WE MUST GO FASTER THAN LIGHT!

Earth had an expanding interstellar empire; for decades they had been locked away, trapped inside their solar system, barely able to send manned spaceships beyond their closest neighbouring body. All they had sent into space since that point in their spacefaring history were probes and space stations.

But in an impressive period, they had not only gone beyond their solar system, they had started sending expeditions to distant corners of their galaxy, out towards the rim.

To put it in galactic standards, most alien races took galactic exploration slowly; whether you used warp drive thanks to crystals which could provide exotic matter - nature’s own gift to Faster than Light travel, naturally forming wormholes to jump planet to planet, or lightspeed ships which just reached under the speed of light, most powers expanded slowly, one or two systems at a time in a spherical pattern. The humans preferred that approach, and they just sent more ships out expanding into larger spheres.

Vast swathes of the galaxy were opening up, and according to rumours that reached the councils of the empires, republics, and federations of the Milky Way galaxy, some humans had even reached other galaxies.

So many people scoffed at that, although the races who had the power to get to those galaxies were not too quick to dismiss it, although they were sceptical of a comparatively more primitive race achieving the same feat. They had been exploring the galaxy themselves, but at a zootkoor slug’s pace, although the Vantraxi creation of hyperdrive had allowed them all to throw aside naturally occurring wormholes, which many races had adopted as they were easy enough to spot, and even simpler to manipulate.

Okay, some people were lost to them, but statistically speaking, wormholes were the best way to travel outside of hyperdrive, which simply used special crystals to fold space on itself, while similar crystals were capable of harvesting exotic matter from higher dimensions and use it to create warp bubbles, but the humans didn’t use those methods.

Many races who met them didn’t understand how the humans could do it, just travel through space. But that wasn’t all that frightened them about humans.

They were capable of appearing instantly through space. That was why so many races were scared of them. While many races who waged war against each other sought to conquer the heart of their enemy’s empire, it was another thing to achieve since there were ways to detect a warp jump or a wormhole; with the humans, it was virtually impossible.

And then there was the humans’ age. The humans existed in a relatively boring part of the galaxy, in a remote arm of the galactic spiral. Only a few races had bothered to visit them, but they were merely for scientific research and to set up a unit disguised as the legendary Men in Black to prevent humans from discovering alien involvement in their affairs, and to prevent aliens from taking advantage of the primitive humans and give them technology they were not ready for.

For centuries since their discovery when an expedition made a routine pass through their backwater system, located in a boring and unremarkable point in the galaxy, some races had debated if the humans were worth the trouble of invading, or wiping out. The debate was no longer ongoing, as they were an interstellar power, and what a power.

And then the humans began exploring space after discovering a unique Faster Than Light technology of their own. And it was a unique form of space travel, out of the norm for space travellers.