Deep Space Wandering Fleet-Chapter 540 - 537: Gravitational Pull Scheme (5000 words!)

Ding Peng’s gaze drifted toward the distant horizon, where not a single star was to be seen, just a dim void where people would have to survive and develop for a long time.

At this moment, the male voice on the television also soared in unison, "...When the flames of the Planet Engines shine in this expanse of sky, we will finally step onto the path of a Level 4 Civilization!"

Many people cheered loudly and clapped their hands in celebration. Even other geniuses selected from the Virtual World, accustomed to this world or not, were raising their glasses in celebration, wishing to contribute their own strength to this cause.

But few knew that the beginning of any venture is always promising. Especially grand projects like this one—if there weren’ t a hopeful future ahead, who would muster up the courage to undertake it?

The government hadn’t disclosed how long the project would ultimately take...

Yet, when nearly twenty million people had spent a staggering amount of points and a hundred years on a journey, reveling in the arrival at their destination and the beginning of a new journey, they didn’t realize that nearly three thousand years of hard times were waiting for them...

The loud cheers of now might be the last cheers for the next three thousand years.

They would have to repeat the same work until death.

The 15,000 Planet Engines that humanity was responsible for were like 15,000 mountains pressing down on the entire civilization, forcing countless people to abandon their current professions and throw themselves into the vast ocean of construction projects.

Their entire lives would be a struggle with excavators and drillers, flattening circular mountains with these tools.

From the initial cheers and laughter, they would gradually become numb, then carry their deep despair into their graves...

The training of talents for future generations would also be greatly skewed in this direction.

A large proportion of engineers would emerge, many entertainment-related professions would be abolished. Even many scientists would be forced to give up their work, as the civilization could no longer afford to provide resources for their experiments.

No passion can last three thousand years. The first generation passed away in silence, having struggled for their beliefs and ideals all their life, while the second generation had to accept the now established status quo and keep fighting due to societal inertia...

The third generation still did the same things, unable to feel the original ambition and ardor that people had when they first arrived here.

This societal inertia would slowly deplete and then the fourth, fifth, sixth generations...

Even if a generation was born every fifty years, it would take 40 to 60 generations of people to endure these thousands of years.

No enthusiasm can sustain 40 generations to repeat the same work; they open their eyes to this world with no stars, no brightness, just huge Planet Engines spewing out plasma sparks, until they die, still building the Planet Engines.

Even the most beautiful rainbow, viewed for a lifetime, would become an exceedingly monotonous and boring thing.

But they had to spend their lives on this task—and take it seriously. The current robotic systems were not capable of independently constructing such massive structures as Planet Engines. A large workforce was necessary to operate and maintain the entire system.

Especially when there was no survival pressure; no one was forcing them, and there were no external enemies in this place.

The only mental support was the possibility of becoming a Level 4 Civilization.

However, the benefits of becoming a Level 4 Civilization belonged to all of humanity, to future generations, not to themselves.

"People have to maintain their work spontaneously, and ’spontaneously’, for us, is nothing short of a distant dream."

"So, my dear captain, let’s not think about the progress of the Tos Civilization just yet, nor whether they can hold on. The future outlook on our end is unreliable. Even though everyone’s enthusiasm is high now, the long stretch of time always grinds away all passions."

"They will gradually become lazy."

"The entire project duration is too long, so prolonged that it makes us, a short-lived species, feel despair."

"Will we die if we don’t work? No, we won’t die! The stress of work is just too insignificant, and we cannot possibly force them to work by exploiting labor..."

At that moment, the Planet Fortress had arrived at its designated location.

Having just emerged from the curvature bubble, both parties immediately dispatched a large number of scientific experts to conduct on-site investigations, a process expected to last one month.

Various large-scale nuclear fusion illumination bombs with megaton TNT equivalence sparkled in the starry sky, these illumination bombs acting like little suns, temporarily brightening this dim universe.

After that, people would face the choice of whether to stay or return.

If they decided to stay, both civilizations would unload a vast array of engineering machinery from the Planet Fortress and begin the official project. Of course, unless something special occurred, the prevailing opinion was to stay.

However, Zhang Yuan and a small group of others cast their worried gaze further into the distant future.

In their discussions over these past few days, they increasingly felt that people might be overestimating their resolve and the grandeur of human ambition.

The atmosphere was too optimistic, indeed far too optimistic. The plans laid out by the New Human Government had significant flaws, especially regarding personnel mobilization...

"When the time comes, if you slack off a little, and I slack off a little, the whole project schedule will be delayed. If you slack off again, and I slack off again, the whole civilization immediately loses its vigor and spirit. Although everyone knows that this project is greatly beneficial for humanity, it remains the case that... humans are still a self-serving species, after all."

