Chapter 701 - 680: The Old Ginger is Still Spicy_2

The propagation speed of gravitational waves remains the speed of light; if the receiving end is too far away, it is essentially meaningless. A mere 100 Earth years could bring about a revolutionary change to a civilization in the scientific era. If aliens were to take action, the receiving end should not be set too far away.

These four conjectures primarily serve to tell others that there is no need to worry about an alien civilization suddenly appearing within the next 10 years; humanity still has plenty of time to make decisions.

Technically, there are established procedures for the exploration of Mars and Titan. It’s simply a matter of sooner or later; the base can turn those places upside down in the coming years.

The trouble lies in dealing with the situations on Earth.

If astronauts are sent to dig extensively on Mars, there’s a high probability that the existence of an alien civilization will become public knowledge.

Even with the consideration of a joint effort to contain the information, at the very least, America and the European Space Agency will receive the information unless their detectors there are destroyed.

This is probably what will happen in two or three years. In addition, it means informing the domestic front that if exposure is inevitable, preparation needs to start early.

But the question remains... how to explain the existence of the base?

Intuition told Lin Ju that the so-called ’System’ probably wasn’t as simple as a cliché sidekick in a wish-fulfillment story, its every move was a lure. Lin Ju and the base were merely tools for it to achieve its goals. Disclosing it directly was likely not a good option.

After Lin Ju said "Going public is not a good thing," Ye Changsi essentially understood his meaning.

At this stage, continuing to conceal the existence of an alien civilization was neither necessary nor possible.

The only thing to consider was the role the base would play in the aftermath.

"We need a new image, one that is positive and harmless, minimizing our presence to the greatest extent."

Xie Liaofu was the first to speak out, but it did not evoke responses from the others; they were all deep in thought instead.

"There’s another possibility,"

Xiao Okada’s eyes widened as he introduced a bold conjecture:

"The binding force of the base’s contract... seems very strong. As long as we get someone influential enough to sign it, it can spread exponentially, and in the end..."

He didn’t finish his sentence, but it was clear everyone understood his implication.

An employment contract was definitely the simplest and crudest solution. Under such an extreme method, there was even a possibility of virus-like control over the world, a prospect that had always been conceivable.

Then, including Lin Ju, everyone shook their heads in silence. Although the thoughts of those currently constrained seemed entirely free, to actually do such a thing... bluntly put, it would be making all of humanity slaves to the ’System’.

This was a consensus that had existed subconsciously for a while now, and Xiao Okada’s suggestion was left without further comment.

After a long while, with his eyes tightly closed, Ye Changsi suddenly opened them and declared:

"Our existence is unnatural, a fact that cannot be changed, so we need an unnatural but plausible reason. This just needs to be confined to the preexisting unnatural factors.

In fact, we are also an alien civilization, and we know what kind of alien civilization it is.

If the anomalies of the base are attributed to aliens, then let’s attribute them to the aliens of Mars or Titan. That would be very convincing, and we could produce quite substantial evidence."

The base had indeed encountered countless ’alien civilizations,’ and a large portion of their technology had been acquired from other potential ’worldlines,’ which to some extent corroborated the feasibility of the parallel universe theory.

In various fragmented descriptions of other worldlines, the base had witnessed diverse and strange human civilizations, which could actually be called alien civilizations. If certain characteristics from each were integrated together, it would produce an unquestionable and thoroughly credible extraterrestrial civilization.

Real ’evidence’ would also be easy to produce, like Type C172 alpha metal hydride batteries or the 14nm process ternary silicon carbide chips, and so on.

Physical evidence coupled with the narrative can naturally concoct a nearly perfect backstory. Although bizarre, aren’t alien civilizations already placed on Mars?

Ye Changsi verbally outlined a very rough idea, but it made all those present sense its tremendous viability.

After all, alien civilizations truly exist in this worldline and are right at the edge of the Solar System. No matter how it’s put, this is easier to accept than the base’s enigmatic origins.

