Cooper lowered his hand from the door, his lips pressed tightly together by his teeth, and after a long while, he finally managed to say, "Please speak."
"You know Professor Brand, right?"
"Yes, I'm fairly familiar with him." Back when he was on a mission, Professor Brand, who was then middle-aged, often lingered in front of him.
Although Cooper didn't know exactly what his position was, the two would chat from time to time, and their relationship was indeed quite good.
"It's good that you know him. Professor Brand has been studying the equations of gravity for the past few decades..."
Jody slowly began to explain Plan A.
Cooper was stunned for a long time after hearing this, and it took him a while to sort out his thoughts. "So, you built a secret base, wanting to change gravity, explore New Star on the other side of the wormhole, and have all of humanity leave Earth to live on another habitable planet?"
"Yes, you summarized it very well."
"How's the plan going? Is there any hope of success?"
Cooper pressed on, expecting good news, but to his surprise, Jody shook her head.
"Unfortunately, Plan A has been abandoned by us."
Cooper:???
"Because we no longer need Plan A, we are currently implementing Plan C."
"Why?"
"Because Plan C has a higher chance of success, and it is safer, faster, and more efficient than Plan A."
"If Plan A can only be implemented when your daughter is old, then Plan C will allow your daughter to attend university on a new planet."
Jody spoke with great confidence.
Cooper couldn't understand why the two plans differed so much. "Could I look into Plan C?"
"No," Jody shook her head. "This is top secret. I'm only telling you about this plan because you might be of help to us."
"..."
The conversation in the car came to a standstill.
It took Jody a long time to find a new topic to talk about.
It concerns the sharp decline in Earth's vegetation, leading to a decrease in Earth's oxygen levels. The complete disappearance of forests and grasslands has greatly reduced plant photosynthesis.
In particular, the algae in the ocean, the main source of oxygen for the Earth, have been completely wiped out by Blight.
This means that the Earth will be plunged into an oxygen-deprived state in the future.
territory.
Unable to grow, unable to breathe.
This is a complete dead end for humanity.
Moreover, this is expected to happen in the next few decades, and if Murphy and Tom live long enough, they should be able to witness it...
"Alright!"
"Enough," Cooper said, rubbing his head in anguish. "How long until I can go home?"
"... I don't know," Jody didn't lie, "We expect Plan C to be implemented quickly and then succeed quickly, but we can't guarantee how long it will take you to get home."
Cooper then inquired in detail about the earliest estimated time he could get home.
Jody replied that it would be about three or four years.
After a long silence, Cooper finally agreed to Jody's proposal and decided to participate in Plan C.
Jody followed his gaze to the cozy little house in front of them, and suddenly felt a pang of guilt. "You still have a chance to back out. Plan C is a bit special; we might have to endure a lot of pressure that we would never have had before..."
Cooper didn't understand the deeper meaning behind those words.
But he knew that his purpose in going out was to save Murphy, save Tom, save Donald, and save everyone else.
Cooper's departure did not go smoothly.
Neither Murphy nor Tom, nor even Donald, the father-in-law, wanted the pillar of their family to leave like this.
Even though Cooper broke the rules and secretly revealed his mission to them, telling them that he was going to save the world, he did not get his family's consent.
In the end, Tom and Donald silently accepted reality, while Murphy angrily hid in his room, refusing to even come out to see them off.
Cooper sighed, and after explaining the details of the farm's planting and management to Tom, he got into the car with Jody.
"Don't worry too much, Plan C will succeed soon. Maybe you'll be back soon, or you might even reunite with them on a new planet."
Jody smiled and comforted him.
Cooper forced a smile, but he felt that what Jody said was far too idealistic.
Even though he kept numbing himself with the idea of the most ideal ending.
The car drove over the desolate mountains, all the way back to NASA's secret base.
The base was bustling with unprecedented activity.
Many new faces have joined.
" Dr. Brand, how is Plan C going?"
"The moment he returned to base, Jody found Amelia."
Amelia, who was overseeing the base, said, "The situation is going relatively smoothly. Of the more than one hundred people on the list, after removing the dozen or so who are missing, nineteen people have agreed to join Plan C."
After saying that, she glanced at Cooper, who was looking curiously behind Jody.
"Oh, there are twenty people now."
Amelia leaned closer to Jody and said in a very low voice, "We've been under a lot of pressure these past few days. Some people are wondering about our Plan C."
Jody's expression remained unchanged. "It's strange, that's normal. But what we've done is perfectly normal; they can't find anything wrong with us."
Starting a new project and bringing back some previously trained talent and experts—is there anything abnormal about this practice?
However, their plan definitely needs to be implemented as soon as possible.
The recruitment phase of Plan C ended the day Cooper arrived at the base.
Jody visited Professor Brand and inquired about the timeline for the plan's execution.
Professor Brand looked at the photocopied documents and data. "Soon. Tomorrow we can copy all the documents. Then we just need to use these copies to replace the originals, and we can officially begin Plan C."
"By the way, you can sign this agreement first."
Professor Brand handed over a document.
This is the individual membership agreement of the Mutual Aid Society.
Jody had seen this document before; it was already familiar to her.
He found the signature area, filled in his information, and casually inquired about the origin of the document.
"The person who contacted Amelia reminded us that we must become members of the Mutual Aid Society to use the Spacetime Tunnel, so they sent some over."
"I will have everyone sign this agreement tomorrow."
The base is busy and lively at night.
Under Professor Brand's direction, everyone was replacing documents, taking down the originals and putting in the copies.
Many people were puzzled by this act of switching from left hand to right hand, but no one dared to question it due to Professor Brand's authority.
Early the next morning.
Professor Brand, who hadn't slept all night, convened all participants in Plan C in a conference room piled high with original documents...
------Aside------
The first day of the college entrance exam, the questions were so hard! Oh no, I have to go screw in some screws now.