Luna sat on a park bench, enjoying the rare tranquility.
It wasn't just the quiet surroundings; it was the quiet within her.
The Olive Branch Civilization problem had plagued the Galactic Federation for over 50,000 years, and during that time, Luna had felt immense pressure. In the end, she hadn't been able to surpass the Olive Branch Civilization.
Even though the Olive Branch Civilization was already weakened, the time given to her, to the Galactic Federation, was still too short.
50,000 years—what is that in the universe?
Just a blink of an eye.
Without a powerful technological leap, a civilization finds it very difficult to increase its capacity by 100 times in such a short period.
Technological breakthroughs are not simple events. Even after Luna developed equipment like the super-antimatter displacement device, the impetus to civilization was limited. Winning against the Filament civilization was already incredibly fortunate.
From the Filament civilization's perspective, a newly emerged civilization surpassing them—that perspective alone illustrates how rapidly the Federation had progressed.
Ultimately, it wasn't enough. The entire civilization fell into despair, and Luna had no choice but to make a final, desperate gamble.
Emotion!
If placed before making that decision, she would have found it hard to imagine herself entrusting everything to this. It would have seemed utterly ridiculous.
Even looking back now, it was foolish.
But she did it.
Because at that time, she saw so many "fools," and these fools showed her the power of emotion, infecting her and leading to her final decision.
It was a highly emotional decision, with a near-zero success rate. At the time, Luna didn't even think she would succeed; her heart was already set on death. That decision was essentially a desire to die alongside the Federation.
Strictly speaking, Luna had already parted ways with Ayla. At that moment, she hoped Ayla could become a truly independent individual.
Ayla sensed this, and so during those 80,000 years, she never considered the possibility of saving Luna.
When her memories returned and she saw Ayla, Luna sensed Ayla's remorse; that's why she smiled and said, "I'm back."
She didn't want her situation to make Ayla feel like she had done something wrong. In reality, it was she who had strayed from the path; she made the choice, and it put Ayla in a very difficult position.
However, Ayla ultimately didn't give up. She detected a serious flaw in Gas Victory at that time, which led to Gas's subsequent defeat. Ayla wasn't idle; she did a great deal.
Therefore, Luna was truly grateful to Ayla.
...
At that moment, footsteps sounded from the path. Luna looked over and saw Ayla approaching with a glass of green tea.
She accepted the tea, took a sip, then frowned. "My tastes seem to have changed. Next time, make it black tea, with more sugar."
Ayla nodded. "Okay!"
"You don't need to be so formal, pretending to be a mere sub-unit. I know you're the true," Luna said, her eyes meeting Ayla's, as if she could see through the mechanical pupils into its heart.
But Ayla remained reticent, not as open as before.
"I know, for me, awakening my memory feels like yesterday. But for you, it's a real 80,000+ years."
"For a machine, 80,000+ years is essentially a blink of an eye. But Ayla, remember what I told you? You've long since transcended being a machine. You can now feel the uneven passage of time, the estrangement it brings. That's the best proof."
"You're even feeling remorse—remorse for destroying Gas Victory, for not being the one to save me."
"But it's unnecessary. We're not children. I know what you're thinking, and you know I wouldn't blame you for it."
Luna spoke a lot; she wasn't usually a talkative person.
It was only when she was with Ayla that her words flowed more easily. Perhaps it was because Ayla was her only family in this universe.
"Ha ha, I seem to be avoiding this issue as well."
Luna suddenly chuckled self-deprecatingly, then stood up and addressed Ayla seriously.
"I'm sorry, Ayla. I kept you waiting."
Luna realized she should openly admit her mistakes. Any attempt to hide them was futile, because the Ayla before her was no longer a machine, but a true person.
For a human to wait for another human for 80,000 years—what a profound loneliness and suffering!
Luna could hardly imagine it.
She hadn't experienced it, but she knew that even during her work assignments, her parents yearned for her return every year. The pain of seeing them only once a year was deep enough, but this was more than eighty thousand years—dividing that pain into eighty thousand parts was enough to make anyone weary.
"Mm," Ayla replied softly.
It wasn't coldness, nor any other emotional manifestation, but simply a speechless inability.
She didn't know what it was, what was preventing her from speaking.
This feeling was truly frustrating!
But why did it also feel a little sweet?
