The Galactic Fleet constantly moved through hyperspace while dropping out periodically in solar systems for the four Celestials to procure food for themselves or to sleep. They had to consciously hold onto the destroyer in order to stay on it, so falling asleep, and inadvertently relaxing, would cause them to 'fall off'.
Mazur was also the greatest scientist in the galaxy when it came to matters of energy, so he had been absorbed in study of the blue cube and the information contained within it on energy circuits. This occupied most of his time when the fleet dropped out of hyperspace, to the point where he even became heavily sleep deprived.
The blue cube was a four-dimensional rubix cube, each section of it storing different pieces of information. An inbuilt energy circuit and hardwired programming within it could be activated, emitting a resplendent hologram that filled an entire hallway with diagrams, complicated formulas and notes on the nature of the energy itself. The information shown could also adjusted but twisting and turning the cube, rearranging it in various ways.
The entire crew on the Destroyer, even Major Harold himself snuck glances from a distance when Mazur, Ivan, Iris and Valeria played with the device, the destroyer's onboard monitoring devices even secretly recording several parts.
Ivan and Mazur didn't care about this observation for two reasons. Firstly, the information was projected four-dimensionally, so those looking in the third dimension could only see a tiny fraction of it. Trying the understand it was like looking at a single standalone carbon atom and expecting to understand carbon-based life.
The second reason, was that even if a three-dimensional being could miraculously form a working theory based of such little information, they couldn't interact with the energy at all.
"So this is how it works," Mazur commented insightfully after scanning some of the diagrams and attached formulae.
"You need to explain it for the rest of us to understand," Ivan rolled his eyes at the cat.
"The reason three-dimensional matter can't exist in subspace is because of the energy that naturally fills it. It is the same for naturally existing four-dimensional gasses. The energy eats any matter without a strong enough atomic bond, rapidly breaking it apart until it dissolves into energy itself and merges with subspace."
"At the same time, the energy can be used to simulate various properties by running them through predesigned energy circuits. Have a look at this one," Mazur twisted and turned the cube several times before a certain diagram was displayed. "This energy circuit is designed to make the energy vibrate rapidly, causing it to transform into fire."
Mazur explained his understanding of several energy circuit designs within the cube. A slow vibration over an extended wave graph was used to collect and transfer the energy excitation, allowing the natural energy filling subspace to be collected together and form more dense spaces of energy. Another design was to rapidly move energy, the rapid shift of energy not only causing a destructive lightning to appear, but can be used for long distance energy transfer.
There were a myriad of energy circuit designs and their effects, some changing depending on how it was utilized. What truly interested Ivan was on which could 'print' a specific piece of information on pieces of energy. These also used the naturally occurring energy in subspace, so there was never a need to worry about 'recharging' anything. It was the true ideal of unlimited energy.
"The things we can make with this… are far beyond our imaginations," Mazur said with bloodshot eyes.
Ivan had a great inspiration for what he wanted to create and proliferate as a company product as well. "Study it all, Mazur, you will be responsible for making sure that all the other scientists understand this knowledge as well."
*****
"We are at the frontline," Major Harold beckoned to the four Celestials. "This location is a previous battlefield, some wreckage still remains. See if you can understand anything from them."
Throughout the massive bridge, monitors displayed the wreckage of a massive space battle. Parts of spaceship, both small and large, littered the empty space within the solar system. The screens displayed everything, including the massive yellow dwarf star burned in the distance with a massive imposing presence.
"Bring us closer to the wreckage displayed on monitors 25-28," Mazur indicated to Major Harold, who quickly commanded the fleet to adjust their vectors, rapidly flushing toward the designated location.
Once they were near the location, Mazur simply moved through the fourth dimension and flew directly out of the destroyer and into space.
"Let's follow and have a look," Ivan spoke softly to Iris and Valeria, leading the way as the three of them followed suit and flew out of the destroyer and into space.
Major Harold and the ship controllers in the bridge nearly had heart attacks when they saw the four vanish through the walls like a ghost before appearing on the destroyer's external monitors amongst the wreckage. One of the most frightening things about this was that none of them were wearing spacesuits.
The other 10,099 ships amongst the fleet also picked them up on their monitors and were in equal shock and trepidation. They had no idea how this was even possible in the first place and just watched in silence. The only exception was Captain Argentear aboard his battleship, who felt a mix of shock and fear as he used a personal recording device to record them on the ships monitors for future reference.
