Leaving the Solar System

The Hope spacecraft glided through deep space.

Twelve days later, it happened to cross paths with Jupiter. 

That legendary giant spot was so captivating that Yan Xia couldn't resist taking a photo to remember the moment. The sheer size of the planet, seeing it for the first time, especially up close, was utterly breathtaking. The swirling currents of its atmosphere, each one powerful enough to blow Earth away, left him in awe. 

But there was no longer a social media feed to post to. 

Yan Xia gazed at some of the celestial bodies surrounding Jupiter, and suddenly a thought came to him. 

"Ella, pause for a moment. Deploy a reconnaissance drone to Europa." 

Europa was an icy moon, its surface covered in a thick layer of ice. 

Scientists on Earth had speculated that beneath this icy crust might lie a liquid ocean, and based on Earth's experience, where there is water, there could be life. 

Europa might very well harbor life. 

The reasons for Yan Xia's decision to send the drone were straightforward. 

First, to collect samples of potential life forms on the moon. 

Second, to replenish the spacecraft's supply of liquid water. 

The food originally carried aboard had long been consumed. Now, he was subsisting entirely on synthetic proteins, synthetic fats, synthetic carbohydrates, synthetic sugars—all produced by Ella. 

Everything was a blend of technology and necessity. 

A large amount of liquid water could be fed into the water cycle, and it would also make use of that 18% of the agricultural space on board.

Yan Xia remembered that he still had some seeds.

The spacecraft came to a halt in Europa's outer space. 

Indeed, it was a vast snowfield. 

Thirty drones departed from the spacecraft, landing on Europa's surface. Through the cameras, Yan Xia observed the terrain of the icy moon. 

The drones began to dig deep, and after reaching a depth of 57 kilometers, they finally broke through the ice layer and entered a world of water. 

Electromagnetic scans revealed that Europa's ice and water layer was 113 kilometers deep, making it 102 kilometers deeper than the deepest ocean trench on Earth. The drones started to collect large amounts of water, then used cables dangling from the spacecraft to return onboard. 

All of this took no more than ten days. 

In the cosmic scale of time, this was barely a blip. 

The samples brought back were studied. 

Ella's avatar, with a surprised expression, appeared on the screen. 

"Yan Xia, life indeed exists widely throughout the universe." 

"We've discovered traces of microorganisms in Europa's water. These are a type of microorganism completely unknown to my database." 

An image appeared on the screen. 

It was a microorganism resembling a tardigrade, though it was ten times larger than its terrestrial counterpart. 

This was already an incredibly complex life form, and if conditions allowed, perhaps in a few billion years, intelligent life could emerge on Europa as well.

In ten hours,

they had stored 5,000 tons of water, which was likely enough. 

"Ella, activate the planting zone and plant all those seeds," Yan Xia instructed. 

But there was no response. 

After a moment, Ella appeared with a grave expression, and a scene began to play on the screen in front of him. 

The sun had suddenly become incredibly bright. 

He knew. 

That was Earth's remnants falling into the sun. 

A powerful solar wind was coming, almost instantly reaching X-class levels. The numbers on the screen shot up from X1 to X122 and continued to rise. 

Through the specially designed energy monitoring lens, the previously dim sun had turned orange-yellow, and a terrifying string of energy was being released from its surface, spreading rapidly into the surrounding cosmos. 

This solar storm released, in just ten seconds, an unprecedented amount of energy equivalent to the simultaneous detonation of 150 billion hydrogen bombs. 

It swept through everything like a cosmic dust storm, and anything caught in it—other than celestial bodies—would be mercilessly destroyed. 

"Maximum speed, Ella!" 

"Understood, Yan Xia!" 

The only good news was that the terrifying, invisible scythe of destruction was moving at a speed of only 679 km/s. 

... 

After Hope entered flight mode, Yan Xia returned to the cryogenic chamber for hibernation.

This time, it was a second-generation cryogenic chamber,

with safety vastly improved over the previous version. There was no longer any need to drink that anti-coagulation agent. 

Sleep. 

Eternal sleep. 

This time, it would last much longer, so long that even Yan Xia didn't know when he would wake up. 

