Chapter 12 Space jellyfish
Foreman and Tyson stood motionless in a small armored vehicle, staring ahead.
"Foreman"
"What?"
"It's gotten pretty quiet now."
The wind was blowing violently across the road in front of them. From time to time, large feathers and pitch-black legs covered in thorns peeked out from within.
"The Cyclops has also gone somewhere. The soldiers have disappeared along with it."
"I guess everyone got eaten."
"It's possible..."
"Why don't we run away too?"
"No."
A rumbling could be heard from somewhere far away. The ground shook, and the armored car shook, along with the two inside. They could hear the sound of the ground being torn apart. Suddenly, a black tree head appeared in the middle of the road in front of them. Then, the jet-black, wide-brimmed leaves made a sound and spread out. Earth and sand were lifted up and then fell down. Big black trees were starting to poke their heads out everywhere. The ground immediately next to the armored vehicle began to lift.
"Oh my god!"
Tyson started the engine. Then he started running toward an empty spot.
At the underground shelter headquarters, Nelson and Bush were holding on to the railing and staring at the scene of Tokio City on the screen. The red area of the Silico Forest had begun to invade like the tentacles of an amoeba. It gradually gained speed and covered the entire city in no time. The entire city of Tokio was now painted red. Fujimori and Striker were talking in the back.
"What do you mean?" Fujimori asked the striker in a hoarse voice.
"We didn't take into account the fertility of the forest. We were able to get most of the silicon insects under control, but it seems that at some point they spread their seeds throughout the city, or they probably started to reproduce through underground rhizomes."
"You take responsibility." Fujimori looked at the striker from the side. "What's going on with the troops?"
"Only the surviving troops fled the city...."
Fujimori looked at Striker. "Is there a possibility of a counterattack?"
"I don't think it's possible."
Fujimori looked at the screen in front of him. Then he put his hand on his chin and stroked it.
"It can't be helped. Commence that operation. Order Foreman to carry it out."
"What?" Striker's voice rose.
"But, I guess that's a last resort..."
"We have no other option left. Just do as you're told."
"But..."
Nelson and Bush turned towards them. They noticed that abnormal situation was happening. They came towards Fujimori and Striker.
"What are you arguing about?" asked Bush.
"It's nothing, Striker is just reluctant to carry out the operation."
"What's that?" Bush asked Striker.
"An armored vehicle equipped with a 10 megaton hydrogen bomb has been deployed in Tokio City. Director Fujimori has ordered it activated."
Bush and Nelson's faces turned pale. Then they saw Fujimori.
"What a stupid thing you are going to do. Stop it." Bush said with a grim expression.
"We have failed in defending the city. The only thing we can do now is eliminate the silicon creatures. That's all we have to do. Or do you want the city to remain occupied by them? "
"You're crazy. You're going to blow yourself up along with Tokio City," Nelson said, his voice trembling.
"It's not just here, we have the same order in all other cities. We have armored vehicles equipped with hydrogen bombs in every city, and we have been given orders to detonate them if the city collapses," Striker explained quickly.
"You are crazy." Bush said, looking at Fujimori. "I have command of the military. I dismiss you."
Fujimori crossed his arms and looked down at Bush. "Colonel Striker, the President has become mentally deranged and is no longer capable of carrying out his duties. Immediately relieve him of his military command. Lock him up in a proper place."
"What!" cried Bush.
Striker was confused between the two.
"Do it quickly." Fujimori said.
"Certainly" Stryker gave a signal and two soldiers came with guns drawn.
"Do you guys realize what you're doing? This is treason against the country!" Nelson shouted.
A soldier held a gun in front of Nelson. Nelson raised his hands in a panic.
"Take them away."
Nelson and Bush were taken somewhere.
Fujimori approached Striker and said. "Striker, do as you're told. Or do you want to be dismissed too? There are a lot of men who want to take over from you."
Striker steeled himself and picked up the phone.
Foreman put his cell phone back in his pocket.
"What's the call?" asked Tyson.
