Light Speed ​​War

Chapter 11: The 4.22 Meeting

April 17, 2049 AD, a night of full moon.

Fifteen high-energy particle colliders have been deployed in lunar synchronous orbit.

Each circular collider is approximately 300 kilometers long and uses helium-3 as its coolant. The particle collision exits of the colliders are pointed towards the Moon.

"Initiate collisions with the collider," the supreme commander of the Earth Federation fleet ordered.

So the collider started operating, and the two proton beams moved in opposite directions. With each revolution, they gained more energy and their speed increased.

However, none of the collider proton beams made any further progress. As if time had been precisely calculated, the Moon, the nearest celestial body that humanity has long gazed upon, suddenly unleashed its power, as if whipped, and began a rapid, spinning motion similar to a top. From Earth, the Moon's surface appears dark due to its rapid rotation, creating the illusion of a dark cavity within the Moon, while the outer ring remains bright.

The gravitational imbalance caused by the moon's violent rotation travels at near the speed of light, tearing the 15 colliders into fragments. Many of these fragments then crash directly onto the lunar surface, creating a meteor shower in the lunar sky. Some fragments were ejected tangentially from their orbits and plunged into the darkness of space.

Perhaps Gaia wasn't in a hurry to destroy humanity; she controlled the moon's rotation speed very well, and the changing gravity seemed to have no effect on Earth. Or perhaps Gaia used some kind of remote anti-gravity technique.

"Warning! Warning! 248 pieces of debris are heading towards Earth!"

"Attention all cruiser carrier groups, prepare for interception combat! Activate orbital space-based laser weapons and ground-based laser weapons to intercept these fragments!"

Various types of warships in near-Earth orbit are busy preparing to shatter any debris that may invade Earth.

"Aim, fire!"

Beams of laser light appeared in the sky, shattering the debris. Smaller fragments entered Earth's atmosphere, transforming into a spectacular meteor shower. Some slightly larger fragments turned into small fireballs, hurtling towards the ground, only to be struck again by ground-based laser weapons, scattering into even smaller sparks that disappeared in mid-air just before reaching the ground. Occasionally, a few sparks would strike the ground, forming only small craters less than two meters in diameter.

Fortunately, the interception was successful, and humanity avoided a catastrophe similar to an asteroid hitting Earth.

Humans on Earth cheered and applauded, celebrating the successful interception.

However, it seems that humanity is celebrating too soon.

Suddenly, the moon stopped rotating, then slowly turned from white to red, then accelerated to orange, yellow, green, cyan, and blue, finally settling on purple after ten minutes—a purple moon! The purple moon suddenly contracted and expanded, and a strange, invisible killing intent filled the world.

1.3 seconds later, 80 billion people on Earth, whether in near-Earth orbit or on Earth, simultaneously felt a strange vibration somewhere inside their brains and experienced inexplicable changes in their bodies. Many then collapsed. The survivors were terrified, and many, overwhelmed by shock, went insane.

This bizarre event has resulted in the deaths of nearly 1 million people worldwide!

Later research on the lives and genes of the deceased showed that their genetic defects were more severe than those of normal humans.

The Moon's Gaia is actually selecting humanity! Considering the rise and fall of several civilizations on Earth, this isn't surprising. Gaia created humanity and has been continuously modifying human genes to make us stronger. And Gaia has never given up on this for 6 million years.

Earth Day, April 22, 2049 AD.

The Earth Federation Academy of Sciences' conference center was packed with 150,000 people. Besides all the scientists from the academy, the highest-ranking officers of the Earth Federation Fleet, military strategists, sociologists, historians, and others were present. They were all discussing the future of humanity.

On the holographic screen on the conference center's stage, a video was playing depicting the collider being torn apart, debris colliding with Earth, the moon going berserk causing massive global human deaths, and the resulting horrific scenes. Everyone was once again stunned into silence.

