Deep Space Wandering Fleet-Chapter 154 - 155 Frequency of Activities of

Chapter 154: Chapter 155: Frequency of Activities of Interstellar Civilizations Chapter 154 -155: Frequency of Activities of Interstellar Civilizations Zhang Yuan quickly established a mathematical model, “Consider the Milky Way as a simple plane, that is, R^2. Contemplate a spaceship performing a standard Brownian motion or two spaceships performing independent standard Brownian motions each.

“When the distance between the two spaceships is less than a certain small constant, for example, 0.01, they are deemed to have encountered each other.”

“Since two-dimensional Brownian motion is recurrent in the neighborhood, given enough time, the two spaceships are bound to meet.”

“Consider two independent standard Brownian motions A(t), B(t). A(1)+B(1) has the same distribution as A(2), because B(2)=B(1)+[B(2)-B(1)], which is also the sum of two independent standard normal distributions. This means that the sum of two independent standard Brownian motions at time t has the same distribution as a single standard Brownian motion at 2t.”

Zhang Yuan frowned and said, “From this simple model, a moving spaceship has twice the probability of observing an Alien Civilization as one that is stationary. That is to say, if we assume it takes us on average one thousand three hundred years to observe a civilization capable of interstellar voyage, Earth Civilization would need two thousand six hundred years to make the same observation.”

Lin Xuanyuan’s mouth fell open slightly, this was information seemingly conjured from nothing!

She felt a bit proud inside, silently praising her good judgement.

Soon, Zhang Yuan shook his head; this was just a simple model, after all, and with such scant data, the real situation and the estimates were sure to differ widely.

“If interstellar civilizations are not so rare, then this universe might be more wonderful than we ever imagined!”

Of course, Zhang Yuan wasn’t the only smart person aboard the spaceship; from just this simple encounter, a multitude of ideas had already sprung forth.

The first question: How big was the alien spaceship, and where was it headed?

According to astronomical observations, it had to be at least as big as Mercury! And it was moving at 40% of the speed of light, the faint point of light due to the ultra-high-speed hull colliding and friction with the cosmic microparticles, then emitting light.

Due to the extremely high velocity, the observed image was stretched out a bit like noodles.

Its direction of motion was at approximately a 123-degree angle relative to the movement direction of the Earth Era, with an unknown destination, definitely not Earth, nor Gliese 581.

Relieved by this information, Zhang Yuan felt more at ease as it seemed unrelated to their destination…

The second question, did the Alien Spaceship detect Earth Era?

Probably not, as Earth Era was still too small, a faint object in the dim universe, virtually invisible without intentional electromagnetic radiation, making it very hard to detect something 0.12 light-years away.

But the other side had once sent a string of brief signals, and it was unclear whether they were directed broadcasts or sent out to all directions.

Zhang Yuan looked at the series of signals, roughly six hundred bytes long, with many repeating peaks and troughs, indicating it was a logical electromagnetic signal.

Unfortunately, due to the paucity of data, it was impossible for people to decipher these alien characters.

Then, there was nothing more; even if the other side had good intentions, humanity dared not boldly observe, much less reply or use radar to scan. Besides, the Earth Era’s radar could not possibly scan something 0.12 light-years away.

Zhang Yuan felt a bit disappointed; the universe is never short of matter, the most valuable thing is information. Humans, having never communicated with an interstellar civilization before, missing this opportunity, who knew when the next would be…

The posts below indeed shared many of the same views.

[The technology of this civilization must be much stronger than ours, right?]

This content is taken from fгeewebnovёl.com.

[For sure, didn’t you see it’s a planet-level spaceship? Nuclear fusion probably can’t accelerate such a planet to 40% of the speed of light…]

[I think they’re using either vacuum zero-point energy or Black Hole energy sources. It’s also possible they have an anti-gravity propulsion device; we didn’t see any ion flame from the exhaust.]

[If only we had more observational data…]

After all, without experiencing the fear that comes from the unknown, the more recent posts were indeed more optimistic and open-minded, filled with all sorts of discussions that made Zhang Yuan itch to share some thoughts of his own.

“See, no more screen time for you!” Lin Xuanyuan snatched away his mobile phone, “That’s enough for today; a patient should act like a patient. Once you’re discharged, do whatever you like; I won’t care.”

A week later, Zhang Yuan was officially discharged and returned to his normal work.

He was already a high-level Manager, and as the aging of the spaceship intensified, he no longer had the ample personal time he used to have.

His job became even busier, organizing manpower for maintenance of the entire spaceship nearly every week.

And apart from that one chance encounter with an Alien Spaceship, Zhang Yuan learned about some other stories that had occurred in the past few hundred years…

None of them were good.

The first, the Old Captain, had left the spaceship he loved the third year after Zhang Yuan went into hibernation.

His successor was Captain Lin from the Scientific Council.

Even after many times, even with psychological preparation, the feeling was still not comfortable.

With the opening and closing of eyes, some people had already vanished…

The second issue, regrettably, was that since Mr. Aiding passed away on Earth, contact with Earth had been completely lost.

No other epoch-making individual had appeared since.

What had become of Earth Civilization was now a complete unknown.

Zhang Yuan sighed deeply, immersing himself in his work…

…

A year quickly passed, saying farewell to one colleague after another, and then it was time for the farewell feast, followed by hibernation.

The only one who could truly accompany him for a long time was his life partner, Lin Xuanyuan.

During the meal, Zhang Yuan suddenly felt how nice it was to have someone constantly by his side… If not for this life partner, life might be a bit worse.

“…How old are you this year?” Lin Xuanyuan asked.

“Me? A grand old man well past a thousand three hundred, why?” said Zhang Yuan, focusing on eating.

“Your real age!”

“…30?” Zhang Yuan calculated carefully and unexpectedly realized he had just turned thirty. And coincidentally, today was his birthday. In such an environment, it was really a bit hard to distinguish the passage of time, plus he never had the habit of celebrating birthdays.

“Happy birthday, 30-year-old uncle!” Lin Xuanyuan pulled out a bright red apple and handed it to him.

“Thanks to this beautiful young lady… and your warmth too!” joked Zhang Yuan. Used to their playfulness, there was always an instinctive casualness between them, as if they were real family.

(Why are there so many comments in the review section saying I’m padding it out, with a single person posting several times? That’s simply unbelievable…)

(And those asking for a faster pace, to relax a bit? This is not some lighthearted novel, okay? My target audience has never been the lay reader.)