Chapter 9 Chapter nine

"The orbital projection device can't be used? What do you mean?" When Orwell yelled this on the built-in communicator, the person in charge of the lunar North Pole base—a human with the title of the so-called operations director—replied in an emotionless voice: "We obey the orders of the head office. If you have any comments, please Mention it to the head office." "Don't you know the resolution of the United Nations? The note clearly states that all facilities in all human countries are used by the retrograde army of the 26th century. Please assist." "I am aware of the UN resolution, but our country's parliament has not yet passed a domestic law based on it. My company is transforming its production system to try to catch up with the implementation of the law. Please wait a little longer."

"There's no time to wait! ET's attack could start anytime!" "We're a profitable business and we can't stop working without cessation compensation." "You——" Orwell cut off the communication, and punched the inner wall of the spacecraft, "Bastards!"... The four messengers walking behind shrugged their shoulders with a slight smile on their faces. In the spacecraft that landed on the launch site next to the Arctic base, the voice of Cutie Sark, who is in charge of the overall situation, can be heard. "Can't you convince me?"

"It's useless. Those bastards won't move at all unless their ass is on fire." "It's all the same. Governments, multinational companies, civil society groups, important institutions, no matter what level they are resisting. Opinions are not unified, communication is not thorough, the person in charge is absent or forgotten, kickbacks are demanded, opposition and skeptics are obstructing, Wait blah blah. No one knows how long the delay will be." "So inefficient!" Orwell groaned.The feeling of euphoria when we first arrived in this era has disappeared without a trace.

In 2119 AD, Orwell, who arrived in the solar system at the beginning of the 22nd century, first conducted a sky-sweeping observation in the solar system, and confirmed that no ET proliferation bases and buildings were found.The earth is still a blue surface, covered with white clouds, leading a peaceful life. Seized the opportunity - the messengers rejoiced for a moment, and then rushed to the earth to convey the news of the imminent crisis. On the way to Earth, the couriers found signs of human activity on the surface of Mars.Materials have been sent from the earth and the moon, and the construction of the colonial city is underway.There are still a large number of silently working robots at the North and South Poles and groundwater sources in various places.This is consistent with history as known to Orwell and others, and it is an exhilarating sight.Although it is still in its infancy, human beings in this era already have the ability to move in the universe.Orwell and others believe that human assistance is not a problem in order to fight against ET.

Contacting people in the 22nd century and convincing them that the messengers are from the future has also been relatively successful.When the people of the earth see hundreds of space fleets speaking the language of the earth, they simply believe that they are their own compatriots.In contrast, politicians were wary and scientists were more skeptical, but after explaining the reason for sending the messenger and the theory of time travel, at least they agreed to start communicating. But what followed was difficult. On the earth in the 22nd century, there is no organization capable of determining the course of action for all human beings.The United Nations, as its embryonic form, is now weaker than sovereign states.Governments have expressed embarrassment at the cross-country coordinated actions proposed by the messengers - which of course includes military operations.The Messenger, who had anticipated this situation to some extent, sent out individuals in human form to act as messengers in an effort to mediate between nations.

At this time, several ET clusters had already appeared on the earth, and they were of some help to the mediation.Judging from the standards of the messengers, the purpose of these clusters should not be aggression, but only initial reconnaissance; but the earth side only sees it as many problems-continuous diseases and hunger, still raging ethnic conflicts, endless Endless Havoc - one of the newer ones of unknown origin. Later, two ET clusters destroyed two European metropolises.In order to wipe out the ET clusters, Europe has used more than half of its conventional combat forces. The threat of an ET invasion has finally shaken the United Nations General Assembly.But even at this time, ambassadors from some countries believed that it was possible that the courier himself launched an attack on the two cities, performing a bitter trick.

In any case, the joint defense system was finally established.Based on the UN resolutions, the Earth has finally started preparations for air defense and ground warfare, and the Messenger is responsible for the defense of space... "What to do?" In the cabin of the lunar spacecraft, Alexander asked Orwell who was in deep thought.This is one of the small spacecraft that travels between space stations that have reached Mars the farthest. "Just wait? Those guys will take a long time. Instead of waiting, I'll do something else." "What are you doing?" "Write a story."

