Chapter 1089: Footprints in the Snow
Translator: _Min_ Editor: Caron_
The meeting lasted for three full hours, and the summit’s agenda today finally came to an end.
When Jiang Chen announced the conclusion of the summit, the foreign ministers left the venue at the fastest speed after they received the doc.u.ments from Celestial Trade. For them, the most important task on-hand now was to communicate with their leaders and pa.s.s back the information they received.
The reporters waiting outside the parliament building were bound to be disappointed. The foreign ministers didn’t give them any opportunity to interview. They stepped into the helicopters and immediately departed.
Obviously, the summit’s agenda wasn’t to be disclosed to the public.
At least not today.
The reporters outside the parliament building put away their cameras and left the scene one after another. Although there were reluctant, they now accepted the fact that they waited for nothing.
However, many reporters still noticed an unusual expression from the foreign ministers.
Their expressions were all serious and somber.
Or anxious?
The reporters who noticed this were contemplating the reason. They were trying to dig out valuable information to get back to their bosses.
What made the foreign ministers so anxious?
Instincts told them that there was a lot of information hidden, but they wouldn’t ever know that it was because of the doc.u.ment Jiang Chen gave the ministers in the end.
It was an astronomical observation report.
After confirming signs of life on Gliese 581g, Kelvin took the astronomical observation team to conduct a carpet search on the s.p.a.ce outside the Gliese 581 galaxy. Based on Jiang Chen’s opinion, they focused on the observations of the asteroid belts outside the stellar system.
Soon, they found something that became scary after facts were obtained from those asteroid belts.
Among the asteroid belts between the Earth and Gliese 581g, they observed an unnaturally formed vacuum…
Two days pa.s.sed since the first round of consultation and it had been two days since the doc.u.ment was sent to the UA.
On June 17th, in the conference room of NASA’s headquarters, a bunch of bureaucrats who rarely visited gathered there. Even the President and the Minister of Defense made a visit which surprised NASA.
Even though NASA had recently gained some attention because of the popularity of aeros.p.a.ce projects, rarely did the top officials all visit together. This scene was only possible during an era of an arms race.
“Do you need a cup of coffee?”
“No.” Hill shook her head with a sullen face, and the aides sitting next to her no longer spoke.
It was the day of the results. Although they could’ve waited in their office, after they heard such shocking facts, how could they sit still?
Just then, the door of the conference room was pushed open and Bolden hurried in.
A dozen eyes gathered on him. Bolden took a deep breath and threw the doc.u.ments in his arms on the conference table, working up the courage to disclose the results.
“The observation results are out.”
“What are the results?” Hill immediately asked while constantly praying in her heart that the outcome with a possibility of one in ten thousand wasn’t a reality. However, she knew that would just be self-deception. The bitter smile on Bolden’s face already explained many problems.
“The data mostly matched with the data provided by Celestial Trade,” Bolden said.
Hill was silent, and the entire conference room was silent.
They were previously optimistic. After all, with the existing astronomical observation means, it was impossible to carry out such detailed mapping. Many people even wondered if this was false information fabricated by Celestial Trade.
However, while eyes could lie, the data couldn’t.
What’s more, the other party even provided the detailed astronomical coordinates of the asteroid belt in the file and gave each country the opportunity for verification.
The NASA researchers took the information and immediately used the Hubble s.p.a.ce Telescope to observe the coordinate area. Although they couldn’t create a star map as detailed, based on multiple sets of data obtained by the Hubble s.p.a.ce Telescope, NASA obtained the same result three times.
A vacuum was observed in many asteroid belts between the Earth and Gliese 581g. It was obviously impractical to attribute this to nature’s ingenuity, and there was only one possibility to explain this phenomenon.
Something must’ve traveled through the belts.
And the size and speed of that thing weren’t small.
“What do you think is the most likely explanation for the vacuum belt?” Hill gulped.
“They’re footprints,” Bolden said with an ugly expression. “The footprints of a beast pa.s.sing through snow.”
“I have the same opinion as you.” Looked grimly, Carter felt the sweat in his palms.
He admitted that he was a Star Wars fan when he was young, and his bedroom was filled with posters of Independence Day. He even imagined that he could be a pilot who drove a fighter jet into an alien s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. But he never thought that he would really become enemies with the aliens.
As the Minister of Defense.
“What do you think our odds are?” Hill looked at Carter.
Carter didn’t answer this question directly, but said with a forced smile, “What do you think about Iraq’s chance of defeating us?”
Hill also forced a smile.
Nowadays, the aircraft carrier of the extraterrestrial civilization already set off. They couldn’t even create a s.h.i.+p to “set sail”. As for the battle on their home front? After witnessing the horror of the nest, who could work up the courage to face a swarm of mutants?
“Compared to defeating them, I’m afraid it would be more practical to build a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p to escape.” Bolden shook his head and ridiculed himself, but he didn’t see that all eyes were focused on him again.
“That’s indeed an idea.”
“Yes, at least the President can be kept alive, just like Air Force One.”
“And we can bring some people to preserve seeds for the UA and even human civilization.”
“…”
Seeing that everyone reacted to his own words and his colleagues had begun to discuss how to escape, Bolden was sweating as he quickly said, “Do you think Congress will approve this budget? Using the taxpayer’s money to allow the president to run away? Those Congress members aren’t crazy yet.”
“That’s not necessary.” Hill, who didn’t speak until now, suddenly spoke.
Compared to Bolden who rose to his position as an astronaut, Hill’s political sense was undoubtedly more sensitive. She knew who the Capital really served, and she knew who she should really please.
“Congress Members don’t want to die. The wealthy people on Wall Street don’t want to die. We don’t even have to raise money from Congress.” Hill’s Chief of Staff also followed.
With a glimpse of hope appearing in their pupils, Hill and her own Chief of Staff continued: “We only need to set up a Noah’s Ark Fund and promise investors a ticket.”
Everyone’s eyes lit up.
Yes!
As long as they could convince those rich people to board the s.h.i.+p, how difficult would it be to raise funds?
However, the door was pushed open, and Hill a.s.sistant ran inside.
“What’s so urgent?” While she wasn’t pleased, Hill maintained a president’s demeanor as she asked.
“People-people are holding a demonstration in front of the Capitol. I’m hoping you can explain,” the a.s.sistant said with sweat droplets all over his forehead.
“Explain what?” Hill frowned.
The a.s.sistant didn’t answer. He opened the news page and handed the phone to Hill.
When Hill took the phone, she already felt something wasn’t right. But the instant she saw the headlines, her mood suddenly plunged to the bottom. Her wrinkles were even more visible because of anger. She was ready to curse out any second.
“Despicable!”