After several days of flight, the Deep Space gradually moved further away from Nyx.
"Captain, the spacecraft is currently 3.7 million kilometers from Nyx. The local space curvature is at 2.7, meeting the operating conditions for the Curvature Engine! Awaiting your orders!"
"Activate the Curvature Engine!" Jason ordered in a deep voice.
"Captain’s order: Activate the Curvature Engine!"
Following the command, the main ion engines gradually powered down, and the auxiliary Curvature Engine hummed to life.
A thin Warp Bubble materialized around the Deep Space, enveloping the massive vessel like a translucent film of soap.
From an outside perspective, the Deep Space appeared to be accelerating at an impossible rate.
However, this extreme "acceleration" exerted no physical G-force on the spacecraft, nor did it actually increase its kinetic energy. Instead, the ship was moving by physically compressing and riding the space around it.
As the Curvature Engine officially engaged, the surrounding starlight stretched and distorted, but the internal sensors confirmed everything aboard remained completely normal.
A senior scientist standing behind the captain smiled, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead. "It looks like the warp drive is perfectly stable. All telemetry is green, and there are no anomalies."
Jason carefully reviewed the parameters on his screen and finally let out a sigh of relief.
Of course, they weren’t taking a blind risk. Countless simulations and scaled experiments had been conducted over the years; success was the only acceptable outcome. Humanity’s maiden interstellar voyage couldn’t end with them blowing up a Spaceship that took over a century to build.
Warp technology was considered a Level 2 achievement for an Interstellar Civilization. This meant that the Federation, having just taken its first steps into the cosmos, had already crossed the threshold into a Level 2 civilization!
The foundation of this achievement traced back to a golden age of physics thirty years ago, a monumental theoretical breakthrough.
Before then, humanity’s understanding of space had been extremely limited, mostly stuck in the era of general relativity.
But one day, three decades ago, something incredible happened: the Super Hadron Collider finally detected a brand-new type of "heavy particle"!
On that day, the classical model of physics was shattered. Humanity had finally discovered dark matter.
A cascade of new theories followed, sparking a golden age of physics that spanned the next few decades.
In truth, the construction of the advanced nuclear fusion reactors and the Deep Space had essentially been finalized over thirty years ago. In the years that followed, scientists focused entirely on dark matter theories and the subsequent development of the Curvature Engine.
The Curvature Engine was a revolutionary propulsion system built on dark matter mechanics, marking a critical milestone for any Interstellar Civilization.
It meant the Federation had evolved past relying solely on kinetic propulsion and could now traverse light-years of space rapidly.
Dark matter doesn’t absorb, reflect, or emit electromagnetic waves; it doesn’t interact electromagnetically with regular matter at all. It was better described as "transparent matter"—invisible and intangible, yet surrounding us everywhere.
In modern theory, dark energy is the energy filling the vacuum of space, exerting a negative pressure. Across vast cosmic distances, this negative pressure acts as an anti-gravity force, driving the expansion of the universe. It could be a dynamic field or a fundamental component of vacuum energy.
This remained a hotly debated topic among scientists. Humanity didn’t fully understand the fundamental nature of these forces yet, but that didn’t stop them from harnessing them.
Dark matter came in various forms.
Scientists made a shocking discovery: certain exotic particles possessed extreme negative gravitational pressure. In other words, their mass was negative!
The discovery of this "exotic matter" with negative mass was the key to making warp drives a reality.
Because warp drives required negative matter to function.
"If a spacecraft could use negative matter to flatten the space behind it, reducing its curvature, the ship would naturally be pulled forward by the higher curvature of space in front of it. That was the core mechanism of the Curvature Engine."
"While a warp drive couldn’t instantly transport a ship like space-folding or wormholes, it allowed the vessel to approach and eventually exceed the speed of light."
"More importantly, the energy required for the Curvature Engine didn’t depend on the spacecraft’s mass. It only depended on the size of the Warp Bubble and the cruising speed. This bypasses the relativistic effects of traveling near the speed of light, drastically lowering the energy cost."
Backed by this robust theoretical framework and the spatial curvature data salvaged from the destroyed Viridian Empire ship decades ago, humanity developed the Curvature Engine in just thirty years.
And just like that, humanity stepped up to become a Level 2 civilization, capable of traveling at roughly three times the speed of light.
Of course, the "Level 2" classification was somewhat generous. Humanity’s technological evolution was still in its infancy, and their grasp of dark matter was far from complete.
"See? Fundamental science always pays off," Jason noted with high spirits, watching the ship sail smoothly through the distorted void.
"But building the Super Hadron Collider was obscenely expensive. It was ten thousand times more powerful than anything we ever had on Earth. It’s no wonder lesser civilizations never detected these particles."
"And the Curvature Engine strapped to our stern is even more expensive... not to mention the massive amounts of energy it consumes!"
Reflecting on this technological leap, Jason shook his head. "Even if a lower-level civilization stumbled upon dark matter, they wouldn’t have the energy output to power a Curvature Engine."
"Only a civilization with a sufficiently massive industrial and energetic foundation can keep pushing the boundaries of science. It’s an unavoidable bottleneck!"
However, warp drives had their own inherent limitations.
With current Federation technology, the engine couldn’t operate safely in regions with high spatial curvature, meaning areas with strong gravity wells. Therefore, the old-fashioned ion engines were still absolutely necessary for planetary departures and arrivals.
Furthermore, because the Warp Bubble severely distorted local space, it became incredibly difficult to observe the outside universe. All visual data had to be heavily reconstructed by the ship’s supercomputers.
The faster a bird flies, the harder it is to see its surroundings clearly.
This observation issue used the speed of light as a hard limit. Once the ship surpassed the speed of light, observing the outside universe in real-time became entirely impossible.
"As you all know, our destination is the Earth-like exoplanet GB131, located roughly 0.62 light-years from Nyx. We expect to arrive within six months."
"I expect all departments to remain highly vigilant during this transit period. I don’t want any accidents on our maiden voyage. Is that clear?" Jason broadcasted his orders through the comms.
"Good. Minister Austin... and all Department Heads, please report to my office for a brief meeting."
With the ship safely underway, Jason’s mood lifted significantly. People always had to look forward. Seeing the eager and passionate expressions on the faces of the scientists on the bridge, he knew everyone had moved past the melancholy of leaving Nyx.
Choosing the GB131 star system was a calculated decision.
A distance of 0.62 light-years was neither too short nor too far. It was the perfect testing ground to evaluate the Deep Space’s overall performance. It even provided a short window for faster-than-light travel, giving researchers a wealth of crucial data to refine the Curvature Engine later.
Even though they were technically a Level 2 Interstellar Civilization now, this was still humanity’s first genuine interstellar voyage. They couldn’t just blindly jump tens or hundreds of light-years away on their first try.
Furthermore, if the Deep Space suffered any critical failures, they could perform emergency repairs in the orbit of this new planet.
On top of that, planet GB131 was incredibly rich in Helium-3 resources!
The planet was only slightly larger than the moon and lacked a surface magnetic field. This meant the massive amounts of stellar material ejected by its binary star system bombarded its surface unimpeded.
Over billions of years, it had accumulated an estimated billions of tons of easily mineable Helium-3!
Helium-3 was a rare and immensely valuable resource throughout the entire Milky Way Galaxy.
For a fledgling interstellar civilization like humanity, it was a priceless treasure, vastly more important than gold!
As these thoughts raced through their minds, the Senior Scientists and Department Heads filed into the captain’s cabin, their faces flushed with excitement.