Orwell turned his head and saw Alexander writing in his notebook. "What's that?" Orwell asked. "Sent to Triton. Stored in a time capsule. Hang up a beacon and launch there, it will be recovered after all. One or two hundred years later." "Is it addressed to Miumira?" "She said I was good at writing." "What story is it?" Orwell wasn't really interested, he just asked casually, but he couldn't help being curious when he heard Alexander's serious answer. "A Bug's Story." "insect?" "Well, there is a big tree with a leaf on it, and a small worm grows on the leaf. The little worm eats the leaves every day and lives a happy life. Suddenly one day, it finds that its life is in crisis. It seems that something is about to wither the big tree. In order to prevent the crisis, the bug left the familiar branches and climbed towards the thick trunk..."

"What's that thing, ET?" "Oh, please forgive me. If reality is involved, the atmosphere of the story will be completely ruined. This is children's literature... Speaking of which, what should I use as an enemy? Hornets, spiders, etc. are too common..." Alexander, who was taller than Orwell, fell into deep thought.Orwell looked at him for a while, finally stood up, and said, "Since it's children's literature, what can we do? Let's go." "Ah, face to face negotiation?" "It's suppression. Katie, sneak into the base's computer, forge the status signal, and show that there is no abnormality. Don't give the head office and the government an excuse."

"Even if it's okay for a short time, it will be discovered after a while. And once force is used, it will be more difficult in the future. Bear with it." "No. It will be too late until the ET attack starts. By the way, by the way, help me make a weapon. A low-power live ammunition firearm...ah, no need, a sword will do. People in this era are even more surprised when they see cold weapons. Go ahead. Try to make something that looks scary at first sight." "How about a carbon-titanium mixed forging knife? The surface is fused into a semiconductor, and if it is discharged, even stainless steel can be melted."

