Chapter 306: Warp Drive
"Acceptable," Ryo's synthesized voice rang out, making the decision. "I accept your invitation, Admiral Kirk. I also wish to witness with my own eyes the heights human civilization has reached in this dimension."
He turned to Maine's squad, Valerie, and the others, issuing a brief order: "Prepare for transfer."
Soon, under Kirk's arrangement, the group passed through the Enterprise's transporter system. Accompanied by the familiar light of dematerialization and rematerialization, they disappeared from the cavern of the Genesis Test Site.
The next moment, they appeared in the spacious and brightly lit transporter room of the Enterprise.
Even the members of Maine's squad, who had experienced the desolation of Death Worlds, the grandeur of Forge Worlds, and the oppression of Hive Worlds, couldn't help but be deeply shocked when they saw their surroundings clearly.
Metal walls as smooth as mirrors, soft yet bright lighting, and air filled with a cleanly filtered, pristine scent—everything was brimming with a sense of high efficiency, precision, and order, completely different from any environment they were familiar with.
And when they followed Kirk and Ryo onto the iconic bridge of the Enterprise, even the most composed Maine couldn't hide the amazement in his eyes.
Beyond the massive main viewscreen lay the deep starry sky and slowly rotating nebulas; on the consoles, various instruments they couldn't understand flickered with soft light; the bridge crew each performed their duties in perfect order, filling the air with an atmosphere of professionalism and exploration.
Ryo's massive mechanical body stood out somewhat incongruously on the bridge, but his crimson optical lenses swept over everything with extreme efficiency—from the navigation console to the science station, from the display methods of tactical readouts to the minute details of the ship's structure.
His data processing core was greedily recording and analyzing every single detail. Warp drive, transporter systems, shield technology, sensor networks... this starship itself was a massive, walking technological treasure trove.
"Welcome aboard the Federation Starship Enterprise," Kirk stood by the captain's chair, a trace of pride in his tone.
Ryo's mechanical head turned slightly, facing the boundless starry sky on the main viewscreen, and his synthesized voice responded steadily: "An... impressively wondrous creation. The spirit of exploration it carries is indeed worthy of praise."
His words sounded like praise, but beneath that calm synthesized voice lay a thirst for knowledge and calculation surging like a tsunami.
This Federation, this Enterprise, and the technological system it represented behind it—he was determined to obtain them.
And heading to Earth would be the crucial first step in acquiring all of this.
Facing this exploration starship hailed as a legend in the human civilization of another dimension, Ryo's cognitive core, usually dominated by absolute rationality, was rarely filled with a burning thirst for knowledge.
His massive dark red mechanical body turned to Kirk. The light in his crimson optical lenses was steady, but his synthesized voice revealed an unmistakable, almost "eager" underlying meaning: "Admiral Kirk, I hold an extremely high research interest in this... 'Enterprise.' It is not only the crystallization of technology but also carries a unique spirit of exploration.
"I hope to conduct an in-depth tour and gain an understanding of its internal structure, especially its core propulsion system."
His request was direct and clear.
Although in the Warhammer universe he hailed from, a ship the size of the Enterprise might only be classified as a light vessel or even a large carrier-based craft within the Imperium's massive fleet roster.
But the mature faster-than-light technological system it represented—completely independent of the Warp—and its almost "golden" pure exploration philosophy born in a relatively peaceful and prosperous era, held a value for Ryo far exceeding any Imperial battleship.
What he was most focused on, without a doubt, was the Warp Drive.
Safe faster-than-light travel technology in realspace!
This realization repeatedly surged through his logic threads, triggering a series of intense priority rearrangements.
In the Imperium of Man, it wasn't that there were no faster-than-light methods independent of the Warp; for example, plasma drives or certain ancient gravity manipulation technologies could achieve speeds several times or even dozens of times the speed of light.
However, in the face of the vast Imperial territory spanning tens of thousands of light-years, such speeds were no different from a snail's pace.
A long voyage from Holy Terra to Macragge in the Ultima Segmentum, if relying on conventional faster-than-light travel, would take hundreds of years, with the crew turning over several generations before arriving—a common and despairing reality in the Imperium.
Warp travel was certainly bizarre, unpredictable, and fraught with extreme danger, but it was the only lifeline keeping the Imperium from falling apart.
And the warp drive?
Based on the limited information he had just obtained from the shallow interfaces of the bridge database, the few words revealed by Kirk and the others, and his deductions combining memories from before his transmigration, the Federation's warp technology could even stably reach tens of thousands of times the speed of light!
Although this speed still couldn't compare to the absurd speeds of Warp travel under certain specific "downstream" conditions, it was safe, reliable, and predictable!
For an Imperium that needed to maintain communications, mobilize troops, and implement management across the vast galaxy, its strategic value was immeasurably large.
Even if merely used as a supplement when Warp travel was unstable or as a means of short-range maneuvering, it was enough to change the strategic posture of many regions.
Furthermore, for Ryo's personal grand scheme of future dimensional exploration, the significance of the warp drive was entirely irreplaceable.
Warp engines relied heavily on the unique and corrupted existence of the Warp in the Warhammer universe, and they were highly likely to fail completely in other dimensions where the Warp did not exist.
But the warp drive—as long as the target universe's fundamental physical constants, such as the speed of light and spacetime structure, did not fundamentally conflict with baseline reality—could theoretically be universally applied!
This was a key technology possessing extremely high potential for cross-dimensional application; it was another skeleton key to open up his future path of exploration.
This value simply could not be measured in numbers.
Therefore, when Kirk—after a slight hesitation, considering that Ryo had previously allowed them to observe the dimensional teleportation, and out of diplomatic etiquette and the principle of reciprocity—finally nodded in agreement and signaled Saavik and Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott to accompany the tour, Ryo's heavily mechanically modified face remained expressionless, but the focal length of his optical lenses instantly adjusted to the sharpest analysis mode.
Guided by the slightly nervous and scrutinizing gaze of Engineer Scott, his massive body began to move through the clean, bright corridors of the Enterprise, every step accompanied by the low, rhythmic sounds of hydraulics and treads.
Every single one of his sensors was fully open, greedily recording the ship's structural materials, the distribution of energy conduits, the environmental control systems, and even the design details of the door locks on the bulkheads.
And his core processing threads had long since locked onto an ultimate target: the Warp Engine Room.
He was absolutely determined to obtain this technology.
Whether by means of cooperative exchange or through other avenues of "technological referencing," he absolutely had to firmly grasp this treasure capable of breaking dimensional barriers and achieving faster-than-light travel in realspace in his own hands.
The journey of the Explorator Magos would inevitably march toward new stars because of this technology.
(End of Chapter)