Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 922 "The Wandering Earth"
In the 499th year of the New Era, Noah's Ark observed a wormhole at the edge of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way, but this wormhole was extremely hidden. When humans observed it, they had already been captured by its gravity.
At that time, the humans on the Ark tried every possible means but could not escape the fate of being swallowed by the wormhole.
Crossing the wormhole caused huge losses, and the humans on the Ark were once on the verge of extinction... But fortunately, they finally managed to get through that difficult period, not only repairing the damaged Ark, but also successfully finding Alpha... or in other words, the Earth.
From the perspective of future generations, crossing the wormhole was an accident, but it was also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - if the Ark had not been able to pass through the wormhole, it would probably not have left the Milky Way until now.
"That wormhole connects a parallel space and time."
"Sure enough... that wormhole is the key." Ke Lan let out a breath. He always knew that something important must have happened between 499 and 500 of the new era, but he didn't expect that the wormhole actually connected parallel time and space.
"If the explanation doesn't make sense, try time travel; if your imagination is not strong enough, try parallel universes." When this joke really happened in reality, he couldn't laugh at all.
"So... so the 'paradox' that the Alphas are referring to... that caused the disappearance of most of the Alphas is actually a time-space paradox, and the source of this paradox is the humans on the Ark?" Ke Lan asked.
"Yes. But all of this was arranged by the Night Watch. They knew that letting the Ark enter their own time and space would lead to a paradox, but they still made that choice without hesitation. The wormhole that allowed the Ark to travel through time and space was not a natural wormhole, but a channel secretly arranged by the Alpha civilization. Including the resource planets that the Ark encountered after crossing, they were also prepared for you by the Alpha civilization in advance... It was not because of luck."
"The Alpha civilization did this...what was their purpose?" The fog in Ke Lan's mind was gradually fading, but at this moment he ignored the clues that emerged from the sealed memory fragments - instead of guessing based on some scraps of information, it would be better to listen to the other party tell the whole story directly.
"This has to be traced back to what we experienced in the past." The host of the hive said, "In the old era... the experience of humans in this universe is exactly the same as your universe. The decay process of the sun suddenly accelerated, and the earth was facing a crisis of destruction. If human civilization wanted to survive, it had to abandon its homeland and flee to other galaxies..."
Although Ke Lan had not experienced this period of history, he had consulted a lot of information about this period, and what the other party said was not wrong... Until the last few years of the old era, what human civilization on the two timelines experienced was exactly the same.
"We have also implemented the Ark Project, but unfortunately, the Ark construction bases around the world have suffered multiple terrorist attacks, and a large number of semi-finished parts have been destroyed. According to experts' estimates, after the 'deadline', the Ark will only be 45% complete, which is far from meeting the requirements for interstellar navigation... Even if we decide to reduce the size of the Ark, it will be useless because the most important main reactor has been blown up, and even the area where the entire manufacturing plant is located has become a heavy radiation zone. A large amount of raw materials and important equipment have been contaminated, and a large number of technicians and workers have been lost. Even if all the resources of mankind are gathered, we cannot build a reactor that can allow the Ark to set sail."
"...So, the illusion I saw before, in which there was a scene where a resistance organization attacked the Ark manufacturing plant, was it because of this incident?" Ke Lan said thoughtfully.
The Hive Master did not respond, but continued to tell the story: "Fortunately, we always have a backup plan B... This plan B also requires sacrificing most of the people on Earth, but it does not require sacrificing the Earth."
"Plan B?"
"This plan B was proposed by a Chinese engineer named Liu, but this plan was not favored at first because it was too crazy and extremely difficult to implement. Therefore, it was always ranked behind the Ark plan until the Ark plan went bankrupt."
"What is Plan B?"
"Transform the earth into a huge 'Ark', which will carry humans to a new habitable galaxy." said the master of the hive city.
Ke Lan felt his heart pounding. This story gave him a sense of déjà vu - yes, there was once a novel called "The Wandering Earth", which tells the story of how humans built countless planetary engines on Earth and then took the Earth away from the solar system!
It’s just that in the time and space where Ke Lan is, the Ark Project was successful, and the "Wandering Earth" Project, which was Plan B, was abandoned, and its plot was rewritten into a science fiction novel... But in the time and space of the Hive Civilization and the Alpha Civilization, the "Wandering Earth" Project was implemented!
They all matched! Including the engine wreckage on Alpha, the heavy fusion technology mastered by Yaguna Kator, and the ice age that the hive city had experienced... All these things can be matched with the content in the novel!
No, that is not a novel, that is what really happened in this time and space!
"We are very lucky. Perhaps it is because of the desperate mentality that the world's top scientific research teams have gathered together. At this time, there is no longer any distinction between nationality, race and position. Every researcher is working hard day and night. Finally, before the 'deadline' comes, we have broken through the technical difficulties that have not been broken through in the past hundreds of years and have initially mastered the heavy fusion technology."
"So, the humans in this timeline have already mastered the re-fusion technology in the old era?" Ke Lan murmured - this has to be said to be a miracle, but he believes that this miracle really happened, otherwise, the humans in this timeline would have been destroyed long ago, and there would be no later "Hive Civilization" and "Alpha Civilization".
"While the scientific research team was overcoming the difficulties, planetary engines around the world were also completed one after another. Perhaps the failure of the Ark Project changed the minds of the resistance organizations, or perhaps the plan to escape with the Earth made them unable to find a reason to launch an attack. In short, the construction of the planetary engine was much smoother than the construction of the Ark. Not only did it not suffer from attacks by the resistance organizations, it even received a lot of unexpected help."
