Built with the most advanced materials, the Hope is dozens of times more resistant to radiation than the old ships of old. Moreover, the Hope is powered by nuclear fusion, and in its proximity to Jupiter, there is no need to worry about fuel consumption.
When building the Hope, Hawke had considered the possibility of conflict with the rest of the creatures, so the Hope also had ten laser cannons mounted on it, as well as three large-yield hydrogen bombs.
It could be said that this time, Hawke had made all the preparations.
However, he was cautious enough to face these strange creatures.
Turning on the detection power of his various instruments to the maximum, Hawke flew slowly along the orbit around Jupiter.
"According to my previous speculation, the reason why my ship has attracted so many wood spirits is because on top of my ship, there is something that attracts them. This visit is the perfect time to verify it so that we can launch a mass capture later."
Hawk took his time to think, and after noticing a cloud of wood spirits about a hundred times its initial radiation manifesting a blue shift ahead, Hawk quickly released a rudimentary satellite, keeping it in orbit about a hundred kilometres away from himself and together orbiting Jupiter.
The total strength of this mass of wood spirits was probably similar to that of Wood Spirit No. 1 at its peak. Now, a wood spirit of such strength could be completely out of Hawke's mind.
Based on the amount of blue shift, the speed of this mass of wood spirits relative to the Hope reached approximately one hundred kilometres per second. After deducting the forty-three kilometres per second speed of the Hope, the speed of these wood spirits was about sixty kilometres per second.
This mass of wood spirits soon arrived at a distance of only one thousand kilometres from Hawk. This position was only about eight hundred kilometres from the humble satellite that Hawke had released earlier. But at this very moment, this group of wood spirits behaved in a way that greatly exceeded Hawke's expectation.
They didn't bother with the closer humble satellite, but swooped straight towards the Hope, clinging to its shell and doing their best to get in.
Hawke's brow locked tightly.
"What is it within the ship that attracts them? I came to Jupiter this time in a ship that wasn't the old one before, which means that what attracted them was common to both the old ship and the Hope. But they are not attracted to that humble moon, so that would rule out a large part of what ..."
"What is it that attracts them, exactly?"
Hawke pondered as he weakened the radiation protection in one part of the Hope's outer shell and made a trap on the inner wall to cleanly capture the cloud of wood spirits. After that, Hawke began to do the elimination process.
"First, it can't be a computer. The computer on top of the old ship used massive integrated circuits, while the Hope was a photonic computer, the architecture is all different, it's not even the same thing. Also, that humble satellite had computing modules on top of it, and these wood spirits didn't give a damn."
"It can't be these materials. They're just clinging to the casing and burrowing in at the slightest hint of vulnerability, and it's certain that it's not these special steels that are attracting them."
"Could it be the heat? No, it's unlikely. Everywhere above Jupiter you can find much warmer temperatures than I have here. Radiant energy? Impossible, I've done so many tests on Titan."
Hawke thought sharply, and gradually a terrible thought came to him.
"Could ... be attracting them and it's me?"
Hawke decided to make another experiment.
Another gathering point of wood spirits was found ahead. There were about seven or eight or so. After Hawk cleanly eliminated seven of them with his laser cannon and only one remained, Hawk gritted his teeth and shifted his position via radio waves, moving from above the Hope to inside the humble satellite next to it.
This rudimentary satellite had no protection, and if the wood spirits got close enough, just one of them could wipe out Hawk. But Hawke was sure that he could escape in time after the wood spirits showed signs of approaching him.
In order to figure this out, and for the sake of the mass capture plan afterwards, Hawke thought it was worth taking a little risk.
The Hope was closing in fast with the wood spirit. The distance, shortened from 10,000 km to 5,000 km, and then to 1,000 km ...
The Hope, the humble satellite, and the wood spirit formed a triangle. And based on Hawke's mastery of the wood spirit's habits, Hawke knew that the wood spirit would make a decision when it reached a distance of three hundred kilometres from the Hope. Whether to fly towards the Hope, or to the humble satellite.
Here comes the Wood Spirit. At a distance of three hundred kilometres from the Hope, it changed direction without the slightest hesitation and swooped towards the humble satellite at a speed of sixty kilometres per second. With the speed of the humble satellite's own orbit, in three seconds the wood spirit would be in contact with it.
