Changing Course
In fact, everyone knows that if the conflict is forgotten, the human fleet will definitely not be able to continue. Their disagreement mainly revolves around when the fleet should change course.
Some people believe that humanity should immediately change course according to the pre-determined target, arguing that the longer it delays, the closer the two sides will be, and the closer the human fleet will be to the Nair Civilization Second Star Region, thus increasing the danger.
The Nair Civilization claims this is their Second Star Region. While humans don't know how many star systems the Nair Civilization has, if this isn't a lie, then they only have two.
The reason why a star field is called a star field is that it must be a range composed of multiple Star System.
The Nair Civilization has developed to the point where its footprints cover two star systems, and its power is probably unmatched by humans. After all, humanity has only recently reached the level of Level 2 Civilization, and is still a Wandering Civilization, spending most of its time on travel. To date, its population is only 140 million, far below the size expected of a civilization.
The same applies to the number of fleets; the technology is there, but the quantity is not what a normal Level 2 Civilization should have.
According to various data available to humanity, experts believe that a normal Level 2 Civilization could not possibly have a population of only tens of billions. If calculated by human standards, after setting foot in space based on their home planet, they could migrate to surrounding star systems. Although the migration would be limited by the environment and the migrants could only live in the bases they built, it should not be difficult for a star system to house one-third of the home planet's population.
So, a rough calculation would show that the population of the home planet must be at least 20 billion. If it develops to have dozens of Star System bases, the total population would be no less than 200 billion, and that's a conservative estimate.
If humanity had a population of 200 billion, based on a very high civilian-to-military ratio of 1:100, we could have 2 billion soldiers. Using humanity's own Lake-Class Warship standard, with each warship requiring 5,000 crew members, that would amount to 400,000 Lake-Class Warship.
Humanity currently only has 1,200 Lake-Class Warship; the gap is simply hopeless.
Therefore, this group believes that a civilization that has developed normally and set foot in space must have a huge number of individual lives, and thus a fleet that is unmatched by humans. Therefore, it is best to turn back as soon as possible.
Of course, extraterrestrial life cannot be measured by the number of humans. The number of people operating warships will also be affected by the level of intelligence of Combat AI, and the strength of the fleet will be affected by a series of factors such as development time, construction cost, and management difficulty. Therefore, this is only a very rough estimate.
Moreover, due to the vastness of space, people living in various star systems will inevitably face a serious information lag problem, especially in these sparsely populated areas where information travels at the speed of light between two Star System, and a round trip can take more than thirty years.
In such circumstances, those who possess military power will more or less develop ambitions. As a result, an excessive number of fleets, based on humanity's own understanding of itself, may eventually develop into nations with different cultures, and even lead to wars between them.
This is another factor limiting the number of fleets of civilizations without Superluminal Communication.
Humanity's development is abnormal; it is a Wandering Civilization. Therefore, on this issue, we can only extrapolate based on big data models.
In short, this group believes that the Nair Civilization must have a fleet far exceeding the number of humans.
Another group of people believe that humanity should find out the extent of the Nair Civilization's star system before taking any further action.
Their reasoning was that if they didn't find out, the next Star System they might travel to could also be part of the Nair Civilization's territory. With current human travel technology, making a few detours wouldn't be a problem, but wandering around in space without finding a suitable Star System to land on would be unsustainable.
After all, we need to reserve supplies and fuel in case of any unforeseen circumstances. If things go wrong and we have to make multiple trips, leading to a fuel shortage, we might end up facing the same situation as the Kun-Tai Civilization.
People holding opposing views argued their points, and the Command Center was bustling with noise, resembling a vegetable market.
"It seems I have to make the decision myself," Yue Yuan said, resting his chin on his hand as he weighed the two viewpoints in his mind.
However, before he could speak, a third opinion emerged among the crowd. Presumably seeing that the two sides were deadlocked, this group of people decided to be straightforward and directly suggested that humanity immediately slow down and return to the previous Star System.
It can be considered a compromise.
However, this viewpoint has many supporters, as it seems to be the safest approach no matter how you look at it. Most importantly, humans have just come from there and know for sure that it's safe and there are no aliens there.
However, while it was a safe and secure option, there was a fatal problem: the previous Star System had no Rocky Planet, only two Gaseous Planet. Therefore, after humans collected Hydrogen Element there to replenish their fuel, they left.
So while it's safe and secure, there's still the potential threat of resource shortages. If the Nair Civilization has ulterior motives, they might get stuck there, which would be truly disastrous.
As for the claim that the vastness of space makes it impossible to block roads, that's an assumption that fleets can sail freely, but in reality, that's not the case, at least not at the level of Low-level Civilization.
Limited by their navigation technology, Low-level Civilization rely on Star System as transit points; therefore, each star in the sky is a road.
That's how flight routes and star maps came about.
"How many more major accelerations and decelerations do we have enough fuel for?" Yue Yuan asked a crew member in charge of supplies and fuel management after thinking for a while.
The administrator paused for a moment before replying, "About eight to ten full-power accelerations and decelerations. If you include the soil, rocks, water, plants, and animals inside the Biosphere Spaceship, there could be two more."
Upon hearing this, Yue Yuan considered the matter for a moment, then instructed the Science Officer to switch the large screen to a star map. He then stood up, pointed to a star on the screen, and said to everyone, "Without further ado, let's slow down, change course, and head here."
The star Yue Yuan was referring to was the destination that humanity had previously planned to change, and it was also the star that some believed might still belong to the Nair Civilization.
Yue Yuan continued, "However, before that, all departments should hurry up and compile the information to reply to the Nair Civilization. It's 1:30 PM now, everyone go have lunch first, and the reply should be drafted by 4:00 PM. First, we need to find out as much as possible about the size of the Nair Civilization's territory, which stars are theirs and which are not. Second, we need to be reserved in revealing our own information; I don't think I need to elaborate on this. Finally, the Staff Department is responsible for drafting several contingency plans."
Although we are changing our course, it doesn't mean we necessarily have to go there. The specifics will depend on the outcome of our exchanges with the Nair Civilization.
After making the decision, Yue Yuan gave some instructions.