Chapter 153: Chapter 134: Sounds of the Past,
Consequences of the Future l
Translator: 549690339
Everything has two sides, just like a coin.
As they approached the Invader Barrier, the constantly intensifying mental penetration turned into forced control, causing chaos in the passenger living area, but at the same time, it brought help to the research project on their end. Harrison Clark felt slightly better.
Honestly, he didn’t need to go through too much mental struggle and weighing of options. If necessary, he would not hesitate to abandon everyone, including himself, as long as he could achieve his goal.
There are some things that really shouldn’t be thought about.
It wasn’t long before Harrison received a notice from Nora Camp.
There was trouble outside, and it was a big mess.
She had lost control of the situation.
When Harrison reappeared in the living area, Nora Camp was waiting for him with a worried expression in the central square.
“See for yourself.”
Nora Camp pointed to the distance.
Kids and adults were fighting at the four corners of the large square:
At the entrance to the bar, basketball court, and inside and outside the internet cafe.
This was a real, chaotic happening.
There was no violence or shouting; just the constant sound of fists and feet hitting flesh.
Though they were fighting, they managed to avoid any nearby objects and did not damage even a blade of grass or a single table and chair.
Even though they seemed to want to kill each other, they remained strangely civilized and polite.
The other people just went about their business as the brawlers continued to “eliminate” each other.
For example, a couple was tutoring their child in math on the bench in the center of the park, in front of the flower platform.
Everyone else was careful to avoid the family of three during the commotion.
Harrison tried to eavesdrop on the math lessons but found them too challenging for him to understand.
“I am really at a loss. I can’t control them anymore. All the security officers have been dispatched,” Nora Camp sighed.
“If things continue like this, everyone will have these symptoms in a day or two, and well lose all the passengers.”
Harrison fell deep into thought.
Anyway, he wasn’t doing anything else, so why not try to use his brain to solve the problem? It would also be a kind of exercise for his own abilities.
He said, “Let’s analyze the situation first. Notice how they are fighting so hard without hurting the spaceship? Does this indicate that protecting the spaceship aligns with some high-priority objective in their minds?”
Nora Camp nodded, “Yes, even though they seem unreasonable, their actions actually follow a certain logic.”
“So, as long as we find their logic, we can naturally solve the problem.”
Nora Camp stared, quickly calming down, “You caught me off guard.”
“What do you mean?”
“I should have been the best at handling this type of situation, but I got too flustered.”
“It’s okay. It’s not your fault. You only recently regained your emotions, and you need some time to adapt to controlling this ability that humans are supposed to have from birth.”
Nora Camp shook her head, “But we don’t have much time. I can’t afford to slowly adapt to my weakness.”
Soon after, she fell deep into thought, no longer paying attention to the “battlefield” in front of her.
It didn’t take her long to come up with an analysis.
The reason these people were fighting each other was to prove the superiority of their genes and eliminate those they thought were less fit.
Their motivations stemmed from a basic human instinct, rooted in the need to reproduce.
Just like all life on Earth, when the unattached adults have nothing to do, the highest priority instinct is to propagate.
Now that they are being more heavily influenced by the mental penetration, their base thoughts were further altered, resulting in extreme actions that only follow the innate instincts.
“I just checked the situation in the production area, and it seems stable. So I think these people are just too idle right now. We need to give them something to do so they have no time to think about reproducing,” Nora Camp clapped her hands, “Let’s find them something to do.”
Harrison asked, “Why are people in the production area so well-behaved? Your logic is inconsistent.”
“This spaceship was originally designed to fly to Proxima Centauri, a journey that would take forty years. So, before the flight, the Escapists established extremely strict rules and regulations. If anyone slacks off on the job, they will face severe punishment. The people in the production area don’t dare to have other thoughts during work hours.”
Harrison was surprised, “How come I don’t know about these rules and regulations?”
Nora Camp spat at him with irritation, “As a pirate, please have some self-awareness. You never asked about any of these things, so no one would tell you.”
“Fine. Let’s say your analysis is correct, but didn’t you say reproducing is the highest instinct? Why are they afraid of punishment?”
“Because punishment means being expelled into space. With no life left, there’s no chance to reproduce. Survival is a prerequisite for reproduction.”
Harrison nodded his head, “Alright, let’s find them something to do.”
Soon enough, everyone who could still move was ordered to go to the production area.
Harrison’s orders were for them to try and solve any unresolved math problems. They were not allowed to stop until they solved the thousands of unsolved math problems left in the world.
As for the others, those who had died couldn’t be helped any longer.
Those who were still alive would naturally be saved. After being rescued, they would all be sent to learn math.
“You’re really ruthless, making them do endless math.”
“What’s the big deal? Their logical thinking skills are so strong now that only math can exhaust them. Even though I can’t understand math, it doesn’t stop me from troubling others.”
Nora Camp was shocked by his unconventional thinking. She could only admire his talent.
As time passed day by day, the spaceship got closer and closer to the edge.
Meanwhile, the project members, by analyzing Needham Brown’s brainwaves, gradually captured more and more information.
Transforming the still incomprehensible radiation wave signals into signals that humans can understand is obviously a very difficult task.
Each of Needham Brown’s brainwave fluctuations contained an enormous amount of information.
