Four
"So, Professor Shi, what is your opinion on this matter?" the female host asked.
A pot-bellied middle-aged man sat in an armchair. He was balding and wore gold-rimmed glasses. The introduction at the bottom of the screen read, "Renowned Astrophysicist."
"First of all, we can be sure that this was not done by humans. No country in the world has the technological capability to do so."
Professor Shi said, "Then it can only be the masterpiece of an alien civilization. Many people are very excited, thinking that this is a milestone in human history … but I personally think that they are too optimistic."
"What is your basis for this?"
"It can be inferred from two points. The first is the message they sent to humans. This message is very obvious and can be seen by people all over the world. It is a number on the moon, and it is a human number. If they wanted to communicate with the human world, to avoid causing panic and unnecessary hostility, they would first contact the top government officials. But they sent the message to the world in the most easy-to-understand way … What is this?
I think this is a warning!
Only a warning would be announced to the world for maximum effect.
NASA is aware of this, so they are panicking. They just announced that they will return to the moon in a week and launch a lander. This is probably the most hurried space program in human history because they know they are running out of time. "
The female host nodded in agreement.
"A few days ago, it was 30. Tonight, it is 25. Anyone can see that this is a countdown." Professor Shi continued, "What kind of thing has a countdown?
I think the worst scenario is a time bomb, a bomb set by an alien civilization to destroy mankind. "
"If the aliens have technology far beyond human beings, why don't they just invade Earth?"
"I have two hypotheses about this."
Professor Shi straightened up with some difficulty. "First, the moon itself is a bomb. In the past 4.6 billion years, it has been transformed into a giant bomb by an alien civilization. Now it is time to explode, so it has started the countdown. I remember that there was a conspiracy theory that the moon is hollow. Now it seems that it is not completely refuted."
"What about the second one?"
"The second one is that the aliens are on their way to Earth, and the countdown is a sign of their arrival.
Any civilization that can develop to this extent must have the corresponding social morality, or it will destroy the civilization itself. They are forced to occupy Earth as a habitat, but survival instinct and morality conflict. They do not want to kill humans, who are also intelligent creatures, so they have set aside a month for humans to escape … "
Yang Yuan turned off the TV and looked out of the window.
In the past few days, almost all the news media had been spreading sensational words such as "Aliens Invade Earth".
Yang Yuan was a graduate student in radio astronomy and was not an amateur in this field. He did not blindly follow the crowd, but the iron-clad facts proved the existence of an extraterrestrial civilization because humans could not engrave such a large number on the moon.
Yang Yuan wasn't in the mood to refute the media's completely untenable and absurd statements. At this time, the truly capable people wouldn't have the time to appear in public on TV.
His phone vibrated beside his hand. The caller ID was very familiar. Yang Yuan picked it up.
"Little Yuan?"
"Dad … it's me."
"You … Are you alright?
Can you go home? "
Yang Yuan was silent for a long time. His parents were the typical parents of this generation in China. They were honest farmers who worked in the fields, facing the yellow soil and the sky. They did not read many books and did not know what the so-called "Aliens Invade Earth" meant. Although their feelings were slow, they were extremely sensitive to the safety of their son.
Yang Yuan remembered the year he was admitted to university. In the small mountain village where information was scarce, he was the only university student in the family and the village, representing the hope of the whole village. His parents had sold a pig for two thousand yuan to pay for his mother's medical fees and asked him to buy some food on the way.
They were so happy that they thought this generation could escape the yellow soil and fly into the clouds. Yang Yuan did not even have the heart to tell them that university students were everywhere and were worthless.
"I can't, dad. I have to work overtime this month."
Yang Yuan was telling the truth. In the face of such an emergency, the workload of observatories across the country rapidly increased. He looked out of the window. Armored vehicles full of armed policemen drove by on the road. The military had taken over since yesterday.
"Oh … Oh, that …" The old man on the other side of the phone was at a loss. "Then you have to be careful. It's very chaotic outside."
"It's okay, dad." Yang Yuan smiled. "I have soldiers standing guard here."
"That's good, that's good …"
There seemed to be no common language between father and son, not to mention the almost illiterate old farmer and the young graduate student of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The distance between the two generations was as far as the whole world, but the old man was still trying to find something to talk about.
"Dad, listen to me. Don't go out for the next month."
Yang Yuan said softly, "Buy more salt and put it at home. Fill the water tank at home. Remember to lock the door at night."
Yang Yuan could almost foresee the impending disaster, but all he could do was warn the old man to pay attention to his safety. He could not even go back to see them.
"Okay … I'll listen to you."
"Dad … starting from tonight, there will be an information blackout." Yang Yuan said, "I can't call you for the next month."
There was silence on the phone.
"Then you have to take care of your health. I wanted to talk to your mother, but she just went to the vegetable garden to weed."
The old man said, "The winter melon at home is growing very well. When you get home, I'll ask your mother to cook it for you."
"… Okay."
The phone hung up, and Yang Yuan felt that something in his heart had been cut off.
