Epilogue Gaze

Back in the early hours of March 8th, the Dragon's Sea of Dragons. Huge black shadows float on the surface of the sea, with rolling white waves, especially conspicuous in the dark night.

The shadow seemed to sense something, and he looked in the direction of the Splitter Empire, as if he wanted to see through the darkness, but the shadow knew that he couldn't do it.

"Finally, she finished herself."

At this moment, the black shadow did not make any more movements, only staring, staring at his daughter in the depths of the desert whom he had not met several times......

Time passed until the East was white.

After the sound of the crashing waves, a golden whirlpool was left in the light of the morning sun. Soon, the whirlpool was also washed away by the larger waves.

As soon as the morning dawned, as the ships passed by, one of the crew members shouted, "Look! What is that? ”

On the blue sea, there are shiny and crystal white water droplets, like oil dripping in water.

When an experienced old sailor heard the news, he stared at the boat for a long time, and then said slowly: "Boy, I can't say the name of that thing, but I have heard some elders say that the tears of some huge creatures seem to look like that when they drop on the sea. ”

"How big a creature must be to shed such a big tear." The crew asked puzzled.

"Don't forget, boy," said the old sailor, "that we are in the sea of dragons. ”

The ship is gone, and the crystal water droplets dissipate into the sea......

Curse of the Stars

Part 3 Lost Pathos

finish

(Before reading below, it is recommended to review "Written Before Part 2: Another World Episode 1" and "Written Before Part 2: Another World Episode 2", which are at the end of the first and second part of the volume, respectively.)

Written before the fourth part: Another World Episode 3

The "Mule program" (Mule program) is a series of space missions jointly organized and implemented by all countries in the world, the plan is to reach the wormhole that suddenly appeared in Jupiter's orbit, which is expected to take 20 to 30 years, and the first year will cost 8% of the total global GDP, and the follow-up plan is expected to increase by 0.05 percentage points per year.

The "mule project" is divided into three phases.

Phase 1: Overcoming the subject of human hibernation, like cosmic travel in many science fiction movies, humans hibernate in spaceships to survive long interstellar travel and save supplies. At the same time, a space station should be built in the synchronous orbit of Mars as a transit station and supply point to Jupiter's orbit, and subsequent spacecraft can use the gravitational pull of Mars to accelerate to the wormhole. Researchers on Earth also need to seize the time to overcome other technical problems and prepare for the smooth implementation of the follow-up plan.

Phase 2: Launch a probe satellite to approach the wormhole and collect gravitational data. Since wormholes are not rotating celestial bodies such as planets and stars, and there are no synchronous orbits and satellite orbits, they cannot orbit around wormholes like lunar satellites or other planetary exploration satellites. So scientists proposed a safe and feasible plan, build a space station, enter the orbit of Jupiter and "tail" the wormhole under the action of wormhole gravity in the same direction, of course, the distance between the space station and the wormhole must be just right, too close will be sucked into the wormhole, too far away will be left behind, lost in the vast universe. Therefore, the data collected by the exploration satellite can be used by the computer to assist in calculating the perfect distance between the space station and the wormhole, and use artificial intelligence to adjust the speed of the space station in time to ensure that the distance is always just right.

Phase 3: Build a space station and make it "tail" the wormhole. After the first two phases of preparation are completed, the construction of the space station can be started to complete the goal of going to the wormhole - but this is only the beginning, on the one hand, you have to "meet me at zhe gate" with the alien intelligent civilization, and on the other hand, you have to study the wormhole, and even go in and see it yourself. Building a space station is difficult to say, simple and simple, China, the United States and Russia have rich experience in building space stations, but the biggest problem is not technology, but time. The orbit from the Earth to Jupiter is designed according to the different routes, and the relative position of the Earth and the wormhole is changing all the time, the time consumed varies from 2 to 10 years, and if it is a manned spacecraft, the speed is slower, so the supply station of Mars and the acceleration with the gravitational pull of Mars are particularly important, of course, the relative position should also be considered. So the construction of this space station will be extremely slow, it will take at least 12 years. By then, as the technical bottleneck of hibernation is resolved, the space station crew in Jupiter's orbit is expected to be around 20-40 people.

