Chapter 398: Trail

"Trading stations? Does the Galactic Center even have trading stations?" Peter suddenly became interested and asked curiously.

"Yes, they are peaceful zones dedicated to exchanging technology and resources," Cole nodded.

Whenever this topic came up, Cole felt very pleased with himself, eager to show off his limited knowledge. His expression turned serious.

"The Milky Way is ancient, nearly as old as the universe itself. It even hosted great empires at Tier 6, Tier 7, or even higher... Fortunately, the ideologies of these empires were quite peaceful, which is incredibly lucky for us."

"Actually, the situation differs in every galaxy. I’ve heard that some galaxies are consumed by endless chaos and war..."

"Galaxies capable of giving rise to such advanced interstellar empires are extremely rare, even across entire galaxy clusters. Each one is a truly great civilization."

Hearing the sighs and lamentations in Cole’s tone, Peter’s inherent human pride flared up. He replied with obvious displeasure,

"Watch whose side you’re on. What great civilization? How great could they possibly be? Are they greater than the Federation?"

Hearing Peter’s rebuttal, Cole muttered defensively, "You only say that because you’re ignorant. Yes, that’s right—every empire that passes through the Great Filter possesses its own kind of greatness..."

"However, constrained by the law of entropy and other cosmic principles, an interstellar empire cannot simply expand forever... Alas, I can’t say for sure right now, but there are plenty of corrupt interstellar empires out there."

"If you ever witness a highly advanced civilization, you will feel their greatness firsthand.

Once you interact with them, you realize it’s only natural they climbed to a higher tier than you. You might not agree with them, but you cannot deny their greatness..."

"This kind of greatness isn’t just about military strength. It’s something else... something spiritual and philosophical.

Anyway, I’ve never actually seen it myself, so it’s hard to explain right now..." Cole started rambling as he spoke.

His distant memories were a jumbled mess. He only had vague impressions and couldn’t articulate them clearly.

"What do you mean, spiritual? You’re out of your mind," Peter said, completely unconvinced.

This fat alien in front of him was actually praising alien empires to a human’s face. It felt like he was belittling the Federation. Peter was extremely displeased and immediately started cursing him out.

Immediately, Cole cursed right back, looking highly offended, since that was the behavioral response recorded in his core memory banks anyway.

This kind of bickering was a daily occurrence between the two of them.

After their argument, they each wrote a report and submitted it to the captain’s office.

Soon after, Jason read the reports and became very interested. Taking a break from his busy schedule, he pulled Cole into his office privately to inquire about the details.

"The most powerful empire in the Milky Way..."

"I’m sorry, I forgot... Everything I know is already written down in the report," Cole quickly replied upon hearing Jason’s question.

Cole didn’t dare act presumptuous in front of Jason. He awkwardly scratched his head.

"...I only know that this empire is considered great, but I don’t know the specific details, and I can’t even remember their name. Alas, I’m getting old, and my brain isn’t working well... I’ve lost a lot of data."

"Moreover, these records are from millions of years ago, which is quite a long time. There may have been drastic changes since then... I just can’t remember. I really can’t."

Jason could only sigh, wave his hand, and tell this fat alien, whose claimed age exceeded the combined ages of a million humans to get lost.

And so, time slowly passed. A few stray lasers struck the aerogel shielding around Deep Space, but they didn’t cause any serious damage.

As time went on, the frequency of these hits dropped to almost zero.

Five days later, Deep Space successfully crossed the faster-than-light threshold. It would eventually need to decelerate, adjust its course, and then accelerate all over again after a set period.

Meanwhile, internal repair operations never ceased. It was estimated that fully restoring the ship would take one to two years... Rebuilding the two breached nuclear reactors alone was a massive undertaking.

This long transit period served as the perfect opportunity to test the stasis pods and slowly guide the public into accepting this new technology.

Whether they held positive or negative views, everyone was encouraged to try it out. You could only understand the true value of a new technology after experiencing it firsthand.

In theory, there were two modes of stasis. The first was deep sleep.

This method slowed down a person’s metabolism to roughly 0.7 percent of its normal rate using current technology.

The user would fall into a profound slumber, much like fruit preserved in a refrigerator. Cellular activity continued, but at an incredibly sluggish pace.

This method was ideal for short voyages where the crew needed to wake up every few months or a year or two.

The sensation upon waking was simply like getting up from a very long nap—you might feel a bit hungry, but there were virtually no other side effects.

Of course, if there had been severe side effects, the technology wouldn’t have been deployed in the first place.

The second method was absolute cryopreservation. This completely froze the human body, bringing cellular metabolism to a total halt and allowing the subject to survive for an exceptionally long period.

This absolute freezing method could not be performed in standard stasis pods; it required specialized, heavy-duty cryo-chambers. It was designed for journeys lasting hundreds or even thousands of years.

Either way, it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try.

A deep sleep session could be experienced for just a few hours. However, based on misunderstandings of its scientific principles, some wild rumors began circulating among the public:

This kind of stasis is amazing for insomnia; I sleep exceptionally well, and my brain gets plenty of rest!

Furthermore, rumors claimed that because the method slowed down the body’s metabolism during sleep, it directly... increased one’s lifespan!

"Think about it. If we sleep for eight hours a day in one of these pods, doesn’t that mean we bypass the aging process that would normally occur during those eight hours? In other words... we’d increase our effective lifespan by a third!"

As a result, this widespread conclusion forced the government to launch a massive public debunking campaign.

"...Yes, theoretically, stasis can indeed increase your effective lifespan! It can increase the total amount of time a person remains awake throughout their life."

"However, you cannot calculate it like that. Because cellular metabolism drops so drastically during stasis, an eight-hour session is insufficient to actually rest the body. It is far from enough. Because the metabolism is so slow, you actually need more sleep to properly recover from physical fatigue."

"So please do not treat the stasis pods like ordinary beds. Eight hours of stasis a day will not replace standard sleep!"

"You would need to remain in stasis for over eighty hours to equate to a normal night’s rest... Of course, the biological aging during those eighty hours is negligible, so theoretically, it still increases your functional lifespan by a tiny margin."

A public relations officer explained as they introduced the new stasis equipment.

But even after this explanation, deep down, the public still heavily favored the deep sleep mode.

Lifespan wasn’t really a pressing concern anymore, given that they possessed the Perfect Element as a trump card.

Still, people inherently preferred options that felt "healthier"... even if it meant sleeping for an extraordinarily long time.

Consequently, the deep sleep pods were slowly being accepted by the masses.

The second method—absolute cryopreservation, sounded far too extreme. It was much harder for the public to accept and would require a significantly longer period of education and guidance.

"In short, these hesitations are just the psychological constraints of a primitive society. Stasis pods are incredibly commonplace across the vast majority of advanced interstellar empires."

Truth be told, when Jason first heard about it, even he had been somewhat constrained by that same primitive mindset.

New concepts always took time to gain acceptance. The Federation had only recently stepped onto the interstellar stage.

In many ways, humanity was still quite immature, their collective mindset anchored in the habits of a lower-tier civilization.

However, as time marched forward, people would adapt. They would adapt to their new roles, adapt to the galaxy, and ultimately, adapt to the universe itself!

The core duty of the Federation, of course, was to guide its people smoothly through this psychological transition.