Cataclysm: Undead Dragons and Zero Empire

Chapter 103 The Theory of Faster Than Light

Humanity will inevitably venture into the stars, and the first step out of our homes will be to break free from the speed of light.

They were like a dried-up sponge, frantically absorbing knowledge and information from interstellar society. The star map brought by Karen opened a window for humanity to look at a wider universe.

The first batch of basic theories delivered, suitable for novice civilizations just entering the interstellar age, allowed humanity, stumbling out of the apocalypse, to touch the threshold of interstellar society.

Today, our home star system is no longer what it was when humanity first entered the space age. The Ark Space Station remains the most crucial hub of human civilization in space. This place, once regarded by oligarchic corporations as a paradise to escape the mundane world, has become the home port for human interstellar travel. Countless ships set off from here and return with interstellar survey data and resources.

Human ships have spread throughout the entire home star system like schools of fish scattered into the sea of ​​stars. For a civilization that has just entered the interstellar age, whether it can break through the shackles of the speed of light will determine whether it will be forever trapped in the cradle of its home star system or truly venture into the vast and boundless sea of ​​stars.

It's as if we've entered the second Age of Exploration. In the past, humans couldn't imagine what the other side of the continent across the ocean looked like. Now, without the ability to travel faster than light, humans will forever remain prisoners in their home star system. Even if they develop the entire star system to its fullest extent, they will still be like frogs in a well, only able to see the sky from the bottom of a well.

Of all the research related to faster-than-light travel, the most attention has always been focused on that trajectory that spans half a galaxy...

A dazzling band of light visible to the naked eye in the starry sky.

That was the trail left by God when He bid farewell to human civilization in the starry sky, like a Milky Way stretching across the dark sea of ​​stars, radiating an eternal and gentle light. Even after so long, there has been no sign of it dimming, as stable as the constant of the universe itself.

Long before the arrival of the delegation led by Karen, humanity had already established numerous deep-space research stations of varying sizes around this trajectory. Like asteroids orbiting the sun, they were distributed throughout the galaxy along the trajectory, recording every change of this mysterious trajectory day and night.

For humanity, this trajectory has never been merely a cosmic wonder; it is a divine miracle left by God, a signpost guiding them into the stars, and the ultimate expression of human civilization's imagination of interstellar travel.

During the most difficult years of the harsh winter, countless people looked up at the starry sky in the darkness, and seeing that band of light that always shone brightly in the deep sky, they regained the courage to live on.

They believe that since God could draw such a path across the stars, then one day, humanity will also be able to follow this light and walk to the places God once walked.

Isaac stood in the control room of the research station. This former leader of mages was relieved of all his posts after the Great Purge, but he also benefited from the misfortune, completely freeing himself from the turmoil of factional struggles and plunging into the research of psionic energy and particle physics.

He poured all his wisdom into studying this trajectory, leading his team in countless simulations and proposing various immature theoretical models, but they could never grasp the essence of this trajectory. It was like an eternal puzzle in the universe, seemingly right there and within reach, yet no one could understand the mystery behind it.

On their home planet, human civilization is still studying the scientific data brought by Kalen, which details a theory of faster-than-light travel, which is also the most mainstream travel technology in the current interstellar society: hyperspace travel.

According to the information, outer space is not flat and smooth. The huge mass of stars is like an iron ball placed on an elastic membrane, constantly pulling on the surrounding spacetime, forming gravity wells of varying depths.

In the regions where gravity wells pull and collide between different stars, natural gaps and turbulence are generated in different dimensions of space. These channels hidden in the folds of the universe are the hyperspace routes.

They are like the crisscrossing threads of a spider web, connecting countless galaxies in the universe. As long as these naturally existing channels are found, and by taking advantage of the flow of space itself, spaceships can break free from the speed of light limit and achieve faster-than-light travel in hyperspace, traversing distances that would normally take hundreds or thousands of years in a short time.

This document contains not only a complete theoretical system and methods for detecting hyperspace routes, but also design blueprints for a faster-than-light engine, and even includes a small engine prototype. It is undoubtedly a gift from heaven for mankind, enough to help human civilization avoid detours in the research of faster-than-light travel.

The absorption of the theory went even more smoothly than expected. Humans have an extremely strong learning ability, and those who have survived the apocalypse have long been accustomed to squeezing out their potential in desperate situations. In addition, the information provided by Karen was extremely detailed, and humanity quickly mastered this theory of hyperspace navigation.

Howard ordered the mobilization of a fleet of deep-space probes, equipped with space sensors built according to blueprints, to sail in different directions toward the outer reaches of the galaxy in search of theoretically existing hyperspace routes.

The exploration continued for some time, and when a probe captured the first stable hyperspace channel signal at the edge of the nebula, the theory was proven true, and the entire command center erupted in deafening cheers.

Howard stared at the marked waterway on the screen, winding like a stream through the folds of space. His grip on his pistol tightened slightly. Even on the battlefield, he felt more excited than he did now.

This is not a victory in war, but a glimpse of the dawn of human civilization's journey into interstellar space.

In subsequent explorations, humans discovered several stable natural hyperspace routes in different locations within the galaxy, speculating that their other ends directly connect to several neighboring galaxies.

However, when Isaac used his newly acquired hyperspace navigation theory to reanalyze the observation data of the track left by the master, the results plunged the entire research team into unprecedented shock and silence.

The trail left by the Lord is completely contrary to the characteristics revealed by those natural hyperspace routes.

It wasn't a crack, but rather like a completely new passage that was forcibly torn open in outer space, with the visible trail merely the afterglow of its passage.

Without relying on any natural spatial structure, one can reach any desired direction solely through pure force, without being limited by the hyperspace passage itself.

Karen's theory of hyperspace channels can perfectly explain naturally existing spatial gaps and turbulence, but it cannot explain the tracks left by the Lord. It's like a child who has just learned to paddle a raft finally understanding how to go with the flow of the river, but then he looks up and sees someone carving out a canal through the mountains and valleys.

Isaac looked at the two sets of data on the screen, one collected around the hyperspace channel and the other observed from the current trajectory. Apart from the commonality of spatial flow, he couldn't find any other points that could corroborate each other.

He had spent half his life studying psionic theory and physics, thinking he had touched upon the underlying logic of the universe. But when faced with the trail left by the Lord, he realized that he was just a child picking up seashells on the beach, completely ignorant of the ocean of truth before him.

Isaac knew very well what he was trying to do. This trajectory represented a new way of faster-than-light travel, and the technological gap between them was so insurmountable. He felt like a primitive man who had just learned to make fire by rubbing sticks together, trying to understand the principle of nuclear fusion by looking at the mushroom cloud rising in the distance, with a gap of several technological eras in between.

"Contact General Howard, I—I am truly powerless to perform any miracles left by the Lord."

"If traveling through hyperspace is like rowing a boat with the current, then the power of the Lord is like creating a river according to His will."