Age of Cosmic Exploration, 1

by Zhttty

  Without replying, Yao Yuan turned to Xiao Bai. "Xiao Bai, you're our medic. Then I assume you know about reactions that happen during pharmaceutical drug synthesis. This should be up your alley, right?

  Xiao Bai laid his out hands in surrender. "There's no link between the two, Cap'n. Being a medic doesn't mean that I know pharmaceutical chemistry. If you want to know about emergency aid or surgery procedures, those I can tell you about, but if you're going to ask me about synthesizing drugs, then I'm afraid I'm of no help."

  After some hearty guffaws, Yao Yuan straightened himself and said, "Indeed, I am just the same as you all. If you were to ask me about steelmaking, qualitative law, or drug synthesis, I too could only tell you the basics. We are all equally in the dark about these things, but it is not something to be ashamed of. Everyone has their own expertise. We are living in the information era now; knowledge has gotten very specialized. Yes, basic information could be easily gleaned off the internet, but for specialized knowledge, we will need specialized experts.

  It is impossible to tell what will happen in space. What we will encounter? Let us imagine a scenario where somewhere on this spaceship, a component has broken down. What would we do? The answer would to be repair or replace it, but how do we repair it, what do we replace it with, and what if we run out of the necessary parts and need to cast some new ones? These are questions we have to concern ourselves with. Furthermore, let's say we do find a new planet. What's next? Start by building huts and setting rocks? I'm sorry, but I have no intention of restarting from the Stone Age, so…

  We need people! People with talents! Scholars, scientists, technicians, and able-bodied men and women! We need to think of longevity here. It is these people that will be the force that will keep this ship running!"

  Stressing his point, Yao Yuan stood up to address everyone present. "Ideally we should first assemble a scientific community, but for that, we will need a search and rescue task force which is impossible to form with only fifteen of us. It'll be a pain locating them, not to mention the difficulty in convincing them to join us without a stable base to back us. Furthermore, as the number of civilians we rescue increases over time, we will need armed forces in place to safeguard both our and their safeties, to prevent chaos around us, and most importantly, to prevent sabotage to this ship.

  Therefore, we first need to draft a set of rules! To maintain control within a chaotic world, this is necessary, and of course, we need to make sure that these laws aren't oppressive… Under this lawful system, we will need to erect a commanding center. This is so that people under us won't create dissent and the army we recruit will heed our orders. We need to appear constitutionalized and systematic, and not as a disposable bunch of special ops agents.

  Therefore, we will first return to China to recruit about twenty soldiers. It goes without saying that they must still be disciplined soldiers that haven't turned on the public in these desperate times. This small group shall form the base of our law enforcement, and after that, this secret base shall be made off limits. Other than the fifteen of us, everybody else will be denied entry and trespassers shall be executed. It sounds harsh, but we are aiming for effectiveness here, so nothing short of the death penalty will work. Next, we need to set up our ranks, but they can’t too high because we need to create a façade that there's a central committee that we still report to. After that, a month will be spent to recruit about two hundred members of law enforcement. We must arrange these members into specific ranks and file according to their ability. This will ensure a basis for building a civilized, systematic community.

  With an official center constructed, we can launch into search and rescue operations as well as military expansion. Civilians rescued will be located outside in the valley, and it will best to expand our law enforcement to a number of a thousand by then. Three months will be allocated for this effort. After that, we will need to focus our efforts on securing materials, food, and supplies, but regarding the amount and type of supplies, we will still need consultation from our scientific community, so that can come later.

  From henceforth, my rank is major and Wong is captain. Everyone else will be ranked as second lieutenant… Zhang Heng, even though you're not an official member of the Black Star Unit, we count you as an honorary one, so you'll be taking the rank of sergeant. However, you'll need to quit your drug addiction first and undergo some necessary physical and firearms training. When you've mastered those, you'll be promoted to an official Black Star and a second lieutenant. Anyone have any issues?"

  Zhang Heng was delightfully surprised by this arrangement because he originally thought that he would be abandoned after he had outlived his use. He even feared that he might be silenced, so the fact that he was given the rank of sergeant was way beyond his expectations. Furthermore, when considering that even Yao Yuan only had the rank of Major even though he was the leader, the rank of sergeant was already high enough. He gladly accepted this arrangement.

  Settling that, Yao Yuan continued, "One last thing. I've never said I'm a saint, but we must always remember our roots… So, I only have one request, and that is for the eventual population on the spaceship to be at least a fifty-percent Chinese."

  Liu Bai thought back to their initial meeting under that shop basement. He felt heartened that Yao Yuan had issued the command to gather, because everything had occurred according to his plans. Noah Two might’ve been the last hope of humanity, and Yao Yuan was the one who brought that hope into reality.

  In the next few months, the Black Star Unit was divided into three main task forces. One was responsible for rescue operations of academics. Another was focused on rounding up survivors around the world. Of course, necessary care was taken to ensure that the survivors that were selected were of sound mind and body. The last team was responsible for collecting supplies.

