Chapter 80: Expeditions and Start Of Phantom Menace ( Part 2)

Everyone stood up together and didn't speak. Dr. Anderson stepped forward and said, " Greetings, Your Majesty!! It's an honour to meet you. With your permission, I would like to present you with the result of our hard work."

Alexander said, " Dr. Sinha personally praised you, Dr. Anderson. I am waiting for you to impress me."

Dr. Anderson lead Alexander to the raised platform with his team following at a distance.

Dr. ANDERSON'S P.OV. :

It took all my willpower to talk to his majesty. The Emperor gives of a pressure which suppresses us at a fundamental level. I don't think that he himself is aware of the pressure he gives off. I led the Emperor to the platform and turned to look at the Emperor.

GERNERAL P.O.V.:

Dr. Anderson reached the podium and turned to look at Alexander. Dr. Anderson spoke up, " Your Highness!!! You had asked us to build a droid which would be able to map out the Deep Core of the Star Wars galaxy. The main problem our usually employed recon droids encountered while exploring the deep core was the unexpected spacial tears which transported our droids litreally anywhere in the deep core. Quite a few of our droids ended up too close to the super blackhole of this galaxy and got destroyed. The quantum metal is not able to withstand the pull and pressure of the blackhole of such magnitude for more than 3 minutes. Moreover, the massive amount of antimatter present around the blackhole due to the collapsing stars also facilitates the destruction of our droids."

Alexander nodded and said, " That's why I asked for a new generation of recon droids to be developed by you people. The amount of habitable planets in deep core is at least in hundreds along with various other valuable resources. You should know the last recon drive send an image of a massive inhabitable planet whose crust was completely made of Phrik. I had ordered the swift exploration of deep core after that."

Dr. Anderson let out a smile and said, " Yes, Your Majesty!!! That image had caused quite a commotion in the Resources department under Ms. Anna. Now, I with the help of my team have developed a new droid which we have named 'HSR DROID', which means Hazardous Situations Recon Droid.....Shall I begin my presentation?" Alexander just nodded and looked towards the platform in interest.

Dr. Anderson waved his hand and vanished the cover which hid the droid from view. The cover vanished to reveal a giant black ball which had a red spot at it's center and from that red center four golden lines on each side originated and moved along the radius of the ball and vanished behind. Alexander thought, " It looks like an egyptian bracelet fused on a round black stone but let's see what Dr. Anderson had cooked up?"

Dr. Anderson said with a prideful voice, " I know that this droid doesn't follow the conventional design but I can assure you, Your Majesty that it is better than the recon droids we have now. The droid has a diameter of 80 meters and the red center, you are seeing, is the end of the drive system. The hyperdrive don't work properly in the deep core so I with the help of my teammate William have developed a short-jump drive which will make the droid capable of making short jumps through the hyperspace which will minimize the exposure to the spatial tears and any other surprises. The jumps made are short but fast. The droid is capable of moving 10 lightyears per second for 30 seconds and is capable of making 7 such fast jumps. After which, the drive would shutdown for recharge and the auxiliary propulsion nodes would become active. The golden lines which you see are the auxiliary nodes. The droid is in deactivated mode so it looks like this. The auxiliary nodes were developed to help the droid in navigating the areas of deep core which are filled with spatial anomalies."

Alexander spoke up, " The main problem we have aside from spatial anomalies is the communication. The various another anomalies make it difficult for the data to be transmitted back to the base camp. What's your answer to this?"

Dr. Anderson replied, " Your Majesty, we took inspiration from the radio towers and black box used on Earth to develop two new droids. We call them the CED and IRD, which mean Communication Enhancer Droid and Information Relay Droid. The HSR is fitted with 5 CEDs. The communication enhancer droid enhances the transmitting radius of the HSR. The HSR is programmed to seed the enhancer droids on every 10th habitable planet it finds or at distance of 60 light years. The enhance droid is capable of transmitting the data to a distance of 100 light years but for safety reasons we recommend the use of the CED only up to 60 light years. This limits the area of scanning to 300 light years for each HSR droid but we have tried to curb this disadvantage with extremely powerful scanners and sensors which would enable the HSR to scan each and every celestial body it encounters to search for resources even when moving through hyperspace. The CQC fitted in the HSR makes it capable of giving an estimate of resources present on the scanned celestial body. The data of every scanned body is immediately transferred to CED which transmits it back to the base camp without delay. The CED waits for 5 minutes if there is no confirmation from the base camp, it again transmits the data. The data is transmitted for only three times and if no confirmation is given, the HSR deploys the IRD which transports the data contained in drives back to the base camp by the route mapped out by the HSR."

