Chapter 101: Return Voyage and Ecosystem Recovery

The New Era, upon arriving at the Lunar Surface for its maiden voyage, did not stay there long.

It transferred some of the supplies it had brought – mainly industrial products the Lunar Base couldn’t yet produce itself – to the base.

Simultaneously, it loaded onto the New Era some minerals previously mined on the moon, primarily Helium-3.

Then, the New Era prepared for return to Earth.

The Lunar Base personnel who had long been scheduled to return to Earth on this voyage had already become eager to go home.

Well-prepared, they boarded the spaceship very quickly.

“The ship’s propulsion engines are active. During ascent, all passengers must remain in their seats.”

Compared to Earth, the Moon’s much lower gravity made the New Era’s ascent significantly easier.

This was actually one of the Moon’s big advantages: close to Earth, yet with low gravity, making it an ideal outpost or stellar port as human civilization expanded into space.

Watched by countless people within the underground shelter cities,

the New Era spaceship, which had previously arrived at the Moon, ascended back into Lunar Orbit.

Under the remote monitoring of the Strong Artificial Intelligence, the Intelligent Program set the destination for Earth and initiated the return voyage.

This time, naturally, it wasn’t all one thousand plus personnel staying at the Lunar Base who returned on the New Era.

The Lunar Base, the Crater observation equipment, the High-Power Laser Weapon, and all the research work in the lunar laboratories needed to continue operating normally.

Only about one hundred people boarded the New Era for the return trip.

But, it didn’t really matter.

With the New Era’s maiden voyage completed, travel between Earth and the Lunar Surface would gradually return to the normal state before the Doomsday Crisis.

Permanent Lunar personnel would continue their scheduled rotations later.

Next time, when new researchers arrived at the Moon to take their place, they, too, would be able to return home.

At this very moment,

for these one hundred first returnees,

gazing at the scene inside and outside the New Era’s windows,

this voyage was a somewhat novel experience for them.

When they had originally traveled to the Moon, they had come on traditional chemical rockets and a lunar lander.

But now, returning, they were sitting aboard an Electric Propulsion Spaceship.

Even though they remained in constant communication via the network with Earth’s underground shelter cities,

and knew about the progress of the DT series Electric Propulsion System,

actually being inside the New Era Electric Propulsion Spaceship still felt strangely unreal.

This was their first time riding in an electric propulsion ship – indeed, the very first time in human civilization anyone had ridden in one.

Being Lunar residents chosen for their strong mental resilience kept them from being afraid,

but they couldn’t help feeling a little nervous about this completely unfamiliar experience, so different from traditional chemical rockets.

However, that nervousness came quickly and faded even faster.

Watching their ship move steadily towards the Earth below,

the data displayed onboard showing they were getting closer and closer to that immensely familiar planet,

their longing for home slowly overcame their nervousness.

It was only when the New Era confirmed it had accelerated to the preset speed and commenced stable cruising,

that someone on board, one particular Researcher, couldn’t help but say,

“So smooth.”

Unlike traditional chemical rockets,

the New Era’s acceleration process was almost uniform.

Throughout the entire acceleration phase, they felt no significant g-force pressure.

For the Lunar personnel used to riding traditional rockets,

this acceleration felt almost entirely absent.

Of course,

what made the New Era’s first passengers feel an even bigger difference now,

was probably the ship’s sheer speed.

In previous journeys between Earth and the Moon,

they had enough time to sleep, even if sleep wasn’t easy.

This time, however,

they didn’t get that much time to rest during the trip.

With hearts full of anticipation to return to Earth, it felt like they hadn’t been traveling long at all before

the planet of their birth already looked very close through the porthole.

The New Era had taken well under half a day to reach the Moon, excluding liftoff and landing sequences.

Traveling back from the Lunar Surface this time was actually a little faster still.

“…All passengers are requested to remain seated in their current positions and not rise. The ship is now re-entering the atmosphere.”

…

Considering the current conditions on Earth’s surface,

it was impossible for the New Era to land at the Jiuzhou Launch Site, from which the Lunar personnel had originally departed.

It eventually touched down near the surface area corresponding to the Lingchuan Underground Shelter City.

Then, Intelligent Machinery, similar to Lunar vehicles, transported the one hundred returnees into the Lingchuan Underground Shelter City.

No official organization was needed;

many people within Lingchuan spontaneously gathered at the entrance to the Lingchuan Underground Shelter City,

to welcome the Researchers returning from the Moon.

A grand and boisterous welcome ceremony was held for them.

