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Age of Cosmic Exploration (Web Novel) - Chapter 395 - Helpless!
Chapter 395: Helpless!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
This caused the Hope to submerge into complete chaos!
Indeed, humanity was still too fragile. The Hope was the last remaining survivor of the human race, so losing it meant the extinction of humanity. That was the reality of the situation. Even though humanity was on the brink of becoming a level 3 space civilization, on the issue of survivability alone, humanity was even worse than a level 1 space civilization.
Because of this, when the Hope was taken over, those who knew the truth had their faces blanched immediately, including Yao Yuan.
He was not afraid of death, yes, that was the truth. Granted, given the choice, he would prefer to live, but he was not afraid of death. If he was, he wouldn't have become a member of the Black Star Unit and later its captain.
However, he was greatly afraid of leading humanity to extinction. Call it responsibility, mission, or anything you want, but he had long since taken the people on the Hope as the purpose of his life. They were like his family, so when this happened, he was truly petrified.
During the short period the Hope was taken over, those who knew the truth were rendered speechless from shock and fear. None knew what to do, because this was too sudden. The entire ship was taken over, this was a crisis they had not experienced before ever since humanity left Earth!
"Do not panic! Activate AI self-analysis immediately! Check all the currently still controllable systems and devices on the Hope. Also, disconnect the auto self-destruct sequence and change it to manual activation only… Also, disconnect the auto activation for all weapons beyond S-grade."
Yao Yuan took a deep breath and gave his orders while the rest was still in a state of panic. As his voice resonated through central command, it was as if the people there had found an anchor, and they moved to oblige. At the same time, Guang Zhen, who happened to be in central command to discuss the issue of staying or leaving with Yao Yuan, also yelled agitatedly, "I'll go summon all the Defense Unit soldiers and Black Star Troopers! F*ck, we might die soon, but we're not going down without a fight!"
Before waiting for Yao Yuan to respond, Guang Zhen dashed out of central command.
On the other hand, Yao Yuan didn't intend to stop Guang Zhen. After all, this might be the crisis that ended the Hope, and that was one of the better options, because they might get captured and reared as animals or even treated as experimental subjects… If that really happened, the soldiers would be humanity's last line of defence, not for the sake of survival but for the ability to die with dignity.
Thinking about this, Yao Yuan added, "Send all the information about the Hope's still operational devices, programs, and weapons to Room 12 in Area A. Then contact all the government officials over the status of vice minister to Room 12. Get all the scientists and related Defense Unit majors, unit captains, and vice captains of the Black Star Troopers to gather there in 10 minutes as well. Failure to be present will be a violation of martial law!"
After that, Yao Yuan dashed out of central command. However, he didn't head towards Room 12 immediately but started sending messages through the mini watch-type computer on his wrist. His computer wasn't connected to any IP. In fact, from an outsider's perspective, he looked like he was merely leaving behind some messages on his electronic notepad, only a few people knew he was actually contacting ZERO.
For some reason, ever since there was a direct channel of communication between Yao Yuan and ZERO, despite their low amount of communication, whenever Yao Yuan sought ZERO out for questions, ZERO would abide by his demands and would appear at the first notice. However, this time, ZERO did not show herself. She was still nowhere to be seen, even when Yao Yuan had reached Room 12.
Yao Yuan's expression darkened. He didn't know whether this meant that ZERO had completely abandoned humanity or that the level of this ruin was so high that she had gone into hiding for the sake of her own safety. Either way, Yao Yuan did not feel good about their prospects.
Yao Yuan tried his best to exhibit a calm expression even though his heart was shaking. He knew he needed a paragon of serenity to aid as the whole ship was dependant on him. If he lost his footing, the whole ship would go down with him. As more people arrived at the scene, more people learned about the truth, but the situation was still rather contained.
This was the influence of Yao Yuan's reputation. Ever since humanity left Earth, Yao Yuan had been there every step of the way until now, when they were about to break through to become a level 3 space civilization. Every time the Hope faced any dangerous threat, or during any social reform, Yao Yuan was still hailed as the savior in everyone's hearts. In other words, as long as Yao Yuan stood strong, there was still hope for humanity, and Yao Yuan used this influence he had on the Hope to maintain the order within the secret meeting room.
In the designated 10 minutes, everyone had arrived. The last to arrive was Guang Zhen, who had brought along with him all of the Defense Unit majors and Black Star Trooper captains and vice captains. Yao Yuan did not plan to hide the reality from any of them, so he immediately relayed to them the Hope's situation.
At the same time, Yao Yuan opened the 3D computer in the room and told everyone, "This is the result of the AI's self-analysis. Unfortunately, other than internal life support, the anti-gravity system, and all related systems, the rest of the Hope is beyond our control. Of course, we planned for this contingency when we first designed the AI, so I believe that most of us here know about the 'last resort' plan. We have switched the Gravity Cannon, the Genesis, and the two Planet Annihilating Cannons back to manual operation, and… the self-destruct sequence is also now manually operable."
Everyone was silent while listening to Yao Yuan. Suddenly, Ren Tao chimed in, "How about the Hope's flight speed? How far are we from the ruin? Can we change the speed or direction of the ship?"
Yao Yuan nodded. "That is why I've gathered every one of you here. The Hope's current speed is rather slow, about 30 percent of the Hope's maximum speed. If the speed is maintained at this level, we will reach the ruin in about 8 to 9 days… if the speed of the ship doesn't change."
Ren Tao stopped asking question after that. He merely sat there in silence, thinking to himself. Xiao Niao though continued, "Then is it possible for us to build any propellers in the mean time? If the Hope is only moving at 30 percent speed, then we can build new propellers to change the direction. No, wait… I've just answered myself, that won't work."
Guang Zhen, who was beside him, frowned and asked, "Why won't it work? I feel like it's a sound plan. According to our current productivity, with the help of the nanobots, we can build a new propeller system for the Hope in less than 2 days, much less 8 days. This is a good plan, so why wouldn't it work?"
Not only Guang Zhen, others in the room had the same question as well. Yao Yuan had Xiao Niao explain himself, which he gladly did. After all, he was not Ren Tao, who was too lazy to even open his mouth. "It all comes back to one speculation, and that is whether this ruin will even allow us to leave… In fact, when I found out that the Hope was taken over today, and I'm sure the Chancellor has thought of this as well, why wasn't the Hope taken over yesterday, or tomorrow, but today? If this is not a coincidence, there has to be something unusual that we did today to make the ruin control the Hope.
"However, today was like any other day on the Hope, so what was the difference? The only difference I can think of is that today we were discussing the possibility of leaving. In other words, when we decided to 'leave', the Hope was taken over. In fact, don't you think that we're moving simply too slow towards the ruin? Instead of rushing us towards it, this ruin seems to be giving us ample time to prepare before we enter it. If we continue to talk about 'leaving', 'changing our course', or 'disruption' in this period of time, I have no clue what the ruin will do as a response."
After he gave his reasoning, many in the room started to chew on it. Then they started to break out in cold sweat/ If he was right, then wasn't this ruin incredibly scary? After all, for the sake of safety, the Hope had been releasing the creator's particle ever since they arrived. In other words, according to space knowledge, no signal was supposed to reach the Hope either to listen in or to control it, but the reality was, the ruin had controlled the Hope… and that was under the condition that it had been listening in on their decision-making.
This situation… defied logical explanation!
