10 Roland's Public Lecture Part 1

After lunch time, Roland wasescorted to a big sophisticated hall. It was the main public lecture hall at the best institution of learning in the empire; surprisingly it was just beside the main castle.

He was impressed with the facilities; the students' seats were in ascending height, while the main stage was the lowest with a podium at the middle. This hall could easily accommodate 1000 students at one time.

He could see streaks of slow-moving viscous bluish water the size of a bamboo pole running through every couple of sections of the seats straight down towards the main stage. At end of the hall, the waterway encircled the outermost seats.

It was a sight to behold.

Although the seats were nearly filled, droves after droves of pretty girls were still entering the hall nonstop. He could even detect some men, old ladies and grandpas among the audience.

Once all the seats were taken, others gathered at the outer perimeter of the waterway while dragging their own chair. Roland could feel their great enthusiasm.

Roland furrowed his brow, "Where does all these people come from? The target of this lecture are witches working on the three research groups and their helpers. There shouldn't be this many people."

Linneia answered calmly, "Most of them are witches. The remaining are professionals in some specialized fields such as professional educators, physicists, inventors, theorists, and mathematicians.

"When they heard that their famed Immortal King is going to give a lecture, they come as quick aslightning. I don't have the heart to turn them away, Your Highness. I'm sorry." She tried to make an innocent face that indicates that she has nothing to do with this situation.

Roland stared at Linneia deeply a few seconds more and she squirmed uneasily inside.

Roland wasn't angry at all with his childish descendant. She reminded him of the mischief that Maggie and Lightning has done in the past. It was very endearing. Contrarily, he was very impressed with her ability to amass these audience so soon.

Nevertheless, deep inside his heart, he felt somewhat guilty.

He was actually going to give unverified theories to these people. He really hoped they won't truly take it at face value and worked out the rest themselves.

Although the popular real warp drive theory used as a basis for many sci-fi movies revised by Dr. White was significantly better, the lab tests still didn't publish any significant positive success as of the time he transmigrated. When he left earth, it was still impossible to travel at faster than light-speed.

To Roland, it has been his greatest regrets for not being there to witness the progression of the popular sci-fi idea.

[At the end of the day, did the mini warping device tested by Dr. White gave a positive answer?]

[Did NASA or even CNSA pursued a pilot scale testing after that?]

[Right now, did humans from his previous homeland succeeded in achieving interstellar travel and goes beyond the Milky Way?]

It was human's greatest romance to travel to space freely.

As Roland readied himself to walk to the podium with resignation, he noticed three small rectangular-like black boxes at three corners of the stage. On the podium itself was a bowl-like crystal blue liquid.

"What is the bowl with blue substance and black boxes for?" He gestured the items to his 'assistant'. He was not up to date with all these items built by young people. Only gadgets made by Celine was known to him as he was mostly the main idea contributor. Those items were inspired from the numerous spy movies he watched in his previous life.

Linneia professionally smiled, "Gadgets for presentation assistance. No worries, Your Highness Ancestor King. You don't have to do a thing. Please start with your talk."

Roland cleared his throat as he detected an amused look fleeting through his assistant's face.

Since she doesn't have any ill intent, he let it slide.

These young people forgot that he had lived so long and had faced millions of people. Even without using his mental powers, he could still discern things through experience.

Roland went forward and stood before the podium confidently. He exuded an erudite scholarly aura.

Since things had turn to this level, might as well come clean with these professionals and enthusiasts. He really hoped that everyone will work hand in hand in order to overcome this crisis.

"Good evening to all of you. I am Roland Wimbledon, the founder of this empire." Roland smiled gently to the audience.

As soon as he spoke, the three rectangular black boxes hover in the air and conjured a gigantic 3D holographic image of him behind his back. The blue viscous liquid rippled following his voice. It surprisingly had the effect of amplifying his voice, similar to a microphone. The liquid inside the mini waterway encircling the lecture hall reverberated simultaneously in tandem with the movement of viscous blue liquid inside the bowl.

