Book 10: Chapter 39: Entering the Wormhole

“Two officers, this is the head of the tech team, Dr. Norton!” Fuyutsuki brought a thin middle-aged man to the bridge and found Qin Lun and Robin.

Compared to the young flight officers and crew on the Advancing, Dr. Norton was probably the oldest among all the Gith. He wore a clean white research suit, and his skin was unusually pale. His blond hair was stuck to his forehead, making him look a bit messy.

Qin Lun reached out and shook hands with the doctor. The touch was cold. Norton’s body temperature was a bit low, and the skin on his hand was somewhat shriveled. It seemed this person rarely left his lab, a typical tech nerd.

“Hello, Doctor!” Robin gave a warm smile.

“Two… officers, Fuyutsuki told me that you want the Advancing to jump into the wormhole coordinates calculated by the tech team?” Norton rubbed his hands together, looking somewhat excited.

“Dr. Norton, is… there a problem? The Advancing should be capable of this, right?” Robin and Qin Lun exchanged a look, both feeling they had miscalculated. They hadn’t considered that the Advancing was just a small independent warship. If it couldn’t manage long-distance jumps like the Faith, all their plans would remain on paper.

“No, no problem… Oh, please forgive me, I’m a bit excited!” Dr. Norton scratched his head and chuckled awkwardly. “The Advancing can roughly meet your requirements, but there are some things I need to explain to you in person. Also, as a personal request—no, the tech team has an additional request!”

“I think we should find a place to talk in detail!” Qin Lun glanced around the bridge and noticed some crew members paying attention to their conversation. He immediately gave Robin a meaningful look, then took the lead to the War Room.

Once in the War Room, Dr. Norton seemed to calm down a little. After hesitating, he continued, “In fact, with the Advancing… or rather, with our Gith technology, we still cannot observe folded wormholes!”

“Doctor, you just said the Advancing can meet our requirements!” Robin raised her elegant eyebrows in surprise.

“Oh, yes!” Dr. Norton’s face scrunched up. Seeing the other three staring intently at him, he sighed. “Okay, pardon my bluntness! This… given your knowledge base, it might be hard for you to understand what I’m about to say.”

“I think we understand. Please try to explain in simpler terms!” Qin Lun and the other two exchanged helpless looks. The world of a tech nerd truly wasn’t something normal people could comprehend.

“Simply put, a folded wormhole is a product of four-dimensional space and does not exist in the three-dimensional world. We Gith can only roughly apply jump theory and estimate four-dimensional coordinates. We cannot capture wormhole phenomena with any instrument.”

Dr. Norton gradually became more serious. “Only by entering the correct jump trajectory can we avoid the space-time storms at the edge of the wormhole and observe the wormhole phenomenon with our own eyes! In other words, this kind of jump is very dangerous. The tech team cannot guarantee 100% accurate coordinates.”

“If the coordinates are off by a bit, what happens?” Robin frowned slightly.

“The same fate as the Faith!” Dr. Norton replied without hesitation.

“Doctor, since you’ve reached this conclusion, there must be other ways to increase accuracy, right?” Qin Lun’s eyes flashed as he asked with a smile.

“Yes! In fact, folded wormholes are similar to normal wormholes. Normal wormholes connect a black hole and a white hole, while folded wormholes also have an absorption end and an explosive exit.” Dr. Norton paused and said calmly, “And the explosive end of a wormhole can transmit information to the outside.”

“I understand, Doctor. This has to do with the tech team’s request, right?” Qin Lun suddenly took a deep breath. “Are you sure you want to do this? You know the Advancing is our only means of escaping the wormhole right now!”

“Being able to observe a folded wormhole up close is the dream of every Gith space scholar!” Dr. Norton said with a smile. “Besides, we can also transmit the observation records back to the Advancing in encrypted form!”

“Alright then, I hope everything goes smoothly for you!” Qin Lun looked deeply at Norton and nodded solemnly.

“Officer Qin Lun, what kind of riddle are you and Dr. Norton talking about…” Watching Dr. Norton disappear down the corridor, Fuyutsuki looked confused.

“Fuyutsuki, I suddenly believe that you Gith will ultimately win this war!” Qin Lun smiled and patted Fuyutsuki’s shoulder, then turned and left alone.

“What is all this about?” The beautiful vice officer was frantic, looking to the silent Robin for help with a pleading expression.

“Dr. Norton just said that folded wormholes cannot be observed in the three-dimensional world; they can only be seen with the naked eye inside the wormhole. He cannot guarantee the safety of the Advancing’s jump, but if someone could confirm the correctness of the coordinates from inside the wormhole…”

“The tech team plans to enter the wormhole before the Advancing to verify their coordinates!” Fuyutsuki was no fool; she understood halfway through Robin’s explanation, and her face instantly turned pale.

