Chapter 1515 - The Plan To Colonize

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Rainystars

Jiang Chen could tell where his allies were and where the resistances were by just a simple glance during this summit.

Yes, it could only be described by the word resistance.

By now, no one could stop Celestial Trade from doing anything, and no one could change the decision made by Jiang Chen. However, the opinions of these energy giants could still become obstacles that prevent Celestial Trade from pushing forward the Himalia colonization plan. The obstacles were created as these energy giants not only represent themselves but also the interests of the nation behind them.

Energy was crucial.

Whether it was from a military or economic perspective, it was inseparable from energy. And once something was associated with the first two, it naturally was attached with political significance.

On top of the podium, Jiang Chen looked at the representatives of various countries who sat under the stage.

He had an inexplicable illusion in his mind that he had become the “emperor” of this planet and the people in front of him awaited his orders. They were all just “nobles” in the empire.

NATO, which lost the UA, only existed in name. There were no rivals for Celestial Trade on this planet. Even if all countries united, they would only have a mere 20% chance of winning, and not a percent more. Sooner or later, the “dissidents” in Europe would unite under the flag of Earth Defense Alliance, and these “nobles” with military might would be removed, and eventually hand in their power.

Now, the “emperor” summoned his “nobles” and asked them about their perspective on the New World. In fact, the opinions of the “nobles” were no longer important. The important element was how to divide the interest to maximize the benefits.

The ultimate goal of Celestial Trade was to eliminate all borders and upgrade the Earth Defense Alliance to the Earth Federation. So as the “emperor”, or the “president” of the Earth Federation, he not only had to consider the interests of Celestial Trade, but also the interests of the entire Earth Federation as a whole.

After all, they still had to face a deadly enemy – a colonization ship from 20.5 light-years away. It was a battle that concerned the survival of humanity.

First, Kelvin explained to everyone the prospects and necessity of colonizing Himalia. There was no need to elaborate on the rich resources there. The information was not provided by Celestial Trade, but other countries also analyzed through different technical means.

Soon it came to the question period.

The first question naturally came from the experts in the space field.

A technical consultant from the Russian Space Agency (RKA), stood up.

“The most critical question is how can we survive without water?”

“This is a great question. In fact, before the summit, we put the most emphasis on this question as well.” Jiang Chen smiled slightly and continued, “According to the observations at the outposts we deployed on Himalia, Europa has abundant water resources. The surface is covered by glaciers, and there is a flowing ocean under the ice. This can not only solve the water problem, but also the heat problem. If there is a liquid ocean under the ice cover, then it must mean that Europa has intense submarine volcanic activity.”

“We are reconsidering the colonization plan, with the focus of constructing the living and industrial areas on Europa. Himalia will be used as our resource extraction base to produce black alkane and transport it back to Earth or other colonies.”

On the holographic screen, light blue particles flashed.

At the location where Jiang Chen’s finger had crossed, the three-dimensional images of Jupiter and all its moons were presented in front of everyone. Europa would produce water, liquefied hydrogen, oxygen, and would rely on geothermal energy to generate electricity, while Himalia would produce energy. Two interlaced blue lines connected the two planets, and ultimately connected Earth and Mars hundreds of millions of kilometers away.

A simple trade route was already planned by Celestial Trade. Celestial Trade’s starships would be responsible for interplanetary transportation. As for the transportation within the planetary system, with the strength of the current major member states, there was no issue even if they had to do it independently.

From this conceptual map, everyone could see the broad prospects of colonizing Jupiter’s moons.

However, as the old problems were solved, new problems emerged.

“Black alkane? What is that?”

A technical consultant from Royal Dutch Shell stood up and spoke.

When Jiang Chen heard this, he smiled lightly.

“This is what we are about to get into.”

As he said this, he tapped a few times on the touchpad and a cylindrical platform slowly rose. In the center of the platform was a black crystal the size of a thumb, like obsidian, the surface was glass-like.

Under the capture of the high-resolution camera, everyone could clearly observe the black crystal the size of a thumb through the electronic screen mounted on the table.

Glass luster was a very obvious sign, commonly found in silicate minerals, especially in igneous rocks, and it was almost impossible to see in hydrocarbons.

Just when everyone thought this was probably a rock sample sent back from Himalia by Celestial Trade’s survey ship, Jiang Chen took out the lighter from his pocket.

Then he lit it.

Yes.

He just lit it.

Except for the politicians and diplomats who didn’t understand what happened and just stood there indifferently, almost all the technical consultants and the oil company bosses who knew a little about mineralogy were stunned.

Especially when they saw that cluster of flames ignite from the pitch-black crystals, a series of exclamations appeared one after another, and their tone was filled with disbelief.

“This is impossible!”

“Coal minerals? I heard that there is bituminous coal that can also produce glass luster…”

Some people even stood up eagerly and said.

“Is this the black alkane? Do we have the heat of combustion data? I need its heat of combustion data!”

Jiang Chen raised his hand, motioned the restless people in the audience to be quiet, and continued.

“The density is twice that of water, and the composition is a mixture of alkanes… In fact, with how much I have said now, many of you can roughly calculate its heat of combustion, and we have no intention of hiding this new substance.”

“We found a bacterium on Himalia, and temporarily named it MW1 by its serial number, and its metabolite is ‘black alkane’, a mixture of alkanes, which appears black. Its molecular structure undergoes a tight Z-fold, heating in an anaerobic environment can slowly decompose the material into methane and ethane…”

Jiang Chen smiled at the scene of the President of Gazprom, who gasped, Nasser from Aramco, who looked around restlessly, and the CEO of PetroHua who whispered with a senior diplomat behind him and then continued the presentation.

“I believe that everyone here today already knows what this means.”

“Yes, this will be an energy revolution.”

“Of course, the main purpose of our summit is not to promote this kind of alkane mixture that is easy to store, transport, and even use, but to tell you what kind of treasure is in front of us.”

“Now, I have taken out the treasure map, so what we will discuss next is how to dig this treasure,” Jiang Chen paused, looked at the faces that were all in deep thought, and smiled, “We have always believed that what you give is proportional to what you get in return.”

“People who are not interested can leave early.”

“But if you are interested, I promise you will not be disappointed.”