Chapter 208: Initial Understanding Of The Milky Way Galaxy
“It’s still that question, why did you come to the Solar System? I hope you won’t lie to me, otherwise.”
“Ah!”
As soon as Fan Ren finished speaking, the fox in front of him immediately let out a horrific scream.
The chair the other party was sitting on was an electric shock chair, and clearly the taste of the current was not pleasant for the fox.
“Speak.”
The current stopped, Fan Ren coldly stared at the fox, who was panting heavily with a twisted face full of pain.
“Don’t, I’ll talk. The purpose of coming to the Solar System was 49 years ago, we detected spatial fluctuations here, and then through our phase-fixed monitoring, we found that cosmic activity in this star system is extremely rare.
This level of spatial fluctuation could only be caused by your warship. At that time, we thought that in this backward and closed star system, since an advanced civilization would travel through interstellar space using ordinary navigation, there must be some surprise here.”
After the fox finished speaking in one breath, there was no feedback from A’dai in Fan Ren’s earphone, which proved that what the other party said was true.
His gaze was somewhat puzzled.
The other party mentioned a key word: the Solar System is closed.
Also, what advanced civilization traveling through interstellar space using ordinary navigation.
This indicated that advanced civilizations generally would not use this method for long-distance space navigation.
That made sense. The previous dreadnought had used space jump technology. According to what the fox had previously confessed, their home star was nearly ten light years away, and it could jump directly to the Solar System in an instant.
This kind of method should be the ‘travel method’ of advanced civilizations.
Seeing the person interrogating him in front of him fall into thought with tightly furrowed brows, the fox hurriedly spoke up again to explain.
He was extremely afraid of that feeling of electric current stimulating his body.
And most importantly, he didn’t want to die.
“First, let me explain to you why I said this is a closed star system?”
Fan Ren looked up and nodded slightly.
The fox breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly said: “In your view, travel between star systems can only be completed by spaceships through decades, or even hundreds of years, of interstellar navigation.
This idea is actually wrong, but it’s understandable. After all, you haven’t left your star system yet and haven’t started contacting other civilizations in the broader universe.
It’s like this: in the Alpha Centauri star system 4.2 light years away from here, that’s a three-star system, where their mutual motion forms an absolutely stable material point.
In that material point, there is a space gate.
This space gate can connect to all star systems within the nearby ten light years.
As long as we build a space gate with the corresponding spatial frequency, we can directly arrive there via space jump.
And the space gate there connects to all other space gates within the nearby ten light years.
In other words, it’s a hub point that can lead to all star domains nearby that have space gates established.
But why say this place is backward? Because you don’t have a space gate here, obviously no civilization has ever had thoughts about this place, or it can also be said that they simply don’t care about the resources here. So they can’t be bothered to spend the long interstellar space travel to come here and build a space gate.
This is also why I previously said your place is a closed star system, because you haven’t built a space gate that can travel to and from the Alpha Centauri hub.”
Fan Ren nodded, roughly understanding this point.
After the fox’s explanation, he finally understood why the other party said advanced civilizations wouldn’t choose long interstellar navigation as a travel method.
He also understood the reasons why the other party came to the Solar System.
This was because the spatial fluctuations caused by the Conqueror’s space warp were mistaken by the other party as activity of an advanced civilization’s warship here.
Then the other party discovered that this was a closed star system.
So since an advanced civilization had traveled billions of light years to come here, it must prove there was definitely some unimaginable surprise here.
This explained why the fox came here.
Indeed a fox, coming just by scent.
The fox kept staring at Fan Ren’s reaction, and seeing the other party show a look of sudden realization, he finally slightly relaxed his suspended heart.
As long as he performed well, he probably wouldn’t die, right?
Fan Ren resolved the first question and continued without stopping: “Talk about your home star civilization.”
As soon as the words fell, the fox in front of him looked somewhat embarrassed.
“Speak!”
Fan Ren didn’t bother to play mind games with him and shouted loudly.
“I’ll talk, I’ll talk, don’t shock me.” The fox hurriedly nodded, his tone full of pleading.
“Our home star civilization was annihilated hundreds of years ago.”
Annihilated?
After the fox said this, seeing the puzzled look in the person’s eyes in front of him, he immediately continued without hesitation: “Yes, it was completely annihilated in the war with the Sirius Civilization. Our current identity is actually exiles.”
He paused, a trace of embarrassment appeared on his face again, and then he said awkwardly: “In the galactic civilization cluster, exiles mean pirate civilization.”
Fan Ren nodded, and listening to these simple descriptions, a storm surged in his heart.
“Sirius 8.58 light years away has an advanced civilization?”
“Yes, but now that place has been abandoned by them. Their civilization’s capital star is now in another resource-rich star system 30 light years away.
Once, in this star domain, our civilization was on the same level as theirs, but later we were defeated in the competition. This star domain currently has only their one advanced civilization left.
Now they control hundreds of star systems with administrative sovereignty, covering dozens of light years of surrounding star domains.”
Hearing this, Fan Ren felt some worry but didn’t show it, instead saying: “Then why haven’t they come to the Solar System?”
Hearing this, the fox shook his head: “There are many star systems in the universe. Within ten light years around you, there are no fewer than dozens of star systems. Some of these star systems are resource-rich, others resource-poor.
One point is universally acknowledged: resource-rich star systems inevitably give birth to advanced civilizations.
Perhaps they have probed your star system before and found it lacks development value.
You should understand what I mean?”
The fox didn’t have the nerve to say it directly: humanity’s technology was too backward, and the Sirius Civilization simply looked down on this place.
Fan Ren understood his meaning and breathed a sigh of relief. This was good; with humanity’s current technological strength, facing the advanced civilization the other party mentioned, aside from the Conqueror, they would be no match.
