Chapter 97: Choice

Austin and his security team looked tense, closely monitoring the live feed of the buried UFO. With Jason’s explicit authorization, the nuclear strike could be launched at a moment’s notice.

The Noah, with all 50,000 citizens aboard, was only about 130 kilometers away from the alien wreckage. If the one-gigaton Helium-3 Nuclear Bomb were detonated directly at the site, the resulting blast and shockwave could very well damage the Noah itself!

But there was no other choice; holding back against a potentially hostile extraterrestrial civilization would be suicidal. Jason knew perfectly well that compared to a true interstellar empire, the Federation was barely stronger than an insect. Nuclear weapons were their absolute last line of defense. Until the Tetrahydrogen Nuclear Bomb was finalized, the Helium-3 warhead was the most powerful weapon in humanity’s arsenal.

Besides, the Noah is the product of a God-like civilization, Jason reasoned with himself. Taking the brunt of a localized nuclear shockwave shouldn’t cause catastrophic damage…

Jason wasn’t a coward, which was why he hadn’t ordered an immediate planetary evacuation. He clearly understood the immense opportunity sitting right in front of them; if they could secure and study this alien UFO, humanity’s technological timeline could leap forward by centuries!

A spacecraft with a diameter of 5 kilometers, while nowhere near the scale of the Noah was still incredibly advanced compared to human technology. Bounded by their current understanding of materials science, humans couldn’t even construct a seamless sphere with a diameter of one kilometer!

To put it simply, the Noah represented technology so advanced it bordered on magic. Concepts like the manipulation of the law of conservation of mass, or harnessing zero-point energy from a vacuum, were completely incomprehensible to human scientists. They could only guess at how the ship actually functioned.

They could study the Noah for a thousand years and never replicate it. It was like handing a modern smartphone to a caveman; the caveman might learn to tap the screen, but he would never understand the microprocessors inside, let alone build one.

But this new alien spaceship was different. It had visible circuitry, mechanical joints, and structural plating. It was clearly within the scope of human comprehension. It was like handing a medieval blacksmith the blueprints for a steam engine, difficult, yes, but ultimately replicable.

The deep-seated sense of dread still lingered in Jason’s gut, but a burning ambition also flared up within him. If humanity ran away from such a golden opportunity, how could they ever hope to rise among the stars? Were they really just going to painstakingly crawl up the tech tree step by step?

On one hand, there was the terrifying risk of human extinction. On the other, the possibility of soaring to unimaginable new heights. The temptation and the contradiction were agonizing, and Jason simply couldn’t bring himself to order a retreat just yet.

He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails bit deep into his palms. He had to make a final decision, and soon!

His mind raced, desperately trying to piece together the puzzle. A series of rapid-fire questions popped into his head: How was this alien ship destroyed? And why is it buried on Mars, of all places?

Did a native Martian civilization actually exist?

Why is it buried directly under a massive uranium deposit? It’s almost as if it tried to hide itself… If a ship of that size crashed from orbit during a battle, it would have created a massive crater. How could it be perfectly covered by a flat layer of sand and rock?

Did the crew bury the ship themselves to hide from enemies?

Fine beads of sweat broke out on Jason’s forehead. He suddenly remembered reading a geological report stating that the rock formations in the Uranium Mining Area were unusually soft. Could that be because the area had been artificially excavated in the past?

Yes! If the aliens dug the hole themselves, the resulting backfill would naturally be softer than solid bedrock! Following this line of logic, the probability of finding surviving extraterrestrial life inside the ship increased dramatically!

A chill ran down Jason’s spine. No, that doesn’t make sense. It’s totally illogical!

“Director Jason, I believe the ship’s location can be explained by natural geology!” a middle-aged scientist suddenly stood up and announced. “This spacecraft hasn’t been sitting here for hundreds or thousands of years. It’s been here for millions of years!”

“Geological activity near the Martian North Pole is infrequent, but it does occur. When this spacecraft originally crashed, it likely created an impact crater tens, if not hundreds, of kilometers wide. However, over the course of millions of years, massive landslides and seismic activity gradually filled the crater with sand and soil, burying the ship entirely.”

“This also perfectly explains why the rock formations within a hundred-kilometer radius are unusually fragmented and easy to mine. We are essentially digging through ancient landslide debris. Please wait just a moment; my team is compiling the relevant geological data right now…”

Jason nodded silently, his furrowed brow relaxing slightly. Although the scientist’s explanation was just a hypothesis, it was entirely logical. Over millions of years, tectonic shifts could easily have buried the wreckage. Was his intuition just making him paranoid?

