The last human in the universe

Chapter 17
This incident immediately caught Zhao Changxing's attention.This even made him immediately give up the work in hand, and immediately took the Falcon spacecraft back to the Pyro spacecraft to check the details.

The Tinder spacecraft is equipped with a high-precision antenna, which is mainly used for communication with artificial satellites and the Sedna star ground base at this stage.In the future, it can also undertake long-distance communication tasks ranging from tens of millions of kilometers to hundreds of millions of kilometers.

At this moment, this information from an unknown source was received by a high-precision antenna.

Generally speaking, there are many optical signals of various bands in the natural environment of the universe, ranging from radio to gamma rays.That is to say, in addition to the signals emitted by humans themselves, this antenna can actually receive signals from the background environment at all times.

But this time the signal caught Xiaoxi's attention and made her adjust the warning level to the point where she could notify the captain in real time, because it was really strange.

In front of the screen, Zhao Changxing stared blankly at the beating radio signals, and murmured, "This, this seems to be regular..."

The regular radio wave signals in the background environment are also not rare.The most famous is the radio signal that was mistaken for the "little green man".At that time, people thought that they had received a message from aliens, but it was later found out that it was actually a signal from a neutron star.

Because the neutron star is rotating at a high speed, the super-intensive radiation emitted to the outside world along its magnetic poles will sweep across the earth at fixed and regular intervals, so the signals received on the earth will be regular, and thus there will be a follow-up series of discoveries.

But the signal received this time is obviously different from the overly mechanical and fixed natural law signal.Judging from the general appearance, Zhao Changxing even feels that it is somewhat similar to the radio signals emitted by humans, which carry meaningful information.

"Can you decipher the message from this?"

Xiaoxi's neutral voice came into Zhao Changxing's ears again: "Sorry Captain, if there is enough information of this kind for me to build a model, I should be able to try to find the laws and make some decipherments. But not now .”

"Can you determine the source direction of this information?"

"It's impossible to be too precise." Xiaoxi said: "Based on the direction in which the high-precision antenna on the spacecraft was facing when this message was received, the source of the information is probably in the direction of the constellation Cygnus. The distance is completely unpredictable."

"The direction of Cygnus, this is outside the solar system..." Zhao Changxing murmured: "And, probably on the plane of the ecliptic..."

This made Zhao Changxing fall into deep thought.

He didn't know the source of the signal.It is not known whether it was emitted by some kind of natural process in the universe-like the "little green man" event caused by neutron stars, or whether it was really emitted by an alien intelligent civilization.

But one thing is certain, even if this signal with suspected intelligent characteristics is really sent by an intelligent life, then this intelligent life must not be a human being.Because it comes from the outer direction of the solar system, not the inner part of the solar system.

Obviously, humans cannot exist farther from the sun than Sedna.

This incident made Zhao Changxing feel a strong sense of crisis.

At this moment, no, it should be said that in the entire human civilization, there are only eleven people left, and I am the only adult.I don't have any industrial capabilities, can't build spaceships, can't make weapons, and hardly have any self-protection capabilities.

If there is an alien civilization coming, and it will be detrimental to human civilization, the only means of resistance is to drive the Falcon spacecraft to make a suicide charge, and there is no other way.

"Seal up this signal." Zhao Changxing made a solemn decision: "And, always monitor the direction of Cygnus and adjust the antenna sensitivity to the highest."

"Good captain."

Xiao Xi answered calmly.

After this incident, Zhao Changxing finally made up his mind about another matter that had been hesitating for a long time.

"Base No. 12 is almost finished, and I will soon have time to be freed from the construction task that lasted more than ten years, and have more energy and time to take care of the children. Besides, the first batch of breeding The ten children who came out are now almost [-] years old, at this age, it is completely possible to take care of the babies."

"Then, let's reproduce the second generation of humans as soon as possible."

That night, Zhao Changxing had dinner with the children, but he did not let the children go to free activities, but took the children to the classroom.

"Don't you always want to see what the outside world looks like? Dad will take you to see it today."