The old academician stood in the operation control hall, looking up at the LCD screen on the wall. The young people rushed past him with documents in their hands. The atmosphere in the hall was unusually solemn. There was only static in his ears. No one spoke, and the heavy breathing was amplified in the silence. The old man remembered that the last time there was such a dead silence was when they tried to wake up the Moon Rabbit monitor … At that time, everyone stared at the screen and held their breath until the image flashed in front of them.
After a long silence, there was cheering that almost overturned the ceiling. Although the process was thrilling, it was a good ending … but the old man knew that this time, his luck might not be as good as last time.
The huge moon occupied the old man's vision. He stared at the only satellite of the earth for a long time. The old man spent a lifetime on it and felt that no one in the world was more familiar with the moon than he was. But at this time, looking at the numbers on the moon, he suddenly realized that he had never really understood it.
The first voice to break the silence was the data report.
"The digital elevation model of the moon has been established."
"The multispectral image is also out …"
"The brightness temperature data of the 3.0 GHz microwave radiation has been analyzed."
"The high-energy particles and solar wind ions in the near lunar space have been analyzed."
"What's the situation?"
The answer was hopeless.
"… There are no abnormalities."
The most worrying situation had finally happened. All the detection methods available to mankind could not detect the cause of the moon's abnormalities.
Without knowing the cause, there was no way to stop it.
God bypassed human eyes and engraved a countdown on the moon, and mankind could only watch the number go to zero.
Five
The president never thought that he would be lucky enough to live in Cheyenne Mountain during his term of office and personally oversee the North American Air Defense Command. This behemoth in Colorado was the most secure nuclear bunker in the country. The hostility of the Cold War created this almost absurd project. People dug through granite 500 meters deep and built a fifteen-story building underground. They used a two-meter-thick reinforced concrete gate to prevent all possible crises.
This fortification was built in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Today, nearly 30 years after the clouds of the Cold War dissipated, this underground nuclear bunker that had long been engraved in history began to play its most primitive role again, using airtight rock, steel, and concrete to form the oldest form of defense.
The Department of Defense, the CIA, and other agencies had all been transferred to the National Reserve Command Center yesterday. The U.S. government had never been so nervous since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but the enemy they were facing now may be far more powerful than the Soviet Union.
"This is ridiculous."
The president closed the folder and flew into a rage. "You have a budget of tens of billions every year, and you're still using spaceships from 50 years ago?"
Charles lowered his head in silence. He had just brought the president bad news. The moon exploration had failed. The Saturn rocket disintegrated three minutes after liftoff, and the debris was scattered in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Saturn V was the largest vehicle ever built by mankind. It had once created the greatest innovation in human history. In order to ensure absolute success, NASA almost recreated the Apollo program.
But success was not absolute.
"Mr. President, this is not a technical problem," Charles said. "It's not surprising that a high-risk business like aerospace fails at any time."
"But we don't have much time!"
The president reached out and pointed to the electronic clock hanging on the wall behind him. There was only a number "20" on the red LCD screen, which made it look more like a timer for a time bomb, but no one knew what would explode when the number reached zero.
"I'll only give you three days!" The president reached out and grabbed the director's collar. "Go to the moon again!
Send all the things we can send up! "
"Mr. President, this is not realistic." Charles shook his head and spread out his hands. "Going to the moon in three days is beyond our ability."
"Then let the whole world unite."
The president let go of the director and turned to look up at the dazzling crimson numbers on the wall. "I'll call Moscow, Beijing, and Brussels."
One-third of the countdown had passed, and mankind had done nothing but recognize the limits of their ability and despair.
Due to the government's inaction, panic began to spread like wildfire. The social system was on the verge of collapse, and inflation was completely beyond the scope of market regulation. People began to frantically rush to buy necessities as prices soared. The credit of the government and banks became nothing more than a piece of paper. What followed was the comprehensive devaluation of paper money, and a craze for the exchange of hard currencies such as gold was set off around the world. In the face of the almost crazy crowd, governments had to urgently close the exchange channels.
Many eschatological theories, bred by the panic of the people, began to spread, and even many official media outlets admitted that the end of mankind was near.
The Pope of the Vatican announced that he would personally perform a grand mass to pray for God's forgiveness and delay the arrival of the Day of Judgment. A pilgrimage movement of Christians from all over the world was launched with great vigor. The mighty army of Christians gathered in Italy from all over the world. This was probably the largest religious movement in human history. Its scale was far greater than the Crusades of the Middle Ages and the Protestant pilgrimage.
As a result, Italy was seriously overpopulated, and the security was so chaotic that the police could do nothing.
On the day of the mass, there were even fanatics who tied bombs to their bodies and tried to detonate them in the venue. Fortunately, this absurd plan was detected in advance by the national security department, and before the mass officially began, special forces were sent to eliminate this extremist group, preventing a possible terrorist attack.
However, the mass did not end well. Due to the large number of people, a large-scale stampede occurred in the venue on the day of the mass. The scene was chaotic and tragic, and there were heavy casualties. The largest religious event in human history, except for the tragic death of more than two thousand innocent believers, did not stop the numbers on the moon for even half a second.
People were abandoned by God, and the religious community suffered an unprecedented blow, never to recover from the setback.
