Age of Cosmic Exploration, 3

by Zhttty

  Suddenly, Chou Yue, Mao Miao, Yao Yuan in the Hope and Zhang Heng on the surface lifted their heads upwards and exclaimed in unison, "This is bad. Danger incoming!"

  An unknown danger was coming from above them, from way above the planet's surface and even above the sky and atmosphere… it was coming from beyond the planet itself!

  What kind of feeling was this?! This was an unbridled malice, intent on swallowing everything… They felt like they were like meat stranded in a circle of hungry beasts!

  Zhang Heng’s first reaction was to connect to the Hope, Chou Yue went searching for Ren Tao, Mao Miao sought Ning Xue’s comfort, and Yao Yuan communicated with Ying immediately.

  "Ying, what’s happening?! Report immediately! I feel something extremely dangerous coming from beyond the sky! What’s happening?"

  "The planet… It’s being consumed!"

  With shock and terror, Ying’s party stood transfixed, watching the planet’s two moons. One of them had irregular bite marks on its surface. The culprit was a mass of muscles adhering to the moon’s surface, slowly digesting it!

  The scene was captured in Ying’s mind using his seeker’s power.

  His eyes met the stare of the many eyes that covered the meat monster’s massive body. It shifted its gaze away from Ying and to the shuttle behind him… and then to the giant hole beside the shuttle!

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  Chapter145 Life? Spaceship?

  Suffice to say, the dispatch unit’s good mood was entirely ruined by the appearance of the meat monster.

  No one had any leisure left to admire the planet’s beauty, so they rushed through their mission mechanically.

  Their hearts heavy with worry, the dispatch unit returned to the Hope. After the necessary decontamination procedure, the 15-member unit was escorted to a secret meeting where more than 100 attendees were already waiting.

  "…These are the results of our surveillance thus far."

  Yao Yuan explained from the podium. Behind him was a 3-D image of the planet they were on and its two orbiting moons.

  "This planet has 2 moons. To prevent confusion, we shall refer to the first moon as Moon 1. Moon 1 is 1/6 the size of Earth’s moon, and the second moon naturally will be called Moon 2… Then again, rather than a moon, it is more akin to this planet’s binary star, as it is only smaller than this planet by 0.17 percent. It has its own atmosphere, terrain, and ecosystem…

  "I understand this is hard to believe, especially for the scientists in the room, because scientifically speaking, it is statistically improbable to find a life-supporting planet in space. What’s more is that we have stumbled upon a pair of life-supporting binary stars. They orbit around one another, seemingly unaffected by each other’s gravity field. This is indeed a space miracle.

  "However!"

  The mood of the room changed as Yao Yuan’s expression turned grim. "That was not all that we’ve found! Operator, please post the enlarged image of Moon 2!"

  A second later, the original image was swapped out for the zoomed in satellite picture of Moon 2. Using those, a constructed 3-D image of the moon of half a meter in diameter was projected in the middle of room.

  The planet's surface still maintained several traces of greenery, but its sea was nothing more than a giant gulf. All of the water had been dried up, and the planet's surface was so arid that it was cleft with cracks. A giant, meat-like pipe of several tens of thousands in diameter encircled the planet's surface. The branching, muscular pipe appeared to be completely welded into the moon, as if it was sucking it dry from within.

  The moon’s biggest land mass… was covered with an unknown muscular layer, and the pipe appeared to be connected to this layer… "Based on our surveillance data, this muscular layer is about 2,400 meters above sea level and covers ¼ of the moon’s surface. So far, we have no clue as to this… thing’s identity. Is it alive? Is it an alien weapon or a mineral collector like the plant on Planet Sahara? We don’t know."

  After some minor commotion in the audience, a scientist pressed the speech button. He requested, "Captain, can you pull up the heat distribution schematics for this creature?"

  A surprised Yao Yuan answered, "Of course. Operator, you heard the man."

