The stars, but they become the gray wind

"We might still have some fun, everyone!"

"Wait, but the override switch is on the outside of the ship, right?"

"Does this mean an EVA is necessary? Or is it necessary during the ignition?"

.........

"Hey……"

"Sam, it's me."

“Dave?”

"I need you to go to the cargo hold behind the Ranger. We have other ways to control the engine through the frequency detection box, but we need your help."

.........

Not far behind the Ranger, the Corrector's Shell, undetectable by radar or optical detection, was already in place. At this moment, whether it was Renlong, Xuanzhang Wuke, and others far away on Jupiter, or the purple-haired girl remotely controlling the Shell on Earth, they all focused almost entirely on the Ranger and the asteroid it was advancing on, which the Shell was staring at.

"Commander! The alarm says the exterior door to one of the cargo hold's airlocks has opened."

"Why is the external airlock of Cargo Hold 3 open? Retrieve the footage from cameras 37 and 38 outside the cabin."

Then, Palmer saw that the images captured by cameras 37 and 38 showed a person in a space suit climbing outside the cabin towards the engine. Only then did he realize that there seemed to be one person missing in the huge cab.

"Hey! Where's Sam Marcie?"

.........

"I'm opening the cover on the control panel."

Watching the titanium alloy control panel cover float away and then be instantly burnt by the spacecraft's tail flame, Sam felt that he must be crazy to perform such a dangerous operation in such a dangerous place as a spacecraft engine that was in the starting state.

And in a place she couldn't see, the fully transparent shell was secretly protecting her from any unexpected situations.

"We've found out that the rest of them are probably hiding in the North Korean cabin."

After hearing the information her investigators had found out, Danielle already had a general idea in her mind. She immediately figured out who had planned this incident. A plan and program that required so much technology and professional equipment operation experience, as well as leadership and execution capabilities, was something that only a handful of people in the entire base could do. Since the asteroid mission began, her old colleague who was forced to retire had often disappeared, and she almost immediately realized what had happened.

"Connect me to the North Korean cabin."

"I'm Commander Danielle, please answer."

"Hi, Bob!" Ed finally decided to confess himself and greeted him with a joke that was only familiar to him and his old colleagues.

"Do you even know what you're doing?"

"This is crazy, you have to stop."

"Why? To allow you to ship the asteroid back to Earth, and let Mars and human interstellar exploration decline and die?"

.........

On Earth, in the space agency's main control center, Aleida saw her mentor sitting silently in the waiting room at the back.

"Margo?"

"Many years ago, my mentor, von Braun, and I once sat here together. He would tell me what I did wrong and what I did right, give me advice, or sometimes just listen to my complaints. I also stood where you stood when he suffered criticism and political persecution because of that incident."

"He also said something while sitting here. I will never forget that sentence. Now that I think about it, I finally understand what it meant."

“Progress is never free, it always comes at a price.”

"I finally understand now, because I am finally faced with a similar choice as him."

"At the time, he said he had no choice. There was always a better option. If the asteroid came to the Earth, the Mars and subsequent deep space exploration plans would be finished. Maybe not in a few years, but soon."

"You know very well that most of the people on Mars don't care about Mars at all. They only care about whether they can live a better life."

"If they succeed, the world will have no choice but to continue investing in Mars and the future of humanity in the solar system. We can't let their efforts go to waste."

"Are you saying the same thing as I thought?"

"Remember, Aleida, progress is never free."

…………

"You're right."

"If an asteroid were to reach Earth, the vast majority of its resources would be divided up by the US, the Soviet Union, and a few other powerful nations, rather than being used to truly benefit the world and humanity. This would only further bloat and solidify the old human social system."

"What human society needs is a radical change in its development model, before this mountain of shit accumulates to a state that is completely irreparable. At least at this point in time, there is still time. What is needed now is not some painkiller that only treats the symptoms but not the root cause.

"I know this very well." The purple-haired girl said this and shook her head.

"But sometimes, it's possible to minimize the cost of human society's progress and transformation. However, the social inertia and structural flaws accumulated over 1000 years of human society have forced humanity to choose the most tragic option every time."

"An option that is both fair and efficient does exist, but the inherent structure of human society and fundamental flaws at the genetic level make this option impossible to implement. If we want progress with minimal, or even no, cost, we must change the inertia and vicious cycle that has accumulated over thousands of years."