“…Welcome home.”

Qin Yu, as the head of the Negentropy Research Institute, shook hands with each researcher returning from the Moon.

The building of the initial Lunar Base had been tightly linked to the Negentropy Research Institute.

Many of the personnel stationed on the Moon had actually belonged to this institute.

That day,

throughout the entire Lingchuan Underground Shelter City, and in fact reaching all the other Underground Shelter Cities within human civilization,

a palpable wave of happiness swept through. Joy was clearly visible on everyone’s faces.

Restaurants operated by Intelligent Machinery were packed full of happy celebrating people, the atmosphere exceptionally lively.

People were celebrating not just the return of the Researchers who had stayed so long on the Moon,

but also marking another step forward – human civilization emerging further from the shadow of the Doomsday Crisis and returning towards full normality.

Now,

all that was left was for people to collectively return from the Underground Shelter Cities to the surface.

…

The New Era spacecraft, after its successful maiden voyage, did not stop.

It began regular commutes between Earth and the Moon.

And when necessary, using Intelligent Industrial Clusters, people built New Era II,

also used for travel between Earth and Moon.

With the two electric propulsion spaceships taking turns, there was almost one round trip between Earth and Moon every day.

However,

since the focus of Human Civilization’s development, or rather where its productivity leaned, was still primarily on returning to the surface,

even though Earth-Moon travel resumed and the permanent staff at the Lunar Base started rotating and increasing again,

most parts of the Lunar Base were not expanded urgently.

The industrial facilities and instruments transported to the Lunar Surface from the surface were mainly used to mine lunar minerals,

to meet the fuel needs of the current Helium-3 Fusion Reactors and the Helium-3 Fusion Reactors in the DT03 electric propulsion systems.

Similarly,

over the next period of time, different Underground Shelter Cities used Intelligent Industrial Clusters again to finish building several more electric propulsion spaceships.

Even though the propulsion systems of these new spacecraft were more refined than the original DT03, with a higher thrust-to-weight ratio,

the Negentropy Research Institute’s Energy and Power Research Institute noted that these new ships didn’t represent a clear generational leap.

So, they kept the name ‘Era’, continuing the sequence from Era III onward.

Electric propulsion spaceships like Era III and the ones that came after mainly served for transportation within the atmosphere at that time.

For long distances, they would leave the atmosphere and then enter orbit;

for short distances, they moved directly using their electric propulsion systems inside the atmosphere.

The increase in transport routes and capacity between different Underground Shelter Cities,

managed by the Strong Artificial Intelligence from the Brain Intelligence Project, made collaboration between their Intelligent Industrial Clusters much easier.

Finally, the more complete productivity of Human Civilization, situated within the Underground Shelter Cities, could be utilized more effectively.

They no longer had to ‘fight alone’ excessively between different Underground Cities.

This also provided significant help for all the efforts being made to return humans to the surface.

…

The year 294.

Following the birth of the New Era spacecraft

and the declared success of the DT03 electric propulsion system,

while Qin Yu still kept track of the further research into electric propulsion systems, he didn’t get deeply involved again

in the Energy and Power Research Institute’s or other related teams’ efforts to refine and utilize the DT03 system further.

Instead,

Qin Yu shifted his focus back to the core task of Human Civilization returning to the surface.

At this moment,

Human Civilization was actually very close to achieving that goal of returning to the surface.

Global volcanic eruptions, continuous worldwide rainfall, worldwide atmospheric dust pollution, and near-Earth orbital debris…after these major problems had been tackled one by one,

the remaining challenges,

technologically speaking, presented little real difficulty for Human Civilization.

What they lacked was time, not the method.

So, even with Qin Yu joining the effort, he could only help shorten the duration of this process; he couldn’t make the required time disappear completely.

Of course, Qin Yu certainly hoped they could achieve returning to the surface sooner rather than later.

Returning to the surface wasn’t just the hope of most people; it was his own hope too.

As a spry old fellow pushing three hundred, his outlook on this matter was quite traditional.

Now, more than ten years had passed since the Doomsday Crisis,

and the first children born in the Underground Shelter Cities were already ten years old.

He was genuinely worried that Human Civilization might get used to living in these Underground Shelter Cities and lose that pressing desire to go back to the surface.

Although, as an Absolute Immortal, he always had ways to steer Human Civilization in the direction he wanted,

it would undoubtedly be much more troublesome.

…

Not all the disasters and problems following the Doomsday Crisis could be solved quickly with clever tricks.

