Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Seeing that Chen Ming still couldn’t quite understand the connection between the two, He Gu added, ”What I mean is, if a rebellion breaks out on the Empire’s borders, or there is an invasion by an external enemy.”

”And if within one year the Empire’s fleets are unable to reach the border from the capital Star Realm by direct navigation, then such a region is simply impossible to govern.”

”The Empire’s administrative capacity has limits, and the number of matters it can handle at the same time is also limited.”

”As the Empire’s borders expand, the overall territorial extent of the Empire grows exponentially.”

”If certain incidents occur, they won’t politely wait for the politicians to sit around in meetings; a year is already the maximum limit.”

”This is one of the reasons why the Empire’s pace of expansion slowed down.”

Chen Ming more or less understood what he meant, but he still had a question: ”Administrative capacity can change, right?”

”Right, so this fixed period of one year can also change.”

”The more developed the Empire’s communication methods and administrative capacity are, the longer this time frame can be stretched.”

”It’s like this one-year period was a tacit convention set during the Age of Expansion.”

”But the situation today is definitely different. I don’t know exactly how long it can be now, but it’s certainly much longer.”

Chen Ming suddenly thought of something and asked, ”Then when was Star Gate technology developed?”

He Gu answered quite fluently, ”A long time ago, during the Age of Expansion.”

”I know what you’re getting at.”

”As a device capable of ultra-long-distance transmission, the Star Gate has almost stitched the entire Empire into one, greatly extending the range of starship navigation.”

”But the use of Star Gates is not without limits. Activating a Star Gate causes wear on the Singularity inside it, and the Singularity needs maintenance; it can’t be used without restraint.”

”It’s not exactly an objectively existing entity either, but a human-made construct, so it doesn’t count as fundamentally increasing the maximum periodic extreme navigation distance of starships.”

”Therefore this factor simply cannot be included in the calculation.”

”After so many years of accumulation, the Empire’s sociological theories have been continuously studied, and its administrative capacity has improved beyond all recognition.”

”And with the breakthrough in Antimatter Technology, the speed of starship navigation has also improved dramatically; the distance a starship can travel within a set period has undergone a complete upheaval.”

”The Empire has finally gained the capability to continue expanding.”

Chen Ming now fully understood how exactly the Empire’s Age of Expansion had come to a halt.

He then couldn’t help asking another question: ”Did the Empire decide to restart expansion purely because of Antimatter Technology?”

”Of course not.” He Gu said with great certainty, ”Just as there were many factors influencing the end of the earlier Age of Expansion, this time the Empire’s intention to restart expansion also has many different influences.”

”I won’t go into detail about internal contradictions, internal problems, or the aftereffects of Dimensional Infection; I’ll just talk about the one more closely related to us—the Fourteenth Legion.”

”Right now the Fourteenth Legion is facing the Dusk main force as a single Legion.”

”Whereas most of the other Legions in the Empire have only ever participated in small-scale, low-intensity wars. Those Legions aren’t fighting or preparing for war; they’re basically in retirement, and it’s the Empire paying to support them in retirement. If it were you, would you be happy with that?”

”This is one of the reasons pushing the Empire to resume expansion. You can’t just keep Legions on the payroll and let them sit around doing nothing.”

”And then there’s your two technologies over there... uh... mainly that Superspace Channel technology.”

Chen Ming immediately recalled how, when he had handed over Superspace Jump Technology and Energy Crystal Technology to Bai Quan, it had apparently not gone through He Gu and the Spiritual Ability Research Institute.

Only the results from the later research assignment on another civilization’s relics, which had been distributed by the Legion, were submitted to the Spiritual Ability Research Institute.

But it was perfectly normal for He Gu to know about these things, so Chen Ming didn’t dwell on it too much and simply asked, ”What about this technology?”

”Mm... this technology is already known to many people, but so far it’s only been tested within our Legion.”

”The results are quite good. Recently, this Engine has already completed adaptation and optimization for different types of starships, and it has begun to be promoted from our Legion to other sectors.”

”However, its spread is definitely slower than that of Antimatter Technology.”

”Antimatter Technology is the truly epoch-making technology; it’s the real driving force behind the Empire restarting its expansion.”

”But as far as I remember, you also hold part of the patents for Antimatter Technology, right? And it seems that you also stole it from Dusk—the Antimatter Technology developed by Dusk is what allowed this technology to break through its final hurdle.”

”The fact that the Empire can once again set out on the road of expansion is also closely tied to you.”

”And frankly speaking, your technology isn’t bad at all. Compared to Ordinary Teleportation Engines, the Superspace Navigation Teleportation Engine consumes less and is easier to maintain.”

”It does have limitations, but those limitations are nothing in the face of the Empire.”

”And even though your technology spreads more slowly than Antimatter Technology, I feel your technology might actually be fully deployed across the board faster than Antimatter Technology.”

Chen Ming asked again, ”Why is that?”

”Because by its very nature, Antimatter Technology leans toward the cutting-edge and high-end; such technology is always difficult to fully deploy.”

”And the Empire can’t possibly start equipping the entire Empire with it when it’s still not sufficiently familiar with the practical application of Antimatter Technology.”

”Besides, you of all people know this: Antimatter Technology was originally obtained from Dusk, and at present Dusk has not demonstrated the capability to apply Antimatter Technology across various fields.”