“Yes, the doctor probably meant that by equipping escape pods with ejection devices, they could reach the calculated jump coordinates. But…” Robin sighed, her expression complicated.

“But the escape pods don’t have the power to escape the wormhole…” Fuyutsuki’s expression shifted unpredictably. Finally, she gritted her teeth, turned, and headed for the bridge. “Dr. Norton and the scholars in the tech team are our most valuable assets. We can have other crew members do this!”

“Fuyutsuki, wait!” Robin reached out and grabbed the beautiful vice officer’s arm, shaking her head gently. “The doctor has thought this through carefully. Others might be able to replace them for this mission, but without their knowledge, no one can continue studying the folded wormhole inside the wormhole!”

“The Faith’s encounter proves that your jump technology lags behind the enemy’s. Dr. Norton wants to catch up to the enemy through their sacrifice, to prevent other space warships from falling into similar traps. Besides respecting their choice, all we can do is try to leave them with enough survival resources.”

“How much can one escape pod hold? Leaving them alone to face death in the vast, boundless cosmic wormhole?” Fuyutsuki showed a smile uglier than crying, but she still stopped walking and glanced dimly in the direction of the tech team.

…

“Officer, we’ve received three sets of coded signals, belonging to Dr. Norton and two other tech team members!”

One stellar day later, the Advancing received the agreed-upon messages from the tech team scholars who had entered the wormhole coordinates ahead of time. But none of the Gith soldiers on the bridge were smiling; they had already learned of the tech team’s sacrifice.

“Less than 30% accuracy… Thankfully these Gith scientists are brave enough! I hope we never encounter such cosmic realms again. Truly terrifying, not even able to control how you die!” Dean muttered softly in the Team Channel. Even Apostles like Qin Lun felt a trace of awe toward the cosmos after this adventure.

“The only thing we can do is ensure these brave people die as meaningfully as possible!” Balin took a deep breath. The self-sacrifice of Dr. Norton and the others gave the Patroller Team members an inexplicable sense of pressure.

…

“Input jump coordinates… 3, 2, 1, entering jump trajectory!”

Everything around the Advancing seemed to pause. A ripple like water waves spread across the Star Void. The huge independent warship’s surface flashed with multicolored lights, and the ship slowly turned transparent, being absorbed into a suddenly opened tunnel ahead.

“Wow, so beautiful!” A crew member on the bridge couldn’t help but exclaim.

As soon as they entered the jump trajectory, an enormous, boundless ring of light appeared on the warship’s projection screen. Surrounded by a halo-like rainbow, the folded wormhole, bubble-shaped, became visibly clear to everyone.

“What are those?” Bobby cheered and pointed at the light spirals resembling gears at the center of the ring.

“Probably other jumpable coordinate paths connecting inside the wormhole!” Dean seemed not to notice who was asking, for the first time not speaking to Bobby sarcastically.

“Have the Optical Computer calculate how long it will take to reach the other side of the wormhole!” Qin Lun gazed calmly at the beautiful scene on the projection screen and asked Fuyutsuki.

“The surveyor reports we should cross the wormhole’s edge in a little over three minutes!” Fuyutsuki replied cautiously.

“Officer, we’ve received another signal from Dr. Norton. This one is clearer than before; he should be somewhere close to us!” This Gith crew member looked at Fuyutsuki with anticipation.

“We cannot change our planned course. Folded wormholes are something even Dr. Norton hasn’t fully understood. Completing the mission is more important than rescuing the doctor!” Fuyutsuki shook her head reluctantly, watching the officer’s hopeful gaze dim.

“Oh, what did the doctor say this time?” Qin Lun glanced at Fuyutsuki and asked casually.

“Huh? The doctor didn’t send the usual signal this time. This set of machine code seems quite long; it will take a few minutes to decrypt!” Fuyutsuki looked at the report in her hand, puzzled. “Could it be observation records about the wormhole?”

“No, Dr. Norton said time flows slower inside the wormhole. From when they entered, the doctor should have experienced less than half an hour here.” Qin Lun suddenly changed expression drastically. “This is a warning! The doctor discovered something disadvantageous to us! Fuyutsuki, issue a level-one combat alert! Robin, Alex, get everyone into mechs! Only minimal operational personnel remain on the bridge!”

“Thump…” A few minutes later, the Apostles and Gith Flight Officers sitting in their Bingren Mecha felt a violent jolt from outside; the entire Advancing seemed about to fall apart.

“Officer, Dr. Norton’s signal has been decrypted. This wormhole cannot pass large non-living matter…” Fuyutsuki almost shouted as she relayed the message to Qin Lun.

By then, everyone sitting in the mechs could already see the dazzling light on the other side of the wormhole through the Bingren’s projection screens!