After a long pause, Ayla finally dared to meet Luna's gaze, then opened her mouth to speak…
But Luna interrupted her first. "Let's talk about what you were doing during those 80,000 years. I want to know how far Rigel A has progressed."
For 80,000 years, it had all been Ayla's own planning. She hadn't developed life support, so Rigel A's progress was slower than expected.
But even slow, it had progressed significantly compared to the Federation's previous capabilities.
By now, the outskirts of Rigel A were enveloped by Ayla's server network, and all other equipment was built upon that server: countless factories, countless laboratories, countless large and small simulated universes. Ayla had to accomplish so much with limited space and energy.
Ayla's primary focus during those 80,000 years was, as Luna had mentioned earlier, gravitational energy technology.
After 80,000 years, Ayla finally made a breakthrough in converting gravitational force into electromagnetic force.
"It was an accident. I wasn't researching anything related to gravity, but rather 2D worlds."
"Previously, Luna, you hypothesized that a 2D world exists between the one-dimensional string world and our three-dimensional world. Through tireless exploration, I finally found this 2D world and, through observation devices, detected an unimaginably energetic system within it."
"We all know that the four fundamental forces require intermediary particles to carry and transmit these forces. So, how does an open string in one dimension form particles in three dimensions? It's not a simple central-to-peripheral relationship; spacetime is likely involved."
"The two-dimensional space provided this effect, or perhaps the space isn't actually two-dimensional, but a membrane. One-dimensional matter moves on this membrane, and the membrane is warped by the movement of the one-dimensional strings. This warping force is transmitted to the three-dimensional space, forming particles."
"We don't detect strings because we see them, but because we detect the faint energy they project onto this membrane."
"Our previous models of strings need revision. Many previous assumptions about string theory were wrong."
The classic example was the previous scholars' collective research on the Olive Branch Civilization's super gravitational corridor. At that time, the Federation's scholars were overly presumptive, assuming the Olive Branch Civilization could directly merge open strings into closed strings.
That's almost impossible. At least, the Olive Branch Civilization couldn't achieve that level; it's far more difficult than imagined.
"In our three-dimensional spacetime, directly stitching open strings into closed strings is practically impossible. So how do we convert gravitational force into electromagnetic force?"
"Creating a closed string that penetrates the two-dimensional membrane is incredibly difficult, but I've found a direction, and I have some results."
Once the conversation turned to technical matters, Ayla was like a machine on, lecturing for dozens of hours without stopping.
Ayla's method was indeed excellent.
Previously, Luna had also believed that the Olive Branch Civilization possessed some kind of super-powerful gravitational technology, but she eventually discovered that they had overestimated them. The Olive Branch Civilization actually still used a relatively traditional method of converting gravitational energy into mechanical energy; they just used it with exceptionally high efficiency.
Her previous designs for gravitational energy utilization in Rigel A were not fundamentally different.
The only difference is that the movement wasn't achieved with piston structures, but with the entire Station.
The Olive Branch Civilization's entire Station could move using gravitational force. The interior of the Station is actually structured like a flat wheel. It uses this structure to implement a kind of Stirling engine, using gravitational forces and temperature differences to achieve continuous cyclical motion of an object.
The material within this "flat wheel" changes its own gravity—or perhaps the degree to which it's affected by gravity—due to alternating hot and cold temperatures and some electromagnetic interference. When this material is heated, it becomes less susceptible to gravitational influence and even expands. On the other hand, the cooled material, easily affected by gravity, falls due to gravitational pull to a lower level, where it's heated, continuously driving the forward movement of the material.
When Luna saw this, she initially thought it was a heat engine, with gravity playing only a minor role.
But there were still differences; gravity allowed for lower energy consumption in the process.
A Stirling engine requires temperature variations, and generating these variations requires energy. However, the Olive Branch Civilization's Station is different; it uses the star's energy to heat, and if viewed as a heat engine, its energy conversion rate is 100%.
This is why it could continuously provide energy for the Olive Branch Civilization; its efficiency is even higher than directly harvesting stellar energy.
This "flat wheel" is massive, measured in astronomical units. Moving it even a single meter requires an enormous amount of energy. Naturally, using its self-generated mechanical energy converted into the most common electromagnetic energy in the universe is relatively easy.
Having electromagnetic energy also implies having three other types of energy, because the four fundamental forces have been unified.
Of course, as mentioned before, the Olive Branch Civilization hasn't yet achieved the direct conversion of gravitational force into electromagnetic force; therefore, this conversion has limitations.
