SFS Chapter 235 Let's get ready to hit the road
Chapter 235 Let's get ready to hit the road
Night fell, the moon shone brightly, and Taylor stood alone by the river, wearing only a single layer of clothing.
A cold wind was blowing, and although it was already late autumn, the temperature here did not feel cold.
Since the start of Project Halo, most of humanity has chosen to live in the Halo world. Except for Io, which was left to serve as the command center for the fleet, Mars, Mercury, and Venus, which was previously destroyed, have all established their own space cities.
These places are not only safer than Earth, but also more convenient to travel to. Therefore, on the current map of the Earth Federation, Earth, the mother planet that has nurtured all of human civilization, has long since become more of an administrative entity than a practical one. In addition to the Earth Federation, major financial institutions also prefer to set up their headquarters on Earth to highlight their irreplaceable position in human society.
As a result, the Earth was given a rare chance to breathe. In just a few decades, the ecosystem has recovered to its original state, and the scenery in various places is even more beautiful. Any one of these places is enough to be regarded as a scenic spot for people to enjoy.
"It seems this era has already rendered you obsolete."
Luo Ji walked slowly from a distance, strolling leisurely.
Taylor, however, didn't turn around and continued to gaze at the starry sky, seemingly lost in thought.
“Those aren’t stars, they’re space outposts, used in the early days for mining or as transportation nodes. Wang Miao even wanted me to use the two big paintbrushes Lin Xuan made to color these places, but I didn’t agree. After all, if you look at a fake sky for too long, you’ll forget what the real world actually looks like.”
As Luo Ji spoke, he had already come to Taylor's side, casually pulled up a chair and sat down, handing Taylor a plate of fried chicken.
"Try it, Kaifeng cuisine. It was passed down from your place hundreds of years ago, but when it came to China, it underwent some localized flavor changes. I think it's still pretty good. When I used to teach at Tsinghua University, there was a restaurant on the street, and I would occasionally go there to eat a few times each semester."
"It's not possible now. Zhuang Yan is very strict. If I want to have a drink, I can only do it secretly under the guise of coming out to see you. Life is really tough."
Taylor didn't say anything, but silently took the fried chicken from Luo Ji's hand. He didn't eat it, but just held it in his hand, seemingly lost in thought.
"Mr. Luo Ji, have we really lost?"
Luo Ji stuffed a piece of fried chicken into his mouth, chewed it a few times, and then spoke.
"Why think so much? The Dark Domain Project is pretty good. At least for the next few hundred years, we can live a peaceful life. If I remember correctly, you still have about half your lifespan left. Of course, if you don't want to live anymore, I'd be happy to help you."
As Luo Ji spoke, he pointed to a pistol that Taylor always kept tucked into his waistband.
This pistol is a military model. Because the Earth has been in a relatively peaceful environment in recent years, such lethal weapons are rarely seen on the market. Firstly, it is too weak to kill people, and secondly, it is far less portable than an energy weapon.
Therefore, many people jokingly say that the only purpose of this gun is to commit suicide.
Taylor has carried this gun ever since he ended his hibernation. He insisted on hibernating until this era because he wanted to see if humanity in the future had truly defeated the Trisolarans.
However, humanity has now suffered a crushing defeat and has even had to resort to the self-mutilating Project Dark Domain to evade the Dark Forest attack.
This outcome was somewhat unacceptable to Taylor. After all, Lin Xuan, whom he had placed all his hopes on, had only delayed the extinction of humanity by less than a hundred years, which was indeed a bit different from the result he had imagined.
"Actually, if we think about it on the bright side, we haven't lost too completely. Do you remember when the Wallfacer Project first started? Back then, wasn't all we wanted to do to continue human civilization? To be honest, neither you nor I ever thought that one day we would have the ability to challenge the Trisolarans."
"Now that the goal has been achieved, this outcome is not bad. We've done our best."
“We are not superheroes, Taylor. You need to understand that. Individual strength is worthless in the face of a war of civilizations. Stories of heroes saving the world only happen in novels. Even I, Luo Ji, am able to establish deterrence thanks to everyone.”
"I understand the truth. There is no savior. The only thing that can save humanity is humanity itself."
As Luo Ji finished speaking, he took a bottle of liquor from the basket and gulped it down in one go.
The spicy sensation stimulated his taste buds. Luo Ji stood up and left the remaining half bottle of wine where he was.
"Let's go, get some rest."
After Luo Ji left, Taylor sighed and took out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket.
It was a movie poster, and the main character on the poster was Taylor herself.
Back when he was still a Wallfacer, he made a lot of superhero-like movies to solidify the Wallfacer savior image of the PDC. After all, he had already successfully broken through the Wall and there wasn't much he could do.
He later chose to hibernate, and the poster was taken to the future as a keepsake.
Looking at his own spirited appearance on the poster, his eyes were firm back then, completely different from how he is now.
"This world... may not have just one Luo Ji."