It was now noon. The alien spaceship had been discovered early that morning. The cafeteria staff had to bring boxed lunches into the command center because none of the senior staff were willing to leave the heated debate.

Everyone in the room fully understood the stakes. Many of the scientists were so excited their eyes were bloodshot; they were pacing around, scratching their heads, and looking no different from anxious monkeys.

But they had to find concrete evidence to prove the spaceship was absolutely safe to approach.

The universe was a cold, unforgiving place. If a microscopic Martian virus could nearly drive humanity to extinction, what could the remnants of a powerful alien civilization do? As the initial shock wore off, more and more scientists began to adopt a highly cautious stance.

Because the experts were busy running simulations and searching for hard data, the meeting wasn’t going to end anytime soon.

“A native Martian civilization almost certainly never existed. This UFO simply crashed here for unknown reasons and happened to be unearthed by our mining AI. We’ve scanned the rest of the planet and found zero trace of widespread civilized structures.”

“Agreed, the data supports an isolated crash…”

At 1:30 PM, a comprehensive geological report was finally presented to the room, providing a compelling explanation: “Based on core samples and our analysis of the Martian geological profile, the basin where we are currently mining experienced a massive seismic event of magnitude 9 or higher sometime between three and six million years ago.”

“It is highly probable that the earthquake was triggered by the kinetic impact of the UFO itself!”

“The sheer force of the impact, combined with centuries of aftershocks, caused the rim of the crater to collapse inward, causing a massive landslide that buried the basin. We’ve actually found loose uranium ore scattered hundreds of kilometers away from the main deposit. Because Martian winds aren’t strong enough to move dense rock that far, only a violent geological event like a mega-landslide could explain the spread!”

On the presentation stage, the lead geologist grew increasingly animated. “Therefore, we can conclude that this spaceship has been buried for at least three million years! It has been sitting down there, completely dormant, for eons. That is the best possible proof of its safety!”

“What kind of biological life could possibly survive for millions of years in a crushed tin can?” the geologist asked the room. “Furthermore, the kinetic energy required to create a magnitude 9 earthquake would have subjected the ship’s interior to unfathomable G-forces. It would have crushed a solid lead ball flat… Is there really any biological entity that could survive that?”

“You can’t guarantee that!” another scientist immediately objected, frowning deeply. “Earth-based biology can’t survive for millions of years, but extraterrestrial life might operate on entirely different principles! Furthermore, an advanced artificial intelligence could survive indefinitely as long as its power source remained intact!”

“And what about stasis technology? Deep-space cryogenic hibernation is a staple of theoretical interstellar travel. It could theoretically preserve organic life indefinitely… Your landslide theory does not prove the UFO is completely safe. For all we know, our mining lasers just woke them up!”

“Is true stasis technology even physically possible?”

“Just because human science hasn’t cracked it doesn’t mean an interstellar empire couldn’t!”

The scientists began arguing back and forth, their faces flushed red. Neither side could convince the other, and the debate was bordering on a shouting match. Jason listened with a tight jaw, having to intervene several times just to maintain order.

Just then, Marcus from the Security Department burst through the doors of the conference room, panting heavily. “Director, we’ve compiled and reviewed all the raw surveillance footage from the mining site! We haven’t found a single sign of anomalous activity!”

Jason’s expression sharpened. He immediately took the encrypted USB drive from Marcus, plugged it into the main terminal, and brought the video feed up on the big screen.

The chaotic conference room fell dead silent. Over a hundred pairs of eyes locked onto the screen, desperate to catch any clue.

The video showed the first-person view from the automated excavator. It was operating smoothly according to its pre-programmed mining sequence, methodically clearing away dirt and rock.

At exactly 2:30 AM, the excavator’s heavy drill violently struck something. A loud, metallic CLANG echoed through the audio feed.

Following its basic logic protocols, the AI determined that it had hit an impassable vein of dense rock. To avoid damaging its drill bit, the excavator retreated, shifted ten meters to the right, and resumed digging.

CLANG!

It hit the hull again.

And so, the machine stubbornly continued this process, slowly moving along the surface of the hull, unknowingly unearthing the UFO piece by piece. Although only a small fraction of the ship was eventually exposed, the curvature of the exposed metal suggested the true, massive scale of the vessel still buried beneath the rock.

Throughout the entire hours-long process, the UFO did not react in any way. It remained completely dormant, like a dead, hollow shell.

“Zero response.”

“Yeah, nothing at all… at least, nothing visible to the naked eye.”

“The vast majority of the hull must still be buried deep underground.”

A collective sigh of relief washed over many of the scientists. At the very least, there was no immediate, visible threat. If the ship had been crushed under a landslide for millions of years, it had to be dead and safe to explore, right?

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