Seeing the President of the United Federation, Professor Reeces face turned into pure shock and respect in an instant. It wasn't until his title was called out that student David also revealed the same expression.
"It seems that you are doing well." President Mark Collins smiled faintly like a regular old man.
President Mark Collins is just one of the 25,000 leaders that have once served the United Federation as a leader for humanity, being on his third term. There are 4 terms and each term is 25 years, making him 75 years in.
So far, he has been a decent president, considering he's a 500-year young duck. But so many leaders have come and gone that it has become difficult to judge who's done good.
Mark Collins is generally known for being outgoing, humble, and broad-minded. The only reason for the severe wrinkles despite his young age is because he never bothered to maintain his appearance despite being biologically immortal.
"I-I didn't expect you to come here today..." He smiled with deep respect while adjusting his posture while internally, he was screaming.
'Why is he here?! I'm just the leader of the universal model science team. While I have made many contributions over the many millenniums, it shouldn't be enough for him to come!'
"After hearing that you've nearly completed the universal model from others, I decided to come and visit you. Oh, and those vials of unknown energy was a personal request from me." He faintly smiled while glancing at him.
"I thank you for giving me these President Mark!" He said solemnly while pulling the wrinkles back.
"No issues." He chuckled lightly, "Now onto the main issue."
His face turned serious, making Reece gulp a little in anxiousness. In his free time, he does occasionally watch politics out of boredom. Mark Collins has always been seen as an outgoing, positive, active man who is always smiling about something. Rarely does he ever get serious, which always means that the matter is actually serious.
Professor Reece's console lit up, and he faintly glanced at it. Seeing the president's invite, he quickly accepted. A holographic document floated above his console, which was basically a non-disclosure agreement of federal level.
Mark: [Please sign this contract. None of the information is to be spread to 3rd parties. Violating this contract is the equivalent of betraying humanity, punishable by death.]
Cold sweat appeared on his forehead as he quickly scanned through it before signing. If it's the president, there is no need to look out for tricks. The document vanished and Mark smiled.
Mark: [A big change is coming]
Reece: [Change?]
Mark: [The Great Barrier, which separates the theorized 108 Galaxies, is dying]
Reece: [D-dying?!]
A huge shock ran though his body.
Mark: [It's not surprising you don't know, considering we have kept this under close wraps for fear of destabilizing the public.]
Seeing him stay silent, Mark continued on.
Mark: [As you know, the Great Barrier goes through cycles of weak and strong periods. During weak periods, energy expenditures to maintain holes are at a minimum, while strong periods are associated with peak energy spending.]
Mark: [The cycle to peak and low each take about 2 thousand years. This is a general trend that has mostly remained stable since we first started monitoring it, with rare occasions of strong and exceptionally weak. We can generally predict the cycles with 95% accuracy.]
A line graph appeared in Reece's vision, showing the cycles.
Mark: [After the last cycle of weakness 5 thousand years ago, an anomaly happened.]
Reece: [Anomaly?]
Mark: [The strong cycle shot up way higher than the annual rate of return. It only took 200 years for it to reach peak strength before continuing to rise past that, breaking previous records in under a year. You probably remember that time when prices rose to horrible levels for galaxy traveling.]
Reece: [I remember. It was pretty awful.]
Mark: [The strength and energy costs became so bad that we actually considered shutting down travel to wait it out. Thankfully, it stopped in time but we had no choice but to give out subsidies to Great Barrier stations to keep them from going bankrupt.]
Mark: [This situation lasted for 2 thousand years as usual before going down. We thought things we back to normal as it was entering it's weak period for the next 2 thousand years. But we were wrong.]
His face turned somewhat of a downcast.
Mark: [While we predicted the barrier to be exceptionally weak, we didn't think it would be this bad. The barrier showed no signs of slowing down at it's weakening speed and broke past records, even causing concern that it may collapse. We didn't think much since this was an aftermath of excessive strength.]
Mark: [It eventually stopped at a similar level negative of the peak strength as usual. But after the 2 thousand year mark, it never gained strength again.]
