(A short story found in a pile of old papers, something from many years ago. Today, I dug it out again and posted it to amuse everyone.)
One.
The inspector looked down at the form. "Which one is this?"
The inspector did not look up. He was very busy and could not waste time on something as trivial as looking up.
"The 2689th one."
"I'm asking which one is in this spiral arm!"
"The 2689th one."
The inspector put down the binoculars in his hand and looked up. "Mr. Inspector, your mental state is unstable. I suggest you do a psychological test."
"F * ck your psychological test!
I'm not going to do that kind of thing … "The inspector threw the form in his hand to the ground. He did not understand why he was assigned to this place. Other than lunatics, there were lunatics, and a bunch of scientific lunatics.
"Mr. Inspector, your behavior is very dangerous."
The inspector pointed out his mistake. "Wood pulp paper is a very rare and precious resource. You don't have the authority to dispose of it at will. This kind of behavior may cause you to be punished."
"I'm the administrator!" The inspector waved his hands angrily. "I know the resource protection regulations better than you!
Damn it, why do we still use such an inefficient and ancient method to record information? "
"Because the Internet is dangerous."
The tester bent down to pick up the form that was spread out on the ground. "Only the most ancient actions can threaten the most ancient things, just like what you just did." The tester pointed around. "But no ancient method can enter here."
The inspector sat down. Of course, he knew what this place was.
This was the safest place in the world. Predecessors had dug through thousands of kilometers of the mantle with fearless spirit and amazing single-mindedness. They had spent countless manpower and material resources just to build a mere fifty square meters of space in the core.
This was the engine room of the central brain of the core drive.
But the disaster back then proved to be a joke. The liquid metal in the core did not stop flowing, and the magnetic field did not disappear. People did not have to be exposed to the deadly stellar storm … Naturally, there was no need to spend so much effort to drive the core.
So this place was occupied by a group of scientific lunatics who did not know what loneliness was. In order to show the government's sovereignty over this territory independent of the surface, the consul symbolically sent an inspector.
The inspector thought that this was completely unnecessary. It would take a full day of high-speed elevators to get to the surface, and even Satellite 3 was not that far away.
He believed that even if these so-called mad scientists wanted to establish their own country, there was no need to care. A land of 50 square meters would only be the biggest joke in history. As long as the supplies were cut off, everyone underground would not survive for more than three days.
The inspector picked up the binoculars. Through the lens, he could see a blue planet. It was crystal clear and beautiful, like the rarest of pearls.
"How beautiful."
"Before you say that … Inspector, you must realize that this is an image sent by the quantum real-time communication system."
The tester lowered his head to sort out the form. "So even if you lean against the wall, the image won't enlarge."
"Is this No.2689?" the Inspector asked.
"Yes, it is located in an eight-star star system. It has a satellite that is only 2.54 light-years away from us."
The tester nodded. "According to the infrared observation results, No. 2689 belongs to a materialized carbon-based civilization. In terms of survival position, it overlaps with us. Its civilization level has reached B3, and its technological development speed is judged to be 'medium risk.'
According to the regulations, we need to observe and test it. "
"Can you not mention your damn psychological test?"
The inspector put down the binoculars — that was what he always called the dictionary-sized observation terminal in his hand.
"This is the regulation, sir."
"I have never thought that psychological tests are strong evidence. You are just wasting taxpayers' money." The inspector gently pushed the console. He sat on the swivel chair and slid to the other side of the room.
The gravity in the core was zero. The inspector adjusted the artificial gravity to 0.5G. This allowed him to move more easily and distinguish up from down.
"Yes … sir."
The inspector nodded. "This is indeed not strong evidence. But I studied the psychology of civilization in high school. If this test is canceled, I will lose my job."
"This is not a reason to keep me here …" The inspector muttered. "You are wasting resources."
"Your accusation is unreasonable. I have only occupied one billionth of the central computer's computing process. But the role I play may be more important than the other three billionth of the central computer." The inspector began to adjust the binoculars. "You have to believe that a civilization has psychology."
"Okay … How do you want to test this time?"
"In the most common way, the cruelest test." The inspector turned and smiled. "Please pass me the light bulb next to you."
Two
The phone in his pocket vibrated.
Yang Yuan was stunned. He lowered his head and took out his phone. There was a text message on the LCD screen.
"Son, are you going home for the Mid-Autumn Festival this year?"
It was signed off with "Mom and Dad."
In this era of Internet communication, Yang Yuan had almost forgotten that his phone had the ancient function of sending and receiving text messages.
He had long been accustomed to all his social life online. There were only two people who contacted him in this forgotten way.
His parents did not dare to call. They were worried that it would interfere with their son's work.
The old could not accept new things, so they were mocked by the young.
Yang Yuan began to reply. He was not going back.
There was only one day off for the Mid-Autumn Festival. It was not easy to escape from the dark sea of work. It was rare to not have to face boring data. How could he waste time on the way home?
Yang Yuan pressed the send button and turned off the backlight.
Two figures were reflected on the dark glass screen.
"Mr. Ouyang." Yang Yuan quickly got up. He was nervous. It was against the rules to play with the phone during working hours.
The old man smiled and shook his head. He patted the young man's shoulder gently. "Sit down, sit down, Little Yuan."
The old man pulled a chair and sat down. Yang Yuan looked up curiously. He had only seen the man in front of him from afar when the leaders were inspecting. The respected chief scientist of China's moon exploration project was too far away for a graduate student like him.
However, the old man was less than half a meter away from him. He was wearing a white coat. His hair was neatly combed. His hands were clasped together and he looked hale and hearty.
"Were you chatting with your girlfriend?" The old man smiled mischievously.