Lin Ju thought rapidly, then looked toward the CSR Group, who were also deep in thought.

Yang Zhongkai had been up for 30 hours the day before yesterday and had barely rested for less than 5 hours before getting up again, looking somewhat terrifying.

"If necessary, President Ye’s proposal does have some basis."

However, we still need a little more time to perfect it, and for now, I can’t think of a better solution, unless we keep it a secret.

"Then let’s do just that,"

Lin Ju made the final decision, his eyes drifting to the profound night sky outside the window.

"Typhoon still has some time before launch, it shouldn’t be too late."

...

Hefei, EAST Experimental Center.

It is now May 16th, and on the evening of May 11th, Chapter 9 landed on the Moon again, returning 24 hours later.

Apart from entering the blast zone for extensive on-site sampling, they also took with them the 12 encrypted hard drives collected by Li Wei, which were immediately stuffed into Dawn Two with the samples upon returning to the space station, urgently sent to Tiangong Space Station, and then brought down by the Unity spacecraft that was executing a subpar mission.

The samples and hard drives were divided up at Qiongzhou airport, then immediately dispatched on different planes to various laboratories, with United Mining just waiting for the results.

The Hefei Experimental Center was naturally one of the first to complete the analysis; the results of the blasting weren’t much to talk about, as feasibility of mining through explosion had been roughly ascertained from the transmitted data; however, a thorough analysis of the residue was needed.

The focus was on the four encrypted hard drives belonging to their own team; before opening the data inside, everyone was praying.

The four experimental plans were laid out from different perspectives, with a very brief window to record the effects; one could not simply glance at it and know the outcome.

They were being entered into the supercomputer’s database, checked against specific models, and then presentable data would become visible.

This process was lengthy, and the designers of the four plans all waited tensely for the results.

"Elder Yu, how confident are you?"

Ai Quan couldn’t help but look towards Elder Yu, who was sitting in a wheelchair; at that moment, his back was straighter, as if he had shed a few years, his clear eyes looking through his resin-frame glasses towards the corner piled with blackboards covered in writing.

Upon hearing Ai Quan’s question, Yu Min smiled and slightly tilted his head back.

"Thirty percent, but with this kind of thing... it’s like back in the day, nobody can be certain."

The most conservative Plan 4 only had a thirty percent certainty?

Ai Quan felt even more pessimistic about his own Plan 2, let alone the Plans 1 and 3 developed by those working on nuclear fusion.

He wasn’t afraid of failure, but he feared that America might have conducted a similar experiment and succeeded, and although they were not incapable of organizing more experiments, obtaining the raw materials was too difficult; every failure meant a huge waste.

Not far from him, Fu Mingdong evidently harbored similar sentiments, periodically picking up his cup for a sip every few seconds, but Ai Quan suspected that his lips only brushed the surface of the tea, merely a guise to conceal his nervousness.

It might have been a long time, or perhaps not very long at all, when the team from the supercomputing center pushed open the door, carrying A4 sheets still warm from the printer.

He almost instantly became the focal point of over a dozen people, under the collective gaze of the Republic’s top scientists.

Without deliberately creating suspense, the operator from the supercomputing center read the results with a tremble:

"The reaction rates for Plans 1 to 4 are as follows, with an error margin no greater than 5%:

Plan 1, 1.12%

Plan 2, 1.44%

Plan 3, 0.02%!"

Fu Mingdong and Ai Quan both listened with hands clasped, shuddering with excitement upon hearing the figures.

Plan 1 was designed to achieve 2.2%, Plan 2 was 1.65%, but as long as the rate was above 1%, it essentially meant the plans were feasible; it was just the details that needed refinement, and they could almost be considered a success.

As for Plan 3, there were clearly major issues, but it didn’t matter, as the results were good enough already, with two viable plans—that was incredibly fortunate.

The operator read the first three results in one breath and then looked at the elderly man with blazing eyes, announcing the last result with respect:

"Plan 4, 3.58%!"