Chapter 512: Trisolarans' Technological Explosion! Lightspeed Engine! Striking Toward the Solar System!
The moment news came that the Trisolarans had launched their attack, the headquarters of Universal Megacorp immediately gave the order to awaken Paul Atreides and the other staff members who were still in hibernation.
When Paul arrived at the command center of the Infinity-class carrier, he quickly caught up on the various decisions and operations Universal Megacorp had undertaken during his slumber.
When he learned that the sophons had been eliminated, he was both shocked and overjoyed. Without sophon surveillance, their missions could finally remain hidden.
More than that, humanity could now break free of the Trisolaran civilization's technological blockade and usher in an explosive era of scientific and technological advancement.
In short, the elimination of the sophons allowed humanity to shake off the Trisolarans' monitoring. The impact on the coming war was immeasurable—whatever the cost, it had been worth it.
"Is there any new trouble now?" Paul pressed.
Without the sophons, the Trisolarans had lost their most crucial offensive weapon—information asymmetry. At this point, they had only two options: either stake everything on a desperate fight against Universal Megacorp, or retreat to their home system and await death.
Clearly, the Trisolarans had made their choice: a fight to the death with human civilization!
"The trouble is no small matter," said Morgan Blackhand, who had awakened half a year earlier than Paul. His voice was low and heavy as he called up a holographic display, showing the sector of space where the Trisolarans resided.
From Centauri to the Solar System, the Trisolaran fleet had to pass through two interstellar dust belts. By observing these dust clouds, one could clearly see their trajectory—and from it, calculate their speed.
Before Universal Megacorp ever arrived in the Three-Body universe, the Trisolaran fleet had already crossed the first dust belt, taking five full years to do so.
At that time, humanity had scoffed at the fleet, believing the Trisolarans held no real advantage in space warfare.
But during the scientific nexus' research into the microcosmos, when the fleet crossed the second dust belt, it took only a single week!
The two belts were nearly identical in thickness—practically indistinguishable. For travel time to shrink from five years to a single week said everything that needed to be said.
The conclusion was obvious: all signs pointed to one fact—the Trisolaran fleet had reached lightspeed!
With his hands clasped behind his back, Morgan Blackhand's tone grew solemn. "A technological explosion isn't unique to humanity. It can occur in any civilization."
"Most likely, the Trisolarans experienced just such an explosion, raising their fleet's cruising speed to the level of lightspeed in only a short span."
Humanity's own technological explosion had followed the Renaissance, which liberated human thought. Endless wars then accelerated the development of weapons and science.
In those turbulent times, when everyone pursued freedom and equality, countless treasures of knowledge were born in brilliant minds. With those truths, humanity advanced step by step to where it stands today.
For the Trisolarans to leap suddenly from steady growth to explosive acceleration, it most likely happened in the midst of their conflict with humanity.
As for the cause of this explosion, Universal Megacorp staff were in rare agreement: it was the immense impact of human civilization upon the Trisolaran world.
Ever since the first sophon arrived on Earth more than two centuries ago, enormous amounts of human culture had flowed into Trisolaris, leaving a profound mark.
Some of humanity's values had been accepted by the Trisolarans. Their civilization, once rigidly centralized—dominated by the Speaker and a handful of elite legislators—began to taste the idea of liberated thought, freedom, and respect for the individual. This sparked their own Renaissance.
It was the seed of their technological explosion.
Thereafter, the series of contests and clashes with humanity exposed them to tactics, strategy, and systems of governance never before seen in their transparent and rigid society.
To the Trisolarans, this was an intellectual treasure trove without precedent.
The enlightenment of humanistic thought propelled Trisolaran science to soar.
It must have been a brilliant and dazzling era of history—but the details were known only to the Trisolarans themselves.
"So they've had their own explosion… truly unexpected," Paul mused.
In fact, when it came to technological explosions, Universal Megacorp itself had been in such a state for over a century.
From the earliest cybernetic augmentation technologies to today's god-making technologies, both the scale and depth of their breakthroughs were unmatched.
