Mai Dong rushed into the core module and grabbed the earpiece.
Her heart was pounding, and her hands were trembling from nervousness. Mai Dong was afraid that the sound was just a bug in the computer, and that there was no radio signal at all … The girl put on the earpiece, held her breath, and listened carefully.
A few seconds later, there was another beep. The waveform on the screen jumped, and Mai Dong's heart suddenly tightened.
The computer wasn't wrong. It was indeed a radio wave, and it was a very regular radio wave. The space station had received an unfamiliar signal. It was like Morse code, flashing every few seconds. On the oscilloscope, it looked like a person's electrocardiogram.
Mai Dong was overjoyed. This was clearly not noise, but a meaningful electromagnetic signal.
Over the past hundred days, she had held onto a faint hope. She had been waiting here day and night, listening to sounds and movements from all directions. Now, there was finally a result. Although she didn't know where the radio wave came from, nor did she know what information it contained, it was very likely that it came from an intelligent lifeform. It was even more likely that it came from humans, such as Orion I or other surviving human spacecraft, or even Earth.
The girl's tears immediately gushed out.
She finally saw a ray of light in the boundless darkness.
"Mr. Cat!
Tang Yue! "Mai Dong wiped her tears and immediately contacted Old Cat and Tang Yue in Kunlun Station." Mr. Cat, Mr. Cat!
I received a radio signal! "
Old Cat and Tang Yue in Kunlun Station jumped in fright as they jumped out of their chairs.
A radio wave?
"Who sent it?" Old Cat asked.
"What did it say?" Tang Yue asked.
"I don't know yet, but the signal is very clear. It's been going on!" Mai Dong was very excited. "I'll send you the results. You can see what it is."
Old Cat and Tang Yue nodded. They were both doubtful and shocked. They nervously held onto a tiny bit of hope, but they didn't dare ask for too much … If there really was a radio signal, where did it come from?
Could it be that the long-lost Orion I had reappeared?
Or did some other man-made spacecraft come back from the dead?
Perhaps this radio wave would be the turning point of everything, allowing Mai Dong to successfully land?
Mai Dong turned the signal over. Old Cat and Tang Yue couldn't wait to grab their headphones. The two stared at the computer screen and stood there listening for a long time.
"How is it?
How was it, Mr. Cat? "Mai Dong asked anxiously." Mr. Cat? Tang Yue?
What is it saying?
Is it in Morse code? "
Old Cat didn't say anything. Tang Yue didn't say anything either.
The man and the cat stood on the floor. Their faces were very serious. They didn't move, like stone statues.
"Mr. Cat … Tang Yue?"
Tang Yue took a deep breath. He took off his headphones and smiled at Mai Dong on the screen. "Mai Dong, this could be a very amazing result."
"Really?" Mai Dong's eyes lit up. "Then what is this radio wave saying?
Who sent it to him?
Is it a human?
Is it an Orion spacecraft? "
Old Cat took off his headphones and said slowly, "It's a pulsar."
The girl was stunned.
Tang Yue turned his face away and sighed. He and Old Cat had just realized that this was an electromagnetic pulse emitted by a pulsar. Pulsars had an extremely short rotation period and would emit electromagnetic radiation like a rotating lighthouse. This was why the signal was so stable and regular. This radio wave didn't come from a human, much less an Orion spacecraft. It didn't contain any information … It was just a natural phenomenon in the universe.
The discovery of a pulsar was indeed a considerable academic achievement. This was why Tang Yue said that the signal was at best an academic achievement. It had nothing to do with a human spacecraft.
"This is a pulsar with a rotation period of about three seconds. The space station received its signal."
Old Cat sat in his chair and stared at the screen. The signal on the oscilloscope pulsed regularly.
"If … if it's a pulsar, why are we only receiving its signal now?" Mai Dong's voice trembled. She refused to give up hope. "It should have been there all along …"
"It has indeed been there all along."
Old Cat nodded. "This pulsar should have been recorded a long time ago. The space station's communication system will filter it out as background noise. You heard its voice again probably because you had previously adjusted the computer. This is also why you were the only one who heard the signal and not us. Kunlun Station is still blocking it."
The girl's face turned pale bit by bit. She had indeed adjusted the space station's computer and communication system. This signal was only heard after she had adjusted it.
Old Cat quickly retrieved the pulsar from Kunlun Station's database based on the characteristics of the electromagnetic wave. Its serial number was PSR-J1078-2416. It was more than five million light-years away from the Solar System.
This time, it was confirmed.
"So … it's just a star …"
Mai Dong lowered her eyes. The joy in her heart instantly turned into a heavy burden that nearly crushed her.
"Mai Dong …" Tang Yue racked his brains to say something, but he realized that it was useless to say anything now. This was just a false hope. They had punctured this illusion, but at the same time, they had shattered the girl's hope.
Tang Yue wanted to hug her tightly. Perhaps it would make her feel better, but with a distance of four hundred kilometers, he couldn't even lend her a shoulder.
"I know … Thank you, Mr. Cat, Tang Yue. I'm a little tired. I want to rest. Goodbye."
Mai Dong took a deep breath, lowered her head, and floated out of the camera's field of vision. She slowly passed through the core module's interface. The girl's heart was empty. She didn't want to say anything. She only felt very tired. Even thinking about it made her feel exhausted.
She knew the source of the radio wave. It came from a star more than five million light-years away.
Five million light-years. It was unimaginably far away.
She could receive sounds from millions of light-years away, but she couldn't find the Earth that was close at hand.
What was the point of searching so hard for so long?
Mai Dong pulled open the bedroom curtain and slowly opened the sleeping bag. Her movements were mechanical and stiff. A small Shiba Inu doll floated over and hit the girl's hand.
Mai Dong was stunned.
She smiled weakly, raised her hand to grab it, and squeezed it. "You're here to welcome me again …"
Big drops of tears gushed out of the girl's eyes. Mai Dong finally couldn't help it. She hugged the stupid Shiba Inu doll and cried.
She didn't even cry like this when Earth disappeared. However, sadness was never far away, and it wouldn't disappear. It would only follow you from afar. When you were tired of running, it would catch up and swallow you up.
Mai Dong accepted her fate at this moment. The last faint hope in her heart was finally shattered. What followed was deep sorrow and despair. She accepted the fact that Earth had disappeared. Orion had disappeared. Everyone had disappeared. No one would come to save her. All her family and friends, and her entire life, were gone.
The girl's cries echoed in the space station, but in the lonely darkness of deep space, even her cries couldn't escape this tiny space.