The giant peak line and peak low line on the graph were displayed. But the line after the 2,000 year mark never went back up, and stayed as a relatively straight line with a few bumps.
A little bit below the straight line was a red line.
[This has stayed like this for a thousand years, something we've never had, continuing to this day.]
The graph zoomed in, and the two millenniums turned into centuries, showing the small ups and downs in much more detail. Approaching 5 years ago, the horizontal line began dropping again at a steady rate surpassing the other bumps, approaching the red line even more so. The graph adjusted to this day, showing the line dangerously close to the red line.
Mark: [I think you can guess, but the red line is the point at which the Great Barrier collapses according to current models. I'm sure you can imagine what will happen once the Great Barrier collapses.]
Reece turned pale as he shuddered in fear as his imagination took over. The barrier that has always protected us against the void collapsing and vanishing. Then the void invading, turning everything into nothing, including humanity! Such a horrible end for humanity and everything that it has accomplished!
Mark chuckled at his response.
[You don't have to be worried as much. We've been long studying the void and it's properties since the day we first came into contact. The citizens of humanity have always had creative minds towards destruction, and the day the barrier vanished. As such, we've prepared if this incident were to take place. How do you think we send our probes into the void?]
Reece quickly calmed down in response to his easy tone.
Mark: [Four years ago, the mayors of Andromeda and the Bullet Galaxy collaborated with us to build a giant shield array all three galaxies. We've already eliminated most of the barrier separating the three since forever and manipulated the barriers to connect to each other making it pill shaped.]
Mark: [While a spherical shape would be most efficient and preferred, there are too many people living in those two galaxies, and it would take way too long. Since then, we've completed and tested the pill-shaped shield array, and it's basically ready.]
Reece: [Is that the reason for the mining frenzy and evacuations as of recently?]
Mark: [Yes. I also plan on canceling the VIP black card annual event, since it won't matter if the barriers collapse.]
Reece: [How long do we have?]
Mark: [If it stays at it's current rate, a few days after New Years this year.]
Reece went silent with complicated emotions such as fear and anxiety. Such a horrifying event is about to happen, and humanity can only defend itself without being able to stop.
Mark looked at him before floating off and patting his back, which his hand went through.
[Don't get depressed completely! That's why I gave you those vials!]
The topic had careened off, so he was startled when being brought back.
Mark: [That unknown energy is leaking from the void, and entering Galaxy 9. I've been collaborating with the military in sending probes and tracking it's source. To our shock, we discovered a wall of endless height, length, and width. Our probes found out that it's the same thing as the Great Barrier, except this unknown energy is leaking from it.]
Marks: [I know about your models pointing to something similar to this, and the missing component in the Great Barrier, so I've decided to hand them over to you. If we can complete the model and the Creation Machine, we'll be able to recreate the Great Barrier walls as much as we'd like. Once these are done, you'll be famous for eternity and can finally retire.]
Thinking about this, endless excitement filled his body as determination filled his eyes.
[Don't worry president! I'll be sure to finish the project as soon as possible!]
Mark: [If possible, I wish for these both to be done before the Great Barrier collapses. The void will destroy everything outside the three galaxies, and we'll loose all sources of resource.]
[I'll try my best.] He said with some confidence. After all, it's just energy which is very easy to study.
Mark: [Good! I wish you luck!]
Disconnecting, Professor Reece looked back at his student who had fainted due to shock before sighing.
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The president looked at his screen before looking away in a sigh. Mark sent a mental command to another circular device that lit up.
"Hello?" Came a voice on the other side that sounded old and raspy.
"How's the progress with the portal?"
A silence ensued before a long sigh came through.
"Is it time?"
"We've got until New Years before the barriers collapse. Seeing another Great Barrier on the other side, we can only take our chances in establishing a portal. The size and curvature of that wall should be the giant circle that stabilizes the 108 Galaxies if the theory holds. I do not wish for humanity to slowly die while being trapped forever."
"Okay... I'll try to speed up the project."
"For the best."
"For the best."