Chapter 264: Conquering the Waterdrop Curvature Engine

In the 248th year of the Crisis Era, the construction of Humanity's The Waterdrop also entered its final stage.

Aside from the curvature engine technology, Humanity had mastered all other relevant technologies for The Waterdrop. After years of study, a breakthrough in curvature engine technology seemed imminent as well.

The curvature of The Waterdrop, while similar in principle to that of the lightspeed spacecraft, was not identical; it could be thought of as a less advanced version of the lightspeed spacecraft. It would not leave as noticeable traces, and could often go undetected without specialized equipment.

As for the curvature engine technology, the Trisolaran Gg dispatched The Waterdrop in the eighth year of the Crisis, which indicates that by that time, the Trisolarans had fully mastered the technology of The Waterdrop.

However, the Trisolaran Second Fleet, consisting of four hundred and fifteen spaceships, set off towards the end of the Deterrence Era. These four hundred and fifteen spaceships were the lightspeed spacecraft, meaning it took nearly 250 years for the Trisolarans to develop the technology from The Waterdrop's curvature technology to lightspeed spacecraft.

This was why Logic found it strange that the Trisolaris First Fleet had departed 50 years before the Crisis, yet for nearly 300 years there had been no dispatch of a second fleet; the reason was not that the Trisolarans did not want to send one, but that they were developing lightspeed spacecraft, possessing which was not only for the game with Humanity but also a basic condition for survival in the Dark Forest.

Despite the horrors of the Dark Forest, in the macro universe the impossibility to surpass the speed of light remained a fundamental law; with a lightspeed spacecraft, there was a significant probability of evading a Dark Forest Strike.

The Trisolaran fleet also started with conventional propulsion and didn't enter lightspeed until they had reached six thousand astronomical units from the Trisolaran Star System. A curvature-driven spaceship would leave behind a trail when accelerating to lightspeed, like a bubble in space.

The space bubble left by the Trisolaran fleet, also known as the Dark Domain, was about fifty astronomical units in diameter, roughly the size of a planetary system, which made the fleet an extremely easy target for exposure.

This showed that the Trisolarans were not betting everything on defeating Humanity and occupying the Solar System permanently, as they had left such a large space bubble when the fleet decelerated at a distance of six thousand astronomical units from the Solar System.

Perhaps they understood that even if they occupied the Solar System, it would only be temporary, and they would have to leave the Solar System soon after.

As for increasing the probability of exposing the Trisolaris planet, they could only aim for a larger probability. Perhaps after Logic cast the "Spell," the Trisolarans realized that the Solar System could only serve as a temporary habitation for them and not as a long-term settlement.

Indeed, a clear hint in the original work was that just three years after Universal Gravity broadcasted the Trisolaran coordinates, the Trisolaran Star System suffered a Dark Forest Strike. And since Universal Gravity was three light-years away from the Trisolaran Star System, it already showed that the "Hunter" was on their trail and near the Trisolaran Star System.

Perhaps even without the broadcast from Universal Gravity, the Trisolarans would have still suffered a Dark Forest Strike, as the space bubbles left by the lightspeed spacecraft had already exposed them.

On this timeline, the Trisolarans' scientific and technological progress was greater, their goals were farther, and their large fleet would not use lightspeed travel unless absolutely necessary.

Humanity of the original timeline (mainly Wade and others) developed lightspeed spacecraft in less than 40 years, which also showed that this technology was not too far beyond Humanity's grasp.

Compared to lightspeed spacecraft technology, The Waterdrop's curvature technology was simpler and perhaps easier for Humanity to master as well.

In order to study curvature, in the 238th year of the Crisis Era, Humanity used high-energy particle collisions within the Solar System Accelerator to create a micro black hole, which was then injected into one of the Jovian Moons, thus Humanity also acquired a stable micro black hole.

According to classical relativity knowledge, a gravitational field is a manifestation of spacetime curvature, more accurately, it is time rather than space that bends. No material object can reach the speed of light, but space itself can, and the speed of light is immutable.

The black hole project has been in existence for ten years now, but even to this day, many of the participants in the black hole project do not know its ultimate purpose.

Theoretical calculations and astronomical observations both suggest that not even black holes can alter the speed of light; they can only use their gravitational fields to change the path and frequency of light beams, without affecting the true speed of light in a vacuum. Of course, the participants didn't know their purpose was to study reducing the speed of light or curvature-based propulsion.

Perhaps, only a few scientific teams, from under the cover of secrecy, knew their true research objective.

The current theories suggest that gravitational fields, which are the warping of spacetime, under certain conditions, can affect the speed of light in a vacuum. However, this also involves applications from other aspects of different spatial dimensions.

The essence of curvilinear navigation is to split apart a piece of space, and by bending and pulling the entire space with a gravitational field, to achieve acceleration. But the energy and energy density required for the gravitational field provided by this method far exceed the reach of contemporary humanity.

To achieve curvature, we must also "borrow" energy from space.

We know the constancy of the speed of light is determined by the vacuum permeability, the vacuum permittivity, and the gravitational field together. But this is just the manifestation; the deeper reason is that vacuum permeability and vacuum permittivity themselves are fundamental characteristics of three-dimensional space.

However, space is not merely three-dimensional. At the micro level, it curls up with many more dimensions, and utilizing the forces that exist in these curled-up higher dimensions, one can borrow vast amounts of "energy" into the three-dimensional space.

In dimensions, a significant concept is the spacetime binding states, which are also the fundamental reason for the constancy of the speed of light.

Our macroscopic three-dimensional space is constantly in dynamic exchange with the curled-up higher dimensions through spacetime binding states. "Borrowing energy" refers to capturing the characteristics of these exchanges to affect the curvature of space.

To say "borrowing energy" is not quite accurate because our essential purpose is to induce changes in space curvature, propelling space to navigate, so we could directly borrow this space curvature.

Of course, this kind of borrowing is one without return, and the original spacetime binding state of space must inevitably change as well.

The related vacuum permeability, vacuum permittivity, and other fundamental space characteristics are also altered, which are the traces left by curvature navigation, also known as the Dark Domain. The singers call it "slow fog."

Under such circumstances, the once most ironclad law of physics, the constancy of light speed, has been shattered.

Humanity's main focus in studying black holes is to investigate the conversion relationship between the spacetime binding states of spatial dimensions, as high and low dimensions near a black hole almost show the same characteristics.

After nearly 10 years of research, humanity finally clarified the mechanism of this interaction. In other words, what remained was the work of continuous experimentation and validation.

Through the repeated experiments and rigorous validations of many people, finally, in the Crisis Era year 248, The Waterdrop's curvature engine technology was conquered by humanity.

This means that as long as this curvature engine is combined with a strong interaction field generator and covered with a layer of strong interactive material, humanity's The Waterdrop will be completed.

This is an epoch-making moment; it is now that humanity truly meets the Trisolarans eye to eye.

PS: This chapter touches on many concepts that may make readers uncomfortable. The original Trisolaris book never explained the principles of curvature or the principle of changing the speed of light.

In reality, curvature wouldn't change the speed of light, but the energy needed for curvature in reality is also too great.

In order to conform to the original work, this book introduces the probability of dynamic exchange of spacetime binding states in dimensions, making the theories of Trisolaris more self-consistent.