Foreman said nothing. He turned the seat and moved to the back. He fiddled with the dial on the side of the large cylinder. Then he pressed the red button. A red display appeared on the cylinder and a countdown began. Foreman returned to the front seat.
"What did you just do?" Tyson asked.
"Okay, you can go now. I just activated the hydrogen bomb activation device. It cannot be canceled. It will explode in exactly 20 minutes from now."
Tyson's eyes widened. His face was tense.
"The order was for 15 minutes, but I delayed it by 5 minutes. If you have 20 minutes, you'll be able to escape about 5 km. So go underground somewhere. Maybe you can survive. I'm tired of running, so I'll stay."
Tyson opened the door and almost jumped out. But he reconsidered and returned to his seat.
"What!"
"I don't want to run either."
"No! Just, Run away!"
"You said we'd be together when we die. I'll stay too."
"...Do what you want."
Tyson looked over at Foreman. "I want to have one last fight with you."
Foreman looked at Tyson. "Are you going to fight me?"
Tyson got up from his seat, bent over to the back, and pulled out something black. He then tossed it onto Foreman's lap. They were boxing gloves. Foreman picked up the shiny black gloves.
"Ok"
They went outside. There was a vacant lot nearby. A mercury lamp was nearby, casting white light onto the ground. They slowly put the gloves on their hands. Tyson took off his jacket and was now shirtless. His upper body was black and shiny like steel. His chest muscles were bulging, his stomach was tight, and his body looked sturdy and heavy.
"You have a nice body."
"You too."
Foreman looked at his body. His belly was hanging out. He couldn't help it because he was over 40. To make matters worse, he weighed over 120 kilograms. Since he quit boxing, he had no weight limit, so before he knew it, he had become obese. In comparison, the Tyson in front of him was probably still in his twenties, maybe 175cm tall at most, but his bone density was high and he looked like he weighed 100kg. Foreman had a hunch that he was a formidable opponent.
"We have 15 minutes. We can do 5 rounds. Of course there is no break."
"Let's get started."
The two men held their gloves and faced each other. Far above their heads, blue flashes continued to shine, illuminating their surroundings. Tyson wiggled around Foreman, almost biting his gloves. Foreman slowly rotated on the spot, shaking his glove back and forth to match his opponent. Tyson threw a small jab. It was still a wait-and-see jab.
'His posture is low and his height is short, so all his punches come from below. It's a punch that's hard to see because it comes from diagonally below.'
Tyson ducked under and drove a right body into Foreman's stomach. It was a heavy punch. Foreman bent down. Then, in a panic, he turned on his back and retreated. Tyson's powerful uppercut grazed Foreman's chin.
'That was close! if I hadn't been careful, I would have gotten hit just now. A series of body and uppercuts? This guy is tough.'
Foreman kept his guard tight. Tyson approached him, shaking his body slightly. Foreman retreated little by little. Tyson flung himself into Foreman's arms again. Then he hit the body. Foreman reflexively tightened his chin guard. Then another punch landed on the body.
"Ug!" Foreman bent down on his stomach.
Another hook from Tyson landed on his guard. Foreman was blown away with his guard. Foreman barely managed to steady himself.
'This is terrible, I'm going to get beaten if this continues.'
He didn't underestimate him, but this guy was extremely strong. Foreman finally realized that the man in front of him was no ordinary person.
"You're strong."
"Hmph, I'm just an amateur. I tried to become a professional, but I gave up."
Tyson grinned. He was open to attack. A strong hook from Foreman came flying.
"What?"
When Tyson came to, he was lying face down on the ground.
"If you want to become a professional, never let your guard down." Foreman said, slamming his gloves in front of his chest.
Tyson finally sat up. "You are dirty." He said and wiped the blood from his mouth with his glove. Tyson came towards Foreman again, shaking his body. The side of his right eye had turned dark. Foreman used his long reach to land a jab. Tyson narrowly dodged it with a quick weave. Then he flung himself into Foreman's arms again and drove his punch into Foreman's stomach. Then he hit an uppercut on his way away.
'He's switched to hit-and-way. That's smart.'