The time left for Hawke was only three seconds. It was short, but it was enough. It took less than a second for Hawke to run away from the rudimentary satellite and send himself by radio wave to the Hope's main computer. The wood spirit felt Hawk's departure and immediately changed direction, lunging towards the Hope until it was blocked by the Hope's shell and could not advance an inch.
The reaction of this wood spirit had confirmed Hawke's suspicions, and Hawke could not help but ponder.
"So, me, why am I attracting them?" Hawke pondered, "The biggest difference between me and the computer is that I have an autonomous mind, while the computer does not. Could it be that what attracts them is my autonomous mind, or in other words, my intelligence?"
"That's the only explanation." Hawk came to this conclusion, "Could it be that, after devouring my intelligence, it would cause them to evolve?"
"There is actually such an evolutionary path? Not evolving intelligence themselves, yet they can rely on devouring the intelligence of other creatures to evolve."
This was only a rough speculation, but unfortunately Hawke did not have any remaining intelligent creatures around him now for him to confirm this guess. He was unwilling to experiment on himself, so he kept his suspicions to himself and left them to be tested later.
Having cleaned up the wood spirit, Hawke continued his journey.
After the past few years, it seemed that there were more radiation sources on Jupiter. He could detect many sources of radiation 100,000 kilometres below him, on the surface of Jupiter and even further in, almost all over the planet. He would not dare to go there, but would just play guerrilla in the outer layers. Otherwise, even if he was strong, if thousands of wood spirits pounced on him, he would still be finished.
Even in the outer layer, the density of the wood spirits was more than ten times greater than the last time when they used the old ship to escape. Even with the strength of the Hope, it was still in danger several times. Fortunately, Hawk had enough fuel and the powerful laser cannons were fired simultaneously to slow them down and reduce their intensity, so Hawk was able to survive the crisis.
After confirming that it was only himself who attracted the wood spirits and that the machinery he had built would not be interfered with by the wood spirits, Hawke started his mining project in the Jupiter system while capturing the wood spirits.
The Jupiter system was much larger than the Saturn system, and was much closer than Earth. If titanium and zirconium could be found here, the mining cycle and mining costs would undoubtedly be much lower than on Earth.
The four Galilean moons, and dozens of smaller ones, were all explored by Hawke, but the results were disappointing. There were still no veins of titanium or zirconium worth mining in the Jupiter system.
"Hey, it's better to look honestly there on Earth." Hawk sighed and set off on his return journey with the tens of thousands of wood spirits he had captured.
Such a number of wood spirits was enough for Hawk to build more than a hundred "village" class ships like the Hope, or even a "county" class ship.
In Hawke's hierarchy, ships of around 3,000 tons, such as the Hope, were "village" class, ships of 10,000 tons or more were "village" class, and ships of 100,000 tons or more were "county" class. class ships.
In Hawke's drawings, the "County" class was already a minimum of 500 metres in length, a size larger than a large aircraft carrier on Earth. It was Hawke's intention to build at least three County-class ships and the accompanying Village and Township-class ships before embarking on his trip to the Sky Court IV.
This goal is no longer far away. After several years of perseverance, Hawke had completed at least half of the long journey.
Laden with the fruits of his harvest, Hawke returned to Titan. During the nearly three months that Hawke had been away, Titan had been quiet and uneventful, even the expected invasion of the black bugs and the loss of a base or two, the most likely scenario, had not happened, causing Hawke to sigh in wonder at his good fortune.
After checking and processing the backlog of data, he immediately set about restoring Titan's productivity.
Hawke had an ambitious goal in mind. Now, with enough wood spirit and black worm corpses and an endless supply of resources, and with his entire stockpile of titanium and zirconium, Hawke intended to build a Country-class ship.
It would be a 30,000-ton ship, still butterfly-shaped, but with a diameter of 100 metres. Hawke named the first of these ships, which had not yet been built, the ...
The Aurora!
If the "Hope" only gave Hawke hope for the Far Space Court IV, then the "Aurora
"was a glimpse of the dawn of his great voyage dream!