Mysterious MissionStar Map Draftsman I: Federation War

There were only two people in the conference room, one was looking down at his papers, and the other young face was staring in the direction of where Rodney Cruise’s trio had entered, but again, his eyes were not resting on the trio.

The lights in the conference room were turned on extra brightly, and the three men, who had just come out of darkness mode, squinted and walked to the table. The man who was looking down at the documents did not look up, except for the top of his white head, and the glasses that were about to fall to the table, and the uniform he was wearing was the same as that of an ordinary aerospace engineer, nothing special. And look at the young man standing next to him, if the United Nations has not long banned the production of humanoid robots, the young man is standing like a low-level artificial intelligence, or, as is the standby charge like mute. The hologram on the wall of the meeting room did not open, there is no extra information about this meeting, three people standing in a row in front of the old man, waiting for him to speak.

“The three engineers have worked hard.” The older man looked up, his eyes rounding the top of the frame, eyeing the three, he finally rested his gaze on Rodney Cruise and continued. “I’m the head of aerospace engineering, General Quentin.”

General Quentin, whom no one had ever met, was the initiator and chief of the space program, and he alone decided all decisions related to extraterrestrial activities, and no organization’s rights could interfere with his program, and there were even rumors that he had invented the heat-resistant silicon-based materials for the spacecraft. General Quentin closed the paper file in his hand, raised his left hand, and the “robot” standing beside him walked out past the three men.

“No one knows about today’s conversation except for the four of us.” General Quentin handed the document in his hand to each of the three, and when the three took it, the cover showed a level one mission, a level zero mission with the highest authority, no one had taken a level zero mission so far, and a level one mission was rarely seen. The three opened the file suspiciously and started to look through it from the beginning.

“To save time, I’ll just tell you the conclusion.” General Quentin sat down on the table and took a hard breath, a big one for a man his age.

“We noticed a large meteorite in the Kuiper Belt in 1997, and it appeared out of nowhere, and the observatory spent ten years monitoring it. By 2007, we sent three satellites one after another to look at that meteorite, which was used to confirm if our guess was correct.” General Quentin puts away his left foot, which was supporting his body, and replaces it with his right foot to support himself.

“It wasn’t until 2038 that the third launch of the satellite managed to get there and see, up close and personal, what that meteorite that suddenly appeared was. In fact, it was a spacecraft that exceeded our perception, and the satellite sent back pictures, and after consulting with the country, we started a lunar project and also established a Mars laboratory.” General Quentin lifted his right hand, which was supporting his body, and pointed his index finger to the sky as he continued. “All of this, everything you struggled for, was because of that ship.”

General Quentin pushed back with both hands and stood up with both hands at his waist, trying to keep himself balanced, he walked up to the three men, took the file in Rodney Cruise’s hand and skillfully flipped to a picture in the middle, he ground the file back to Rodney Cruise’s hand. He pointed to Dawn Lucius and Kenny Jr. Clooney respectively, and pointed to the picture in Rodney Cruise’s hand, indicating the two to turn to the corresponding picture, the three could not say a word, the ship, the ship called “Sane ship”, really exists, floating there The ship, the “Sane ship”, really exists, floating there. When did this ship appear? Who drove it there? Why didn’t it go further? How big is it? What was driving it? A whole lot of questions lingered in the minds of the three of them, and they had no more information than the photos.

“A week ago, the observatory monitored a signal, a new frequency band, it was audio, we couldn’t understand what was in it, but it was definitely the language of some kind of creature, the source of the signal was none other than the Sane ship,” General Quentin said as he turned around, he rummaged under the papers on his desk and pulled out a black object, only is the size of a finger, rectangular box, he cupped the box in his hand, thumb pressed a round button in the middle, a burst of static generated noise began to flow out, like listening to an old radio, the noise that appears when tuning the frequency, monotonous and even a little offensive. “ooh zee, kee, ooh ......” A thick sound came out of the player in General Quentin’s hand, like an old aged cow mimicking some sound, and before the three could figure out what was going on, an intermittent gasp rang out from the player. The speaker, as if badly wounded, or perhaps, choking on the loss of a loved one.

General Quentin puts the player in his hand back on the table.

“This voice has only been heard by a handful of top acoustic and linguistic experts.” General Quentin began to cough, he beat his chest hard, the accompanying pain made him bend down, Rodney Cruise rushed forward to support General Quentin, after a mouthful of old phlegm spit out, he breathed deeply and said softly. “I’m sure we weren’t the only ones who heard the voice, just an hour after listening to it, the rival spacecraft took off from Earth and departed, with much media coverage, as I’m sure you already know, and as the four of us are talking at this very moment, they are igniting in Mars orbit, and they are about to get their first slingshot gravitational acceleration.”

