35. Evacuation, Preservation of Species

The revitalization of the Japanese economy had rippled across Western nations, and the world was generally continuing on a steady course of economic development. Resource-exporting countries, reassured that Japan was not the sort of nation to unilaterally void contracts mid-agreement, had no concerns about Japan continuing to purchase resources throughout the contract period. Furthermore, the Japanese Government has announced its intention to strengthen ODA efforts toward such nations.

I had just concluded an emergency meeting with Agirakana, taken a breather at the captain’s private residence—a hot spring inn—and returned to Earth. Now, I’m in the Embassy’s office, explaining the situation to the members of the Secretary’s Office. Ichijō is on the seventh floor and not here.

…in short, we should be able to handle this particular group of Zeno. We don’t know how deeply they’ve penetrated, so we’ve prioritized interstellar exploration—but for now, all we can do is pray there are no other Zeno clusters near Agirakana or the Sol system. Agirakana might manage, but fighting on Earth’s behalf in the Sol system would be extremely difficult. If Earth takes even a single direct hit from a Zeno, humanity is extinct. Not a single Zeno can be allowed to escape.

Agirakana’s position is fortunate—it’s not on the shortest path between stars, so it’s less likely to become a Zeno corridor. But the Sol system isn’t so lucky. Worst case, we may have to evacuate Earth’s population to Agirakana.

“Assuming we do evacuate Earth’s people—what should we prioritize?”

"Surely not just Japanese people, but what are we supposed to do? Honestly, is it even physically possible to evacuate all seven billion Earthlings to Agirakana within one or two years?"

"Two years would be physically feasible. However, the Core might not consent."

"What do you mean?"

"Although I haven't informed the captain, when comparing Japanese people to other Earthlings, Arsenians' genetic information is notably higher in the Japanese population. From the Core's perspective, accepting and protecting Japanese people in Agirakana might be tolerable—but anything beyond that, I suspect, would cause hesitation."

"Is that so? So my saying anything won't make a difference?"

"Though we commonly refer to the Agirakana Core as a single entity, in reality, it consists of two parts: the Primary Core and the Secondary Core. Maria is the avatar of the Secondary Core and, as usual, will follow the captain's orders."

As for the Primary Core, it is said to possess no personality—yet it exerts strong influence over the Secondary Core, which manages and operates Agirakana, occasionally acting according to its own judgment criteria. One might think of the Primary Core as akin to instinct, in biological terms.

"Agirakana’s instinct, huh. So it doesn’t want to lend its doorstep to strangers. I get it, vaguely."

"More precisely, if we were to threaten Earth’s people and forcibly evacuate them, short-term relocation might be feasible—but through official government channels, it would be effectively impossible."

"Right. Too many countries are run by people who value their own interests—overly, excessively, excessively—so if Earth were in danger, they’d demand priority evacuation for themselves, special treatment, and so on."

People will inevitably start arguing about race, ethnicity, religion—whatever—once we get there. We’ll deal with that as it comes.

No point in needlessly stirring up anxiety. As for evacuation, we’ll wait until Zeno’s trajectory toward the Sol System is confirmed before taking concrete steps.

Fortuitously, aside from the Eridanus Epsilon I System, Zeno has not yet been detected in any star systems near Sol. Even if Zeno is hiding in the interstellar space nearby, the likelihood of it being a super-sized collective—large enough to have overwhelmed Arsen—is quite low.

There’s certainly a chance we’ll detect such a large group as our exploration range expands. But given the distance to Sol, that gives us ample time. Whether we engage Zeno or must evacuate Earth—there will be plenty of time to decide.

Even if all problems on Earth were suddenly resolved and humanity were evacuated to Agirakana, one couldn’t just say, “There’s plenty of land—go ahead and till fields wherever you like.” Nor would anyone want to bring a bunch of unpredictable troublemakers into Agirakana.

Perhaps we should just build a city-sized spaceship for Earthlings. A vessel without a hull could be constructed relatively easily, even on a large scale—after all, the Moon’s AMR was built in short order. Apparently, the population density in蕨 City, Saitama Prefecture, is fifteen thousand per square kilometer. If you have space with a decent height and an area of thirty square kilometers, you could probably cram half a million people in there.

If you can endure the tube-based nutritional rations, life there would be feasible. To cram the entire human population—seven billion—into one place, you’d need ten thousand four thousand units of at least AA-0001-class or better. Even Agirakana, currently beefing up its military capacity, would find that quite a stretch. If restricted to Japanese nationals—current population at one hundred twenty million—only two hundred forty units would be required. That, at least, might just barely be physically manageable, if you pushed it.

The real question, though, is how many people in Japan—just Japan—would actually believe that they should flee to space because Zeno has arrived. Even the Japanese Government might not get its act together. If I were Prime Minister of Japan, I couldn’t very well tell my citizens to abandon their current location and head off to some unknown destination. Nor would they just nod and agree. No matter how many times we showed them footage of the Eridani Epsilon Ia tragedy, they’d probably assume it was CGI or some kind of hoax. In the reverse scenario, things could get worse—full-blown panic, even.

Zeno might not appear for another ten or twenty years—though that doesn’t mean we can afford to relax. The fact remains: it’s already within ten light-years of the Solar System. It’s merely a question of when, not if. A single impact from Zeno would render the planet’s surface uninhabitable; multiple impacts would cause the planet itself to disintegrate. We know earthquakes will kill millions, yet still, people remain where they are. It seems prudent, then, to consider all possible measures—including military force—as a final resort, in hopes of saving as many humans as possible.

A疏散 without a place to return to isn't a疏散—it's a full-scale evacuation. Even if the worst-case evacuation fails, we've already secured extensive biological information from tourists via AMR, so from the standpoint of preserving the human species, we'll manage somehow. Still, I doubt such a scenario will unfold in my lifetime, so no need to dwell on it deeply. Preserving non-human species will likely take time, so it's more practical to focus on that first.

"Hey, Ain, I seem to recall hearing before that cloning plants and animals is manageable if you have the biological information—how accurate is that?"

"Yes, simple cloning is possible, and even more, we can optimize the information to create organisms better suited to specific purposes."

"Really that easy? Then, Ain, does that mean we could theoretically produce unlimited clones of plants and animals from biological information—so, by extension, could we create human clones from precise biological data?"

"Technically, cloning is entirely feasible—however, the Agirakana Charter explicitly prohibits creating humans from Biological Information alone.

Whether Earthlings are considered human is ultimately up to the Primary Core's discretion. Japanese individuals, with high Arsen factor levels, are certainly classified as a species (hitoshu), but other Earthlings are far more likely to be deemed non-species (non-hitoshu), meaning cloning would be permissible."

"Earth humanity can wait until the Zeno Crisis actually arrives. For now, the priority is preserving Earth's flora and fauna. Not Noah's Ark, but if we can manage it, we should try."

"The total number of species on Earth is said to be as high as ten million, so selection will be necessary. But if we're not dealing with humans, there's no need to cling to fertilized eggs or seeds—biological information alone is sufficient for replication. The real issue is how to handle higher organisms that require information transfer across generations."

"????"

"For example, in nature, young carnivores learn hunting techniques by observing their parents. But cloned individuals won't have parents, so reproducing that transmission of knowledge will be difficult. Still, since biological information can be replicated indefinitely, perhaps eventually self-sustaining individuals will emerge on their own."

"Hmm. So there are, admittedly, complications."

The collection of biological information from flora and fauna is something that could begin immediately, but no concrete method comes to mind. For now, we’ll start with terrestrial life within Japan—but publicly declaring that an extraterrestrial intelligence is interested in Earth’s biological data is out of the question. Anyone would grow wary if that were done. No reason can be given, and that’s the rub.

Still, there’s a vague feeling that preserving Earth’s species might be worthwhile—though I’ve always wondered, really, if saving the endangered Japanese crested ibis is necessary. What do you think?

Only what’s edible, useful to human life, or essential for maintaining those things. That seems sufficient. If it fails, we can always try again.

“Ain, about acquiring biological information from plants and animals—got any ideas?”

Precise reading of biological information isn’t feasible over long distances, so we’ll just have to send drones out one by one and gather data gradually. We’ll probably need to include aquatic life too—might end up being quite a large operation.

"Indeed. Should we build a few of those drones and see how they perform? Can we rely on Ain?"

"Understood. I’ll have a few constructed."

"Make sure they’re stealth-mode, so they don’t stand out."

"Understood."

They’d been having a serious discussion in the Secretary's Office when, predictably, Ichijō returned from the seventh floor, oblivious to the atmosphere. For once, he seemed to notice something was different.

"Senior, is something wrong?"

"Nothing in particular. By the way, Ichijō—how did the lunar survey go? You seemed to be enjoying yourself quite a bit."

"Not really. It was fun, though. Hah hah—huh? Hah! No, no, I was completely focused on the survey. I’ll compile a full report later."

He’s avoiding eye contact.

“The report won’t cover this. Speaking of which, Ichijō—didn’t tell you this before, but your aunt—was it your aunt?—the Japanese Government’s assigned her personal security. So you’re safe now, right?”

“Is that so? I hadn’t even noticed.”

“Hey, hey—don’t you realize you’re a proper VIP? V-I-P. Own up to it. That’s why we’ve had two guards assigned to you at all times since you agreed to my offer. During patrols, we meticulously document every move you make—so the next shift can benefit from it. Didn’t I mention that either?”

“W-when did this start?”

“From the moment you accepted my recruitment offer. Even when you went to the Moon, they’ve been shadowing you—right from the moment you left this Embassy.”

“‘Meticulously documented’…!”

Ichijō turned bright red and bolted away.

[Supplementary Explanation]

The creation of human clones using precise biological information identifiable to individuals was strictly prohibited under the Arsen Charter. Thus, when Agirakana broke away from Arsen, it did not retain any individual-specific, highly precise biological information that could enable the cloning of Arsenians—keeping only Arsenian fertilized eggs. Even the Agirakana Charter, built upon the foundation of the Arsen Charter, forbids the creation of humans solely from biological information.

As for humanity, isn’t evacuation or a grand escape only feasible through forced conscription? One might even expect some century-end overlord to emerge, cackling with glee, like a cartoon villain.