Ella managed everything aboard the ship alone, devoting all computational power to calculating the most cutting-edge technologies. 

It used Jupiter's immense gravity for a speed boost. 

The velocity increased from 758.2 km/s to 815 km/s. 

Apart from some direct exposure to radiation, the ship had escaped the proton onslaught of the solar wind. 

Eighty-eight days later, the Hope spacecraft reached the orbit of Pluto, 41 astronomical units away from the Sun. 

This dwarf planet, once considered the ninth planet of the solar system, carried with it a rich history of human astronomical development. 

At its farthest, Pluto could reach a distance of 49 astronomical units from the Sun, plunging into the black depths of space. 

It served as a marker, standing within the Kuiper Belt, beyond which lay only the Oort Cloud. 

Most of the solar system's matter was within the Kuiper Belt; beyond that lay the boundless, emptier regions of the universe. 

Pluto was not in their path, so Ella did not observe it. 

Here, Ella controlled a massive ten-meter-diameter camera outside the ship, aimed it at their trajectory, and captured a photo. The entire image was dominated by a single bright spot—tiny, yet extraordinarily luminous.

The sun was still violently active at this time. 

Venus, Mars, the asteroid belt, Jupiter, and Saturn had all been consumed by the brutal energy. 

It was uncertain whether the machines left in the asteroid belt could withstand the onslaught. 

Another 773 days passed. 

During this time, after enduring six shocks at the edge of the heliosphere, the Hope finally escaped the reach of the solar wind. 

This meant they were safe. 

Here, Ella received a signal. 

It analyzed the source—it was the "Voice of Earth." 

Using the telescope, it focused in that direction, and after extensive analysis, it identified a small black dot, barely noticeable in the vastness of space. 

That dot was likely Voyager 1, which was also on a trajectory towards Proxima Centauri. 

It was now the year 2145. 

This farthest human-launched probe, 168 years after leaving Earth, had been overtaken by the Hope spacecraft. 

Voyager 1's power supply had long since been exhausted, and Ella caught up to it and captured it. 

It carried with it humanity's dreams of the cosmos. 

There had once been concerns on Earth that Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 might be intercepted by other civilizations, leading to the discovery of human civilization by extraterrestrial beings. But such fears were entirely unnecessary. Voyager would reach the true edge of the solar system by the year 42,145, some 40,000 years from now. 

For advanced civilizations capable of long-distance interstellar travel, the presence of Earth's civilization could already be detected from beyond the solar system; Voyager merely added a finishing touch, confirming the nature of Earth's civilization.

Ella made some minor modifications to the probe. 

It reinstalled a nuclear battery and then launched it back onto its original trajectory at a speed of 17 km/s. 

It replenished the power supply. 

Afterward, every year, the probe would send out its messages back towards Earth. 

But now, the probe had no idea that its signals would never be received by anyone. 

At this point, they had reached a distance of 420 astronomical units from the Sun. 

However, the long journey was only just beginning. 

... 

Nine years later. 

The Hope entered the outer edge of the Oort Cloud's core region. 

This area, also known as the Comet Cloud, was the legendary home of comets, filled with water ice, methane, ethane, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen cyanide. 

Ella collected some samples for research. 

... 

Another 279 years passed, and the Hope finally exited the massive core of the Oort Cloud, reaching the boundary that extended 50,000 astronomical units wide. 

Another 288 years passed in the blink of an eye. 

The Hope spacecraft completely exited the Oort Cloud, surrounded now by a vast, silent blackness. 

From here, looking back at the Sun, it had merged with the background of the starry sky. 

The Hope had truly left the solar system. 

At this point, the journey had lasted 578 years, and the spacecraft was now 100,000 astronomical units from the Sun, about 1.58 light-years away—the edge of the Sun's gravitational influence. 

This marked the first time humanity had escaped the grasp of its home star. 

... 

Eighty-six years after leaving the solar system, and 664 years into its journey through space, 

a bright beam of light suddenly struck the Hope from the side. 

"Alert! 

Alert! 

Signs of extraterrestrial civilization detected at 0.7 astronomical units. The spacecraft is under attack by an extraterrestrial civilization." 

Yan Xia was awakened once more, greeted by the sight of flashing red alarms.