Earth Era

Part 13

Father: "When you look up at the sky, do you ever wonder why you can't see the stars?" Father asked Qin Feng.

Qin Feng: "Because they're blocked by Shield Mountain."

Father: "No, it's because it's dark."

Qin Feng frowned, "But shouldn't you be able to see the stars better when it's dark?"

Father didn't explain further and asked, "Where did you go last night?"

Qin Feng: "To watch the Aegis...uh, no, the launch of the Explorer."

Father: "What did you see then?"

Qin Feng: "Um...hope!"

Father smiled, "I saw just the opposite of what you saw."

Qin Feng: "Despair?"

Father nodded and walked to the large floor-to-ceiling window, looking outside. "Our home is gone. Initially, there were 200,000 particle beam laser cannons protecting our homeland, but now there are less than 150,000 left. The United Coalition Government is unwilling to repair them. They say there's no point in focusing on something destined to be futile."

Qin Feng: "Hmm...that makes sense."

Father: "Do you agree with their viewpoint?"

Qin Feng: "Yes," Qin Feng affirmed.

Father: "Why?"

Qin Feng: "Firstly, over the past four years, we've already excessively consumed too much energy, like Shield Mountain, particle beam laser cannons, bunkers... they've depleted almost all the usable energy on our planet. Without energy supply, I think our planet won't last much longer. Once Shield Mountain breaks, everything will be gone..."

Father sighed heavily upon hearing this and nodded gently. "The United Coalition Government also says the same. Saitan Star can't hold on much longer. Our planet has been abandoned, along with hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens, and the martyrs who sacrificed their lives to defend our homeland, including your mother..."

Qin Feng was stunned. "Hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens? What do you mean? Isn't everyone supposed to have the chance to go to Aegis Star?"

Father: "Shouldn't your focus be on your mother?" Father turned back to look into his eyes.

Qin Feng was speechless.

Father turned his gaze back to the window. "A thousand ships, it's too few, far from enough..."

Later, Qin Feng immediately told Xiao Ya about this news. Not everyone can leave. Unexpectedly, she wasn't surprised at all. She just smiled faintly and said, "This shouldn't be a secret~"

"You knew already?!"

She didn't answer.

Two months later, the United Coalition Government announced the news returned by the Explorer. They had successfully landed on the surface of Aegis Star, which was almost the same as Xiao Ya's initial estimation.

The first person to step out of the cabin said, "The air quality is good, oxygen is sufficient, UV readings are moderately high (this can be improved later and does not affect survival.) There are mountains, rivers, vast land, and blue oceans... My god! There are also creatures here! They haven't all been extinct. I just saw a group of birds in the jungle over there! That! Look over there! It's unbelievable..."

As soon as this news came out, the whole world was boiling with excitement.

The United Coalition Government immediately decided that the second batch of colony ships would set off in six months! Because then Aegis Star would be closest to Saitan Star, less than 60 million kilometers away, and could be reached in a month. The initial plan was to launch a hundred ships, two hundred thousand people.

For a while, the whole world was in a frenzy to compete for these two hundred thousand slots. Some said, "Children should go first because they are the future."

Some said, "Aegis Star just went through a catastrophe four years ago, everything needs to start from scratch. Children don't have survival skills, so they're not suitable to go first. We should wait until everything on Aegis Star is perfected before sending children."

His words were unreasonable, after all, sending a group of children to a planet that still needed repair was useless. One, they couldn't help. Two, sending these children to survive like savages was akin to sending them to their deaths.

The elderly had quietly been excluded from everyone's consideration because, like children, they couldn't help or survive...

Ultimately, hope rested on the shoulders of the middle-aged and young adults, ideally between the ages of 23 and 40. But the United Coalition Government didn't say this. To appease the restless hearts of the people, they publicly announced: don't worry, everyone will have a chance.

Qin Feng snorted at their explanation, "A chance, my ass. By then, hundreds of millions of people will be abandoned along with this planet!"

"I think what they're doing is not wrong." Xiao Ya said, "Should they tell the remaining hundreds of millions of people: only two million can leave on a thousand ships, the rest of you stay here and wait to die... Wouldn't that cause chaos?"

"Well..." Qin Feng nodded.

She walked to the edge of the bridge and looked up at the faint red sky, saying, "I heard that the sky on Aegis Star is the same as the sky when we were kids, it's blue."

"And you can see many, many stars." Qin Feng added.

"That must be beautiful, right?" She closed her eyes, seemingly imagining what the starry sky looked like.

Qin Feng stood by silently.

"It's like building a small cabin there for ourselves," she said.

"I, we?" Qin Feng couldn't believe his ears. My God! She actually said 'we'! Although her "we" might not refer to being together with Qin Feng, it was enough to excite him for a while.

"I'll go with you."

She smiled, a knowing smile.

Qin Feng vividly remembered her response when he asked her, "Do you want to leave here?" She answered, "I don't want to."