History of Human Space Exploitation

Chapter 31

"The minute and hour hands overlapped 23 times today," Cui Xiaoting thought to herself.On her left hand was the weird gift that Zhou Zhen gave her seven years ago, and her right index finger was gently sliding on the glass cover on the surface of the strange gift.

Cui Xiaoting remembered the discussion between her and Zhou Zhen about this weird object seven years ago.At that time, the relationship between the two was just chatting, and they often had work meals and coffee together. Cui Xiaoting was not surprised to receive this gift from Zhou Zhen.And this strange antique is a chronograph, an instrument for measuring and marking time in mechanical form, which has not been used for a long time.This kind of timer, which uses the minute hand and the hour hand to indicate different scales on a circle, is not made now, and no manufacturer produces it.

Although this thing is the same as the tool that people use to display time now, it is also called a "watch", but Cui Xiaoting always feels very strange holding this purely mechanical object in her hand.What's even more strange is that the relatively smaller and faster hand, which is the "minute hand" mentioned in the database information, actually rotates in the opposite direction.

Cui Xiaoting: "I can fully understand your idea of ​​giving me a strange object to surprise me, but would it be a prank if the object itself was made?"

Zhou Zhen: "No way. From the information in many literatures, I can see that the ancient mechanical clocks made of gears still have certain production rules. In order to keep the speed of the minute hand sixty times that of the hour hand, several clocks are always used. Gears to coordinate the two, or to correct the deviation between the two hands. But if the minute hand is to be reversed, does this mean that the minute hand has an independent system?"

Cui Xiaoting: "I checked it just now. The long needle in this watch, the one called the minute hand, turns a quarter of a turn, and it is indeed fifteen standard minutes."

Zhou Zhen: "Yes, it is indeed very accurate. When I got it, it really went through the horns. This counter-rotating minute hand, it is true that when the cesium-133 atom is in the undisturbed ground state, within this time period It has jumped 510 (790) times. From this point of view, even if it is reversed, the accuracy of this minute hand is indeed very high "

Cui Xiaoting: "If this is a prank, why is it so precise? Can mechanical means be so precise?"

Zhou Zhen: "Theoretically not. The properties of matter in the macroscopic world seem to be determined. It is almost impossible to achieve such precision. But the facts are right in front of our eyes. Do you like it?"

Cui Xiaoting: "Even if it's a broken watch, I like it, not to mention it's so special. Is this a commemoration of our three years of knowing each other?"

Zhou Zhen: "Well... it's fine if you like it... I feel that time is eternal. Even if something that expresses time is running backwards, it also expresses a kind of eternity, not to mention such a precise eternity..."

Cui Xiaoting: "Why are you hesitating? What's the matter?"

Zhou Zhen: "You should know that the Paswara Interstellar Council opened a new star tunnel three months ago."

Cui Xiaoting: "I know. After reading the report, this Star Tunnel has a certain research nature? The details don't seem to be announced much."

Zhou Zhen: "Well... Originally, I wanted to talk to you after I set off, or leave a message for you."

Cui Xiaoting: "What's the matter? You mean you're going to work near this Star Tunnel? Doesn't it seem like a big problem? Why are you so nervous?"

Zhou Zhen: "Yes... yes... if it's normal, of course it's all a job transfer, it's just a little far away from home. But this Star Tunnel is a bit... special..."

Cui Xiaoting: "Why is it so special?"

Zhou Zhen: "You should have heard that the first star tunnel in our history, the one in the solar system, was created by blowing up the gaseous planet called Neptune, right?"

Cui Xiaoting: "Well, I've heard that every grade's history books have repeatedly said that Star Tunnel No. [-] opened up a new era for human beings to explore the universe blah, blah, blah."

Zhou Zhen: "Yes, according to the various theoretical data of many star tunnels opened after that, basically the upper limit of the mass of the planets used by humans to build star tunnels will not exceed seven times that of Jupiter in the solar system. Theoretically speaking, higher than Seven times the probability of becoming a miniature black hole or a distortion singularity."

Cui Xiaoting: "Hmm... I've heard of this too, but it's just a general talk..."

Zhou Zhen: "The one we are going to study this time is indeed a very groundbreaking experiment. This star tunnel is formed after a brown dwarf is exploded by 170 O-type fusion weapons."

Cui Xiaoting: "Brown dwarfs??? Is a celestial body with such a mass okay? It's amazing, didn't it form a miniature black hole or a distortion singularity? It actually formed a stable star tunnel structure?"

Zhou Zhen: "Yes, when I first got the news, I didn't believe it like you did, but after seeing the data and the images sent back by the detector, I couldn't help but not believe it. From the past theoretical model, it is true. If you don’t know if it’s okay, it means that there are too many unknown things in this universe for us.”

Cui Xiaoting: "You are so nervous, it seems that there is something special about the star tunnel made by this brown dwarf?"

Zhou Zhen: "Well... yes... In the past, the committee sent some probes there, and when they passed through the star tunnel entity, they encountered some kind of... something like a wall, and they were all withdrawn."

Cui Xiaoting: "This...then I guess, does the committee think that they should send people to the scene to use the naked eye to observe, feel and solve problems that cannot be solved by machines and communications?"

Zhou Zhen: "You are really... smart..."

Cui Xiaoting: "Hey... just skip to the more direct question? Is it risky?"