Alexander interrupted, " We are capable of producing hundreds of droids in a few minutes so short range is not an issue. Now, tell me about the other auxiliary droid."

Dr. Anderson nodded and said, " The IRD is developed by us in order to retrieve the left over data in case the HSR get destroyed. Everything the HSR records is stored in the drives of IRD. As I have already explained before, Your Highness, the IRD carries the drives back to the base camp in case of no communication. The IRD also acts as a farewell gift from HSR. Whenever the scanners of HSR register a threat to it's existence or it's mission, the IRD is deployed and it makes it way to the base camp even if the HSR is not harmed in anyway. We have made so because anomalies appear in the deep core without any prior warnings. There are 10 IRDs in each HSR. The CED has a diameter of 4 meters while the IRD has a diameter of 2 meters."

Alexander, " Activate the droid and also, are there any defensive and attacking systems on this droid?"

Dr. Anderson took out a remote from his pocket and pressed a green button. The droid let out a light rumbling sound and lifted up from the ground by the use of repulsors. The droid stared changing it's shape. The region below the red center elongated to form a jaw like shape while the upper region compacted which made the nodes stand out like a golden ring. The nodes also semi-detached themselves and shifted to form small wing like structures on either side of the droid. Alexander paid close attention to the Droid and saw that it now looked like a black gladiator helmet with two golden plumps on the sides instead of one at the top. The red center now looked like an eye. Alexander clapped in appreciation.

Dr. Anderson smiled in pride and said, " The droid is inspired by the image of a red eyed cyclops wearing a black Hermes' helm. The helm represents it's swiftness while the eye represents the monstrous attacking and defending capabilities of the droid. The droid is made up of magically enhanced quantum metal."

Dr. Anderson pressed another button and the lower region shifted to form a wedge in the middle and a purple light flowed out of the wedge.

Dr. Anderson continued, " The purple light is the glow from the anti-matter guns lining the wedge. The guns are capable of destroying small asteroids and the small anti-matter cannon placed on the head is capable of destroying large asteroids. The cannon becomes active only when the droid is fully powered up so we will not be able to see it. The cannon is fixed but the nodes are capable of 360 degree movement.....Also, Your Highness, do you see the small purple rings surrounding the area where the nodes are attached to the main body?.....These small rings are miniature anti-matter propulsion systems which will allow the droid to move left and right respectively. Combining this with the nodes, the droid is capable of moving in any direction. The droid is also equipped with powerful shields which would help it in withstanding the debris storm which start up unexpectedly in the deep core. Well!! The magically enhanced quantum metal is completely imperious to the debris but there are chances of it diverting from its course due to collisions, hence the shield so that it could punch through the debris storms."

Dr. Anderson finished his presentation and looked towards Alexander for his response. Alexander spoke up, " Please, give the blueprints to the Droid Factories for production. Also, you will be awarded 10 Billion Fortis Coins as a reward and your teammates will be given 1 Billion Fortis Coins each. If you feel that any of your teammates deserve to be awarded less or more, you will have to give your opinion in regards to this under the truth serum. A panel will judge the validity of your thinking. I am leaving." Alexander simply shifted away without giving anyone any chance to say something.

Alexander had arrived when Dr. Anderson was starting his talk with his teammates. He had heard their talk and Bill's willingness to throw Dr. Anderson under the bus if things go south. That's why, he had given Dr. Anderson the option of decreasing the reward money. Alexander wanted to test Dr. Anderson as Dr. Sinha had mentioned him as one of his possible successors. Alexander also wanted to deal with the over dependence of scientists on the SQC so he ordered the SQC to act like only a guide for the new scientists. The SQC from now on, will only help the senior scientists in difficult calculations till the CQCs are fully integrated in every machinery of the kingdom. After that, the SQC will not help anyone and will be put on standby mode. Only when a new world is conquered, the SQC will be booted up so that the new knowledge could be integrated swiftly. As the SQC was semi-sentinent, Alexander let him connect to the internet and also, was allowed to contact Anna at any time if he has some queries as Alexander would be often in different worlds.

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