"Commander-in-Chief Eisen, do we still have the capability to build 18 more high-energy particle colliders?" Zhou Yuan broke the silence.

"Dean Zhou, what do you mean? Are we going to send the collider to the moon?" Eisen asked, his face full of doubt. Almost everyone present was as confused as Eisen about Zhou Yuan's words.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to introduce our outstanding scientist, Academician Wenming."

At this moment, a ring of bright light illuminated around Wenming's chair, indicating his location, while his face was displayed on a large screen on the conference stage.

Naturally, there was another wave of amazement; he was so young, many people murmured.

"Academician Wen, could you please share your ideas with everyone for their reference?" Zhou Yuan looked at him with an encouraging and appreciative gaze.

"Yes," after a slight pause, the floating chair of Civilization automatically turned around, and Civilization looked around.

"Gentlemen, we know the terrible price humanity paid five days ago, which is why my deterrence plan has been brought forward. The deterrence plan I mentioned earlier was to destroy the sun to deter Gaia on the moon. However, gentlemen, the deterrence plan is merely a byproduct of our plan. Multiple observations show that the sun is precisely at the center of the 'light speed barrier.' Our sun seems to have been acting as an accomplice in some way, trapping us. Only by destroying the sun can we escape the 'light speed barrier.'" Many people were hearing this argument from civilization for the first time, and like in the previous meetings, they were stunned.

"Commander-in-Chief Eisen, according to Academician Mei Fan and his team's calculations, we only need 18 colliders to destroy the sun. This is because the artificial black holes created by the colliders act as triggers, causing a series of collapse reactions in the sun. Therefore, compared to the moon, we don't need many colliders to destroy the sun."

"Academician Wen, even if everything you say succeeds—the deterrence plan, destroying the sun, and breaking through the barrier—how will we survive in outer space? Keep in mind, our current warships only reach three percent of the speed of light," a scientist questioned.

"Personally, I think there are several feasible solutions to this problem, or multiple solutions can be implemented together. First, increase the top speed of our warships, faster than light would be even better, for example, by researching warp drive technology or antimatter engines, etc. Second, download our individual consciousness and then upload it to DNA clones, that is, cloned life forms. We are still ourselves. If we combine this with deep cryogenics, that is, 'hibernation,' the effect will be even better. From this point of view, as long as the resources for cloning life are sufficient, we will achieve immortality. However, this requires amending the current laws. Everyone, please note that the above premise is that the resources for cloning life must be sufficient. The third point can be satisfied incidentally. Third, after destroying the sun, let Earth leave the solar system, and Earth will become our spaceship!" The civilization's ideas were all so bold and shocking.

"Letting the Earth leave is certainly a good idea, but how can it be achieved?"

"We will build about 10 Earth planetary engines and deploy them in various parts of the world. The combined force generated by the engines will deflect the Earth off its orbit. Once it is off its orbit and avoids the influence of other planets, the Earth will be able to leave the solar system. However, this will take a long time, estimated to be 680 years."

"Okay, even if Earth carries us away, it will still take us a very long time to reach another star system."

Civilization pondered for a moment, "You're right. We could do this: once Earth breaks free from the barrier, we can build near-light-speed or faster-than-light warships and abandon Earth. Alternatively, we could adopt a compromise: we could build a large number of warships or massive mobile space cities now, take all of humanity with us, abandon Earth, and go to break through the barrier and find a suitable habitable planet?"

"That's a good idea too," everyone agreed.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let me summarize my points. First, we need to build a collider that can destroy the sun. Second, we must either move away from Earth or build a large number of warships or mobile space cities. Third, we must research and improve the propulsion systems of our current spacecraft to achieve or exceed the speed of light. Fourth, the above three points require a great deal of resources and manpower, so we need to amend the current laws to allow humans to replicate life. However, we need you all to come up with a way to avoid the catastrophic consequences of abusing life replication technology."