Foreman couldn't afford to keep getting hit to the body like this. A belly full of fat made an easy target. If he continued to be hit there, he was in danger of losing his stamina in no time. If that happened, he would be knocked down. However, it seemed like there was no chance of winning if he focused on defense. He decided to attack. After trading a few jabs, Tyson jumped in again. Foreman's long left hand swung up from below. His violent uppercut hit Tyson's guard. Then a right uppercut hit him.
"Guo!"
Tyson tightened his guard and leaned forward unsteadily. It was almost a clinch. Foreman stepped back and threw big left and right uppercuts in quick succession. It was a flurry of uppercuts like a windmill.
'I've defeated many boxers with this in the past. The fight I felt the most comfortable with was against Fraser, and the second most comfortable was against Ron Lyle. How many shots did I fire at that time? I remember hitting him dozens of times. This little guy in front of me is about to go down. Although he is unsteady, he does not fall down and tries to move forward. That's good guts.'
Tyson stopped. He had already been hit with dozens of uppercuts and was almost unconscious. Still, he didn't fall down, didn't clinch, and kept his guard up, even though he was bent forward. Foreman stopped and breathed heavily. He was already out of stamina. Finally, he decided to finish it off with a hook. He pulled his right arm back. Tyson receded further and stumbled toward Foreman. Then, he suddenly threw a right uppercut. Foreman's right hook hit Tyson in the face. At the same time, Tyson's violent uppercut hit Foreman in the jaw. A flash of light exploded.
Crane and Joe were riding on the back of a whale, looking at the wriggling sky.
"Is there a way to deal with that?" asked Crane.
"I have no idea..."
Crane looked towards Tokio City. At that moment, there was a flash of light. For a moment, the entire landscape was covered in a bright white flash. Joe turned around and looked towards Tokio City. A bright red fireball appeared in the sky above Tokio City. There was a round, dome-shaped fireball that was slowly expanding. Crane was crouching down, covering his face with his hands.
Yoshida was looking at the steering panel with Glenn in the observation room at the front of the whale. The panel was located in a fan-shaped space on the right side of the semicircular observation room. Joe suddenly appeared in the observation room holding Crane by the shoulders. Crane covered his face with his hands. Joe came quickly to the steering panel.
"Please move away." Joe chased them away.
Joe operated the buttons on the panel with great force. The whale began an emergency dive. The surface of the water outside the observation room bubbled and quickly sank below the surface.
"What happened?" Yoshida finally asked Joe.
"Please take care of Crane."
Yoshida and Glenn approached Crane crouching down.
"A fireball suddenly appeared in the sky above Tokio City, I think it was a nuclear explosion. I was looking at it and it hurt my eyes." Crane said still covering his face with his hands.
The boys came in a hurry. Ganymede ran up to the crouching Crane.
"Crane!"
"Ganymede, take me to your room."
Crane borrowed Ganymede's shoulder and disappeared into the rear room. Newton appeared.
"What happened? Why did you do a rapid dive?"
At that time, a violent impact sound was heard. And the whole whale shook violently. Yoshida clung to a nearby seat. Glenn rolled across the floor and hit the rear wall. The seawater outside the observation room was shaking violently and foaming.
"What's that?" cried Newton, who was clinging to the floor.
"It seems that Tokio City has been attacked by a nuclear weapon," Yoshida said.
"What? Who did it?"
"I don't know."
The whale continued to dive toward the sea floor.
Joe appeared on top of the ruined wreckage. All buildings and forests were blown away, and everything combustible was consumed. The charred remains that were left behind caused white smoke to rise from everywhere. Joe looked at the rubble beneath his feet. It was the last place Bottom cut off contact. Joe looked around.
"If he's alive, he should be around here..."
Suddenly, Joe's feet began to shake. Debris started to pile up everywhere, making noises. Then, pushing through the rubble, a large jet-black leaf appeared. Then, in front of Joe, it grew up aiming for the sky.
"The forest has begun to regenerate. Even hydrogen bombs had no effect at all."
Joe saw something red out of the corner of his eye. A red object was caught on the black branch of a nearby large tree. Joe jumped into the air and picked up the red piece of cloth. It was a black T-shirt, dirty and torn in many places. It was the T-shirt Bottom was wearing. Joe looked at the base of the tree.