Optimism is a good thing. But too much optimism can lead to overestimating oneself.

Does ’The Sun Never Sets Empire’ want to weaken? The Sun Never Sets Empire does not want to weaken, the officials and nobles of The Sun Never Sets Empire do not want to weaken, and the common people definitely don’t want to weaken.

Do Americans want to weaken? Americans don’t want to weaken either; nobody wants to weaken.

"However, the weakening of a nation or a civilization is not merely due to external challengers, a powerful competitor pushing them out of the race. More often, it is due to internal reasons..."

"...It’s because their society, their system, policies, and the spiritual state of the masses can’t keep up with the times that competitors find an opportunity to exploit."

"Our civilization is the same. A civilization is dynamic and ever-changing, not static. Our policies should evolve with the times to keep our civilization moving forward. But now, there’s an invariant, which is the need to persist with this massive project, and it’s causing considerable trouble for future policies..."

Faced with the lengthy, several-hundred officials’ joint proposal, the upper echelons of these civilizations were all in a state of mild bewilderment and had called a special conference for this issue.

In the end, the Captain sighed and said, "Well then, Mr. Zhang Yuan, do you have any better suggestions? We cannot force workers to do thousands of years of labor; otherwise, this government would become a dictatorship and would be overthrown sooner or later."

Zhang Yuan replied with a smile, "Of course, I have suggestions. The best method is to shorten the duration of the project. Reduce the workload from two War Stars to one, everyone can consult alternative plan 17."

Alternative plan 17 was a proposal designed by Zhang Yuan’s good friend, the physicist Professor John.

The standard plan was to build two Planet Fortresses, one placed at a distance of 120-200 astronomical units to observe the collision of neutron stars, and the other to interfere with the mutual orbiting of the two neutron stars in order to shorten the collision time.

Otherwise, humans would have to wait over a hundred thousand years to witness the collision of neutron stars, a time far too vast.

A hundred thousand years is absolutely unrealistic for humans. Even the Tos People, with much longer lifespans, cannot wait that long.

"Therefore, this Planet Fortress meant to shorten the collision time of the neutron stars is absolutely essential."

"But, can the War Star that’s to be placed at 120 astronomical units be spared, avoiding construction?"

Professor John’s backup plan number 17, after meticulous calculations, concluded that under certain specific conditions, constructing just one Planet Fortress would be sufficient.

According to current astronomical observations, there is no suitable planet at 120 astronomical units. And the best devices for observing neutron star collisions should be built on a planet, as that greatly increases the chances of obtaining the necessary data.

Is it possible to move a planet to 120 astronomical units without building planetary engines? freewёbnoνel.com

Of course, it is!

The answer is... Use the massive gravitational pull of the planet where a Planet Fortress must be built to drag another planet over!

If humans are to build at least one Planet Fortress, then let it serve multiple purposes. First, use its own gravity to influence the motion of another planet. When the other planet is brought to the target orbit of 120 astronomical units, the second objective would be to engage in three-body motion with neutron stars, or in some other way, to shorten the orbital period of the two neutron stars around each other.

The gravitational pull between planets is like that of two magnets attracting each other, capable of forming a power source for one another.

Let’s take the former Earth-Moon binary star system as an example; it’s thanks to gravity that they form a system.

The Earth-Moon system isn’t simply about the Moon revolving around Earth, it’s both Earth and Moon orbiting around a common barycenter of the Earth-Moon system, which, due to the larger mass of Earth and the smaller mass of the Moon, is located approximately 4800 kilometers from the Earth’s center and is enveloped by Earth, giving the appearance that the Moon is simply revolving around Earth.

Once a large number of planetary engines are installed on Earth, causing Earth to deviate from its orbit, the Moon would also come along, and it’s not possible to shake it off in a short period of time.

Similarly, installing engines on the Moon to make it move would also disturb the motion of Earth.

If one really wants to undertake "Wandering Earth," using the Moon as a constant gravitational source to pull Earth along is a credible plan, especially since Earth’s thin crust couldn’t withstand those powerful planetary engines.

And that’s exactly what plan number 17, which Mr. Zhang Yuan and others recommend, entails. Building just one War Star, starting it up to pull another planet, forcibly attracting it to change its orbit.

This way, humans would not need to build a second Planet Fortress; instead, all sorts of observation devices could just be installed on this Big Ice Ball.

"If we could halve the project deadline, it would undoubtedly be good news for us."

These officials all showed contemplative expressions, the plan sounded good, but there was no doubt that the technical difficulty had increased by an order of magnitude.

The motion of a planet isn’t like driving a car; you can’t just decide to turn left or right. With its huge inertia, changing from a left turn to a right turn could take a hundred years!

To influence the motion of another planet, its own inertia must be utilized, and precise calculations are needed; a collision might happen by mistake, and that’s not an exaggeration!

