Chapter 314: Exploration and Resolving Doubts
Faced with Jason’s question, Blake was suddenly startled. He clearly hadn’t considered that angle.
He quickly replied, "Yes, you’re absolutely right. The Noah is indeed a wonderful piece of junk... oh, wait... a wonderful piece of hardware. It features subspace technology, artificial gravity, massive storage capacity, and an excellent living environment. It’s an incredible spaceship."
"I suggest we keep a low profile until we reach a Level 4 or even Level 5 civilization tier!" He barely finished his sentence before quickly adding, "I’m sorry, I didn’t think this through completely. The Deep Space alone is still too vulnerable. I suggest we start building more frigates immediately!"
"Frigates can carry enough heavy weapons to protect the Deep Space. They don’t need to be massive. They can be manned or autonomous, as long as they pack enough firepower. As for how many we need... one thousand, or even ten thousand ships wouldn’t be too many!"
The alien had completely embraced his new human persona, shouting with genuine, fervent enthusiasm.
Jason didn’t immediately respond to Blake’s suggestion. Instead, he asked calmly, "But The Noah is currently encased deep within the Deep Space. It isn’t giving off any external signatures. Others shouldn’t be able to detect it, right?"
As for the frigates, they were already in the planning stages. Now that the Deep Space was completely finished, a significant amount of industrial capacity had opened up. This freed-up production would be used to build a fleet of smaller, heavily armed frigates. When it came to weapons, having more was always better, and stronger was always preferred!
Blake shook his head, looking genuinely concerned. "Hiding it inside the Deep Space isn’t perfectly safe. That only blocks standard electromagnetic scans. More advanced empires, like The Annihilators, may have already mastered neutrino detection."
"Neutrino scanners can easily see the hull of The Noah hidden inside the Deep Space! Therefore, we must develop counter-surveillance technology as soon as possible, all while continuing to heavily upgrade our military forces."
Jason frowned, deep in thought. Neutrino scanning? The Federation wasn’t fully capable of that yet.
Neutrinos were tiny, uncharged elementary particles that barely interacted with normal matter. They were abundant everywhere in the universe. Their defining trait was their incredible penetrating power—they could easily pass straight through entire planets! And, naturally, they could pass right through the heavily armored decks of the Deep Space.
He then asked, "So... what exactly are The Annihilators?"
This question had bothered him for a long time. The Viridians were nearly wiped out by this specific civilization, which eventually forced them to detonate their own sun in a desperate, suicidal final stand.
Blake chuckled awkwardly. "As the name suggests, it refers to civilizations with a violent, hyper-aggressive nature. There are three main types.
"First, there are the raiders. They enjoy plundering weaker worlds. Interstellar politics are complicated, and many advanced civilizations wouldn’t mind acting like pirates if a special opportunity presented itself.
"You see, it’s not just our galaxy. The entire universe is littered with all sorts of technological relics left behind by highly advanced, ancient empires. Maybe they were just randomly tossed away by some god-like beings. We don’t really know why.
"These relics hold immense value to any Interstellar Civilization... for example... The Noah."
Jason nodded, a growing sense of unease creeping into his mind. Was the universe really just filled with ancient junk and space pirates? Was The Annihilators’ original goal to steal the Viridians’ neutron star fragment?
Blake continued, "The second type involves civilizations built entirely around war. These are far more terrifying than mere raiders!
"Their logic is completely alien compared to normal societies. They actually believe that the sole purpose of war is to drive their own civilization’s evolution. Therefore, they will constantly wage wars to maintain their internal momentum. Because they always face a manufactured survival crisis, their technology advances incredibly fast. But without war, their society would simply collapse from the inside out.
"The third type involves certain synthetic or silicon-based civilizations. Their core programming is entirely driven by logic and profit! To them, 1.01 is mathematically greater than 1, so they will always choose the path that yields 1.01.
"Following this strict logic... if the benefits of destroying a target outweigh the calculated risks, they will attack without hesitation. They are always optimizing for maximum gain, which makes them extremely dangerous."
