Age of Cosmic Exploration, 1

by Zhttty

  Therefore, even if the planet's atmosphere didn't support human life, it would be fine. The year was already 2030; man had advanced far enough technologically to be able to support extended exposure to alien terrain. In fact, Noah Two had enough space suits to allow construction of a mining rig on the planet. With newfangled technology like solarponics2, Noah Two could technically last for about three to five years mining on the planet. After that, Noah Two would have enough energy supply to conduct more instances of space warp, exponentially increasing their chance at survival.

  No matter how one saw it, this planet was a lifesaver!

  "Central communications, relay the order to dispatch all long-distance surveillance devices. Train them all towards that planet closest to us. I want a reading on it in the next twenty-four hours. I need details like its gravity scale, weather patterns, and everything else that's relevant. Also, broadcast across the ship that we've discovered a planet…" said Yao Yuan, into the intercom. Even though he tried to cover it, everyone could hear the smile in his voice and that inadvertently lifted the spirits of everyone onboard.

  [Could it be that our prayers were heard? Is there someone still looking out for us? If that's true… then please don't abandon us; keep humanity's last flame alive!]

  One day later…

  Jay Wales groggily woke up from his slumber. As he opened his eyes, he was greeted by the light blue color of a tent's underbelly. It took him awhile to register his surrounding, to realize that he was… in space, or rather in a spaceship. From whisperings around him, he found out that after the party had left earth, the warp had been successful and now everyone was waiting for the captain's next series of orders.

  Jay wasn’t a scientist nor a technician. In fact, he had not even attended college. He was furthest from what one would call society's elite, for he was really a professional con artist. The Harvard education and multiple doctorates that he had presented to the military were all fabrications.

  In a twist of fate, the extra security he acquired a few years ago in a con job had saved his life. It had helped him again into conning a ticket, a VIP ticket at that, into Noah Two.

  Jay readied his bed, put on his clothes and left his tent. He walked right into a bustling crowd, and as the crowd milled around him, Jay couldn't help but give a self-deprecating laugh at the fact that he too now belonged to this bunch of elites.

  At that moment, a voice lifted from his side. As Jay turned, he found an eighteen to nineteen-year-old girl addressing him in a continuous stream of sibilant sentences.

  Unfamiliar with any language other than his native English, Jay awkwardly replied, to the girl in her mid-sentence, "Can you speak English?"

  Stopped by the sudden request, the girl paused and stared blankly at Jay before resuming, "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you spoke French. What was your major in university? Never mind, now is not the time for chit chat. What I was saying was, mister, could I bother you to help me fetch a pail of water? I wanted to give my tent a good scrubbing; it has mud splattered all over it from the rain we had before boarding. I wanted to clean it before that, but the time of boarding was suddenly pushed up, so I haven't gotten the opening to do so."

  [This is why I hate foreign languages…]

  Jay smiled in reply. "Of course I am willing to help. But could you tell me, miss, where would I find the nearest washroom? I'll help you bring back the water you need when I come back."

  The girl stared back at Jay again with her pair of watery eyes. While he waited for an answer, he couldn't help but notice that the pompous ways this girl carried herself was quite cute.

  "Oh, you must have missed the dinner yesterday night. During dinner, everyone was given a map of the district they were in. Nearby points of interest were all marked on the map. Could it be that you don't read Chinese? Because the map was all in Chinese and it's not attached with a translation. That probably means that the authority's Chinese, huh… Why don't you wait here for a bit while I go get you the map. I translated the Chinese words on it, but it was to French …"

  [Then what use would I have with it?!…]

  Out of chivalry and respect, Jay merely smiled, but as soon as the girl turned around, he breathed a sigh of frustration.

  Some time later, the girl returned with a piece of paper in her hand. As she walked, she was busy scrawling something on it. When she reached Jay, she handed the paper over and then stretched out her hand.

  Jay accepted the map. Based on visual cues and the girl's hasty translation, which was what she was doing as she walked over, he was able to discern that near their district was a communal bathroom with six shower stalls, four laundry rooms, and further away were two communal canteens, and…

  Right then, Jay noticed the girl's still outstretched hand. Confused by it, he asked, "Don't you need me to help you fetch water? I'm going, or is there anything else you need?"

  The girl tilted her head and replied, in a serious tone, "What I need is my map back. I've helped you with the translation, but it's still my map, I need it back. It's because you don't understand foreign languages that I'm helping you here."

  Jay was silenced by her unassailable logic and thus could only smile dumbly in return…

  [THIS IS WHY I HATE FOREIGN LANGUAGES!]

  There were a total of three water supply depots near them: one for drinkable water and two for water for everyday usage. Based on memorization, Jay soon found the location for one of the depots for everyday water. When he arrived, the line was already hundreds of people long, but because everyone was part of an educated crowd, there were no petty acts like line cutting or the like. Also, helping with maintenance of discipline were six soldiers on duty. With arrangements as such, the line moved rather quickly.

