Age of Cosmic Exploration

Chapter 219: Despair

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Neutron star fragment…

This was a term that was both familiar and strange to humanity. It was because of this thing that mankind had to leave Earth, their home planet. They were forced to venture into space with 3rd revolution technology. This thing had about 99 percent fatality rate!

In the Academy, there were many committees studying the appearance of neutron star fragment, but the analyses was going nowhere. After all, mankind hadn’t even seen a neutron star before. All the analysis was purely theoretical.

The supposed neutron star is a stellar object that is denser than the sun. After its internal gaseous atoms, like hydrogen, fuse upon themselves to form heavy metals like carbon, the extremely high mass of the metallic atoms collapses upon itself due to its strong intra-gravitational pull. The atoms undergo a nuclear reaction to become compound nuclei. The mass of each nucleus can be calculated in terms of million tons. The star implodes upon itself but hasn’t reached an inflated state where it becomes a black hole. At this stage, the star is called a neutron star.

A neutron star is a substance with a ridiculously high density. Other than the black hole, the substance with the biggest density per unit volume is the neutron star. Its tensile strength is incredible. Comparing it to diamond is like comparing gold and air; they’re not even at the same level.

This was why it was hard to believe a neutron star fragment was even a possibility.

Even if the Academy had diagnosed it from many angles like gravitational pull and density, and confirmed that it was indeed a neutron star fragment, Yao Yuan still found it hard to believe!

The possibility of a technology powerful enough to break neutron star aside, on the basis of scientific theory alone, a neutron star fragment shouldn’t even exist. When atoms are compressed to become compound nuclei, there exists no space between them. Therefore, the moment a neutron star fragment is extracted from the bigger neutron star, it will expand immediately. This is because there is not only pulling force between the atoms, but also repelling force, and at that moment, when the bigger structure of the neutron star lattice is disturbed, the repelling force overwrites the pulling force.

A perfect analogy would be magnets. The closer they are, the greater the repelling force between them. There needs to be a stronger external force to have them close together. The moment the fragment leaves the whole neutron star, it loses the neutron’s star incredible gravitational mass to hold it together.

In other words, the presence of a neutron star fragment directly challenged basic human scientific knowledge. The first was how did one cut out a neutron star fragment? With nuclear bombing, lasers? Impossible!

The second was how did the neutron star fragment maintain its high mass density and not have its compressed atoms revert back to its more natural state? Glue? Alien glue??

These were the conundrums facing the Academy regarding this sudden neutron star fragment appearance. With mankind’s current 4th revolution technology, the answer was not to be found!

Humanity had no way of stopping the neutron star fragment from hurtling towards the sun!

When the second-lieutenant finished his report, both Yao Yuan and Guang Zhen’s faces turned pale like they had seen a ghost under the living daylight. They felt swamped by despair.

Guang Zhen suddenly roared, "F*ck! How is this possible? Did that thing follow us or what? F*ck!"

Yao Yuan immediately pushed on Guang Zhen’s shoulder, saying, "Ol’ Wong, calm yourself! The soldiers over there still have no idea what‘s happening. We can’t let this news leak out. We’re not ready… they’re also not ready."

Guang Zhen suppressed his mounting anger and frustration, slumped to the sandy floor, and started glugging down the Lao Bai Gan like it was plain water.

Yao Yuan felt the same way, but he was more rational than Guang Zhen. He asked for the second-lieutenant to sit down and asked, "Tell me in detail the entire process. How many people know about this? You can talk softly instead of whispering; they are quite a distance away." Yao Yuan didn’t forget to pass the second-lieutenant a bottle of Lao Bai Gan.

After downing a healthy sip of the hard liquor, color finally returned to the second-lieutenant’s face. Then he slowly said, "About half an hour ago, the super-distance electromagnetic radar sounded the alarm. Only five people were stationed at the surveillance center because it was already after working hours. It was almost time for the change of shift. We were shocked beyond belief when it happened. We thought it was a kink in the system, you know how things are…"

Yao Yuan nodded. "Yes, it’s caused by the twin stars. The electromagnetic field around the planet occasionally acts up because the two stars are so close to each other…"

The second-lieutenant nodded to show his agreement before continuing, "After we checked the system, we realized it showed… it showed a lot of suspicious data. All of it pointed towards the fact that a high mass density space entity had appeared outside of our solar system and was flying towards us with a slow speed.

"By then, there was already a bad feeling sitting in our guts. After some calculations, we’ve confirmed the mass density of the entity is about one-thousandth of the sun’s mass density. And its speed was slowly increasing even though the acceleration wasn’t fast. However, based on the central mainframe’s calculations, when it collides with the sun in about three years, its mass density will have increase to about one-tenth of the sun. This… this is the same set of data we had when we were back on Earth!"

Yao Yuan was silently ruminating over the plausibility of the reality revealed to him. Before they left Earth, he did order the Black Star Unit to scrounge up the research data on the neutron star from every country’s research lab. The data was later stored in the central mainframe, viewable by those past entry level ranking for both Academy and Barracks. Therefore, the second-lieutenant before him should be familiar with the data. In other words… if the machines and data had nothing wrong, then what he said was mostly true.

"This news…" As Yao Yuan said those words, his mouth was filled with bitterness. He grabbed the bottled liquor and downed it. The Lao Bai Gan chilled his mouth but burned on its way down like a wildfire tearing through his body. Strangely enough, it mirrored his feelings then. He had just been dumped and now this thing had to make its appearance. He was so close to murdering someone.

"Keep this news to yourself. Follow the confidentiality clause because this information is for S-level information…" Yao Yuan finished.

The second-lieutenant was shocked. S-level information was akin to the secrecy surrounding information like the Hope’s atomic bomb code and storage location. Exposing such information would lead to execution without due process. The second-lieutenant nodded in quick succession to show that he understood the severity of the situation.

Yao Yuan took a deep breath and said, "We still need further confirmation regarding this development. We can’t leave everything to machines and devices. This time… this time we must have definite evidence. Alright, from now on, your team will be on 24-hour alert. Alongside the surveillance center’s other two teams, you’ll set up a surveillance rotation to keep an eye on the neutron star fragment. Any and all updates must be sent my way, any and all updates. Do you understand, Second-Lieutenant?"

The second-lieutenant quickly straightened himself, saluted, and said, "Yes, Sir!" He didn’t say anything more to Yao Yuan. He turned to head towards the surveillance center that was in the middle of the new capital.

Then Yao Yuan turned towards Guang Zhen. "Ol’ Wong, we must keep the lid on this sensitive information. I will have the related astronomers and scientists start researching the data. Also, there is something bugging me about this sudden development. We can’t leave this new planet because of numerical data, I need more physical evidence!"

Guang Zhen looked at him in confusion. "What evidence do you need? A giant mass density is not enough?"

Yao Yuan shook his head vehemently. "Of course not! This is merely data collected through surveillance devices. Actually, after we left Earth, I have been entertaining this thought: what is the purpose of the alien civilization sending the neutron star fragment? If they wanted to wipe us out, they could have aimed the fragment at Earth itself. Isn’t that more convenient? Why must they go through the trouble of having the fragment appear beyond the solar system and then have it slowly plummet towards the sun?

"Furthermore, we can’t know for sure whether this is a neutron star. Based on our current scientific knowledge, a neutron star is an impossible entity! Therefore… is it not possible that this is just a ploy made up by an alien civilization that wants to take over our home planet but doesn’t want to or isn’t capable of fighting a war with us?

"That’s why…"

Determination shone in Yao Yuan’s eyes as he said, "I must see this neutron star fragment for myself!"