157: Clash of ideas

Inside the core experimental zone of the [Horizon] Superluminal Physics Research Institute, there was no artificial gravity. Dr. Ilya von Klein was floating in a microgravity environment, surrounded by dozens of holographic projection screens.

Her signature oversized white lab coat billowed behind her like a cape, and her long silver hair spread out in the air like a mass of burning silver flames.

"Wrong! The parameters are wrong! Increase the power of the third set of gravitational wave generators by another 0.5%!"

Ilya's small hands swiped rapidly through the air, pushing aside sets of data complex enough to make one dizzy and pulling over a new set of models.

"But Doctor, if we increase it any further, the cooling system's load will hit the red line!" the assistant's voice came through the communicator.

"Then let it hit the red line! If it blows up, it's on me!" Ilya shouted without looking back. "If we don't squeeze the spatial curvature to the limit, how can we possibly simulate the closure of a warp bubble on a microscopic scale?"

Since receiving Lei Wen's "full sponsorship" and those magical materials from outer space, this genius girl had been like a perpetual motion machine injected with an overdose of stimulants.

Her small body seemed to contain energy more terrifying than an antimatter reactor; she compressed her daily sleep to four hours, spending the rest of her time working non-stop in this space station, driving the Nobel laureates and top physicists under her to the brink of exhaustion.

In her dictionary, there was no such thing as rest, only the next breakthrough.

However, just as she was preparing for her Nth simulation experiment, the prompt for the airlock door opening suddenly sounded, interrupting her thoughts that were running like a supercomputer.

"Who is it! Didn't I say no disturbances during the experiment? Even if that guy Lei Wen comes, tell him to... uh?"

Ilya turned around, about to lose her temper, but she was choked by the sight before her.

Lei Wen had indeed come, but he hadn't come alone.

Behind him followed a group of strange creatures.

They walked upright and were slightly shorter than average humans, about 1.5 meters tall, with strange grey-green skin covered in extremely fine scales.

Most striking was their upper limb structure; each possessed four arms—the upper pair strong and powerful, the lower pair slender and agile. Their heads had no noses, only two respiratory slits, and a pair of large vertical pupils were curiously surveying their surroundings.

"What are they?"

Ilya frowned, showing no fear but rather curiosity.

She floated down to the ground, her magnetic boots making a soft click.

"They are the Kari People," Lei Wen introduced concisely, stepping aside.

"Oh... Wait? Kari People?"

Ilya was stunned for a moment, then a flash of surprise crossed her crimson eyes, quickly replaced by realization.

"It's only been a few years since the fleet reached the New Sun System. Light takes over five years to travel that far, and you've already transported the Kari People back? Fine, is it the work of those omnipotent Faleim People again? Or is it your 'trade secret' channel?"

She shrugged. She had already developed an immunity to Lei Wen's frequent acts of pulling out black technology or turning the impossible into reality.

"But why did you bring these aliens to my lab? For a tour? This isn't a zoo," Ilya's words were still prickly.

Lei Wen didn't mind her attitude, nor did he explain the transport process. He just stepped slightly to the side and invited the elderly Kari person standing behind him to the front.

The elder wore a custom-made human research uniform and a life-support collar. Though his face was aged, his vertical pupils shimmered with the light of wisdom.

"Ilya, this is Mr. Walker Tala," Lei Wen introduced solemnly. "He is the former chief scientist of the Kari Civilization and their greatest sage. In their civilization, his status is no less than that of Einstein in human history."

"The team led by Mr. Walker will officially move into this space station today." Lei Wen pointed to the other side of the station. "They will specialize in the theory and capture technology of tachyons—superluminal particles—in the lab in D7 Area. From now on, you will be colleagues working under the same roof. I believe you will have much in common."

Walker Tala looked at the small silver-haired human woman whose aura was intimidatingly strong. He very gentlemanly extended his two upper right arms in a Kari greeting gesture and spoke in slightly awkward but very standard Mandarin:

"Hello, Dr. Ilya. I am Walker Tala of the Kari Civilization. I have long heard of your great name. I read your papers while on Earth; your discourse on space-time structure and warp relations was a stroke of genius."