Until now, the Trisolarans' proudest weapons had been the sophons and the droplets. But with their fleet strengthened by new advances, Paul wondered if this expeditionary armada could even match a single battle group of Universal Megacorp.
"According to the analysis from the scientific nexus, the Trisolaran technological explosion likely occurred about two years ago, focused mainly on their fleet," Morgan explained.
Thanks to their technological leap, the Trisolarans managed to accelerate their fleet, originally 2.1 light-years from the Solar System, to lightspeed.
Now, two and a half more years had passed. That meant their fleet had already arrived in the Solar System, ready to link up with the nine remaining droplets and launch their all-out assault on humanity.
In that moment, Paul finally understood why so many advanced civilizations in the Three-Body universe would stop at nothing to erase any lesser civilization that revealed its existence.
Even a civilization that seemed hopelessly behind, as weak as ants, might in time unleash lightspeed particles or dimensional strikes to annihilate its rivals.
The advanced civilizations here truly lived by the maxim: "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west—never underestimate a struggling civilization."
The existence of technological explosions meant that every civilization faced others with absolute hostility.
"Information—it's information that changed everything," Morgan sighed.
By studying human history, dissecting the Renaissance's origins and impact, the Trisolarans had reshaped themselves, bringing about their own age of technological explosion.
Human information was the variable that altered Trisolaran destiny.
Without humanity, the Trisolarans would have needed to endure brutal wars, disasters, and turmoil to spark a liberation of thought.
Before the Renaissance, humanity had endured the long and painful medieval era: the Crusades, the Black Death, papal persecution. Darkness and ignorance birthed suffering—but also nurtured vitality.
As the Dao says: reversal is the movement of the Way.
Hope always germinates within destruction.
Universal Megacorp's own rapid rise owed much to constant conquest of myriad universes, unifying forces and resources, and riding the explosion of information to sustain endless breakthroughs.
And in the Three-Body universe, humanity itself was on the brink of its own technological explosion.
Only the arrival of the sophons had frozen its progress. Without them, humanity could already have been marching swiftly into the interstellar age.
"A Trisolaran fleet with lightspeed engines and nine droplets… an impressive lineup, but ultimately useless," Paul said with a faint sigh.
Had the sophons still existed, the Trisolarans would never have dared such a reckless move.
Because the greatest strength of the Universal Megacorp lay in that super-fleet which swept across countless universes—a matchless army equipped with all manner of law-level weapons.
"By now, the Trisolaran civilization has already exhausted every resource they could use. Their warships most likely only modified their propulsion, boosting their travel speed a little."
"As for their cannon systems and the like, they're basically no different from before."
Morgan Blackhand concluded firmly. Put bluntly, the Trisolarans were nothing more than vicious pirates who were flat broke; the purpose of leaving their homeworld was simply to plunder resources.
Any technological explosion that occurred during their voyage would certainly be limited by scarce resources, so for the Megacorp there was no need to worry about what the Trisolaran fleet could actually do to them.
"Let's bring this war to an end quickly. The Trisolarans used lightspeed travel, which will leave traces on the outskirts of the solar system, and that will draw the attention of other advanced civilizations."
What Morgan Blackhand worried about was not the Trisolaran fleet, but the "tail" left behind by lightspeed engines. The Megacorp had chosen sublight propulsion precisely to avoid leaving such traces.
Now that the Trisolaran fleet was openly leaving a trail with lightspeed travel, it could be said they were coming with the intention of mutual destruction.
"Indeed. We should finish off the Trisolaran civilization as soon as possible."
Paul nodded, then asked about humanity's view of the Universal Megacorp, and whether the company had already established deep cooperative relations with Earth's governments.
But Morgan Blackhand only gave a bitter smile and shook his head. "Whether it's Earth International or Fleet International, their attitude toward us is still full of caution."
"You can't really blame them. The humans here have already witnessed the Trisolarans' brutality. Even if we are fellow humans, they still don't fully trust us."
This attitude from Earth's people was hardly surprising. The origins of the Universal Megacorp remained suspicious to this day—who could guarantee that the Megacorp was truly friendly?
"Then I'm afraid we'll have to wait until the Trisolaran crisis is completely eliminated before we can fully win over humanity here."
