Age of Cosmic Exploration

Yao Yuan picked up a glass of tea and stood at the side glass window of a room in the Hope. Beside him, a few officers were chatting. It was a rare Sunday holiday, but even so, Yao Yuan still had a few minor chores to deal with. However, he knew a day of peace was rare, so he finished his chore and decided to go for a walk.

People from the Noah One had successfully melted into the big family of the Hope. There were still some altercations, but since those were easily resolved at the end of the day, everyone was dealing with humans.

Furthermore, the Noah One’s people were rescued when they were in the deepest danger. The poignancy and shock was beyond description when they were ushered from certain death into the relative safety of the Hope. In other words, they only had appreciation in their hearts and were willing to assimilate into the Hope’s society... Then again, even if they were unwilling, Earth was gone and they were in space, what choices did they have?

Therefore, due to these many reasons, the Noah One’s people had successfully assimilated into the Hope without causing much trouble. Until now, the Hope had spent two months in warp drive. Other than assimilating the people from the Noah One, most time was spent in waiting.

The warp drive was as predicted by most scientists. In this space, the surroundings contained nothing but emptiness because this space’s speed was quicker than light. Even though this space could be said to be in a standstill, internal lighting still worked normally, but outside of this space, space was a giant slice of darkness.

Warp drive was an extremely long process. Even though they had passed light speed, the cosmos was large, so moving from one sun to the next could only be calculated in light years, and this warp drive was expected to last for one year and four months. Currently, the Hope existed in this waiting space, waiting to exit from warp drive space.

There was another reason... because this warp drive had no certain destination. Even though the general direction had been decided, it was heading towards a sun that did not have a crowded planet system. However, since they had entered warp drive while they were within a solar system, there had to be a variation in the destination. Just think about it, a slight tremor for a sniper could cause a variation of 1 or 2 meters after the bullet travelled for several thousand meters; therefore, the variation must have been bigger for warp drive that had its distance calculated in light years.

Therefore, the Hope was not only waiting for the warp drive to end but also waiting for the unknown future. It was similar to their normal space warp. The difference was that this time it would be a long one year and four months, while it would be a blink of an eye if it was a space warp.

Yao Yuan looked out the window and studied the black emptiness. There was nothing in space other than the few alien vassals. By now, Yao Yuan understood the true meaning of space decay. This empty space was not really space, and the real space... that was the starting point of the destruction of the cosmos.

"Everyone, please excuse me, I have to go to the lab," Yao Yuan put down his glass of tea and told the officers.

Indeed, Yao Yuan had been visiting the lab these past few days. The key reason was still the few technologies taken from the level 3 space civilization’s central computer. They were all advanced technology, be it the improvement to warp drive, the ECS system’s anti electromagnetism, or the storage for the plasma energy or the plasma energy shield.

Even though it was infuriating that they had only gained these few technologies and not that level 3 space civilization’s full technology tree, it was still better than nothing. After all, everyone knew what happened. The alien AI was indeed a time bomb that threatened the Hope. The emergency called for its destruction, so Yao Yuan agreed with Da Bing’s decision. These few technologies could be counted as spoils of war, and some was still better than none, right?

Furthermore, these few technologies... Just the plasma energy reservoir and plasma energy shield alone were enough to solve the Hope’s biggest issue.

First of all, the Hope currently was using all Gaussian weapons. The only plasma weapon was the Hope’s ultimate weapon, the Genesis. Everyone on the Hope knew about the Gaussian weapons’ power. Without electromagnetic shields, even the space armors would not be able to withstand the assault of Gaussian rifles.

Then why level 2 space civilizations, when facing level 3 space civilizations, would become so useless and powerless. Even if a level 2 space civilization had a fleet of spaceships and a level 3 space civilization only had one, the former still had to run.

The answer was defense mechanism. Level 3 space civilizations did have many technologies that were more advanced than that of level 2 space civilizations, in the context of a war, the core difference was that level 3 space civilizations had plasma energy shields. These shields could not only defend against Gaussian weapons’ bullets but also the Genesis’ energy beams. While level 2 space civilizations’ electromagnetic shields could only defend against physical bullets and not plasma attacks!

Therefore, during a war between these two levels of space civilization, one party could end the war without taking any damage, and that was the biggest difference between level 2 and level 3 space civilizations. Actually, this was not limited to level 2 and level 3 space civilizations, it was the same for level 4, 5, and 6 space civilizations. If I could hit you but you could not hit me, there would be a clear winner.

Actually, the Hope had been researching plasma shields, but due to the lack of research information, the progress was stuck on many key issues like instantaneous energy charge, energy storage, energy condensation, and the like. This range of techniques was not available to level 2 space civilizations, and mankind would only understand them after they being a level 2 space civilization for several decades.

But now, the Hope had received all the information about the plasma energy shield, including the most esoteric parts, and it looked like the Hope was close to constructing plasma shield, but in reality...

It was not really so!

"...Impossible. To perfect the plasma shield technology in one year and two months and equip the whole ship with it is purely impossible," Bo Li answered without taking her eyes off her computer.

Yao Yuan was helpless, like he always was before Bo Li. He stood up beside her and asked, "What are the difficulties? Haven’t we gotten all the necessary information? Is it because of supply, material, or people? I can give you a larger quota if that is needed..."

"It’s not that," Bo Li directly interrupted Yao Yuan. She raised her head and her eyes stared right at Yao Yuan. "It is not that, the quota for research is more than enough and there are enough people working on it. The main issue is the lack of research knowledge, and that is not something that can be fixed easily... Fine, I ask you this, do you know what the best plasma energy source is?"

Yao Yuan shook his head blankly and Bo Li answered, "It is the cold agglutination process. In other words, the upgraded version of the hydrogen-atom reactors we currently have. We are using normal hydrogen reactors now and we require extremely high temperatures to induce polymerization to release energy. This kind of situation will not contribute to cold agglutination. We need a new upgrade to our many devices, like energy storage blocks. Other than that, even our most basic metallurgy technology needs to improve as well...

"To put it simply, imagine a country during World War I receiving the blueprint for weapons in the 21st century. Yes, theoretically, they can build it, but practically, it is not going to be easy. From the metals, manufacturing, to ammunition, they each require a large amount of time to research and adopt. Even after that, there is still the question of adaptation to current technology..."

Yao Yuan exhaled to interrupt Bo Li, "I have thought about all that. I do know it is difficult to make use of the plasma energy shield, but you have to consider my trump card and choice. The trump card the Hope has now is our immense number of Homo Evolutis and the Space Combat Jets they pilot, right? From a certain perspective, this team can easily destroy a level 2 space civilization and might even stand a chance against level 3 space civilization, but our Homo Evolutis warriors are very important, and there is no way for us to replace the ones that we have lost. If possible, I also do not demand a perfect plasma shield technology, but at least can you give me a second best replacement? Like a plasma shield generator that has a short life span...

"You have to understand, when we exit space warp, we might be facing innumerable level 2 space civilizations and level 3 space civilizations..."

At this point, Yao Yuan’s eyes darkened like...

He was looking into the far future!