  A military man punched in a few controls and the colors of the 3D image changed. Most of the muscular landmass was in shades of red, orange, and yellow, while the rest of the planet was in blue, signifying its low temperature. Within the muscular landmass, there were 4 notable points that shone with a white light. Those were places of high altitude on the map.

  "…According to the data, these 4 spots have a temperature of more than 10,000 degrees with a possible maximum temperature of 100,000 to 1,000,000 degrees…" Yao Yuan read from the numbers that appeared on screen.

  More commotion ensued until a scientist stood up and announced, "Captain, we suspect that this is a spaceship!"

  Yao Yuan was stunned. He asked hurriedly, "A spaceship? A vehicle to travel through space?"

  The scientist nodded. "Yes. As we can see, this unknown object is collecting resources by absorbing it directly from the moon. The materials are siphoned through the pipes to be used as energy reagents. That is the only plausible explanation to why those 4 spots could reach such a high temperature. Those are energy reactors of some sort. Therefore, this is a spaceship we’re looking at."

  Right then, another scientist pressed the speech button, asking, "But Professor Peter, why couldn’t this be an animal organism? It looks just like one!"

  Peter retorted, "Then where could such an organism come from? The fact that there is only 1 such creature on this moon and it has no competition means that it probably didn’t originate on this moon. Furthermore, from a biological perspective, an organism with this mass and size can’t logically exist!"

  Yao Yuan halted the argument by asking, "Sorry to interrupt, but could everyone slow down for a minute? Can someone explain to me what is this origin planet and illogicality that Professor Peter spoke of?"

  Ivan stepped forth to answer. "Captain, let me explain. First, venturing in space has broken many of biology’s accepted rules. For example, silicon-based and nitrogen-based organisms are no longer stuff of science fiction. However, one biological truth has remained uncontested, and that is the biological need for reproduction.

  "Be it through sexual reproduction, asexual reproduction, mitosis, or even other methods that we’ve not seen before, the aim of reproduction is to ensure an organism’s continuity. For continuity to occur, the offspring can’t be biologically different from its parent. Such is the iron rule of biology. We see this replicated in every organism that we know; microbes breed microbes and rabbits breed rabbits. It is impossible for microbes to breed rabbits, as that is just preposterous. Even if there’s evolution, it occurs across a long time with the bad genes gradually eliminated by natural selection. Organism A couldn’t just become organism B across 1 generation. This should be true for all space organisms, or else there wouldn’t be any civilizations or races."

  Ivan paused to point at the 3-D landmass. "So if we assume that that thing is a living organism… this means that its previous generation would also be about the same size and mass. Could you envision a planet big enough to support such a group of living organisms? Think about it, the planet would have to be at least 10,000,000 times bigger than this planet! For a planet that size, its gravity would simply doom its inhabitants. Furthermore, the planet would implode upon its gravitational pressure, so logically speaking, such a giant organism is impossible."

  Another scientist piped up. "Then couldn’t the organism have mutated? Even though I’m not a biologist, I understand mutation can bring some drastic changes."

  Ivan replied firmly, "You’re right. Under the influence of radiation or other odd circumstances, an organism can undergo dramatic evolutionary changes. That was why Professor Peter has asked for a heat di
stribution schematics of this thing… My fellow colleague, do you think it is possible for an organism to even evolve to a stage where it can innately learn how to fuse hydrogen to create atomic energy? This is beyond pure biological knowledge, for it involves familiarity with the fields of electromagnetism, atomic energy, and metallurgy to name a few. These are all 4th revolution technologies, but this ‘organism’ is using them!"

  The scientist contemplated for a long time before conceding. "You’re right. If that’s the case, this ‘organism’ has to be a spaceship. Perhaps instead of focusing on mechanics and robotics, this alien race has ventured deep into the studies of biology and genetics…"

  Yao Yuan waited for them to finish before adding, "So this thing could be an organic spaceship… This means that its owner has crossed into 4th or even 5th revolution by now. We can’t eclipse any possibilities at this point. However, the bigger question is, will they cross over to this planet?"