"Well, that thing is handsome." The atomic printer inside the spacecraft started to work, emitting a slight odor of ozone.This is a machine that can produce everything from food to weapons through "multilayer printing" technology.Orwell and his companions got together and began to study the map of the base.Soon, the weapon was completed. It was a gleaming milky white sword that was longer than the arm.Orwell put on his seal suit, sword in hand, and Alexander laughed. "Not bad, cosmic hero. Retro-futuristic." "Write me into your book—then I'll take the lead, and you guys will build some momentum behind." After getting out of the landing craft, Orwell and the others walked towards the base. The sun on the horizon dragged a group of people out of long shadows.Orwell suddenly thought, should he also write a letter?If the time capsule is set at the time point before the time branch, it will be handed down no matter which branch of the time branch. But I have nothing to write.Just writing "I miss you" doesn't make any sense. Envious of Alexander, who had something to share with his girlfriend, Orwell gave up the idea of ​​writing letters. The preparations to meet ET have not progressed through layers of delays.Five months have passed since the arrival of the courier. On the Earth side, the only things that have been barely completed are the program changes for near-Earth meteorites to knock down nuclear missiles, as well as the construction of air defense surveillance systems for astronomical agencies in various countries, and the production of weapons against ET has not yet been figured out. .The earthling facilities in space are still sticking to their previous tasks, and none of them are fully prepared for the attack.Lunar mines, robot factories, orbital projection equipment, solar farms...everywhere plausibly refuses to cooperate, and even hinders the messenger from building its own independent facilities. The stagnation of the production progress is not bad, and the progress of the UN military command agreement can only be described as a deep quagmire. A powerful country with a long history since ancient times, a small and medium-sized country that has emerged since the millennium, and messengers, the three forces formed a tripartite force, entangled endlessly.No one knows when the chain of command will be finalized. If things go on like this, there is no way to prepare for an attack.Cutty Sack complained.The global-scale ET monitoring system that she most wanted to promote with all her strength was obstructed by the governments of various countries, and in the end it could only be divided into small-scale inspections by national units.How many times have I said that if I miss a seed, it will develop into a huge number of ET clusters, but no one cares. Even without these hindrances, she would have had her hands full.In parallel with the earth monitoring, there is also the dispatch of hundreds of fleets to Venus to carry out large-scale reconnaissance operations. In the solar system in the 26th century, Venus was once a breeding ground for ET.Are there buried clusters and bases hidden on the surface covered with thick atmosphere?A thorough search turned up several large clusters.The courier dropped a moderately powerful nuclear fusion bomb on them, and started a war of annihilation without sparing a single propagule. Although the messenger army was sent with all the spare power of mankind in the 26th century, there was no way to cover all the celestial bodies in the solar system.The core energy of the Messenger Army comes from the antimatter brought from the future, which of course cannot be endless.If it falls into a protracted war, it will have to build antimatter production facilities.In this era when fleet operations have no auxiliary facilities at all, they can only rely on the support of local forces in any case, and cannot always act alone just because they are obstructed. "I heard that the acquisition of the Hamersley Range failed?" Between missions, Orwell asked.As part of inviting assistance, the courier is also buying resources at the cost of providing technology.My companion in Sydney replied: "You didn't see what the eyes of the Australian government officials were staring at during the negotiations. We told them that as long as the mountains were leveled, the mines would be exposed several times before, but they couldn't accept the ecosystem and the environment. The disappearance of the ethnic settlements. About half of the time, everyone kicked over the table and went back. Which is more important, your own country or the history of mankind.” "History is an invisible and intangible thing. If you say dedication to it, it can't emerge overnight." The word "history" that came out of his own mouth made Orwell suddenly feel a little awkward.He couldn't help thinking for a while—generally speaking, history refers to the history of the past.However, can the history that has not yet come be called history?I always feel that there is something different about the thickness. "Negotiations with major companies have progressed at 45% of the schedule." Cutty Sack cuts in with a icy voice.She has the ability to talk to all the couriers at once, but even she doesn't seem to have the energy to weave delicate emotion into her voice at this moment.To Orwell, this suggested that even she was tired. "Large enterprises are really comparable to the government of a country. The ignorance and arrogance of the human management is unbelievable. Even enterprises with intellectuals joining the management are blocked by information and false information is rampant, let alone enterprises with intellectuals. to two percent of the population." "It's really difficult to rescue if it doesn't reach the state of 'complete information'." The public information is intertwined in a state where everything can be retrieved at the boundary of the speed of light, in other words, the state of "complete information" is achieved. This is the world Orwell and the others live in.There, with a few exceptions, such as the supply yard where Shajia works, there has never been any deliberate concealment of information by humans.The agreement reached in New York, five seconds later, whether in Tokyo or Mumbai, the implementation of the agreement is a matter of course.Corporate misconduct discovered on Mars, after a few hours of communication delay, whether it is Saturn or Uranus, the series of companies will be punished. Orwell finally had a sense of how much ignorance and mistrust can arise from the inability to freely exchange appropriate information.There are mountains of memories, agreements, and applications, as well as stupid misunderstandings, disgust, and hostility. "Katie." "exist." "Is there a way to completely remove latency?" "Conquering humans. You know that too, don't you?" I do know.Instead of humans, messengers take care of all affairs and communications, and just ask humans for their opinions symbolically—this is a far simpler and more efficient method.But it is conceivable how much resentment it would cause on the human side.Therefore, the messenger not only pressed the discussion on this option, but also hid the fact of having this ability. You can't do this...to do so is to fundamentally trample and trample on the dignity of human beings in this era.Too much meddling by the messengers would have changed history too much.It is simply impossible to calculate how far the resulting influence will be extended. But the messengers have been instructed to save humanity, even if history is fundamentally rewritten. Do you want to do it? The courier follows the