bigabreads Chapter 303 The Gate to the Stars
Chapter 303 The Gate to the Stars
The reply arrived the day after the third letter was sent.
Zuo Cheng stared at the screen in the control center, his heart pounding. The quantum entanglement channel had zero latency; the interval between the arrival of the reply and the transmission of the message was only a few hours. Those few hours were the time allotted for internal discussion within the listening civilization. But the reply was neither agreement nor rejection.
It is a document.
The full title of the document, translated, is the "Joint Recommendation System for Level 12 Technology Authorization of the Web-Weaving Civilization Community." This document has been stored in the home port's database for four billion years. Humanity was the first civilization to apply for Level 12 technology authorization from the home port. In other words, this document has been gathering dust for four billion years. Zuo Cheng was the first to take it down from the shelf.
Yu Ying spent most of the day translating all the documents. The core rules were simple and direct: before activating the twelfth branch, at least three civilizations that had already completed the activation of the twelfth branch must submit a joint recommendation to the home port. Only after the home port verifies the three recommendations will it unlock the core data and the bud activation agreement for the applicant.
Yu Ying placed the translated manuscript in front of Zuo Cheng and said something that silenced the entire control center.
"It's like taking an exam that no one else has ever taken. But before you take it, you need three letters of recommendation from people who have already taken it. The problem is, the only civilization in the past four billion years to have taken this exam was the first generation. They perished five billion years ago. No other civilization has ever activated the twelfth branch."
No one spoke in the meeting room.
Zuo Cheng reread every word of the document. At the end, he found a note written in the founder's code. The content of the note made him hold his breath.
"The requirement of 'having completed the activation of the twelfth branch' in this recommendation system is not mandatory. If there is no civilization with an activated twelfth branch in the applicant's web cluster, the homeport will accept a joint recommendation from three civilizations that have completed the activation of the eleventh branch."
The date noted is four billion years ago.
Zuo Cheng closed his eyes. The founders had considered a scenario when designing this system: what if no civilization completed the twelve branches after the first generation perished? What would happen to the successors? They provided the answer. Three eleven-stage paths would suffice. It wasn't lowering the barrier; it was leaving you a path from the very beginning.
He opened his eyes. The system panel lit up. The home port pushed the complete germination conditions for the twelfth branch to the system, listing the four prerequisites one by one.
First, obtain three joint recommendations for activating the Eleventh Branch Civilization; currently one-third complete. Second, reach Civilization Level 10; already achieved. Third, ensure the Web-Weaving Consciousness Network covers at least one non-Solar System Web-Weaving Node; achieved through the Listener Node. Fourth, complete at least one full Web-Weaving Broadcast; already achieved.
The system notes appeared at the bottom of the panel. Zuo Cheng read the entire passage aloud, word by word.
Of the four prerequisites, only the recommendation progress is incomplete. This is the simplest branch activation condition ever, and the only one not controlled by the activator. It's no longer testing an individual, but whether a civilization can persuade other civilizations to speak on its behalf.
Zuo Cheng closed the panel. The activation of the first eleven branches relied on points and technical breakthroughs, on decisions he made alone late at night. This one was different. The key to this one wasn't in his hands.
The official recommendation letter from the listener arrived after the document interpretation was completed.
The letter was written in the founder's code. The entire text consisted of only five lines. When Yu Ying translated it and projected it onto the wall, Han Lu stood in front of the projector and stared at it for a long time.
"The 106th node of the Web Weaving System, the Listener Civilization, the eleventh branch holder, formally recommends the 177th node of the Web Weaving System, the Human Civilization, to the home port. Reason: The first thing they do upon waking is not to ask for anything, but to say hello."
Han Lu's eyes reddened. She said, "Five Elements. Three million seven hundred thousand years of waiting. Written into five elements."
Yu Ying stood beside her, her voice soft: "Major events in the universe don't need many words."
The Listener civilization's reply included an informal explanation. They had completed the activation of the eleventh branch, but the twelfth branch had stagnated for 3.7 million years because they couldn't find three recommenders. They were waiting for the fourth eleven-segment civilization to appear.
"You are the fourth. You've waited 3.7 million years. Finally, you've arrived."
Zuo Cheng read that sentence three times. Three million seven hundred thousand years. The listener had waited alone for three million seven hundred thousand years, just because he was missing a neighbor who could reach the eleventh branch. And the three letters he wrote had been sent out less than a day ago.
I've received the first recommendation. I need two more.
Zuo Cheng and Yu Ying worked through the night to sift through all fifty-one initial broadcast response records, checking the completion status of each civilization's branch. The results came out in the early morning. Of the fifty-one responses, only two civilizations had completed the activation of the eleventh branch.
One is Node 017 of the Web, the Builder Civilization, located towards the Galactic Center, 28,000 light-years away. The other is Node 089 of the Web, the Observer Civilization, located on the outer edge of the Perseus Arm, 60,000 light-years away.
Of the remaining forty-nine civilizations, most are still at the ninth or tenth branch.
Yu Ying listed the screening results on the whiteboard. Two names, two coordinates. One was 28,000 light-years away, and the other was 60,000 light-years away. Zuo Cheng looked at the two names on the whiteboard, remained silent for a while, and then spoke.
"Write the letter carefully. Don't make a request. Make a statement. Tell them who we are, what we do, and why we need this recommendation. Don't make them feel like we're begging them. Make them feel like we're inviting them to do something together."
Yu Ying nodded. She wrote two words on the whiteboard: Invitation.
The second message was relayed to the Builder civilization towards the Galactic Center via the Listener Node. The quantum entanglement channel maintained zero latency even when traversing a distance of 28,000 light-years.
This fact itself prompted Yu Ying to re-examine the theoretical limits of quantum entanglement after sending the letter. She sat at the control panel for an hour, repeatedly verifying the data. Finally, she turned her chair around to face Zuo Cheng, her expression calm.
"The entangled quantum network is not based on the nonlocality principle of quantum mechanics. It is a deeper physical structure, perhaps even more fundamental than quantum mechanics itself."
She wrote down this discovery in a memo. The title was, "A Hypothesis on the Underlying Physics of Web-like Quantum Entanglement." The subtitle was, "The Physical Basis of the Twelfth Branch May Not Be Interstellar Travel, But Something More Fundamental Than Travel."
After reading the memo, Zuo Cheng picked up a pen and added a line of small print below the subtitle.
For example, turning consciousness into physical laws.
He put down his pen. The night outside the window in Hangzhou was serene, the Pioneer's tracklight slowly gliding across the distance. On the system panel, the blue light around the twelfth branch icon was slightly brighter than yesterday. Recommended progress: one-third.
Two more letters are on their way. One is heading towards the galactic center, and the other towards the constellation Perseus. Twenty-eight thousand light-years and sixty thousand light-years respectively. But in a quantum entanglement channel, the distance is zero.
Zuo Cheng wrote a sentence in the system log: "The founders of four billion years ago left a path for those who came after. The listeners of three million seven hundred thousand years ago left us a door. Now it's our turn to knock on the other two doors."