The seventh plenary meeting of the Human Alliance Academy of Sciences.
The vast circular conference hall was packed. These were not the suited bureaucrats of the past, but real scientists.
Their hair was disheveled, dark circles hung beneath their eyes, and their shirts were buttoned wrong, but every one of them was as taut as a bowstring.
Academy President Wei Donglai stood at the central podium. The holographic projection behind him displayed six project names:
One, Artificial Wormhole Technology.
Two, Human Consciousness Digitization.
Three, the Higher-Dimensional Space Bubble Jump Engine.
Four, the Warp Nine Engine.
Five, Particle Decomposition and Reassembly Transmission.
Six, the Higher-Dimensional Phase-Shift Isolation System.
"Everyone." Wei Donglai's voice was terribly hoarse; he had clearly spent many nights without sleep. "These six avenues are every escape plan we can currently conceive of. I'll skip the pleasantries and get straight to the conclusion."
He reached out and tapped the last four projects.
"Three through six are purely theoretical. We can't even validate them in a lab. It isn't that we don't want to pursue them. Our existing framework of physics simply cannot support them."
The hall fell silent.
"The first two are the only ones we can work on." Wei Donglai pointed to the first and second entries.
"Wormholes and consciousness digitization. With these two, we've at least seen a glimmer of hope, even if it's only point three percent."
"President." A gaunt middle-aged man in the front row raised his hand. "The wormhole project's spatial distortion rate is at point three percent. Forming a stable passage requires over ninety percent. At our current rate of progress..."
"Fifty years," Wei Donglai finished for him. "And that's an optimistic estimate."
Someone in the hall sucked in a sharp breath.
"What about consciousness digitization?" someone else asked.
"Thirty years." Wei Donglai