  Everyone started arguing amongst themselves again, but no one dared to speak their mind. Regardless of its identity, since it had shown the intention to drain the moon of its resources, then it would be illogical to expect it to leave the other similar planet alone… It would descend upon the planet they were on sooner or later.

  "…Since no one can be sure, let’s find out more first."

  Yao Yuan sighed as he spoke into the communicator. "Fire 10 remote controlled S grade mini AI probes, the ones we salvaged from the junkyard… I want a close-up of this organism within the next 10 minutes!"

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  Chapter146 War!

  The Hope’s military force was highly efficient, so they only had to spend 10 minutes to pull the AI probes from the warehouse. These 10 probes were some of the 50 probes that the Hope had salvaged from the junkyard. Even though mankind could replicate some of the technology used to build the drones, some of the smaller parts required nanotechnology that mankind didn’t have access to. Therefore, the 50 drones were extremely valuable, because the replicated models couldn’t be as powerful as the originals.

  Yao Yuan’s determination could be seen from the fact that he had ordered to deploy 10 drones in one go. 10 drones could literally scan the whole solar system they were in with ease. Yao Yuan, in fact, wanted to deploy all 50 drones. After all, this organic spaceship could very well ruin their prospect of finding a second home planet!

  10 minutes later, the 10 drones lifted into the air through the open hole. The moment the drones reached the surface, they shot into space. Their speed was so fast that they seared burning trails into the atmosphere.

  "Armed with particle accelerators and high-energy electromagnetic batteries, the drones can reach a maximum speed of 1,400 kilometers per second and last for 72 hours. No wonder it’s a technology from the 4th revolution."

  As Yao Yuan spoke, a 3-D image slowly materialized. Details of Moon 2 became clearer as the drones gently descended onto the moon, inching closer and closer to the muscular landmass.

  "…Detection of high-energy reaction! Energy surging towards the 4 suspected reactors. Energy rising, possible anti-air weapons!"

  An urgent voice said through the communicator. Before anyone could respond, the 3-D image blinked out of existence, and barely a beat later, every other surveillance device in the room also started to fail.

  "Are we under attack? What kind of attack? Energy weapon? Laser weapon?"

  Yao Yuan yelled through the communicator. A hurried response came several seconds later. "No, not a weapon attack, but… creator’s particles!"

  When they looked out the window, they saw a bright layer of ions clashing with one another, a physical manifestation of creator’s particle coming into conflict with the Hope’s particle isolator. If this was the Hope prior to the junkyard, all energy would have been lost by now.

  Everyone returned to the meeting room with heavy footsteps. The situation was obvious; regardless of whether it was an organism or an organic spaceship, it represented a level 2 civilization since it had access to both polymerized reactors and the creator’s particle. Based on these observations, it could be concluded that it was not a simple mutation.

  "…As everyone can witness for themselves, all of our surveillance technology has been rendered useless… We have to rely on our eyes to keep watch over this thing… Of course, this is the same for our enemy. The creator’s particle has made surveillance impossible for the both of us."

  Yao Yuan paused to think before adding, "First, I need Ying to lead the dispatch unit… excluding the scientists of course, back to the surface. I need the 9 of you to keep a close eye on the giant organism. I want you to immediately report back to the Hope the second it tries to do anything, be it flying towards us or it dispatching satellites or things of that sort."

  "Mission duration?" Ying stood up to ask.

  "…12 hours," Yao Yuan answered. "You and the female black star guard, Ye Mu, are the only seekers we have, so I’ll have Ol’ Wong bring her to take over after the 12 hours. I’ll be relying on you to keep the surveillance active. Dismissed."

  Ying saluted. "Yes, Sir!" Then he made eye contact with Zhang Heng, Liu Bia, Ebon, and Ren Tao before leading all 4 of them hastily out of the room.

  Yao Yuan then turned to the scientists. "Continue working with the surveillance data we have. Other than that, continue sampling the planet, make sure the excavation continues, and increase the speed if possible. In other words, keep to your stations; we need as much information as we can get… Bo Li, if you can, please stay behind."

