Chapter 18: Planet Ho!
Chapter 18: Planet Ho!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The cosmos, as per its definition, is an infinite expanse. To equate it with the Milky Way, which quite a number of people aboard Noah Two still did, once again showcased how little the general public at the time knew about space travel. Because the Milky Way, no matter how incomprehensibly big it is, is still infinitely small when taken in comparison with the boundless cosmos.
Therefore, to have the Noah Two's first warp land near a galaxy that housed a planet had such a low probability that it was numerically impossible to explicate!
This simple observation was clear to Yao Yuan's crew, the many scientists, and even most of the citizens onboard. Even without a deep understanding of space-warping technology and space traveling, the straightforward fact that space warping was a dangerous ordeal was lost on no one.
Unbeknownst to everyone outside of the close circle of Black Star members as well as the scientists that did the calculations, the department of energy's initial calibration allowed Noah Two three chances at warping before they ran out of energy. This was a closely guarded piece of information. Not even Zhang Heng knew of this, because they were afraid of the news sending waves of dissent and despair across the masses.
How else would the public react to knowing they only had three chances, three chances that were each infinitesimally small to succeed?! They knew it was dangerous, but they didn't need to realize that it was actually also hopeless.
Nevertheless, perhaps it was the collective prayers of everyone aboard Noah Two that had touched the gods, because somehow, inexplicably, luck had smiled upon them!
Even Yao Yuan couldn't remain his usual collected self as he double and triple checked the russet-colored planet before his eyes. He could feel his heart leaping out of his chest.
He might’ve even allowed himself to cheer aloud in joy, but before he could do so, the rest of Black Stars, including Zhang Heng, had him beaten to the task. After that, through the intercom, they could hear similar outbursts of glee reverberating across Noah Two. It sounded as if the 120000 people aboard were simultaneously cheering for their good fortune, and that might not even have been that far away from the truth.
A planet meant a chance at landing and subsequently a chance of it being conducive to human survival. Admittedly, the chance was still low overall, but it was already much higher than what they were initially willing to give themselves.
What was supportive of this optimistic diagnosis was the lack of an asteroid belt around the planet. This signified that the gravity of the planet was stable enough to be free from falling meteor strikes and could sustain an atmosphere. This also allowed the expeditionary crew a better chance at landing. Secondly, even if the surface turned out to be inhospitable for man, what lay at its core could prove invaluable to Noah Two. Based on its size, shape, and color, the planet was most likely a type of terrestrial planet1. The chances of it having radioactive materials like uranium underneath its core were statistically high.
Noah Two's store of energy would allow three warps for a number of 120000 passengers. That, however, was a number calculated with Noah Two having three nuclear energy generators. If they could increase the number of generators and replace most of the inner partitions from their current steel to a lighter aluminum, the amount of warps they could do would dramatically increase. A safe prediction would increase the number of warps to the range of hundreds!
Therefore, even if the planet's atmosphere didn't support human life, it would be fine. The year was already 2030; man had advanced far enough technologically to be able to support extended exposure to alien terrain. In fact, Noah Two had enough space suits to allow construction of a mining rig on the planet. With newfangled technology like solarponics2, Noah Two could technically last for about three to five years mining on the planet. After that, Noah Two would have enough energy supply to conduct more instances of space warp, exponentially increasing their chance at survival.