  When it was Jay's turn, he swiped his keycard on the adjacent panel and one of the soldiers handed him a water bucket and said, "Everyone is given only one bucket, so be careful not to lose it. If there's damage, remember to report to the maintenance committee that will do their rounds every week. Everyone is entitled to two pails of water for everyday use each day, so be economic with your usage. Okay, next."

  Just like that, Jay lugged two pails of water back to his camp… This place was a carnival before, but the attractions had all been removed by the logistics committee to make space for an area housing five thousand plus noncommittal tents, and Jay resided in one of them.

  The girl’s tent was next to Jay’s, and she appeared to be alone and without family. When she saw Jay approaching, she leaped up and ran towards him with a huge smile lighting up her face. As she took over the pails of water, Jay suddenly felt a black curtain dropping before his eyes. Without much warning, he collapsed forward…

  He felt a fever burning up within…

  As he slipped in and out of consciousness, Jay could viscerally sense the people, the objects, and finally, the spaceship around him melting away as he got jettisoned into space's enveloping darkness…

  It was crushingly lonely, desolate, and unsettling…

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  Footnotes:

  1.A type of planet, of which our solar system has four, i) the terrestrial planets, eg. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars; ii) gas giants, planets composed mostly of hydrogen and helium, eg. Jupiter and Saturn; iii) ice giants, planets composed mostly of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, eg. Uranus and Neptune; iv) dwarf planet, eg. Pluto.

  A plant cultivation technology using mainly solar energy. The word itself is modeled after hydroponics. It's a combination of the terms, solar for sun, and ponics for plantation.

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  Chapter19 Landing project and… Dangers abound! (1)

  In the afternoon after the space warp, many scientists from different fields were taking their lunch breaks at one of the communal cafeterias. The topic of the day was undoubtedly regarding discoveries on the new planet.

/>   "…from satellite photos we can see that the planet has an atmosphere, but it doesn't appear to support the formation of low and mid cloud layers. This lack of heavy cloud layers coincides with our observation that the planet doesn't have any aquatic terrain. Even its polar ends don't seem to carry ice caps. It would appear this planet is similar to Mars, a desert world," said a distinguished-looking old man with silvery head, shuffling captured photos of the planet between bites of braised beef.

  Frowning, the man beside him interjected, "That's a wild comparison to make. Yes, the planet appears to have a surface that's as dry as Mars', but after the photos are enlarged, you can see that the land's completely covered with what appears to be sand. There is a distinct lack of variations in its crust layers; where are the mountains, highlands, or valleys? There is none because the planet seems to be a sea of sand. That, however, is anomalous with the weather pattern findings since the planet is reported to have an overall mild climate, and there are no reports of it having accelerated wind patterns that would cause severe weathering of its surface into a sea of sand that we're witnessing here."

  A female scientist from the same table who was enjoying a meal of spaghetti agreed, "Yes, that is indeed very weird. From both geological and meteorological perspectives, this is an impossibility because you would need a constant weathering that lasts at least a few hundred billion years to have everything on a planet's surface reduced to sand particles. We don't have an exact number, but the cosmos is definitely much younger than that. Then again, everything we know about basic physics might be incorrect, so our estimate of the cosmos' age may be way off."

  The woman's comments caught the attention of another scientist that was passing her table who stopped and openly jeered at her as he retorted, "Why would our knowledge of basic physics be wrong? They are theories that have been tried and retried for thousands of years! How dare you question the integrity of the school of physics! Could you discredit the validity of gravity? Could you…"

  "Alright, alright, Silewei, let's get to our seats. Save your energy for the academic committee discussions. We still have a meeting to catch later at two," said a fifty-something gentleman who appeared beside Silewei, gently nudging the heated physicist away while looking apologetically at the company present.

  "I apologize for my friend here. He's German, so he tends to get a bit too serious about his passion, which in his case is the study of physics. Again, I apologize."

  After that, he gave a bow and dragged Silewei away, who was still in the middle of his tirade. "Alan, you yourself know how people are looking at physics nowadays. The success of space warping has completely undermined its institution. If this continues, the sanctity of our area of science will…"

  As the pair drifted off, the remaining scientists shared a few stiff chuckles. The fact was that academic debates such as the one that had just taken place was already commonplace even before the actual space warp. The presence of such advanced technology found in Noah Two had unhinged most of the academics and their lifelong beliefs in the unassailable logic of scientific inquiry. Faced with a technology that they couldn't logically dissect, there existed a need to convince others to indirectly convince themselves the validity of their own practices.

  Therefore, arguments such as these were frequent on Noah Two, although the presence of a German accent in these arguments was indeed a bit too common.

  "Let's get back to where we left off," said the female scientist, hoping to salvage the conversation. "Personally, I believe we need to have an expedient landing on the planet. Only then will we be able to tell why the planet presents such a case of anomaly. It will be such a breakthrough. Just imagine the progress we could make in natural science with the data and knowledge we would gather. Honestly, I cannot wait for the day of landing."

