Chapter 166 - 165: Oriental Star

True interstellar travel was nothing like Li Qingsong’s previous voyage from Ceres to Jupiter.

The two were simply incomparable. It was like comparing a walk to a neighbor’s house during the age of Earth with taking a spacecraft to Mars—and even that was an understatement.

Even Human Civilization at its peak had never accomplished such a feat. And now, Li Qingsong was going to complete this grand voyage all on his own.

Li Qingsong had now settled on his destination.

Oriental Star.

That’s right—the very same Oriental Star that held such an important place in Human culture.

The real Oriental Star is a massive star with about 1.8 times the mass of the Sun. Its radius is approximately 1.63 times the Sun’s, its luminosity is ten times greater, and its surface temperature is as high as 7,000 degrees Celsius.

Its distance from the Sun is about 16.8 light-years. In kilometers, that’s approximately 158 trillion kilometers—over ten thousand times the distance from Ceres to Jupiter.

Li Qingsong had chosen the Oriental Star as his destination because his observations confirmed the presence of a massive gas giant and two rocky planets in that system.

Additionally, there was a massive debris disk and an asteroid belt, which were highly likely to contain many dwarf planets.

The gas giant could be a source of deuterium fuel, while the rocky planets could supply various mineral resources. This meant the Oriental Star system provided the basic requirements for him to rapidly gather all necessary materials.

There was another reason as well. The Oriental Star was located in a direction leading away from the Gliese 625 Star System. Fleeing there would put even more distance between him and the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity, reducing the probability of being discovered.

Furthermore, the distance to the Oriental Star was ideal—not too close, yet not too far. It was perfect for Li Qingsong’s first trial run at interstellar travel.

Of course, the Oriental Star was just a stopover for Li Qingsong. After gathering the necessary resources there as quickly as possible, he would resume his interstellar journey and continue until he was completely free from the threat of the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity.

With the destination set, massive construction projects began.

This time, Li Qingsong’s objective was clear.

Build ships. Build big ships. Build massive ships capable of interstellar travel!

The original Space-Air Carriers were no longer nearly enough. In fact, from Li Qingsong’s perspective, even the Blutuk model of Space-Air Carrier was too small.

The Blutuk Civilization had limited industrial capabilities. During their migration, they could only carry the bare minimum of resources and were unable to conduct any scientific research.

’But I’m different!’

’Forget about large-scale experiments and studies during the voyage, but I should at least be able to conduct research that consumes fewer resources, right?’

The idea of conducting no scientific research at all, simply wasting all that time in transit, was unacceptable to Li Qingsong.

And so, Li Qingsong designed a brand-new, super-giant Space-Air Carrier.

The design of this Space-Air Carrier was based on one of his previous models, only far more complex and immense.

Overall, it had a rectangular, lattice-like structure. Each face was comprised of 50 thick longitudinal beams that not only supported the entire frame but also served as internal corridors with life support.

Intersecting the 50 longitudinal beams were 50 latitudinal beams. This crisscrossing grid of longitudinal and latitudinal beams created 2,500 small, square sections, like individual bays in a massive cage.

But that was just a single layer. Li Qingsong designed this Space-Air Carrier to have ten such layers, bringing the total number of internal "bays" to 25,000.

Its length and width reached 6 kilometers, while its height was 600 meters. A rough calculation put its internal volume at approximately 18 cubic kilometers.

These individual bays could house various ships like warships, passenger vessels, and industrial craft. They could also hold cargo containers and life-support pods, or be fitted with living quarters, hibernation rooms, factory modules, production lines, and more, making them incredibly versatile.

It was equipped with a total of 5,000 high-speed ion thrusters. In addition to the stern, they were distributed all over the ship. Powering these thrusters were 100 large nuclear fusion reactors, which were also spread throughout the vessel.

This vast array of reactors and thrusters allowed it to carry a maximum mass of 300 million tons through space, while also allowing it to easily change its orientation and direction mid-flight.

And of these massive Space-Air Carriers, Li Qingsong planned to build 500!

In addition to the crucial Space-Air Carriers, Li Qingsong also planned to build more than 1,000 heavy transport ships, each with a fully-loaded mass of 20 million tons.

These heavy transports would supplement the fleet’s cargo capacity, and being smaller than the Space-Air Carriers, they were also more maneuverable.

The next major construction priority was warships.

After assimilating the Blutuk Civilization’s technology, Li Qingsong’s own warship technology had also advanced by leaps and bounds. As such, it was necessary to completely overhaul his warship systems.

’This cosmos is not a peaceful place.’ Li Qingsong had no intention of encountering an enemy only to find himself without warships to command.

The scale of this new warship construction would dwarf Li Qingsong’s current fleet.

Even of the large Earth-class Warships, Li Qingsong planned to build 1,000.

Next, 50,000 Venus-class Warships. And for the smallest type, the Mercury-class Warship, 600,000!

In addition, there would be over 5 million Unmanned Warships, over 10,000 Interstellar Cannon Platforms, over 10 million Various Satellites, as well as Interstellar Missiles, Interstellar Mines, and so on.

The Mercury-class Warships alone would require ten Space-Air Carriers just to transport them.

Factoring in the Venus-class and Earth-class ships, the various unmanned combat platforms, and the supplies and fuel needed to sustain these forces, a full 100 Space-Air Carriers would be required!

Building 100 super-giant Space-Air Carriers dedicated solely to transporting warships and combat supplies was a concept beyond the imagination of the Blutuk People.

Molomans was astounded by this plan and even earnestly advised Li Qingsong against it, claiming it was an excessive waste of transport capacity.

Li Qingsong scoffed at the suggestion.

’Have you forgotten how your Blutuk Civilization was defeated? Wasn’t one of the main reasons your lack of supplies during long-distance interstellar travel?’

’How could I possibly repeat the same mistakes you made?’

For this interstellar expedition, Li Qingsong planned to bring a total of five billion Clones.

Four billion of these Clones would be kept in long-term hibernation, while the remaining one billion would remain conscious at all times.

Since there would be fewer industrial production tasks during the voyage, Li Qingsong planned to assign at least eight hundred million of the one billion conscious Clones to scientific research that consumed minimal resources.