As Jason spoke, he became increasingly animated, his strategic imagination running wild. "Just because *we* can't comprehend the engineering doesn't mean a vastly superior civilization can't achieve it! If they truly found a way to throttle and control the expansion of exotic stellar fragments, it would be an energy source exponentially more powerful than our most advanced fusion reactors!"
It was a terrifying prospect: Star Fragment Energy.
Theoretical calculations showed that if a neutron star fragment the size of a common ant were to spontaneously expand, it would release the total energy output of the Sun in just three to five seconds, dwarfing any known nuclear fusion reaction. (For context, the Sun consumes 4 million tons of mass every single second to maintain its output.)
