Chapter 62.1 – ‘Overlook’

“How do you know it’s about to succeed?” Shi Yuan asked Wu Zhengqing.

“I’ve worked at least all my life at the Aerospace Center,” Wu Zhengqing smiled until his eyes narrowed, “I have several colleagues and subordinates who are now working at the data center, and they told me.”

“It turned out to be like this.” Shi Yuan recalled that he asked Alice about the process of ‘Overlook’ half a month ago, Alice also said that it was near.

Wu Zhengqing was very excited and talked to Shi Yuan for a long time.

“By the way, I haven’t talked to you about it yet,” Wu Zhengqing said, “The only remaining spacecraft is called ‘Seeker One’, and it is now underground in the main city. Do you remember, I test flew the first frigate with Chief Engineer Tan Yingguang?”

Shi Yuan nodded.

Wu Zhengqing: “It can’t reach the speed of light and has many flaws, but it represents our ability to travel freely through the universe. After that, Old Tan and I continued our research and built three more frigates, one was destroyed, one took a detector equipment to the Twin Spiral galaxy, and the other was ‘Seeker One’. It can reach up to 30% of the speed of sub-light. If a planet 15 light-years away from us is determined to be habitable, it will only take 50 years to reach the end point!”

Shi Yuan: “Wow!”

“Isn’t it great! As long as the two astronauts are still alive, they can start a new civilization, and the landing frigate will be their first home. Even if an astronaut dies unexpectedly, as long as a robot is still in operation, it can wake up and cultivate fertilized eggs and seeds according to procedures. Its hard drive stores all our language and cultural heritage, which can be taught to newborns.” Wu Zhengqing’s old face turned red with excitement. “This is a very difficult task, but this is also a new hope.”

He grabbed Shi Yuan by the shoulder and said, “Shi Yuan, can you stay until night today? I want you to take a look at the sea of stars.”

Shi Yuan agreed.

He talked to Lu Tinghan: [I will be home later today]

Lu Tinghan: [Something wrong?]

[I want to see the stars]

[With whom?]

[Mr. Wu]

Lu Tinghan: [Okay, come back early]

Shi Yuan felt that in fact, Lu Tinghan didn’t care about the stars, he only cared about who he was staying with.

And the answer ‘Mr. Wu’ satisfied him.

Shi Yuan had dinner at the welfare center and returned to Wu Zhengqing’s small room.

The room had a small attic.

The attic originally did not exist, but one section of the ceiling was slanted, with a small skylight two people wide. This was also the only window in the center. Wu Zhengqing took a fancy to it and decided to get it that day.

He was an old and frail mutant, and an engineer with a strong do-it-yourself spirit. He stacked the bed, cabinet chairs, paper boxes and iron boxes together and stood on top to reach the window – as soon as the staff came in, they saw a skinny old man standing on a shaky pile of clutter, reaching out to touch the skylight, scaring them half to death.

After that, no matter how much they persuaded or stopped him, Wu Zhengqing had to go to the window.

The rooms in the welfare center were windowless to prevent mutants from causing threats when they get out of control. Many patients had complained about this, feeling that it was like a big prison. Wu Zhengqing’s skylight was the only exception.

At that time, the chief person in charge of the welfare center was a lady surnamed Wen, and it was she who proposed to let Wu Zhengqing live there permanently.

The staff asked her what to do, whether she wanted to simply change Wu Zhengqing to a windowless room to dispel his thoughts. Ms. Wen sighed and said, “Why don’t we build him an attic – I’ll pay for it.”

A week later, construction began on the attic.

Simple wooden planks, thin pillars, cheap ladders.

But Wu Zhengqing could touch the skylight.

Someone asked Ms. Wen why she was so kind to Wu Zhengqing, who was penniless, and paid for the repair of the attic.

“Well, there’s no particular reason, I guess,” Ms. Wen said, “It’s just that he reminded me that when I was a kid, my dad also liked to pull me to watch the stars.”

Later, Ms. Wen resigned, she went to the main city and no one saw her again. And Wu Zhengqing lived there for 16 years.

Shi Yuan followed Wu Zhengqing to the attic.

The attic space was very small and full of clutters, such as models of planets of different sizes, large dusty books, notebooks, cardboard boxes, tool boxes, and posters of the aerospace center in the past. There was an open space in front of the skylight, and an astronomical telescope was set up.

Wu Zhengqing mentioned to Shi Yuan more than once that he wanted to take him to see the telescope, but every time Shi Yuan came over, he was pulled by him to listen to space stories. In the past few months, he hadn’t even seen a telescope once.

“Come, come, sit down.” Wu Zhengqing beckoned. “You are lucky, the weather is good tonight and the night sky is clear.”

He adjusted the telescope, pointed at the night sky, and beckoned Shi Yuan to take a look.

Shi Yuan leaned over and saw the uneven mountains, which were deep shadows on the slightly bright sphere.

Wu Zhengqing explained: “This is the satellite mountain range. I told you that there will be topographical features that we are familiar with on other moons and planets.”

“Has anyone ever been there?” Shi Yuan asked.

“Most of the planets and moons have been set foot by Alliance astronauts,” Wu Zhengqing said, “Including, of course, the one you see.”

Wu Zhengqing adjusted the telescope again.

Shi Yuan saw other planets, including colorful gas giant planets, planets made of ice and rock, bright and hot desert planets, and small planets full of craters with ancient volcanic regions. In addition, ice dwarfs and asteroid families could be seen.

They had a strange brilliance.

“It’s a pity that we can’t see comets and meteors,” Wu Zhengqing sat beside him and said, “I was lucky enough to see two meteor showers, one with a full moon where only the brightest meteors could be seen in the moonlight, and one with a very dim moonlight and a sky full of exploding meteors, more than a hundred in an hour.”

“That must have been beautiful,” Shi Yuan said.

He guessed that when he was in the abyss, a meteor shower also appeared, but his consciousness sank in the black mist and he couldn’t see it.

“Yes, it was more beautiful than you could ever imagine.” Wu Zhengqing stretched out his hand and adjusted the telescope again. “And look at this satellite, it’s red, contaminated with iron and organic compounds from the planet’s rings. And this moon is blue because it is covered with ice particles.”

Shi Yuan had seen models of planets and astronomical photos, but seeing them with his own eyes felt completely different.

Those planets were separated by tens of millions or hundreds of millions of kilometers, a distance he couldn’t imagine. Now, in front of this humble attic and narrow skylight, through this old telescope, the universe was wonderfully revealed.

Wu Zhengqing talked with great interest for two hours.

He said: “It’s a pity that we can’t see the habitable planet we are searching for with this telescope. They are too far away, in another planetary system – the Twin Spiral galaxy. Fifty-five years ago, a frigate took a detector to the Twin Spiral galaxy. Its mission was to observe the planets, put down the detector, and look for a habitable planet, which is now our ‘Overlook’ plan.”