Age of Cosmic Exploration

Time flew by without anyone really noticing. While the memories of the new year party for Year 012 was still fresh in everyone’s minds, the Hope was already prepared to host Year 013’s new year party. In the blink of an eye, the Hope had been away from Earth for thirteen years.

During the new year party, like usual, there were speeches by the leaders. Of course, the focus of the speeches was not empty praises but the conclusion of the past year and hopes for the new year. Every leader’s speech was factual and came with a studied set of information. Therefore, they couldn’t lie. The information was also available online, so they didn’t dare lie lest they got found out.

After the speeches, it was performances put on by the Hope’s talents and then the buffet dinner. The atmosphere of the night was relaxing and happy.

The year 012 was a peaceful year; nothing significant had happened. Be it political, civil, or scientific, it was a year focused on resting and improving. With the bountiful assets available on the Hope, this year was the year where mankind had the most improvement behind the years spent on the new planet.

"...Yes, there is already a shape for the AI. The ones we’re currently ‘raising’ have the intelligence of normal three-year-olds, but it will take another year before they mature into creatures capable of logical thinking," Da Bing told the government officials as he swirled the glass of red wine in his hand.

Yao Yuan was very satisfied with this Wang Da Bing standing before him. He was a veritable genius, an electronics genius. Every question that fell into his hands would get resolved in record time. The research on first-level AI, something that would require five to ten years to complete, was finished in a little over a year by the unit led by Da Bing.

This was the precursor for future AIs. After the precursor had been fully raised, the Hope could afford to mass produce AIs. This progress shocked the Academy since Da Bing wasn’t a recorded Whisperer; he was only a normal human being. This was why his name slowly spread. He was even dubbed the Einstein or Newton of the electronics world. His influence was at the same level as the Hope’s current three Whisperers, Ivan, Saburo, and Bo Li. They were the Hope’s best treasures.

After Da Bing explained the progress related to the AI, everyone, including Yao Yuan, smiled satisfactorily. The leader of the manufacturing department asked directly, "Mr. Wang is young, but you have a promising future; you’ll be one for the history books. By the way... after this precursor is completed, is it possible for us to build robots with AI?"

Da Bing answered after some time, "It is definitely possible. After all, AI is only an arrangement of programs through quantum programming. With a suitable robotic body, they can easily control themselves to complete assignments given to them. Plus, they will have a certain degree of intelligence. Simply put, they will be not much different from a normal human being, only they will have better tolerance for repetitious work."

The leader said excitedly, "That is wonderful news. Mr. Wang might not know this, but this past year has had me cornered. Every single station was lacking in manpower, and everyone needed materials like building materials, factory materials, chemical materials, materials to build Space Combat Jet Prototype 013s, and so on and so forth. The manufacturing department has reached its limits. We have the assembly line ready but no people to operate them, since so many of my workers have left their posts to join the universities. Therefore, if there are robots to take over the workload, it would be a giant weight off my shoulders."

"The original purpose of the AI is to help with productivity. It will require one more year..."

While Da Bing was going through his plan for the future, the faces of several people there changed and they started to look around left and right.

Yao Yuan was one of the few. Right at that moment, he felt his heart palpitate. It felt like danger, but not quite. Indeed, right at that moment, all the Diviners present felt that alarming sensation. The people who felt it most acutely were Yao Yuan, Zhang Heng, and Eva.

After the feeling passed, the few Diviners started to look for Yao Yuan at the party grounds. Eventually, they gathered at the side of Yao Yuan. Yao Yuan, realizing that something wrong was going on, asked to excuse himself from the crowd. He walked to the fringe of the party to join the group of Diviners. He immediately asked Zhang Heng and Eva, "I felt a sense of danger. Well, not really danger, but something approaching the status of danger. It was something very difficult to describe, but it made my heart race. Was it the same for all of you?"

Zhang Heng, Eva, and the other Diviners nodded. Right then, Ren Tao was pulled by his sister, Chou Yue, to join them, and Xiao Niao, who was in their company, decided to follow.

Yao Yuan immediately explained everything to the two Thinkers and then turned to Eva. "Eva, how do you feel? Do you have any visions?"

Eva hesitated before shaking her head. "No, all I see are normal, uninteresting visions of the future. It doesn’t look like any danger is coming."

Yao Yuan thought about it and agreed. "That was a very weird feeling; it was as if something important of ours was being threatened, but this latest threat was something completely different from the ones before. It was not the danger alarm of a physical assault. This is weird... Ren Tao, Xiao Niao, do you think this means that we’re being observed by some high-level civilizations from far away?"

Ren Tao and Xiao Niao shared a look. Ren Tao shook his head and explained, "The possibility of that is low. First, the Hope is at least one hundred light years away from the nearest sun. This is a black, empty space we’re in. Also, we’ve been here for less than a year, so the source of light on the Hope would have only travelled for one light year in space. The other civilization would require at least more than a hundred years before light source from the Hope could be detected by the nearest of them."

Xiao Niao nodded. "That’s right, light speed is the speed limit in space, that is a universal truth. While the Hope stays here, we’ve been releasing electronic signals and light to all around us, but they travel at most at the speed of light. It will require at least another one hundred years before any civilization has a chance of detecting us... unless there is a civilization one or two light years away from us, but there is nothing around us, so why would there be a space civilization near us? Therefore, the possibility of what you’re suggesting is lower than one over one hundred million."

Yao Yuan considered what the two of them said and agreed with them. The cosmos was simply too big. With the Hope parked at that empty space, it would require at least one hundred years before information about the Hope would reach the nearest solar system. Even if there was a high-level civilization there, they would only get a piece of empty space when they looked over the Hope’s way, since they would have received the information from more than one hundred years ago.

Since it had nothing to do with other civilizations, then what could it be?

"Celestial body."

"Space catastrophe."

Ren Tao and Xiao Niao said at the same time.

"Hmm? What do you mean by that?" Yao Yuan asked with curiosity.

Ren Tao and Xiao Niao again looked at one another and Ren Tao shrugged lazily. Xiao Niao sighed helplessly and explained, "Very simple. If this is not the work of another civilization, the biggest possibility will be the occurrence of some kind of space-tier catastrophe, like the collapse of the sun we experienced when we were in the asteroid base. The Hope might be hundreds of light years away from the nearest sun, but if there is a supernova, we would still be affected by its radioactive rays. Furthermore, if there is something like a black hole, then one hundred light years away is really not that safe."

Yao Yuan’s eyes darkened as his memories went back to when the sun that collapsed while they were still in the meteorite base. The change in the sun brought about catastrophic effects in the solar system, almost causing humanity’s extinction. That was only a small change in the sun, and it was not even an explosion. If there was really going to be a supernova around them, the Hope stopping there was indeed unsafe.

"Understood, I will have the surveillance team increase their observations of our surroundings...

"Hopefully, this time we will have luck on our side. Keep this information to yourself for now to prevent mass hysteria," Yao Yuan added after some thought. "Zhang Heng, you’re the best Diviner among us, so be alert to changes around you. Eva, you’re our only Sage, so no matter what kind of visions you get, you must tell us immediately, even if it might be completely insignificant, understand?

"Let us open our eyes and see where this source of danger will come from this time!"