Under the eyes of the children full of tension and expectation, Zhao Changxing demonstrated how to put on the space suits, directed the children to put on the children's space suits, checked carefully to make sure there were no omissions, and then gave the children space suits After the suit was fastened with the fixed cable, and the control authority of the spacesuit was taken into his own hands, Zhao Changxing took the children to leave the cabin.

Along the way, as the gravity under the feet became smaller and smaller, the children and Zhao Changxing were all suspended in the air.

This novel feeling made all the children laugh.

"Walk."

After reaching the exit chamber, gravity disappears completely.

Zhao Changxing manipulated and opened the hatch of the Pyro spacecraft, and manipulated his own spacesuit and the spacesuits of the children to move forward slowly until he was hundreds of meters away from the Pyro spacecraft.

At this moment, the sea of ​​stars is vast and the universe is vast.A huge planet is quietly suspended under the feet, and the Tinder spacecraft is in front of it.

Seen from this distance, the Tinder spacecraft is also very large.

But the distance between the two sides is still far away. 500 meters, 1000 meters, 2000 meters, until the distance of 5000 meters.

The children were chatting and laughing excitedly in the public channel at first, but at this moment, everyone was quiet.

The planet under his feet is still huge, while the Pyrotechnic spaceship in front of him has shrunk to a pitiful size.

It quietly floats in the vast and deep universe, revolves quietly around the Sedna star, and at the same time rotates itself.

The gravity inside the spacecraft, which is equivalent to the surface of the earth, is created through its rotation.

"Do you think that our spacecraft is already the entire universe?"

At this age, the children have never experienced weightlessness, never left the Tinder spacecraft.They subconsciously believe that a small spacecraft is already the entire universe, which can support people to spend a carefree life in it.

But now, their worldview has been turned upside down.

"Our home...is so small."

"It's so small..."

Some low-pitched soliloquies reached Zhao Changxing's ears.

"Look over there."

Zhao Changxing smiled, and manipulated the children's space suits to change directions, facing the sun.

After adjusting the filter and telephoto settings, a small planet flooded by sunlight came into the eyes of the children.

"It's where all of us used to be."

Zhao Changxing spoke slowly, his words were full of sacred and solemn meaning.In addition, there is a trace of sadness and nostalgia.

The children were silent.

Although they are only 11 years old, they have already received more than half of their junior high school education, and they already have a preliminary understanding of the universe.

"Now, we leave our hometown and can only survive in such a small spaceship."

"All of us were born with a mission. We are the last group of human beings surviving in this universe. We have the responsibility and obligation to pass on our civilization."

"Dad is almost 40 years old this year. Dad will grow old and die one day. At that time, the responsibility and obligation to inherit our civilization will fall on your shoulders. You will also grow old and death, then this responsibility and obligation will be passed on to the shoulders of the next generation of human beings. As long as it is passed on from generation to generation, our civilization will one day return to its former glory.”

Thinking back to the human world living on the earth shown in the movies, TV series, cartoons, documentaries, etc., recalling the small spaceships that they live on now, all the children fell into silence.

Although their world outlook, cosmology, and civilization outlook are not yet mature, they still think a lot.

Finally, Qian Yue spoke.

"Dad, why are we so few?"

After Qian Yue, the children said one after another: "Dad, can you have some younger brothers and sisters?"

"Dad, if you are busy, I can also help take care of the little brothers and sisters. I will feed them and change diapers."

"I can cook for them! I can also see a doctor and tell them stories."

"When we have more people, we can find a way to return to Earth!"

"It's said on TV that there are many people, and the strength is great!"

"Yes, there are more people, so the power is greater." Zhao Changxing quietly turned around, looked at the same deep and dark universe in the direction of Cygnus, the haze flashed across his face, and the next moment he recovered his smile: "Okay, Then Dad will 'give birth' to some little brothers and little sisters."

The next day, Zhao Changxing adjusted the children's curriculum and added a baby care class.Perhaps knowing that this is related to the size of the population, the children study very seriously.

Zhao Changxing also took this opportunity to give the child a real physical hygiene class.In the process of breeding a new generation of human beings, from artificial insemination, transplantation into an artificial womb, and every stage of subsequent embryonic development, Zhao Changxing will explain carefully to the children.This made the children gasp in amazement.

"Dad, are we here too?"

"Dad, this ball of meat is so ugly, it must be Feng Yu, right?"

