"Should we go up and have a look?" Diana asked.
"Not so fast." Bruce turned to Victor and asked, "Got any strength left?"
Victor gave him an OK gesture. Bruce said, "Blackout all nearby electronic devices. We don't want anyone noticing us boarding the spaceship."
Victor nodded, a glint of light passing through his eyes. He's quite adept at this. Thus, all electronic devices within several kilometers went offline, even filming was impossible.
The Justice League members boarded the spaceship. This ship was much larger than it appeared, shaped like a hemispherical shuttle, somewhat like a grain of rice sliced vertically. Bruce saw many anchor points on the underside of the ship, indicating it's a multipurpose spaceship that could land directly on the surface and connect as a base.
The spaceship's style was completely different from Earth's. Most of the hull was dark metal, barely decorated, but due to the inherently aesthetic technological design, it looked pretty good.
Diana turned her head left and right, inspecting everything inside the spaceship, then said, "Do you plan to use this spaceship? But won't Darkseid mess with the spaceship?"
Bruce shook his head and said, "The moment I enter the spaceship, Darkseid would abandon all setups here to avoid Apocalypse Star going down with the ship."
Diana opened her mouth, wanting to say something but realized there wasn't much to say. This reminded her of what her sisters at Battleworld said about Batman. They once told her if something fell into Batman's hands, you'd best not expect to get it back. Otherwise, during the year-end cleaning, you'd find tons of nano cameras at home.
Darkseid certainly doesn't want the spaceship to fall into Batman's hands, but to bring it back, he's even more apprehensive, not daring to even remotely control it—who knows what Batman might install on the spaceship? Wasn't the lesson from the multiverse battle enough?
Of course, even so, Bruce still thoroughly inspected the spaceship inside and out, and had Victor scan it with the Mother Box to ensure everything was fine before starting it up.
"Where are we going?" Diana asked.
"Mars," Bruce replied.
The massive spaceship ascended once more, and shortly after leaving Earth, it descended over Mars. The place was desolate, and with Ron's guidance, they found the long-abandoned Martian city.
Although the people inside were dead, they hadn't perished due to external attacks, so the entire city was well-preserved. Ron stood inside the spaceship, looked at them, and said, "You all go down and have a look. If there's anything useful, bring it back, I won't go."
Bruce nodded and went down with the others, but soon returned empty-handed. Ron looked at him, confused. Bruce said, "The situation below is better than I expected. I hope this can become a base for the Justice League. What do you think?"
Ron hesitated; it wasn't that he's unwilling, he just didn't want to stay here long, it brought up a lot of bad memories for him. At this point, Bruce spoke, "You Mars people don't have any gene preservation plans?"
"What?"
"Generally, civilizations developed to this level would find ways to preserve their species' genes to handle unforeseen natural disasters. Humans, at least, have gene and seed banks. Don't Mars people have them?"
"I... don't know," Ron said. "I'm the Martian Manhunter, essentially Mars's police, not a scientist and haven't done research work, so I don't know about genes. But as you say, there might be."
Ron said, somewhat disheartened, "Even if there were, it might be useless. Mars people can only naturally reproduce, and those still alive might all be males, incapable of pregnancy."
"No rush," Bruce said, "though humans rely on natural reproduction, as long as civilization exists, technology will continue to develop. Perhaps soon, there will be independent embryo cultivation technology."
Ron assumed Bruce was comforting him, and only forced a smile, "Hopefully, that's true. Since there's no one here, use it as you like. But Earth can't be left unchecked, I should return."
"Wait." Bruce stopped him again, and said, "Tell me about Martian civilization. After touring your city, I think it's quite developed and prosperous. I'm quite interested, and it'd be great if you could elaborate."
Ron didn't wish to bring up painful history, but if it's Batman asking, he probably had to. After all, he still has to make a living under him in the future and can't repeatedly refuse his boss.
Not just him, other members' mindsets had shifted. What was once seeing Bruce Wayne as a sponsor now was different. He's genuinely the number one in the Justice League, their leader. It's better to do optional things.
Ron let out a long sigh, sat in the spaceship hall seat, and began recounting. Bruce recorded and noted with a pen, occasionally drawing. He also mapped the Martian city and had Ron mark important locations, sometimes asking questions ranging from Martian education methods, economic development, natural scenery...
Some questions stumped Ron, too. Though once a hero on Mars, he wasn't a ruler, such policies, how they're made, and why, he didn't know.
