Waiting at Ease for the Weary
Based on the current situation, the Unknown Civilization's fleet is far more powerful than that of humanity.
It's neither good nor bad, neither too many nor too few, so Yue Yuan's true intention was to calculate the number of Main Battleship the Unknown Civilization's fleet based on 120 large navigation tracks.
Humanity has only 10 Mountain-Class Warship. If the laws governing the development of technology in the universe are universal, then Unknown Civilization that are also Tier 1 Civilization civilizations must also have Mountain-Class Main Battleship.
Therefore, the combat strength ratio is 1:12.
The disparity in strength is considerable.
Therefore, in order to gain more initiative, it is not enough to simply rely on the Asteroid Belt for defense; humanity also needs to acquire more information that is beneficial to itself and detrimental to the other side.
Then Yue Yuan shouted to the First Mate in the bridge, "Show me the stars within 50 light-years of Aldebaran on the big screen."
"Yes, Commander Yue."
The First Mate of the Lyra turned around and pressed a few buttons on his workbench. The original map of Giant Gas Planet was shrunk to a corner and replaced with a map of stars against the backdrop of a dark universe.
Yue Yuan raised his head slightly and squinted at the star map. Then, he raised his hand to switch the screen to remote control mode and slowly flipped the star map.
There are quite a few stars. Yue Yuan looked at the marker in the lower left corner of the map and found that there were as many as 372 stars of various types within a 50-light-year range centered on Aldebaran.
Seeing this, Yue Yuan lowered his hands and spoke again, "'Tianhe Light', connect the dust cloud route parameters to the star map system, calculate the possible routes of the Unknown Civilization's fleet, and mark the probabilities of the routes for me. No need to consider special cases."
"It has been done according to your requirements."
The 'Tianhe Light', which has now become General-purpose Quantum Computer AI, reacts and calculates very quickly. As soon as Yue Yuan finished speaking, the big screen was refreshed, and then all other irrelevant stars were faded out, leaving only three specially marked stars.
"These Three Stars are the possible stars that were deduced from the dust cloud track." Yue Yuan turned his gaze back to the star map. He was certain that if this Unknown Civilization did not change its course midway due to special circumstances, then their trigger point should be one of these Three Stars.
"HIP22336, Yu Jing 3, Yu Jing Zeng 2."
Yue Yuan muttered the names of the Three Stars and looked at the flight path probabilities marked by the calculation results of 'Tianhe Light'.
The straight-line distances of these Three Stars to Aldebaran are 35.35 light-years, 38.5 light-years, and 32.82 light-years, respectively. The probabilities of their paths being marked by 'Tianhe Light' are 26.6%, 28.3%, and 45.1%, respectively.
Yue Yuan said there was no need to consider special circumstances, so 'Tianhe Light' did not take into account the possibility of the unknown fleet changing course midway into the calculation program. Therefore, the sum of these three sets of data is exactly 100%. "Yu Jing Zeng 2?" Yue Yuan focused his gaze on the line marked with 45.1%. One end of the line is Aldebaran, and the other end is Yu Jing Zeng 2.
It's not that the other two stars are not possible, but considering the worst-case scenario for the enemy, it is inevitable that Yu Jing Zeng 2 will be chosen as the hypothetical departure point for the unknown fleet, because it is the closest.
32.82 light-years!
After muttering something, Yue Yuan raised his eyelids again and glanced at Capella, the starting point of humanity's journey, which was also marked on the star map, 35.99 light-years away.
Upon seeing this data, Yue Yuan's bright eyes sparkled, and a smile appeared on his face, "Hehe, all these are long and arduous expeditions! Good!"
Fortunately, humans arrived at Aldebaran first, otherwise the roles would be reversed now.
Although this distance is closer than where humans came from, the difference is not too great. Assuming a journey at 15% of the speed of light, it would take at least 218 years. At 14% of the speed of light, it would take 234 years, which is not much different from the 240 years for humans.
Moreover, there's also the possibility of coming from even further away, such as HIP22336, Yu Jing 3.
Since humanity is facing a shortage of various energy resources after a long journey, there is no reason why the other party, being Tier 1 Civilization, should still be at full capacity.
Therefore, it is clear that when this unknown fleet arrived at Aldebaran, it must have been short of supplies and running out of energy.
Admittedly, after accelerating to maximum speed, the fleet flies by inertia, but this is only an ideal state. Considering the decelerating effect of Interstellar Dust, the engines still need to occasionally increase their power.
In addition to the daily energy needs inside the spacecraft, the Fusion Reactor must continue to operate during the journey.
However, due to the thrust-to-weight ratio of a spaceship, the more fuel is added, the greater the total mass of the spaceship, and therefore the more fuel is needed to propel the spaceship to 15% of the speed of light. More fuel, in turn, increases the total mass of the spaceship, thus creating a 'fuel line'.
This is why spacecraft cannot disregard the quality of fuel they are refueling in order to increase their range.
This is why humanity at its current stage, or rather, Tier 1 Civilization, needs to stop and refuel in Star System for interstellar travel.
In fact, this problem will persist as long as there is no way to solve the quality issue.
Therefore, Yue Yuan concluded that when this civilization reached Aldebaran, it must have also lacked energy resources.
With this information, Yue Yuan had another plan in mind: the humans could hide first, and then contact the unknown fleet after it had slowed down.
Why not make contact before they decelerate? Yue Yuan believes that if they had made contact before they accelerated, they would likely have been able to adopt some more fuel-efficient deceleration methods, such as using the Red Dwarf Star in the outer orbit of Aldebaran B to slow them down.
That's right, it's Gravity Slingshot.
Gravity Slingshot can be used not only to accelerate but also to decelerate.
The Gravity Slingshot effect of a Red Dwarf Star could very well save that unknown fleet a lot of fuel.
During the deceleration process, the Unknown Civilization's energy would inevitably be further depleted. Of course, there is another possibility: the unknown fleet might simply stop decelerating and continue flying past Aldebaran. However, Yue Yuan had examined the star map; the nearest star to Aldebaran in that direction was about 18 light-years away, and they would have to change course midway. Doing so would undoubtedly be even riskier, posing issues with fuel, supplies, and ship maintenance. A slight misstep could lead to their demise in the cosmos.
Therefore, he believes this possibility is unlikely, unless this Unknown Civilization is even more "frightened" than humans.
Therefore, the best course of action is to wait until they have finished decelerating before jumping out.
As a leader, Yue Yuan's every judgment directly affects the life and death of humanity, so he tries his best to find evidence from the data.
Just like this judgment, the difference between contacting someone before acceleration and contacting someone after deceleration is only a dozen hours, but the results are different.
Furthermore, a great deal of useful information can be gleaned from the opponent's deceleration time. The most important piece of information is the G-force at which the unknown fleet decelerates.
The more exhausted the enemy is, and the scarcer their resources and fuel become, the greater the initiative humanity gains.
My Temple Calculation has exhausted the enemy; how could I not use it?
By waiting until the other side is exhausted, even if a war breaks out due to unresolved negotiations, humanity will be able to wait in comfort and strength.
Therefore, the idea of "waiting in comfort for the enemy to tire themselves out" is not just a saying, but a judgment based on specific circumstances. If the enemy came to Aldebaran from a star within 10 light-years, then it might not be "waiting in comfort for the enemy to tire themselves out," but rather humanity being overtaken.