Deep Sea Embers - Chapter 544

[Chapter 542 Gap]

Duncan knew that his idea was bold and bizarre, to the extent that it seemed too outrageous even in this weird and unpredictable deep-sea era – to transform a real celestial body into the ten-meter-diameter ” “Stone ball” and making it float on the sea can no longer be described as delusional.

But once this idea emerged, it was difficult for him to completely drive it out of his mind. No matter how weird it felt, he couldn’t help but think about it.

Because… they are so similar, not just in appearance, but also a strong… “intuition”, and even a “kindness” that seems to span time and world dimensions. thoughts surged through his mind.

Duncan looked at the pale sphere in front of him. For a moment, he even felt that he had returned to that familiar world, staring at the moon in his hometown.

He just stared at the moon floating beside the side of the Brilliant Star, his expression remained frozen for a long time, until the sound of footsteps came from beside him, until Lucretia’s voice reached his ears. : “Father, this is it.”

Duncan turned his head. At this moment, he didn’t realize how strange his face was: “Ah… yes, this is it…”

Lucretia certainly paid attention. Seeing the strangeness in Duncan’s look and tone, she seemed slightly nervous, and then said with concern in her tone: “Are you okay? Your face doesn’t look very good… Is there something wrong with this stone ball?” “

It …Very good, thank you for your concern, Lucy.” Duncan waved his hand, trying to adjust his expression, then turned his head and pointed at the stone ball, “It…” He stopped

.

He couldn’t think of how to explain this to Lucretia, how to describe the concept of “moon”, how to explain another world, and how he reacted at the moment, just like he did in front of Tirian – he even I don’t know how to explain what a “planet” is.

So he could only open his mouth, and then changed the subject stiffly: “Did anything change after it fell? Was it like this from the beginning?” “Yes, it was like this from the beginning,” Lucret said

. Thea nodded immediately, then recounted the general process of discovering the fallen object, and added some details of the process of transferring it to Qingfeng Harbor, “…it floated a certain distance from the sea through an unknown mechanism. High in the air, without interference, it will completely stay in place, but can be dragged by external force from the ship. Its interior is solid and dense. Several careful samplings have proved that its interior texture is similar to stone, but so far we have Only the shallower components were collected – the deeper you go, the harder it gets, and the drill bit can’t drill at all…”

Duncan listened quietly, and then asked: “What else? What else did you find?”

“We also tried Unlock the mysteries of these ‘lights’ around you,” Lucretia continued. “The huge geometric luminous bodies wrapped around the ‘stone balls’ will continue to release ‘sunshine’ outward. The scale of the sun can illuminate the entire city-state. However, The light doesn’t come from the ‘stone balls’, or at least it doesn’t ‘shine’ in the way we understand it – the light is ‘generated’ directly in nearby space and then spreads out evenly. “

For To verify this, we built a large awning to completely cover the stone ball. It turned out that this had no impact on the luminous geometry and the ‘sunlight’ on the nearby sea… “In addition, we also confirmed that the stone

ball The surface is covered with a very fine layer of ‘dust’, which is ‘attached’ to the stone sphere by unknown forces. Although it can be scraped off for sampling, they will not ‘fall’ off the sphere without the influence of external forces. Even the dust at the bottom of the sphere is the same, as if there is some invisible force ‘adsorbing’ them…”

Lucretia tried her best to explain to Duncan what scholars have currently done about this “stone ball” Various tests to explain the information he knows so far.

During this process, she had been paying attention to the changes in Duncan’s expression, trying to guess what kind of mood was hidden under her father’s overly serious expression at the moment.

However, she couldn’t see through it. All of her father’s thoughts seemed to be shrouded in a thick layer of mist, shrouded deep in that familiar yet unfamiliar majestic face. The only thing she could be sure of was that her father really, really cared about this. A “stone ball”—more important than she and Tirian imagined.

After a long silence, Duncan finally spoke: “You did a lot of sampling?”

“Yes, surface samples were scraped from various parts of the stone ball, and this sampling is still continuing,” Lucretia Nodding, “The depth of the stone ball is very hard and difficult to sample, but its surface layer is relatively ‘loose’ and can be scraped off gray-white debris. The properties of those debris are no different from stone powder…” At this point

, She paused, looked at Duncan hesitantly, and then raised her finger to point to the floating platform used for studying stone balls not far away: “Do you want to go over there with me?” “…Okay.