“Tell me your understanding of the Sirius Civilization. Doesn’t their sphere of influence have any other civilizations?”
“There are, but these civilizations exist as vassals. Well, you can think of them as coolies, specifically providing them with basic resource collection in exchange for survival qualification.”
Hearing this, not only Fan Ren, but the group of scientists and think tank outside all had extremely grave expressions.
This universe was not only not lonely, but also very lively.
But it was exceptionally realistic.
Survival qualification needed to be exchanged with collected resources.
They could even guess that this collection amount must be set at the extreme edge, not letting the exploited civilizations collapse while also leaving them no time to improve their strength in other areas.
Very cruel!
In the detention room, there was silence for a moment.
Fan Ren put away his complex thoughts and then asked: “According to what you said earlier, as long as we build the so-called space gate here, we can directly cross 4.2 light years to reach that space hub gate in the Alpha Centauri star system?”
“Yes.”
“Can you provide this technology?”
The fox nodded. Space gate technology wasn’t a secret in the universe; even major civilization forces encouraged building more space gates to ‘promote’ exchange and communication between civilizations.
“Yes, it’s not a secret, but there’s a problem.”
“Speak.”
“All space technology originates from a metal mineral called super-eating ore. The metal refined from this ore can communicate on the spatial level. The problem is, this ore is very rare. I’m not sure if your star system has it.
If not, you’d need to purchase it from other civilizations, which would expose your existence.
You know, as I said before, other low-level civilizations in the Sirius Civilization’s sphere have to pay ‘protection fees’.”
Fan Ren nodded, feeling slightly relieved.
It seemed that for now, they were temporarily safe here, and the space gate matter could be researched slowly later.
He hadn’t fully figured out the future development path yet, so no rush.
“On Ross 154, are there any more of your accomplices?”
Fan Ren stared at him intently, his tone somewhat unkind.
Hearing this, the fox smiled bitterly and shook his head: “No more. Life as cosmic pirates isn’t easy. That dreadnought was my only asset, but…”
At this point, the fox’s eyes lit up.
“This ship isn’t yours! Your technological strength couldn’t possibly build a Titan-class warship.”
He had another sentence he didn’t say.
If he had known there was a Titan-class warship here, he wouldn’t have come wandering even if beaten to death.
Titan-class warships, even Sirius didn’t have them.
Material technology was a chasm that ordinary advanced civilizations couldn’t easily cross.
Indeed, there was a surprise here.
Fan Ren didn’t answer him.
From his words, it was clear the other party had a thorough understanding of cosmic warship classifications.
Their Conqueror had basically lost all information; aside from scattered introductions, they were clueless about warship grade classifications. This was a good chance to understand clearly.
“In cosmic civilizations, how are space battleships classified?”
The fox’s cooperative attitude was very good now, and he introduced without hesitation: “Just like your spaceship, its size exceeds 40 kilometers. On this basis, there’s actually a super large warship.
This kind of warship is generally used as a space strategic platform and can be called a super aircraft carrier, which is the common term among cosmic civilizations.
The other type is your pure attack platform, the Titan warship. However, compared to a normal Titan warship, your Titan warship is even larger in size.
Warships of this scale are generally used as main flagships of advanced civilizations and rarely appear. Construction difficulty is extremely high.”
The fox’s gaze was puzzled for a moment; he was very curious about the origin of this spaceship, but after seeing the other’s cold gaze, he gave up on that idea.
“Below that are small flagships, like our previous dreadnought, which is one type of small flagship. Besides it, there are small aircraft carriers and other types of warships with varying functions but sizes all around under 20 kilometers.
Next are your previous battleships with sizes under ten thousand meters; these are generally designed as pure firepower attack warships and usually don’t have other capabilities.
There are also cruisers, destroyers, and frigates with sizes under 1000 meters, possessing high-speed performance and certain firepower configurations.”
These terms were translated by A’dai into easy-to-understand vocabulary, and Fan Ren had no objections.
He then asked: “What about your previous dreadnought? According to you, a pirate civilization shouldn’t have the ability to build it, right?”
Hearing this, the fox’s eyes showed some desolation, but he didn’t conceal it and slowly said: “That was a heritage from our former civilization, but unfortunately, I’ve now ‘played’ it away.”
Fan Ren nodded; this explained why a pirate civilization had a flagship-level spaceship.
He continued: “What about other civilizations in the universe? Their relationships? I mean, between advanced civilizations like the Sirius Civilization, what is the general relationship?”
The fox looked up at him, somewhat baffled. Did this question even need thinking?
“Competitive relationship. For more resources, more territory, more development space, advanced civilizations aren’t peaceful; war is their normalized relationship.”
At this point, his tone was somewhat sorrowful, clearly recalling how his Jupiter civilization was annihilated because of this relationship.
“Of course, trade relationships also exist between advanced civilizations, but those are just means for them to develop their own strength. Once there’s an opportunity, no trade relationship will stop war from breaking out between them.”
The universe was not peaceful.
Fan Ren fell silent. Although he had mentally prepared for this question before, now being told the reality, he still felt heavy pressure on his shoulders.
Up to now in the Q&A, a complex cosmic civilization framework had taken basic shape in his mind.
Humanity was not ‘alone’; there were numerous other civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy.
Among these civilizations, some had strong technological strength, some relatively backward; war was routine between them, exploitation was the purpose.
Peace had absolutely no relation to relationships between cosmic civilizations.
“That’s it for today. Regarding your earlier act of attacking our fleet first, our civilization is still discussing how to deal with you. I hope during this detention period, you can think carefully. If there’s anything you want to say, you can contact me anytime.”
Fan Ren ended the temporary questioning; the information obtained today was already sufficient.
Now he needed to go back and discuss properly with the think tank and the other scientists.