……
"Commissioner Zeko, the scanning of the D108 star system has been completed. No signs of life were found. We can proceed with the next step of the rendezvous."
Centaurus: The mother planet of the Trisolarans.
The head of state personally met with the special envoy of the Kana people, and as they had anticipated, the reception of the Taqi Federation went quite smoothly.
After several years of arduous journey, 200 transport ships have successfully arrived outside the Trisolaran home system. Now, all that is needed for the Trisolarans to carry out their evacuation is for everything to be considered complete.
The Dark Forest Strike is a sword of Damocles hanging over both civilizations, threatening not only the entire human civilization but also the Trisolaran civilization.
Therefore, the Trisolarans would have an extra layer of safety if they evacuated from this area one day earlier.
However, the journey of a hundred miles is only half complete at ninety. Although only this last step remained in the entire evacuation operation, the risks of this last step accounted for almost eighty percent of the entire evacuation operation.
It could be said that success or failure hinges on this moment.
The Trisolarans' evacuation will certainly attract the attention of advanced civilizations, and their evacuation speed will make it easy to predict their route and specific location.
At that time, as long as a Dark Forest Strike is launched against them, these 200 transport ships, along with the entire Trisolaran civilization inside, will be completely wiped out from this world.
Therefore, since they couldn't hide their escape route, they might as well make it more obvious and openly expose their route and average speed to the advanced civilization.
Then, after docking with 200 transport ships waiting on the outer layer, the originally fixed speed of travel becomes unpredictable. The Trisolarans want to use this method to evade attacks from advanced civilizations.
Of course, there is an even worse outcome: the civilization being attacked is a more advanced civilization that simply blows up the entire road without any regard for the consequences.
The Trisolarans were helpless; they were really messing with people's mentality.
Therefore, whether the evacuation will be successful is entirely up to fate.
"Everyone, I must remind you that the transport ship that the Carbon-Based Federation is responsible for connecting with you this time does not have enough capacity to accommodate your entire race. Therefore, only some of you will be able to leave. I hope you can figure out who will leave and who will stay in advance, otherwise you will all die here today."
In Zeko's projection, his body changed from a solid state to a gaseous state, floating around in mid-air. Clearly, he was in a very good mood today.
After all, if the Trisolarans successfully completed the transfer, his performance evaluation for this year would be up to standard, and he wouldn't have to worry so much.
Although it sounds absurd, it is true.
To the level three civilization of the Carbon-Based Federation, the escape of a civilization is nothing more than an ordinary task. Zeko's job is more like that of a telephone customer service representative recommending data plans to clients.
But thinking about it, it makes sense. So many civilizations flock to the Carbon-Based Federation every year, they might not really care whether the Trisolarans are alive or dead, so such a reaction is understandable.
"That's natural. We've been prepared for this for a long time. In the past few years, the Trisolaran civilization has hardly reproduced. At the same time, we've also self-dissolved our own people who have exceeded the age threshold. Now the population of the entire civilization has dropped rapidly, which is more than enough for us to evacuate."
The head of state's face was expressionless; he had been waiting for this day for far too long, and had even become somewhat numb to it.
"See you then, welcome to the Carbon-Based Federation."
As Zeko spoke, he hung up the projector.
At this moment, only a handful of people remained in the conference hall of the Three-Body leadership.
Of the thirteen consuls, less than a third remain today.
It seems that what the leader just said was indeed true. In order to reduce the population in a short period of time, they dealt with all the clansmen who were over the age limit. This was something that even the high-ranking officials of the ruling class could not avoid.
"Your Majesty, the Military Governor has already left with the Second Fleet. Let's set off as soon as possible," said the Scientific Governor.
Because the previous generation of science officials died too young, the current generation of science officials is still relatively young and is naturally not on the list of those to be dealt with.
Now, he has become the most influential ruler besides the head of state.
"Yes, I hope they are safe."
During these years of the Deterrence Era, the Trisolarans were not idle; they still managed to create a second fleet, just like in the original timeline.
However, it now seems clear that the Second Fleet is no longer necessary.
After all, the enemy the Trisolarans are facing now is not something that can be reversed by adding another fleet. Even if the fleet is allowed to evacuate along with them, once they reach the transport ships, the fleet's ships will not be able to keep up with the speed of the transport ships, and in the end they will only become cannon fodder under the attack of the Dark Forest.
Therefore, the Trisolarans unanimously decided that the military governor would lead the second fleet on an expedition to the solar system.
To put it bluntly, it's basically about letting things fend for themselves.
If you survive, you survive. If you don't, then you can just go to Earth and eke out a living in the Dark Domain with other Earthlings.
This is also one of the important reasons why the Trisolarans chose to help humanity build the Dark Domain.
The Black Domain protects not only human civilization, but also the Trisolarans.
As for the First Fleet, the Trisolarans have completely lost contact with them.
The leader suspected that this matter was related to Yun Tianming, but the most important thing now was to complete the evacuation of the clan. Whatever happened to the First Fleet was irrelevant.
"Then, everyone, let's get ready to set off."