  The scientists only got more worried after witnessing the meat muscle creature sucking the moon dry. Even without Yao Yuan’s urging, they wished to return to their labs to find out more about this unknown organism!

  Finally, only Yao Yuan, Bo Li, and a few technical workers were left in the room. Yao Yuan took the opportunity to ask, "Bo Li, you’re the designer and creator of our space combat jet and the space troopers’ equipment. I wish to ask… Do you think our current equipment is enough to defend the Hope if a war ensues on this planet?"

  A slight panic entered Bo Li’s eye as she answered, "You really think the monster will descend on this planet? If such a big creature were to fall from space, the only way the Hope could defend itself would be by warping. I don’t think an atomic bomb or the Supermagnetic Planet Annihilating Rail-Cannon will be of any use. Yes, they could harm parts of the creature, but due to its great size, the majority of it will remain… unless we manage to destroy ‘that’ thing."

  "Destroy ‘that’ thing huh?" Yao Yuan smiled ruefully. "If only we had the technology. Regardless, temporarily, at least for the next 5 years… the creature won’t come to this planet. Call it the Diviner’s intuition, but realistically speaking, it won’t be attacking so soon because one, it hasn’t completely drained the moon yet, and two, it has to be wary of us suddenly appearing in this planet’s underground.

  "Therefore, it’s my speculation that it’ll send out small crafts or landing crew to test the waters. However, since the creature is already in the 4th revolution, and because of its size, we have to suspect that it’ll have a larger population than us… Since we can’t prevail in terms of number… I hope we’ll at least have the upper hand in terms of quality. That’s why I asked you those questions."

  "In terms of quality, I don’t think we should have anything to worry about. Even though our space combat jet is only the result of the initial stage of 4th revolution and thus pales in comparison to jets that will arise in later revolutions, it won’t be completely overwhelmed. It won’t be a situation where we’re the prehistoric mankind fighting a jet using stone axes," Bo Li offered.

  "Furthermore, I think you’ve missed out on an important detail."

  Yao Yuan was stumped. "What detail?"

  Bo Li replied, "The Homo Evolutis, obviously. Our number of Homo Evolutis is higher than the junkyard alien civilization, so they had to re
ly on normal citizens to pilot their warships. Even though the warships had great power, they went unused because of their pilots. Therefore, I can assure you that in terms of quality, as long as we’re not seriously outnumbered, we’ll be fine. A Homo Evolutis-piloted combat jet could easily take on 10 normally-piloted warships! That much is certain!"

  Yao Yuan relaxed only slightly because Bo Li had raised an important point… What if they are seriously outnumbered?

  "No matter what, we must try our best to protect this planet! It’ll be impossible to locate another planet that has greenery and a blue sea and sky, a planet that could give us hope! How can we allow it to be consumed by an alien monster?! We will never let that happen! If the worst happens, we’ll just reveal our trump card!"

  Ying led the 9 member unit up to the surface. They descended the shuttle but knew not to wander 10 meters away from it, because that was the safe zone… the safe zone from the interference of the creator’s particle. Even though each of their spacesuits was outfitted with an individual isolator, operating those required a great amount of energy, so they shouldn’t be used unless truly necessary.

  The time was almost dusk. Moon 2 hung low in the sky, its surface pockmarked with craters and cracks. Like a malign growth, a mass of muscles pulsated on its surface.

  "So ugly and disgusting," Ying said snidely.

  "This planet shall be mankind’s second home planet. We will not allow you to contaminate it!"

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  Chapter147 Trump Card

  It had been 3 days and 3 nights since the creator’s particle was activated.

  Within these 3 days, the Hope’s public went on with their lives like nothing had happened. They reported to work every morning, gossiped with one another during breaks, and returned home to have dinner with their family after work. Their main topic of conversation was, of course, the Earth-like planet, the planet that they could one day call home.