  Liu Bai was in the rescue task force. The missions weren't all successful because of the over one hundred targets, they only managed to rescue about twenty. Most of them had died while others had already left earth previously. However, these twenty were all scholars of great importance in their respective fields. The world's remaining treasured minds!

  Yao Yuan's plan of first establishing a systematic front had worked wonders in these past months. With a clear-cut hierarchy, the soldiers knew of a chain of command and the citizens knew that there was the law to adhere to. This attracted the scholars to join because they knew that they could conduct their research in peace.

  The originally somewhat hollow mirage of a government had filled out into a full-fledged regiment which had 1200 law enforcement officers, about 10,000 citizens, 7000 technical workers, as well as 600 respected members of the scientific community.

  After Liu Bai descended the elevator, he strode towards the giant door at the end of the corridor. As he approached, the thirty soldiers on guard duty saluted him. Even though they all knew of their second lieutenant, Liu Bai was still requested to present his keycard. They knew that protocol had to be followed.

  Even though the proximity of spaceship was still off limits to the general public, access had already been granted to scientists, technicians, and a selected pool of military personnel at this point. There was no strict implementation of rules, but thanks to a sense of sovereignty, the community had started to self-regulate.

  After confirming his identity, Liu Bai went into the secret base. The enormous spacecraft that greeted him was still an unfamiliar sight. He wondered when and if he would get used to its enormity. He took a jeep ride to the cabin door and after a short trip on its inner rail locomotive that had been recently reactivated, he arrived at central command.

  Even though he was still outside the door, he could hear loud arguments coming from within. The sounds of an altercation gave him a shock and he quickened his step. As he went in, he saw Yao Yuan in the middle of trying to pacify a dispute that had erupted within a group of seven or eight elderly gentlemen.

  "Alan, I'm telling you, there is a glaring
mistake in your calculation! What analysis did you use for the acceleration calculation? I'm guessing band analysis[1], but that is erroneous because you have to consider the effect of refraction caused by the gravitational pull of the neutron fragment's high density. So instead, you have to use…" argued a frail-looking old man in a booming voice that mismatched his appearance.

  Unwilling to back down, Alan gave a fierce counter argument, looking dangerously ready to physically assault his opponent. Waving his data before his opponent's face, Alan replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Of course I've thought of the issue of light refraction! I stand firm on the conclusion of my analysis. I've calculated the speed of acceleration within a specific unit of time through triangulation of the perpendicular intersection of bending point and non-bending point of wavelength using band analysis of the un-refracted light wave at the periphery. How is that wrong? Or do you have a better analytical method, Professor Calum Feta?"

  "As a matter of fact, I do…" retorted Professor Feta.

  As the argument continued, Yao Yuan silently made his way to Liu Bai’s side and asked, "Was the mission successful, Xiao Bai? Were we able to locate the German physicist, Professor Silewei?"

  Liu Bai nodded in confirmation. "Affirmative. He is now safely in our case and he looks very much satisfied with the conditions of the base… By the way, what are they arguing about?"

  Yao Yuan laughed awkwardly before silently disclosing, "They took a few hovercraft trips to the American Astronomical Centre to help pinpoint the date in which the asteroid will near the solar system and thus ascertain our time of departure. But because they couldn't agree on a method, there appeared two camps with two different results. And as you can see, they don't exactly see eye to eye with one another. Alan thinks we should proceed with the warp before the twelfth next month or the risk will drastically increase due to gravitational distortion. Calum, on the other hand, believes we still have two months' time. Who knows why they would have a month's difference in between…"

  Liu Bai smiled, noting that he empathized with the situation. After these experts had settled into their lifestyles around the base, they threw themselves back into work with a fiery passion. It was as if they were working for lost time where their knowledge was suppressed in favor of baser needs. They had new requests and updates almost daily. The effort needed to negotiate this academic diplomacy gave even Yao Yuan an increasing headache.

  "Then what's the plan, Ol' Cap'n? Will it be next month or the month after? I hope Cap'n understands that we are still unable to locate Zhang Heng's father," chimed Liu Bai.

  "I have to be responsible for everyone here, so I think we shouldn't risk it. We'll depart next month. Take this last month to secure as much food, water, and equipment as possible. Also, don't stop looking for the remaining scholars. Send for Ying and tell him to use his sleuthing expertise to aid Zhang Heng. We are going to try all we can to find his father within this last month…"

  "Then finally… we depart!"

  ______________________________________________________________________________

  Footnote:

  1. Analytical apparatus used to measure the minimum distance between products or compute and visualize the areas on products corresponding to a minimum distance within a user-defined range. Has a wide range of uses, including analysis of stock trading trajectory.

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  Chapter13 The Final Days!

  It was the winter of the year 2029 and a troop of two hundred soldiers was making their way towards a nearby city. Upon closer inspection, one could discern that this motorized team was carrying along a hoard of everyday supplies like food and water. It was obvious that it was on supply acquisition detail.