However, the elites of mankind were still working hard to find a way, and the ultimate space program led by NASA was in full swing.
For the first time, the whole world was being caught up with by time. In this competition that could determine the survival of human civilization, mankind began to exert all of their potential, trying to distance themselves from the numbers on the moon. For the first time, the development of science and technology was not driven by mankind, but was forced to move forward. The huge machine made up of 6.5 billion people was working at full capacity, just for a slim chance of survival.
At this time, it was extremely foolish to be selfish. The United States and Russia took out an astonishing amount of technology, and the space race between the two old aerospace powerhouses that had been in a stalemate for half a century left behind an extremely strong legacy.
With the influx of funds from all over the world, the Russian space industry, which was once depressed and struggling on the edge of life and death, quickly shone with amazing vitality.
Experts from all over the world reached a consensus with unprecedented efficiency and decided to build a total of twelve spacecraft to the moon. Eight of them were manned, and the other four were cargo spacecraft, each with a payload weight of an incredible 30 tons.
People decided to move all the testing equipment that could be moved, and the entire large laboratory to the moon. This was an unprecedented project, equivalent to building four International Space Stations. One International Space Station took mankind decades, but now they had four times the workload, and it only took them three days.
In the face of an unprecedented crisis, people went crazy and did not care about the cost.
The entire Europe was responsible for the assembly of these huge chemical-powered rockets, and then these complex machines would be flown to launch sites around the world.
China was responsible for the signal detection of the entire plan.
"Professor Ouyang, do you think the world will be destroyed?"
Yang Yuan sat on the grass, the huge parabolic antenna of the radio telescope casting an irregular shadow cut by the buildings.
The old man stood in the shadow, looking up at the antenna.
"Little Yuan, look at this telescope."
Yang Yuan looked up, the circular antenna on top of his head. At such a close distance, people could feel the power and beauty contained in this huge and shocking steel structure, like a giant holding up the sky.
"The ancients said that virtue carries everything."
The old academician smiled. "Look at this telescope, isn't it the same? It carries the thousand-year dream of the Chinese people to fly. It carries so much weight, but stands so firmly. This is virtue."
The old man squatted down beside the young man. "The wisdom of our ancestors will not be outdated for thousands of years.
Look at the earth under our feet, how much weight does it carry? "
Yang Yuan silently lowered his head.
"Professor Ouyang, the rocket will be launched today, right?"
"Yes … Jiuquan, Xichang, and Wenchang will be launched."
The old academician nodded and pointed at the telescope. "It will be us and it that will be responsible for receiving the signal."
"Will we succeed?" Yang Yuan raised his head, his face haggard.
As the countdown reached zero, he became more and more anxious. This was not only Yang Yuan's reaction, all the young people in the observatory were the same … Anxiety, insomnia, and psychological imbalance were spreading among the crowd.
The leaders tried to hire a psychiatrist, but in this place, which was said to be the closest to the moon, the psychiatrist was infected by the tense atmosphere and also began to feel anxious.
"It doesn't make much difference whether we succeed or not."
The old man shook his head, he tapped the tip of his foot lightly. Yang Yuan narrowed his eyes. Beside his feet was a short bristlegrass. Next to the grass was a small hole, and ants entered and exited in twos and threes. This was an ant nest.
"Look at this ant nest …" the old man said softly. "What's the difference between us and these ants?"
"Humans are intelligent creatures, how can we compare to ants, these lowly arthropods?"
"That's because we stand at the top of the Earth's ecosphere."
The old man shook his head. "If the Milky Way also has an ecosphere, then in the eyes of the civilizations at the top of the Milky Way's ecosphere, we are the same as ants, just a lowly species on Earth.
Do you think these ants will know that Earth is in big trouble? "
Yang Yuan looked at the ants on the ground in a daze. A black ant was poking its head out of the hole. Perhaps it had just been born, and this was the first time it stepped out of the hole to see the sun. It was immersed in the joy of embracing the vast world for the first time.
"In some ways, humans and ants are very similar," the old man said.
"A high degree of sociality and discipline increase the survival rate of a species in a disaster, but the price is the sacrifice of the individual.
Ants are creatures with a spirit of sacrifice. When you integrate into this huge group, the collective life is the life of the individual.
In the past, we also relied on this spirit to create the new China. This is the life of an ant, something that flows in the blood of every Chinese. "
"Life of an ant …" Yang Yuan murmured.
"Everyone must have the courage to move forward in a disaster."
The old man patted Yang Yuan's back. "We have no way of knowing the final result, but we have to do our best.
The power of humans is limited. Even if we gather the power of the entire world, we can only build these twelve spaceships.
Since we have already done our best, what does the result matter? "
The old man's open-mindedness impressed Yang Yuan. For the first time, he realized that there was actually a group of people like this in this world. They did not panic or go crazy, they would not try anything in a desperate situation, and they would not place their hopes on some illusory God. Even in the face of the apocalypse, they would only quietly guard their posts, silently watching the numbers change.
"For a person who is already so old …" The old man smiled. "Death might be the only thing he has not experienced."
(To be continued)