No Aliens Are Attacking Earth

No Aliens Are Attacking Earth

Late at night, two young men were frantically working through problems.

Li Zhendong was furious. Truly furious. Every time Zhang Yuan surpassed him, he had no choice but to work hard again to catch up.

Working hard was a very painful thing for him.

Especially when this guy was happily grinning like an idiot while doing middle-school math olympiad problems. What was that supposed to mean?

Who could enjoy doing middle-school math olympiad problems? Was he even human?

Li Zhendong ran a hand through his hair, feeling restless. The words on the page seemed like fleas, hopping this way and that. He had read for ages and still had no idea what it was saying.

He couldn't calm down. He'd stop reading.

He glanced at Zhang Yuan's problem again: "Prove that the nth root of 2 is irrational for all n ≥ 2, where n is an integer."

"Proof: Assume the nth root of 2 is rational, and write it as p/q, where p and q are coprime."

"Then 2 = pⁿ/qⁿ, so 2qⁿ = pⁿ."

"Rearranging gives pⁿ = qⁿ + qⁿ."

"By Fermat's Last Theorem, this equation has no positive integer solutions. Therefore, our assumption was false, and the nth root of 2 is irrational."

Li Zhendong nearly spat blood. "You can't teach my little sister like this! You really can't! And you're helping her with her math olympiad problems. How is that okay?"

Zhang Yuan paused, realizing that somehow he'd become a free homework-solving lackey.

But it didn't matter. If she copied the entire proof exactly as written, the teacher would probably laugh herself silly.

"Forget it. I'm done, too. That's enough entertainment for tonight." Zhang Yuan yawned, feeling pretty pleased with himself.

Li Zhendong finally breathed a sigh of relief. He eagerly put down his book and rubbed his aching temples.

He picked up the telescope, stepped onto the balcony, and looked toward a patch of deep space.

Gliese 581, a red dwarf about two degrees north of Beta Librae. Their destination.

It had a mass of 0.31 solar masses, a radius of 0.38 solar radii, and a surface temperature of about 3,480 K (3,206.85°C).

With an apparent magnitude of +10.56, it was beyond the reach of ordinary astronomical telescopes. But Li Zhendong kept searching tirelessly all the same.

It was going to be their future home planet!

A sudden thought struck Li Zhendong. "Why do you think there's a Deep Space Project? Could the people at the top already know that aliens are coming to attack Earth?"

"Impossible!"

Zhang Yuan replied calmly, "If that were really the case, they'd be building ships on a massive scale with the combined resources of the whole world. And would people like us even get to escape? You've seen all kinds of science fiction movies, right? When doomsday comes, how much would a ticket on Noah's Ark cost? Even if we're the sons of scientists, that doesn't mean we're important enough to get a spot, does it?"

"Movies may not be real, but they reflect reality to some extent. Not one national leader is in a hurry to run away. Since when has humanity been so noble?"

They fell silent for a while.

The 500,000 volunteers weren't the very best people in human civilization. They'd all come of their own free will. There were a few ambitious scientific minds among them, but no major political figure would abandon everything on Earth to go somewhere so barren and inhospitable.

Li Zhendong smiled. "True. So there are no aliens attacking Earth. What do you think the reason is?"

Zhang Yuan pointed toward two parts of the sky, frowning. "Maybe that one, maybe this one... Or maybe both. Or perhaps there's another, more important reason we don't know about..."

In the direction Zhang Yuan pointed was a star called KIC 8462852, better known as Tabby's Star.

In the other direction was Eta Carinae.

They looked up at the sky.

The moon was bright and the stars were sparse. The lights of the big city drowned out the brilliant heavens above, making those stars even harder to spot.

Back in 1977, there was a massive blackout in North America.

That night, when the lights went out, the boundless sky revealed its original, untamed splendor.

An almost absurd scene unfolded: the police stations received numerous emergency calls that night, with people reporting that "aliens are attacking Earth!"

The reason was simple... These city dwellers had never seen the real Milky Way. The primordial power of the ancient heavens had left them utterly helpless with fear.

That was right. Mother Earth was so warm, so gentle, that people of that era were reluctant to leave the cradle. They had gradually forgotten how vast the world outside was.

But...

Humanity wasn't alone in this world.

The universe wouldn't disappear just because humanity chose to cover its ears and pretend it wasn't there.

The first challenge came from Eta Carinae, also known as Carinae Nebula, a hypergiant with more than a hundred times the mass of the Sun. Scientists estimated that this star might explode within a million years, producing a Hypernova!

Pay attention: a Hypernova, with that extra "hyper" setting it apart from an ordinary supernova.

If the fact that Eta Carinae was a full 7,500 light-years from the solar system counted as good news, the other piece of news was downright lethal...

Studies suggested that its axis of rotation was probably pointed toward the solar system, making it no different from a stellar cannon poised to fire at any moment!

When Eta Carinae exploded, its powerful gamma-ray burst would sweep across the entire solar system.

"Unfortunately, this brilliant star isn't visible from the Northern Hemisphere."

Of course, this disaster could be enormous or it could be minor. To begin with, the timing of the explosion was incredibly uncertain. It might happen a million years from now, tomorrow, or even have happened a hundred years ago.

What's more, scientists were still arguing over the angle of Eta Carinae's rotational axis and how to prevent the disaster...

Humanity knew little about celestial bodies like this, making it difficult to accurately predict the damage they might inflict on human civilization.

After traveling such a vast distance, a gamma-ray burst might destroy the entire ecosystem—or it might have little effect. No one could say for sure.

The second challenge came from KIC 8462852, Tabby's Star.

Humans had discovered this strange star back in the twenty-first century. Its periodic changes in brightness had attracted widespread attention from astronomers.

At the time, many scientists guessed that a nebula or some other large celestial body was blocking the star, causing its brightness to change.

But!

Centuries of observation had proved only one thing: its rate of dimming was increasing by 0.064 percent every ten years.

In other words, if its maximum dimming had been 22.112 percent ten years ago, it was now 22.176 percent. Without exception.

What did that mean?

It meant that an artificial structure existed near that star, and that it was being built at a steady pace.

It had been going on for hundreds of years!

The Dyson Sphere was right there. It wouldn't change in the slightest according to human will.

This fact had caused tremendous panic among the highest levels of civilization.

A distance of 1,400 light-years was far too great for humanity, but nowhere near enough to dispel that panic.

Anyone with common sense knew what a "Dyson Sphere" meant.

Compared with a civilization capable of building a Dyson Sphere, human civilization was little more than a paramecium!

At the time, Professor Qi Yuanshan, the "Father of Nuclear Fusion," wrote excitedly in his journal: "If there were no aliens, humanity would be destroyed by its own complacency!"

"...Just like in the old era, the coming entertainment craze and harmless recreational drugs are bound to destroy most of humanity's drive to strive. With the Dyson Sphere confirmed to be real, humanity might find the will to rise again from the decadent consumerism and capitalism—much like what happened during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union!"

"Humanity has to admit, it has a good neighbor. Maybe there's still hope. How fortunate... How glorious!"