Bad News

After dealing with the Design Institute's affairs, Yue Yuan took the opportunity to discuss warships with Man Yuemei, mainly to coordinate in advance and have her prepare for eventually boarding one.

After the Security Department was split in two, Man Yuemei no longer served as its director. Instead, she became the director of the Human Armed Forces Support Department—the Armed Forces Department.

As for the Security Department, it was placed under Yue Yuan's assistant, Zhu Pete.

Both were military departments, but their functions differed. The Security Department was mainly responsible for internal security and public safety; security personnel, police, and similar units all fell under its authority.

The Armed Forces Department, on the other hand, was responsible for external warfare.

Although talking about external warfare now was indeed empty rhetoric, since the New Government had been established, its functions had to be complete. Preparing for the worst was never a bad thing.

Besides, operating a warship was not something just anyone could do. Boarding it, familiarizing oneself with it, training—every step took time.

The warships had not been built yet, but simulation equipment could be used for practice first.

In an era when Virtual Reality technology was widespread, simulated training was standard procedure. Callisto Base had possessed such equipment before.

Although the warship design data had not yet been completed, they could first run simulations using the virtual data from the previous transport ships.

After leaving the Armed Forces Department, Yue Yuan returned to his busy yet orderly daily routine: reviewing proposals, approving proposals, and making final decisions.

Time passed day by day.

Many technologies that had already fallen behind the pre-disaster era were picked up once more by humanity's survivors. Along the path they had already traveled once, they strove to catch up.

More than two years had passed since the Controlled Nuclear Fusion project was proposed. Its progress was obvious, but it was still far from reaching the pre-disaster level, where hope could be clearly seen.

Fortunately, Controlled Nuclear Fusion had already been confirmed as achievable before the disaster, and the path to success had largely been cleared by those who came before. The surviving humans did not need to feel their way across unknown waters; they only needed to continue accumulating technology, and one day it would surely be achieved.

It was not just Controlled Nuclear Fusion. Many other lost technologies were the same way, but humanity needed time.

Humanity needed time, but Callisto seemed unwilling to give humanity that much time.

Today, Yue Yuan opened a report that filled him with concern.

"Callisto Resource Exploration Report"

Over the past two-plus years, humanity had returned from underground to the surface. Through exploration teams, intelligent robots, satellite remote sensing, and various other methods of detection, they had finally mapped out Callisto's resource distribution, structure, and reserves in detail.

As a member of the Solar System, Callisto, like other planets and asteroids, had a fairly complete range of common elements. Rare earths and other trace elements were scarce, but they were barely enough for humanity's current population.

The problem lay in its reserves of radioactive elements—in other words, nuclear fuel.

According to the report's estimates, even if humanity hollowed out all of Callisto, the nuclear fuel they could obtain would at most be enough to squander for around seventy years.

If it were also used on the spacecraft planned for construction, that number would have to be discounted even further.

Yue Yuan rubbed his throbbing temples. The matter gave him a terrible headache.

"Xiaolin, go call Dr. Gan De and Dr. Xu Zhenyi over." Leaning back against the office sofa, Yue Yuan pressed the phone on his desk and spoke.

"Okay." A crisp voice came from the other end of the line.

Ever since Zhu Pete had been pulled away by Yue Yuan to manage the Security Department, Long Xiaolin had taken over as his assistant and secretary. Thus, Yue Yuan's messenger had changed from Zhu Pete to her.

She was in the large office next to Yue Yuan's, and Yue Yuan contacted her directly through the private line.

Long Xiaolin was quite efficient. Before long, a knock sounded at Yue Yuan's office door.

"Come in!"

"Chief Yue, what is it?" Xu Zhenyi entered, his expression calm as he asked. Then he turned, preparing to close the door.

"There's still one person who hasn't arrived. Leave the door open for now." Yue Yuan stopped him, then stood and handed over the tablet in his hand. "Sit wherever you like. Take a look at this first."

Xu Zhenyi took the tablet and began reading carefully. The further he read, the graver his expression became. In the end, he even forgot to sit down.

"Chief, is this the latest data?" Xu Zhenyi's face was stern to the extreme, yet it somehow made him look calm. Or perhaps that was simply his usual expression.

"Yes. The exploration department just finished compiling it." Yue Yuan nodded, signaling for Xu Zhenyi to read the entire report carefully.

Just then, an old man entered through the doorway. It was Gan De.

Before Gan De could speak, Yue Yuan stepped forward and asked, "Dr. Gan, how are conditions in interstellar space now?"

"Huh?"

Gan De froze. He had not expected Yue Yuan to summon him for that question, but he answered truthfully. "Interstellar Dust is much thinner than it was two years ago, but it still does not meet the conditions for navigation."

As he spoke, Gan De seemed to understand why Yue Yuan had asked. He raised his eyes to look at him. "Chief Yue, you aren't thinking of starting interstellar travel within a short time, are you?"

Seeing Yue Yuan's eyes gradually grow resolute, Gan De hurriedly shook his head. "No, absolutely not. We absolutely cannot depart within the next fifty years. Otherwise, we'll all die on the way."

Gan De understood Yue Yuan's temperament quite well. That look in Yue Yuan's eyes meant he truly wanted to accelerate humanity's schedule for beginning its journey.

But the dust cloud from the Supernova Remnant still permeated interstellar space. It had not thinned nearly enough to allow navigation. If they set out rashly, they would gradually be slowed during Inertial Navigation, until their fuel was exhausted and they perished.

Thinking of that, even the normally composed Gan De grew somewhat agitated. "Chief Yue, if the conditions are not met, then we absolutely cannot depart. This is science. If the data says no, then no means no. There will be no miracle."

"Dr. Gan, don't get worked up yet. I never said we would leave immediately. Look at this first." Yue Yuan suppressed his stirring urge to depart and pointed at the tablet in Xu Zhenyi's hands.

"The situation doesn't look good, Old Gan." After finishing the report, Xu Zhenyi handed the tablet over with a grave expression.

Gan De was somewhat puzzled, but judging from Yue Yuan and Xu Zhenyi's expressions, the reason must be in there. With that thought, he took the tablet and carefully read through it.

After a long while, Gan De was stunned as well. He looked at Yue Yuan in disbelief. "Only seventy years?"

"Yes. Keep reading. Below are the data curves compiled by the Engineering Department." Yue Yuan paused before adding, "They concern fuel and spacecraft."

Gan De continued scrolling through the report. After a short while, he looked up at Yue Yuan, then shifted his gaze toward Xu Zhenyi, his expression grave.

He now understood why Yue Yuan wanted to accelerate the start of the journey.

The reason was all in this report.

The exploration department had provided data on nuclear fuel reserves and consumption, while the Engineering Department had used that data to create a consumption curve for the spacecraft about to be built and for the base.

The chart clearly indicated that accelerating the spacecraft to one percent of light speed would require thirty years, and decelerating would require another thirty years. Both processes would require the continuous consumption of nuclear fuel.