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Remark:

The Mule Project is to be kept absolutely confidential from the public, so that the public does not perceive governments are wasting money and resources on unrealistic, illusory dreams of ascension, so those involved in the project are subject to strict scrutiny and non-disclosure agreements. After 20 years of implementation, or when it is expected to be completed in 1 year, the plan can be announced to the public, and the background of the implementation of the plan can be announced, including the relevant content of the extraterrestrial intelligent civilization.

As for the origin of the name, the word "Mule" (Mule) is very vivid to refer to the spacecraft that transports materials and personnel to space, and the transportation process is scattered, time-consuming and long, which is no different from the mule in reality. In addition, the word "mule" also means "smuggler", which is an apt irony given that the plan is to be kept secret from the public.

Of course, the actual plan is a million times more detailed and complex than this general introduction.

After the implementation of the "Mule Project" began, the countries first began to allocate funds in terms of funds, and the first thing to bear the brunt was the budget that was irrelevant to the current situation, most of which was invested in the space program, but it was still called the original budget name to the outside world due to the need for secrecy. Next, more funds and resources were invested, and for some countries, it did affect the reconstruction work of the disaster area, so major countries such as China and the United States have invested more funds and technical support to ensure the implementation of the plan. When the new and old governments of the country are handed over, the "mule project", as the highest-level handover project, must be unconditionally fully supported and continued, which provides a guarantee for the follow-up promotion of the project plan.

During this period, I can't sort out to you how much money, manpower, and resources have been invested, but everyone who carried out this project has adhered to their own beliefs, cherished the destiny of mankind, and worked hard to fight in their posts.

Finally, 50 years after the official start of the "Mule Project", the project has finally entered a new stage, and the leaders who signed the plan agreement have all passed away, and many scientific researchers and skilled workers who have contributed to the project have not been fortunate enough to see what kind of results the plan will finally present to people. The new era of humanity, which has come out of the "Age of Great Reconciliation", will continue to complete the task given to them by their predecessors - to go to the wormhole!

In 2095, the disasters have long since faded, but the traces they leave behind cannot be erased in many places - especially in people's hearts. For the first time since the end of World War II, the world's total population has experienced a massive decline. A series of natural and geological disasters caused by the gravitational influence of wormholes on the earth have not occurred again for a long time because the earth itself is basically balanced by forces, and the new generation can only learn about those terrible disasters from texts and film and television materials.

In December, the United Nations issued a proclamation to the whole world, completely and openly concealing the public's "mule project" for nearly half a century, and public opinion was in an uproar for a while. I thought that there would be a large-scale demonstration to protest against the government's mobilization to deceive the people, but the old people who have experienced various disasters and the more rational young people have expressed their understanding of the implementation of the "mule project".

"We've experienced so many disasters that we can't let people after us go through them anymore." This was stated in an interview with the media by a survivor who has experienced many disasters. In this way, understanding and tolerance have become the theme of the times, and the "era of great reconciliation" has basically put mankind away from infighting and made people's eyes look farther. There are also some people who cannot understand the actions of governments and call them "liars", but they also fade into the limelight in the appeal of reason.

Subsequently, the extent to which the "mule project" has now been completed was soon made public -

Thanks to the inspiration from some animals and plants, it is easier to overcome human hibernation technology than expected, but in clinical trials, the group of subjects under the age of 35 is basically normal, but the vast majority of subjects over the age of 35 have shown signs of body tissue damage, and the experimenters over the age of 40 have even experienced serious damage to their organs. As the experiment progressed, subjects who hibernate for more than five years, regardless of age, showed varying degrees of damage to their bodies, ranging from skin ulceration to permanent damage to key organs, and technicians had to immediately wake up all subjects who had hibernate for more than five years and were about to reach five years. In subsequent experiments, no matter how much the technology was improved and the equipment used was more advanced, there was no improvement in the age limit and the hibernation time limit. Many experimental data prove that the risk of current hibernation technology increases significantly with age, and the hibernation time limit must be limited to less than five years, and in order to ensure the safety of hibernators, it should be set within three to four years as much as possible. Although it did not meet expectations, it has basically met the time requirements for humans to reach Jupiter's orbit.