"If we don't change, we'll just sink deeper and deeper into this pit, until one day, we'll never be able to get out. Solutions that only treat the symptoms but not the root cause will ultimately not allow civilization to develop sustainably."

When Magao made a choice for himself and mankind to move towards the future of the solar system, a certain existence that had been waiting for mankind to make a choice of whether to move towards the future or stay in the present also silently prepared a wake-up call and a gift for human society.

"Renlong, prepare the stargate construction start button. I'm about to floor the accelerator for humanity. This thing is both a gift and a warning."

"By the way, please contact Chi Chengsan Liu Linger II III Zhu Yan (Eight). I need his help with something. Ask him to reserve a place for us in the Slow Domain Space."

"You don't want to?" Renlong asked Kalisa who was far away on Earth.

"I want to connect this section of the solar system's star gate directly through the Slow Domain, the wormhole hub space, to the other side of the Tianda General Six Star System. I want to set an example for humanity. If there is a civilization that has gone further than us, even if this neighbor is friendly and just stays by our side and does nothing, then humanity will have no choice but to accelerate its own development and evolution.

"Next, the accelerator will be stepped on to the floor. For humans, there will be no turning back."

Chapter 189 Star Gate Unfolds!

Chi Chengsan's spaceship was parked next to the core station of the Slow Domain wormhole hub. The core station, with a diameter of hundreds of kilometers, made the spaceship that Chi Chengsan was riding, with a long axis of nearly 20 kilometers, look dwarfed. From time to time, some blue-green lines appeared and disappeared briefly on the surface of the core station. Then, an open star gate would appear on the space crystal wall at the edge of the Slow Domain. The other star gates would automatically adjust their relative positions on the space crystal wall of the Slow Domain to make room for the newly opened star gate.

At present, there are more than 16,000 stargates in operation on the space crystal wall of the slow domain, which means that tens of thousands of galaxies have been connected to the stargate's superluminal anchor wormhole network. Although most of these galaxies are still under construction and the stellar celestial body engineering in the galaxies is generally only partially completed, the von Neumann self-replicator is still constantly dismantling large and small celestial bodies in the galaxy. In some galaxies, they have also begun to use newly built composite unmanned colony ships to quickly crush and harvest entire planets. However, due to the rapid expansion speed, the glass eel civilization still needs some time to improve and keep up with the progress of all the infrastructure such as stellar celestial body engineering within its territory.

The core station serves as an exchange hub for wormhole pairs connecting all galaxies. It is not only a transportation hub, but also a hub for the exchange and circulation of different information. Through the large and small wormhole pair networks that are widely present in various galaxies, the glass eels can instantly send information to any corner of a distant star system at superluminal speed. However, compared with the decentralized connection method of Sky Star that arbitrarily changes the connection objects between wormholes in different positions, the glass eels chose a technically simpler and more time-saving solution, which is to uniformly connect all wormhole pairs with fixed connection objects to the core station of the slow domain space. Those micro wormhole pairs used for communication and transmission of personnel or other small mass materials are installed inside the core station, and the wormhole pairs used for superluminal transportation between galaxies are placed on the edge bubble crystal wall of the slow domain space.

This network of anchored wormholes centered on the core station constitutes the glass eels' faster-than-light transportation information network. At the same time, as the absolute center of this system, the core station possesses powerful defensive and offensive capabilities. The core station itself is a miniature long-range strike platform. Through the large stargates deployed in various galaxies, the core station can deliver long-range strikes capable of easily destroying stars to any galaxy under its control.

Today, Chi Chengsan, who happened to be at the core station, received a message from the universe on the other side of the original Milky Way's central black hole, which had become a channel between two universes.

"Opening a new wormhole in our slow space? No problem, but the sizes of our large stargates are a little different. You know, because of the actual traffic requirements, our large stargate is a little smaller than yours."

"It's okay. We'll adjust the final construction dimensions of the planet here." On the communication screen, a purple-haired girl, who was obviously on the surface of a habitable planet, answered.

"However, may I ask why the

Is it specifically connected to our wormhole network hub space?"

"If you're asking about the main reason, it's this..." A huge amount of research data was transmitted into Chi Chengsan's brain through the Internet.

"Oh, this is... the silicon-based biological civilization that Zao Chiqi recently discovered 44 light-years away?"