"No, no, no …" Yang Yuan's face turned red. "I don't have a girlfriend yet. It was from my parents. They asked me if I was going back for the Mid-Autumn Festival."
"Are you going back?"
"No." Yang Yuan shook his head. "My home is in Jiangxi. It's too far."
"Jiangxi …" The old man nodded. "Then we are from the same hometown."
"Really?" Yang Yuan's eyes lit up.
"I'm from Ji 'an." The old man smiled. "Little Yuan, you've been here for more than half a year, right?
Have you been home? "
"I'm too busy with work."
Yang Yuan shook his head. Sometimes, work was not so busy that Yang Yuan couldn't leave. However, instead of wasting time on a long and difficult journey just to go home for a meal, it was better to go out with his classmates.
"If you ask me …" The old man patted Yang Yuan's shoulder. "If you have the chance, you should go home often. Young people, when your parents are around, you shouldn't travel far."
The old man slowly got up and looked out of the window. The tall glass wall reflected the last rays of the setting sun. On the opposite side of the gravel road stood a pure white antenna. People had set up a steel frame dozens of meters high just to support this huge paraboloid with a diameter of 50 meters. This was a shocking and great creation. It was a miracle that gathered the best wisdom of mankind, the essence of physics and engineering.
The radio telescope stood quietly and calmly, shining with golden sunlight.
This was the Beijing Miyun Station of the National Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
It was a human eye.
Yang Yuan was a graduate student studying for a master's degree in radio astronomy at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. All he did every day was sit in front of a computer screen and interpret data. The only result was that his eyesight was rapidly deteriorating.
In order to relieve the fatigue in his eyes, Yang Yuan would habitually look out the window.
Yang Yuan was stunned. Although he was nearsighted, he was not blind. With such a large object there, anyone would have noticed it.
III
This was probably the most shocking thing to the UA government since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
"It must be a trick by the Russians!"
Herbert Carlisle threw the document on the conference table. The commander of the UA Pacific Air Force was originally in Okinawa to deal with the deployment of the local F22, but the president summoned him across the Pacific overnight.
"General Carlisle's hobby is to blame everything on Russia."
The woman sitting across from him was the Secretary of State. She looked down and flipped through the document. "That way, he can ask Congress for money."
"Madam … I don't mean to offend you, but other than us, the only country that can do this kind of thing can only be Russia." Carlisle sneered.
"Why can't it be China or Iran?" The Secretary of State asked. "Underestimating the enemy will bring disaster."
"Have you ever considered North Korea?"
The Vice President interjected. He was a typical old politician who had been in politics for decades. Any professional politician's characteristics could be found in him. "They are the biggest threat."
"If North Korea has such technological capabilities …" Carlisle replied. "I don't think we have time to sit here for a meeting."
"Enough, ladies and gentlemen, please be quiet."
The President crossed his arms and took a deep breath. "I didn't call you here to quarrel."
Everyone was quiet.
Then they heard the sound of the door being locked. This meant that from now on, no one had the right to sit in on the meeting except for the few of them.
The President nodded, and the old man at the end of the conference table stood up.
The curtain hanging on the wall lit up, and the old man stepped forward and stood in front of everyone.
"Let's hear what the director has to say." The President pointed to the screen behind him.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry."
The old man was the Director of NASA, Charles Bolden. He was the first person in the room to recognize the seriousness of the problem. He met with the President that night and stated that this might be the biggest crisis faced by mankind and even the creatures on Earth in hundreds of millions of years. He persuaded him to convene the meeting overnight with senior government officials.
"We have reason to believe that … including us, no country on Earth has the ability to do this," the director said.
"We have just contacted Moscow and Beijing." The President nodded. "They denied it."
A huge picture appeared on the blank screen behind him. The grayish-black surface of the planet was covered with craters. Everyone was familiar with this picture. This picture could be seen with a 30-centimeter telescope.
This was the moon.
But everyone was shocked by another fact that defied common sense. An extremely large black number appeared on the originally barren surface of the moon.
30。
As if engraved on the surface of the moon, the writing was extremely clear and spanned across the entire front of the moon. When zoomed in, even the shadows in the gullies could be seen.
"This is ridiculous …" Carlisle shook his head. "As early as forty years ago, your astronauts told us that there was nothing on the moon!"
"Yes." Charles nodded. "The environment on the surface of the moon is harsh enough to kill any creature."
"Then how do you explain this?"
The Vice President slammed the table and stood up. "Don't tell me that there are Transformers spaceships hidden on the back of the moon!"
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is not the plot of a sci-fi movie, and no one will pay for any of our mistakes.
The crisis we are facing is unprecedented. This is the picture from the day before yesterday. "The director's face was solemn. He pressed the button to change the picture." This is from yesterday … "
The moon itself did not change. The number became 29.
"Could this be a prank?" The Secretary of State gestured with her hands. "Like a large projection or something."
"Unfortunately, these words are three thousand meters deep."
The director shook his head. "As you can see, these numbers span the entire front of the moon, two thousand kilometers in length and width …"
The director took a deep breath and came to a despairing conclusion. "This is a miracle."
"This is from tonight."
28。
"If this was engraved by someone, then the width of the carving knife would be an incredible two hundred kilometers." The director reminded everyone present once again that this was beyond the capabilities of humans.
There was a dead silence.
The first to speak was the Vice President.
He buried his hands deep into his hair and slowly closed his eyes.
"God …"
"Ladies and gentlemen."
The director announced the results of the meeting, his voice echoing in the room. "Advanced alien civilizations exist, and they are trying to contact us. But the worst thing is … we don't think these numbers are kind greetings."
(To be continued)