“

Duncan and Lucretia arrived at the “research station” built by the elves, and then passed the connecting bridge on the upper level of the research station to a platform directly connected to the surface of the stone ball.

The diameter of ten meters is insignificant for a celestial body, but as an object right in front of you, this is still a huge object. Even if you don’t count the height it floats on the sea, the diameter of the sphere itself is actually more than As high as three stories.

The elves fixed a platform on the “waist” of this behemoth, and fixed it with hoops surrounding the sphere and a series of anchor bolts and diagonal braces. The platform was small, only a few square meters square, but it was enough for a foothold.

Duncan stood on the platform, stretched out his hand, and gently touched the…moon.

A rough, cold touch came from the fingertips, like stroking a stone.

He took back his hand, looked at the little gray-white dust stained on his fingertips, rubbed his fingers, and let the gray-white dust fall slowly.

Some dust slowly floated towards the sphere and landed on its surface again.

“This phenomenon is also very puzzling to us,” Lucretia’s voice came from the side. “The dust scraped off from the sphere seems to be attracted by the sphere itself. When the distance is close enough, those debris It will actively return to the surface of the sphere. However, this ‘attraction’ only exists between the materials of the stone sphere itself. We have tested it with other light powders…”

Duncan hummed, but said nothing more.

“I heard from my brother that you called this weird stone ball ‘the moon,'” Lucretia said while carefully observing Duncan’s reaction, “and you seemed very excited when you saw it. …Do you know anything about this stone ball?”

“It…” Duncan hesitated for a moment, then finally spoke slowly, “It looks different from what I know. It should be very big, much bigger than it is now. It has to be big…”

“Big?” Lucretia blinked, “Bigger than the Lost Home?”

“Much bigger than that.”

“Bigger than the Pilgrimage Ark of the Four Gods Church Is it bigger? Or bigger than a city-state?”

Duncan shook his head: “It’s bigger, it’s bigger than you can imagine.” “

…Could it be bigger than the Infinite Sea?”

“I haven’t measured the Infinite Sea, but …Perhaps,” Duncan said softly as if talking to himself, “Maybe it is bigger than the Infinite Sea, because this sea named ‘The Infinite’ is actually just a cage surrounded by fog. That’s all.”

Lucretia opened her eyes wide.

For some reason, she suddenly thought of her childhood at this moment. The few questions and answers she just asked seemed to suddenly go back a century, triggering memories that had long been sleeping in the deepest part of her mind – she vaguely remembered that on many occasions Many years ago, I asked my father a similar question.

At that time, she asked her father how big the boundless sea was.

Her father told her that this sea is very big, bigger than the Lost Home, bigger than the city-state – it is vast as its name suggests, and can accommodate a person’s lifelong curiosity and impulse to explore.

She remembered it firmly and followed in her father’s footsteps to become an explorer and a “border scholar”. As a member of the Lost Home Fleet, she followed her father to many places, including remote and unpredictable places. “Border”, she felt that her father did not deceive her when she was a child – this sea is really big.

But now her father tells her that the “infinite sea” is just a cage surrounded by fog.

The “stone ball” with a diameter of only ten meters in front of me should be larger than the boundless sea.

Lucretia squinted her eyes, raised her head and looked up at the “moon” in front of her, trying hard to imagine that it was bigger than the boundless sea, but for the first time she felt that her imagination was so limited – not only could she not understand her father It’s impossible to even imagine.

“Such a big ‘moon’… How much space does it need to accommodate it?” She couldn’t help but ask, “As you said, it is even bigger than this world…” The Infinite Sea is

not The whole world.

The words came to Duncan’s mind instinctively, but he controlled the urge to blurt them out.

Because he really has never measured this world, let alone passed through the fog called “border”.

He wasn’t sure whether this boundless sea was really all there was to this world.

And Lucretia was destined to be unable to understand what a universe big enough to hold billions of stars would look like.

Even if she owns a ship, and the name of that ship is “Bright Star”.

“…I’m sorry, Lucy,” Duncan finally sighed softly. He turned his head and looked into the eyes of the “Sea Witch”, “I can’t explain this to you.” (End of Chapter

)