327 Finding One's Own Answers

Time was the deciding factor.

Remian's plans went like this; following the most reliable escape route, they would need a fully functional Warp Gate and a massive evacuation fleet within two hundred years. The Warp Gate alone could take fifty years to construct, depending on the equipment and manpower available in space.

That's right; in space, not on the ground. Something that big could only be constructed in zero-gravity, and would need to be assembled by colonists living in space. An entire generation could be born and grow up their whole lives doing nothing but building that Warp Gate. If they had trouble, or things slowed down, they might need two generations or even three.

Why fifty years? Well, getting the materials for the Gate alone could take decades. It would involve mining asteroids, and mining ships could take years to make the trip out, extract the ores, and return. Using ion propulsion, it could take some five years just to make the trip to the asteroid belt. Actually mining it could take a few years on its own. Add an even longer trip to return (due to added mass) and… a newborn child brought on such a mining ship could be an adult by the time he or she returned to Earth Orbit.

Setting up an industrial base in space early on would be the hardest part. In all probability, the moon was their best option. It would mean sending up a lot of personnel and materiel, so that they would be able to develop an independent colony capable of building more spaceships and colonies. The quicker, cheaper way to do this, in Remian's opinion, was an electromagnetic rail launcher, also known as a mass driver loaded onto an LTA mothership firing payloads into space from high altitude. The slower way would be a space elevator, but it would be a lot cheaper in the long run.

Either way, asteroid mining was an absolute necessity. From what Remian remembered of materials on his world, it would be unlikely they would ever launch tons of osmium (for example) out to the moon from the planet.

Putting aside fifty years for the Gate, fifty more for the construction of the first industrial lunar stations, fifty to get from the first spaceship to the completion of a space elevator… they'd have roughly fifty years to rush their development from the steam engine to a spaceship.

Remian sighed. Other Class-3 civilizations looking at space programs dreamed of colonizing the next planet over. In their case, though, it wouldn't help. The Mitigok were going to wipe out everything in the whole star system and the neighboring ones. In fact, the entire star cluster was under threat. No, colonization wasn't his plan. Their only hope was to run far, far away. So yes, a Warp Gate was all he wanted.

Actually, no, he wanted more than just a Warp Gate. He wanted a Space Age culture. He wanted to bring his people into the wider galaxy, but also, he wanted to bring good people, not world-destroyers or mindless work drones.

Also, he wanted to bring some of the Wilds. Just those who were their friends and Comrades. Maybe even the Emperors, if they could downsize like Chirpy.

Honestly speaking, in all probability, the first native from this world to reach space was very likely to be a Lynxmouse… and not just experimentally either. Building spacecraft for Lynxmice would be much cheaper than building them for humans. They might even be able to get base construction started or at least survey the moon.

If it happened to be the kind of moon that had helium-3 all over its surface, it would be a game changer. One of the reasons Remian wanted to try Thorium power was the availability of fuels. Another was to avoid the risk of people using self-fissile materials to make nuclear bombs and getting addicted to nuking each other. Early on, Thorium power would still have dangerous waste materials which had to be very carefully put away, but later generations of clean Thorium power should be possible with less than a decade of effort.

But if the moon had helium-3 just lying on the ground as some moons did, then Fusion power became a tempting alternative. Fusion power generation already on the moon could service the Warp Gate construction much better than hauling Thorium up from the planet's surface or spending years constructing solar panels… assuming that is, they could manage to develop magnetic confinement and electro-magnetic technology to a sufficient level by then.

That could save some time. Anyway, the thing was, the populations of Kara-Goth and Craggy Falls only amounted to some twenty thousand. In Remian's estimation that wasn't enough to build the Warp Gate. The donut space colony envisioned, the kind that used relatively low tech, was suitable for 1 million colonists. It would be built on the moon, assembled piece by piece in space, and then the people would move in and turn it into a Warp Gate. Beyond that, they would also need a fleet of warp-worthy ships. At the very least Remian wanted to bring that 1 million to safety. 100 million would be better, but he wasn't sure it would be possible.

Fal'Herim, now, had a population between two to three hundred thousand. It had lost a huge chunk of its original population back when Remian first met Asda, then experienced a heavy drain as people left during the early part of her reign, not to mention those who fled the Beast Tide, but recently with Tim slowly taking over, increasing amounts of people had settled in. It was no exaggeration to say that Tim's industrial district was the most heavily populated area in the whole Desert City.

At this rate, by the end of the year, Tim's industrial district alone could easily top 100,000 all by itself. That was five times more than Kara-Goth, Craggy Falls, and Three Pines combined. What about Song Chen's Great Docks? Remian didn't even know. How big was the Song Clan, exactly? How many people from the Dragon Empire had joined them? Thinking back to the convoy he had joined, Remian had to guess at least a few hundred people had come over in one trip. There must have been dozens of such convoys by now. That meant at the very least, the Song Clan had a few thousand people.

Was it really a good idea to include them? The Dragon Empire's culture was similar to Xiao Yan's homeworld. They tended to breed arrogant guys who blustered around throwing their weight and bullying others. Then again, not everyone in the Dragon Empire was the arrogant sort. Like Remian's family, who were from a vassal state of the Empire. They just had to make sure.

