complete the preliminary work. It was a built-in interstellar highway. The other was a combat wormhole system, which was faster and took less time, allowing for rapid transfers within a certain range.
However, opening a wormhole during combat was inherently a very dangerous act. Whether to use it or not was a very perplexing question.
There were many similar research findings.
After a period of time, as the various research teams gradually got on track, Ou Zhanpeng suddenly found that everyone was busy from sunrise to sunset, while he was idle.
He couldn't help it. The base needed him everywhere. If it weren't for that, he wouldn't want to stay here.
To pass the time, he spent most of his time in the sleep pods, both to reduce unnecessary activities and to minimize the impact of time acceleration.
Outside the boundary, on Callisto.
Beneath a dark red sky, a small island with jagged rocks stood tall in the depths of a black sea.
It was Tianya Island, where Jupiter Base One, recently completed, was located right in the center—the second-largest island on Callisto's surface. This island had cliffs on three sides and a steep slope on one, making it strategically advantageous and difficult to attack.
For this reason, it was the best choice for housing the base, bar none!
However, there were no researchers in the base, only fully armed combat personnel and a large amount of combat equipment. It was essentially a military base.
At the edge of Tianya Island, blue-black waves surged, crashing fiercely against the cliffs. Amidst the muffled crashing sounds, they shattered into scattered spray.
At the top of the cliff, Xu Qing, wearing an oxygen mask, looked up at the sky, personally witnessing the spacetime bubble reboot, watching Jupiter gradually fade, and Io and the Starship base accelerate, finally becoming two shadows circling Jupiter at high speed, trailing long tails.
Time inside and outside the boundary was now different. Jupiter's brightness had significantly increased. The sky had turned from dusk to daylight. The surrounding temperature was rising, and even the seawater had changed from black to deep blue, gaining a sense of clarity.
It was evident that although Jupiter itself had not changed, for those outside the boundary, the light and heat it released per unit of time had increased dozens of times. How could Callisto not change?
Xu Qing sensed something was wrong and immediately returned to the base. A moment later, the base's alarm blared, and it entered a state of full alert.
In the following days, the environmental temperature on Callisto rose sharply, with the surface temperature breaking the 70-degree mark. No one dared to expose themselves to Jupiter's light, as they would be sunburnt in an instant and die of dehydration in a short period.
According to satellite feedback, the ocean temperature on Callisto was also rapidly increasing, with an average water temperature exceeding 50 degrees—warm enough to scald your feet without preheating.
A large amount of water evaporated due to the extremely high temperature. Callisto's front was filled with changing weather patterns, while the back experienced torrential rain. The accumulated seawater continuously flowed from the back to the front, forming a circulation system.
Due to Callisto's weak gravity, a large amount of water vapor escaped the fragile atmosphere, and the sea level actually showed a noticeable decrease.
The Tianya base took this opportunity to deploy a batch of machine fish to search for Brain Fish everywhere. However, it was regrettable that the oceans of Callisto were much deeper than expected. Just a few dozen meters of seawater could shield them from the high heat on the surface, so the Brain Fish had no need to worry about their own safety.
If Callisto was like this, the situation on Europa and Ganymede was even more severe. Especially on Europa, where the sea surface temperature was already much higher than on Callisto. At this time, it became even more unbearable. Under Jupiter's scorching heat, the seawater boiled violently, and storms churned on the sea surface, eventually forming global super-storms.
The storms slightly cooled the overheated moon, but after the storms ended, the seawater would re-boil in a very short period, initiating another, even more astonishing storm.
Ganymede was slightly better, but only slightly.
The Tianya base soon discovered a batch of photos that astonished everyone—on the azure sea, waves were surging. Amidst the churning waves, several motionless Brain Fish drifted with the current.
"How is this possible?" Ling Xiao was the first to express doubt.
Europa's ocean was hundreds of kilometers deep. No matter where the Brain Fish hid, they would be safe. How could a large number of them die?
Now, it wasn't an ocean at all, but fish soup!
Unable to figure out the reason, they couldn't release machine fish into Europa, so everyone could only wait in frustration.
Half a month passed in the blink of an eye. One morning, Xu Qing was suddenly awakened by her companion. As soon as she opened her eyes, she found the light outside the window very dim. She immediately realized what had happened and rushed outside.
As expected, Jupiter had returned to normal. Callisto's environmental temperature was decreasing, and the seawater temperature had also dropped slightly.
Looking up, the Starship base was still near Io, but the Starship was flying towards Callisto.
Xu Qing's mind was in a mess. It had only been half a month?
Others were also discussing among themselves, some saying it was equipment malfunction, some saying energy shortage, and some saying the experiment had an accident. Although rumors weren't flying everywhere, it was indeed chaotic for a while.
Half a day later, the Starship arrived. Ou Zhanpeng, along with accompanying technicians, landed at the base.
The moment he stepped out of the cabin, Ou immediately saw Xu Qing in the crowd. He pushed aside others and rushed towards her, staring at her speechlessly.