If it weren’t for the astonishing storage capacity of the Quantum Network, the information from just one microsecond could have filled all of humanity’s hard drives, provided their electronic information storage capacity had remained at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
The researchers needed an even larger amount of calculations to simplify this information, find the patterns within it, and eventually summarize it into simple, comprehensible information.
One day, Martha Owen pushed open the door of Harrison’s office and said,
“Harrison, there is good news and bad news I have to tell you. The good news is that we have just confirmed a pattern. The radiation waves in Needham Brown’s mind complete a cycle every ninety minutes. The bad news is that at our current computing power, it will take us at least a year to fully crack the content.”Hearing this, Harrison Clark pointed in the direction of Earth, “Can’t we request assistance from the World Government?”
“In fact, they are already assisting us. Their central intelligence has allocated ninety-nine percent of its computing power to me. I have included that in this estimated time.”
Harrison Clark sighed, “Then I’m afraid we might not make it in time.”
Martha Owen: “Yes.”
As she was about to leave, Harrison Clark stopped her. “Instruct the over twenty-six thousand passengers with labor capabilities aboard the spaceship to stop their mathematical battles and devote their full efforts to the calculations of the quantum network.”
Martha Owen obeyed.
If it were before, she would certainly have asked why.
How could human calculation aid the quantum network?
But now she didn’t ask, as she too had been thoroughly infiltrated.
In fact, Harrison Clark was quite looking forward to it. If every human brain truly possessed the same rigorous thinking model as a computer, how strong would their combined computing power be?
Martha Owen provided him with an accurate answer in half an hour.
“Thanks to you letting them start mathematical training early, they now have a solid foundation and can dive right into the work. In thirty-six days, we will complete the preliminary analysis and create a conversion simulator so that you can hear the acoustic simulation signal that Needham Brown ’sees’.” Harrison Clark was overjoyed. “Great!”
The combined efforts of the more than twenty thousand people aboard the spaceship raised humanity’s overall computing power by tenfold.
The invaders’ technology was truly unfathomably formidable.
Even more astounding, Harrison Clark’s inadvertent gambit had turned the invaders’ attack method into a powerful asset for him.
Harrison checked the time.
Thirty-six days were still too late and insufficient.
With a wave of his hand, he commanded, “Full speed ahead, approach the edge as quickly as possible!”
It was time to give it their all; success or death.
Half a day later, the spaceship officially reached the edge of the Invader Barrier.
“How long now?”
“With the increased computing power, it will only take eighteen days.”
Harrison clenched his fists abruptly.
Success!
In eighteen days, it would be October 27, 3020 AD.
Some things were truly predestined.
On October 27, at 8 a.m.
There were still one hour and forty-three minutes until the moment of judgment.
Harrison took a small black box from Martha Owen, and attached the box’s in-ear plug to his ear.
Martha Owen adjusted her white hair and said, “It worked. Now, you can wear this and approach the Invader Barrier. You will hear some sounds; the closer you get, the clearer the sounds will be.”
Harrison nodded, put on the Azure Star suit, stuffed the box into his clothes, and wore the earpiece.
He then turned his gaze beyond the stars once more.
Still, nothing was there.
He looked back in the direction of Earth once more.
The military’s million-strong fleet of battleships remained ready and waiting.
He smiled nonchalantly at Nora Camp and waved at Needham Brown’s head, “I’m off. See you later.”
Entering the egress chamber, the hatch opened, and Harrison Clark leaped out.
The Azure Star suit emitted a trail of light as he sped towards the edge, alone.
The moment he exited the hatch, the sounds in his ears were faint and disordered.
Three minutes later, he reached the edge entirely.
He flicked a tiny metal ball from his fingertips, and within half a meter of leaving his body, the metal ball disintegrated into particles invisible to the naked eye.
The sound in his ears finally became clear.
Harrison Clark was taken aback, his astonishment beyond measure.
The sound was actually the “Sounds of Earth!”
The biggest question in Harrison Clark’s mind was finally answered.
Why did the invaders come?
How did the invaders find Earth?
How did they master the means of controlling humans?
The case was cracked.
On August 20 and September 5,1977, humanity launched the Voyager 2 and Voyager 1 spacecraft, respectively.
Each spacecraft carried a gold-plated copper laser disc called the “Sounds of Earth.”
The Golden Record carried humanity’s mission to communicate with the universe’s star systems.
What was intended as a gesture of good will towards the cosmos ultimately brought about doom.
Humanity wanted to gain entry into the cosmic civilized realm.
But this opportunity came too soon, too fast, and humanity could not bear the consequences.
Martha Owen said that the message Needham Brown ‘saw’ repeated every ninety minutes.
The Golden Record, laden with the Sounds of Earth, contained various sounds of nature and 27 world-famous songs, with a total duration of exactly ninety minutes.
These sounds completely exposed the information on sound waves that the human brain could receive and process, revealing the structure and logic of human thinking.
Using the Golden Record as a reference, the invaders reverse-engineered the structure of the human brain, easily penetrating human thought.
The high-purity uranium-238 embedded in the Golden Record’s cover had a half-life of 4..17 billion years, allowing the capturing alien civilization to calculate the launch date of the probe.
This, too, exposed humanity’s brief history and level of civilization.
In short, this act of good will rendered Earthlings helpless victims..