"He is under here..."
Joe stared at the ground. Then he closed his eyes.
"No response. He is dead..."
Joe disappeared.
"What do you mean?" Fujimori, who was staring at the monitor, asked Striker.
"The hydrogen bomb wiped out all silicon life forms on the ground. However, it seems that it quickly regenerated from the remaining underground rhizomes. To them, a hydrogen bomb is nothing more than a wildfire. It seems that there was almost no damage. Other creatures will eventually return."
"...I can't believe it," Fujimori said, staring at the screen.
"Many of the civilians who took refuge in underground shelters are believed to have died. Many soldiers were unable to escape. No one will be able to get close to Tokio City for the time being, and it will take years to remove the radioactivity. It was too much of a sacrifice."
"What about other cities?"
"The seismograph detected several tremors. It is believed that a significant number of cities, like this one, self-destructed as ordered."
Fujimori hung his head in disappointment. Striker brought his face closer to Fujimori.
"What on earth are you going to do now?"
"I don't know." Fujimori shook his head weakly.
"So many civilians were sacrificed under your orders. It's not a question that you can just say 'I don't know'. "
Fujimori hung his head and sighed.
"Let me rest for a while," said Fujimori and left the command room.
Fujimori sat in a chair in his room, folded his hands in front of him, and looked down for a while. Then, taking a deep breath, he raised his head. He stood up and came to the wall and pressed a small button on the wall. A large curtain came down from the ceiling. It depicted Hitler in his uniform. Fujimori was staring up at Hitler. Then he raised his right hand diagonally and clicked his heel.
"Heil Hitler!"
The door suddenly opened. When Fujimori turned around, Striker quickly walked in with three men in military uniforms.
"What's up? "
"You are being arrested on charges of mass murder of civilians and treason."
Fujimori was speechless as he stared at Striker. After a while, he turned to the men and said.
"Retain this guy."
The men stared at Fujimori without moving. There was no reaction.
Fujimori gave up and said. "Okay. Do whatever you like."
Fujimori went to the door to leave the room.
"Where are you going?" Striker asked from behind.
"You're going to arrest me, right? Take me away quickly."
"There's no need for that. I'll bring you to a summary military trial right here."
Fujimori turned around. "What!"
"Jury, give your verdict," Striker told the trio.
"Guilty" "Guilty" "Guilty"
"Hey! Stop messing around！" Fujimori yelled.
"Execute immediately," Striker ordered.
The men raised their guns and pointed them at Fujimori.
"Stop it! I'll do anything!" Fujimori screamed.
A gunshot echoed throughout the room. Fujimori was hit hard and fell to the floor. Striker strode forward. Fujimori's body was still convulsing. Striker pointed the gun in his hand at Fujimori. The entire magazine was fired in quick succession. He kicked Fujimori with his foot to make sure he was dead, then spat on him. After that he left the room.
Bush and Nelson returned to the control room. Striker, who was looking up at the screen, turned around.
"What's going on?" Bush asked.
"Fujimori has been relieved of his post as director. Please give me instructions."
"Is he relieved? Where is Fujimori now?" asked Bush.
"He died."
Bush and Nelson looked at each other.
"What's going on in the city now? Did they disappear without a trace in the hydrogen bomb? "
"No, the forest has recovered quickly. But something strange is happening."
The screen has changed. An image from the sky above present-day Tokio City has appeared. The black forest completely covered the city.
"This is footage from a surviving drone. Don't you think there's something strange about it?"
Nelson and Bush stared at the screen.
"It's the same as before. What's wrong?" asked Nelson.
"It continues to send images without being disturbed by silicon insects."
Nelson looked back at the screen. "It's definitely strange."
Bush turned to Nelson. "I have no idea. What's wrong? Tell me."
"Those high-speed insects don't attack camera."
"Huh?" Bush looked back at the screen. "Ah, I see." He seemed to finally understand.
"Maybe the insects are gone?" Bush asked Striker.
"No, they are there."
