Age of Cosmic Exploration

Due to the feeling of danger that appeared during the new year party, the Hope’s higher officials were internally tense. This was especially true for the surveillance centre. There was 24 hour surveillance, and all signs of possible danger would be reported instantly. This was the most they could do without causing mass hysteria.

On the other hand, this also meant that mankind couldn’t idle in space anymore, or at least Yao Yuan felt that it was no longer possible. The Hope could welcome danger at any moment and would need to space warp again. Under these circumstances, they needed to focus on completing the research on the more important technologies first.

If that was the case, research that helped complete 5th revolution weapons and techniques were the priority.

After the new year party, Yao Yuan had a long meeting with the Academy, and he had sifted through tons of the space merchants’ information. He decided that one of the most important technologies to finish was the nanobot technology and its related technologies, including first level AI system, nanobot metallurgy, micro electromagnetic wave transference technology, and the like.

Nanobot technology was something between the peak of the 4th revolution and the early 5th revolution. The technology would completely reinvent the manufacturing process. For civilizations that didn’t have this technology, when coming across those that did, it would seem like their manufacturing was done via magic.

Just think about it, in a stretch of empty space, with the passing of some fog, a plane, tank, or ship would be created out of thin air. It was like a teleportation technique, pulling the object from another location. Civilizations from the 2nd or 3rd revolutions wouldn’t understand what had happened.

After gaining the nanobot technology, no matter what kind of attack the Hope was under, as long as the energy core of the Hope wasn’t damaged, the Hope would self-repair within a short period of time. The Hope wouldn’t need to worry about damage that would cause the extinction of mankind anymore. The Hope’s security rating would increase tenfold!

Other than nanobot technology, the other one would be warp drive. Since the Hope couldn’t control the space warp technology, they needed some other means of transportation to get close to important locations in space, like the ruins of higher level civilizations. Therefore, warp drive was necessary. It was crucial for short distance travel of one or two light years.

Next would be to create around 120 Space Combat Jets Prototype 011s [1]. 120 because that was the number of veteran Black Star Troopers. The new troopers still needed more experience on the battlefield, but the veterans’ combat ability would increase many fold when coupled with the new space combat jets. At least if they were faced with attacks from civilizations like the space merchants, the Homo Evolutis-piloted Space Combat Jet Prototype 011s would be enough to handle the onslaught.

Nanobot technology, warp drive, and 120 Space Combat Jets Prototype 011s, these alone would make the Hope extremely busy for two years. However, under these circumstances, Yao Yuan, with his vision, requested that the Academy finish all the technologies related to the Genesis first.

Yes, Genesis, the weapon at the peak of the 4th revolution and touching the 5th revolution! This was a weapon that could be a threat to early 5th revolution civilizations. It was akin to the power of tactical atom bombs during Earth’s era. Even if the Hope didn’t use it often, having it meant a certain degree of safety when facing off with other civilizations from the 4th revolution or early 5th revolution.

The four technologies above were the most important, that was Yao Yuan’s conclusion after long contemplation. Of course, there were other important technologies, like the manufacturing of AI robots, the energy circuits to facilitate the conversion of plasmatic energy, and the design of second generation space armors. It was just that in comparison, these four were the most important.

After he came to the decision, Yao Yuan found the leaders for related sciences and gave them this mission. There were no issues or complaints. After all, the scientists used to work for Earth’s governments. Therefore, they were used to being handed missions from their higher-ups. After they accepted the mission, they branched off to form their individual task groups.

It was worth noting that the Hope’s scientific community was the best treated group of individuals on the Hope. In the wide cosmos, the elements that decided the survival of a race was military power and scientific power. The line between the two was fuzzy because with great scientific power came powerful weapons.

Because of this, Yao Yuan was always respectful towards the scientists. Basically, as long as he could, he would fulfil the Academy’s demands no matter how ridiculous they were. This contributed to a vibrant growth to the Hope’s scientific scene.

Thus far, the Hope had around 1,200 decorated professors, 4,700 researchers, and 9,000 plus interns. This number was growing as well. This was an impressive ratio since the Hope only had 120,000 total citizens when they left Earth. The Academy now took up one-tenth of the total population. It wouldn’t be wrong to call the Hope a scientific country.

The task groups’ leaders came up with their own demands. Demands related to materials and equipment were still manageable, the issue lied with the manpower. Currently, every single member of the Academy had been mobilized. However, with the advancement in technology, moving from the 3rd revolution to the 4th, the scientific theories had gotten deeper and not wider. They had moved away from the era of Einstein or Newton, where a single genius could instigate a breakthrough. Cooperation was the key to bringing in development now. Therefore, the demand for more manpower from these task groups was only natural. After all, not every scientist was like the three Whisperers.... Or the weird case, Da Bing, that they could figure out big scientific conundrums on their own.

It was at this time that Yao Yuan felt like mankind was still at a low number. Realistically speaking, the population on the Hope that could think logically, and had education or experience was only 120,000 people. The remaining 100,000 people were children born on the Hope. The Hope would still have to wait for at least a decade for them to finish schooling.

Of the 120,000 people, 99 percent of them were average-educated. They had joined the general universities, but at most, they could fulfil the role of interns. Becoming researchers or scientists was impossible.

"...If only we have one or two thousand more scientists... It will be at least another five decades before the Hope can enter the 5th revolution. Population, population, how I wish human beings were mice, that way they would give birth to at least 5 or 6 more children each..."

This was the explanation given by Yao Yuan whenever he was approached by the task force leaders demanding additional help. He grumbled internally, "Before, I thought there were too many people on the Hope, and the supplies were being exhausted too fast, but when we really need men and women, the population became too low. Around half are children, so it will be another 10 years before they take on their responsibilities. So what to do for these ten years..."

The Academy needed people, and Guang Zhen was also approaching him for people. The Defense Unit was expanding to reach its 5,000 soldiers goal. The number was still reachable via compulsory conscription, but there weren’t enough trained captains...

People, people, a large amount of scientists and veterans...

No matter what, the Hope’s higher ups were informed of the danger felt by the multiple Diviners. Unconsciously, the progress of the projects on the Hope increased in speed, including the four focus projects named by Yao Yuan. Among them, the manufacturing of the space combat jets increased the fastest. Currently, the Hope already had 30 Space Combat Jet Prototype 011s, and the number was still increasing.

Next was the nanobot technology. The AI precursor was still in cultivation. Nanobot metallurgy and micro electromagnetic transference technology had started their research. The first batch of nanobots was projected to be born in the next one and a half years.

Then there were the technologies behind the Genesis. The most difficult of them was energy condescension and dispersion technology. Collecting nuclear energy in high efficacy was also difficult, but with the information from the space merchants, understanding them was only a matter of time.

The most difficult was the warp drive technology since it was a pure 5th revolution technology. It involved the usage of energy science, especially the practical usage of energy condensation, to cause a rip in time and space. This was the most difficult technology to crack. It was being led by Bo Li’s task force...

Just like that, time flew by in a hurry on the Hope, but the danger that was sensed earlier didn’t show itself...

On the other side of the cosmos...

"Captain, the space warp is a success! Wait..."

"What happened to the other half of the ship? Why did it disappear? Roll call immediately, check for all the members on the ship!"

Translator’s Thoughts

Lonelytree Lonelytree

[1] No idea why Prototype 013 changed to 011. No explanation given.