In Earth Year 2109, the Earth Federation announced that humanity had entered the age of space colonization.
Fifty years later, the Mars colony was founded. Another thirty years after that, construction of the Centaurus M3 colony was completed. That same year, the first spacecraft dedicated to searching for life in space was named after the Goddess of Life Iris and completed its maiden test flight.
In 2320, the Earth Federation Space Exploration Association received a repeating electronic pulse signal from 1.8 million light-years away.
In June of that year, the Earth Federation government approved a response to the signal.
Just three years later, the alien race known as the Qiya used technology so advanced that humanity had no means of resisting it to destroy the Centaurus M3 colony planet in less than a year. Its two billion inhabitants were reduced to cosmic dust.
The Earth Federation government launched a counterattack from the Mars colony. In less than five years, its military was almost completely wiped out. The Qiya People invaded the colony and turned Mars into a forward base, ready to occupy Earth at any moment.
In Earth Year 2328, the Qiya People fought the remnants of the Earth Federation military in one final, decisive battle. Humanity's own ignorance had ultimately led it to its doom...
Before that final battle, the Earth Federation military transmitted its last evacuation signal to the Iris, 100,000 light-years from Earth...
"Captain... are we just going to watch Earth be destroyed?" Lieutenant Yan Hao demanded, staring at Zhang Fan, the captain of the Earth Guard Third Squad and the man he admired most.
"Lieutenant, tell me: what is our mission?" Zhang Fan did not grow angry at Yan Hao's challenge. He merely waited calmly for his answer.
"To protect Dr. Selena Eva, along with millions of human embryos and their gene sequences."
"And what else?"
"To find a new planet and rebuild human civilization."
Zhang Fan said nothing more. He turned to gaze at the boundless stars. They were humanity's last hope, and he had only one goal: humanity must not go extinct. Nothing else entered his considerations.
A startled cry came from below the command platform. "Captain, three Qiya assault ships are less than two hundred light-years away!"
"Shut down all engines and power transmission. Put the entire ship into dead silence mode."
The Qiya People located their targets through electronic pulse signals. Dead silence mode was the only way to evade them in space.
But the entire ship could remain in dead silence mode for no more than five minutes. That was the limit of its oxygen supply, and also the longest the human embryos could remain in storage under those conditions.
Without power, the Iris could not track the Qiya People's movements either. Zhang Fan had to rely on his years of experience fighting them to judge the situation.
Four minutes and twenty seconds later, Zhang Fan gave the order. "Start all engines. Full thrust. Push to the limit and enter faster-than-light mode."
With the artificial intelligence's assistance, the pilot completed the entire sequence in less than two seconds.
The navigator saw no sign of the Qiya People assault ships on the radar.
The navigator wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "We lost them!"
Zhang Fan frowned. "Something's wrong!"
Boom! A tremendous blast rang out, and red alarm lights instantly flashed through the command room.
"Port rear engine hit... thrust down thirty percent. Repair robots dispatched."
Zhang Fan smiled bitterly. "Those damned bastards have gotten smarter again."
"Full speed! Shake them off!"
The three Qiya assault ships pursued them relentlessly. As a life-exploration vessel, the Iris carried no heavy weapons, only two small-caliber laser cannons and two rapid-fire energy guns.
That firepower could not even penetrate the Qiya assault ships' energy shields. Humanity's last hope was like a wounded rabbit being hunted down by three ravenous wolves.
Zhang Fan suddenly noticed that the water in the dispenser was tilted. Realization struck him... a gravitational vortex.
A gravitational vortex was an invisible force at the edge of a black hole. Like a whirlpool, it dragged all nearby matter into the black hole-including light!
"Full speed toward the black hole!"
"Captain..."
Zhang Fan said firmly, "Rather than let the Qiya People capture us, we might as well take a gamble. We have to face death to find a chance at life. If we don't gamble, we die for certain, and humanity goes extinct. If we do, there may still be a slim chance."
Zhang Fan roared, "For humanity!"
The pilot and navigator exchanged a glance, and the command cabin rang with cries of "For humanity!"
The Iris, humanity's life-exploration vessel, plunged into the endless darkness...
Aboard one of the Qiya assault ships, a pilot wearing a glossy black helmet shook his head regretfully. "A race with some spirit!"
Another pilot sneered. "Just an inferior race. They're only fit to be our slaves."
Zhang Fan awoke in bone-chilling cold, his entire body wracked with pain from the gravitational distortion. But he was alive.
The people around him had not been so fortunate.
Creak... metal scraped against metal... and the command cabin door opened automatically.
Lieutenant Yan Hao dragged his blood-soaked body into the command cabin with great difficulty. He gave a bitter smile. "Captain, Dr. Selena is still alive."
Zhang Fan let out a long breath and gave him a thumbs-up!