Ten years of separation, and she was still the same as before.
His eyes held longing, remembrance, and an unsolvable deep affection. Regardless of what Xu Qing thought, Ou Zhanpeng hugged her tightly, as if trying to merge her into his body.
Xu Qing quickly pushed him away, "What are you doing? So many people are watching!"
"Let me hold you for a moment!" Ou Zhanpeng greedily inhaled her scent, his joy evident.
After a while, Ou Zhanpeng calmed down and pulled Xu Qing to talk about his longing.
But Xu Qing felt embarrassed to death. She whispered, "It's only been half a month for me here. Although I miss you too, it's not to this extent. What should I say?"
Ou Zhanpeng shook his head, "You don't need to say anything, just let me talk and you listen."
Xu Qing was completely helpless, "Okay then, you talk, I'll listen."
On this day, Ou Zhanpeng spoke a lot, and Xu Qing mostly listened quietly.
They had been together for several years, and it was the first time she felt so awkward. Later, she took the initiative and asked about the research results over the years, successfully changing the topic.
It happened to be the right question. Xu Qing learned that the Starship base had suspended the spacetime bubble for equipment maintenance and had to return to Earth to deliver the research results accumulated over the years and to pick up another batch of researchers.
The schedule was quite tight.
Ou Zhanpeng cherished this brief reunion and took her onto the Starship to return to Earth together.
After all, she was just one more person.
Xu Qing met Gong Yiding and several other familiar old professors on the warship. She was surprised to find that each of them looked much older than they had half a month ago.
Ou Zhanpeng had also changed a lot, appearing more mature, but he didn't seem aged.
Xu Qing couldn't help but say, "I'll go with you this time."
She had originally wanted to stay at the base with Ou Zhanpeng, but Ou Zhanpeng didn't want her to waste her precious youth in the spacetime bubble and had firmly refused.
Unable to persuade Ou Zhanpeng, she finally agreed.
As a result, nothing much happened to her, but Ou Zhanpeng endured ten years of longing. Thinking back now, he himself felt that his decision back then was incredibly foolish.
Therefore, he agreed without hesitation.
The warship arrived at Earth in an instant. The researchers assembled in the Cloud Palace quickly transferred to the Starship, and various supplies were loaded onto the ship, making preparations for the return journey.
Gong Yiding, meanwhile, reported the research achievements of the past decade to Yanjing.
Only then did Xu Qing learn that the research team had made great efforts in various raw materials over the past decade, developing over a hundred types of new materials. Several of these alloys had performance comparable to alien metals. Once industrial production was realized, even without any upgrades, the performance of humanity's current warships would greatly improve!
After leaving detailed research data, the Starship returned to Jupiter.
From then on, every half month, the spacetime bubble would be closed once to perform equipment maintenance and contact Earth, leave research results, and bring more researchers to Jupiter.
Not only researchers but also a large number of combat personnel.
According to the superiors' plan, the Starship carried humanity's last hope. The researchers had to be the top tier, the warships the most advanced, and the combat personnel the most elite.
However, only researchers could enter the base; combat personnel had to remain at the Tianya base.
Xu Qing did not get her wish. After the end of the second decade, Ou Zhanpeng absolutely refused to let her stay at the base any longer.
A woman's youth lasted only a few years; it couldn't be wasted in the spacetime bubble.
It was during these ten years that research in all aspects experienced a comprehensive leap. Shield technology, propulsion technology, and weapon technology flourished. Even wormhole technology had found some clues.
In the third decade, the base added manufacturing equipment and hundreds of industrial workers.
New technologies had been developed, but manufacturing warships using traditional methods was time-consuming and labor-intensive. Only by manufacturing new ships within the spacetime bubble could a powerful fleet be acquired in the shortest possible time!
When the spacetime bubble closed again, what appeared before Xu Qing and the others was no longer the solitary Starship, but a fleet of seven ships led by the Starship!
Four of the seven ships were not new; they were made by recycling and repairing the wreckage of warships around the Starship base.
It wasn't that they didn't want to build new ships, but that wormhole technology had not yet broken through. Only by modifying old ships could a true interstellar fleet be acquired in the shortest possible time!
The other two warships, although newly built, had their wormhole systems salvaged from the wreckage of old ships. Their self-production rate was only about 50%.
This result was far from the military's expectations, and research would inevitably continue.
Although less than two months had passed in the outside world, a long thirty years had passed in the base. The first batch of researchers who entered the base had gone from their prime to a group of white-haired elders.
But when Gong Yiding returned to Earth again to report the research achievements to Yanjing, all the top leaders on the other side of the screen were stunned.
The Gong Yiding they were familiar with was an elder nearly eighty years old with a wrinkled face. But the Gong Yiding in front of them was a young man in his early twenties, full of vigor!
A thought suddenly appeared in everyone's minds: Could the Starship base not only accelerate time but also reverse it?