The construction of the space station in Mars' geosynchronous orbit took 20 years and was named "Peace-2". In the next 20 years, the earth launched dozens of rockets to directly or indirectly transport the space station component modules to the orbit of Jupiter where the wormhole is located, and five astronauts were transported to the space station with manned spacecraft to cooperate with artificial intelligence to complete the docking work of many components and modules of the space station. Fortunately, everything went smoothly after that, and the space station was successfully completed, named "Minerva", the goddess of the moon, from Roman mythology like Jupiter (the origin of Jupiter's name) and Juno (the name of Jupiter's probe). Since Minerva needs thrusters to adjust its distance from the wormhole, there are regular launch vehicles, space shuttles, or other spacecraft to deliver fuel and other materials.

Now that the Minerva is operational, this massive project, which has lasted for 50 years, is finally coming to an end.

However, the promise of "Meet me at the gate", humanity has done it, so will the alien civilization be the talker?

When the "Mule Project" was still on the design drawings, some people questioned: it will take at least 30-50 years for humans to be able to send themselves to the wormhole. Even if they show up, will their attitudes change as time passes? …… Of course, there are also many people who are optimistic: for the advanced intelligent civilization that has developed to a certain extent, time is not an insurmountable obstacle for them, they don't care and can afford to wait; In addition, this is an invitation made by an extraterrestrial civilization, and if this invitation is not sincere, it is a complete trap, but from the fact that the earth is still surviving, a sincere invitation is more logical; Also, even if there are really no aliens, that message is just a misreading, and the aliens have lost interest and left, the "Mule Project" has also paved the way for humans to study wormholes, and can even use it for interstellar travel, so to speak, there will always be gains.

After the "Mule Project" was announced, the United Nations commissioned governments to select top talents, and planned to form a team of 25 people to be stationed on the space station, responsible for the operation of the space station, and contact with "possible" extraterrestrial civilizations. Of course, the first thing these talents need to be is that they are (preferably) not more than 30 years old, because it will take one to two years to get from Earth to Jupiter at the earliest, and they will also undergo 2 years of professional training as astronauts before departure.

Three of the astronauts have been in space for too long, even if they are wearing spacesuits that protect against cosmic rays and hiding in the space station with anti-radiation effects, they still can't escape the fate of damaged body organs, and they have to use the return capsule to wrap the bodies of the other two astronauts and set off back to Earth. The astronauts put Minerva in the hands of artificial intelligence – which is actually quite reliable. It will be four years at the earliest before the top teams selected on Earth will be stationed on the space station and accept the invitation to "Meet me at the gate".

After that, everything went well.

At the turn of the spring and summer of 2097, the space shuttle carried 25 elites who had been selected through layers and ignited from the Hainan Rocket Launch Center in China! On the same day, China's official media published an article entitled "Don't worry about the road ahead", affirming and encouraging the upcoming contact between the earth civilization and the extraterrestrial civilization, thanking everyone who has silently contributed their efforts and even their lives to the "Mule Project", affirming the positive significance of this project to human development, and wishing this extraterrestrial contact a complete success!

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Minerva (tentative name) space station personnel selection requirements and instructions

1. Must not be more than 30 years old, and be physically and mentally ......;

2. Must have a strong professional level (in no particular order) in one or more of the following fields: Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Information Engineering...... diplomacy, art, literature, ......;

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10. Flight experience is preferred, if there is no flight experience, the next two years will be a variety of training and practical training ......;

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