The Martial Unity

Rui hadn’t had time to truly think about the information that the Tendril of Light had shared with them. Since the very moment he did, he noticed the potential dangers that very rapidly manifested, creating several crises that he needed to personally intervene in by opening wormholes to the Pioneer ships that were endangered.

He had shared the information with the Panamic Space Organization that had collected other information on the topic, instructing them to create a thorough picture of the Milky Way for everybody.

“Yes, sir,” Director Brenner nodded with an expectant expression. “We have processed and compiled all the intelligence we have gathered on the Milky Way into a single briefing that contains the entirety of our understanding of our galaxy.”

BZZZT

The screen behind him buzzed, featuring a depiction of the Milky Way. There were lines that pointed to the multiple arms of the Milky Way with names and numbers.

“The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy,” Director Brenner began with the obvious. “What this means is that the stars of our galaxy exist in strand-like or streak-like structures that spiral outwards from the center. And thus…”

He points to the curves of the Milky Way. “…creates what we call star strands. Six massive star strands account for about 87% of all stars in our galaxy. Stars within strands are much closer to each other than they are to stars of other strands, as there is a massive interstellar void between star strands. For the record, our solar system is here, in the Orion Star Strand.” He pointed to a point in a strand of stars in the exterior of the Milky Way. “The nomenclature for this has already been established in the true world. Each of these star strands has a name as labeled.”

[Ormaneous Star Strand]

[Calcicet Star Strand]

[Orion Star Strand]

[Mariv Star Strand]

[Corpench Star Strand]

[Maur Strar Strand]

He turns towards Rui. “Any advanced alien civilization looking to expand across the Milky Way Galaxy or just into other star systems will undoubtedly expand along the star strand within which it is present.”

Immediately, that clicked for everybody intuitively in the intelligence briefing.

The image of the Milky Way made that clear. The Milky Way was not a smooth, uniform distribution of stars across its depths. Thus, it didn’t make sense for a civilization to expand outwards uniformly.

Obviously, expanding to stars that were closer was much easier than expanding to stars that were farther away. Rui was personally experiencing this problem now with trying to reach even their closest star systems in times of emergency.

The energy needed to move to different stars in a short amount of time was truly astronomical. Thus, alien civilizations would use it very wisely and efficiently, and that involved expanding outwards along star strands, where stars were closer to each other and thus created a path of low-energy expansion, yielding the highest benefits for minimal effort.

“Thus, when thinking about the structures of alien civilizational development and expansion, it is most suitable to think about this in terms of star strands,” the director explained patiently. “Unless an alien species is exceptionally irrational, they will not try to move to another star strand before they have expanded across the entirety of their star strand. At the same time, the most energy efficient way to expand to another star strand is through…”

He pointed to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. “The galactic core. The galactic core is where all star strands meet. Any civilization that manages to enter the galactic core will gain access to all other star strands.”

In other words, the galactic core was a strategic location in the Milky Way Galaxy. The core allowed civilizations to expand to other civilizations, getting access to other star strands that would allow them to expand across the entire Milky Way.

This contextualized a lot of the information that Rui had gotten from the Laminar Civilization. Indeed, his understanding of astronomy and galaxies had been limited, preventing him from getting a full grasp of all the information that the Tendril of Light. “Let me guess,” Rui began with a serious tone of voice. “The Laminar Civilization, BABEL, and the Gargantian Hive are all in different star strands.”

“Correct, Your Majesty. They are dominant, even if not hegemonic, forces within their own star strands. This is assuming the intelligence shared by the Laminar Civilization is accurate.”

BZZZT

The image shifted, overlapping the intelligence shared by the Laminar Civilization to Rui. Indeed, the tracks of identified alien civilizations overlapped with star strands. The Laminar Civilization occupied the Ormaneous Star Strand while BABEL and the Gargantian Hive occupied the Calcicet and Mariv Star Strands, respectively.

It meant that the Gargantian Hive, the species and civilization from which Garg was from, was in a different star strand entirely.

Rui’s ethereal eyes lit up. “This means…”

The Director grinned. “That’s right, Your Highness.”

BZZZT

He shifted the screen back to the image of Garg, the sentient planet specimen that they had run into in the Sirius star system.

“This specimen is isolated from its civilization. It cannot call for help. It cannot summon reinforcements very easily. In fact, the same is true for the astralites.”

BZZZT

He shifted the image to the octopus-like alien species that they had attacked in the past.

“As well as the mechanical entities of BABEL.”

BZZZT

The feed shifted to the ongoing war between Pioneer XIII and the strange drone-like machines that attacked them. Both of those alien civilizations were largely a mystery, even with the information they had gotten from the Laminar Civilization.

“But it does not change the fact that they are astronomically isolated,” Director Brenner turned back towards Rui. “It is very unlikely that they will be able to summon reinforcements.”

“Don’t be too sure,” Rui warned. “Remember the laminars and nebulars opened massive portals to this place from unfathomable distances away.”

“And it undoubtedly cost them more energy than it was worth, Your Majesty,” Director Brenner remarked. “The laminars haven’t gathered the needed energy to return home yet, even in a month. And it will probably take them years of dedicated energy gathering to return home, depending on how our relationship develops. Their decisions to attack our world were not made out of a rational cost-benefit analysis. There was most likely some other consideration, the alien virus presence within Gaia that you have destroyed, that made them make these irrational long-distance jumps. It should not be likely that most civilizations will be willing to invest an astronomical amount of energy into helping a distant outpost in a distant star strand.”