Capital, in a conference room in the Capitol, the atmosphere was subtly depressing.
Since the conflict in the Western Pacific last year, the frequency of all high-level advisers, ministerial officials, and the president being locked in the same room to discuss national affairs had increased a lot. The only difference was that the person sitting in the Secretary of State's position was a new face.
The Earth Defense Alliance was on the rise and had even faintly shaken NATO's position as the world's leading military body. Politically, economically, and even culturally, the UA was facing unprecedented challenges. Even during the Truman and Kennedy era, it was never this severe.
After all, at that time, the United States was only facing a sickly giant with muscles all over his body. Now, the one standing on the same stage as the United States was an Iron Man armed to the teeth with technology...
No, this statement was not accurate enough. After all, Iron Man's technology was probably more realistic than theirs …
"Celestial Trade plans to hold a Biotechnology Summit in Celestial City at the end of January to exhibit the spoils of war on Mars. What's that called? Devil Worm? What the hell … Curiosity has been on Mars for so many years, why didn't I see a single cell? " NASA Director Bolden looked at the report in his hand with exhaustion and reported listlessly.
The Director of NASA, the Secretary of State, the President, the Secretary of Commerce, and even the Secretary of the Interior sat at the same table to discuss issues. This kind of treatment only existed in the Cold War era of the space race. However, Bolden was not happy at all, because neither the space elevator nor the moon colonization plan could be achieved.
In the face of the unreachable gap in space technology, even the genius Elon Musk and his SpaceX could do nothing. They could only pick up the scraps left behind by Celestial Trade.
"Can we find a way to get the qualification to participate in the Biotechnology Summit? The UA must have first-hand information about the species on Mars! Otherwise, the technology gap between us and Celestial Trade will only become larger and larger, "Secretary of Defense Carter said solemnly.
"Qualification to participate in the summit? Haha, of course. The New York Times, the Washington Post … any media you can name has received an invitation. " The chief of staff leaned back in his chair and spun the ballpoint pen in his hand with an ugly expression. "The problem is that no scientific research institution or university has received an invitation for joint research. We are completely excluded."
"They are obstructing academic freedom!" Sitting next to Secretary Carter, the Director of the Advanced Projects Agency of the Department of Defense cursed.
"The professors at Harvard and MIT have already condemned it for us." Hill glanced at the officials present and finally fixed her eyes on the Secretary of State's face. "What we need now is a solution."
"I'll try my best, but don't get your hopes up." The newly appointed Secretary of State rubbed his sore eyebrows. "Celestial Trade has been blockading us in space technology for a long time. It is unlikely to expect them to make concessions today … Kerry is an expert on Xin, but you know —"
"Kerry just had to resign from his position as Secretary of State at this time." The Democratic Whip cursed in a low voice.
"Can you convince him to come back?" Hill asked the whip.
"It's very difficult. He insists on participating in the preliminaries in March and has even prepared his speech. You see, he has his back, and the worst of it is that there is a split in the Party, and there is no small number of people who support him. Thank God, now we have to face both the Republican Party and Xin, this damn Wall Street … "
Hearing this, the wrinkles at the corner of Hill's eyes wrinkled with a hint of bitterness and helplessness.
She didn't know what to do next.
At this moment, Bolden suddenly spoke.
"Why don't we start the Mars landing plan ahead of schedule?"
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone in the conference room turned to look at him.
Facing the eyes of the president and ministers, Bolden took a deep breath and continued.
"If we can't break the ice diplomatically, we can only try on the technical side."
"The problem is, is our current technology okay? Didn't SpaceX already terminate the development of manned rockets? "Secretary of Defense Carter frowned.
"MCT, the Mars Immigration Transporter. SpaceX has never stopped the Mars colonization plan, and now the most critical technology has been broken through." Bolden looked at Hill and said seriously, "It's not a problem to send a one-way ticket."
After a long silence, Hill spoke.
"Tell me, what is the point of doing this?"
If she couldn't find a suitable reason to convince Congress to fund the project, even if she agreed with the plan, it would be meaningless.
"It's too meaningful," Bolden said. "The Moon has been monopolized, and we can't let Celestial Trade continue to monopolize the future of mankind. Even if we put a flag on Mars and throw a few people to live on it, it can add a lot of bargaining chips for us. "
Several craters with large lunar ice and rare earth reserves were shamelessly occupied by Celestial Trade, the first to arrive.
Even if they didn't mine, they pretended to build an investigation station on the Moon. Although countries began to build their own lunar stations with the popularity of the Moon landing, they couldn't solve the most critical problems of drinking water and oxygen. It was almost impossible to develop into a colony.
In particular, Celestial Trade refused to sell drinking water, oxygen, and electricity to stations outside the Earth Defense Alliance member states on the grounds of limited resources. The high maintenance fees made it difficult for these research stations to make ends meet, let alone expand.
However, the most important thing was not this …
After a pause, Bolden looked at the president who was still hesitating, then he continued.
"In addition, I suspect that Celestial Trade's discovery on Mars may not be as simple as a bug."
Hill suddenly seemed to have thought of something. She took a deep breath and looked at Bolden in shock.
"You mean …"
"Yes, I'm afraid it's related to extraterrestrial civilization." Bolden nodded and proposed seriously, "If they don't agree to let us participate in the research, then we'll go up and take a look ourselves."
There was more than one way to Mars.
If Celestial Trade was unwilling to sell tickets to Mars, then they could build an "ocean ship" that belonged to the UA.
While the Capitol was preparing for Celestial Trade's attitude, on the Mars colony tens of millions of kilometers away, the remaining nine soldiers and the only armored vehicle assembled at the gate of the colony to rescue the trapped engineers at Mine 071.
It would take two weeks for reinforcements from Celestial City to arrive, and the oxygen on the rover could only last for two weeks at most. The risk of rescue was high, and everyone understood this. However, not a single one of the soldiers seated in the armored vehicles questioned this rescue mission.
Celestial Trade never had the tradition of abandoning its own people.
No matter who the opponent was.
No matter whether the opponent was human or not.
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