"Same origin? Interesting. Could it be a fragment of a celestial body that was destroyed billions of years ago by a collision with a third planet in the galaxy, produced during the shattering process and flew out of the galaxy at a speed exceeding the third cosmic velocity?"

"I'm afraid it's not just as simple as the third cosmic velocity. According to our analysis of the moon, the satellite of the third planet in this galaxy, and the remains of the celestial debris in the origin crater by Algae Chiqi, the difference in age between the two is not too great. Basically, the samples left by the celestial debris in the origin crater on the Theia people's home planet and the oldest rock samples we have obtained from the early formation of the moon should not exceed 45 years in geological age. In other words, the impact that caused the destruction of the original Theia in the solar system caused the fragment that was ejected from the solar system to reach a speed of at least one thousandth of the speed of light, or even higher. In just tens of thousands of years, the celestial debris that was ejected from the solar system, carrying enough silicon-based organic matter inside, smashed into the current Theia people's home planet."

"If we're not mistaken, that fragment smashed into the Theia home planet just over 4 years after the collision between Theia and ancient Earth. Some of the silicon-based organic lifeforms carried within that solar system debris survived the initial impact and began to flourish on the massive satellite of the gas giant, the Theia home planet. Over the following billions of years, a complete ecosystem of silicon-based life has formed."

"Civilizations from two different galaxies actually share the same origin. This is truly...interesting."

"Life on both planets originated from that unexpected celestial collision. The massive satellite formed next to the Earth after the collision stabilized the Earth's rotation axis, and one of the fragments arrived on the other planet tens of thousands of years later and created a completely different ecosystem."

"The universe, isn't it amazing?" Calisi joked to Chi Chengsan in the communication.

"By the way, I might need to ask Zao Chiqi and Xuan Zhang Wu Ke for a small favor. They probably wouldn't mind personally bringing two civilizations of the same origin who have never known each other's existence into contact, right?"

"Zao Chiqi? It will probably be very happy? As for Professor Xuan Zhang Wu Ke, I think it may be more interested in the various phenomena that occurred after the contact between the two civilizations?" Chi Chengsan scratched his head when he thought of Zao Chiqi's personality of rushing into anything he encountered, which was completely opposite to Professor Xuan Zhang Wu Ke's behavior and habit of conducting extremely detailed rational analysis of everything he encountered.

While talking to Chi Chengsan, the purple-haired girl was multitasking, controlling the Corrector's Shell and keeping a close eye on the Ranger spacecraft that was pushing the asteroid.

At the tail of the Ranger asteroid tug, Sam Marcy, wearing a spacesuit, was fighting with Palmer who came to try to stop her. When she risked her life to untie her safety rope and used it to fix the engine override switch that was pulled open, Palmer rushed towards her from the side and almost knocked her away. If she had not reacted in time and held on to the handrail on the surface of the spacecraft tightly, when she reacted immediately, she saw Palmer trying to untie her safety rope fixed on the override switch. Or cut the safety rope, the override switch can return to the off position, but the sturdy safety rope wrapped around the handle made it impossible for him to untie it temporarily, so he had to take out his knife to cut the safety rope, and Sam's constant obstruction made it impossible for him to get his knife close to the safety rope. Since they were both wearing rather heavy space suits, it was basically difficult for the two of them to perform some complicated movements. They could only use their helmets and hands to push or knock each other away from the position of the override switch, making the scene of the two fighting in the weightless environment quite funny.

.........

"If we could insert this code directly into the upload computer in mission control, we might be able to prevent a remote engine shutdown command from Earth, preventing the asteroid from entering Mars orbit."

In an empty office of the space agency, Margo took out an A4 paper filled with codes and placed it on the table in front of him and Aleida.

“But if they are still writing and uploading, how can we make changes?”

“I personally typed in this code right before they finished uploading it.

"Okay, let's do it."

"But I have to enter the code."

"What? No! Absolutely not!" Margo was shocked by this sentence.

"There are too many people watching you. I'm the only one who can do this. Otherwise, there's no way it will succeed. And as a representative of Helios, they won't doubt me."

.........

On the Ranger spacecraft, Palmer finally succeeded in knocking Sam out. Sam, just before being completely pushed out of the edge of the spacecraft, narrowly grabbed a handrail on the outermost side of the spacecraft. However, due to her position, she was quite a distance away from the override switch where Palmer was.

Palmer Bay finally found the override switch, took out a knife and began to try to cut the safety rope bit by bit.

"Just a little bit more, just a little bit more." Palmer watched the countdown to the time limit on the stopwatch screen tied to his arm getting closer and closer, and he cut the safety rope with a knife more and more hurriedly.

Sam, who was far away, took advantage of the fact that Palmer was concentrating on how to cut the safety rope that fixed the override switch, and gradually approached Palmer from behind. When she was about ten meters away from Palmer, she saw a white thing floating past her eyes. It was the safety rope on Palmer's space suit that was fixed to the surface of the spacecraft. Seeing that there were only five seconds left in the countdown, she decided to take a gamble. She grabbed Palmer's safety rope directly and pulled back with all her strength. Palmer, who was concentrating on how to cut the safety rope on the control switch, was caught off guard and was pulled away from the override switch. At this time, the countdown for the engine shutdown time limit finally returned to zero. The engine at the tail of the spacecraft was still spewing out a plasma tail flame. Palmer, who was pulled by the safety rope, turned her head with lingering fear to look at the spreading plasma tail flame that was almost within reach. If she was a few meters closer, she might be burned to ashes along with her spacesuit by the spreading plasma tail.

"Happy Valley! This is the Ranger. The engine failed to shut down. Repeat! The engine failed to shut down!"

After hearing this news, everyone in the control center of the Mars Happy Valley Base had a deadpan look on their faces, watching the asteroid gradually changing its orbit on the big screen.

"We made it!"

"Oh my God, I can't believe it!"

"Great!"

Compared to the deadpan controllers in the Mars Control Center, the people hiding in the North Korean cabin presented a completely different picture. Ed, Dave, and the surrounding Martian workers hugged, high-fived, and cheered each other, unable to believe that they had actually succeeded.

.........

"Commander, our...asteroid...is...entering the orbit of Mars." The technician responsible for monitoring the movement of the asteroid reported to Daniel with a deadpan face after hesitating for a moment.

"I heard it. I need... some quiet time." Danielle covered her eyes and threw the communication headset on her ear on the table in frustration.

20 minutes later, when the Earth finally received the news that was delayed by 20 light minutes, all the staff in the space agency's control center, which was originally filled with tension, fell silent. Eli and Irina, the director of the Soviet Space Agency, were stunned in front of the big screen, watching the asteroid's orbit gradually turn towards Mars.

"What... is going on?" Finally, it was Irina who interrupted the silence.

"Why didn't the remote control code work?"

"I don't know. The calculations should be correct. The code was successfully inserted and the data uploaded. Uh... wait, something is wrong. The command to shut down the reactor and engines was indeed issued, but it was immediately replaced by a restart command?"

"This... someone tampered with the code?" A flight control technology programmer from the space agency who was standing next to Aleida discovered a small anomaly while checking the code.

"Did you do it?" Irina suddenly noticed that Aleida's expression seemed a little off. As someone who came from the intelligence and security departments, she had seen this kind of subtle expression change that represented guilt in many interrogation subjects.

"Oh, isn't this ridiculous?"

"When I uploaded the command sequence, Seth hadn't finished typing the code yet. The commands he entered were uploaded later than mine, and you have no expertise in flight control systems at all."

"No, but I can tell when someone's face is lying, just like you are right now."

"You need to arrest her immediately. She's sabotaged the entire asteroid project!"

"Irina, this... this is a serious accusation..."

"You know very well that she and Dave Ayesha always have their own agenda."

"Aleida? Did you do this?"

"It's not her, it's me!"

"I inserted the restart command for the reactor. This matter has nothing to do with Aleida." Margo stood up from a flight control computer in a pretentious manner and took the blame for his student.

Everyone present stared at Magao in disbelief.

"No...you shouldn't do this, Margo. You know how serious the consequences are."

"I know, and I do."

At the back of the aerospace area hall, the reporters and TV news anchors who had been preparing to happily report the incident and had already written their manuscripts, all looked at the new news from the space agency hall about the asteroid entering the orbit of Mars with astonishment on their faces.

【Breaking News: Asteroid Hijacked】Wife

A brazen unknown group has taken control of the asteroid 2003 LC, better known as Goldilocks, so that it is now headed for Mars instead of Earth.

The news of the asteroid being hijacked shocked the world. The US and the Soviet Union convened an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. The whole world was shocked that an asteroid could be stolen.