General Quentin slowly turned around and turned out a piece of paper from his desk, a picture of a rival ship, this would have been taken when the ship passed the moon, Dawn Lucius guessed that the ship was only half the size of the Dawn ship, with a speed of only two hundred kilometers per second, the letters on the ship’s hull showed that the ship was built in North America in 2041 “General Quentin put the photo in Rodney Cruise’s folder and poked it with his index finger, he wanted to add something, the words came to his mouth and swallowed them back together with his saliva.

The old man turned to amble on the table, the blue light cold, shining when the old man’s white hair, silvery light like the starlight in the vast universe, millions of years ago emitted, through time, to the Earth evolved into a twinkle. He bowed his head and sighed as his back sank, Rodney Cruise three still did not find a reason to speak, they did not know how to speak at this point, what to ask? Can’t ask “General Quentin are you okay?”

“I have no right to demand anything from you.” The old man said, turning to face the three men, his eyes full of tears as he raised his head. “But I am going to ask you now, not as your superiors, as an Earthling, to board the Dawn ship in twenty minutes and sail to the Kuiper Belt.” Dawn Lucius’ heart beat faster, he was going to open his mouth to ask why it was so urgent, he only told Stacean Lucius to go to the moon, not to the edge of the solar system, Dawn Lucius still had many questions, he did not know what the other two thought. dawn Lucius eagerly glanced at Rodney Cruise, at this time Commander Cruise is looking down at the papers in his hand, or, looking down to avoid General Quentin’s eyes. Only Kenny Jr. Clooney, his eyes following General Quentin meekly, seemed to be waiting for one more command before he could set off on his own in the Dawn ship.

“I have to say sorry to you guys, you don’t have time to explain to your families now, and you can’t explain to your families, Dawn ship suddenly departed, the PR media on Earth have a response plan, and with the military maintenance, the society is not in turmoil. As for your families, the space agency will give explanations and support, in addition, I have signed a special citizen order, your families will enjoy all the preferential rights in the society.” General Quentin was weary, and his face had the simple expression of an old farmer who had been busy all year and whose crops were in arrears. He turned around and brought out the transparent device underneath the paper document, the size of the device was close to A4 paper, he shook the device and the screen was lit, the device recognized General Quentin’s bio information and automatically unlocked, the screen was paused to play a screenshot of the video screen was Sane ship’s.

“I’m getting old, I’m still not used to using high tech stuff.” General Quentin toggled the contents of the screen with the fingers of his other hand, and a document with a “Level 1 Confidential” label appeared. The content, or any device that can log into their own account can view the content.

“No one can guarantee that competitors will use the technology for all of humanity if they get priority access to the contents of the Sane ship, and for now, the think tank’s predictions came out badly.” The old man waved his hand, tension and doubt running through the late night, the two emotions mixing and fermenting into exhaustion, he propped both hands on the table and continued after easing up a little. “The think tank predicts that everything we know will disappear, and that the other side’s army has long been eyeing the moon.” The old man pointed a backhand at the door.

“I have a regret.” The old man pulled out a photo from his jacket pocket of a smiling middle-aged man in a baseball cap next to an 11- or 12-year-old boy holding a four-wheel-drive model rocket with a shiny gold medal hanging on his chest. “My son always wanted to be an aerospace engineer, he is my pride, he said .......” Tears slipped down the old man’s cheeks and were slow to fall at the corners of his mouth, the converging gravity that pulled him into a whirlpool of memories where a boy said he wanted to go on a space voyage with his dad through the stars and seas. “He went to another place where I couldn’t go, and when he left, he made me promise him to protect his favorite planet, Earth, which was his home.”

The old man took a deep breath and put the photo back in his pocket. He pressed down hard on his clothes, trying to press the photo into his heart, and he put his hand back in the bag and touched the photo to make sure it was still in the bag before he took his hand out.

“Earth is a fragile home, where it’s warm, peaceful and, most importantly, where we have people we love. In a child’s eyes, we are their heroes, and they believe that no matter what the odds, his heroes will protect him, as we always do as fathers.” The old man breathed a long sigh of relief.