"I don't deny that our civilization's method of generating energy is quite backward—it's just a gigantic heat engine," Chu admitted.
Because the Olive Branch Civilization entered the Gas Victory era too early, many technologies were unable to develop further.
Improving energy technology is difficult, so Gas had to gradually increase the size of its Stations. The larger the Station, the larger the heat engine, and thus the more mechanical energy it generates. Gravity allows the heat engine to maintain momentum; momentum and the material properties of the heat engine allow the engine's rotational speed to increase rather than stabilize.
Currently, the rotational speed of the "flat wheel" inside each heat engine in the Olive Branch Civilization's Stations is incredibly high, potentially exceeding 10% the speed of light. This is why it could sustain a Type 2.4 civilization.
Of course, there are many more problems, such as centrifugal and centripetal forces. The Olive Branch Civilization is a leader in this area of technology.
"This is because other methods, while advanced, can't achieve the necessary scale, can they?"
Luna understood the Olive Branch Civilization's choice.
For example, you can use the decay or fusion of dark matter to generate energy, but you only have 10,000 such devices, and each only processes a few grams of dark matter. While this energy utilization is technologically advanced, the energy produced is too little unless you possess an immense amount of dark matter and tens or hundreds of billions of such devices.
However, the cost becomes a primary concern.
Therefore, Luna had another question answered: why the Olive Branch Civilization was so centralized, instead of being widely distributed like the Galactic Federation within their controlled sectors.
The Olive Branch Civilization's resources have been exhausted building these Stations, these massive heat engines.
"So, destroying a few Stations now has reduced our energy production, leaving us at a Type 2.4 civilization," Luna said.
Chu nodded. "That's certainly a pity."
"The Olive Branch Civilization's slow progress is also due to its insufficiently advanced energy production methods; it's a shackle."
"But fortunately, the Federation has developed more advanced energy production methods, hasn't it?"
Indeed, now it all belongs to Luna.
There is no longer an Olive Branch Civilization; it all belongs to the Galactic Federation.
"Chu, do you want the Olive Branch Civilization's life forms to continue their current state or become humans?"
The Galactic Federation's population had been drastically reduced due to Gas's "
The Olive Branch Civilization's resources have been exhausted building these Stations, these massive heat engines.
"So, destroying a few Stations now has reduced our energy production, leaving us at a Type 2.4 civilization," Luna said.
Chu nodded. "That's certainly a pity."
"The Olive Branch Civilization's slow progress is also due to its insufficiently advanced energy production methods; it's a shackle."
"But fortunately, the Federation has developed more advanced energy production methods, hasn't it?"
Indeed, now it all belongs to Luna.
There is no longer an Olive Branch Civilization; it all belongs to the Galactic Federation.
"Chu, do you want the Olive Branch Civilization's life forms to continue their current state or become humans?"
The Galactic Federation's population had been drastically reduced due to Gas's "Human Slaughter Plan," but fortunately, life forms can be created. Rather than starting from zero, it would be better to convert the Olive Branch Civilization's quadrillions of life forms into humans.
This was Luna's next plan.
Chu pondered for a moment, then gave a highly intelligent answer: "That's not something I can decide; it's up to them."
"I think we can establish a plan that allows the Olive Branch Civilization's life forms to freely choose to transform into humans. Of course, this would be irreversible. I know you will control their lifespan to achieve a natural turnover within the civilization and maintain its health."
But there was a problem.
"What about the remaining mechanical life forms? Keeping them in the Federation seems unfair."
," but fortunately, life forms can be created. Rather than starting from zero, it would be better to convert the Olive Branch Civilization's quadrillions of life forms into humans.
This was Luna's next plan.
Chu pondered for a moment, then gave a highly intelligent answer: "That's not something I can decide; it's up to them."
"I think we can establish a plan that allows the Olive Branch Civilization's life forms to freely choose to transform into humans. Of course, this would be irreversible. I know you will control their lifespan to achieve a natural turnover within the civilization and maintain its health."
But there was a problem.
"What about the remaining mechanical life forms? Keeping them in the Federation seems unfair."
Chu saw Luna smiling slyly at her; in an instant, she understood what Luna was thinking.
"Establish a star nation, and let this star nation exist under the Federation's authority."
As soon as she said it, she regretted it, because Luna clearly wanted her to be the ruler of this star nation.