"Gentlemen, regarding the issue of replicating life forms, I think I can offer some constructive suggestions," said renowned anthropologist Maria.

"I categorize the issue of cloned life forms into four laws. First, the original human being and all its clones cannot coexist; only one can exist at a time, ensuring the uniqueness of the living being. Second, the consciousness of the original human being is the source of the consciousness of all clones; all clones of the original being are deprived of the right to upload/download/transplant their consciousness, ensuring the uniqueness and purity of the original's consciousness. This also forces clones to quickly learn and adapt to their environment, which is beneficial to the overall upward development of human civilization. Third, the cumulative time that an original human being and all its clones exist in the world cannot exceed a certain limit, such as one thousand years. After this period, the original's consciousness will be completely destroyed." The deletion ensures the fresh blood and sustainable development of human civilization. It's important to emphasize that this cumulative time does not include the time the original and its clones are in 'hibernation'. Fourth, all clones are deprived of the rights to love, reproduce, and form families. This requires that if the original chooses to clone, both the original and subsequent clones must make self-sacrifices to avoid global chaos, such as ethical and moral issues. Of course, to incentivize all originals and their clones to contribute to human civilization, reward and punishment measures can be implemented, such as contributing points. Reaching a certain point grants more survival time, like advancement. However, as mentioned in point three, a maximum time limit must be set.

"Okay," "Not bad," "Very good," "I think it's good," everyone agreed in unison.

Zhou Yuan and Wenming nodded involuntarily, showing great admiration.

"Your explanation of the law of life replication is excellent, and I admire it greatly," Civilization exclaimed in praise. "However, I would also like to remind you that, in addition to the research on light-speed spaceships, we also need to study how the decrease and changes in the speed of light in the outside world once we break free from the barrier will overturn and affect our current observations, such as the actual distances and coordinates of various stars and galaxies."

“We can design our own method for positioning in space, which involves establishing a moving local stellar coordinate system centered on our spacecraft or fleet. This system would take into account the decrease and changes in the speed of light in outer space, the relative speeds of galaxies, and the speed and direction of the spacecraft. We can then construct a large, dynamic galactic spatial coordinate system using continuous local stellar coordinates. In short, in the initial stages after breaking through the barrier, we can only proceed cautiously and observe as we go,” astronomer Lyle suggested. “After all, due to the existence of the ‘speed of light barrier,’ what we see now may not be the truth.”

“Academician Lyle makes sense,” Zhou Yuan continued, raising his voice slightly. “There’s another point. Because the speed of light in our space is lower than the speed of light outside, our solar system is like a ‘dark zone.’ If an extraterrestrial civilization were to observe our solar system from the outside, they wouldn’t be able to detect it. Perhaps they could only detect the existence of gravity. It’s estimated that due to the powerful destructive effect of the ‘light speed barrier,’ even if an extraterrestrial civilization came, they wouldn’t be able to save us or would be wary of the ‘barrier enforcer.’ In other words, this explains the ‘Fermi Paradox,’ but it also requires us to rely on ourselves, to save ourselves, and to break through the barrier ourselves!” Zhou Yuan took a breath. “In other words, you could say that the ‘dark zone’ provides us with a degree of safety, but the accelerating decrease in the speed of light in our space will destroy us. Therefore, I need relevant scientists to provide a theory or theoretical model: why is the speed of light decreasing?”

"Gentlemen, while relocating from Earth is a good plan, it takes too long. Furthermore, if we encounter a hostile advanced alien civilization, Earth will be difficult to defend and escape from," Commander-in-Chief Eisen stated his considerations. "I suggest that our scientists devise a method for near-light or faster-than-light travel as soon as possible. We should build a large number of warships and manned spaceships or mobile space cities. Of course, the deterrence plan, genetic modification, and the laws of life replication must also be implemented immediately!"

This meeting will be forever remembered and passed down through human civilization, and it will be known to later generations as the "April 4.22nd Meeting" or the "Earth Day Meeting".