Chapter 128: DT04

Although it was said to be willing to actively explain some basic information about their civilization to Human Civilization,

in reality, what Human Civilization received in this reply from Stuo Civilization was only this much.

It just briefly covered the most basic situation of Stuo Civilization and then ended.

But this was actually normal.

For two originally unfamiliar civilizations with different races,

even if they wanted to make contact and communicate for various reasons,

the whole process of communication and contact could not happen quickly; it was bound to be long.

For two totally strange civilizations, at least some basic trust was needed to have real communication.

This most basic trust,

as shown in communication between people within Human Civilization,

was something that required both civilizations to have similar thinking logic at least, for communication to be possible.

It was like how the main drive for Human Civilization might be the survival of the civilization.

If another civilization’s main drive was also survival, then both sides could at least understand each other’s basic logic a little.

But if another civilization’s main drive was to destroy other civilizations… then for both sides to make communication was basically impossible.

And before there was any real basic trust,

Human Civilization and this Stuo Civilization were bound to probe each other back and forth,

and during that probing, they would slowly share bits of information to build a bit more understanding.

…

About the areas Stuo Civilization wanted to reach communication about with Human Civilization, as mentioned in the reply,

it did not seem to have any problem.

From Human Civilization’s view, wanting to talk to another civilization

was mostly about wanting to learn such information.

Learning about another civilization’s social form, to see if it could bring ideas for their own civilization’s growth and change.

Exchanging some technologies, to see if it could give new thoughts for their tech research in various fields, or even fill gaps in their own civilization.

And for the way Stuo Civilization described their civilization form in the reply,

if Stuo Civilization was not lying about this, it was good news for both Human Civilization and each other,

because it meant both sides shared at least some similar basic logic.

“Hello, Stuo Civilization.

We also agree with your idea, and we believe that friendly communication between two civilizations in space could bring big help to both their growth.

We also thank you for trusting us enough to share some basic facts about your civilization.

Luckily, Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization are both carbon-based group civilizations. We started on a planet in the ‘Solar System’, kept a strong belief, lived and grew in the Solar System, and after a long time, became what we are now.

We are very interested in the huge and amazing space, and we also want to understand different civilizations out there.

… In your earlier reply, you said your civilization is traveling through space; can we know where you plan to go in the end?”

From the view of information amount and entropy,

in this testing talk between the two civilizations now, much of it had to be empty words, with only a little real information.

For safety, communication had to work this way.

And though during all this,

Stuo Civilization’s Interstellar Fleet was still moving closer to the Inner Solar System,

with only light-speed for messages and the distance now, each talk took a long waiting time for both sides.

…

During another such waiting time for a reply,

in October, year 48 of the Human United Era (HUE).

Pushed by great pressure, plus the tech build-up from past years,

with the work of the Energy and Power Research Institute from the Negentropy Research Institute, along with other teams from the whole institute,

and Qin Yu’s long-time effort,

that month,

the Negentropy Research Institute showed an updated version of the electric propulsion system—the DT03-3 Electric Propulsion System,

which was the third change to the DT03 Electric Propulsion System.

Putting it on Human Civilization’s main Starship let the ship hit its top speed faster,

and the top speed itself was raised to two percent of light speed.

Also that month,

the Negentropy Research Institute ran a first test on an Electric Propulsion Spaceship using this improved system for pushing.

The test results

were able to meet the expected goals steadily.

But for Human Civilization’s situation now, it clearly still wasn’t enough.

When Human Civilization found Stuo Civilization’s Interstellar Fleet, its whole speed was already at five percent of light speed,

and it was unclear if that was the fastest Stuo Civilization could go.

But still,

inside the Negentropy Research Institute, the teams were not that discouraged.

They felt huge pressure with Stuo Civilization coming closer step by step,

but it also gave them big drive.

More importantly,

with Academician Qin Yu there, that pressure would not break the whole Negentropy Research Institute.

Thinking about the old days of electric propulsion spaceships, skipping some early tech,

from nothing to the DT03 Electric Propulsion System, it only took about ten years—after the Asteroid 2801 Impact Crisis to when the new era began.

So now, with Stuo Civilization stepping near and Academician Qin Yu leading, Human Civilization and the institute could surely push the electric propulsion system to a newer type.

It might be harder than making the DT03 Electric Propulsion System,

but now the Negentropy Research Institute, the Energy and Power Research Institute, and other teams were much stronger than when they first studied electric propulsion.

At that time,

people seemed to forget about Academician Qin Yu’s age without thinking.

On the surface, Qin Yu was now 112 years old. Even in a time when people lived to 180 on average, he was getting toward old age.

They seemed to forget if Academician Qin Yu still had as much energy as fifty or sixty years ago for the same work.

But thankfully, as Qin Yu was an Absolute Immortal,

he did have that energy.

Plus,

Qin Yu had some good news.

By Qin Yu’s own figuring and guesses, the current DT03 Electric Propulsion System had not hit its peak yet.

Meaning that electric propulsion could definitely still get better, to boost speed and pushing power.

Also,

based on the info the current Outlook Observation Array kept picking up,

Stuo Civilization’s Interstellar Fleet still used an electric propulsion system, just much better than Human Civilization’s now.

After the test of the DT03-3 Improved Electric Propulsion System ended,

in a busy way, under Qin Yu’s lead, most of the institute’s research turned to studying more advanced electric propulsion.

With Qin Yu in it, the research on better electric propulsion moved forward in many areas at once.

It was clear that

for the planned DT04 Electric Propulsion System,

the energy part could probably work with the Helium-3 Fusion Reactor,

but for the electric propulsion, the Electric Propulsion Engine part seemed to need better materials to hold up.

Qin Yu spent much of his time on research into those kinds of materials.