"Academician, the Patrols or the Destroyers could destroy the sun with just one spaceship. I find that kind of power terrifying and fascinating. In our current state, any civilization with experience in interstellar warfare could crush us. We must develop our technology as quickly as possible, especially military technology."
"General, after years of harassment by the Insect Race, our technology has made little progress. Since entering space, however, we've had plenty of time and energy for scientific research. Unfortunately, conditions in the fleet are limited, and we lack the means to conduct many necessary experiments, so progress hasn't been ideal."
"Sigh, none of this can be resolved until we reach Tau Ceti. Right now, we're like rootless duckweed, drifting with the current. By the way, Academician, you've been devoted to researching curvature travel. What stage have you reached?" Hu Yu asked. He had spent his time leading the space force on campaigns in every direction, and even after gaining the necessary clearance, he had lacked the energy to learn about Academician Zeng's curvature travel project.
"Very good." Academician Zeng smiled mysteriously.
"Very good? Academician, what stage is 'very good'?" Hu Yu asked anxiously. He had once been a researcher himself and was still very interested in new technology.
"Haha, General, do you know the fundamental element of curvature travel?" Academician Zeng asked in return, still unhurried.
"Well, Academician, you know I gave that little bit of knowledge back to my teachers long ago."
"All right, then I'll go on a bit and explain the fundamentals of curvature travel first. Otherwise, you'll only ask me about them later, so I might as well give you a primer now. After many years of research, I discovered that the fundamental element of curvature travel is spatial density."
"Academician, does space have density?"
"Of course, this density can't be understood in the conventional sense. It's a description of how warped three-dimensional space is. The greater the curvature, the more severely space has been bent and compressed. I describe that as an increase in spatial density."
"I see. I understand now, Academician."
"Mm. The basic principle of curvature travel is that areas of low spatial density have a tendency to move toward areas of high spatial density, carrying the objects within them along. Even if this form of movement exceeds the speed of light, it doesn't violate Einstein's theory of special relativity, because it's space that moves, not the objects."
"I can understand that, Academician. How do we change spatial density to achieve curvature travel now?"
"There are three methods. The first is to increase the spatial density in front of the craft. Since low-density space tends to move toward high-density space, a spaceship within it naturally falls forward. This is true of every planetary system. A star's enormous mass bends the space around it, increasing its spatial density and allowing planets to orbit it. The second method is to create space in front of the ship, increasing spatial density and achieving the same effect as compressing space. The third method is to destroy space behind the ship. The spatial density behind it decreases, naturally pushing the ship to fall forward toward the area of higher spatial density," Academician Zeng explained.
"Create space? Destroy space? Academician, doesn't that sound a little too far-fetched?" Hu Yu asked awkwardly. He didn't quite understand the mysteries of space.
"Mm, it is somewhat abstract. Our current understanding of space is very limited, but I'm not simply making this up. If we can study a black hole at close range one day, perhaps these deductions of mine can be verified."
"Academician, what stage has our research reached? When will it be ready for practical application?"
"Haha, don't be impatient. Let me explain. We extracted a great deal of Chong Element from the bodies of the Insect Race, and within individual Chong atoms, we discovered solid energy bodies. We still can't explain why these solid energy bodies exist, but various experiments have shown that these particles are unquestionably solid energy. We can't extract the solid energy from Chong atoms on its own, so we can only rearrange Chong Element according to certain rules until it forms a very dense polymer. Then we supply energy to the Chong Element polymer. When the energy reached a certain level, a model spaceship with no propulsion moved."
"You've already achieved curvature travel in the laboratory?" Hu Yu said excitedly.
"Yes, General. We reached that stage ten years ago. Your clearance wasn't high enough at the time, so you didn't know about it. By the time you had sufficient clearance, you had no time to learn about it. Our research has now progressed to the point where we can drive a small craft like a J-90 using curvature travel. But as for the speed, it's a little faster than walking." At this point, Academician Zeng felt embarrassed as well. Progress on curvature travel hadn't reached the level he had hoped for.
"That slow?" Hu Yu was somewhat disappointed.
"Yes. We still haven't found a way to give the Chong Element polymer more energy. Or, to put it another way, the energy level we can currently control isn't high enough."
"Is there no other way, Academician? If we had curvature travel technology, we could end this long journey and reach anywhere we wanted to go sooner."
"It's very difficult. I made a rough estimate: for a ship like the Polaris to travel at half the speed of light using curvature travel for a year, it would consume energy equivalent to three or four times its own mass. The energy efficiency of bending space is too low; most of the energy dissipates into the void. Our research into directional control of magnetic field lines had reached a critical point, and a breakthrough could have come at any time. But the research team has now been split into three groups, so we'll have to select new personnel for the project. Sigh."
