Deep Space Wandering Fleet-Chapter 151 - 152: The Handover of Power
Chapter 151 -152: The Handover of Power
The predictive power of New Civilization History…
Zhang Yuan’s heart skipped a beat, and he quickly understood what Senior Brother Zhao meant, even feeling a vague sense of being manipulated.
It took a long while before he let out a dejected sigh, “So, the highest leader must absolutely obey the calculations, and cannot have too much self-interest, right?”
“Self-interest? There’s no need to worry too much about that,” Senior Brother Zhao smiled, “You should know that often there’s more than one person doing the calculations, and there might be some discrepancies among them, but the overall objective remains the same.”
“On the spaceship Earth Era, our entire New Civilization School’s hidden strength is actually quite formidable. There are many silent forces that did not make their voice heard at the assembly because there was no such need… Our goal isn’t something that can be achieved in a year or two, but takes millennia!”
Zhang Yuan stopped talking, focusing instead on the repairs in his hands.
After around three hours, he finally completed the work and, picking up his tools, felt a touch of fatigue.
“I found three minor issues and resolved them.”
“Things are fine on my end. No big problems.”
Senior Brother Zhao suddenly suggested, “Let’s go out and look at the stars over there.”
“The nuclear engine’s exhaust vent?” Zhang Yuan licked his lips, having heard of this very stimulating and visually striking observation spot before.
“Just take it as a check-up, it should be fine.”
“Sure!” Zhang Yuan agreed enthusiastically.
The two of them cautiously entered a large, circular duct and walked more than three hundred meters. Ahead lay the nuclear engine’s ion exhaust port, with visible traces where metal had been scorched.
From the forefront, a dazzling, pristine starry sky could be seen.
Zhang Yuan tied the rope built into his space suit to a safety bolt nearby and quietly squatted at the vent. The diameter of this vent exceeded five meters and was just one of over a dozen engines onboard the Earth Era, indicating the sheer size and grandeur of the spaceship.
Yet, such a massive spaceship is just a grain in the ocean. It traveled at one-thousandth the speed of light, moving through the vast expanse of the universe as imperceptibly as a snail’s crawl, with absolutely no sensation of motion.
Senior Brother Zhao sat by his side, just as silently lost in thought, without a word.
The starry sky here was even purer than at the Observatory; there was nothing to obstruct the view.
One star after another dotted the pitch-black curtain above, as if each were a sacred and solemn mathematical structure.
With a soft sigh, looking into the distance, a spirit immersed…
At that moment, Zhang Yuan seemed to experience a sudden enlightenment: all things are constantly in motion, from atoms to stars, from individuals to civilizations. These ceaseless movements were governed by the laws of nature, with never an exception.
Only the laws that govern movement are still, everlasting.
Zhang Yuan suddenly felt an urge to leap out of the exhaust vent and embrace this eternal constancy.
A “click” sounded in his headset, as Senior Brother Zhao turned on the light on his space suit, pulling him back to reality.
“Old Zhang, our teacher, Academician Ding, might not live to see the future Sun.”
“Why?” Zhang Yuan tensed up instantly.
Senior Brother Zhao seemed to detect his confusion, shook his head, and said, “You know, the Old Captain’s health isn’t good, and the medical examination isn’t looking good… He doesn’t wish to extend his life through hibernation, so after waking up this time, he won’t hibernate again.”
“The next Captain will be Professor Lin Fangzheng from the Scientific Council, who also proposed the Public Welfare System. Have you met him?”
Zhang Yuan nodded; he was a very gentle and erudite middle-aged man.
“The one after should be Academician Ding. Actually, there aren’t that many candidates for Captain. They must have a technical background and understand some management.”
“And then it’s our generation… There are still two thousand years to go in our journey!”
The starlight was brilliant, and Zhang Yuan understood the meaning behind Senior Brother Zhao’s words.
Humans are fragile creatures, and some will inevitably perish in this vast starry sea…
He sat in silence, lost in thought for a while.
Strangely enough, a thousand years had passed in a hazy blur, as if nothing had changed.
Gazing at the starry sky, he even experienced a peculiar illusion.
The era seemed to be the same one they had originally known; he had just said goodbye to Han Ziyue, promising to remember her existence in the future…
He had just solved the turbulence problem using differentiable networks.
He had just been receiving congratulations from his peers.
He had just arrived at Jupiter’s moon…
And then all of a sudden, everything was over. Even Earth Civilization had fallen into the trap of mediocrity.
It was as if he had traveled through time.
Yet, time had indeed brought about many changes. The small gift given by Han Ziyue, the specimen of the lily flower, was already withering away, and even the sketch on it was starting to blur.
Many people, including the Old Captain, were inevitably aging fast, and the spaceship was inevitably depreciating.
If one were to run a finger along the spaceship’s surface, they would find that the once smooth exterior had become quite rough, as if it had been sanded down.
Although space is vast and empty, there are still a small quantity of particles. It was these few particles that, over a thousand years, relentlessly bombarded the spacecraft, wearing its exterior to its current state.
Senior Brother Zhao smiled and said, “Alright, no need for melancholy. The cycle of life is a cosmic truth. Death is the ultimate focus.”
“Going forward, everyone’s duties will become more burdensome. Who knows when it’ll be my turn to become Captain.”
“However, the sudden increase in psychological pressure makes it somewhat hard to adapt.”
Senior Brother Zhao rambled on incoherently for a bit. He seemed to realize his own discomposure and suddenly turned his head, saying, “You also need to start preparing mentally, to take on more responsibilities. Hmm… I should be able to see the future Sun, so I suppose I’m lucky.”
“Me?” Zhang Yuan was startled: “I’m only at a Level 16 position.”
“How many are there as young as you at Level 16? You’re already in the upper-middle tier of the pyramid.”
“And, you cast the affirmative vote, didn’t you?”
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Zhang Yuan nodded.
“How many truly abide by calculations?”
“It’s okay; you have two thousand years of preparation time to learn more. Our task might become heavier, responsible for the restart of a civilization… Who knows, maybe we’ll encounter the original inhabitants of Gliese 581?”
After saying this, Senior Brother Zhao slowly retracted the rope.
“Original inhabitants, aliens?”
Zhang Yuan recalled a news article he had once read: Earth Civilization’s scientists had penetrated hundreds of kilometers of ice on the surface of Jupiter’s moon.
Beneath the thick layer of ice, humans discovered the presence of complex organic substances.
These complex organics were completely different from those on Earth. They could stably exist under extremely high pressure environments, whereas they struggled to survive for long in low pressure environments.
Scientists couldn’t even define whether they were merely proteins or truly biological entities…
Thus, the origin of life might not be as complex and difficult as imagined.