The culture of the space-faring generation Remian wanted had to be different. He wanted them industrious and sensible, honorable and honest if possible, because building a Warp Gate was tricky and hiding mistakes or weaknesses in the superstructure for any reason could have downright apocalyptic consequences. They would need to be careful, even calculative sometimes, but yet maintain warmth and kindness to be able to care for each other and grow together as a society.

Toward this, Remian needed a few key items… like the machine he'd sent Group-2 to get. Then, he needed to have a serious talk with the Priests. But first, the machine.

That is, if Group-2 could actually succeed. Thinking about it, Remian didn't honestly expect them to. In other words, he'd have to secure the machine elsewhere.

***

Speaking of Group-2, they were preparing to take their 'test'.

"The Test Assignment is to sail Remian's airship known as the Lockjaw to Ashdale, pick up a 'Mirror Image 9' Photocopy Machine, and bring it back in functional order to Craggy Falls Adventurers Headquarters." Alani reiterated. "The problem is our lack of resources and proper equipment. Isabella?"

Isabelle took it from there. "The 'Lockjaw' is a Mastiff Tug. It is ill-equipped for a long journey. It is a short-range Tug designed to haul much larger ships over much smaller distances. There is no living quarters of any kind, little in way of fuel storage, and the engine guzzles up mana like there's no tomorrow. There's no cargo capacity; any supplies we bring will basically have to be tied to the rails, as will the delicate machine we bring back, IF we can even get it. At last report, the cost price for such a machine was roughly 12,000 lir, even with the prices dropping due to mana shortage. Our budget for this trip is 10,000 lir."

Siti spluttered. "That's crazy! We can't even afford the machine with that budget, much less purchase supplies or overhaul the 'Lockjaw'!"

"That's assuming we need to buy it." Gary paused. "I happen to have experience in acquiring items without having to purchase them."

"You mean, steal it." Siti scowled.

Gary shrugged. "Whatever it takes."

Alani cleared her throat. "Remian let slip a hint earlier. He said something about parts being cheaper than the entire machine."

"So we were supposed to buy parts and assemble it?" Juni grunted. "I'm not confident I can handle something of that level."

"I'm not confident of sailling a Mastiff all the way to Ashdale either. But that's the job." Alani pointed out.

"I'm not sure we���ll even make it to Ashdale in a Mastiff. From what I can tell, air piracy is getting rampant around the Midlands. Chances of running into pirates has quadrupled over the past month." Jamie added.

"Isn't that why you're training in weapons?" Siti asked.

"I've only just started training, and the Mastiff doesn't have any weaponry to begin with! If you want me to rig a ballista onto the deck, I could do it, but I don't think it's going to get us safely to Ashdale. No matter how you look at it, if we meet pirates, we're going to be severely outgunned." Jamie grimaced. "No offense to you or your medical training, but I don't think we'd all make it back alive."

"None taken." Siti assured her. "Like you, I am only getting started."

"So obviously working hard is not the answer." Alani said. "We have to work smart."

"Which means?" Gary prompted.

Alani shook her head. "Remian didn't give us any clues. He only said to work together and discuss it ourselves.��

"In short, find our own answers." Gary grimaced. "I vote we sell the Lockjaw, buy tickets to Ashdale, steal the machine, and book a Deutero flight back."

"Can't sell the Lockjaw. It's not ours to sell, and sailing it to Ashdale is part of the mission requirement." Alani pointed out.

"Join a convoy." Jamie said suddenly. "Remian didn't say we need to go alone. It's safer in a convoy."

Alani nodded. "That would help. But what about the Lockjaw itself?"

"We'll have to modify it for a long trip." Isabella said firmly. "We can't afford to spend too much on the modifications, so it will have to be planks-and-netting. Setting aside 6000 lir for parts, 2000 for supplies, and maybe 1000 to buy or bribe our way into a convoy, I'd budget no more than 500 lir on the modifications. Let's keep that little extra for contingencies."

"We're definitely going to run over budget." Juni grunted. "Unless we cut the planks and twine the ropes for the netting ourselves."

"No time." Alani shook her head. "I can ask my neighbors for their old nets. They retired from fishing when they opened their restaurant. But as for planks…"

"Salvage them." Gary suggested. "Go to the old battlefield site and look for old airship wrecks. Might even be able to pick up a usable weapon."

"Or even an intact abovedecks cabin that we could nail onto the Lockjaw." Isabelle brightened. "How much time do we have?"

"We need to be back by Monday evening." Alani grimaced.

"Depending on the convoy we follow back, that means leaving Ashdale sometime on Sunday, preferably Sunday night." Isabelle calculated. "Sunday will be exhausting, so we'll want to arrive Saturday evening and rest for a night before going at it on Sunday. That means we'll need to find a convoy that leaves on Saturday morning, or even Friday night. In other words… there's no time for Scavenging if we want to do it this weekend."

"Then don't." Gary said straight out. "Let's go right now. We could be at Dragon Lake before sundown. We could stay at the old base camp like all those Adventurers do, and then tomorrow we'll have at least the morning to scavenge all we can before we have to come back in the evening. After that, we'll have a night to rest before we join the convoy to Ashdale[1]."

[1] This was said on a Thursday morning