"Directional control of magnetic field lines? Could it be...?" Hu Yu asked in delighted surprise.
"That's right, directional control of magnetic fields. Energy is invisible and intangible, but it truly exists. Ordinary equipment can't effectively contain it. Once we achieve directional control of magnetic fields, we can weave the field lines into a huge net and trap energy firmly inside it. That will let us control energy precisely and continuously inject more into the net until its energy level is high enough to drive a large spaceship. At the same time, storing antimatter will become more efficient and simpler, and antimatter weapons will naturally follow."
"Really? That's wonderful, Academician! Then how much longer until the breakthrough?" Hu Yu said excitedly. As a career soldier, his longing for weapons was something others couldn't understand, especially now that he was a commander with almost nothing at his disposal. All he had to fight with were a mere eighty-odd thousand J-90 fighters. The only weapons worth mentioning were the high-energy particle beams fitted to the J-90s and the limited number of ultra-high-yield fusion bombs carried by the Polaris. After the encounter with the Patrols, Hu Yu felt even more strongly that the few weapons he had were scarcely better than fire pokers. Without a reliable weapon in hand, he had no confidence. If they could master antimatter weapons, that would undoubtedly give them another trump card to save their lives.
"Haha, don't be impatient, General. As you know, academic research isn't like laying bricks and tiles; you can't succeed just by putting in the time. But I'm confident that by the time we reach Tau Ceti, we should be able to solve all the problems and enter the application stage."
"That's wonderful, Academician. When the time comes, we'll share the plans with the Leader and Minister Luo. That way, everyone will be a little safer."
"Well, Old Hu, there may be a problem," Chief of Staff Wen Zhonghua said. An old comrade of Hu Yu's for decades, Wen Zhonghua had volunteered to go with him and was now the fleet's chief of staff.
"What problem?"
"Old Hu, when I was checking the damage to the ship's equipment just now, I also tried contacting the Leader's fleet and Minister Luo's fleet. Neither responded. I think the extremely intense radiation and particle streams from the sun's explosion must have disrupted the quantum entanglement. As you know, a problem with either our equipment or the Leader's or Minister Luo's would prevent communication. Although the armor made from Chong Element can block 99.99% of the radiation and particle streams, a tiny number of particles still entered the ships. Quantum communicators are also extremely delicate, unlike ordinary equipment. As a result, most of the quantum communicators in all the fleets within the radiation zone have stopped working. Fortunately, several Pathfinder probes were farther from the sun and haven't lost contact," Wen Zhonghua explained.
"Switch to electromagnetic communication. We have to get in touch with the Leader," Hu Yu said urgently.
"Old Hu, we're more than a billion kilometers from the Leader. Electromagnetic communication is barely adequate even within the fleet, let alone for contacting the Leader and Minister Luo. On top of that, there's the continuing electromagnetic interference from the sun's explosion. We can't contact them now."
"In that case, establish new particle entanglement as soon as possible. Then send unmanned spaceships carrying the new equipment to catch up with the Leader and Minister Luo at top speed."
Quantum communication differed from ordinary electromagnetic communication. As long as both parties agreed on a communication protocol, even if one electromagnetic device broke down, another could receive and decode the signal. Quantum communication devices, however, were unique, with two devices forming a pair. If either was damaged, they would stop working, because quantum entanglement occurred in pairs. When a pair of entangled particles was separated, changing the state of one particle would cause the other to change as well, even if they were hundreds of millions of kilometers apart.
Now that the fleet's quantum communicators were damaged, reestablishing contact would require extracting new pairs of entangled particles, placing each particle in a separate device, and then sending unmanned spaceships to deliver them to the Leader and Luo Zhigao.
"General, there's no need for that. I don't think the Leader would want you to do it either. We're a billion kilometers from the Leader now, and you can still send unmanned craft to catch up. But what will we do if we're tens of thousands of light-years apart in the future? The Leader divided us into three groups so that you could develop independent ideas about the future, not ask him about everything. Otherwise, what was the point of separating?"
"Old Hu, I think Academician Zeng is right. We should truly grow up and learn to be independent. Only then can we live up to the Leader's expectations."
Hu Yu fell silent. After thinking it over carefully, he finally made up his mind. He really did need to grow up. The universe was dangerous, and the difficulties he would face in the future might be countless. He couldn't rely on the Leader's decisions forever. The Leader had entrusted the fleet to him, so he had to learn to make decisions and be a capable person in charge.
"Academician, I understand. Don't worry, I won't let the Leader or the people down. I'll have to trouble you to continue looking after matters of technology, such as curvature travel and directional magnetic field line control."
"Mm, I promise that by the time we reach Tau Ceti, there'll be enough technology to keep everyone busy."
"Good. Academician, by the time we set sail from Tau Ceti, the fleet will look completely different."