A scientist raised an eyebrow and spoke slowly, "Mr. Zhang, in plan number 17, the chosen Big Ice Ball is quite large, a full two thousand kilometers in diameter. Although it has low density and mass... to have the Big Ice Ball follow our Planet Fortress, both must be close enough for gravity to be significant enough for the plan to succeed."

"In over five hundred years, the two planets will be at their closest, offering a chance for gravitational pull. So, our Planet Fortress would best shift its orbit to the same level within five hundred years..."

"But if the two planets are too close... it’s too dangerous! The planets would no longer orbit each other, but rather follow one after the other in succession."

"Our War Star needs to be fast enough, the planet engines powerful enough; otherwise, under the influence of gravity, the distance between them will keep decreasing, and they might just collide, then it would all be over!"

Mr. Zhang Yuan smiled and said, "Yes, that’s exactly why it’s a motivation for all humans to work hard! If they don’t put in the effort, the two planets might just collide!"

"This is pressure-driven work. Without this pressure, such a huge project could drag on indefinitely. Who could ensure that it’d be completed on time and in full over thousands of years?"

Everyone was momentarily stunned.

Mr. Zhang Yuan continued, "However, this oppression is still far from sufficient. We need to expand a portion of the population, especially a population explosion at the beginning of the project, reaching over one hundred million."

"One hundred million?" The captain frowned in thought. Previous plans had also called for population expansion, but not to such an extent.

Another professor who supported the plan picked up the thread and replied, "Plan number 17 has a very tight deadline, much tighter than any other plan. Without a population explosion, our industrial capacity won’t be up to standard."

"On the other hand, after a massive population expansion, our current spaceships won’t fit so many people... Or rather, after fitting that many people, they would become rather uncomfortable. Many would have to live underground, and at that point, being able to actually see the ’Big Ice Ball’ trailing behind would intensify the feeling of oppression."

"But..."

A member of the government think tank questioned, "With such a large population, it will be very difficult to escape when the time comes... We don’t have enough Amoeba Points, there are not enough transport ships available for rent, and in the end, only forty million people can be transported."

Mr. Zhang Yuan explained, "Your question is good, but don’t forget that people age and die. Over a period of one thousand four hundred years, with proper planning, the final population can be reduced to below forty million."

The member immediately countered, "But that would lead to serious aging and various other problems. An aging society will have an extremely limited labor force. We might even have to involve the elderly in work, postponing retirement! This will cause a multitude of societal issues!"

The room fell silent for a moment, contemplating whether to spend over three thousand years slowly working on the project, with an unpredictable future— perhaps even taking four or five thousand years, or risking the project being abandoned halfway through. Even with the advanced fields of the New Civilization History, it is impossible to predict things three thousand years in the future.

Alternatively, the work could be cut in half, but that would likely mean enduring a prolonged aging crisis, with the population feeling pressured and full of complaints.

Mr. Zhang Yuan shook his head and sighed softly, "There’s no way to have a perfect solution. With a population of one hundred million, spending four hundred years working a little harder, perhaps increasing the hours of work, we’d need to complete about 40-50% of the project and then leave the rest to future generations."

"Achieving a Fourth-level Civilization is not so simple. Hardship is always part of it."

"With this entire combination of strategies, the project deadline is roughly around one thousand four hundred years. So we can agree with the Huantai Civilization that after one thousand four hundred years, some transport ships will be leased to carry our population to a place more than one light year away. Including the hundred years that have already passed, that’s a total of one thousand five hundred years," he stated.

"If human fleets come to the trade markets after this time, we could also give them information about Curvature Technology or simply let them sell this information in the trade markets. Ah, if our civilization fails to complete the plan, halts progress, then let the other branches of humanity advance..."

This feeling was quite bitter, and everyone knew exactly what Mr. Zhang Yuan was alluding to...

It actually made a lot of sense.

But in the end, how should people choose?

Should they pick a plan that can be completed in one thousand four hundred years or one that lasts three to four thousand years?

This was a matter of choosing between prolonged pain or short-term pain.

One thousand four hundred years definitely involved risks and hardships, like extending daily work hours to ten hours even with a population of one hundred million facing a massive project.

All sorts of less important jobs would be abolished, and people could no longer afford to leisurely enjoy things like robot war games— the government couldn’t allocate resources for that.

And the plans for three to four thousand years... they were too long and impossible to plan for. There might be conflicts with the Tos Civilization or other greater uncertainties during that time, which are unpredictable.

Whether the plans could be implemented at all was also a question.

Deep down, Mr. Zhang Yuan did not believe that humanity, even if they completed the project sluggishly, would be able to advance any further.

Sinking Civilizations at Level 4 existed in the Milky Way too...