Chapter 69: Pristine State
Propelled by blazing flames, the rocket, powered purely by chemical fuel, began to accelerate fiercely.
In the Blutuk People’s settlement, Molomans gazed with a sense of awe at the bright star in the sky.
’Their technology is so backward, like that of barbarians. Who still uses chemical-fuel rockets in this day and age? But...’
’...to be able to build a rocket this big... it’s a goddamn marvel.’
A strange feeling welled up inside him, like reading a history book and seeing his ancestors—in an age before they had even mastered ironworking—somehow erect a colossal structure hundreds of meters tall.
’This civilization... is bizarre in every way.’
’Their technology is so primitive, yet they can achieve deep space exploration by building such enormous rockets.’
’They only have Gunpowder Guns, yet they managed to defeat our armed fleet.’
’So many people, yet they coordinate so seamlessly, with everyone giving their all without complaint. Is their civilization’s unity really this strong...?’
’And the strangest thing is, they all look so similar. But you can’t ask about it. If you ask, you get tortured. It seems saying they look alike is some kind of offense to them. How strange...’
Molomans sighed softly and carefully retreated into his assigned living quarters.
Right now, he wasn’t thinking about anything else. He just wanted to cooperate to the best of his ability, suffer a little less torture, and survive until the main fleet of his civilization arrived.
’When that day comes, I’ll finally be free...’
’And when that day comes, I’ll be sure to ask them again why they all look so similar. We’ll see if they still dare to torture me then...’
...
In space, Li Qingsong watched with a grave expression as the massive rocket gradually receded into the distance.
Amidst the violent combustion of liquid hydrogen and oxygen, its velocity relative to Ceres had already reached over ten kilometers per second.
At the same time, the twenty-thousand-plus tons of fuel in the first stage had been completely consumed.
Separation!
A command was sent. Immediately, the first stage, which made up two-thirds of the rocket’s length, detached. The second stage rocket then ignited, pushing the now much lighter frame to accelerate further.
Faster and faster it went.
After that, the second stage detached, and the third stage ignited. Finally, the Detector separated from the third stage and entered into an inertial trajectory.
At this moment, its speed had reached an ultra-high velocity that none of Li Qingsong’s spacecraft had ever achieved: over 80 kilometers per second!
Furthermore, its speed would continue to increase as it approached the Sun.
The process of approaching the Sun can be compared to an object falling from a great height toward the ground.
According to Li Qingsong’s calculations, the Detector’s speed would peak at its closest approach to the Sun, potentially exceeding 300 kilometers per second.
That’s right—it wasn’t flying directly to Earth. It would first travel toward the Sun, accelerating continuously during its approach. After swinging around the Sun, it would use the Sun’s gravity to decelerate before finally arriving at Earth.
But... even at such a high speed, it would still take the Detector about 6.5 years to travel from Ceres to Earth.
It wasn’t that Li Qingsong didn’t want it to be faster; he simply couldn’t make it so.
Even its current speed was achieved only by burning tens of thousands of tons of fuel.
A super-massive rocket with a total mass of over seventy thousand tons, serving only this five-ton Detector, could ultimately only accelerate it to its current speed.
And of this five-ton Detector, a whopping 4,500 kilograms of its payload was also fuel, intended for deceleration upon approaching Earth.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t be able to enter and remain in orbit around Earth.
In the end, the true effective payload arriving at Earth would be merely 0.5 tons.
Pure chemical propulsion was just that wasteful.
But there was no other way. At this point, Li Qingsong hadn’t even scratched the surface of the secondary pressurization propulsion technology used by humanity, let alone the High-speed Ion Propulsion used by the Blutuk Civilization.
At this moment, the small Detector had already plunged headfirst into Deep Space, hurtling toward the Sun. Aside from some data on its coordinates and equipment status, Li Qingsong couldn’t even use the telescope on board to get a glimpse of the distant scenery.
This was because all of the Detector’s equipment, aside from the most critical core systems, was in a dormant state and had not been activated.
Their operation required energy, electricity, which had to be generated by burning fuel. But right now, the 4.5 tons of fuel it carried were too precious to be used lightly.
’Once it gets a little closer to the Sun, it can deploy its solar panels and draw power. Things will be better then.’
Li Qingsong thought, his heart heavy with concern.
「Time flowed by quietly, and in the blink of an eye, several years had passed.」
During this time, Li Qingsong had been continuously reverse-engineering the technological artifacts of the Blutuk Civilization. Although few of the technologies were immediately applicable, there were some useful discoveries.
Under Li Qingsong’s various methods, the captured Blutuk People, despite their reluctance and hatred, were ultimately incorporated into the effort to advance his technological development, objectively contributing a great deal.
As a result, the Ceres base cluster remained in a state of rapid development, with technology and equipment constantly being upgraded.
By this time, the Detector had already flown over ten billion kilometers, traveling from the edge of the Solar System into its interior and approaching the outermost giant planet, Neptune.
Here, the Detector performed its first course correction, briefly firing its thrusters. It also activated its camera for a period, recording footage of Neptune.
Gazing at the massive, azure gas giant, Li Qingsong vividly recalled the time he passed it while aboard the Deep Space Spaceship.
"Hello there, Neptune."
The Detector’s speed had now increased to 102 kilometers per second and was still slowly rising.
After passing Neptune, the next planet on its path was Jupiter.
At Jupiter, the Detector briefly activated again, then headed straight for the Sun.
Finally, at a distance of only 5 million kilometers, the Detector grazed past the Sun.
After swinging around the back of the Sun, the Detector began decelerating with all its might.
The 4.5 tons of fuel began to burn, generating incandescent gas that rapidly slowed the small Detector. Finally, with its speed reduced to a mere 9.7 kilometers per second, it caught up with Earth and entered its orbit.
After a long 14-hour delay, the command from Ceres finally arrived.
The Detector adjusted its orientation, aiming its onboard optical telescope at Earth.
After a similarly long delay of over ten hours, the signal from the Detector was received by the giant antenna array and finally displayed before Li Qingsong.
Li Qingsong saw azure oceans, verdant forests, emerald grasslands, and desolate deserts.
What appeared before him was an Earth that seemed completely untouched by pollution, completely unmodified by any intelligent life—an Earth that was utterly and thoroughly pristine.