The two voices gradually faded away, but Ma Dongzhen froze. He looked around blankly and realized that none of the people passing by were as muddleheaded as he was.
Had none of them lost family? Had none of them lost lovers? Had none of them lost everything? No, everyone was the same.
They could emerge from the gloom and strive to live on. Couldn't I?
Besides, if what those two had said was true, reforms would come, and worthless people would no longer be tolerated. Did I want to become one of those worthless people?
No. I didn't.
Ma Dongzhen snapped awake. He raised the half-empty bottle in his hand and looked at it, then walked over to a trash bin and held the bottle out. But in the end, he stopped, unscrewed the cap, and poured the rest down his throat.
"Waste is shameful!"
Ma Dongzhen muttered, tossed away the empty bottle, and headed in the direction the two men had gone. He was going to apply as a mechanic's apprentice. He was going to pull himself together and find his place.
There were many people like Ma Dongzhen, but against this backdrop, they awakened one by one and joined the surging torrent of the Collective Will.
Time passed through the long wait, arriving two months later.
Now, the aftermath of the solar eruption had completely passed. It was time for humanity to dig its way back to the surface and welcome a new future.
Heavy industrial equipment that had long been prepared rumbled across the base's floor and headed toward the Rock Layer.
The construction plans and work proposals had been assessed over the past two months, while all support structures had been erected before excavation began.
All that remained was to dig.
Humanity was now on the third underground level of the original base, roughly ten meters below the former surface. However, because of the magma, the old figures were no longer reliable.
The base, situated within a canyon, had most likely been covered by magma. Based on the canyon's previous data, the engineers estimated that humanity's current position was at least seventy meters from the surface.
A mere seventy meters could never stop humanity's advance.
Of course, the actual distance would be far greater than seventy meters, because they could not simply dig straight upward. They had to excavate at an incline.
The engineers had long since planned the excavation route.
Naturally, they had to plan it carefully. They were not digging upward through the upper levels of the original base, because two months might not have been enough for all the magma in the original Rock Layer to cool. Digging directly overhead would be no different from seeking death.
The engineers first used tomographic scanning technology to survey the Rock Layer. So-called tomographic scanning meant determining the structure and properties of rock layers based on the differing values produced by physical characteristics such as resistivity, density, and sound waves in different rocks.
It was divided into two types: seismic exploration and Electrical Exploration.
Due to limited conditions, the engineers chose Electrical Exploration, using the characteristics of electric currents traveling through rock layers to detect the underground structure and properties of the Rock Layer.
During the survey, engineers used physical instruments to send currents of a certain frequency from inside the base into the Rock Layer. These currents traveled through the underground rock. Because different rocks offered different resistance to currents and allowed them to travel at different speeds, the engineers measured the data to determine which directions could be excavated and which carried a risk of collapse.
This was how they finalized the excavation plan.
This passage concerned humanity's fate. They could not afford to be careless.
The machinery operators also excavated strictly according to the plan: how steep the slope should be, where to turn, where to pile the excavated soil, where to move it a second time, which machinery to use for transport, how far to dig before stopping to install reinforcements and supports, what materials to use for those supports, when to pour the tunnel lining, and how to handle emergencies.
Every last detail had been clearly specified.
Moreover, before excavation began, every member of the engineering teams underwent repeated training until everyone understood what they should and should not do.
To guard against emergencies, at least one engineer from every specialty had to be present on-site when excavation began.
Thus, a scene like this appeared at the worksite.
The engineers pointed and gestured at the Rock Layer as the excavation pushed deeper, occasionally shouting a few words into the walkie-talkies in their hands, yet hardly a single worker could be seen working.
In truth, there was nothing strange about it. The workers were all inside control rooms, remotely operating all kinds of machinery, including but not limited to excavators, loaders, breaker hammers, road rollers, tamping vehicles, concrete mixers, concrete pump trucks, tracked simulated dual-arm engineering vehicles, wheeled single-arm cranes, and wheeled small simulated dual-arm utility vehicles.
There were also engineering vehicles with cockpits, of course, but because this was a Space Base, such equipment was comparatively rare. It was mainly used inside the base, while remote-controlled equipment was far more common on Callisto.
That was why this scene came to be.
Among the towering engineering machines, the helmeted engineers appeared tiny and frail. Yet everyone knew that their presence was immense.
From a distance, their figures were almost impossible to see. There were only the busy machines and the steadily widening, deepening tunnel.
At that moment, they seemed to reflect all of humanity—small bodies armed with intelligence.
Day after day, a huge circular tunnel nine meters in diameter gradually appeared before everyone's eyes. It sloped upward, curving and straightening in measured turns toward the long-lost surface.
"We made it!"
A shout came from the top of the passage and rang through the base, announcing to everyone that humanity had returned from underground to the surface. It was also a declaration to the vast starry sky: humanity had returned.
The tunnel was brightly lit. Engineering Vehicles and transports loaded with all kinds of equipment and construction materials slowly made their way upward.
This machinery and these materials would establish the first foothold on the surface for the survivors in the base. The ground would be leveled again, power stations would be rebuilt, and everything that had been destroyed on the surface would reappear.
It was as though humanity had returned to the early days of developing the Space Base.
It was easy to foresee that the days ahead would be an era of massive construction.
But the first task after returning to the surface was not construction, because the first technician to emerge discovered that the sky was dark.
That was impossible. Callisto Base had always faced Jupiter. How could the sky be dark? Could it be that after the Sun was destroyed, it had become a White Dwarf Star or a Nebula, leaving too little light for Jupiter to reflect onto Callisto? That was possible, but it shouldn't be this dark! the technician thought. With that in mind, he put on his Spacesuit, climbed out of the vehicle, and looked up at the sky.
Huh? Where was Jupiter? Where had it gone? Could it have grown so dim that it was invisible to the naked eye? A telescope was brought up, and astronomical experts who had received the news also arrived on the surface.
Jupiter was enormous, especially when viewed from Callisto, so the telescope barely needed any adjustment. They only had to set it up in that direction to aim it at Jupiter.
But once the telescope had been set up, they discovered that Jupiter was gone!