Chapter 295: A Great Upheaval of the Times
After all the oaths were sworn, the assembly finally moved to its main agenda. However, the newfound fervor still burned brightly in everyone’s hearts.
Since the initial preparations were rushed and the attendees were still riding a wave of adrenaline, no concrete details were finalized during this session. Instead, the impassioned crowd passed a series of preliminary draft bills.
Under normal circumstances, these bills would never have seen the light of day. Yet, these rough drafts signaled a profound paradigm shift. Essentially, they would transform the Federation into something much stronger.
"I am Jason. Over the past few days, I believe everyone has learned the terrifying truth regarding the Great Filter. Given its seemingly impossible nature, it has understandably caused widespread social distress," he solemnly announced during a live planetary broadcast.
Jason rarely made public broadcasts, usually reserving his appearances for momentous occasions. Citizens everywhere watched with wide eyes and listened intently, eagerly awaiting the government’s final verdict.
"I only have a few words to share today."
The massive starship fell eerily quiet, save for the occasional cry of an infant. The highest levels of leadership—representing the unified will of the entire Federation—had made their final decision. Countless ordinary citizens had also quietly made their own personal resolutions. It all came down to whether the government’s direction would resonate with the people’s will.
Jason’s voice echoed through the speakers: "First, our civilization will not simply stagnate in its current state. We will—"
He didn’t expect that the moment those words left his mouth, the entire ship would erupt in wild cheers! In that instant, humanity seemingly rediscovered its former pride. They had just taken the most agonizing first step.
The public cafeterias erupted in absolute chaos. Peter, Dylan, and Will felt the blood rush to their heads, their veins surging with boiling adrenaline!
It wasn’t just them; it was everyone!
Peter cursed and swore loudly, laughing and crying at the same time as tears streamed down his face. This time, his tears were completely genuine. He felt an incredibly strange, primal impulse that made him feel as though dying for his civilization would actually be a worthy end.
"You cynical alien bastard, Black... did you hear that? This is the will of our civilization!" Peter mentally shouted. "Damn it, how dare you look down on me! How dare you look down on humanity!"
The alien entity known as ’Black’ residing in his mind was genuinely stunned. This unified, fanatical reaction was something it hadn’t anticipated at all. It wasn’t just the high-ranking officials acting this way; the ordinary masses were just as frenzied.
Black could only stubbornly insist, "You can hold out for a few months at best! Once this fleeting passion cools, you’ll all crawl right back to your old, comfortable lives!"
"Like hell we will!" Peter, completely furious, mentally argued with Black until his face turned bright red.
Back on the broadcast, Jason paused, surprised that his first sentence had caused such a massive uproar. He continued, "From this moment onward, we will take ’science’ as our highest collective creed. It will guide our every direction."
However, at that moment, even the most rational citizens were swept up in the frenzied atmosphere. Very few people were actually listening closely to his specific words.
Ultimately, Jason had severely underestimated the fighting spirit of the Federation. All of his carefully prepared words of encouragement were completely drowned out by the cheering.
Humanity didn’t know how to biologically alter their Gene Philosophy, so... they would use the collective power of their entire society to artificially ingrain these core principles into every single newborn generation!
Previously, the Federation had advocated for absolute freedom of religion. Some believed in Christianity, some in Eastern philosophies, and a fringe group even practically worshipped Jason as a savior. Now, while religious practice wasn’t explicitly illegal, it was no longer encouraged.
Only science is the ultimate truth!
Under the newly drafted education reform bills, school curriculums would be aggressively restructured. The singular, unifying ideal for every child would be "the advancement of science and technology." The Federation’s primary, overriding objective was now the realization of controllable nuclear fusion!
Subsequent draft bills outlined sweeping overhauls in industry, demographics, and resource allocation. Every facet of society now had to yield to the pursuit of technological advancement. Naturally, these were only preliminary drafts; the intricate details would be hammered out in extensive future sessions.
"Our civilization will not fade away on this dark planet!"
"Fight! We must dedicate our entire lives to this struggle! We have to make it a reality!"
"Let the Federation make its voice heard across the stars!"
Jason finished his speech, drenched in sweat, and stepped off the podium amidst the chaotic roaring. He was slightly dismayed to realize that almost no one had paid attention to his actual legislative points; they were entirely caught up in the euphoric atmosphere.
Even those with naturally weaker wills were swept along by the current, pushed to emotional peaks by the collective group mentality.
Still, Jason genuinely loved this atmosphere. It had been a long time since he had seen his people this united. The last time it felt like this was during their desperate escape from the Moon, and again when they successfully scouted the Nix planet after drifting aimlessly through space. But on both of those occasions, the euphoria stemmed from surviving an immediate, life-or-death crisis.
This time was different. They were willingly choosing to challenge the impossible.
People often did incredibly foolish things, but sometimes, there was a profound, world-changing wisdom hidden within that foolishness. The thought filled Jason with renewed motivation, and he briskly returned to his office.
A short while later, there was a knock at his door. He called out, "Come in," and more than a dozen senior scientists filed into the room.
Ultimately, while the multi-generational timeline made it a complex social issue, controllable nuclear fusion was fundamentally a hard science problem. The prominent figures entering his office were the absolute authorities in their respective fields, representing almost every scientific branch tied to the fusion project.
Calling them in for a high-level briefing was the obvious next step.
Before Jason could even ask a question, Professor Hao Yu spoke up. "Captain, we’ve begun recovering the Nix Civilization’s data on nuclear fusion. What’s truly remarkable is that, despite their apocalyptic global nuclear war, a vast majority of their engineering data on this specific subject remains perfectly intact."
"Perhaps, in their absolute final moments, the Nix attempted to challenge the fusion barrier one last time, which is why this specific information was so widely distributed and preserved..." Jason nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, this is an incredible blessing for humanity."
Following the extinction of the Nix, the planet’s easily accessible uranium reserves were wiped out. However, they left behind an oxygen-rich atmosphere, massive fossil fuel deposits, and invaluable scientific relics. It was nothing short of a cosmic jackpot for humanity!
Without the grim warning left behind by the Nix, humanity would still be completely ignorant of the Great Filter’s true nature, and their probability of eventual extinction would have been astronomically high. Now, it felt like a grand, cosmic relay race between two completely different species!
The Federation could not afford to drop the baton. Humanity had to forge a path to the stars.
"Even their failed experimental data is absolutely crucial to us. Their practical exploration of nuclear fusion far surpassed our own current theories, yet they still failed..." Dr. Felix from the Advanced Physics Institute smoothed his hair and sighed.
"Based on a simplified model, if the technological difficulty of building a modern aircraft carrier is a 1, and the difficulty of building an orbital space station is a 10, then controllable nuclear fusion isn’t a 100, or even a 1,000. It scales up by several massive orders of magnitude."
"It’s easily a 1 million, perhaps even 10 million or more..." Dr. Felix explained, spreading his hands in a gesture of helpless resignation.
"It might be closer to a hundred million," Professor Hao Yu added with a grim, wry smile. "If we actually try to achieve sustained fusion using traditional tokamak reactors, the engineering hurdles really are that insurmountable. The entire concept of magnetic confinement might just be a technological dead end..."
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