Many issues could only be tackled by either waiting a very long time or pouring massive amounts of productivity into them.

Luckily, Human Civilization at this point had plenty of energy, had entered the Intelligent Era, and was most definitely not short on productivity.

To solve the problem of toxic gas buildup in the atmosphere,

the various Institutes of the Negentropy Research Institute used every means at their disposal, from physical to chemical methods.

They targeted each specific toxic gas where its levels exceeded the norm.

Starting with the surface areas corresponding to each Underground Shelter City, they worked region by region to ‘dilute’, ‘near-ize’, ‘decompose’, and ‘synthesize’.

It was no exaggeration to say that after stopping the sources of these toxic gases (the large-scale volcanic eruptions),

Human Civilization didn’t want to wait for natural evolution. Almost half the atmosphere was effectively filtered using various methods.

The immense productivity of the Intelligent Era, potentially enough for developing and building on the Moon,

was practically dumped onto the mother planet, Earth.

Of course, the results were good.

Following various plans set out by research teams from the Negentropy Research Institute, carried out in sequence across different regions all over the globe,

the Earth’s atmospheric environment improved at a rapid pace,

undeniably much faster than if it had been left to natural processes.

Research Institute 011 also contributed during this process, uniquely offering biological solutions beyond just physical and chemical methods.

When restoring the surface ecosystem, they prioritized establishing plants that helped improve the atmospheric environment.

And during this time,

the algae that had been scattered earlier into various bodies of water on the surface also began to have a significant effect.

After 236 Algae and Entropy Algae grew to a certain scale, they competed in water bodies across the planet’s surface.

But this didn’t stop algal concentrations from generally increasing in all surface waters.

In many bodies of water, the excessive buildup of 236 Algae had made them look noticeably green.

However, this very accumulation of 236 Algae, which had once posed a crisis for Human Civilization, was now a good thing.

As algae occupy a foundational niche in the aquatic ecosystem, many water-dwelling creatures now had a basis for recovery.

Monitoring by the Geological Research Institute of the Negentropy Research Institute showed

that around this time, in many bodies of water and in the oceans,

resilient life forms that had survived the earlier Doomsday Crisis and subsequent disasters were beginning to reappear.

Meanwhile, the Negentropy Research Institute extracted some seeds and life genes from the Doomsday Gene Bank.

Using devices similar to human cultivation units, they cultivated water plants and marine life capable of just surviving in the current water conditions.

After being released back onto the surface, some of them managed to survive.

Following the Doomsday Crisis, these creatures had vanished from the surface;

now they were finally being seen again, alive in the waters.

These tough survivors had started to reproduce and spread in the water bodies, gradually growing to noticeable populations,

bringing life back to the oceans and other surface waters, no longer so barren.

Restoring the surface ecosystem

was a step Human Civilization was taking concurrently with waiting for 236 Algae to replenish atmospheric oxygen,

and waiting for geological activity to finally calm down.

According to current theory,

life originated in the oceans, starting from them.

Now, Human Civilization chose the same starting point for restoring the surface’s ecology – the oceans.

The marine environment still held some tenacious survivors even after the Doomsday Crisis,

making the restoration of ocean ecosystems much easier now.

Restoring the land ecosystem,

on the other hand, was much more complex.

Human Civilization tackled this task simultaneously.

It could be said that the restoration

of the land ecosystem relied completely and utterly on the dumping, the covering-over, with sheer productivity.

People couldn’t afford to wait for life from the increasingly busy oceans to reenact the entire journey from ocean to land, evolving over vast stretches of time to form a rich ecosystem again.

Human Civilization couldn’t wait that long, and the ecosystem that would result from that natural process likely wasn’t what they needed.

On land, almost nothing had survived the prolonged previous disasters.

And the current environment wasn’t one where simply scattering seeds and releasing animals onto the land would trigger the surface ecosystem’s recovery.

Without forming a functioning ecosystem simultaneously, any single species or life form would be incredibly fragile on the surface as it was.

Given this, Human Civilization only had one option:

artificially create zones on land suitable for certain plants and animals to live.

Then, they would rewild these plants and animals.

Put simply, like they were building Vertical Farms to grow food, they restored life on the surface.

Only after, in certain regions, these plants and animals (and even microbes) supported by artificially created environments

formed a fragile, rough initial ecological chain,

could Human Civilization even consider scattering seeds and releasing animals broadly, hoping the natural evolution process would eventually restore Earth’s biosphere and ecosystem.

This process consumed crazy amounts of Human Civilization’s productivity and energy.