“The objectives of this mission are all in the document I just sent you, in five minutes, please board the three of you, please.” The old man turned around shakily and bowed to the three, the top of his flowery head stopped in front of the three, he slowed down, propped both hands on his knees and continued to bend down. The old man felt dizzy, the years of exertion plus the wildly growing thoughts in his heart made his aged body overwhelmed, the old man’s body collapsed forward and six hands suddenly held him in place. He slowly raised his head, eight eyes crowded with tears looked at each other, no one said anything, when the old man stood firm, the three saluted, after adjusting their breathing, Rodney Cruise turned around, Dawn Lucius and Kenny Jr. Clooney followed, the three walked out of the conference room, there were already more than thirty people outside waiting for them, they began to applaud, applause like a triumphal They began to applaud, applause like a triumphant cannonball, especially piercing at midnight.

“Commander Cruise, we’ll be involved in the Dawn ship mission.” A slightly chubby man greeted him, his face white even at night, with a black fleshy mole on his left cheek, like a chocolate crumb accidentally left behind by gluttony, and he pointed backhandedly at the men behind him and continued. “They are all experts in various fields, unfortunately, can’t join you three on board, but we will keep in touch with you at the base, Dawn ship’s data and the base are synchronized, we will be the first to help you analyze and feed back to you.”

Before the trio could say anything, five men in military uniforms stood behind them, the lead one trying to reach for Rodney Cruise’s suitcase, Rodney Cruise retracted his hand back, the lead man in military uniform took a half step back and mechanically and politely raised his right hand. “Please board the ship.” And with that, the trio got into a larger tour bus, Dawn Lucius’ mind full of worry for Stacean Lucius, fearing that his son would be disappointed in him, or that he would be angry with him for leaving without saying goodbye, the most important question in his head now was - are we coming back? Or, when will we come back?

The sightseeing car towards the back of the conference room, the outline of a circle of yellow lights flashing, like a glowing firefly, head into another piece of darkness, darkness is covered by silence, even if gradually increasing the sound of the engine, just like an old lady’s rambling breathless. dawn Lucius grabbed the seat belt in front of the chest, thumbs on the heart, he can clearly feel, as if there is a chest cavity. He could clearly feel as if a beast was crashing inside his chest, bang bang bang ...... He missed the earth, missed Stacean Lucius, missed his fleshy little palms, missed his unsteady standing when he was happy, this mission, all they knew was to drive a ship to another ship, as to what to do, and whether there were other missions, he knew nothing. The tour bus sped off and came to the gate marked with a security exit. The man in the military uniform in the lead got off and walked straight to the door of the locker on the left side where the spacesuits were taken, where only he had the authority to open the door. clean starlight shining through.

When they arrived at the launch site, the engine of the engineering vehicle that formed the Dawn ship had already been started. These engineering vehicles are similar to shuttle boats, except that the engineering vehicles have more tools and also come with their own robotic arms. As the trio entered the engineering vehicle, the voice of the man in the military uniform in the lead came through the headset. “Take care.” When the trio looked back, the people in military uniforms were saluting in unison, Rodney Cruise’s head slightly owed forward to the people in military uniforms in return, and Dawn Lucius glanced at Rodney Cruise’s face when he still maintained the firm qualities of Commander Cruise. The mechanical arms of the engineering vehicle slowly retracted and squeezed at the bottom of the body, and the engines shot out blue light, they would be farther and farther away from Earth from this moment on.

As the engineering vehicle rose, darkness was dropped to the ground, a dark red began to appear on the lunar horizon, then an orange-red, the sunlight illuminated areas like the fields Dawn Lucius had seen as a child in the morning, the engineering vehicle had risen to deceleration height, the sunlight killed the specially treated glass, Dawn Lucius felt a soreness around his eyes, the Dawn ship was It floated in his eyes, it looked like, a joyous cruise ship, the searchlights around the hull turned up to their brightest, lifeless, Dawn Lucius looked at the flexible device in his hands, he set the photo of Stacean Lucius as the first screen and mentally whispered, “Daddy loves you.”

The engineering vehicle drove to the E area in front of the Dawn ship hull, the door of the isolation bin was pulled upwards, the engineering vehicle sent the three into the Dawn ship, they stepped onto the thick metal floor of the Dawn ship, the engineering vehicle slowly exited the isolation bin backwards, after about thirty meters from the ship, it accelerated towards the direction of the moon base and fled, no handshake, no goodbye, no thanks of an official nature, after all, it was just After all, it is only a primary artificial intelligence, with an artificial and particularly restrictive body. Out of the isolation bin, the real face of the E area appeared in front of the three, four double landing modules fixed in a row, behind the wall corresponding to the four toolboxes, transparent glass hanging behind the tools, large red fire extinguishers most conspicuous. Opposite the landing module there are sixteen aviation chairs, used to protect the engineer’s body from being accelerated overweight injury, when the engineer needs to carry out alien landing operations, they can also temporarily sit here.

