Rebirth of the Super Battleship-Chapter 580: Transporting a Star
Completely beyond Xiao Yu’s expectations, this technological breakthrough was once again made by Xu Junpo, the man shrouded in layers of mystery. It must be understood that putting a star into curvature flight and putting a planet into curvature flight are two entirely different concepts, involving another technology, curvature flight technology for low-mass matter under strong gravitational fields.
This is a technology that only a Level 6 Civilization can master, a technology that allows arbitrary curvature flight within places that have strong gravitational fields, such as inside a stellar system. In previous research, Xiao Yu had already possessed the technology to put planets into curvature flight, but he was still far from achieving curvature flight within strong gravitational fields.
Stellar curvature flight is different. If stellar curvature flight technology can be mastered, then curvature flight within a stellar system will not be far off. This would mean Xiao Yu is not far from becoming a Level 6 Civilization.
This was an important breakthrough before Xiao Yu stepped into a Level 6 Civilization. Originally, Xiao Yu thought he would need another one thousand years, or supplementation with a new technological system, before he could achieve this breakthrough. But the development of events greatly exceeded Xiao Yu’s expectations. This technology was actually conquered now by the genius scientist Xu Junpo.
“Why is it you again?” Xiao Yu thought with a touch of emotion. “Once I enter a Level 6 Civilization, I must find the Taihao Civilization and ask them to clarify this entire matter.”
Xiao Yu informed the entire civilization of this event and gave Xu Junpo an extremely grand commendation. For a time, Xu Junpo’s fame even showed a trend of surpassing Luka Two, Three, and the others.
“Before I determine the threat you pose to me, you are still a member of the Divine Ark Civilization. Meritorious service must be rewarded. This is my principle.”
Xiao Yu once again dispatched a colossal fleet composed of all kinds of industrial transport ships, resource transports, and escort fleets to set out. The target of this voyage was a star 4.6 light-years away. There had originally been three planets near that star, but now there were none. Those planets had all been transported into the Death Flower Star System. Now Xiao Yu intended to directly transport this star as well.
Of course, at present Xiao Yu only possessed, in theory, a method for transporting a star. To realize it would still require a large amount of research and testing. This star would be Xiao Yu’s test subject.
“In five years, we must definitely develop a method for transporting a star!” Xiao Yu set his resolve.
Thus, this stellar system that had long fallen silent became lively again. Robots began installing oddly shaped instruments at places very close to it. Many ships busied back and forth around it. From time to time, spatial fluctuations would appear, then nudge its orbit a little.
After pouring a great amount of computational power into research and experimentation, Xiao Yu correspondingly eased his offensive against the Death Flower Star System a bit, but still maintained it at a fairly strong level. The enormous construction tasks continued unabated. Newly built ships constantly flowed in to replace those too badly damaged to keep fighting. In this way, Xiao Yu’s combat strength always remained at a peak, held at a constant value.
Time ticked by, and now the war had been going on for nearly sixty years. During these sixty years, the Level 5 Civilization Alliance adopted a tactic that seemed rather stifling, only defense, no offense. The Alliance had never launched a proactive strike against Xiao Yu. If Xiao Yu attacked, they defended; if he did not attack, they were happy to idle and study technology. The more they acted like this, the heavier Xiao Yu’s heart grew.
Because this meant the Level 5 Civilization Alliance had resolved to hold out to the end and had sufficient confidence in sustaining it. This meant that between these two powerful existences there was no longer any possibility of easing tensions.
“Although my offensive is fierce, due to computational limits I have never been able to organize an ultra-large-scale assault. If I could operate forty million ships at once, breaking their defenses should be no problem. Damn it, with my current level of computational power, I can only stalemate with them like this, neither side able to do anything to the other. But the longer this drags on, the more unfavorable the situation becomes for me. I hope there can be a breakthrough in stellar curvature flight technology to change this situation.”
So Xiao Yu pondered in his heart.
