Chapter 630 - 615: Escape Plan

Silence, silence was the epithet for everyone present.

David had interpreted the purpose of the alien signal from a wholly new perspective, and although most of it was speculative, it already fit together quite perfectly.

After all, no one would naively think that aliens were merely concerned about humanity, nurturing its development like a mother—if that were true, there should have been several miracles throughout history.

David’s energy threat theory was remarkably concise and fitted very well with the realities of interstellar communication and the malevolent "human" nature assumption.

But this conjecture was too terrifying for anyone to dare believe it.

From a human perspective, mastering nuclear bombs signifies a breakthrough in micro-science, which in the universe should at least represent a certain "threshold."

And what aliens might do to humans who had already crossed this threshold... was simply unimaginable.

If there really was an interstellar fleet on its way, would humanity have even the slightest chance of fighting back?

The more John thought about it, the more fear he felt, as if the aliens were already upon him, pressing down on him until he could barely breathe.

"This is all just speculation."

His voice clearly trembled as he spoke, but after saying it he felt somewhat relieved, his tone more resolute.

"Even whether it has anything to do with a hydrogen bomb remains unclear, it’s just one possible theory."

Upon hearing his words, the others clung to them like a lifeline, nodding and agreeing vigorously.

"Right, two signals don’t prove anything."

"It could also be due to other unknown reasons, maybe it’s just a coincidence to begin with."

"..."

David watched the reactions of the people around him with calm, and waited until they had settled down before he continued:

"Resolving this issue is quite simple: there will soon be more nuclear explosions on the Moon, we just need to pay attention during the explosions. Those are all high-yield monsters.

If my conjecture holds, then at least one more signal will be monitored, and in a few months, we’ll be launching more probes to Mars, which should increase the interception success rate."

Robert: "This... should be no problem. NACA’s original plan was to add two probes to Mars, but after the M event, we decided to increase it to four. It’s not difficult to achieve this."

David: "I know, but my purpose today is not to scare you all over again but to ask you to start seriously considering a question from now on:

If things really are extremely dire, how shall we perpetuate human civilization?

Should we let a select few escape, or should we send robots with human DNA into the far reaches, or simply give ourselves up without a fight?"

This time, he received an answer much faster as Claire immediately shook her head:

"Within the next decade, it is impossible for humanity to build a spaceship with true escape capabilities—that is, to travel to other star systems. There’s no hope even in fifty years; it’s just a pipe dream, not even to send two people.

As for the second method you mentioned, setting aside how we ensure that machines can find a suitable new home and resurrect humanity after thousands or even tens of thousands of years, even if it’s feasible, it has nothing to do with us.

Escape is impossible unless the aliens give us hundreds of years to develop. I think before the 1950s, NACA shouldn’t even consider diverting any resources to interstellar escape."

Claire didn’t mention escaping to other parts of the Solar System because if the goal is to continue civilization and development, not merely to preserve a few individuals, doing so is pointless.

...

It was late at night when the attendees quietly left the Presidential Palace one after another, but probably no one except for David felt like sleeping.

John felt the same, leaving his own aides behind, and immediately commenced a private meeting.

Once all the aides were assembled, the first thing John said shocked everyone:

"Should we arrest David and put him in a mental hospital?"

Sullivan observed John’s expression carefully, making sure the old man was serious, and immediately cautioned:

"Sir, David is one of the few scholars who has wide knowledge and excellent leadership skills. Office Thirteen needs people like him."

"But... what he said... I still think that it should have been a discussion for a sci-fi movie script. Maybe the M event was just a huge coincidence, there might not be any aliens at all, in fact..."

The aides came to understand that John wasn’t doubting David, but the shock of the possibility of aliens, and the despair at the limits of human capabilities, was putting too much pressure on him, and he hadn’t yet adjusted to this unprecedented change.

Claire: "I know it’s hard to accept but... we should believe the judgment made by America’s top scientists and premier intelligence agencies, every detail of this matter will be meticulously scrutinized, the conclusions need not be doubted anymore.

And whether it’s fake or not, we need to advance aerospace technology as much as possible. A slight advantage might lead to a different outcome."

John didn’t speak, but those who knew him were aware that he acknowledged the explanation but still needed time to digest it.

After a while, he raised his head and asked:

"What about fleeing, though? If Earth is exposed under the aliens’ guns, what should we do?"

He obviously didn’t want to hear the same explanation again; this time, his question was about "we" and not "humanity."

"We" represented a certain group of people, and Claire understood perfectly well—it referred to a tiny elite at the top echelon who virtually saw themselves as representing human civilization.

"Leaving the Solar System is impossible; we can only look for hiding spots within the Solar System."

Claire didn’t think this was selfish; he had already contemplated this idea long before:

"Apart from the eight major planets, the main components of the Solar System include the Asteroid Belt and the Kuiper Belt, two dense areas of small asteroids and meteorites.

The eight planets and their moons are unsafe, being likely significant targets of aliens’ searches; our only possible sliver of survival lies at the fringes of the outer Kuiper Belt.

The Kuiper Belt may not have planets, but it has many large asteroids, such as Neptune’s moon Triton which was captured from the Kuiper Belt.

It also houses a wealth of resources in numerous meteorites, providing ice, iron, rare metals, and other minerals, and it is extremely vast. It’s a broad band revolving around the Sun with a width exceeding 3.7 billion kilometers; if the scale of hiding is not large, it’s quite possible we won’t be detected.

I think even for an alien civilization, it would be incredibly difficult to search an area so vast for survivor settlements the size of a meteorite.

Although it’s also very far from us, with the fission nuclear propulsion technology we’ve mastered, it’s quite feasible if we dedicate significant resources."