The stars, but they become the gray wind

"I understand, boss."

…………

In the bar underground in the Mars base, Elijah looked at Ed sitting at the bar drinking, not knowing how to respond. He had always been very careful to avoid his bar, which was obviously in violation of regulations, from being discovered by the management. But today, just when he opened the door and started business with a happy face, someone he didn't expect came to the door. Ed, the former executive of Happy Valley Base who was forced to resign due to health reasons not long ago, was one of the people he feared the most. He pushed open the door of the bar as if nothing had happened, which scared him.

Fortunately, however, the former management of the Mars base who had just been forced to resign was obviously not here to cause trouble. He just greeted everyone in the bar who was frightened and dared not speak, and then sat at the bar. Like everyone else, he slapped a few special vouchers for the Mars base on the table and asked Elijah to prepare a few good drinks for him.

"Who told you?" Ilya asked calmly while Ed finished his third round of drinks. He was very sure that he was very careful and had never let the senior management of the Mars base, except for the deceased Kuznetsov, know about the existence of this illegal underground bar.

"No one told me."

"I'm just good at finding things like that. Hell, do you think you're the first smart guy to figure out how to make a still out of a bunch of junk and scrap metal?"

"I've drunk moonshine like yours in aircraft carriers, warships, mobile surgical hospitals, isolation wards, prison cells, churches, and even a moon base and space station."

"If there's a distiller and discarded parts to make one, then I, Ed Baldwin, would be one of the first, if not the first, to find it. I'm an astronaut from Mercury, from the Apollo era. We have more ways to bring contraband into space than you can imagine. Otherwise, how do you think the first sandwich in history was taken into space?"

"Okay." Elijah smiled helplessly. Compared to the old man in front of him, he was indeed too green.

"I'm telling you, you need to replace that filter in the condensation line. That's why some of your brews have that cinnamon rat's-butt smell to them. It's a sure sign the filter is starting to fail."

"Cinnamon rat's butt?" Elijah couldn't help but repeat the strange adjective Ed used to describe the wine he brewed.

.........

In a corner of the bar, technical workers responsible for the daily maintenance and construction of the Mars base gathered together to discuss the increasingly heavy workload recently.

"I spoke with a representative of the industrial union in Houston, and he said we have a lot of leverage now, and this might be a good opportunity to improve the terrible working conditions of the workers at the Mars base."

"I'm not sure. Looking for a union? Remember when they tried to stop the miners at James Red Star Base on the moon from forming a union? Like us, the miners on the moon simply wanted to improve their pay and working conditions, but they ended up forcibly disbanding the union and prohibiting them from striking."

"No, no, this time is different. Unlike the Moon, they can't fire us. This is Mars. They simply can't airlift a group of workers or technicians to replace us in two or three days. Without us to maintain the various facilities within the base, the Martian base could cease to function immediately."

"It will take at least three months to transport the workers and technicians who replace us to Mars. By that time, the asteroid Goldilocks will have flown away long ago," echoed a worker sitting by the wall.

"If we don't work together, they'll take advantage of us at every opportunity. Listen to me, we'll all be working double shifts, triple overtime, working through meal times, with no rest or recreation. These could all be factors that lead to catastrophic accidents."

"But there will be bonuses, won't there? Double bonuses, triple bonuses, maybe even extra overtime pay?"

"But, brother, you are human like the rest of us. Humans will tire from long-term mechanical work, lose their focus, and make mistakes. This can lead to injuries, and the probability of catastrophic accidents skyrocketing."

Another worker patted the shoulder of the one who had just spoken.

"That's right." The other workers came over and cried.

"But if you want to make a lot of money you have to take risks, don't you?"

"But if you're going to die, what's the point of having so much money?" Sam, the leader of all the workers present, asked his colleague.

"At least I will die with a smile on my face in a golden coffin, and my family will be able to live a better life?" Hearing this answer, the other workers showed expressions of incomprehension.

On the Mars base, conflicts are slowly accumulating.

…………

In the banquet hall of the conference venue in Leningrad, Aleida and Eli were happily chatting at the same table. At the distant gate, Irina, the director of the Soviet Space Agency, was watching the two people chatting happily in the distance with an expressionless face.

"She seems very confident?" She pressed the earphone in her left ear and asked Margo who was on the line.

"She has every reason to be so confident. She knows that the importance of Helios Corporation to the Soviet Union and the United States has reached an unprecedented level because of asteroids." Margo was obviously very proud of his favorite student before he defected.

"Okay, let's see what they can do." Irina walked forward and greeted the two of them.

"Director Hopson, Ms. Rosales, on behalf of the Soviet Space Agency and the Soviet Union, I welcome you both to Leningrad."

"Thank you, I'm honored to be here."

“My hotel room was very comfortable.”

