Chapter 34

In Star Dome Calendar Year 50, the quantum phantom engine of the Forgefire Embryo Starship let out an infant-like wail within the absolute void. Chen Feng gazed out the viewport at the churning chaotic energy. Out there, no starlight existed, no space-time—only the "Pre-Forge Fetal Membrane" suspended between existence and nothingness. The womb before the birth of the universe, recorded on the Forge-Fire Secret Language Slate, was currently contracting at a visible rate, as if repelling the intrusion of outsiders. "Chen Feng! The hull is being decomposed by the membrane's energy," Su Yuhan said, her fingers blurring across the holographic keyboard. "But... these energy frequencies perfectly match the alpha waveband of Old Zhou's brainwaves just before he died!" She suddenly pointed at the monitor. "Look! Trilobite fossil patterns from Earth's Cambrian period are emerging on the membrane, along with the sound of gears meshing from the first time Father repaired a tractor!" Liu Ruyan's transmission suddenly patched through with an emergency warning from the Primal Forge Civilization: "The Prophet says that the 'Forge Ancestor' of the Pre-Forge Era is awakening. That is an entity even older than the Gravediggers; His breath is the universe's primal hammer strike..." Her holographic image suddenly distorted. "And your starship is becoming His new anvil!"