Age of Cosmic Exploration

Chapter 142: Underground

Of course, Xiao Niao didn’t think much of ZERO and his so-called promise. He spent the few days after the encounter playing or training.

The Hope was starting another warp on the 5th day after the weird encounter. Space-warping had lost its novelty though because the Hope had been through it literally hundreds of times. The initial worry that everyone seemed to struggle with was gone. Even if the warp was to cause their deaths, like, for example, warping into a black hole, the Hope would see its end in a matter of seconds, and since there was nothing they could do to prevent that from coming, worrying about it would be futile.

Just like that, everyone carried on with their lives like normal, and sometimes normalcy was all a civilization could pray for. With the introduction of new agricultural and farming technologies, for the first time, there was a surplus of food items on the market. These sort of things might seem negligible, but they actually have a deep impact on the citizen’s morale. For example, the doomsday rumors had stopped completely.

During this new warp… the Hope was suddenly shaken by a huge tremor. Things toppled over and they included important lab apparatuses. Thankfully, it was approaching dusk when this happened, so the amount of labs still working and thus seriously affected was small. Regardless, thanks to the store of flammable materials stored in most labs, many labs burst into flames, drowning the Academy in a cacophony of sirens.

The 4 levels below the Academy were equally chaotic. No one truly knew what was happening, but everyone found it difficult to be calm, because such a violent quake hadn’t followed a space warp before. Many naturally turned to the worst scenario possible.

And the fear spread from one to another like a disease.

Yao Yuan was in central command when the quake hit. People fell alongside the non-stationery items, crashing into one another. Yao Yuan was the first to stand up, yelling, "Activate the supermagnetic radar, and I want a damage report on the Hope, stat. What’s happening?!"

He looked outside the window, and it was a world of darkness. However, it was not the heavy darkness like the one associated with space, but darkness with a brown, gradient-like… soil?

Before Yao Yuan could make heads or tails of it, the radar had completed its initial sweep, and a 3-D image was projected in the room.

On the image, a long, box-shaped spaceship was stuck in the middle of a rock layer. This rock layer was incredibly compact, as there were few observable cracks. Zooming in, it appeared like… the Hope was stuck in the underground of a terrestrial planet!

"…We’ve warped into the middle of a planet? Then how are we still alive?" a shocked Yao Yuan asked around, but none could give him an answer.

At around 8 PM, Yao Yuan arrived at a conference room where many related personnel had already gathered. Without wasting any time, Yao Yuan strode to the podium and began, "I’m sure everyone has already familiarized themselves with the situation. It would appear that the Hope has again found itself in a troubled position. We’ve warped into the underground of a terrestrial planet. According to the reports by the geologists, this rock layer doesn’t show any indication of it being hollow prior to the Hope’s arrival, but for some reason a space that perfectly matches the Hope's shape was taken out just before we appeared here. You’ve heard right, the perfect size, the Hope fits into this cavity perfectly, with zero budging space!"

Right then, the 3D image appeared behind Yao Yuan. It certified what Yao Yuan was saying.

"I want to know why, two whys to be precise. First, why are we still alive? According to the warnings from the Academy, if we warped into a solid object, there could be complications within the molecular structure, so why hadn’t that happened? Secondly, the Academy told me we can’t warp right now. Why is that so?"

Yao Yuan then looked down the stage, waiting for people to answer.

Then someone pressed the ‘speech’ button, wishing to speak. "Captain, I believe I can answer the first question. First, we have to realize that the Hope’s space-warping technology is a future-tech that we still don’t fully understand yet. Unlike wormholes or star gates, it’s a technology that is conceptually different… The opinion of my team is that during the process, there’s a matter displacement of some sort. In other words, if we’re warping from spot A, the original matter at spot B, no matter what it is, will be displaced to Spot A. That’s the only logical explanation as to why we’re still alive even though we should theoretically be crushed within the rock layer."

Yao Yuan nodded. "I understand that there needs to be more breakthroughs in the school of physics before this question can be fully answered, but your explanation does sound valid. Then, what about question 2? Why can’t we warp again? Do you know how deep into the ground the Hope is now? Based on the radar sweep, we’re 4,000 meters underground. This means that to surface, we’ll need to dig a several dozen thousand by 4,000 meters hole!

"The crust of this planet consists of mostly rock layers, and near the surface, clay and soil. Even with the aid of the engineering and worker robots, we would need at least a year of digging to get to the surface. And let’s not forget about the danger of collapse! We’re not lacking in supplies, so I’d rather miss out the opportunity of an adventure or surveillance than let any unnecessary harm come to the Hope!"

Right then, another person pressed the ‘speech’ button. The name that appeared on the panel was Bo Li. Her clear voice rang through the room. "The reason we can’t warp is mass and gravity… Haven’t you considered that? Think about it, why must the Hope be away from any cosmic entity when we decide to warp? That’s because space warping might be destabilized by gravity. That aside, everything that’s attached will be brought along during warp. Do you seriously think the Hope could possibly warp with the whole planet attached to it? That’s not going to happen even if you add another 100 polymerized reactors!"

Yao Yuan was already used to Bo Li’s insolent tone, so he merely frowned before replying, "But digging our way up is not going to work either. The geologists told me that if we were to dig upwards, there’s a 30 percent chance that there’ll be landslide. Because of the Hope’s elongated structure, the extra weight could easily snap the ship in half. The electromagnetic shield is useless here too because the soil isn’t metallic! Considering everything, is it possible for us to dig around the Hope, to isolate it from the soil layer, and then warp?"

No one pressed the button, but everyone was discussing amongst themselves.

Suddenly, a few military officers barged into the room, went up the stage, and whispered into Yao Yuan’s ear. An expression of disbelief spread through Yao Yuan’s features. He nodded his thanks at the officers and then spoke into the microphone. "Everyone, there has been a new update… Help me put up a video, this is something you need to see for yourselves…"

A 3-D image appeared in the room. Then it started to zoom out. From the Hope, the video moved closer and closer to the surface, 2,000 meters, 1,000 meters, 500 meters, 300 meters… When the video broke through the confines of the earth crust, the view that greeted everyone was that of a verdant field. Some distance away were even a copses of fern-like trees and dinosaur-looking scaly animals that were 5 to 6 meters tall. The video kept on zooming out, and finally there was a wide expanse of blue, was that, yes… Ocean!

"Ocean! What about the sky? Let us see the sky!"

A scientist shouted as he sprung up from his seat. Even though he didn’t press the button to speak, his excitement spread through the room like a wave. Before long, almost everyone was on their feet, looking at the video like they were in a trance. A picturesque landscape filled with greenery, animals, sea, and a blue sky that stretched endlessly towards the horizon… It was an image that was bursting with life!

Even Yao Yuan couldn’t contain his excitement so much so that he felt like his heart was going to jump out of his throat. He felt something stinging his eyes, breaking his composure… Several times he opened his mouth to speak, but no words seemed to come out. After many in the room had broken out in tears, he roared, "Yes, this is a life-preserving planet with a vibrant ecosystem. We’ve found it, we’ve finally found it, our next Earth!"

"Dig, the digging shall start tomorrow! If I hear any talks of space warp, they will be shot without question!"

Translator's Thoughts

Lonelytree Lonelytree

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