  A young scientist beside her chirped, "I'm afraid the authority would not authorize a landing with such haste. They appear to adhere firmly to rules and protocols. Without much more detailed deliberations, I'm doubtful anyone will land on the planet any time soon. Take the example of district segregation; normal civilians were given no access into the Academy, to which even technical workers and army have to apply for entry. Furthermore, have you seen the community regulations released yesterday? That's a lot of rules to be followed."

  "It's better that way!" agreed the older generation of the party in unison, and one of them led in explicating, "The fact that they are strict about rules being kept means that they have a high desire towards protecting and upholding the inviolability of order. Young'un, let me let you in on a secret: if it weren't for their desire and penchant for order, I wouldn't have agreed to come. In a time like ours… what we truly need is order. As long as things don't devolve into chaos, then that's our greatest blessing."

  With that in mind, everyone present started sharing their experiences before they were relocated to the base. The gloom and helplessness seemed like a lifetime ago. It reminded them of how fortunate they were to have found solace on Noah Two. In an overall mood of thankfulness and contentment, lunch ended and the scientists broke off to their own rooms or designated labs to prepare for the meeting later in the day. It was a meeting to discuss discoveries on the planet.

  Time passed and more and more scientists arrived at the conference room. There were meteorologists, geologists, astrophysicists, chemists, and even pathologists. In fact, any member of the Academy that could contribute to the understanding of the planet were invited to attend. In the end, the conference room was filled to the brim with the attendance of about two hundred people.

  As the clock struck two, a small unit of army agents appeared at the entrance, each of their uniform lapels adorned with a black star-shaped pin. These were agents handpicked by Yao Yuan from the one thousand and five hundred army members. Most of them were special ops members before Earth's governmental system collapsed. This troop of about eighty in number was specially built to ensure that the scientists and also Zhang Heng were protected as they were important members of Noah Two who were unable to protect themselves.

  The unit instantly proceeded to secure the perimeter of the conference room. A few minutes later, Yao Yuan and Guang Zhen arrived in an electromobile. Because they were men of military and thus unused to decorum at political gatherings, they went directly past the heads of the various scientific committees that had been waiting for their arrival by the door. Without preamble, Yao Yuan directed them to begin, "Let's get started. We have no time to waste. It is instrumental that we decide today whether it is imperative to proceed with landing. We can't idle in space forever."

  Back on earth, the few committee leaders, due to their high social standing, were familiar faces at political functions. They expected a certain degree of decorous reception and so were understandably astonished by the social affront.

  However, with sensitivity honed from years of maneuvering social functions, they were quick to realize that they weren't dealing with politicians but soldiers, so they hastily followed in step behind Yao Yuan. Among them was a sixty-something gentleman who approached Yao Yuan and stated, "Major, I wish to request for permission to unpack a tenth of the sealed seeds. We are no longer in the solar system, and since it's a completely different interstellar system, we're dealing with a variation in solar source and light fractals. The changes could cause anomalous growth during germination. To ensure and increase productivity, I would like to conduct a growth experiment on seeds from various produce using one of the ship's simulated biomes."

  Before they left Earth, Yao Yuan had targeted numerous biologists, genetic engineers, agriculturalists, as well as sociologists as priority rescue targets. He needed their expertise to discuss life skills in space, and one of those was space farming.

  Noah Two was ten kilometers long and several kilometers wide and was about a hundred meters tall. The ship had six levels, and if each level was packed to the brim, Noah Two could fit 500000 people! However, this was impossible because they needed space for supplies,
and with that number, space warping would be unattainable due to the enormous energy required.

  Therefore, of the six levels, only the first, second, and third were inhabited by normal civilians. The fourth was the Academy and Workshop while the fifth was the Barracks. The fifth floor was also housing classified and specialized rooms like a metal forge, munitions and weaponry centers, storage for valuable resources like seedlings and animal genes, as well as e-book libraries. The top level was biomes with artificial soil.

  On the sixth level, there was a giant skylight. If Noah Two was in the presence of a blazing star, it could allow light exposure. Through air filtration and gravity manipulation devices, it could support biomes of different types and thus the farming of produce to sustain about 100000 people was entirely possible. After the biomes had stabilized, they could even facilitate animal husbandry through genetic reconstruction of animals like cattle, hogs, and sheep. These were all measures that had been put into place after suggestions from these experts.

  The committee leader's request caught Yao Yuan mid-stride. Yao Yuan took a brief minute to consider his answer before resuming the journey to the podium. While walking, he replied, "One tenth of the total is too much. We still have no information on the star of this system; it might cause irreparable mutation or damage to the seeds, so the risk is too high… but food is a big issue. We can't rely on frozen food or rations for a prolonged period… Okay, I'll permit you to use five percent of the seeds, and a biome area of corresponding size."

  The biologist was instantly gladdened by the news and profusely thanked Yao Yuan by promising to provide a constant report on the seeds' condition. Other committee heads saw how one of their colleagues had managed to finagle an advantage, and in the spirit of competition, they too wanted to rush ahead to issue Yao Yuan with their own proposals. However, seeing as the podium was already only a few steps away, they had to return disappointedly to their seats.