Book 10: Chapter 37: The Omen

“Qin Lun, you mean someone among the four Apostle teams predicted the jump trajectory of the Faith and intercepted them before they approached the X-35 star system…” Robin couldn’t help curling her lips and fell into deep thought.

Beside her, Fuyutsuki looked at Qin Lun as if he were an idiot and couldn’t resist asking, “Sir, I don’t mean to question you, but do you know what you’re saying?”

“Is what I said hard to understand?” Qin Lun appeared very calm and shrugged innocently.

“Sir!” Vera gently tugged at Qin Lun’s sleeve and explained with an expression of secondhand embarrassment, “Lightspeed jumps aren’t that easy to predict. Even if the destination is known beforehand, it’s extremely difficult to intercept them mid-jump!”

Through Vera’s subsequent explanation, Qin Lun’s expression gradually grew serious, and he understood why everyone doubted his speculation. Unlike the three-dimensional world ordinary people live in, where routes between starting points and destinations have traces to follow, and roads and bridges are clearly marked on maps,

the lightspeed jumps of cosmic warships involve the fourth-dimensional world—it’s point-to-point space traversal. The manifestation of this jump trajectory in the fourth dimension could be a straight line, a point within a closed loop, or even random.

The Faith needed to make several jumps to travel from its starting point to the X-35 star system. Although the destination was fixed, the intermediate jump points were unknown; from the three-dimensional world’s perspective, sometimes it even moved away from the destination, just to find a safer traversal point.

“So it’s impossible to predict the Faith’s route?” Qin Lun still refused to give up his speculation. In his view, this was the only key point that could explain the Faith’s disaster.

Perhaps in the eyes of Fuyutsuki and the others, the Faith either had bad luck and encountered an insurmountable powerful enemy or met with some accident like a celestial explosion. But in Qin Lun’s eyes, there were no accidents at all—everything that seemed coincidental was inevitable. He had understood this back in the Orphan World.

“It can be predicted, but it’s extremely difficult!” After a moment of silence, Vera still gave an objective opinion. “To predict an object’s lightspeed jump trajectory, you first need to know its destination, and then you need a detailed understanding of this star sector’s conditions—almost to the level of seeing every detail clearly.

Most importantly, with Gith technology, we can’t jump very far ahead of time. Before reaching the destination, we ourselves don’t know how many jump breakpoints we’ll pass through…”

“So the person or group capable of predicting the Faith’s jump route must possess technology superior to the Gith’s, while also understanding the conditions of this star sector!” Qin Lun’s eyes lit up, and he added with a smile.

“You still won’t give up this deduction?” Vera helplessly covered her face.

“Thank you, Vera. I understand now.” Qin Lun reached out and pinched Vera’s cheek, then laughed and walked away as the Gith beauty scolded him in anger.

“Sir, can you be sure?” Balin asked via the Team Channel.

Having been in the Gospel World for so long, the Apostles had the Ordnance Officer implant an embedded nano-sensor into their bodies, connecting everyone’s Telepathy together. This not only increased the number of people who could converse but also extended the Telepathy range, forming another form of Team Channel.

Compared to the Gith’s doubts, the Apostles’ discussion was much more rational; at least, they didn’t believe anything was completely impossible.

“Yes. Though it’s somewhat unbelievable, compared to the accident theory, I’m more inclined to believe the Faith was destroyed by enemies.” Qin Lun touched his nose with a half-smile. “The Faith was the pinnacle of Gith civilization, but from a purely technological standpoint, it definitely couldn’t match the Hismael. If their encounter with the Hismael warship back then wasn’t an accident, what would happen?”

“Then it’s indeed possible they were lured into a trap by the Hismael. But destroying the Faith wouldn’t be easy. Judging from the message Captain Marx sent at the time, there’s only one possibility!” Robin’s voice came through the Team Channel. “The Hismael used some celestial body to set up a trap.”

“There are many celestial phenomena that could destroy the Faith: solar flares from large stars, white hole eruptions, black hole consumption, and so on.” Dean muttered beside them. Having been in the Gospel World for so long, the Apostles had gained more knowledge about the cosmos.

“No need for wild guesses. The warship’s tech team has reached a final conclusion.” Robin entered with Sawa, placed two color prints on the table, and looked at Qin Lun with a smile. “You can feel proud. Although those Gith scholars in the tech team didn’t directly confirm your conclusion, they did accept the theory that the Faith fell into a trap.”

“Look at these two color prints—what’s the difference?” Robin pointed at the photos on the table.