"Ms. Rosales, how are your accommodations?"

"It's okay, except for some inconveniences in some details."

"I'm sorry, this conference is so large and the preparation time is so tight. We have no choice but to make this arrangement, so some people's accommodation conditions may not be so... ideal."

"But no matter what, I wish our plan will be successful this time."

“I’m not sure how we’re going to pull it off unless we find $20000 trillion under someone’s mattress.”

"The problem is not really about money..." NASA Administrator Eli sighed.

"Not about the money?"

"Yes, the United States and the Soviet Union alone can indeed come up with that much money."

"But we will not do that because funding this operation is the responsibility of the entire M7 group, and if we want to get something in return, each member state must invest something."

"Believe me, there are many people in this hall who can contribute money, and it's enough to cover the costs."

"Then what's the problem?" Aleida expressed confusion.

“It’s about return on investment and time to return on investment, the most important things in business.”

"I understand that every investor can get a huge return, and the cost of investing is only 10% or less of the potential return of $20 trillion. This is a huge return on investment."

"But not for the 30-year timeframe it takes to recoup those gains."

"It will take at least 30 years, and my people estimate closer to 40 years, before any country can see a return on its investment."

"But I can't just wave a magic wand and create a whole new fleet of spacecraft and the necessary infrastructure. Even if we could build it, we'd still have to launch it millions of kilometers to Mars, mine it, and transport the ore all the way back to Earth, which takes time."

"Unfortunately, you said it all for us..." Eli smiled bitterly.

"What?"

"That would be abandoning the entire operation."

"What! No!" Margo, who was sitting in front of the screen in the monitoring room, and Aleida in the banquet hall shouted at the same time.

"This is an opportunity that only comes once in hundreds or even thousands of years. We can't just give up like this!" Magao shouted excitedly into the microphone used for communication.

"Moscow will never approve waiting nearly 40 years to see a return on such a huge investment," said the director of the Soviet Space Agency in the banquet hall.

"But the whole point of this plan is not to make us gain benefits today, but for the long term future."

"Yes, Washington will not accept such a long time. Forty years in politics is almost a lifetime. Think about it, when Jack Kennedy was president more than 40 years ago, the news every night was about the Vietnam War, and Elvis was still very thin." (Note 1)

"But millions of people, many of whom are yet to be born, will be affected by this project, and we have a unique opportunity to benefit all of humanity."

"Wait, wait a minute... What if Goldilocks doesn't fly to Mars? We have never simulated and calculated this scenario before." At this moment, the director of NASA's space agency suddenly thought of a possibility that he had never thought of before.

"What if we transported asteroids to Earth, not Mars, and mined them directly in Earth orbit?"

"Using the existing infrastructure on the Moon for helium-3 mining, refining and transportation, we can begin mining immediately."

"And it would be much faster without having to send a whole fleet and thousands of vehicles to Mars."

"The payback period can also be greatly shortened. We don't have to wait until the 2040s to see returns. Wait, let me think about when will positive returns start to appear?"

"Five years," said Margo on the communication line.

"Five years..." Irina repeated the number given by Margo.

"I was just about to say that." Aleida was a little unconvinced when her answer was interrupted. She was still very confident in her mental arithmetic ability.

"Hey guys, it seems like we just changed the rules of the game?"

On the screen in front of Renlong, the progress bar for the asteroid dismantling had reached 100%, but from the outside, the 300-kilometer-diameter asteroid remained intact. In the stealth mode of the von Neumann self-replicator, the dismantling of asteroids and other celestial bodies would be completely undetectable from the outside. Only the shallow outer layer of the asteroid remained intact, and the hollowed-out interior relied entirely on the von Neumann self-replicator to maintain the asteroid's original appearance and structure.

Renlong's index finger rested on the red button. As long as she pressed it, the command to disintegrate the asteroid would be sent out. The completely decomposed asteroid would become an artificial star gate, opening a wormhole connecting to other areas of the Milky Way.

But she didn't press it. It was not the right time yet. The recipient of the gift had to at least prove that he was qualified to use it.

"Hopefully... they can make better choices?"

"After all, I've seen too many mistakes humans make due to shortsightedness."

…………

In an office at the Leningrad conference venue, Aleida wrote piles of calculation formulas and orbital calculation diagrams on a blackboard in front of the two directors.

"The main question is... how do you get something that massive to Earth?"

"Under normal circumstances, this might take hundreds of years. 2003 LC is many times larger than Kronos, and its high spin speed is still a problem."

During the communication, Magao, who was also watching the conversation through cameras and audio equipment in the office, provided some technical solutions to the director of the Soviet Space Agency.

[In the 1990s, NASA used DART to successfully simulate asteroid impact avoidance technology. We may be able to use the same technology to divert Goldilocks.]