Supporting each other, the two men entered the medical bay. Blonde, blue-eyed Selena hurried forward and helped the more seriously injured Yan Hao into a medical pod.
Two hours later, Zhang Fan emerged from his medical pod. He glanced at Yan Hao, who was greedily gulping down liquid food, and asked, "Where are we?"
Yan Hao immediately answered, "An unknown planet. The probe reports primitive life-forms, but it's unsuitable for human habitation..."
Selena, blonde and blue-eyed behind her gold-rimmed glasses, said, "This planet is a paradise for silicon-based life. For us, it's hell."
Zhang Fan looked around but saw no one else. "Is there anyone besides us?"
Yan Hao shook his head. "Out of a hundred and twenty-seven people, only the three of us lucky ones are left."
"Lucky? Perhaps not. They died the instant we passed through the black hole. We're going to run out of oxygen and wait for death in despair. Who are the lucky ones, really?"
Selena screamed hysterically at Yan Hao. He glared at her. If he had not been protecting her, then even if he had died, it should have been on the battlefield defending Earth. Would his death have been this miserable?
"Yan Hao, go see how many repair robots are still usable. Maybe we can still get out of here."
Taking the hint, Yan Hao left the medical bay. He had no desire to look at that self-important woman either.
"Captain, sir, if you want to stay alive on this planet, deal with our power supply. I've already put the embryos into special equipment. Barring any accidents, they should keep for a thousand years."
After placing the last group of embryos into the equipment, Selena gently stroked its cold metal casing and said enviously, "You're the truly lucky ones."
"Doctor, is there any way for us or the human embryos to survive on this planet?"
Selena sneered. "Ignorance really is terrifying. Do you know what silicon-based life is? Do you even know what we are? Wanting carbon-based life to survive on this planet is nothing but a fool's dream."
Zhang Fan paid no heed to her mockery. He simply said calmly, "Humanity's hopes now depend on whether you can dream."
Yan Hao and Zhang Fan cleared out two living areas. They were forbidden from disturbing Selena's work unless she summoned them.
They had no choice. All they could do now was rely on the woman hailed as Earth's once-in-a-millennium genius in biology. The two grown men, who knew only how to kill, really could do nothing to help save the embryos.
Bored out of his mind, Zhang Fan began reading biological records. The Iris stored all the data on the evolution of Earth's life up to the present day. That was more than enough to pass the time.
Yan Hao, meanwhile, went from soldier to engineer, navigator, operator, and porter. Everything aboard the Iris had now become his purpose in life.
Then one day, the command cabin door opened, and Selena rushed in excitedly. She threw her arms around Zhang Fan and showered him with kisses.
Both Zhang Fan and Yan Hao, who had been playing a board game with him, were left utterly bewildered.
"Couldn't this woman keep her hormones under control?"
Selena paid no attention to Yan Hao's teasing. She shouted excitedly, "I've found a way!"
"I've found a way for humans to survive on this planet!"
"What way?" Yan Hao asked eagerly.
"I can alter the structure of human embryos. I'll extract a segment from the human gene chain and combine it with the life here. Once there's no rejection, I can implant the gene chain back into the human embryos. Silicon-based humans will be able to survive on this planet."
Yan Hao was completely lost, but after studying biological records for several months, Zhang Fan could follow the general idea.
After a moment of silence, he asked uncertainly, "If you do that, can those creatures still be called human?"
Selena fell silent. In a sense, creatures produced by altering humanity's genetic structure and gene sequences could only be called a new humanity.
"That depends on how you look at it. Under the circumstances, this is the only way to keep humanity alive. If you have another solution, please tell me!"
Selena sat in the command chair and stared at the two men. Zhang Fan and Yan Hao exchanged a glance, then both fell silent.
They had confirmed that the Iris could no longer launch, and there was no support coming. Blindly transmitting a distress signal might bring the Qiya People straight to them.
There was no anthropologist to tell them what to do about the purity of the human genome!
After five minutes of serious thought, Yan Hao proposed deciding humanity's fate with a spinning wheel.
"Isn't that far too flippant? You'd leave humanity's future to some ridiculous spinning wheel?"
Faced with Selena's anger, Yan Hao answered in her own tone, "If you have another solution, please tell me!"
Zhang Fan asked calmly, "Dr. Selena, do you have any other way? I'd still like to preserve humanity's genetic purity. One day, we'll return to Earth!"
Selena hesitated for a long time, then took out her one remaining cigarette and placed it between her lips.
"Returning to Earth won't be likely even tens of thousands of years from now, unless we have a powerful army!"
Yan Hao sneered. "Maybe those bugs outside could be your soldiers, provided you can control them!"
A strange smile appeared on Selena's face, with its refined, intellectual beauty. "I can! But I'll need one of you to sacrifice himself!"
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