NCCnovel Chapter 127 A Water Drop
Chapter 127 A Water Drop
"Luo Ji is awake," the military governor said.
“Yes, but he no longer poses a threat to us,” the science governor said.
“Yes, according to the message sent back by Zhizi, he has been stripped of his Wallfacer status and can no longer pose a threat to us,” the military governor said.
"The pinnacle of human intelligence is limited to this."
"Humanity as a whole is nothing but insects, not worth mentioning."
“No, there is still one person we should pay attention to, Luo Ji’s daughter.” The education official seemed very interested in Luo Congmin’s performance.
"I can only say... she truly is his daughter. After we conquer Earth, we can consider eliminating her along with Luo Ji."
"I second that, and that one too..."
"Who?"
"Thomas Wiede".
"Seconded."
Yun Tianming leaned back in his chair, gazing listlessly at the starry sky outside the porthole.
As the 13th Governor, he was naturally qualified to attend the Trisolaran Governors' Meeting, but there was almost no difference between his participation and non-participation.
After all, the Trisolarans communicate using brainwaves, so if no one pays attention to him, he has no idea what they are saying.
Therefore, the Trisolarans had almost no defenses against Yun Tianming. Yun Tianming could move freely within the First Fleet, and his authority was even higher than that of some Trisolarans.
After all, in the eyes of the Trisolarans, humanity is already the defeated side, and now all that's left is for their First Fleet to take over Earth.
How long until the Strong Mutual Probe arrives in the solar system?
"If we use the time calculation method of Earthlings, there should be about 1.2 years left."
"It's time to end this pointless war."
"Let's celebrate our new home!"
"But... what about the observer? He seems to have some personal bias towards the humans, we..."
"There's no need to worry about that. Since he is an observer, he should understand the importance of his responsibilities. The purpose of the experiment is to continue, and our participation makes it more in line with the original intention of the experiment."
"Moreover, the observer's abilities should have limits. According to the Experiment Regulations, the upper limit of an observer's abilities will not exceed the technological barriers of their own civilization, perhaps..."
"This is worth the risk, but we should be more cautious. Let all the strong interaction probes go full speed ahead. The observers are already dehydrated; this is our best opportunity!"
"But... if that's the case, the strong mutual probe will lose all its fuel after reaching Earth. Isn't that a bit too much of a price to pay?"
"The proposal is rejected. Although the observer is merely a representative of that civilization on Earth, we should still be extremely vigilant when facing it to prevent any accidents from happening."
After the meeting, the Trisolarans removed all the sophons used to monitor Luo Ji and other high-ranking humans, and repurposed them to monitor Lin Xuan.
At the same time, all ten [water droplets] accelerated at full power and headed straight for the solar system.
Unlike the original storyline, the number of probes deployed by the Trisolarans this time is ten times that of the original storyline.
Although Lin Xuan is now in hibernation, the Trisolarans still dare not let their guard down. It can be said that the Trisolarans have never regarded humans as enemies. The only people they have been wary of are Lin Xuan and Luo Ji.
Now that one of them is in hibernation and the other has lost his Wallfacer status, the Trisolarans dare to become increasingly unscrupulous.
After passing through the last dust cloud, the Trisolaran fleet also began to slow down.
The Trisolaran fleet consists of 1000 warships, all powered by antimatter engines. Their theoretical speed is 10%, but it takes more than four hundred years to travel from the Trisolaran home planet to Earth, which is 4 light-years away.
This is because acceleration and deceleration must be taken into account. If the Trisolaran fleet maintains its maximum speed throughout its expedition, its energy reserves will be insufficient to support the entire fleet to reach Earth. If it does not decelerate, the Trisolaran fleet will simply pass by the solar system, brushing past it.
It took the Trisolaran fleet over a hundred years to accelerate, and with the additional hundred years of deceleration, their actual normal sailing speed was no more than a few decades. This is why humans believe that the Trisolaran fleet is very slow.
When the Trisolaran fleet passed through this dust cloud, it left its wake in what humans called the "snowfield." When humans saw the Trisolaran fleet moving at a snail's pace, they all concluded that the Trisolarans had given up their expedition to Earth.
After all, the ships in these fleets looked like a group of "ghost ships" that had been shut down. In reality, it was just that the Trisolaran fleet had entered a deceleration phase.
Humanity will soon pay the price for its arrogance.
……
"So, I'll have to continue being your dad's bodyguard from now on?" Shi Qiang asked in shock.
“Yes, that’s what Lin Xuan wanted too. He said that my dad is only safe when you’re here,” Luo Congmin said.
"What a joke! I'm two hundred years old, I'm retiring!" Shi Qiang protested.
"No, no, no, Uncle, you've been in hibernation, so your age doesn't count. It's calculated from before you went into hibernation!" Luo Congmin said with a smile.
"That won't work either. You yourself said that PDC has been destroyed, and I'm no longer under your control." Shi Qiang chose to simply give up. He didn't believe that anyone other than Lin Xuan could control him.
Luo Congmin said nothing, but simply activated the communication device implanted in his arm, and Chang Weisi's face immediately appeared in front of Shi Qiang.
"Shi Qiang, this is my order. You are responsible for continuing to protect Luo Ji's safety. Don't think that just because you've been in hibernation for two hundred years you don't have to go to work!"
