Ideological Work

The three hundred or so people in the hall appeared to be in good spirits, but Yue Yuan knew it was only temporary, stirred up by his speech.

To solve this problem, they had to identify the root cause of the public's low morale and then address it.

Based on his own feelings and everyone's reactions over the past few days, Yue Yuan believed the root cause was fear and uncertainty about the unknown.

Namely, the reason behind the explosions of the Sun and the Centaurus Trinary Star System.

As long as Callisto's upper leadership did not provide a reasonable conclusion on this matter, fear, uncertainty, and unease would remain deeply buried in the survivors' hearts, lingering like a ghost throughout Callisto Base society.

Because of the unknown, people worried that even after returning to the surface, they might still face unknown threats. Perhaps Jupiter would explode next, or Callisto itself would be destroyed. All kinds of horrifying possibilities haunted their imaginations.

If they wanted to unite, push forward, and actively fight for survival, they had to remove this influence from the people's minds.

But for the surviving humans at present, it was simply impossible to learn the real reason. After all, they could hardly go ask the aliens, could they?

Therefore, the base leadership needed to provide a reasonable explanation. Whether it was the truth or not did not matter, as long as it could withstand scrutiny and dispel the fear in people's hearts.

Only by properly building ideological unity could they accomplish more with less effort and become united from top to bottom.

Yue Yuan understood this well, so the first matter on today's agenda was to have the assembly provide a reasonable explanation of the incident—one that would put the survivors at ease.

As for its nature, Yue Yuan had already said what most people's first reaction had been: aliens had done it. But defining it that way would inevitably cause panic, so this meeting had to provide a reassuring explanation.

The moment Yue Yuan voiced his idea, noisy discussions broke out among the people in the Conference Room.

After a few minutes, when the discussion gradually quieted down, Yue Yuan said, "This is an astronomical event, so I believe experts in astronomy have the strongest right to speak. Let's hear what they think."

As an astrophysicist, Gan De knew it was time for him to speak.

"Based on the observational data, we can first be certain that this did not happen naturally." Gan De immediately defined the nature of the incident, then continued, "Next, we need to analyze the logic behind it and the possible truth from the limited information available."

"There are two things we know for certain. First, the Sun and the Centaurus Trinary Star System exploded, and judging by the timing, the latter came before the former. Second, we are still alive."

The two pieces of information Gan De had mentioned were obvious and widely known. There was nothing mysterious about them.

"From the first piece of information, we can infer that the attacker—the Unknown Civilization—possessed some means of destroying stars. We do not know what kind of weapon it was, but we can be certain that the Alien Civilization's technological strength surpassed our understanding."

"The second point is that the time gap before and after the events was extremely important. From that gap, we can draw two conclusions. First: the Unknown Civilization attacked the Centaurus Trinary Star System before attacking the Solar System. Second: the Unknown Civilization attacked both simultaneously."

"If it was the first possibility, then we can speculate that this Unknown Civilization treated our Sun as a supplementary measure in its attack on the Triple Star System, perhaps a follow-up strike for some strategic purpose.

"But if that were the case, then with this Unknown Civilization's level of technology, it would have been impossible for it not to discover us while coming to the Solar System to destroy the Sun. That contradicts the fact that we are still alive, so I believe the possibility is relatively small. Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility that the Unknown Civilization simply overlooked us, just as we do not watch for ants when we walk."

At that point, Gan De picked up the water on the table before him and took a sip. After wetting his throat, he continued, "If it was the second possibility, then it would mean that the Unknown Civilization was located in the Centaurus Trinary Star System, or in that direction, when it destroyed the stars. While the weapon that destroyed the stars struck the Centaurus Trinary Star System, it crossed the distance of 4.3 light-years and hit the Solar System four years later. This fits our observations and is consistent with the fact that we are still alive."

"Therefore, I am more inclined toward the second conclusion. However, all of this is based on human thinking and limited information. We know nothing about the aliens' forms of existence or ways of thinking, so we cannot rule out other unimaginable possibilities," Gan De added cautiously.

His words sparked another wave of discussion.

Then several other leading scientists offered further additions, while experts in Social Science also joined the discussion enthusiastically.

Building on Dr. Gan De's views, these experts discussed the possible forms and relationships of the Unknown Civilization and other Cosmic Civilizations.

There were also some unconventional opinions and viewpoints, though the discussion was beginning to wander further and further afield.

Seeing this, Yue Yuan made the decision directly. "Very good. Let us set aside other possibilities for now, such as alien ways of thinking. At this stage, we can only adopt the second conclusion. Dr. Gan, draft the data and evidence supporting this conclusion afterward, then write it into an article with a reasonable line of reasoning. The Propaganda Department will be responsible for coordinating its promotion. Regardless of the truth, we need this conclusion at this stage."

The Unknown Civilization had not discovered humanity. It had merely destroyed the Solar System for some purpose humans did not understand, and for the moment, the survivors were safe.

Yue Yuan needed to convey that message to the public, so they would no longer see the Unknown Civilization as the Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads.

Of course, there was another possibility: the Unknown Civilization had discovered humanity and destroyed the Sun to wipe out humankind. But that possibility would require an explanation for why the Centaurus Three-Star System had also been destroyed. Could there have been life there as well? Nor could they rule out the possibility that other nearby stars had been destroyed, since the survivors currently had no way to observe the outside world. However, they would have to wait until they returned to the surface, rebuilt various telescopes, and launched different probes before they could confirm any of that.

Therefore, it was not within the scope of discussion at this meeting.

As for whether the Alien Civilization was good or evil, or what the state of cosmic society was like, those were not the focus of discussion right now. Every stage had its primary contradiction. At this stage, their main task was to unite people's hearts and work together to survive.

Everyone understood what Yue Yuan meant, so the matter was settled.

"Next, I'll give an overview of the base's current situation in various areas." With the first matter settled, Yue Yuan moved on to the second item on the meeting's agenda.