principle of the minority obeying the majority.The omniscient body of the retrograde army has the right to propose and vote, and the policy can be established if more than half of them agree.Benefit from the complete information environment in the retrograde army, from proposal to decision in less than a minute. Ultimately, however, Orwell did not propose the conquest of mankind.Orwell felt a kind of indescribable heaviness about the human history Shajia told him. In the following three months, there were two proposals to conquer human beings initiated by other messenger individuals, but for some unknown reason, the number of people in favor of both times did not even reach one-third. Orwell and the others regretted it.After the eleventh month of arrival, the general attack of ET began. The first signs were several lasers shooting from the Earth's surface. Those are thin needles that contain huge energy, some of them were discovered by the earth people with naked eyes, and then the cosmic messenger warning network also discovered them, but they were all judged as meaningless radiation sent by some earth people.The pointing locations of the lasers are varied, and they are neither planets nor space stations, and the irradiation time and length are all different. By the time the defender realizes that all lasers are pointing at the ecliptic plane, it will be after the attack begins. In March 2120, in the asteroid belt about 400 million kilometers away from the sun, 14,000 bright spots appeared within 20 hours, and the temperature was as high as 100 million degrees. Obviously, it could only be the propulsion flame of nuclear fusion.At the same time, 500 similar bright spots appeared around Jupiter. The courier immediately issued the highest-level alarm, began to analyze, and came to a conclusion half a day later: ET adopted a time-consuming but extremely simple attack method-sending a huge amount of asteroids that exceeded the air defense capacity to the earth, destroying the earth through impact... this It is an extremely simple method that has existed since ancient times, the so-called saturation attack. How did ET get to this point?The Staff Intellect made the following speculation: They arrived in this era earlier than the Messenger, but they were hidden.They lurk on the moons of Jupiter, and only act when the moons enter the shadow of Jupiter, sending their accomplices and nuclear fusion fuel to the asteroid belt bit by bit.While carrying out the operation of turning the asteroid into a warhead, they sent a very small number of reconnaissance troops to sneak into the earth.The asteroid belt is notified after the explosion target is selected, and then self-destructs.The previously discovered sparse lasers are their communication.As soon as preparations for warheadization are completed, they are launched simultaneously.At this time, there is no need to continue to lurk, they start to act openly in the Jupiter stronghold, and rapidly promote the manufacture of all warheads... ET restrains the orbital revolution speed of the asteroid projectile, adjusts its orientation, and makes it point to the earth through free fall.For this method, as long as the attack is early, it can be derailed with a small-power warhead.Therefore, the messenger fleet fired all the nuclear bombs and antimatter bombs in their hands at the asteroid belt and the ring of Jupiter. The number of them is far more than 14,000 asteroids, but it is obviously impossible to completely prevent the impact.In any case, even if it was only hit by an asteroid, the consequences would be disastrous... The initial action taken by the informed Earth side was to blame the messenger: why wasn't it noticed sooner? ET will use meteorites to smash, isn't this kind of trick even a child can think of? The courier replied that the probability of choosing this method was very low.This approach is not included in the various tactics adopted by ET in the warfare of the 26th century.In the era when the sun was taken away, ET has been relying on the huge solar energy, and has not adopted devious means such as extracting helium on Jupiter for nuclear fusion.This time, they should also hope to borrow solar energy. In actions like this, they have used energy to the limit, which can be said to be a gamble... Having said that, it was indeed an oversight on the part of the courier.The messenger who came to the past with the technology and power of the future with high pressure was stabbed in the back by the enemy, which cast a shadow on the future alliance system. The all-out fleet attack successfully knocked out 99.586% of the asteroids.The remaining 58 asteroids draw a gentle parabola and fly towards the earth.Although there is no antimatter in the solar system, there are still nuclear bombs.However, it is the earth that controls the nuclear bomb.Thus, the balance of power between the earth and the messenger has been reversed. Therefore, the earth made shocking demands to the messenger—the entrustment of the general command, the transfer of the main ships, and the provision of all military and civilian technologies.The earth further proposed that the ancestors, as messengers, need to follow our instructions from now on.We are your ancestors, and you exist because of our existence.Do not be ungrateful.Follow our teachings. The courier complied with all requests.Before they set off, they were ordered to save humanity no matter what, even if insulted by the savage past humans... And most importantly, there is no time to argue. The ship on which the United Nations general is aboard (it took weeks to remodel the ship to provide a habitable space for humans) sets off with the nuclear bomb made by the earth.The counterattack under the command of the earthlings began.They did a great job.Although the lack of information collection capabilities makes it necessary to rely on messengers in many cases, they did deliver nuclear bombs accurately and hit the asteroid accurately.This is the defense carried out by the earthlings themselves.The success of the defense made mankind rejoice, and the whole earth was immersed in ecstasy. Then fell into hell. Due to the strife and discord between the Earthlings and the messengers, some loopholes were created in the guard net. ET took advantage of these loopholes and sent completely invisible propagules to Earth.Although ET is unlikely to have the ability to gain insight into human society, it should be enough to discover those loopholes through changes in local communication traffic and the movements of various ships.In short, when human beings regain their senses, there are at least ten mature clusters on the five continents, and they are flooding all over the mountains and plains to major cities and military bases. The earthlings were caught off guard and fell into great chaos.Messenger can't do anything about it either.Due to the obstacles of the people on Earth, the attempt to assist in ground warfare has not made any progress. Even the very few countries that have established a joint system have no right and means to cross the border and suppress chaos in other countries. ET is constantly proliferating using local resources.They use all available resources such as sunlight, coal, oil, and natural gas as energy, and easily processed substances such as iron and silicon as materials.Naturally, the combat power of the ETs produced in this way cannot be compared with those who have undergone a complicated growth process in the universe, but their advantage lies in their large number.In front of the countless ET armies, the Earthlings' army retreated steadily.

---

Notes: