From EarthStar Map Draftsman I: Federation War

“Command Center, this is Dawn, I will be arriving at the Sane ship alien ship in nineteen minutes, starting now, Dawn ship automatically collects data to transmit back to Earth ...... tell my son that I love him.” Somewhere in a city in the northern hemisphere, in a high level conference room at a secret space agency base, a man with a head full of silver hair played this voice over, his left breast was covered with medals, this man was General Quentin. He put down the remote control in his hand and added sadly. “This is the last voice recording of Dawn ship.”

In March 2059, the sun poured down unabashedly from the canopy of the trees, a vast expanse of warmth cut the sidewalks to shreds, and a force four wind blew across the outside of the shuttle station, but spring had not yet fully awakened in this northern city, and the temperature was less than ten degrees. Dawn Lucius was one of the aerospace engineers who had been on leave and received orders for an urgent mission. He left the house before he had time to put on a thicker coat and headed for the shuttle station to the moon base. He shivered on the bus in the park.

shuttle station, one of the space projects approved by C in 2031, is the starting point for engineers on Earth to go to the moon base, which is like a bus station from which some people depart to the moon base and some return from the moon base back to Earth. This behemoth has four core complexes, to be precise, shuttle station has a doughnut-shaped three-story terminal, a takeoff field, a landing field, and a maintenance station for maintenance and storage of cargo, the maintenance station is not so elaborate, a living rectangle, shuttle station covers an area almost as large as the city of Hangzhou The shuttle station covers an area almost as big as Hangzhou, where almost 15 million people live, all engineers and their families related to deep space.

“Welcome, Engineer Dawn Lucius, number: LZL0104.” Dawn Lucius was about three steps away from the security door when the security AI recognized Dawn Lucius’ biometric information, the loudspeaker in the door frame played the welcome message, and the transparent material door pulled upward .

The first floor of the terminal is reserved for engineers returning from the moon and Mars bases, and everyone who returns needs to undergo a complex quarantine and sterilization quarantine here, even though the shuttle station has been open for more than a decade and no engineers returning from outer space have been found to have contracted the dreaded alien virus, or no alien life has been found to have come to Earth with the engineers, but no one is willing to take the risk. Dawn Lucius took a straight elevator to the second floor, the second floor is the departure level, since the beginning of the space project, Dawn Lucius often in here, back and forth, just started to go to the moon base in the years, he will take pictures or video every departure to remember, go more times, he also can not find what new feeling, no pictures, no dynamic He didn’t take pictures, didn’t send dynamics, just like a businessman who often travels, he left and came back in a routine. But, this time he was nervous.

“Doctor Lucius, can you reveal the objective of this mission?” Dawn Lucius had just stepped out of the elevator when she was greeted by a female reporter in a red uniform, the camera equipment and audio capture equipment on her glasses had already transmitted this interview to the cloud.

“It’s the same mission as before, exploring the edge of the solar system.”

“But the internet has been rumored again that this time the Dawn ship was flown to contact that alien ship in the Kuiper belt, is it convenient here to clear up the confusion for the general public?” The woman pursued, with the signature smile of the chief female reporter on her foundation-painted face, asking questions to Dawn Lucius, who was like a wind-up alarm clock, dripping and tapping Dawn Lucius’ temple, which distracted him.

“Please refer to the official announcement.”

“Doctor Lucius, allow me to remind you on behalf of the netizens that we are not the only ones who know about the appearance of alien spacecraft in the Kuiper Belt, the ship from A has already reached Mars, they are obviously a long way ahead of us, may I ask, do you have confidence in this mission?”

Speaking of Country A, Dawn Lucius is not complimentary of their style of doing things. Back in the days of Dawn Lucius’ father, Country A was blatantly oppressive of Country C. When Country C spaceflight built a base on the moon, Country A jumped in to block it, and when Country C spaceflight parked a large spaceship in the moon’s satellite orbit, Country A incited several small countries to oppose it, advocating that it would increase the risk of the moon hitting the earth. The dedicated female reporter brought up Country A’s spaceship, which Dawn Lucius had heard about from her friends at the observatory, and they were now most worried about the ship that had flown into Mars orbit.

“We are more concerned with the larger goal of benefiting humanity, as is my goal for this mission, thank you for the interview.” Before the last word slipped from Dawn Lucius’ lips, he turned with the intention of walking into the waiting room.

“Doctor Lucius, please wait, one last question.” The female reporter stepped forward and stopped Dawn Lucius in his tracks, she had no intention of letting Dawn Lucius just walk away. “One more question for you, there are three of our large spacecraft docked in lunar orbit, one called ‘Home ship’ can reach a speed of 10,000 kilometers per second, is this for human evacuation use?”