The screen changed again. This time, the footage was taken from flat ground.
"This is footage sent from the front lines on the outskirts of Tokio City."
A soldier appeared in front of the screen. He held out his right hand and pointed to the sky. The camera turned towards them. A column-shaped object that looked like white smoke was rising up in the sky. When they looked closely, they saw countless insects gathered together to form a large swarm of insects.
"They never attack us. Why?" a soldier asked the camera.
Nelson and Bush, of course, had no idea.
"Please look at this one last time."
The screen changed again. It was also an image of the sky from a drone. They saw something white in the black forest. Here and there, huge white flat objects covered the canopy of the forest trees. They were stuck flat on the tree canopy and moving very slowly. There were countless of them just beyond the horizon.
"What's that?" Bush
"I don't know if you ask me." Nelson
"What should we do?" Striker asked Bush.
"What should we do, Nelson?" Bush
"Let's ask someone smarter and knows more than us."
"Hmm," Bush looked at Striker. He then looked around the entire command room.
"No one here. We have no choice, bring Higuchi here."
They were amoeba-type monsters that's all white, about 300 meters long, and didn't have a fixed shape. They put out pseudopod and moved forward. They covered the canopy of the Silicon Forest with their bodies, and used the countless circular mouths on their abdomens to tear up the forest and stored it in their huge stomachs. When they grew to a certain extent, they divided and separated into hundreds of child amoebas. Each child amoebas attached themself to the crowns of the trees again and began to uproot and devour the large trees. They didn't have any likes or dislikes. They ate, grew, and divided. All that repetition. The cycle continued until there is nothing left to eat. After the white amoeba passed by, the black forest disappeared without a trace, as clean as if it had been licked out. Sometimes insects came in droves. They are then sucked into the large mouth of the amoeba creature's abdomen. Sometimes a giant silicon beast came. At that time, they extended large pseudopods directly from their bodies, entangled them, and swallowed them into their stomachs. Silicon beasts had no fear of death. The insects, which had become fat due to sufficient nutrition, threw themselves into the amoebas and were harvested.
"Giant amoeba creatures that eat entire forests... I want a sample." Higuchi couldn't help but mutter while looking at the screen.
"Don't say the same thing Dyson said." Nelson chided.
"So, what is that?" Bush urged Higuchi.
"It's like a harvester. It harvests and collects all the nutrients that the forest has collected so far."
"After those guys pass, even weed grass won't grow."
"It's okay, let's leave them alone. Let's see what happens for a while," Higuchi said.
"Is it okay to leave them alone? I'm worried," Bush said anxiously.
Eventually, the white amoebas devoured the entire silicon forest. All the insects that were there were all contained within the amoeba's stomach. Huge white amoebas stood motionless on the exposed ground. Then, they retracted their pseudopods and gradually changed their shape, expanding into a spherical shape. Before long, countless huge white balls were rolling on the ground as far as the eye could see.
The whale reappeared on the surface of the sea. Joe, Yoshida, and Newton opened the hatch and appeared on the deck of the whale's back. Countless white balls were floating in the sky. They were slowly rising towards the sky. It looked like countless soap bubbles were floating.
"Hmm," Newton looked up, stroking his chin.
"The lightning is gone," Joe said.
There were no streaks of light that had fallen from the black jellyfish that covered the sky. There was no flash or thunder, and the same calm as before had returned.
"I have no idea what's going on," Yoshida muttered.
Newton was looking towards land. "The Black Forest has disappeared."
Yoshida looked in that direction. The huge forest that completely covered the land had disappeared.
"I'm sorry for Bottom," Yoshida said to Joe.
Joe looked down. "He was a cute partner. "I wish I had loved him more. Now I regret it."
There was the sound of something falling into the water nearby. Yoshida and Newton turned to the direction of the sound.
"I should have given him pocket money every month." Joe said and covered his face.
Yoshida and Newton were playing rock, paper, scissors behind Joe. Yoshida lost. Then he jumped into the sea.
"When that guy opened the fridge in the middle of the night and grabbed a snack, I shouldn't have hung him upside down." Joe regretted it deeply.