  There were still 15 days left to the date of departure and everyone was on their final leg of supply gathering. By that time, the base was housing about 120,000 people. Of those people, half of them were Asian with the Chinese totaling at 50000. There were also 13000 civilians from the US, 14000 from European countries, and another 12000 from Australia and Canada. Rounding up the population were 9000 so Africans. The academic community had grown to about 900 people, while technical workers such as engineers and smiths were about 300 in number. They were protected by an army about 1500 in size.

  Thankfully, Noah Two was spacious enough to support such a big population. After all, it had been assembled with worldwide corroboration and had taken twelve years of construction with an initial purpose of space colonization. Calling it a spaceship would be a misnomer; it was more precisely a space city. Its size spanned an exact thirty-five kilometers going one direction and 2.4 kilometers going another with a height of three hundred and seventy meters! It was a momentous mechanical accomplishment, one worthy of being called the ninth modern wonder!

  It had a maximum capacity of 120000 people! With enough supplies, it could sustain a population of this size ten years in space!

  However, as Yao Yuan's team had found out, it had ironically been abandoned due to its impressive size. Since warping required an immense supply of force, Noah Two's size was a hindrance. This was not even considering the people that it would have on board during warp! That's why Yao Yuan's initial plan was only to gather 100000 people, but after five months of rescue and selection, they had ended up with 120000 people. Even though they had tightened their selection standards, they didn't really have the heart to turn people away to their deaths. And so in the end, they decided that they would just have to make do with the excess 20000 people.

  Due to this stringent screening process, these 120000 people in general were citizens of good standing. There were no felons and their general level of education was above average. Counting the scientific and technical community, the strength of this population could very well rival that of the best mid-sized countries of the twenty-first century!

  Following this gigantic population was a rise in supply demand. They needed a stock of clean water, food, everyday necessities, and materials that could last them for an extended period in space. Resources were the only things they couldn't skimp on, because these were the things that would be unavailable after they leave Earth. There was no guarantee what they would need in space, and that was why the list of resources had undergone five updates, each time broadening the categories of items they would need. The supply acquisition task force had also increased accordingly from the original fifty people to a staggering four hundred. The one task force had also grown into two, and they had been busy scouring America's major cities for supplies.

  The troop we met at the beginning was such an acquisition unit. The two hundred soldiers were recruited from around the globe from forces of different loyalties, but they were all now subordinates to the unit's leader, Guang Zhen. Guang Zhen's motorized convoy had gone through six other cities already and was on the journey to their last stop before returning to base.

  Based on the freeway sign above him, Guang Zhen could tell that they were thirty kilometers away from their destination. Based on the speed they were going, it would be dark by the time they entered the city. It had been five months since the initial eruption of chaos, but it was still impossible to tell whether the city they were heading into still had rebel hold-outs. Despite their better discipline and equipment, Guang Zhen wouldn't want to risk any casualties if not truly necessary.

  Hence, he made the decision to halt progress and set up camp for the night. Using his walkie-talkie, the order was relayed. "Cease all movement. Units one, two, and three, canvas the area. The rest prepare to set up camp. I repeat…"

  His team dispersed into action. An area was quickly zoned out using their vehicles, and within the quarantined area, tents were erected. Before sunset, a temporary encampment was completed by the freeway. After their perimeter had been cleared, the overall atmosphere of alertness quickly devolved into one of cheer.

  The dinner for the troop that night was scrumptious. This was because even though lots of
shops has already been raided, more concrete storage spaces such as warehouses were safe from vandals. These were treasure troves of valuable supplies. And since some of these perishables wouldn't last the journey back to base, the supply team was never short on upscale food and luxury.

  The menu served by the culinary attachment that night was roasted rib-eye with caviar sauce and fruits dessert. Coupled with deluxe cigars that weren't normally available to these members of military, life was fine.

  Amiable conversations also streamed back and forth within the encampment. Topics of conversation included their families, loved ones, and their hopes for the future. It was Yao Yuan's intention to primarily recruit army officers with family members remaining to foster a sense of belonging to the community they served. Incidentally, this helped bridge strong bonds between these family men. Knowledge that their service in the military granted their family members preferential treatment, like the fact that they wouldn't need to brave the elements in tents but rather in secured residences, also contributed to this cocoon of camaraderie and joy.

  Even Guang Zhen found himself engaged in affable exchanges with his troops.

  Between bites, an African soldier next to him commented, "Second lieutenant, everything's nice with the base, but why is everyone's rank so low? For example, I used to be a navy lieutenant but now I'm just an upper class soldier. The huge demotion surely needs some getting used to, and my friend here, Tom, he's now an ordinary soldier even though before this he was a navy sergeant. He almost chewed my ears off griping about this."

  Guang Zhen laughed off the question, thinking these men weren't really concerned about frivolous matters such as ranking, but he then realized they were all waiting attentively for his explanation. Clearing his throat, he said, "That's because the whole of our military is only one thousand plus large. How could we have so many sergeants or lieutenants? Imagine a unit where everyone's a sergeant and one lieutenant. Or a unit where the leading field officer has subordinates that are all sergeants. It's just impractical, so unless there's an expansion, everyone will be demoted a rank. It can't be helped."