Dawn Lucius froze for a moment and thought to herself: the media is still so heartless nowadays, creating panic for the sake of the topic, Home ship is an expedition ship, but here she became an evacuation ship, that ship can hold at most two hundred people, how can it evacuate the humans on Earth?

“Sorry, everything about the moon base is in the third floor gallery, I suggest you go there for another serious look, besides, all the presentations in our space engineering are there.” Dawn Lucius finished speaking and escaped at a trot into the waiting room, where a dozen people were already waiting. Judging from the dress code, the line was all related to the Dawn ship’s mission, and he recognized two of the familiar faces.

The older man is Rodney Cruise, with hard hair like a miniature helmet, two thick eyebrows across his tanned face, eyes as steely as his style of work, and an upside-down “mountain” of a mustache on his upper lip and chin under the bridge of his nose. This man has been a highly decorated captain of the Dawn ship, and even though the Dawn ship has never left lunar orbit, he has been appointed captain for life since Commander Cruise was involved in the design of the ship. The young man who is talking to Commander Cruise is named Kenny Jr. Clooney, his white face is long and thin, with clean features, don’t look at him young, but is a top spacecraft designer, but also a first-class aerospace engineer.

“Commander Cruise, Kenny Jr. Clooney, how are you?” Dawn Lucius walked up and interrupted the two men who were in the middle of a conversation.

“You’re just in time.” Kenny Jr. Clooney handed the tablet in his hand to Dawn Lucius, a transparent machine less than two centimeters thick and a little smaller than a typical book, yet it contained all the information about the Dawn ship, like a medical report on the Dawn ship. “Familiarize yourself with the Dawn ship’s information in advance, so you can have less confusion when you get to the moon base for the mission briefing.”

“Okay, thanks.” Dawn Lucius took the tablet and found an empty seat, skipping over the catalogs that were familiar to him, he skimmed through the Dawn ship’s kinetic and life-support systems, even though the Dawn ship was as long as a fifty-story building, and with the daily supplies needed for this mission, the total weight was over a thousand tons. But the micronuclear power system loaded on the Dawn ship could also push it to a speed of three hundred kilometers per second in ten seconds. Gone were the days of using gas fuel; it used to take a week to get from SHUTTLE station to the moon; now, in just three and a half hours, the pickup ship could reach the moon’s satellite orbit.

A roar sounded, attracting the attention of most people in the waiting room. Commander Cruise looked in the direction of the source of the sound, and outside the glass roof of the waiting room’s dome, a squash-looking shuttle boat had ignited, and within the first three minutes, the temperature of the nuclear reactor would approach a thousand degrees, and the high temperature heated the liquid hydrogen peroxide, and then the heated water vapor would be able to produce a huge jet thrust, and the decomposition of oxygen will be stored in the shuttle boats inside. To obtain acceleration, the intelligent computer system will, depending on the intensity of the nuclear reaction, pull outward the compensation rods inserted in the nuclear reactor, which are capable of absorbing the neutrons generated by the nuclear reaction, and it acts as a brake in each nuclear energy generation process.

Ten minutes after ignition, the nuclear reactor can produce a high temperature of nearly 100 million degrees, all thanks to the development of silicon-based insulation materials, nuclear energy is only widely used in spacecraft, the moon base, Mars laboratory to be built within a decade. But melon shuttle boats power is not allowed to heat more than one thousand seven hundred degrees Celsius, no one will be willing to take the Earth to risk, the Earth people have plenty of time, but the Earth people do not have a second Earth to go to, at least until now there is no accurate indication of a planet suitable for human survival.

As the sound of tearing air grows louder and louder, the melon shuttle boats slowly soar upwards, the flames spewing from the bottom turn blue, the ship easily fights gravity and pierces the atmosphere, it becomes smaller and smaller in Rodney Cruise’s line of sight, when the roar is also inaudible, Rodney Cruise’s thoughts only return to the worry above just now, this thing, also has to start from In 2031, the observatory working group accurately detected an artificial signal in the Kuiper belt and observed the appearance of a new object larger than a comet, from that time on, the recognized alien spacecraft was named “Sane ship “In the same month, C launched many projects in the space program at the same time. This mission, Rodney Cruise has not yet revealed to others, the specific objectives of the primary mission only a few people in higher management know, including the many engineers in the waiting room, including the female reporter said all the Internet users, they know is the mission of the secondary mission only, this is one of his concerns.

“Commander Cruise,” Dawn Lucius said as she walked over towards Rodney Cruise, who was staring at the display in his hand, Dawn Lucius’ proximity causing him to subconsciously lower the display in his hand, the screen covering the side of his thigh.

“Dawn,” Rodney Cruise nodded, the corners of his mouth lifting gently as a polite smile formed.