Mandarin?

The surrounding human researchers all showed expressions of surprise.

During these few years of life on Earth, these smartest brains from the Kali Star had demonstrated incredible learning abilities. With the assistance of the "white flower," they had completely mastered English and Mandarin, the two common human languages, and could even use specialized, obscure vocabulary with ease.

However, Lei Wen's solemn introduction and Walker's polite greeting were met with Ilya's indifference.

She kept her hands in the pockets of her lab coat and tilted her chin up slightly, like a proud white swan.

Of course she knew about the Kari Civilization. As a former research director of the Earth Science Research Center, she had certainly seen information regarding them.

"A civilization that hasn't even mastered controllable nuclear fusion and is still burning biofuels?" Ilya snorted inwardly.

In her cognitive hierarchy, physics was supreme, and a civilization that couldn't even manipulate the energy of atomic nuclei was, at best, a group of primitives who had just learned to play with fire.

Even if there were a few so-called "scientists" among them, they were merely grasshoppers jumping a bit higher in the mire of a lower civilization.

What talent could they possibly have?

"Hello," Ilya said coldly, not even extending her hand. "I am Ilya von Klein of the Human Federation."

"Director Raven, about the use of D7 Area, I already have plans. I intend to install a new generation of interference force field generators there to assist in testing the Warp Engine. For you to suddenly cram in a group of aliens without informing me in advance—isn't that a bit inappropriate?"

"Furthermore," she glanced at the Kari scientists behind Walker, "this is the Superluminal Physics Research Institute, not a basic physics remedial class. If they have to learn Maxwell's equations from scratch, I don't have time to be a babysitter."

The air froze instantly.

Although the Kari scientists were mild-tempered, they could hear the contempt in the human girl's words. The young and impetuous Kul was about to step forward to argue, but Walker reached out to stop him.

There was no anger on the old man's face; instead, he wore a tolerant smile.

Lei Wen sighed helplessly; he knew this would happen. Geniuses were always arrogant, especially one like Ilya who stood at the peak of human intelligence.

"Ilya, I understand your concerns," Lei Wen explained patiently. "But this was indeed sudden, and it's not some personal favor I'm forcing through."

"Just a week ago, in the research building in Tianqiong City, the experiment designed by Mr. Walker Tala successfully observed a tachyon reaction."

Lei Wen dropped a bombshell.

"Not only did they observe it, but they also successfully recorded a set of extremely precious tachyon decay parameters and energy spectra. However, because the gravity interference and background radiation on Earth are too strong, further capturing and stabilizing tachyons must be done in a low-gravity, pure vacuum environment."

"After thinking it over, you are the only one in the entire Solar System with the conditions and supporting facilities for this."

"What?"

Ilya, who had been looking impatient, froze immediately upon hearing Lei Wen's words.

She snapped her head around, her crimson eyes staring intently at Lei Wen as if trying to find any trace of a joke on his face.

"Observed tachyons? Those are superluminal particles!" Ilya's voice rose an octave. "According to relativity, the rest mass of a tachyon is an imaginary number; it always moves faster than light. In our four-dimensional spacetime, it shouldn't follow causality! Theoretically, it's impossible to observe through conventional means!"

"We humans have been searching for them for decades without seeing even a shadow, and you're telling me these... these Kari People who haven't even figured out nuclear fusion observed them?"

This was as absurd as telling her a group of primitives had smashed a quantum computer out of rocks.

"Dr. Ilya, theory is static, but the universe is alive."

Walker Tala, who had been silent, spoke up. His voice was still gentle, but it carried a powerful confidence.

"We indeed haven't mastered nuclear fusion, but that doesn't stop us from contemplating the essence of the universe."

The old man took a step forward, his four hands tracing a peculiar geometric shape in the air.

"The reason you believe tachyons are unobservable is that you've always tried to capture them at the level of matter. You're trying to use a net to catch the wind; naturally, it's futile."