"The space agency used BART to simulate asteroid impact avoidance technology in the 1990s..." Irina, who didn't hear Margo's words clearly, accidentally said the wrong name.

[It's DART, not BART.] Margo corrected.

"Sorry, what is BART?" Eli, who didn't know much about this, was a little confused.

"Sorry, it was a slip of the tongue. It was DART. My English is a little bit poor."

"So, what is DART?" Eli, a layman in the aerospace field, was still confused.

"Double Asteroid Redirection Test," Aleida explained.

"The space agency simulated and tested eight technologies in the 90s, and one of them may be feasible." Elena repeated what Mago said in the communication.

"One of the technologies being tested, and indeed successfully used in the Ranger mission against Kronos, is direct engine installation for remote propulsion, where one or more rocket engines are strapped to the asteroid and then ignited."

"Wait, is this a viable option? I didn't see it in the Ranger's report?" Margo asked, puzzled.

"We didn't see it in the Ranger accident investigation report?" Irina changed the topic and asked Aleida, who was calculating on the blackboard in the office.

"We didn't use this approach because we mistakenly trusted the porosity measurements of certain localized areas on the asteroid's surface."

“What about other steering technologies?”

[Um, if I remember correctly, the other option is plasma beam guidance?]

"How about the plasma beam guidance scheme?"

"No, there's not enough energy to power a plasma beam that big."

What about the kinetic impact solution?

"What about kinetic impact?"

"We don't have time to build something with enough mass and speed, and it's just too difficult to capture another asteroid and hit it."

[What about launching a nuclear bomb at an asteroid and using nuclear explosion propulsion to change its trajectory?]

"No!" Irina couldn't hold back and shouted out what she was thinking.

"What's wrong?" Aleida in the office looked puzzled.

"I just thought of the option of nuclear explosives, but obviously no, it's too dangerous."

"You want to nuke the asteroid?"

"Hey, if dinosaurs had nuclear bombs they might still be around," Aleida joked.

“But we want to turn Goldilocks, not blow it apart.”

"Other options include concentrated solar propulsion, mass accelerators, gravitational traction, laser ablation..."

"But either they don't have enough energy, they're not big enough, they're too slow, or they simply don't exist with current technology."

"There must be a solution. We just need more time to think about it." Margo's tone was firm during the call.

In the building where the Leningrad Conference was held, a hooded figure was wandering around. A wisp of long purple hair peeking out from the hood revealed her identity. She was not interested in the noisy conference hall full of the red tape of various diplomatic occasions. All the security guards and venue staff who passed by her inexplicably ignored her, who looked quite suspicious, as if they could not see her.

Under the influence of the mind-modulated beams and the invisible nanomachines scattered in the air on the subconscious of intelligent creatures and on-site electronic monitoring equipment, all people and cameras selectively ignored the purple-haired girl wandering around the venue. She even ran directly to a security guard with a baton and a pistol hanging around his waist, waving her hands in front of him, and the other party was completely unaware that there was someone in front of him.

"Renlong, do you think there will be a large-scale strike at the Mars base? The various conflicts there are becoming increasingly apparent. Humans have an innate tendency to discriminate against differences, and the workers there are increasingly dissatisfied with their poor working and living conditions."

"Ultimately, the reason the living and working conditions of most of the skilled workers at the Mars base are so poor is because Earth has invested too little in Mars and is only focused on getting things done at the lowest cost. As a result, the treatment of the workers at the Mars base is getting worse and worse."

"If the workers at the Martian base stage an organized protest against this situation, Earth will undoubtedly take drastic measures for the sake of the asteroid, which will only further intensify the discontent among the skilled workers on Mars. Humans... are inherently stubborn and never consider resolving conflicts fundamentally."

"I just hope they can make the right choice later..."

Chapter 182: The Martian Workers' Strike (7000 words)

Margo came to the door of Aleida Hotel's room. She was about to raise her hand to knock on the door when she found that the door was not locked. She gently pushed open the wooden door.

"Excuse me...is anyone there?" Margo walked into the room. The ceiling light was on. There were piles of research materials and draft papers filled with calculation formulas on the coffee table, and there were several suitcases in the corner.

Marco came forward and lowered his head to carefully examine the research materials and calculation drafts piled on the coffee table. They were covered with the distinctive handwriting of his favorite student. Marco's attention was completely attracted by the materials and calculation formulas on the coffee table. He did not notice that someone had just entered the room from the open door behind him.

Aleida, with a bath towel wrapped around her head, just returned to her room and found that an uninvited guest had broken into her room.

"Who are you? What are you doing?" Due to the position of the coffee table, Margo had her back to Aleida, but when she turned around, Aleida behind her saw her face and was so scared that she showed an expression as if she had seen a ghost.