Humanity is missing, luckily I have billions of clones

Chapter 169: Edge of the Light


Following Tom's command, the six fleets, totaling over 30 million various spacecraft, either ignited their own engines to propel themselves forward or boarded Aerospace Carriers, using the Carriers' power, and began to accelerate simultaneously.

The six fleets faced six different stars in six different directions.

Aside from the true migration fleet, there were no clones in the other five fleets. The entire fleet was operating in a fully automated state.

They would proceed according to the orbital plans preset by Tom, flying and accelerating automatically. Once the acceleration process was complete and they entered inertial navigation, all intelligent control components would self-destruct, and all spacecraft in the entire fleet would turn into completely unintelligent rocks, continuing to fly under inertial navigation.

Under the illumination of countless engines, for a moment, the many stars scattered throughout the entire Jupiter System seemed to converge into a curtain of light, illuminating the entire Jupiter System.

However, as the fleet accelerated and moved away, this curtain of light gradually dimmed, eventually splitting into six parts heading in six different directions.

The massive Jupiter gradually shrunk, eventually becoming a shining star, merging into the vast star sea.

The clone where Tom's consciousness resided stood before the massive spaceship's porthole, quietly watching the galaxy outside rotate.

At this moment, most of Tom's power was already in transit.

But within this solar system, Tom still left some things behind.

These were technological creations hidden in extremely remote corners, far from the ecliptic plane, as well as some clones in hibernation.

They were either telescopes, spy satellites, or bases, among other things.

Under the control of intelligent programs and the energy supply from low-power, long-duration fusion reactors, they operated quietly and unobtrusively like dust in those unnoticed corners.

Once an abnormal change was detected, such as a bright tail flame observed from a certain direction, or the entry of external forces into the solar system, those clones would be awakened.

With the communication technology Tom currently possessed, long-distance communication on a light-year scale was not yet possible.

Electromagnetic wave communication attenuates too much and is subject to too much interference when propagating through interstellar space. The information they carry simply cannot be transmitted very far.

It couldn't even transmit one light-year, let alone directly from the solar system to another star.

This led to one result: once Tom was too far from the solar system, he would completely lose contact with it.

Even if Tom left many technological creations in the solar system, it would be useless.

But this was only under normal circumstances. And clearly, Tom's form of existence was not ordinary.

The connection between his main body and the clones did not seem to attenuate with increasing distance—of course, this was only a speculation based on some current experimental data, but Tom believed this possibility was very high.

This way, no matter how far he was from the solar system, he could still obtain information about the inner solar system through the clones acting as "observers."

If the Mechanical Disaster truly came to the solar system in the future, he would be able to get the news immediately, so as not to be completely unaware of the enemy's movements.

At this moment, about 500 observers were sleeping in various corners of the solar system, and about ten thousand various devices and bases left by Tom were operating silently in concealment.

After a long while, he withdrew his gaze from the solar system and looked in another direction.

There was also a bright star there.

That was the destination of this long voyage.

In the second month after the migration began, the massive migration fleet crossed the Saturn orbit.

In the fifth month, it crossed the Uranus orbit, followed by Neptune, and then Pluto.

In the 10th month after the migration, the migration fleet crossed the solar system orbit.

At this moment, the migration fleet was approximately 15.1 billion kilometers from the Sun.

At an initial speed of 15 kilometers per second, the migration fleet had been continuously accelerating at an acceleration of 0.04 meters per second² for 11 months, and its current speed had reached 1,140 kilometers per second.

Through a long period of acceleration, Tom achieved an ultra-high speed never reached before.

At this moment, the fleet, at such an ultra-high speed, crossed the solar system orbit and flew towards the vast deep space, a place never reached by Tom, or even the entire Human Civilization, with only unmanned probes having been sent there at most.

This place, farther from the Sun, seemed to be no different from the inner solar system; it was equally vast, equally boundless and deep.

It seemed that no matter how long they traveled, the scenery seen from outside remained unchanged.

Time quietly passed in this manner, and gradually, the fleet arrived at a place approximately 95 billion kilometers from the Sun.

The clone where Tom's consciousness resided once again cast his gaze upon the brightest star in the sky.

Even at such a distance, the Sun still possessed extremely high brightness.

Its current brightness was the same as that of the brightest full moon visible from Earth. But the moon is a disk-shaped structure, while the Sun at this moment was merely a point-like structure.

A small dot, yet possessing brightness equivalent to a disk-shaped moon, made it appear extremely bright, even somewhat dazzling.

The power of the Sun was displayed before Tom without reservation at this moment.

Even with a distance of nearly 100 billion kilometers, the Sun could still project light and still cast shadows of people or objects.

The boundary of the solar system has different distances depending on the calculation method.

If calculated by the orbits of the major planets, the Neptune orbit is the boundary of the solar system, approximately several billion kilometers from the Sun.

If calculated by the radiation boundary, meaning the distance that plasma from the Sun can transmit in interstellar space, the boundary of the solar system is about 10 billion kilometers from the Sun.

Beyond this distance, the plasma from the Sun cannot continue to advance. Beyond that is the realm of interstellar high-energy radiation.

However, if calculated by the gravity boundary, the boundary of the solar system extends directly to the Oort Cloud.

According to previous theories of Human Civilization and Tom's research, Tom believes that the solar system formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago, and the Oort Cloud is the remnant material of the protoplanetary disk from the early formation of the solar system.

They were initially closer to the Sun, and their formation process was similar to that of asteroids. But after the formation of the two giant planets, Saturn and Jupiter, through a series of gravity battles, these small celestial bodies were flung by gravity to the edge of the solar system, eventually forming the Oort Cloud after a long period of time.

The distance between the Oort Cloud and the Sun is about 1 light-year or more, which is over 9.4 trillion kilometers.

At this moment, Tom's fleet had already crossed the radiation boundary of the solar system, but was still far from the gravity boundary.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.


Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter