Finding Stardust

This initiative was founded in 2038. It was first conceived by Rhionen Industries, one of the most progressive technology company groups at the time (and which had now been renamed into RMI), before becoming independent and got more backings from other world"s leading companies.

Because outer s.p.a.ce was a new domain that attracted humankind in modern times, both government and the private sectors throughout the world were racing to be part of the journey, to put their marks in this new territory and be the firsts to claim the new world. s.p.a.ce exploration was considered the new renaissance.

The compet.i.tion among those initiatives was quite similar to when Columbus and Magellan were competing to be the first man to sail around the world and prove that the earth was round.

Each organization wanted to be the one who went down in history as the first one to be out there. US"s NASA, Russian"s Roscosmos, and the Chinese National s.p.a.ce Administration were three of the fiercest compet.i.tors in this field.

s.p.a.ceLab became the biggest private s.p.a.ce initiative ten years after it was first founded and got ma.s.sive investment from more companies. At the moment, there were twenty large companies from various countries in the world invested in this initiative to get a share of the s.p.a.ce renaissance, when mankind could finally conquer outer s.p.a.ce and set up their colony.

Some of the projects that were being prepared were new colonies on Mars and possible exploration the outer planets like Jupiter and Neptune.

As the closest planet to Earth, Mars was considered suitable for human habitation, provided they could make the necessary adjustments. It could solve the population crisis since mankind had overpopulated the earth in recent decades.

It was predicted that in a hundred years, there wouldn"t be enough resources on earth to keep all the humans on it. In addition to finding an alternative new place for humans to live, this s.p.a.ceLab sought to overcome the energy crisis on earth by mining minerals or gas on other planets or asteroids. Venus, Jupiter, and Neptune were deemed rich in such gas and minerals. Scientists even said that it was literally raining diamonds in Neptune.

Every year, s.p.a.ceLab will invite its investors to attend their global presentations about all the progress achieved by s.p.a.ceLab and their various plans going forward. This year, the presentation was considered especially important because s.p.a.ceLab finally found a breakthrough technology that could cut travel time to Mars.

With the current technology, humans needed 8 months of travel just to arrive on Mars. Round trip will take them almost 1.5 years. Meanwhile, now, reportedly with this new technology, they could cut it down to just six months.

This was huge progress because it saved 25% of travel time. And as many people would agree, time is money. So, saving time meant they would be able to cut costs quite significantly with this new innovation.

It was estimated that in a not too long time, humans would begin to build the colony they wanted. This was truly a development that would bring so many great changes in the lives of mankind.

For two days, before the main event, Haoran and Emma had fun exploring some of the beautiful tourist attractions around Bern, such as Grindelwald, Mount t.i.tlis, Lauterbraunen, and many others. Everything was only one or two-hour drive away from Bern.

Because they both spoke French fluently, Haoran and Emma had no trouble communicating while they were in Switzerland. The small country recognized four national languages, ​​namely French, German, Italian, and Romansch.

They also had fun in the capital. Bern was charming. It was built around a crook in the Aare River, and it traced its origins back to the 12th century, with medieval architecture preserved in the Altstadt (Old Town). Having lived in Singapore for a long time with its modern and futuristic city designs, Emma and Haoran tremendously enjoyed being in a historical old town, like Bern.

Too bad, they were not there for pure pleasure. Emma and Haoran had to attend the main event, as that was their original plan; to infiltrate s.p.a.ceLab and meet Professor Ren Hanenberg.

When they finally come to s.p.a.ceLab"s annual presentation, Haoran and Emma found out that apparently, they were the youngest partic.i.p.ants to attend the event.

Both immediately drew the attention of the world"s leading scientists, technologists, and businessmen who were present. These people had been coming to the s.p.a.ceLab headquarters every year, only for this presentation. This year was the only time they saw Emma and Haoran. And so, the teenagers stood out immediately.

"Gosh ... I didn"t expect the event to be this grand," Haoran commented as he pulled Emma"s hand into the front row seat, where his father"s entourage was seated. "It looks like we are the only people under 30 years here."

"Hmm... not really. Don"t forget that Professor Hanenberg was only 25," Emma said with a smile.

"Well, he doesn"t count. I consider him a 40-something guy because he is so much smarter and more influential than 99% people his age... hehehe ..." Haoran replied. He grabbed Emma"s waist and invited her to sit before he plopped himself on the chair next to Emma.

"Don"t make a fuss and be polite," said Mr. Lee when the two teenagers were seated. "You are representing Lee Industries here. You must uphold our reputation."

"Got it, Father ..." Haoran replied politely. He was very good at acting and could always play nice in front of his father if needed.

Soon, all the invited guests had filled their seats, and at 10 am, the event began. The s.p.a.ceLab auditorium was big and could accommodate hundreds of guests. This morning, it almost reached its full capacity.

There were thirty seats at the very front for VVIP guests and had the names of the esteemed guests, respectively. Emma and Haoran even saw their names written on the backs of their chairs. They couldn"t help but puff their chests because they realized they were as VVIPs.

As one of the leading investors, Mr. Lee succeeded in bringing Haoran and Emma to attend the s.p.a.ceLab presentation and earned them the same VVIP treatment as himself.

__I guess we got this star treatment because your father had really considered you his successor. That"s why you were given all the special facilities that were fitting the heir to Lee Industries__

Emma turned to Haoran and smiled. The young man was not surprised when Emma spoke with telepathy to him.

He was right, talking like this was safer for them because they didn"t need to be cautious about what they were discussing.

Emma would speak directly to Haoran by telepathy, and then she would read his mind. There was no need to make an audible conversation that people could hear. From the outside, people wouldn"t suspect that these two were up to something.

At first, Emma felt bad reading Haoran"s mind, but the fact was, the young man was actually happy if Emma did it. As time went by, Emma became more used to it, and now they talked more with their minds, rather than verbally.

Outsiders who didn"t know anything, usually just a.s.sumed these couple didn"t talk much, even though Emma and Haoran were actually very actively conversing and exchanging ideas. Sometimes, the two of them would laugh in unison after they discussed something funny between just the two of them, and it would cause other people to wonder what was so funny.

__I thought so too.__

Haoran agreed with Emma"s observation. He also thought his father already trusted him. It was because Haoran was very diligent at work, and he always tried hard to please his father for the past 9 months. Now he felt that all his efforts and plans were on the right track.