Yoshida came back with something. Newton pulled it onto the deck.
"Ahem!"
Joe turned around as he heard a familiar voice. Bottom, completely naked and dripping wet, was right in front of him. His body was riddled with injuries.
"Huh? You're back?"
"That's terrible, give me a better welcome."
All the huge white balls disappeared into the jellyfish that covered the sky. After a while, the fissure that was emitting countless streaks of blue light that wriggled around the bottom of the jellyfish closed and disappeared.
"What's going on?" Bush asked, staring at the screen.
"I'll change the screen" Higuchi said as he tapped the keyboard.
The image switched to an image from a geostationary meteorological satellite. It was an image from outside of a gigantic jellyfish that covered Gaia's surface in a hemisphere. Before they knew it, faint white stripes had formed on the entire surface of the jet-black jellyfish. It looked exactly like a real jellyfish.
"We are measuring the altitude of jellyfish. My prediction is that there should be a change."
Nelson and the others stared at the monitor with strained eyes. It seemed like nothing had changed at all. Higuchi was reading the numbers that appeared on another monitor.
"Right now, the jellyfish is at an altitude of 55 km above the ground. An hour ago it was 50 km."
Nelson and Bush looked at Higuchi. "What that means?"
"The jellyfish are gaining altitude. It's gradual, but it's accelerating little by little."
After a while, Nelson and the others could see the giant jellyfish leaving Gaia little by little.
"Is it saying goodbye to Gaia?" Bush asked Higuchi.
"That's right. That jellyfish took as much nutrition as possible from Gaia. All he needs is enough energy. To do that, he needs to leave Gaia, fly into outer space, and get closer to the sun. Now that jellyfish is aiming for the sun."
"Wow, that guy sucks a lot of energy out of the sun. Maybe he'll come back to Gaia after that? "
"No, there are many places that are better than Gaia. Venus and Mercury. Maybe he'll swing by and go to Jupiter or Saturn. Those are more nutritious and delicious than this Gaia."
People nicknamed the silicon jellyfish "Jerry." Jerry reached the sun in six months. It entered an orbit approximately 2 million km from the center of the sun and 1.3 million km from the photosphere. He stayed in that orbit for six months. After half a year, he suddenly left the sun's orbit, left the solar system, and traveled to outer space.
The day Jerry left solar orbit:
Snake was writing something in his notebook while drinking coffee in the staff room.
"The title...'Silicon Forest Exploration Record'...very commonplace. 'I've seen! This is the truth about that forest.', This is also boring. I wonder if it will sell in the first place?"
Suddenly he felt a buzz. A group of men gathered around the window and looked outside.
"Hmm? Did something happen?"
Snake also hurried to the window. When he peeked out of one of the windows, the sun was shining brightly. No, it was a little too bright. It was twice as bright as usual.
"What's that?"
Paul came closer.
"What happened? Maybe the sun exploded?" asked Snake.
"Well, apparently some country attacked Jerry with a hydrogen bomb."
"What! Did the jellyfish get destroyed?"
"It didn't break, but it seems it escaped into space. That's good news."
It's been about two weeks since Jerry left for space. Yoshida and the others's lives have finally returned to normal. When Yoshida entered his basement workplace, he found Lee staring at his computer. When Yoshida came near him, he looked up.
"I see Jerry's path," Lee said.
"where?"
"It wasn't Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter or Saturn. It wasn't any other planet."
"What do you mean?"
"His destination is Alpha Centauri in the Proxima star system, a distance of 4.35 light years."
"Good. He won't be coming back now."
"But it's strange." Crane wearing sunglasses said. His eyes were almost back to normal, but he still needed sunglasses for the time being.
"Why?"
"Why did he go to such a faraway star? In addition to Earth, there are eight other planets in our solar system that are rich in nutrients. There is also the sun itself. Why did he go to a star four light years away without touching them? I don't understand."
"I agree," Newton said.
"I agree with that," said Nelson, who suddenly appeared on the screen.
"The Union has been investigating this until now. The public relations department is about to announce the opinions we have compiled. However, this announcement will only be made to union officials. "
"Why?" asked Crane.