The E section is about 100 meters long, and the area near the head of the ship is empty. This space may be reserved for maintenance of the landing module, or, in the original plan, for parking more landing modules. The tablet device in Dawn Lucius’ hand showed that it was Area F, the main flight control room and watchtower, and as they approached the door, there were two cleaning robots in the right-hand corner, with yellow lights indicating that they were charging. Are these the only things that move on this ship?”

The three stood in a line in front of the door, waiting for the AI to open the door after recognizing their biological system, but after standing for a long time, the door did not respond. Rodney Cruise turned his face to look at Dawn Lucius, and found that Dawn Lucius was consulting the information on the tablet, trying to find the reason why the door did not open, Rodney Cruise turned his face to Kenny Jr. Clooney and found the other man staring at the door. Commander Cruise lifted his arm to see if the flexible device on his wrist contained instructions for opening the door. According to the rules of human-computer interaction in the space sector, the way to open the door would be displayed on the engineer’s accompanying device once they were a certain distance away from the door. When General Quentin synchronized the documents to the three people in the conference room, he should have synchronized the secret key to open the door.

“I’m going.” Rodney Cruise shouted, he found them indoors actually wearing space suits. Dawn Lucius and Kenny Jr. Clooney, attracted by his voice, the two looked at him, only to see Commander Cruise hands and feet to remove helmets, the two had not seen what was happening, Commander Cruise again said. “We didn’t take off our helmets.”

The other two understood, indoor people do not need to wear space suits, and opening the door is required to identify their faces and eyes, across the helmet, the artificial intelligence can not identify their information, which is the reason why the door can not open. After the other two took off their helmets, the three first looked at each other, then, they could not help but laugh, and the backlog in their thick depression finally lightened some. The artificial intelligence opened the door, the sunlight from the bow glass window poured in, the watchtower bright and empty, and after laughing, Dawn Lucius instead felt a little sad.

Dawn ship’s bow has two glass windows with a total area of about one hundred square meters, from the ground until the top of the cabin are glass, can directly see the situation outside, outside the glass there is a metal shroud that can be closed, when the ship passes through the open air space, it is possible to open the shroud to observe the situation outside, at this time the shroud is open. Below the glass window there are eight stations, each station in front of two monitors, should be for different functional positions, two or three meters behind the station there is a larger stool, next to the stool there is a small table, above the table there are three small screens, the most left one screen below a place to put the palm of your hand, it looks like open a certain advanced permission to use. There is a raised circular table in the center of the watch tower, and there is a hexahedron in the round center part of the table, which looks like a hologram player. The furnishings here are very simple, and there are camera matrices placed in each of the four corners of the room, which should be used to record the work logs of the watch tower, and at the same time, all the actions here will be synchronized to the moon base, and the synergistic engineers there will also make decision suggestions based on these records.

“It’s really like a zany new luxury car!” Dawn Lucius exclaimed as she looked at what was in front of her.

“No, the second most expensive luxury car in the history of mankind.” Kenny Jr. Clooney said as he walked toward the glass window, tapping all the keyboards on his desktop in an attempt to start his computer.

“Come over here, you two, while we watch the mission briefing.” Rodney Cruise had walked over to the hologram table, he was clicking on the file in the flexible device on his wrist, the two walked over to the table, the three stood in a triangle, at that moment, the hexahedron lifted upwards for some distance, after hovering and stabilizing in the air, each side of the hexahedron began to light up, the flight path map of Dawn ship was displayed in the air, the image in the form of playing a movie The image shows the first slingshot acceleration point of Dawn ship, and finally Dawn ship will rush into Neptune’s gravitational fall orbit, using Neptune’s gravity as a brake for Dawn ship.

Rodney Cruise raised his left hand and the hologram paused as he spoke, “On this mission, there will be just the three of us on the Dawn ship.” After he fiddled with the files in the flex device, a diagram of the cryo-bunker appeared on the projection, after reading the contents of the diagram, Dawn Lucius felt an extra chill on his back, his heart clenched as if it was being squeezed hard by the thing in the diagram, he clenched his fists until his bones were white where they were. Then look at Kenny Jr. Clooney, his previous confidence has disappeared, his mouth open like a black hole, his face white.

“This, this is our mission.” Rodney Cruise said, pointing to the image.