“Commander Cruise, I know the next question is out of order .......” Dawn Lucius sounded somewhat apologetic, and before he could finish speaking, Kenny Jr. Clooney interrupted. “You know it’s out of order, so why are you asking?”

Dawn Lucius turned his face to look at Kenny Jr. Clooney, he did not have time to speak, Rodney Cruise then raised his hands, signaling the two not to argue, he looked up at Dawn Lucius and said, “You asked.”

“Captain, we have several engineers involved this time.”

“You’ll know when we land.” Rodney Cruise’s short answer had little usable information.

“What do you want to know?” Kenny Jr. Clooney stepped forward and half-blocked between Dawn Lucius and Rodney Cruise.

“I want to know if it’s coming back, you know?” Dawn Lucius was a little impatient.

“What? Where did the engineer’s profession go? Looking at the ship data and questioning the mission, huh?”

“Don’t talk to me about professionalism.”

“So how come you’re questioning not coming back from this mission?” Kenny Jr. Clooney put on a dismissive face.

“This is the latest data from the Dawn ship, I believe.” Dawn Lucius held up the tablet computer in his hand. “We’re going to the Kuiper Belt, and at the rate the Dawn ship is going, it’s going to take at least seven months round trip, not counting the time spent on the Sane ship expedition, and the Dawn ship only has enough supplies to last three people for eight months.” Dawn Lucius speaks more and more excitedly, what is there to hide this kind of information, he is like giving adults the topic of elementary school students to prove that he is not illiterate.

“So you’re concluding that you’re not coming back from this mission, huh? What kind of professional are you?” Kenny Jr. Clooney provoked.

“So you majored? Graduating by copying my ideas.” Dawn Lucius felt like her eyes were going to fall out.

“Bullshit, can’t compete with you, professional enough to leave his colleagues in lunar orbit .......” Kenny Jr. Clooney had not finished, Dawn Lucius’s fist fell on his face, and Kenny Jr fell to the ground. Clooney instantly bounced up, fist like a loaded bullet.

Rodney Cruise raised both hands and put them between the two men, as if he had pushed open a door of silence, behind which was a black hole that could swallow everything, and their quarrel came to an abrupt end. The rumbling of the engines, the two followed him as they walked into the boarding lane.

This shuttle boat is U3 type, the ship’s predecessor has a cabin that can accommodate eight passengers, the space in the back is loaded with supplies, because U3 type shuttle boats are the smallest, takeoff and landing are relatively easy. shuttle boats’ main engine is in the stern, the bow has four jets for adjusting the direction, shuttle After the shuttle boats leave the Earth’s atmosphere, they move forward with maximum speed, and when they reach the Moon, they will enter the temporarily assigned near-moon orbit under the control of artificial intelligence, using the Moon’s gravity to slow down the ship, and after the ship goes around half a circle in the near-moon orbit, it will slowly descend to the Moon’s ground. The main engine is turned on to slow down the spacecraft during the descent until it stops steadily at the designated landing point.

“Please fasten your seat belt, in order to protect the passengers’ body from injury under acceleration, the chair will be adjusted to a semi-reclining state, please do not panic.” A gentle female voice came over the radio system, and while the announcement tone was being broadcast, the seats were slowly falling backwards, and the passengers were secured in a semi-reclining position as the female voice continued to come over the radio. “The ship will lift off in ten seconds.”

The countdown ended and the heavy roar formed a solid wall, isolating all outside sounds from the senses, the instantaneous thrust and earth’s gravity pulled the passengers’ bodies in the opposite direction, a distinct sense of pressure from the back to the chest, Dawn Lucius has not felt this pressure for two years, half lying position allows the passengers to quickly adapt to the acceleration brought about by the overweight state, their breathing from rapid to steady, then the passengers realized that the shuttle boats have been flying out of the earth’s atmosphere. Rodney Cruise looked back at home, it was daytime in the northern hemisphere, and the southern hemisphere was not black in the darkness, several major cities were lit up, the city roads were like veins, the lights were refracted by the air. Refracted by the air, the lights are slowly pulsating.

“Passengers, we have left the Earth’s gravitational core area, shuttle boats into the uniform state, you can open the screen in front of you to read, also can chat with the next person, in order to ensure your safety, please do not leave the seat to walk around.” After the female voice in the broadcasting system finished announcing, the voice of unbuckling the seat belt buckle sounded in space.

There were rookies in the passengers who were going into space for the first time, and while the nervousness made them afraid to take their hands off their seat belts, the excitement pushed their butts out of their seats, double-checking everything around them, even the small print of the safety tips on the back of their seats were carefully read out. Passengers with previous experience in space flight floated freely amidst jeers, and some even threw the rookies to the roof of the cabin. This weightlessness made it difficult for people to get out of their floating state without power or traction ropes, and for a while, cries for help, curses and laughter broke the bank in the cabin.