“They’re two different parts of the Faith’s wreckage, but I can’t see anything special?” Bobby leaned in for a glance, then widened his eyes curiously, waiting for Robin’s explanation.

“Idiot, the wreckage in the first photo is newer; the one in the second looks very old, even having uncommon temporal rust spots!” Dean practically buried his head in the photos and commented bluntly.

“Hey, who are you calling an idiot!” Bobby angrily shook his fist at him. Ever since everyone became more familiar, these two youngsters of similar age had been butting heads, each trying to prove they were better.

“Different time flow rates!” Hearing Dean’s observation, most of the Apostles’ eyes lit up.

Because there’s no air in outer space, metal hardly corrodes. Only long ages would leave special patterns from starlight radiation, known as temporal rust spots.

“Yes. The tech team collected some wreckage specimens left by the Faith. This star sector belongs to interstellar space outside a star system, so stellar explosion phenomena can be ruled out first. Also, the wreckage shows no residual radiation, so drifting nebulae and comet phenomena are also ruled out. That leaves only a few possibilities.”

Robin said with a grave expression, “According to their analysis, among all remaining possibilities, the Faith colliding with a folded Wormhole has the highest probability. If that’s true, it means they were induced at the time…”

“The probability of a faster-than-light jump colliding with a folded Wormhole is less than one in hundreds of millions. Besides, to avoid jump accidents, the Faith would conduct pre-jump light checks beforehand; only during wartime would the Faith skip this step.”

Balin pondered and said, “So it seems the sir is right. The Faith did fall into a prepared trap.”

“Without the Faith, we’ve become drifting weeds. Now the Main Quest has no hint information—where should we go?” Loben frowned and muttered. Everyone in the room turned their attention to Qin Lun.

Seeing this, Robin secretly sighed. After Qin Lun repelled that High-Rank Apostle from the Holy Light Team, he had become the de facto leader of this team.

Although she had previously hoped he would take over leadership, now that it had happened, Robin couldn’t help feeling slightly worried, after all, Qin Lun wasn’t the type of leader who put his team members’ safety first.

“Can the tech team track the location after the Wormhole folded?” Qin Lun asked calmly.

“They obtained over ten possible star sector coordinates. However, with the Advancing’s capabilities, we can only go to one or two of them at most.” Robin shook her head and advised cautiously, “Now without the Faith’s cover, and with no quest guidance, it’s best to stay put or rendezvous with other Gith warships.”

The Faith was the most powerful cosmic warship of the Gith, but not the only one.

In fact, the Gith’s strategic plan this time was grand. Besides the Faith going to the second spiral arm of the Scorpius Galaxy to face the Jannamer Silver Lightning, there were eight other cosmic warships of the same class as the Faith serving as backup. They were waiting for the outcome of the Faith’s pioneering battle before deciding whether to enter the war zone.

Having fled the Gith Star System once, the Gith no longer thought they were the best in the universe.

If the Faith could independently defeat a mature Jannamer, then the Gith would gradually commit the other warships to the war. If the Faith failed, proving their current technology couldn’t handle a mature Jannamer, the Gith would have to consider continuing their escape, and the remaining cosmic warships would be their complete guarantee during their flight.

Qin Lun raised his head and looked at the ceiling, but his pupils were unfocused as he fell into thought.

After a long while, Qin Lun lowered his head. Having considered all options, he had to admit Robin was right. Without further intelligence, rash action would be dangerous. The opponent who trapped the Faith knew this star sector better than they did and also had powerful cosmic warships.

Even if they could find the Wormhole, so what? The balance of power was unequal now. Without the Faith as backup, this would be pure suicide. Perhaps the opponent had considered this and indirectly forced them into a corner.

“We…”

“Sir, please wait!” Just as Qin Lun was about to make a decision, Dean suddenly interrupted and asked, “The team we encountered earlier clearly wasn’t the pursuing team from Devil’s Horn, so at least one of the remaining two opponents is. Has anyone considered why the team that destroyed the Faith did so? Doesn’t that force us to leave the battlefield?”

“Unless they aren’t the pursuing team either, and they don’t want us participating in the final battle!” Qin Lun pondered thoughtfully, while more companions became confused. The way Dean put it, it seemed the opponent was considering their interests.

After all, the Faith’s destruction didn’t mean the Patroller Team had failed. The current Main Quest with no hints didn’t necessarily have to be pursued; they could wait until their stay time ran out, and the Shattered Starry Sky would have to send them back.

“Thank you, Dean. I think I have some ideas now!” Qin Lun’s eyes gradually brightened, and he said with a smile, “Gather Fuyutsuki and the others on the warship. I have something to say!”