"Grass!"
Shi Qiang slapped his thigh hard.
How could I forget Chang Weisi?
Chang Weisi was nominally Shi Qiang's superior, so Shi Qiang had no choice but to agree.
"Damn it, I told you not to joke around like that. I even said before that I might still be working when I'm 90, and now it's actually come true!"
“Actually, this might not be a bad thing,” Luo Congmin said.
"You'll understand once you think about it yourself. You should know better than me that it's actually safer to stay with my dad."
Luo Congmin's words caused both Luo Ji and Shi Qiang to fall silent for a moment.
After a long silence, Luo Ji finally spoke.
"You...don't you believe that humanity can defeat the Trisolarans either?"
Although Luo Ji is no longer a Wallfacer, he is still Luo Congmin's father. If something really happens to human society, his surroundings should actually be the safest place. Shi Qiang couldn't possibly not understand this.
Given the current situation, the most likely crisis for human society is still the Trisolaran crisis.
Luo Congmin shook his head slightly.
"It's too slim, there's almost no hope. The people at the bottom think we can win, but that's just an illusion created by politicians. Only we ourselves know best how dangerous the current situation of humanity really is."
"Then... what about Lin Xuan? What does he mean?" Luo Ji asked curiously.
"I don't know. He went into hibernation a few years ago. Nobody knows what he was doing. He didn't tell me anything before he left. After all... he used to be a Wallfacer, so I can't figure out his thoughts. From the Mewtwo database to the space elevator, and the construction of Reach and the mirror project, he seems to have done everything, but also nothing."
"Perhaps... he has already completed the plan in secret, but we just don't know it yet. After all, the only thing Lin Xuan still has left is the Van Gogh Plan."
"The Van Gogh Project...you mean the Human Memorial Project?"
Luo Congmin nodded.
“Yes, Wang Miao found a special radioactive substance that can leave traces in space. We named it ‘pigment.’ Then, they built two large Fourier series devices on the Reach space station, which they named ‘paintbrushes.’ These are several large discs superimposed on Reach. By constantly rotating them, patterns can be drawn in space using ‘pigment.’ I can take you to see them when I’m done with my work these next few days.”
As Luo Congmin spoke, he suddenly seemed to remember something and looked at Shi Qiang.
"Oh, by the way, Uncle, your son has been found."
Shi Qiang: ...
For some reason, Shi Qiang felt that these words sounded familiar.
When Wang Miao and I first entered ETO, there was a girl who was holding a nuclear bomb and wanted to live as long as the world with us. I think I said something similar to attract her attention.
I never expected to hear these words again after more than two hundred years, but everything had changed.
"Are you going to see him? I'll send you his address."
Upon hearing this, Shi Qiang waved his hand.
"Forget it, I've long considered him dead, so it doesn't matter whether I see him or not."
Although Shi Qiang said that, Luo Congmin still gave him his son Shi Xiaoming's address. As for whether Shi Qiang wanted to meet him, that was his own business.
The next day, Luo Ji and Shi Qiang, led by Luo Congmin, took the space elevator to the Zhiyuan Star Space Station.
Nowadays, thanks to advancements in materials, space elevators no longer need to be pulled in sections as before. Luo Ji and Shi Qiang barely felt any turbulence as they entered space.
The imagined feeling of weightlessness did not come. Research on simulated gravity field environments is quite mature. Even when entering space, it can still maintain the same gravity as on Earth.
When they arrived at Reach, they could see countless interstellar ships flying in space through the glass. This scene finally gave Luo Ji a sense of arriving in the future.
As Luo Congmin said, at the top of the Zhiyuan Star Space Station, there are two large discs that are constantly rotating, seemingly throwing something into space.
"Why can't I see anything?" Shi Qiang asked.
This time, Luo Congmin didn't need to explain; Luo Ji, who was standing to the side, had already provided the answer.
"It still needs to be activated."
"What do you mean?" Shi Qiang asked, puzzled.
Luo Ji thought for a moment: "If I'm not mistaken, this so-called 'pigment' should be a special electronic substance that can release photons. When the pigment is splashed into space, it only needs to be given energy to activate it. The electrons will absorb energy and jump to a higher energy level. When an electron jumps to a lower energy level, the atom will emit a photon. When a large number of electrons jump to a lower energy level at the same time, a large number of photons will be emitted, forming light that is visible to the naked eye."
"That's correct, but not entirely. After all, according to Einstein's formula for dynamic mass in special relativity, the rest mass of a photon is 0, so it's not easy to preserve a painting."
"These special radioactive materials do not react with a vacuum environment. They are like oil dropped into water, unable to truly integrate into the water of the universe."
"This is Dr. Ding Yi's discovery theory. I don't understand the specifics, after all, I'm just a liberal arts student. But he told me that maybe we will soon be able to use zero-point energy, which is physical vacuum energy."
"Let's figure out antimatter first. You have to take things one step at a time," Luo Ji said.
Seeing that Shi Qiang was still completely bewildered, Luo Ji explained the principle behind the thing to him in the simplest terms.
He casually picked up a light bulb, stuck it onto a cold nuclear fusion power source, and pressed the switch.
"Do you understand? It's just like turning on a light."