Fortunately, the Justice League pooled their ideas together to infer answers to some questions through speculation; for those they really couldn't figure out, they could conduct field investigations. Since the Mars people were wiped out by a virus, much of the data was well-preserved and can be thoroughly checked.
Bruce spent most of the day playing this mystery-solving game with the Justice League. Everyone was left with dry mouths and a sense of bewilderment, not knowing why Bruce suddenly developed an interest in researching Martian civilization.
Only Victor, who had discussed space station design plans with Bruce, seemed to have a hint. When Bruce announced a break and everyone else intended to sleep, Victor was the last to leave. Sitting at the table, he watched Bruce make coffee and asked, "Do you want to do something with Martian civilization?"
"Remember what I said?" Bruce turned back to look at him.
"...Create a new Cold War?"
Bruce nodded and said, "Considering the current technological development of humanity, reaching Mars is still quite difficult. At most, we can only send a few rovers with limited operational range, and we still haven't discovered Mars City. We have no idea what's inside."
Victor's mouth gradually hung open as he said, "Are you thinking..."
"It doesn't matter if Martian civilization truly exists. What's important is that Earthlings—especially the US government—must be aware that the aliens they seek are not far away but very close. On this planet, a twin to Earth, there lies a civilization far more advanced than ours, and it is sharpening its knives against Earth."
"I knew it," Victor said. "The space station design you've come up with is completely different from the usual ones and not in a style I would expect from you."
When crafting the model, Victor already noticed that the space station Bruce designed was entirely different from human space stations of the past. Or rather, it deliberately avoided all past shapes of space stations; both in terms of design and principle, it was very strange, as if... it was meant to be recognized at first glance as an alien creation.
If it weren't for this, the initial model wouldn't have been revised repeatedly. To maintain practicality with a bizarre appearance, the difficulty was naturally higher than usual. And because it was different from previous space stations, there wasn't much reference material, so they had to shape it slowly by feeling.
"But how are you going to make them believe there are people on Mars?"
"It's not that there are no people on Mars, aren't we here?" Bruce handed him a cup of coffee and said, "A few of us are enough to simulate a civilization."
"That's a wild fantasy," Victor marveled.
"There might be many great civilizations in the cosmos, but civilization itself is not some unattainable great thing. In the absence of the means to discover the truth, fabricating out of thin air is not difficult. Because in human society, many things at first glance lack logic, so even if parts of it are somewhat far-fetched, as long as there is enough solid evidence, people will believe it."
"But..."
"Do you think the people in the Capitol Building are realistic?"
"What?"
"If you were to design a game, would you write the villains this way? Creating hobos, driving scientists to death, igniting wars everywhere. Superpower users and monsters have been fighting for hundreds of rounds, and if they're not careful, Earth could be doomed, yet their daily debate topics remain whether or not to vote again."
"They indeed seem a bit unrealistically foolish," Victor said. "If I made them the villains in a game, it would be like I've spent countless hours indulging in gameplay and graphics, then spent the last three days before release refining the plot, and left two hours to write characters—just pin all the bad deeds on them."
"The world is like this. Darkness has never been 'profound,' the worst villains wear their wickedness on the surface, not only lack any disguise, but even feel no shame and pride in it, to the point that they create a system to turn black into white and cover up peace. Those seemingly bad but with deep reasons, or characters that have profound philosophical thoughts behind their evil deeds in games, typically only appear in games, being intensely artistic, they appear somewhat false. Thus, crafting fictional stories has never been difficult, but creating definitive evidence consistent with the fabricated story is what gains trust."
Victor looked down at the model in his hands and said, "I'll go for a walk and see if I can get any inspiration."
"Go ahead," Bruce nodded to him.
Hal was the first to wake up. He was only mentally fatigued, and after a short nap in bed, he was back to his spirited self. He went to the hall, saw Bruce working, glanced at the Hell Bat Armor laid beside him, and hesitantly moved to sit across from Bruce.
"We're not going back anytime soon, are we?" Hal's question was cleverly phrased, indirectly probing Bruce's plan rather than asking outright. Then he added, "I just want to call my girlfriend to put her mind at ease."
"Victor has already set up the communications device," Bruce pointed to the equipment nearby. Hal immediately went over to make a call.
Of course, he didn't reveal he was on Mars, just mentioned that the Justice League was busy with work and might not be able to reply to messages promptly for a few days. Carol, naturally understanding, still asked him, "How's the space station construction coming along?"
Hal glanced back at Bruce, and Bruce nodded to him. So Hal said, "No problems, it should be completed soon."