“Doctor Lucius, it’s good to see you going into space again, welcome back.” The man who opened his mouth to speak was from the lunar engineering department, the whole man was thin like a malnourished alien, with dark skin, since the establishment of the lunar base, his life was only the lunar base, the Earth, well, can only be considered a tourist destination, this is what he said to Dawn Lucius a few years ago.

“Thank you Engineers Laban.”

“It’s really sad, you lost a partner in that accident two years ago, we lost a great leader in the engineering department, you designed the orbit to build the spacecraft on the moon, Chief Kenny Clooney made it possible for the spacecraft to actually stop there.” Speaking of which, Engineer Laban shook his head, his face turning bleak as he sighed, Dawn Lucius really didn’t want to bring that up, and that’s why he didn’t want to continue working at the moon base.

“Yeah, it’s a shame.”

“Doctor Lucius,” Engineer Laban said in a turn of phrase. “This Dawn ship mission is important to all of us in humanity, and we in Engineering will make sure that the Dawn ship is overhauled properly.”

“It’s true, the mission is important.” In fact, Dawn Lucius has no idea what Dawn ship’s mission is, Kenny Jr. Clooney, Rodney Cruise are reluctant to say, Dawn Lucius is thinking that a gossipy chief reporter may know more than he does.

“Did you hear about this mission?” Engineer Laban said this with a quick glance around, he came a little closer to Dawn Lucius again and continued in a lowered voice. “The people at the observatory told me that they didn’t just observe the Sane ship, they made other discoveries, that someone was sending signals out into the universe, some kind of very secret signal band that the technology on Earth couldn’t decipher.”

“Signals? What signal?” Engineers Laban’s words pulled Dawn Lucius out of his vertigo, his body instantly lifted and his mind cleared, something Dawn Lucius was hearing about for the first time. But he then leaned back in his chair, he didn’t need to show his shock.

“At first, I heard it was some regular sound, like the ticking of a clock, and then I heard that the observatory had intercepted the contents of some files.” Engineer Laban looked up and around again, his lips almost to Dawn Lucius’s ear. “Supposedly, it could be the contents of a picture sent by the Sane ship.”

“Sane ship sends out pictures?” The passenger napping next to Dawn Lucius heard and came to interest.

“Well, not really.” Engineer Laban, finding a new audience, stood up and leaned back in his chair, nodding gravely.

“It can’t be, how can the people at the observatory tell it’s a picture?” The passenger began to question.

“That’s not the point.” Engineer Laban shook his head as he continued. “If the aliens collect all the information about the solar system and send it back to their army, and the other side just kills it, then we have no way to fight back.”

When Engineer Laban said this, the passenger who was interested earlier said nothing and turned his body to the side against the wall.

“Engineers Laban, you can’t spread the word, we don’t even know if the Sane ship is a ship, what if it’s just a big comet thrown by some spin system?”

“Doctor Lucius, the edge of the solar system is only the Kuiper Belt, there is no other galaxy, if there is, the Kuiper Belt floating countless meteorites have long been sucked over, you know.”

“I mean, the Sane ship was thrown far enough back to stop in the Kuiper belt.”

“All of that is possible, but Doctor Lucius, the FAST telescope has monitored more than just Sane ship’s trajectory during the two years you’ve been away. There is a picture inside the observatory where a Sane ship has emitted a faint light, but it was very brief, meteorites don’t glow on their own, do they?” Engineers Laban speaks more and more images, Dawn Lucius’ deep fear that he continues to speak Sane ship also plays music, such a scene scientists can not round.

“Let’s just report to the moon base and go with what the higher-ups announce.” Dawn Lucius deliberately raised his volume when he said this, and as he looked in Rodney Cruise’s direction, he noticed that the other man didn’t care at all about what Engineers Laban had said.

“The information released by the higher-ups was only for the pilot engineers on the mission, and there was no way we would know the exact information.”

“Engineers Laban, it’s not like we’re new here, you do realize that the Department of Space has rules and not all information needs to be released to everyone, right?”

“Why not?” Engineer Laban questioned.

“Engineers Laban the more you talk the more outrageous, you say that if there really is an alien hit, this after telling the world, in addition to accelerating the chaos on Earth, what else can be done?”

“At least, let those who have regrets take action sooner, huh?”

Dawn Lucius couldn’t argue with him, he waved his hand tiredly, Engineer Laban also didn’t want to pester the meaning, so he sat back in his seat. shuttle boats quickly towards the moon, Dawn Lucius on this trip is full of numerous questions, he received the instructions is a level, he has no right to ask any questions, just need to be in the This set of high-level secrecy mission system is like a number of black boxes, open the box before, everything is unknown.