"Actually, it contains quite serious content. I don't want the general public to know about it. This story must never be leaked to the outside."
"What?" Yoshida and the others looked at each other.
An image from the Union's public relations department appeared in the center of the screen. Samantha was the publicist. She was the woman who destroyed several NODA robot ants during NODA's rebellion a long time ago. She was slender and had her hair tied back in a bun. She was beautiful, but had cold eyes. There were rumors that she had no interest in men and had many female mistresses.
"Silicon large floating life form, abbreviated as Jerry, left Earth about six months ago, arrived at the sun about a month later, and entered an orbit about 2 million kilometers away from the sun. The orbit was approximately 1.3 million km away from the sun's photosphere. The sun's photosphere is about 700,000 km from the center, and its surface temperature is about 5,700 K. The temperature around Jerry's orbit was about 1000K or less. This was a temperature that Jerry could tolerate. Therefore, Jerry is considered to have gotten as close to the sun as possible and collected as much sunlight as possible. He was in orbit for about six months. During that time, he gradually changed shape. The body, which was once bowl-shaped, eventually became completely flat and disk-shaped. The final diameter of the disk was approximately 30,000 km. The side facing the sun was black, the opposite side was white. Then, two weeks ago, Jerry suddenly changed direction, picked up speed, and left solar orbit without a swing-by. This is the video from that time. "
A new screen appeared. Jerry's entire body, which had become a huge disc, suddenly began to glow white. It glowed white, as if a huge explosion had occurred. It became brighter than the sun itself. Then, it slowly left the sun's orbit and flew off into space, gradually increasing its speed.
"Jerry's acceleration is about 1G. This acceleration is thought to be due to photon jets emitted from the back of Jerry's disk. So Jerry became a kind of photon rocket. The acceleration of 1G is still continuing. If the same acceleration continues, it will reach 99% of the speed of light in a year and a half. The destination is Alpha Centauri in the Proxima star system, 4.35 light years away. Perhaps he will reach that star system in six years. "
"What? Photon rocket?" Yoshida rolled his eyes.
"If that were true, that rocket's blast would quickly evaporate all of Gaia's oceans," Lee said.
"Well, we have many questions. Why did Jerry abandon the solar system and head to Alpha Centauri? Did he have that need? Why did he abandon the nutrient-rich solar system right in front of him and head for unexplored lands? We had a discussion about it. And we found an answer that makes sense. Please take a look at this first. "
An enlarged photo of the cell appeared on the screen. A small mosquito-like object appeared from outside the cell and attached itself to the cell wall. It injected something into the cell wall and something went inside the cell. Then the cells began actively producing something. After a while, a large number of small mosquito-like objects appeared, broke the cell wall, and flew out all at once. The original cell disintegrated and died.
"This is a bacteriophage," Lee said.
"What's that?" Yoshida
Samantha continued. "And look at this. "
Jerry appeared again. It was a video of it orbiting the sun. Something jumped out at Jerry. It was a small round object. It headed toward the sun and was swallowed up in the photosphere.
"Something emitted from Jerry was absorbed by the sun. A total of 100 objects were released over the course of six months. It's unclear what exactly that is. It may even be completely harmless. On the contrary, it may be harmful. The sun is 98% hydrogen and helium, with the remaining 2% being other atoms. Therefore the substances needed for Jerry are in large quantities. "
"So, maybe..." Lee's face turned pale.
"What is life? And what is that mission? The mission of life is to multiply. That is life. Why did Jerry abandon the solar system? Maybe he left it for his descendants? And perhaps the reason why he headed to the nearest star was to find a new place to sow seeds. We don't even want to think beyond that. Please note that what I have just described is just the worst case scenario. However, even if the possibility is low, considering the magnitude of the impact, we at the Union should gather all the strength we have and start dealing with it now."
Yoshida and Lee went out of the dorm together. It was already night. They stood shoulder to shoulder and looked around where Jerry was currently.
"What will happen to us?" Lee asked.
"Don't worry, we'll manage somehow." Yoshida said.
(End)