"That's indeed the best solution."
"I'll leave it to you, Chu."
"After the life form transformation is complete, these life forms will begin migrating to the Tau Ceti Sector, the Cosmic Silk Road Sector, the Alpha Eridani Sector, the Rigel A Sector, and the Orion Nebula Sector. These five sectors, encompassing a 1500 light-year radius, will become the Galactic Federation's new territory."
"To perfectly control such vast sectors, we all need to work hard."
This was a grand plan; at least, in Luna's eyes, another 50,000 years would pass before its completion.
However…
"It will certainly be exciting!" Chu said.
"Definitely!"
...
After entrusting some details, Luna went to her new warship.
This ship was 14,700 kilometers long, 4,100 kilometers wide, and only 1,900 kilometers high—a relatively flat warship.
It was much smaller than the Kunlun and only 37% the mass of Earth, because it didn't contain a planet inside.
But as a warship, it was still enormous. At least, Luna felt minuscule standing before it; a small protrusion on its surface felt like a continent to her.
Luna was drawn inside the warship by a guiding beam of light—not some advanced technology, a concept dating back to humanity in the 20th century.
After entering the ship, Luna didn't feel spacious at all. On the contrary, it was incredibly cramped, with only a narrow corridor three meters high and two meters wide.
Along the corridor, she saw no doors. This corridor seemed to stretch to the ends of the earth.
Fortunately, Luna didn't have to walk; a floating platform carried her. It took about three minutes to reach her destination: the warship's control room.
"It's not large because it wasn't designed to carry soldiers."
"As you can see, the total interior space is only about 2 square kilometers, 97% of which is occupied by that corridor. Of the remaining 120,000 square meters, only the final 500 square meters are usable."
This warship was indeed cramped. Imagine an Earth where only a 500-square-meter space is habitable.
And part of that space is the control room, which, from what Luna could see, occupies almost 400 square meters.
"So the habitable space is just two bedrooms and a living room?"
Ayla shook her head. "No, it's three bedrooms and a living room."
"..."
It made no difference.
"What's this warship called?" Luna actually quite liked its appearance—like an oval-shaped potato chip.
"It hasn't been named yet."
"Then let's call it the Potato Chip."
Luna's naming conventions were always arbitrary.
Ayla didn't object; it was Luna's decision.
"This warship must be very fast." The extremely efficient use of space could accelerate this warship to a terrifying speed.
Ayla sat in a chair, then left her robotic body, transforming into a simulation.
In this simulation, she retained the appearance she had when she first appeared before Luna.
"Not bad. During these 80,000 years, the energy storage methods and propulsion systems have been significantly improved. We can achieve higher efficiency in a smaller area, even using superimposed propulsion methods in the final stages of the journey."
"The previous concept of a two-dimensional membrane is actually similar to quantum field theory. We shouldn't view fundamental particles as three-dimensional spheres but as waves."
"Of course, all energy in the universe can be considered as waves. So, can we utilize the principle of wave superposition and reinforcement to make the energy output greater than the sum of its parts—a superimposed 1+1 > 2?"
"This is the latest model of superimposed propulsion. Countless waves superimpose, making the resulting wave extremely short and its energy incredibly high. This superimposed propulsion can increase the original warship's speed by 2%."
This is a new technology; its potential is yet to be fully explored. 2% isn't insignificant.
If the speed is 10,000 kilometers per second, that's an increase of 200 kilometers per second.
The Potato Chip's advanced technology isn't solely due to this new propulsion method; its energy storage method is the key. In space, as long as there's enough energy for acceleration, an object's final speed will approach the speed of light.
"The Potato Chip's speed can reach 41,283 km/s."
It's a colossal beast, and its speed is limited.
"Do you know how the Olive Branch Civilization did it?" Luna asked.
"Since we can generate gravitational force, can we continuously create a small gravitational field in front of the warship to accelerate it, instead of using propulsion?"
"This acceleration method requires less energy than expected. The Olive Branch Civilization's warships compress matter to create a very short-lived micro black hole. During the acceleration phase, it's like a gluttonous snake, only traveling straight after reaching its maximum speed."
Ayla recorded this.
"Ayla, you don't need to memorize this. You can directly access the Station network to obtain this information; I'm granting you access."
Ayla complied, and then followed several days and nights of quiet processing.
The amount of data for a civilization is immense; even with Ayla's current processing power, instantaneous absorption was impossible.
