Light Speed ​​War

Chapter 10: Deterrence Plan

"Oh, Alice, do you have any good suggestions?"

"You all remember Aya, right? I believe Gaia on the moon is a super artificial intelligence, even more powerful than Aya. And Aya's predecessor was the artificial intelligence of a UFO on the moon. The moon is a Martian spaceship, I think everyone agrees on that, right? Such a large spaceship, such a powerful civilization, it's hard to imagine how they could control and compute without a super artificial intelligence. Why don't we let Aya communicate with Gaia?"

"Yes, Alice is right, we can give it a try." Everyone thought Alice's suggestion made a lot of sense.

Among the 30,000 people, another voice suddenly rang out, "Dean, colleagues, I think Academician Alice's words do make sense. However, I didn't intentionally damage Aya's reputation, but how can we guarantee that Aya will always be on our side? After all, Aya originated from Martian civilization." Zhou Yuan glanced to his right rear, "Oh, Wenming, then tell us, or give us a good suggestion." Zhou Yuan had always been very satisfied with this disciple of his. Besides being intelligent and handsome, he also possessed a steady and mature demeanor. You must know that Wenming became an academician of the Earth Federation Academy of Sciences a year ago, at the age of 32, making him the youngest academician among the 100,000 people in the academy. In this era of advanced technology in the Earth Federation, he was probably even more intelligent than Zhou Yuan.

“We can also develop a more secure plan, which is the deterrence plan.” Wenming’s words surprised everyone.

"A deterrence plan? Hmm, could you elaborate?"

"It's simple. If Gaia on the Moon is a super artificial intelligence, then she must be carrying a mission. Based on speculation, her goal is likely revenge against the Martian civilization. And we happen to have Martian genes flowing through our veins, so Gaia is nurturing human civilization, including the previous four human civilizations. Since she wants revenge, then we'll just destroy ourselves." The civilization smiled, but no one could laugh. We were courting death?

“We’re not really going to our deaths. We’re a bargaining chip. We’re telling Gaia that we’re going to destroy everything, so that Gaia will have no humans left to seek revenge. She probably won’t even be able to find a single cell.”

"Academician Wenming, how do we deter him?" everyone asked.

"It's simple, we destroy the sun!"

"Oh my God," "Oh my God," "How is this possible?" "Are you crazy?"...

“This idea is really not simple. As for the deterrence plan, we need to report it to the Earth Federation Fleet.” Zhou Yuan pondered for a moment.

"Could you come to my office?" Zhou Yuan asked Wenming as soon as the meeting ended.

"Okay, teacher."

The two arrived at the door of the dean's office. After Zhou Yuan recognized them, the door opened automatically. The dean's office was quite large.

Zhou Yuan said, "Nana, I need an office desk and chair and some coffee."

A smart robot voice replied, "Yes, Master."

Immediately, a pile of folded wooden planks emerged from the ground and automatically assembled into a table and chairs. The intelligent computer Type IV also descended from the sky and landed on the left side of the table. At the same time, a holographic star map device was activated, floating on the right side of the table and rotating continuously.

"Master, would you like some sugar in your coffee?"

"no need."

"Wenming, please sit down."

After the two sat down, Zhou Yuan stared intently at Wenming, as if trying to see through his thoughts.

"To be honest, my gut feeling tells me that your deterrence plan is not your ultimate goal."

"To be honest, teacher, yes. This is the result of my thinking for several days. You know, at this critical moment, we can't afford to make any mistakes. Even a small mistake could lead to the extinction of mankind."

"Yes, that's what I'm worried about too. After all, we humans are still quite fragile." After saying that, Zhou Yuan leaned back in his chair.

“Teacher, you don’t need to worry.” Wenming seemed to have made up his mind and said resolutely, “We will definitely succeed.”

"I hope so."

"Actually, at the conference, I said that destroying the sun was true, but not for the deterrence plan. Rather, I believed that destroying the sun was our ultimate option to escape the 'light speed barrier.' However, I think we can kill two birds with one stone."

"Huh?" Zhou Yuan was surprised for a moment, then after a few seconds, he continued, "Well, I think I understand. But how did you come up with that?"

"The 'light speed barrier' is centered on the sun, and I think the key lies in the sun. It is precisely because a civilization will not easily destroy the sun on which it has depended for survival since ancient times that many civilizations are trapped by the 'light speed barrier,' wanting to get out but being blocked. Even if they want to get out, they can only think of other ways, how dare they destroy the sun? Teacher, I am putting myself in a do-or-die situation to survive."

"To put oneself in a do-or-die situation and then survive? That's interesting. This idea is quite unique. Even I wouldn't dare to say I wanted to destroy the sun; I'd never even considered it." Zhou Yuan was genuinely surprised by this audacious idea. He thought to himself that he wouldn't even dare to think about it. "Then tell me, how would you destroy the sun?"

"If destroying the moon would require 12 high-energy particle colliders, then destroying the sun probably wouldn't require many colliders, even though the sun's mass or volume is much larger than the moon's. This is because artificial black holes are merely the trigger for the sun's destruction; the sun itself would spontaneously self-destruct due to the influence of artificial black holes. The moon, however, lacks nuclear fusion reactions, so the effect would be much smaller. How many colliders would be needed to destroy the sun? This is beyond my personal capabilities; it requires Academician Mei Fan and his team to calculate it."

