Published at 14th of April 2026 11:40 pm

Chapter 4038 A Willing Compromise

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In the past six years, the Panamic Space Organization had planned interstellar launches to a range of star systems in the interstellar neighborhood of Sol. Over the past six years, they had managed to accrue the needed negatron matter to deploy spaceships an extraordinary distance away from Sol to entirely new worlds in the new frontier to expand the reach of their civilization.

In the past, it had simply been a logical next step to seek greater energy and greater resources, but now it was a matter of survival. Every civilization in Gaia had fully understood that expanding to the stars was a necessary step to increase the net combat power of Gaian Civilization. Especially when they had been made aware of the threats that existed out there in the universe.

It was one of the reasons that Rui had wanted to handle the problem of the alien virus within Gaia sooner rather than later, before they took their step into interstellar space. Project Interstellar made use of everything that the Panama Continent had to offer, including the esoteric technology native to Panama, along with the conventional matter that they had inherited from the true world and had integrated into their technology thanks to the leading efforts of his brother.

"You've done a great job over the past few years, Julian."

Rui's words were sincere. Julian smiled at Rui, taking a sip of his tea while Rui sat opposite him in his office. "It has been hard work. Integrating esoteric and conventional technology is not easy when the underlying philosophies of the technologies are so different."

"Well, you managed to pull it off," Rui remarked. "It helped us in the battles against the alien forces that sought to destroy us."

Julian's expression grew complicated at those words. His tendency to grow completely absorbed and drowned in his work was unparalleled, and it made him miss some of the biggest events going on in the world. He had only learned that they had been invaded by aliens two weeks after it had happened. And subsequently, he had learned that Rui had broken through to Transcendence later as well.

The atmosphere within human civilization had changed so much in the span of just one month that Julian found it hard to even believe it. The notion of a powerful interstellar alien civilization having attacked them, followed by a tide of alien monsters, made it even harder to believe.

Yet, the evidence was indisputable.

"I might consider studying laminar alien technology next," Julian remarked, taking another sip of his tea. "I think I have absorbed everything that I can from human civilization and have integrated it into our technological systems to the best of my ability. Focusing more on this field will only lead to more diminishing returns, and I don't want that to happen."

Rui nodded with a serious expression. "That would be ideal. We are likely going to engage in trade where we might acquire pieces of their technology, and I would like them reverse-engineered. I want to understand exactly how their technology is so much more powerful than ours."

Julian stirred at those words. "I'm sure quality has something to do with it, but more than quality, I would imagine, probably the most important part of why they are so powerful is the scale of their technology, not just their quality. The more energy and matter you have access to, the higher the upper ceiling of how powerful your technology can get. We have very stringent limitations, in comparison to them, about how much power we can leverage."

"I agree, and that is indeed the problem," Rui heaved a deep breath. "That is why I have tripled the funding of the Panamic Space Organization to help us get to their solar systems and help us establish resource extraction systems, whether it is energy from their stars or critical rare earths, minerals, and metals. We need to drastically increase the scope of our technological output.

Julian nodded with a serious expression. "That would be prudent. However, perhaps the most important question is whether you merely intend to extract from other planets or settle upon them."

"In the past, I would have been inclined to focus more on extraction than settlements," Rui remarked, taking a sip of his own cup of tea. "But now, I'm interested in going a step further and completely terraform entire planets to suit us, and then spread our civilization across it."

Julian understood exactly why Rui was interested in spreading Gaian Civilization to other worlds. "You want to create contingencies for if anything ever happens to Gaia."

Rui nodded seriously. "I'm confident of protecting Gaia, but, well, it doesn't hurt to have contingencies."

If Gaia were ever, god forbid, destroyed by some external hostile entity, then he wanted to be able to send his daughter to another world where she could still continue to live, not just live on a little spaceship.

Julian's expression grew ambivalent. "If I'm to believe that the cosmos is filled with alien life. Then expanding would necessarily mean coming into contact with other life, potentially alien civilization, correct?"

Rui nodded. "That seems certain, given everything we have experienced."

"And what if you run into other civilizations?" Julian asked with a critical expression. "Are you going to engulf our civilization in war?"

Rui shook his head. "It doesn't have to naturally lead to war. And I would rather avoid needless conflict. In most cases, I think we can establish a peaceful relationship."

"Don't be too certain, Rui," Julian warned. "Our civilization does not have a peaceful. Past. If you seek to settle on a planet that already bears life, then it will come at the cost of all native life."

Rui stirred at those words, directing a knowing gaze at his brother. "Ideally, we could start afresh with a barren world in the Goldilocks zone. However, if there truly does come a moment where our circumstances put us at odds with other alien life that may or may not exist out there. Then…"

Rui shrugged. "So be it. I am the Emperor of Kandria, the Supreme Commander of the Panamic Alliance, and the Chancellor of Gaia. My duty is to protect my civilization, no matter what the price is. You can rest assured that I will do everything I can to avoid conflict, but if there's no choice, then I won't hesitate."

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