Feng Yu immediately shouted: "I am not ugly, you are ugly!"

"Dad, did you grow up like this too?"

This question made it difficult for Zhao Changxing to answer.I wanted to explain it to the children, but I felt that the children are still too young, and it may not be a good thing to be exposed to these sexual knowledge too early, so I had to be vague.

After the new generation of 30 embryos were put into the artificial uterus and started to develop, observing the growth of the embryos in their spare time became the most interesting thing for the children.The children even competed to select the most "beautiful" embryos, vying to become their sister or brother.For this reason, I quarreled several times and cried several times.

Zhao Changxing still maintains his usual pace of life, but he is more motivated to work when he thinks about the 30 babies to be born.

Finally, after about seven more months, the last major building of the human base No. [-], the industrial area, was finally completed.It took more than a month to organize the entire base in a unified way, and Zhao Changxing can finally announce that Human Base No. [-] is completely completed.

This task, in the original plan, was jointly coordinated by 20 astronauts, and the construction period was less than one year.But the reality is that Zhao Changxing spent nearly 14 years in it.

14 years have passed leisurely.And it will take about 5 years before Human Base No. [-] ushers in new residents other than himself.

Because at that time, children will become adults and can live in a low-gravity environment for a long time without affecting their physical development.

Facing this huge building, Zhao Changxing was full of emotion.

From the outside, Human Base No. [-] appears to be square, about three meters high, and several smaller individual buildings extend around it, like the legs extending from the body of a big monster. .

"This is probably where I will end up."

Zhao Changxing thought silently.

Each generation has the responsibility of one generation.For Zhao Changxing, as the first generation of human beings, his responsibility is to lay the foundation and provide a foundation for the subsequent development of human beings.

Strolling to the warehouse area, looking at the various storage rooms that were full or empty, Zhao Changxing said casually, "Xiaoxi, report the storage capacity of the warehouse."

"Good captain. At this stage, the warehouse has 6 tons of wheat, 1.5 tons of corn, 10 tons of soybeans, 11 tons of rice, 10 tons of various vegetables and pastures, 3 eggs, 4 tons of poultry meat, and pork. 4 tons..."

Xiaoxi reported the existing reserves one by one.After mental calculation, Zhao Changxing quickly came to a conclusion.

If this batch of reserves is fed to adults like myself, it can probably last for decades.But the first batch of ten children will soon be adults. Even if they are still underage at this moment, their food intake will be greatly increased than before. It can only last for a few years.

Fortunately, Base No. 30 is continuously producing all kinds of supplies, so there is no need to worry about the dilemma of having nothing to eat for the time being.Even if all of these 41 children grow up to adulthood and the total population increases to [-], it can still be maintained for the time being.It's just that if you want to expand the population again, the output of the No. [-] base alone may not be able to do it.

"I still have time. Take your time." Zhao Changxing thought to himself, "During this time, Xiaoxi didn't receive that strange signal again. Maybe it was really just a natural event, because I was too sensitive .”

This time, when leaving Base No. 30, Zhao Changxing took away a month's worth of rice, wheat, vegetables, meat and eggs, etc.Because the latest batch of [-] babies will be born soon.At this critical time, he must stay in the Pyro spacecraft for a long time, ready at any time.

"Daddy, when are the babies born?"

Facing the impatient eyes of the children, Zhao Changxing had no choice but to comfort him: "Soon, very soon."

Sensing that Chen Feng was still unhappy, Zhao Changxing asked, "Chen Feng, what's wrong with you?"

Chen Feng said sullenly: "I don't want to sit at the same table with Qian Yue, I want to sit with Zheng Yan."

Qian Yue immediately shouted: "Mr. Xiaoxi asked me to sit with you! Your grades in childcare are so poor, Teacher Xiaoxi asked me to teach you more!"

"I...I want Zheng Yan to teach me."

"Zheng Yan's grades are also very poor, so I can't teach you!"

"Okay, kids, it's time for dinner. Shall we have ribs tonight?"

"Great!"

The children finally cheered.

　Today's 4400-word chapter, only this chapter is left today, and tomorrow will continue with two more 6000-word chapters

　　
　
(End of this chapter)