Chapter 65: Navigation_1

"Dr. Miller, Dr. Romi, what do you think?" After speaking, Kupa looked towards Cao Ge and the other for their opinion.

Luomi exchanged glances with Cao Ge, then took a look at Brand before finally speaking contemplatively, "I too think Planet 12 is more likely."

Having received Luomi's agreement, Kupa turned his gaze towards Cao Ge.

Under the scrutiny of the three, Cao Ge picked up the document in his hand and looked at it for a few more seconds, then said, "I also feel that Planet 12 is more probable—the presence of water suggests the potential for life."

"OK, three to one, we are heading to Planet 12," Kupa declared, slapping the round table as he spoke.

Having said that, he rose from his seat, completely disregarding Brand, who was already red-eyed, turned around, and began preparing for navigation, checking the status of the Space Station.

Cao Ge glanced at Brand, then walked away; he knew Brand's choice was the correct one, but Cao Ge had his own mission to complete, so he couldn't side with Brand's opinion.

Moreover, Brand's preference for Planet 5 wasn't solely because she believed it was more likely suitable for human habitation, but also because Dr. Edmonds, the one exploring Planet 5, was her boyfriend.

For this reason, Cao Ge had even less reason to choose Planet 5.

Cao Ge moved to the pilot's seat, assisting Kupa in checking the spaceship's control systems, preparing for the journey.

"Brand, don't blame me. Regardless of why the communication from Planet 5 ceased, it's not good news. I know the reasons for the loss of signal could be natural disasters, but there's also another possibility, that Dr. Edmonds chose to end it. If it was done intentionally, it would mean..."

"It would mean that Dr. Edmonds deems the planet no longer suitable for human habitation," Brand suddenly looked up, her gaze on the nearly fifty-year-old Luomi.

Tears in Brand's eyes began sliding down her cheeks.

"I believe Planet 5 is more valuable, and it has nothing to do with Edmonds being my boyfriend," she said.

Luomi watched Brand, accompanying him through his emotional venting, yet he remained silent.

Cao Ge, who had got up from the co-pilot's seat, glanced over, shook his head repeatedly upon seeing Brand crying, then walked towards the corridor of the Space Station, to check on the state of the hibernation chambers.

All he could say was that Kupa was right; they were just a bunch of boy scouts, utterly unprepared for a space mission.

Given the previous astronaut selection criteria, strong emotional reactions should have disqualified them, but there was no helping it; for today's world, they were already among the top talents.

............

In the spaceship's cockpit, the four geared up in spacesuits, sat in their seats, then fastened their seatbelts, initiating the prerogatives for flight.

Kupa, in the captain's chair, looking over at Cao Ge in the co-pilot's seat, saw his nod and then flicked a switch in front of him.

"Beginning computer self-check..."

"Computer self-check complete, spaceship engines ready for ignition," came the voice of the spaceship's robot.

After the computer's response, Kupa busied his hands on the control panel before him, activating various modules of the spaceship in accordance with the procedures.

About a minute later.

Kupa looked back at the three, then pressed the red button.

"Roar~"

The components inside the engine exhaust at the rear of the Space Station instantly glowed red hot, then a powerful blue flame shot out violently, the enormous thrust pushing the Space Station away from its Kupa orbit, heading towards Planet 12.

Sitting in the cockpit, Cao Ge felt a strong push against his back, his body helplessly tilting backward, merely resting against the seat.

About ten minutes passed before this sensation of thrust slowly disappeared.

At this point, the thrust from the Space Station's engines was minimized, maintaining only enough to adjust the attitude of the Space Station, letting it glide towards Planet 12 with the acquired momentum.

The reason they chose to let the Space Station glide to its destination was because of a fuel issue.

On Earth in this world, because of food shortages, there was very little investment in technology.

Their mission to find a new home was no different.

It was evident from their spaceship that could burst at any moment.

The spaceship's hull was only a few millimeters thick, and the vessel was entirely repurposed from a space station.

It was Cao Ge's first time encountering such a thing in his travels through various worlds: a spacecraft pieced together from cylindrical sections, which underscored NASA's dire straits.

Perhaps the Earth government of this world didn't truly believe it was possible to find a new home; otherwise, it was hard to explain why, despite pooling resources from around the globe, they only managed to produce such a contraption.

Once the force of acceleration had dissipated, and they were free to move about, the four of them unfastened their safety harnesses.

After resting for a while, they began to enter the hibernation pods one by one.

Since resources on the space station spaceship were extremely scarce—fuel, breathable oxygen, water, and food included—they had to minimize resource consumption as much as possible.

And entering hibernation was the best choice, not only to save resources but also to preserve their lives.

Soon, in about two hours' time, everyone except Cao Ge had entered hibernation one after the other.

At that moment, Cao Ge, removed his spacesuit, dressed in a white hibernation suit, sat in the pilot's seat, and stared blankly out at the stars.

Although his presence in this world was solely for the mission, he was still astounded by its vastness until now.

The universe, infinitely expansive, just how vast are you!

This was his most dangerous mission yet; even aboard the Elysium Space, Cao Ge had never felt this way.

The spaceship was just too dilapidated; he feared it would explode during his hibernation.

.........

Cao Ge had no idea how long the universe had existed or how much longer it would continue to exist.

His understanding of the universe, like that of most people, was based on an unproven hypothesis—the Big Bang theory as proposed by Hawking.

The size of the known universe, that is, the observable universe, spans a diameter of 93 billion light-years.

This is an astronomical figure beyond human comprehension, a distance humanity can never reach.

If the observable universe is that vast, what about the unobservable universe? Where do the numerous parallel universes exist?

Cao Ge gazed vacantly at the massive black hole outside the window.

"Murphy, do you know where we are?" Cao Ge suddenly asked.

Murphy, always lurking in the spaceship's computer, suddenly emitted a sound in response: "The current star sector does not match any information in the human database; Murphy cannot answer the doctor's question."

"Are we not in the Milky Way anymore?" mused Cao Ge to himself.

Considering the Milky Way's diameter is 100,000 light-years, and Murphy could not determine their location by characteristics of nearby star sectors, it meant they were at least not near the Milky Way.

So how far were they actually from the Milky Way?

Keep in mind, the Elysium Space had traveled for over two thousand years, covering just over two thousand light-years, not even close to ten thousand light-years.

And the war in the Three-Body World had taken place within a diameter of just four light-years.

The more worlds Cao Ge traversed, the more astonished he was.

The technology mastered by the higher-dimensional humans of this world was beyond anything he could imagine.