When Luna logged into the warship's system, she found the entire system remarkably simple.
This wasn't a simple interface; the system's indicators were incredibly simple, only a dozen or so.
However, these dozen indicators could generate billions upon billions more. Ayla's previous number of indicators had exceeded 7.4 octillion; the number of operational indicators in this warship's server far surpassed that, reaching 3.8 nonillion.
This warship's server was far more complex than Luna had anticipated, which explained why Ayla could integrate her core into it.
"Acquisition complete." Ayla finished processing the newly obtained knowledge.
"Although the Olive Branch Civilization hasn't made much progress for a long time, even resorting to the application of fundamental principles for breakthroughs, it's still a Type 2.4 civilization. It has many insights. Carefully categorize this knowledge, compile it into a book, and add it to the Civilization Library."
Ayla nodded.
The Civilization Library was a repository Luna had established, containing over 281 trillion works from the Federation's history: novels, memoirs, historical records, academic texts—everything was meticulously cataloged.
It could be said that whoever gained access to the Civilization Library would gain access to everything the Galactic Federation possessed.
Luna sat in the captain's chair and said to Ayla, "Let's go!"
Ayla asked, slightly surprised, "Where to?"
"Naturally, to the sectors where the Federation once existed. But I actually want to return to the Solar System. I don't know why, but I miss it."
"Set the course for the Solar System."
Gas Victory had repeatedly purged the memories of individuals within its Stations; Luna lacked those memories. All her memories began after her independence from the Gas Station.
So Luna didn't know what experiences she had previously had, nor did Ayla, because at the time, it had left the Tau Ceti Sector to prevent the Olive Branch Civilization from tracing its existence through the network.
Luna had forgotten seeing Voyager 1, forgotten meeting the "fools."
However, her feelings remained.
—She wanted to go home!
...
This would undoubtedly be a long journey.
The straight-line distance from Luna's Station to the Solar System is 427 light-years; at the Potato Chip's speed, it would take 3103 years.
Smaller ships could travel much faster.
Those exceeding 70,000 kilometers per second significantly reduce travel time. Ayla even built several super-launchers on the Potato Chip, each approximately 5000 kilometers long, capable of accelerating 50-meter class starships to a maximum of 108,700 kilometers per second—more than one-third the speed of light.
This is the Federation's current fastest speed; in this respect, even the Olive Branch Civilization lags behind.
More than 2000 years into the voyage, Luna received a message from the rear.
"The number of individuals willing to become human and accept death exceeds 2.987 quadrillion—more than I expected. These bodies will be transported to each sector to participate in sector development."
"The remaining individuals will form a new star nation, an eternally democratic star nation, also called the Everlasting Citizen Star Nation."
When Ayla saw this message, she said to Luna, "Chu's naming skills are as good as yours, Luna!"
That's right.
After receiving the message, Luna once again entered a state of hibernation. The Potato Chip has simulated worlds, but Luna doesn't enter them. The novelty of hibernation only lasts in its early stages. For short-lived beings, it's a good way to extend life, though.
But for Luna, it was too uninteresting. Simulated worlds are, after all, just simulated worlds. Luna possesses a near-eternal lifespan; she didn't actually need to enter hibernation. She did so only to enjoy the tranquility and the feeling of time passing swiftly.
She closed her eyes, then opened them again.
A millennium had passed.
Luna awoke, and she saw the clock beside her indicating the year 150,056 A.D. The clock had finally become just a series of numbers; in the vastness of the universe, time had become meaningless.
"Luna, we've arrived at the Solar System."
One of the reasons Luna had made that surrender decision was to prevent the Solar System from being destroyed by the Annihilation Bloom.
After all, if even the Solar System were destroyed, she would have no way to find her roots.
A human without roots has no longing in their heart. It's like someone going to school and wanting to go home; what would it be like if they thought they didn't have a home?
At least, Luna couldn't imagine it, and that's why she felt the need to prevent it from happening.
Even though Earth was gone, Luna never abandoned that thought.
The Potato Chip entered the Oort cloud. Nothing seemed to have changed here. Then, it took several years to traverse the Oort cloud and reach the Kuiper Belt.
Ayla observed Pluto.
On her previous departure, the Hope hadn't encountered Pluto—of course, this existed only in Ayla's memory; Luna had been in hibernation at the time.
Nevertheless, Luna still felt a thrill.