Zhou Zhen: "How should I put it... All 170 and three detectors of various types have returned safely. From a physical point of view, there is no essential difference between us humans and detectors made of some inorganic substances. So from this point of view , I don’t think there is any risk. It’s nothing more than getting nothing, and going back the same way...”

Cui Xiaoting: "Is your hesitant tone just to make others feel that things are not that simple?"

Zhou Zhen: "After all, it is to enter this kind of almost unknown space entity... You should remember that after the No. [-] Star Tunnel of the solar system was opened, although the probes passed through the Star Tunnel to the No. Later, all the crew members of the spaceship that first passed through the Star Tunnel were awarded the title of "Human Heroes."

Cui Xiaoting: "Well... I know you didn't go for the title of "human hero". But... I can understand what you said. Human beings, even if it is a matter with full confidence, when it is When real human beings are required to participate, the first attempt is always full of variables and even the risk of death, and these people are well-deservedly called heroes.”

Zhou Zhen: "So... I will go..."

Cui Xiaoting: "Well... I know you will go, and if the superiors ask me if I will go, I will go too. But you know, no one will be so calm when faced with such a risky task. I think if it was me If I want to go, I won't have the courage to send you a strange watch, and then come to say goodbye to you. Maybe I'll just leave you a letter from the bottom of my heart, after all... oh..."

Zhou Zhen: "I didn't expect... your thinking is so similar to mine... But to be honest, for other colleagues and friends, I really just left a letter for them. It's really very satisfying to come to you today courage……"

Cui Xiaoting: "Well..."

Zhou Zhen: "There are some things...it's hard to express...I will miss you..."

Cui Xiaoting: "Oh...it's not about dating, let's add the word "read", I will also miss... miss you...you know, not only miss...when I think about it, I will look at this strange table"

Zhou Zhen: "Hmm..."

Cui Xiaoting and Zhou Zhen are both full-time researchers of the "Institute of Interstellar Physics of the Local Galaxy Cluster".Cui Xiaoting's work is more inclined to purely theoretical research, while Zhou Zhen is more inclined to organize and analyze field observation data.This study on the star tunnel formed by the brown dwarf was a major event in the physics and astronomy circles in the entire supercluster at that time. Of course, the research institute where Cui Xiaoting and Zhou Zhen belonged had the obligation and responsibility to actively participate in it.Zhou Zhen is one of the more than 30 on-site researchers between the ages of 35 and 100 in the institute. In the past ten years, he has done close-up research on more than 30 "white dwarfs, brown dwarfs and other low-mass stars. product".

There had been no communication from that group of people since the spacecraft sent its last signal to the relay station at the edge of the brown dwarf tunnel after half a year's voyage six and a half years ago.

Of course Cui Xiaoting thinks about Zhou Zhen every day, instead of "missing" him...

That strange watch, in the past three years, no day has followed the pattern of three years ago.At a normal rate, the minute and hour hands should coincide 22 times a day.And since a certain day three years ago, the minute hand is sometimes slow and sometimes fast.

Cui Xiaoting carefully observed and counted the law of minute hand rotation. Although it is different from the past, it still follows a strange law.The rotation speed of the minute hand changes every seven days, and at different rotation speeds every day, the indication of the time when it coincides with the hour hand is different.She didn't know what these combinations meant, but longing would always drive people to do things that seemed boring and repetitive.

Seven different rotation speeds, the number of coincidences with the hour hand at each rotation speed, the results of the seven rotation speeds range from ten to sixty times per coincidence day.And if the overlapping time is a kind of reference data, then there are ten to sixty times a day for reference.So if it is conveying some kind of information, is the time using the 24-hour timekeeping method or the [-]-hour timekeeping method?unknown
Fortunately, however, the results of these combinations always have an upper limit.Cui Xiaoting spent a year exploring the secrets.After having a roughly self-explanatory numerical law, she used these figures to search for possible matching results in the vast treasure house of human knowledge.

The quantum universal computer lived up to her hopes.In a certain character library called "Sijiao Number", a Chinese input method that has been abandoned for nearly 3000 years, she discovered the secret that this watch was going to convey to her.The closest thing to a meaningful result of these seven periodic changes in minute hand speed, plus the time to coincide with the hour hand, seems to be this:
Overlap 17 times a day, the overlap time is 2:07: Yes (17207)

Overlap 50 times a day, the overlap time is 9:00: Come (50900)

Overlap 23 times a day, the overlap time is 5:50: me (23550)

Overlap 40 times a day, overlap time is 2:27: Yes (40227)

Overlap 60 times a day, the overlap time is 6:00: back (60600)

Overlap 46 times a day, the overlap time is 3:30: think (46330)

Overlap 10 times a day, the overlap time is 9:00: No (10900)

Cui Xiaoting, who got the result, could no longer hold back her tears. Although she knew before that Zhou Zhen and his party who went to detect the damn brown dwarf star tunnel might have encountered an accident and could not return, but after seeing the cracked information, she was finally convinced. "I think 'yes', I can't come back." Cui Xiaoting believes that the "yes" should be the pronunciation of "you" in another language, and the other party uses the four-corner number of the word "yes" to refer to "You", it should be because the encoding of "you" in the four-corner number "27292" is a bit difficult to express in this reversed time-division system.

"I miss you, I can't come back." This should be Zhou Zhen's private message to himself in a way that he doesn't know at the moment.

(End of this chapter)