Two-Person Galactic Journey: Earth Was Destroyed While Imprisoned in Space Prison

Chapter 133

Relocate the entire planet from its star system.

At Kait's proposal, Asheid and the space jellyfish exchanged glances—well, what looked like faces. Asheid's expression was quite ambiguous. It was hard to tell what emotion it stemmed from. Then again, since their fundamental nature as intelligent beings differed, their emotional expressions wouldn't necessarily align with Earthlings'.

"Move the entire planet... huh."

'It's more feasible than diverting the star's orbit. But there are just as many challenges.'

They didn't seem very enthusiastic about it. Still, Kait didn't have many other ideas to offer.

"Well, if it's impossible, maybe there are other ways? Like deploying a massive barrier to reduce the effects of a near miss."

'Hmm... that would be the simplest method. But if the star actually collides, it probably won't be able to stop it.'

"As a countermeasure, it'd be safer to prepare for both scenarios."

Terapolapaneshio and Asheid both spoke heavily. Unlike before, they now seemed hesitant. The atmosphere suggested they had no choice but to confront the harsh reality before them.

In the end, since the problem was that a star was approaching the star system, there were only a few viable options. And each came with its own set of issues.

So far, the Federation's chosen solution had been relocating only intelligent life. If they gave up on existing lifeforms to some extent, the cost would be minimal. On the other hand, what Leen had requested was the relocation of all lifeforms, including intelligent ones. Since that proposal had been officially rejected by the Federation Congress, it was likely off the table.

"By the way, why exactly is relocating all lifeforms not allowed?"

The obvious guess would be cost, but that shouldn't be a major issue for the Federation. After all, they were free from the constraints of lifespan and resources.

'The main issue is the hassle. To relocate all lifeforms, you'd have to build an artificial celestial body with an environment nearly identical to the original planet. Modifying non-intelligent life to adapt to the environment takes considerable effort, and even the offspring would need to be modified. It's unmanageable.'

"I see."

Images of dogs and cats popped into Kait's mind. If they reproduced on an artificial celestial body, their newborns would die the moment they were born. That was just too tragic. But they couldn't be monitored forever. It was too much trouble. It made sense that building an artificial celestial body with the same environment as Earth would be preferable.

When Kait looked at Asheid, Asheid shook their head.

"In the end, that's no different from living on a natural planet. The Federation Congress can't approve something just because of a star collision."

"Is it a matter of fairness?"

"That's part of it, but it's also because it's still an artificial celestial body, no matter the form. If chosen as a residence, it brings legal complications."

That made sense. As long as one was a Federation citizen, living on an artificial celestial body was relatively unrestricted. While there were races like Earthlings who clustered in residential zones, even Earthlings had the right to live elsewhere.

Viper and the others, like Kait, had homes in the residential zone, but they rarely came back, working in the field most of the time. Since they hardly returned, you could say they practically lived elsewhere.

In other words, even if an artificial celestial body recreated Planet Ragav's environment completely, it was still legally an artificial celestial body. They wouldn't be able to deny the residential rights of Federation citizens who wanted to move there. The Congress believed that allowing that would lead to unnecessary problems.

The potential frictions with the original residents and the possibility of other species wanting to recreate their home planets on artificial celestial bodies came to mind. Yeah, that would certainly be complicated.

"In that case, I think the number of viable options becomes extremely limited."

'Exactly. In the end, Kait, Third-Rank Citizen (Enec Lagif), has proposed the most realistically achievable method.'

"It's certainly a more moderate approach than diverting or destroying a star."

Still, the Federation's upper echelon seemed to strongly oppose tampering with stars. There must be a reason for that too. Kait had a feeling asking would only bring trouble, so he chose not to.

"Relocating the entire planet to another star system, huh. That's going to be a massive undertaking. But..."

'The fact that it would reduce the Federation's workload afterward is a huge advantage. As expected of Kait, Third-Rank Citizen.'

Kait's idea seemed to be receiving more praise from the two than he'd expected.

Kait figured that someone among past Federation citizens must've come up with an idea of this level before—but maybe not?

'Unbelievable. I've never heard of anyone suggesting moving a planet from one star system to another before.'

"I mean, how do you even come up with the idea of moving something with that much mass?"

"Well, I thought maybe the folks at Terapolapaneshio could pull it off."

They always boasted that they could do anything they could imagine. It wasn't unreasonable to think they could manage something like this.

Asheid glared sharply at Terapolapaneshio. Unusually, the space jellyfish flinched under that gaze.

"It's fine if you want to impress Kait, but aren't you being a bit reckless?"

'W-We're just stating facts, aren't we!?'

"Sure, maybe you could do it. But do you understand how much strain it would put on you? If someone tries to imitate you carelessly, Kait might be the one who ends up in danger."

'Ugh.'

Of course, Kait didn't plan to move a planet on his own. But Asheid seemed to think several of Kait's screws were loose. No matter what, he wouldn't do something that reckless.

Terapolapaneshio objected, clearly offended. The conversation seemed to be veering off course.

'W-We wouldn't do it solo either! Obviously, we'd do it as a group.'

"What about the projected strain and recoil?"

'Let's see... maybe a few tentacles would get blown off.'

"!?"

"That's like Kait losing an arm and a leg, you know."

'Ughh.'

Wait, moving a planet with a few of them and only losing that much? Then Kait remembered—the space jellyfish were colonial organisms. A few tentacles meant a few individual units would die instantly.

Realizing he'd been thinking a bit too casually, he shifted his thoughts toward finding a method with no casualties.

"If we use Di-Kigaia Zarmos to increase the numbers, does that mean the move could be done without strain?"

'No, there would still be strain. The process involves too many steps.'

"Steps?"

'Well, moving a planet means you have to maintain a livable environment for its inhabitants during the transfer. Maintaining the atmosphere, rotation speed, gravity, and shielding from other stars... there's a lot to manage, right?'

I see. So the space jellyfish were thinking of moving the planet with all its life intact. Asheid nodded solemnly.

"What if we temporarily relocated everything to several artificial celestial bodies, then moved just the planet?"

'Huh?'

"You know, like when we loaded Earthlings onto Kigaia. If we loaded plants, soil, land animals, aquatic life and water, and the atmosphere onto several artificial celestial bodies, wouldn't we just need to move the rest?"

A moment of silence. Asheid looked up at the ceiling, making hand motions like calculating something. Terapolapaneshio flew around the room in apparent confusion.

Then we'd just move the planet to the right place, and if everything looked fine, we could return the water and atmosphere. Finally, we'd bring back the animals and plants... That was the idea Kait, as a layman, proposed.

"It might... not be impossible. Though we'd need multiple artificial celestial bodies."

'Yeah. But that in itself isn't impossible if we have enough time. And we should have plenty before the near-miss effects begin.'

"Once we pull it off once, we could even make a manual for this method."

Asheid and Terapolapaneshio nodded deeply together. Good. It seemed the idea wasn't completely off-base.

"Then, next is—"

'Getting the person in charge to approve it.'

"Ah."

Planet Ragav was still just a test case before Earth. Leen would be the one (technically Kait) to present the proposal to them.

Thinking about the immense stress that would soon fall on Leen, Kait quietly closed his eyes.

He just hoped it wouldn't punch a hole in one of Leen's internal organs from the stress.