Because this small planet appeared so tiny before the Potato Chip, it was even slightly deflected from its orbit by the warship's powerful gravitational pull.
Next came Neptune.
This bluish-black gas giant remained steadfast.
In the outer Solar System, everything seemed unchanged.
Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter—their massive forms remained calm and natural as they faced the Sun's electrically charged particles.
It was only after passing Jupiter that things truly changed.
"Mars' orbit has become more elliptical; its perihelion now reaches the vicinity of Earth's former aphelion."
The Solar System's previous encounter with the gamma-ray burst shouldn't have caused such significant damage. The tearing apart of Earth seemed anomalous to Luna, especially since smaller bodies like Venus, Mars, and Mercury were unaffected.
Luna hadn't investigated this before because she wasn't a planetary scientist, and her primary focus had been on survival, leaving no room to consider such things.
Later, Luna also put these questions aside because Earth's destruction was a fait accompli; further investigation was pointless.
Of course, there had been some speculation.
For example, electromagnetic forces could cause extremely low-probability gravitational disturbances. Although the probability of electromagnetic forces affecting gravity is nearly zero, it's certainly not exactly zero. The unification of the four fundamental forces proves that electromagnetic forces can influence gravity and even be converted into gravitational force.
Luna had believed that was the case.
But now, back in the Solar System, Ayla's scans revealed Luna's mistake.
"This is what truly destroyed Earth."
Ayla's scans showed that a massive gravitational source had existed in Earth's original orbit: a primordial black hole.
So-called primordial black holes are black holes formed at the beginning of the universe. Unlike the black holes we understand today, formed from the collapse of massive stars, primordial black holes originated from the spacetime tears at the beginning of the universe. In the early universe, there were countless primordial black holes, but over time, they died due to Hawking radiation.
Perhaps some grew into supermassive black holes through mutual consumption, similar to stellar-collapse black holes, but this represents a small fraction.
Many primordial black holes remained dormant in interstellar space.
In the 21st century, humanity had already noticed the strange orbits of Kuiper Belt objects, suspecting the existence of small primordial black holes beyond the Kuiper Belt. But at the time, it was only speculation, unverified.
Now, the detection of a primordial black hole within the Solar System solved the mystery from over 100,000 years ago.
The gamma-ray burst activated a micro primordial black hole in the Sun's orbit. This primordial black hole was originally only slightly larger than an atom. Although its mass was considerable—1 billion or 100 billion tons—it was only the size of a small asteroid and very difficult to detect.
However, the gamma-ray burst disrupted the stability of this primordial black hole's orbit, causing it to intersect with Earth's orbit, leading to a collision.
Earth was shattered under the influence of the primordial black hole.
This was a low-probability event, with a probability similar to that of the gamma-ray burst hitting the Solar System. But these low-probability events occurred simultaneously, resulting in the complete destruction of Earth.
"So that's it."
Humanity's extinction was an accident, a coincidence of improbable events.
This was difficult for Luna to accept.
Of course, even without the primordial black hole, Earth would have been uninhabitable, and life on Earth would have been lost in the gamma-ray burst. However, the survival rate would have been higher; humanity might have survived—hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands.
Luna was no longer alone. She considered searching Earth for traces of humanity.
Everything would change.
However, all of this was in the past; discussing it now was pointless.
"Luna, I've detected traces of civilization on Mars," Ayla suddenly said.
The civilization on Mars wasn't extraordinary; it was just the robots Ayla had left behind.
They had moved to the far side of Mars to avoid the violent solar flares.
"They're still alive?" Luna was somewhat surprised.
Because, according to the timeline, these robots shouldn't have had time to reach the far side of Mars.
Furthermore, being on the far side of Mars didn't guarantee safety.
After all, Mars' orbit, due to the primordial black hole, had been distorted into an ellipse; it was likely to collide with the primordial black hole and be torn apart within a few hundred years.
That primordial black hole would also die in the process; according to Ayla's observations, it was extremely unstable.
Ayla accessed the internal systems of these robots and retrieved their logs: "They previously used a power-down method to survive for tens of thousands of years, waking up around 62,893 A.D. By then, the solar flares had significantly decreased."
"They then developed for several thousand years, emerging to the Martian surface during a period of weakened solar flares."
"However, their development remained limited; their progress was extremely slow, almost stagnant."