"Hmm, very good. I will report this plan to the Earth Federation Fleet Command, and I will organize another similar meeting in a while. I'll first have Mei Fan and the others calculate how many colliders are needed to simulate destroying the sun." After a moment of contemplation, Zhou Yuan muttered to himself, "Hmm, by the way, I need to arrange the several feasible plans from today's meeting as soon as possible."

"Teacher, if there's nothing else, I'll take my leave now?"

"Shall we go grab a couple of drinks? It's been so long since we've relaxed; our bones are practically stiff." Zhou Yuan smiled.

Okay. You must take care of yourself.

"Where should we go?" Zhou Yuan asked.

"Shall we go to the city center? It's been a long time since I've been to the city."

"it is good."

The two stood inside the yellow and white circle in the office. In a flash of light, they were in the underground parking garage. The garage was filled with a large number of cars floating in layers. These cars had no wheels, were slightly smaller in length and width than cars from the early 21st century, and had no roofs. They were more like flat-headed boats than cars.

Zhou Yuan pressed his ring, and with a beep, his car automatically emerged from the crowd of cars on a certain floor, slowly descending to three centimeters off the ground. Zhou Yuan and Wenming stepped into the car.

Zhou Yuan touched the steering wheel with his ring, and the artificial intelligence driving interface appeared and asked, "Dean Zhou, Academician Wen, where are you going?"

"Go to Moonlight Bar on Lansu Road."

"Ok."

The driverless car quickly passed through the vehicle network, drove towards the exit, and then stopped at the transfer loop. A moment later, the car, carrying two people, left the ground and headed towards the city center.

Zhou Yuan's car was surrounded by numerous hovercraft, moving back and forth like on a suspended parallel road resembling an elevated bridge. Strangely, each car seemed to follow traffic rules, and there were very few holographic road signs, presumably due to intelligent navigation, making them unnecessary. Occasionally, a long hover train could be seen whizzing past in its dedicated "lane," like a snake weaving between city buildings.

Upon arriving in the city center and getting off the bus, it truly felt like a world of light and shadow.

The first thing that strikes the eye is the towering, enormous, light-filled monument to the heroes of the lunar expedition, with rows of names rotating around it. The buildings lining both sides of the road are imposing and, naturally, also a sea of ​​lights.

Then came all sorts of "strange" people: some were making video calls on their wristbands, some were watching holographic movies while walking, and a few elderly people were sitting in a circle with a holographic blue Earth in the center, praying with their hands clasped together.

Trendy young people came up with all sorts of creative ideas, wearing thin, luminous clothing. The backs of their clothes resembled slideshows, constantly changing images: one moment a majestic peony, the next a crimson peach blossom, then a towering tree, then sprouting grass, then a mesmerizing starry sky, then a ferocious wild beast... Occasionally, someone would be seen wearing a hat, from which a beam of light would suddenly shoot out, pointing straight to the sky.

Moonlight Bar is right next to the bank, not very conspicuous, and not very crowded inside.

Zhou Yuan and Wenming found a seat by the window and sat down.

"Dean Zhou, welcome, welcome! It seems like it's been a while since you've been here," the boss greeted him quickly.

"Yeah, Lao Wei. I'm busy. How are you?"

"It's the same as always, but my daughter got into the Earth Federation Fleet Academy. The girl is ambitious."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"Yes, that girl used to not care much about anything, but this time, she's very serious and dedicated. She's not slacking off at all during the training camp."

"Oh, which department in the college is she in?"

"It seems to be the security department. Oh, Dean Zhou, who is this?"

"Oh, my student, Wenming."

"Oh? I've heard so much about you. Such a young academician."

"Uncle Wei, you flatter me." Wenming shook hands with Old Wei.

"What would you like?"

"Same as always, peanuts in vinegar, two ounces of baijiu for each person, and whatever else you like to go with it."

"OK, wait."

A moment later, the intelligent service robot weaved through the tables like a flower, carrying a large plate with several dishes in its left hand and a wine bottle and a wine cup in its right.

Before the two men, the robot took food from a plate and placed a wine bottle and a wine cup on the table. "Academician Zhou, hello, would you like some wine?" the robot asked.

"Okay, pour it."

The robot picked up the wine cup with its left hand, tilted it slightly, and picked up the wine glass with its right hand, skillfully pouring the wine. "Dean Zhou, Academician Wen, please enjoy your drink. Please call me if you need anything."

"Okay," Zhou Yuan said, and then the robot turned and left to serve the next customer.

"Let's have a good drink together today, master and apprentice."

"Ok."

The two chatted about everyday things over drinks, occasionally touching on Earth's technology, but of course, nothing secret.

An hour later, both of them had slightly flushed faces. They figured it was about time and decided to leave.

"Old Wei, let's settle the bill," Zhou Yuan called out.

"This time, I'll treat Academician Wen to a meal." Old Wei had a very good impression of Wenming.

“Uncle Wei, how can that be? Teacher, let me pay the bill.” After Wenming finished speaking, he stretched out his ring to a standing, glowing menu sign on the table, scanned it, and after a while the menu sign displayed “System connecting..., payment settled... yuan. Welcome to visit again.”

Zhou Yuan paused for a moment, then smiled wryly. He still preferred to have Lao Wei make payments manually. The smart era was indeed very convenient, but it seemed to be missing something.