[Ah...I see. The waterway was not just a decoration. It receives a signal from the main bowl on this podium and transmit the voice from their side. Genius!] Roland commended in his heart.

He made a sweeping stare to all the audiences present.

"We are but a speck of dust in this vast world."

He heard an animated chatter and exclamation through the crowd.

He continued, "All of you might know that we lived on a spherical planet with a hot metallic center. However, we are one of the many planets in existence with a ninth proximity to the source of warmth to our planet, the sun.

Let's go directly to the main part in my lecture. I propose a mass migration from our planet to a habitable planet outside of our own solar system."

Linneia gasped with her ancestor's straightforwardness.

Confused murmurs were heard among the large crowd. Not many knew the real reason for the globally-occurring fire disasters and the reasons behind an abrupt lecture by their famed Immortal King. After all, Roland had only declared the result of his investigation yesterday to the key governmental officials of the empire.

"So, the question is, why must we migrate, and how to migrate?" He stressed the question clearly.

"The reason for this is because the land that we live is dying, irreversibly. After an in-depth investigation with the finest team present, we have concluded that these disasters will keep on happening, increasing in frequency."

He took a deep breath, "We have 50 years before our planet ceased to exist. Before that, in five years, no living things will be able to walk on the surface of the earth as it would be too hot to step on."

The hall became quiet all of the sudden. Only Roland's amplified voice was heard.

"Why not find a way to remedy this rather than running away? Some of you might came up with this notion." He asked the question with a solemn expression.

"It's because it was caused by an external factor, the sun." He pointed upwards, towards the roof of the hall.

"Our sun is a star, a massive one at that. That is why although we are far away from the center, we can still feel its warmth. It runs on hydrogen to fuel the nuclear reactions which make it emits light and heat.

However, a star has a life cycle, just like human, animals and plants do. Once the hydrogen runs out, the nuclear reactions move outwards to use the hydrogen shell surrounding the sun. This resulted in the cooling and expansion of the outer region of the sun, making it redder. Let's call it the Red Giant.

The expansion of the sun engulfs the nearby planetary bodies surrounding it. We have found some evidence showing these events occurring for the past 1000 years. It's just that, nobody realized it all this while. Maybe, the weather at that time was a bit hotter than usual for a few years." Roland tried to explain the life-cycle of the star to the professionals in simple terms.

After a short pause for the audience to digest was he explained, he continued, "After that, its core shrunk due to gravity before the temperature and pressure increased again until the condition was ripe for the sun to start the nuclear fusion again, this time using helium, since hydrogen has been expended at that time.

As helium decreases in amount, the second core shrinking begins, and the helium shell surrounding the shrunken core started to burn, and the hydrogen surrounding the helium core burns together. This leads to the Second Red Giant phase where the outer region of the sun expands again." He paused again.

"Citizens of Graycastle, the sun is going through its last energy-releasing phase, this phase, before going into it final stage. Once the gravity from the core is not balanced out with outward pressure from the outer layers, the sun will start to collapse. We are at a critical juncture right now.

You may ask, what may be the implication of the final stage of the sun's life. It will end in a massive explosion, enough to light up the entire galaxy for a few days, which, unfortunately, will decimate all in its path, including this planet. That was what will happen to us in about 50 years' time."

Panicked chatters were heard in the crowd. Roland quickly raised both of his hands up to quieten them down, and finally place his index finger to his lips with a 'silent' sign. He stopped lecturing until everyone's frayed nerves calmed down. He believed everyone present will want to hear his solution.

After a while, the hall felt silent again, he continued, "Good! Let's proceed with the 'how' part". He smiled reassuringly.

The audiences held their breath. Every pair of eyes stared at the podium intently.

Only the miraculous Immortal King Roland could come up with a solution in this helpless situation.