Everyone was intently focused on the main screen, their unblinking eyes glued to the display. Some even rubbed their eyes vigorously before leaning in closer to double-check...

To their surprise, the screen was almost completely empty!

There were no radiating wave patterns or complex data maps—just a single small dot in the center of the display representing the telescope itself.

The surrounding space was entirely blank. There was absolutely nothing there!

Jason couldn't help but break the silence. "What's going on? Professor Thomson, how does it look? Was the diagnostic successful?"

It wasn't that he was being impatient; he was genuinely terrified!

And everyone in the room shared that dread. If the telescope had malfunctioned, humanity would be completely blind. Without the Gravitational Wave Telescope, they would have no way of navigating or understanding their position in the cosmos.

"There shouldn't be any mechanical issues!"

Professor Thomson, who was overseeing the operation, studied the readouts and spoke with absolute certainty. "This is deep space, not the Sol System. It's completely normal that we can't find a mass source nearby. We just need to expand the scanning radius."

"Because the ship is traveling at such high velocities, we have to account for relativistic effects. Gravitational waves also propagate at the speed of light, which means we have to adjust our calibration formulas..."

As he spoke, his fingers flew across the keyboard, entering the necessary parameters before slamming the Enter key.

This time, the search radius was drastically expanded to encompass roughly ten light-years. Theoretically, the system would flag any celestial body with a mass greater than their old Moon.

A moon-sized object was humanity's minimum baseline. Anything smaller was essentially just a rogue asteroid, and their mineral deposits were usually limited and highly fragmented.

Humanity had sacrificed everything to achieve this high-speed interstellar voyage. Unless absolutely necessary, they couldn't afford to halt their momentum for a mere cluster of asteroids.

They had to look at the bigger picture.

The resources gathered from an asteroid field would be severely limited. If they exhausted those supplies before developing more advanced long-range transit technology, they would simply be trapped in the void, waiting to die.

Therefore, their ultimate goal was to find a world as bountiful and resource-rich as Earth.

Even a barren world like Mars would be a mediocre prize... They needed something bigger!

The updated scan results populated the screen in seconds.

There was nothing of note within a ten-light-year radius...

There was only a single White Dwarf-mass anomaly lingering at the original coordinates of their old sun. Indeed, it was highly probable that the sun had collapsed into a White Dwarf following its violent supernova, but the data showed that process was still ongoing.

In the far distance, there were a few scattered stars and their corresponding planetary systems, but their orbits were completely misaligned with the Noah's trajectory. Reaching them was far beyond the limits of current human technology.

A wave of mild disappointment washed over the room, but they were mostly relieved. The Gravitational Wave Telescope was actually "seeing" objects, which confirmed the hardware wasn't damaged.

"Using our old sun as a stationary frame of reference, the ship is currently traveling at 0.9816 times the speed of light. That is slightly faster than our previous estimates."

"This discrepancy causes even greater time dilation. One year inside the ship is equivalent to 5.24 years in the outside universe. In other words, during the year and a half we've experienced onboard, the ship has actually traveled roughly eight light-years away from the Sol System."

"That makes sense... The margin of error at these speeds is massive."

The scientists drew various conclusions from the raw data, murmuring amongst themselves.

"What a shame. There are no rogue planets intersecting our current flight path!" 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

While it was a bitter pill to swallow, it was entirely expected. The universe was incomprehensibly vast and terrifyingly empty. The odds of a rogue planet miraculously appearing directly in front of them were virtually zero.

But the scan wasn't over yet!

They still held out high hopes for a specific star system designated "187J3X1", located roughly 14 light-years away. It was a close binary star system.

It consisted of two stars locked in a gravitational dance—one large, one small. The smaller was a yellow dwarf roughly 0.97 times the mass of their old sun. The larger star dwarfed it completely, boasting 1.53 times the solar mass and burning 1,500 times brighter!

In a close binary system, when a star's volume expands to fill its Roche lobe, its matter begins aggressively siphoning onto its companion, resulting in a massive transfer of stellar material.

This violent process heavily influenced the evolution of the entire system.

The two stars of "187J3X1" completed an orbit around each other every 1,283.3 days. At their closest approach, the immense gravitational shearing ejected colossal streams of matter into the void.

Some of this ejected material would form an accretion disk around the companion star, while the rest would be violently flung out of the binary system and into deep space.

In short, this binary system contained exponentially more loose cosmic matter than the Sol System ever did. Furthermore, because of the constant ejection of material, the outer fringes of the system were highly likely to form planets!

The Noah's current trajectory would bring it within 0.67 light-years of the primary star. On a cosmic scale, that was a near miss. Considering the gravitational influence of a star system easily extended over a full light-year, perhaps they could intercept a planet orbiting in its outermost reaches?

"Expand the search radius again," Jason ordered, his voice tight.

Professor Thomson's fingers trembled slightly as he keyed in the new parameters.

Who could remain calm in a moment like this? This single scan would dictate the entire future of the human race. Even the most stoic veteran would feel their heart pounding against their ribs!

If they didn't find a planet soon, the Federation would have no choice but to force the population into cryogenic hibernation!

A few agonizing seconds later, the image refreshed.

It looked... it wasn't completely empty!

The entire room stared at the screen, collectively holding their breath.

Slowly, the blood rushed to their faces as they noticed an anomaly. Was that... a planet?

No, not just one. There were many! The "187J3X1" star system hosted at least 38 celestial bodies larger than the Moon! Ten of them were even larger than Earth!

And the outermost planet in that system appeared to perfectly intersect the Noah's flight path.

It was a direct interception course?!

Was this real?!

"Quickly, verify the telemetry! Hurry up!"

Jason screamed at the top of his lungs, his professional composure shattering. He felt like he had just been hit by the ultimate jackpot... no, it felt like he had been struck by a nuclear payload of pure adrenaline! Everyone else in the room shared the exact same thought. A few of the older researchers with weaker constitutions actually fainted from the sheer excitement, causing a brief commotion in the back.

In truth, the leadership had already braced themselves for a grim reality of severe rationing and centuries of cryogenic sleep. But in the blink of an eye, it was as if they had been dragged from the brink of death back into the light. It was simply unbelievable!

The universe was so unimaginably, overwhelmingly massive that using the ocean and a single water molecule as an analogy to describe the ratio of empty space to planets would be a gross insult to the cosmos.

Yet, against all astronomical odds, they were blindly hurtling through the dark and actually managed to intercept a planet? Was this a simulation?

Jason lacked the vocabulary to describe the sheer absurdity of the situation. It was like firing a pistol into the sky while blindfolded and hitting a ping-pong ball a million kilometers away! Were the odds one in a trillion? One in a quadrillion?

This was like a miracle dropping right into their laps!

Perhaps it was the dying breath of their old sun that had perfectly aligned the Noah's trajectory to save them?

Or... had humanity somehow become the favored children of Lady Luck?!

Suddenly, a jolt of anxiety spiked through Jason's chest. What if it's a gas giant? Or an alien megastructure?!

If it was a gas giant like Jupiter or Saturn, humanity's hopes would be instantly crushed. Current human technology was entirely incapable of mining or settling on a gas giant...

Wooooo! Yeah!

The observatory erupted into absolute pandemonium. Unlike Jason, the scientists weren't overthinking the worst-case scenarios. The tension in the room snapped, and pure, unadulterated joy expanded rapidly like a balloon.

They had only harbored the slimmest sliver of hope, never expecting it to actually materialize! What phenomenal luck! It was like buying a single lottery ticket and immediately watching your numbers get pulled.

People stared at the data cascading down the screen with feverish excitement, their cheers erupting like a volcano.

"The intercept distance is roughly 120 million kilometers. That's well within acceptable maneuvering range!"

"The overall density of the celestial body is approximately two-thirds that of Earth... The radius is roughly twice as large, meaning its total volume is eight times that of Earth! Surface gravity is calculated at 1.33 Gs, which the human body can safely adapt to."

"With a density reading like that, it has to be rocky! It's a terrestrial planet!"

The Gravitational Wave Telescope couldn't provide high-resolution visual data, but the raw physics were undeniable. It was a terrestrial world! A gas giant simply couldn't possess that kind of structural density!

An Earth-like planet!

"Holy shit!" "Hell yes!" "Unbelievable!" "Damn!"

When the final confirmation flashed on the screen, the room exploded into cheers, with some of the most decorated department heads screaming profanities in pure elation. In that moment, no one cared about maintaining a professional image; everyone was drowning in wild, euphoric joy.

Even Jason was shouting until his throat was raw, venting years of repressed stress and fear!

The researchers who had previously fainted suddenly jolted back to life, leaping up and joining the chaotic celebration!

It felt as though the cheers were echoing through the very hull of the ship, as if every single citizen aboard the Noah was screaming in unison.

What did an Earth-like planet mean?

It meant raw energy, boundless resources, and incalculable mineral wealth. But most importantly... its volume was eight times larger than Earth!