"At that time, many resistance organizations were under the banner of 'protecting the earth and our homeland'... Since the human leaders have decided not to abandon the earth, they naturally have lost their reason to resist..." Ke Lan said, recalling the information he had read.
"Are you curious about the meaning of 'Leave the bed'? This sentence is actually the code name of Plan B. The solar system was once the home of humans and the Earth, and the cradle of human civilization... In addition, there is another reason that sounds a bit funny and childish."
"What's the reason?"
"The engineer named Liu who proposed Plan B has always had a problem of staying in bed. He once jokingly said at an informal gathering of scientists that escaping the solar system is as difficult as getting out of bed at 7 o'clock in the morning... Although it was a joke, the phrase 'Leave the bed' was officially designated as the official code name of Plan B after that gathering."
Ke Lan: "...So, 'bed' refers to...the solar system."
"Yes, this plan and code name are deeply rooted in the hearts of every Earthling. Even until the end of the Hive Era, when all the Earthlings on this planet became what you call Alphas, they still haven't forgotten this code name."
"Then why do some Earthlings know this code name? Uh, I mean, the Earthlings who came down from the Ark." Ke Lan asked, "For example, the explorers who entered the underwater city for the first time, the soldiers of the 776 special forces team, and the black cardinals in the heretical sect. I have come across this code name several times, and they were all from people on the Ark, not from people in your time and space."
"As the humans on Alpha were eroded and transformed into 'Alphas', part of the impressive public memory became 'forbidden knowledge'. Whether it was the eroded Ark humans or the Black Cardinals who borrowed the power of that existence through the Holy Word, they all obtained some of the sealed memories of the Alphas. Most of these memories were fragmented... These people could not understand the content of the memories. They just knew that this code name was important, so they recorded it in their last waking moments to remind others... But in fact, even they themselves did not know what this code name meant."
"...Then how did you, the Earthlings of this time and space, become Alphas?"
"This is the story I'm going to tell you next." The host of the hive city continued, "The re-fusion technology was successfully developed, the planetary engine was successfully ignited, and at the same time, underground cities around the world were completed almost at the same time... The hive city you see now is actually a transformation of the underground city back then."
"I guessed it." Ke Lan nodded. "After the Earth leaves the solar system, the surface environment will become completely unsuitable for human survival. If we don't go underground to survive, all those who remain on the surface will be frozen to death."
"But the underground cities couldn't accommodate all humans... In that era, the structure of all underground cities was basically the same as that of the bottom nest. People were crowded in modular compartments like sardines in a can, and survived on protein blocks made of cockroaches and earthworms... But even so, at most, all the underground cities could only accommodate one-third of the world's population at that time."
"It's worse than what is described in the novel." Ke Lan murmured. In the novel called "The Wandering Earth", at least half of the human race entered the underground city and survived.
"In order to compete for the quota of underground cities, the humans who were once united turned against each other again. In the few years before the planetary engine was ignited, several wars broke out on Earth... But fortunately, not many planetary engines and underground cities were destroyed in the war, and we successfully entered the 'brake era'."
The "brake era" is also described in that novel. It refers to the use of planetary engines built on the equator to offset the gravitational force of the Earth's rotation, stop the Earth's rotation, and prepare for the next step of escaping the solar system.
"During the 'Brake Era', hundreds of earthquakes erupted on Earth. Not only did the people remaining on the surface suffer heavy casualties, but even many planetary engines were damaged. Almost 90% of the world's underground cities collapsed, and 16% of them were completely buried, leaving no one alive." The Hive Master said slowly, "We paid a heavy price for just the first step. It's not that we underestimated the impact of the Earth stopping, but that we could only do that much."
"In the face of the survival of the entire civilization , the life and death of an individual is just a statistic." Ke Lan said silently, "The upper echelons of humanity have always done this... Although it is cruel, it is indeed effective."
"After the Earth stopped rotating, the hemisphere facing the sun experienced polar day, with temperatures ranging from 70 to 80 degrees Celsius all year round, while the hemisphere facing away from the sun experienced eternal night, with temperatures as low as minus 90 degrees Celsius... Most of the humans who remained on the surface died during the 'brake era'."
“In the novel, a small number of people survived. How did they do it?”
"According to historical data, a small number of people who did not enter the underground city did survive, but we don't know how they did it... When we returned to the surface, they had turned into monsters—"
"Is it because of the disaster? What exactly is the disaster?" Ke Lan asked.
"After the braking era comes the escape era. We accelerated the Earth to the third cosmic speed and successfully escaped the gravity of the sun. From then on, human civilization and the Earth officially entered the wandering era... That's what the novel you read should say, right?"
"That's right." Ke Lan nodded.
For the Earth civilization in this time and space, it is not a novel but a documentary literature.
"I can't finish telling you the series of events that happened even if I spend a whole year. You just need to know that the Earth wandered in the universe for tens of thousands of years until it was discovered and 'captured' by that being."
"Wandering for tens of thousands of years? But... although I know the content of the novel has been changed, according to the original plan, wouldn't it only take 2,500 years to reach the Centauri constellation?"
"After we arrived at the Centaur constellation, we found that it was not suitable for humans and the Earth. We could only replenish the fuel needed for the heavy fusion reaction there and then continue on our journey." The host of the nest city said, "At the same time, we built a large number of spaceships and sent them to the space areas near the route in the hope of finding a suitable space area for living or available resources. The predecessor of Yaguna Kotor, the 0906 engineering ship, was sent out during this period."
The Hive Master paused for a few seconds before continuing, "At that time, humans thought that the Earth might drift forever in the universe... But they never imagined that something worse would happen to human civilization and the Earth."
Ke Lan immediately concentrated his attention. He knew that the other party would soon get to the point of the story - the "unspeakable" disaster.