At 4.6 light-years away, large numbers of scientists had already appeared in this stellar system. Many scientists, including Luka Three and Five as well as Xu Junpo, had all come here to conduct on-site research. To ensure security, Xiao Yu sent the biological army there to take charge of defense. These scientists were the elite of the Divine Ark Civilization and could not be allowed even the slightest mishap.
Not only these scientists, but Xiao Yu also invested a considerable portion of his computational power here. This stellar system had become completely bustling. Scientists from the Materials Science Institute studied new hydrogen-atom polymer materials every day and continuously tested the performance of new materials in extreme environments near or even inside the star. Scientists from the Energy Academy of Science carried out experiments in stellar energy collection, and some even proposed building an opaque great sphere to wrap the entire star so as to utilize the star’s energy to the greatest extent. Scientists from the Space Academy of Science and the Institute of Physics spent their days on data computations and formula derivations. This part of the work had originally been the most onerous, but because the most important breakthrough in this area had already been made by the genius Xu Junpo, this task had instead become the most relaxed.
There were no planets left in this stellar system, but fortunately there still existed an asteroid belt, which took on the energy consumption and material needs of the entire research team. At every moment innumerable robots were busy within the belt.
One year passed, two years, three, four…
It was already the fifth year. By now, this stellar system had completely changed its appearance. The once empty region around the star was crowded with a vast number of strange instruments, distributed at distances ranging from one hundred thousand to five million kilometers from the star, numbering roughly over one million and generally of massive size. In addition to these instruments, there were many things like plastic film surrounding the star. These things were very thin yet very large, and at the same time extremely tough. These were the stellar energy collectors Xiao Yu had manufactured from special materials.
That is correct, within these five years, the scientists of the Materials Science Institute successfully completed the task Xiao Yu assigned them, developing that hydrogen-atom polymer material. Precisely because of the existence of this material, the instruments Xiao Yu manufactured could exist so close to the star.
One hundred thousand kilometers above the stellar surface, what does that mean? One must know that this star’s diameter exceeded one million kilometers. Compared with such a colossal star, one hundred thousand kilometers was practically nothing. Here one could truly feel the star’s ferocious energy, indescribably intense radiation, extreme temperatures, exuberant mass ejections, and the buffeting of powerful stellar winds. Calling this environment hell was no exaggeration. Yet none of this could affect this newest material.
Powered by those film-like collectors, more than a million curvature-drive initiators began operating. They started up together and, working in concert, slowly curved the space around the star. It gradually entered curvature space and then began moving slowly.
At this point, all scientists remaining in this stellar system had already evacuated. Stellar curvature flight carries certain dangers, with too many unpredictable factors. The slightest error might cause the collapse of the entire system and ultimately lead to the emergence of spacetime turbulence, tearing the star to pieces. For safety, all scientists had returned to Xiao Yu’s base before the experiment began.
Now, all the relevant scientists and Xiao Yu were tensely watching the star’s movements. Massive streams of data arrived and were displayed on the relevant instruments. Based on the various data, the scientists and Xiao Yu carried out the next operations, adjusted various parameters, and controlled the star to begin this journey smoothly.
Curvature flight and conventional flight are two different things and do not interfere with each other. This star had always orbited the Galactic Center, taking roughly one hundred seventy million years to complete a circuit, with an orbital speed of about three hundred fifty-two kilometers per second. This was its inherent kinetic energy, which could not be eliminated. In other words, even in curvature space it still maintained this motion. This imposed higher demands on the curvature engines. During curvature flight, Xiao Yu also had to pay attention to adjusting various parameters at all times, otherwise the star might rush out of curvature space and be torn apart by spacetime turbulence.
Fortunately, this did not happen. Under the joint watch of hundreds of thousands of scientists and Xiao Yu, the star finally and smoothly entered curvature flight.
It is worth noting that the curvature flight the star was performing at this moment was not superluminal but only at 0.3 times the speed of light, about ninety thousand kilometers per second. Xiao Yu’s technology had not yet advanced to the point of allowing a star to travel faster than light. Advancing at this speed, it would reach its destination in roughly fifteen years.
“Fifteen years? I can wait.” Xiao Yu thought silently.