"Then how did you do it?" Ilya's curiosity instantly overrode her arrogance, and she asked eagerly.

"Resonance," Walker uttered a single word.

"We didn't try to catch it; instead, we built a stage for it."

Walker glanced at Lei Wen, and after receiving a nod of approval, he began to explain his world-shaking theory in fluent Mandarin.

"We discovered that within the fundamental string structure of this universe, there exists a special frequency. When a tachyon passes through a medium of this frequency, although it is invisible itself, it leaves behind ripples in the spacetime structure called 'spacetime wakes' due to the inverse effect of Cherenkov radiation."

"It's like we can't see a bird flying over the water, but if the bird skims the surface, we can see the ripples."

"I designed an echo chamber based on a specific crystal structure." Walker pulled up a set of complex models from his portable data panel and projected them into the air.

"This crystal is a special type we manufactured by combining Earth materials with materials from the Kali Star."

"We polished this crystal into a special topological structure. When it is near absolute zero, it resonates with the spacetime wakes left behind when tachyons pass through."

"What we observe is not the particle itself, but the vibration of the crystal."

Walker pointed to the extremely weak but regular waveform in the projection.

"These are the footsteps of tachyons."

"By analyzing this vibration frequency and combining it with the imaginary solutions of the Lorentz transformation, we can deduce the tachyon's energy, speed, and vector direction."

"This is my 'Wind Listener Theory'."

The entire hall fell into a dead silence.

All the human scientists stared at the alien elder in stunned silence.

Ilya stared fixedly at the model and the string of formulas.

As a master who had also achieved great success in quantum mechanics, her brain was working at high speed, frantically calculating the feasibility of this theory.

The more she calculated, the faster her heart beat.

Genius! This was an absolutely brilliant concept!

This was a way of thinking that completely jumped out of the existing framework of human physics and took an alternative path!

Humans had always tried to use more powerful energy and more precise instruments to see tachyons, but had never thought of using this almost philosophical method of 'eavesdropping' to perceive them.

This leap in thinking, this sharp intuition for waves and frequencies, was simply breathtaking.

"Imaginary solutions of the Lorentz transformation... they can be used like this?" Ilya murmured to herself. The contempt in her eyes was gone, replaced by the eagerness of meeting a peer.

"If this theory holds, then not only can we observe tachyons, we could even use this resonance effect to manufacture detection equipment capable of emitting tachyons?"

"Yes, Doctor," Walker nodded with a smile. "That is our next goal. We intend to build the first prototype in the D7 lab."

Lei Wen watched this scene, chuckling inwardly.

He knew that nothing could move Ilya more than the truth.

"Well, Dr. Ilya?" Lei Wen teased. "Do you think they are qualified to move into D7 Area now?"

Ilya took a deep breath and looked seriously at Walker Tala.

"Mr. Walker."

She cast aside all her arrogance and spoke in a tone of equality, even carrying a hint of respect.

"I take back what I said earlier."

"Your theory is very brilliant, although there are some flaws in the stability calculations of the crystal structure... hmm, about three loopholes. But that's fine; that's exactly what we're good at."

She turned around and shouted at the group of stunned human researchers:

"What are you all standing there for? Didn't you hear?"

"Clear out D7 Area immediately! Tear down all those useless cooling pipes for me!"

"Also, go move my spare optical quantum server over there! Share our computing power permissions with Mr. Walker's team!"

After speaking, she looked back at Walker, her red eyes shimmering with excitement.

"Mr. Walker, regarding that crystal resonance frequency, I have a few questions I'd like to discuss with you. You know, if we apply this resonance to the stabilization field of the warp bubble, it might produce unexpected effects..."

"It would be an honor." Walker showed a gratified smile.

Watching the old and the young—one human, one alien—start a heated discussion on those obscure physical terms like old friends who hadn't seen each other in years, walking side by side into the depths of the laboratory.

Lei Wen smiled.

This was exactly what he wanted to see.

The collision of wisdom from different civilizations would eventually strike the most brilliant sparks.

"It seems I don't need to worry anymore."