Paul reflected. Whoever breaks the Trisolaran civilization first will be the king within the passes; whoever does it will be humanity's savior.
After discussing with Morgan Blackhand and settling the next plan, Paul Atreides returned to the surface, and had someone notify both Fleet International and Earth International that he had awakened early.
When the news reached Earth, people who had once harbored doubts about the War Moon suddenly felt their spirits rise—their savior had returned.
It had been Paul who originally gave them the confidence and hope to defeat the Trisolaran civilization. Naturally, they now hoped Paul could witness the fruits of their efforts.
Stepping down from the Endless-class carrier, Paul was surprised to find that humanity here had not neglected the plan he had laid out.
They were still working with all their might to construct various large-scale high-energy particle accelerators, not falling into panic over the Trisolaran fleet's sudden acceleration.
Those who save themselves are saved by Heaven!
Immediately, once the Wallfacer Committee received Paul's message, they launched a series of arrangements and prepared to report the current progress of the Wallfacer Project.
Chairman Galning, upon seeing Paul, couldn't help but exclaim:
"Lord Paul, it is a pleasure to see you again. That colossal celestial body and the Trisolaran fleet's sudden acceleration truly startled us."
Although the Universal Megacorp had explained the situation of the War Moon to humanity, people here still felt nervous and afraid. Like the Trisolarans, they too were curious:
Had such a massive celestial body always existed within the solar system, or had it slipped in without a sound?
Whichever answer it was, to them it sounded like a horror story.
"My apologies, but this was part of the plan. We had no choice but to conceal the existence of the War Moon, in order to deceive the Trisolarans."
Paul did not wish to elaborate further on this question.
"No matter. So long as you are here. Although many accidents have occurred in these one or two years, we have continued to strictly carry out your Wallfacer Project, and the experiments have never stopped."
Galning spoke up.
Hearing this, Paul was somewhat reassured. He did not need humanity here to break through the sophon blockade to trigger a technological explosion and then feed that technology back to the Megacorp.
What he wanted was simply for humanity to resume the path of the technological explosion that had been cut off by the Trisolarans, to put them back on the road of independent research and development.
That was the true Wallfacer Project.
"What's the specific situation?" Paul pressed further.
"Of the ten thousand high-energy accelerators, over a thousand have already been built. More than seven hundred have entered the experimental stage, carrying out target experiments every day."
"All the populace strongly supports our work. The project is progressing even more smoothly than expected."
"If only we had realized this earlier, perhaps things would not have come to this point today." Galning gave a wry smile, lamenting the humanity of the past.
Completing one-tenth of the Wallfacer Project was already quite an achievement; it was nearly sufficient to restore humanity's technological development.
Paul showed no expression, only nodding as he asked again: "And what about Project Snowfield?"
Galning replied: "Thanks to Dr. Luo Ji and Dr. Hines, who gave so much for this project, Project Snowfield is now fully underway."
"On an orbit two astronomical units from the sun, over five thousand stellar-class hydrogen bombs coated with oil-film material have been deployed. Once detonated, they can swiftly form a dust cloud around the solar system."
"This will provide us with early warning against the droplets."
Everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion. Paul was satisfied with the progress of human civilization; it seemed the Trisolarans' technological explosion had not thrown them into excessive panic.
At the very least, humanity was no longer as before—paralyzed by alternating grief and euphoria.
"The Trisolaran fleet has already broken through to lightspeed. What impact has this had on human society?"
At these words, everyone present subconsciously furrowed their brows. This bad news had taken them quite some time to barely come to terms with.
At present, very few people knew of it.
"Lord Paul, we only learned of this news not long ago ourselves. We haven't yet had time to broadcast it to the public."
Jonathan helped explain.
The Trisolaran fleet had likely undergone its technological explosion two years ago. But since at that time the fleet was still 2.1 light years away from the solar system, humanity could only observe it 2.1 years later.
In other words, what humanity was seeing now was only the Trisolaran fleet as it had been 2.1 years in the past.
Now that the Trisolarans had lightspeed engine technology, by the time humanity observed their traces, they were already at the solar system!
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