These three types of aggressive cultures were collectively classified as The Annihilators.
"Raiders are manageable; they can be intimidated and scared off. But the latter two are incredibly dangerous. Their reasoning is completely alien and beyond our normal comprehension."
Jason remained silent for a while before asking, "Are there a lot of them out there? Furthermore, since these Interstellar Civilizations have existed for so long, why hasn’t the entire galaxy been completely occupied by now?"
"Their numbers aren’t very large. The galaxy is unimaginably vast. It’s actually quite difficult to bump into another Interstellar Civilization unless you head closer to the galactic core," Blake replied quickly. "As for your second question... Captain Jason, the expansion of any Interstellar Civilization is not infinite. They eventually hit a series of developmental roadblocks. Not every empire can remain strong and expand forever.
"Nothing lasts forever. Not even the universe itself."
"Oh?" Jason asked, feeling somewhat puzzled.
"Well... there are many complex reasons. Every Interstellar Civilization has to struggle with these existential issues," Blake stammered, clearly struggling to summarize the vast concepts.
He felt he couldn’t explain it properly in a short conversation. "The reasons include, but are not limited to: mutual deterrence between rival empires, interstellar wars, the law of increasing societal entropy, internal political corruption, the light-speed barrier for communication, and population stagnation traps. All of these factors severely limit how far an Interstellar Civilization can expand its borders.
"Many advanced empires have opted for a strategy of maintaining a small, highly educated population. It’s very similar to what the Federation is doing, though your current population is still far too small in comparison."
Seeing Jason deep in thought, Blake added, "Moreover, once a civilization reaches Level 2, they unlock the ultimate survival tool—the warp drive!
"If... and I mean if... we are unlucky enough to run into The Annihilators, all we have to do is activate the warp drive and jump past the speed of light. We can easily escape!"
Blake made a broad gesture and said with a bit of exaggeration, "Only extremely advanced empires, like a Level 7 or Level 8 civilization, have the technology to track objects moving faster than the speed of light!"
Thanks to the warp drive, the spaceship could easily break the light-speed barrier by physically distorting the space around it.
However, standard sensors, whether they relied on electromagnetic waves, gravitational waves, or neutrinos were strictly limited to the speed of light. They couldn’t catch up to a faster-than-light vessel, making tracking impossible.
Therefore, traveling faster than light became the ultimate protective shield for younger Interstellar Civilizations. It was a hard limit imposed by the laws of physics.
"...Wait, there’s a way to detect things faster than the speed of light? Wouldn’t that violate the theory of relativity?" Jason asked curiously. "Are they using warped space for radar? Space itself can expand faster than light..."
"Well, I don’t really know..." Blake shrank back slightly; he wasn’t omniscient, after all. "Speaking of which, I was dormant for millions of years. The galaxy might have changed a lot during my long nap..."
The two fell into a comfortable silence. This conversation had been incredibly informative, giving Jason his first real understanding of galactic politics.
After a long pause, Jason spoke up again. "How would you rate our current military strength? And how exactly are these civilization levels classified?"
He decided to take this rare opportunity to ask all the burning questions he had on his mind.
With the Federation’s current technological and industrial might, crushing a primitive K-level civilization would be effortless. They could easily overpower their own ancestors from the old Earth era.
But Jason still wasn’t sure where humanity stood compared to true Interstellar Civilizations.
Based on the intelligence they had gathered so far, humanity couldn’t defeat the Viridians, let alone The Annihilators that hunted them. They probably couldn’t even match the ancient civilization Blake originally came from.
Given all that, was the Federation still at the very bottom of the interstellar food chain?
Blake chuckled and said, "Captain Jason, you don’t need to be so anxious. Humanity’s potential is incredibly high. With your brilliant Department Heads and the Brain Chips, you’ll have a smooth journey up to at least Level 4... and you might even break through to Level 5 or 6.
"At the very least, your social structure, collective goals, and willpower are exceptionally healthy!"