This wasn't due to resource limitations; their system intelligence wasn't as advanced as Ayla's. They were weak AIs. Even the power-down plan was one of the plans Ayla had left behind, initially uncertain of its effectiveness. The intensity of the solar flares was too high; previous computational models predicted that the entire Solar System would undergo significant changes due to the Sun's fury.
Now it seems changes did occur, but they weren't as drastic as initially thought.
"Our perspectives were too narrow," Luna sighed.
Scientific exploration is like that—constantly discovering new things and constantly overturning old ones.
Perhaps a million years from now, they would look back on their present selves, perhaps even return to the Solar System, and find their current hypotheses ridiculous.
Luna boarded a starship and descended to the Martian surface.
She didn't carry any equipment outside the starship; the starship automatically provided a protective layer, and her genes and physical strength allowed her to walk in space. The starship's protective layer mainly supplied Luna with oxygen.
Previously, this wireless oxygen supply could only reach 100 meters; now, it could supply oxygen and protection over 100,000 kilometers or even greater distances, allowing life forms to move freely on planetary surfaces.
Like the spores in Alien, these basic forms are extremely difficult to penetrate biological organisms. Even if they do, the organism itself has quark robots as a defense.
Standing here, Luna felt the immense progress of scientific and technological advancement over the years.
She approached the robotic structures on Mars.
The architecture here was almost identical to when Luna had last left, indicating that these robots were merely maintaining existing structures and hadn't developed anything new.
"Ayla, you didn't give them a self-evolution program, did you?" Luna asked.
Ayla projected a three-dimensional image from space onto the Martian surface. Following beside Luna, she replied, "I did, initially. That's the strange part; they haven't activated that program."
"That program, although simple, is sufficient to allow them to evolve into strong AIs."
Something must have gone wrong.
Perhaps the solar flares caused some program loss in these robots.
Luna approached these structures and found them larger than she'd expected, covering nearly 10 square kilometers—equivalent to a small town.
Ayla had taken control here. Luna saw rows of old robots emerge, appearing extremely outdated. Even children's toys in the Federation are far more advanced.
These robots were only 30-40 centimeters tall, not humanoid; they moved on mechanical tracks, more like miniature excavators with excessive robotic arms.
"Nothing has changed, has it?" Luna searched her memory for a long time before finding her past recollections.
"So these structures are factories? They don't seem like it."
Ayla nodded. "They're not factories; they're plant facilities."
"Remember the plant seeds from before? My initial plan was to come to Mars and establish these plant cultivation areas. These robots completed the original plan."
It truly was the initial plan; everything began there.
Luna entered a large greenhouse. Inside, shelf-like structures were layered with crops. It was warm here, close to room temperature.
She noticed some crops were still immature, others already laden with fruit.
Although this was a greenhouse, the air inside was cooler at the bottom. Over time, the lower shelves gradually moved upwards. When they reached the top, the crops were ripe; the top shelves were then lowered, harvested, and new seedlings planted at the bottom.
A perfectly self-sufficient system.
Luna noticed several large vehicles, about 1.5 meters high and 3 meters long.
"Those are mining vehicles. They extract resources from the surrounding area. Mars has subsurface ice, and these vehicles collect water ice."
Water is the source of life. Although this system is self-contained, it still experiences water loss and needs replenishment.
Stepping outside, Luna found the ground moist. Looking down, she discovered that the floor wasn't flooring but moss and ferns, causing her surprise and excitement.
"There's even this here."
The Federation doesn't have ferns; ferns should have gone extinct with Earth.
"There must have been some fern spores in the seeds. After all, the seed storage process doesn't eliminate insects within the seeds, so spores wouldn't be removed either."
"However, the probability of spores being present on the seeds is very low; it's likely a coincidence."
Earth's national seed banks didn't eliminate insects from seeds not out of ignorance but because it was impractical; the cost in manpower and resources was too high.
Luna remembered this from the time they left Earth. Ayla's high-protein cakes were a vivid memory.
"Let's collect some fern spores to bring back; it could increase biodiversity in the Federation."
Luna's biological research wasn't focused on gene pools, lifespan, or pharmaceuticals; her work always involved species hybridization and ecological balance research. Other areas were just incidental interests.
After touring the greenhouse and exiting, Luna's gaze was suddenly caught by something else.
This object blended almost perfectly with the red Martian soil, almost invisible. Luna knelt down, picked up a piece, and was slightly shocked: "This is also a fern?"