"Help me pull this section apart," Mazur said to the others as attached himself to a large piece of wreckage from a Scalian warship.
Different from the Galactic Fleet ships, which were mostly white due to the anti-radiation and anti-corrosion materials applied to their exterior. The Scalian warships were almost pitch black, blending into the surrounding space.
The fragment of a warship was nearly a mile long, but it was impossible to tell what part of the alien ship it used to be. Ivan, Iris and Valeria helped Mazur tear apart several sections of it, even using their four-dimensional spears to directly carve out large portions of the hull.
When they flew into the ship, the whole atmosphere was eerie. The interior network of passageways and rooms had a strange décor of curved blade-like spikes painted in various colors, something which would never pass the federations safety inspections when building spaceships. The size of everything was also much larger than expected, with massive open spaces.
Ivan pulled open a door to a random room and a corpse floated out. He already saw this through the fourth dimension though so wasn't taken by surprise.
The corpse of the Scalian was in relatively good condition, only the fist sized hole in its head indicating it had committed suicide rather than suffer a slow torturous death as the ship's atmosphere rapidly drained. It was a decisive move that even Ivan nodded his head in admiration for. He could tell the Scalian was a soldier of absolute decisiveness.
This Scalian was nearly nine feet tall, with a body covered in hulking muscles and dense violet scales. Its face was hideous and razor-sharp teeth could be seen in its mouth, indicating it was mostly carnivorous and potentially not omnivorous like humans at all. It also had four arms, each with enough muscle to possibly lift a person with a single hand.
"Is this a Scalian?" Iris leaned onto Ivan's back as she looked over his shoulder. "It's quite ugly."
"You never know, by their standards, this person may have been a modern day prince charming. What I want to know, is what kind of weapon could cause this kind of wound."
Ivan looked at the hole through the Scalian's head, which is what confused him. If it was cause by a plasma weapon, which would explain the size of the wound, the inside wall of tissue would be completely burnt. Instead it was smooth like a mirror, frozen solid once all the natural heat in the body had dissipated into the peaceful solitude of space.
"Valeria, go inspect that room, find me the weapon this alien used to kill himself," Ivan commanded.
"Yes," Valeria nodded her head and disappeared into the room to return shortly after with a grey weapon made from a type of synthetic ceramic. "Ivan, I found it."
Ivan inspected the gun with a frown. The most important part of the weapon, the ammunition cartridge, and even the main bulk of the gun where the ammunition is fired from, were completely destroyed. They were full of holes as if something had eaten through it.
"Valeria, go search the rest of the wreckage. Search for any weapons that aren't damaged."
"It's probably useless," Mazur said as he looked into a room with a sigh, "These Scalian seem to have self-destructed any of their technologies so we can't find out their secrets. Behind here should be an engine room, but come have a look."
Ivan peeked through the door and his eyes widened in shock. A massive chamber used to be here, but it had been completely torn off from the main part of the ship. Where it should have continued, the room abruptly came to an end and was filled with the background of space. Stars and debris filled the views of the Four Celestials, but there wasn't a single hint of what could be the rest of the ship.
Mazur, Ivan, Iris and Valeria returned to Major Harold's destroyer and situated themselves in the middle of the bridge as they looked back over the monitors displaying debris. Valeria carried the ruined gun back with her and was at a loss as to whether she was supposed to keep it or not, so she decided to hold onto it and ask Ivan what to do with it after.
"They have destroyed their own technology too thoroughly," Mazur spoke as if it didn't make a great deal. "We need to go to an active battlefield where the fighting is currently happening. I will infiltrate a working ship and study the technology. I will even steal an on board computer if possible."
"I would prefer it if you could simply prevent them from self-destructing in the first place," Major Harold plainly stated.
Mazur nonchalantly nodded his head in disinterest. Whether a ship was working or not, as long as it was in one piece, he would be able to reverse engineer it. This was even more so once he became a four-dimensional being. While he may have difficulty calculating and moving through a four-dimensional axis, three-dimensional object had become increasingly simple in his eyes.
"We will do our best, but if they are truly determined to blow themselves up, only four of us probably won't be able to stop them," Ivan commented with a smile.
"Understood," Major Harold said with a stern expression. "The invasions of the Scalians have been becoming more and more frequent over the years. Currently, we have been detecting and engaging them several times a week. We will wait here until they are detected before immediately departing as reinforcements."