Chapter 273

Lunar base, third analysis laboratory.

Zhao Kaiyuan stares at the pile of probe wreckage on the console.

"This thing..." He used tweezers to pick up a fragment the size of a palm, the surface of the fragment was that kind of eerie purple pattern, even under the laboratory lights it emitted a dark luster.

"The material structure does not conform to known physical laws at all, look at this crystal arrangement, it is a five-fold symmetric quasicrystal structure, but it presents icosahedral symmetry at the nanoscale."

"This must be a ghost thing that grew out by violating both the point group theory of crystallography and the space group theory."

Chen Guang, who was standing next to him, pushed his glasses: "So it's artificially synthesized?"

"Definitely." Zhao Kaiyuan put the fragment into the scanning electron microscope, "This kind of 'I want to go against all physical laws' structure cannot grow in a natural environment. And look—"

He pulled up the 3D model, the internal structure of the fragment unfolded layer by layer like fractal geometry, and the symmetry increased by one level for every deeper micro-scale.

"This is a typical 'energy flow topology' design." Zhao Kaiyuan rubbed his hands excitedly.

"Using the material's own micro-structure to guide energy flow, the efficiency is at least three orders of magnitude higher than our wires and chips."

"Simply put, this thing acts as a structural material, a circuit board, and a heat sink, three uses in one material."

Wang Hao leaned over, staring at the dazzling geometric figures on the screen: "So it is much more advanced than the materials we use now?"

"Simply advanced to the point of absurdity." Zhao Kaiyuan pulled up the comparison data.

"Using the structural principles of this fragment to retrofit our Xuanming batteries, the energy density can be increased by another five times. Used on mech armor, the anti-beam ability is increased by 300%. If..."

He paused, his eyes brighter: "If we can reverse-engineer its energy system, we might jump directly from the fusion era to..."

"I don't know what era it will be, anyway it's much better than now."

At the other end of the laboratory, Li Yang is checking the recovered mech wreckage.

Three were completely melted, two were broken into two pieces, only his own mech was considered "intact."

If missing a left arm, chest armor melted through, and back thrusters scorched counts as intact.

"How long for repairs?" He asks the engineer next to him.

"Lunar Soil-7 armor plate inventory is insufficient, have to wait for a new batch to be synthesized." The engineer smiled bitterly.

"And Captain Li, your mech damage rate is 67%, it should be scrapped according to regulations."

"Repair." Li Yang only said one word.

"But—"

"It accompanied me from the warehouse all the way to Jupiter's orbit." Li Yang patted the broken leg armor of the mech, "Can't let it die here."

The engineer sighed and began recording the repair list on the tablet.

At this time, the main screen of the laboratory suddenly flickered.

Torch Dragon-3's interface popped up, Chen Guang's voice came from the speaker: "Kaiyuan, is there another layer of nanoscale coding structure under the purple patterns on the fragment in your hand?"

Zhao Kaiyuan put the fragment into the high-resolution transmission electron microscope: "Let me see... damn, there really is."

"Like an integrated circuit, but a hundred times finer than our nano-chips. What is this? Control circuit?"

"Might be a storage medium." Chen Guang's tone was rarely excited.

"Using the crystal lattice defects of the material itself to store data, theoretically the storage density can reach 100TB per cubic centimeter. If it can be read..."

"If it can be read, we can know who built this thing, what it came for, and—" Zhao Kaiyuan looked up at the camera, "What they want to do next."

The entire laboratory went quiet.

Everyone stared at that fragment.

Longyin Control Center, Feng Yan stares at the real-time data transmitted back on the big screen.

The reverse engineering progress bar of the probe wreckage climbed slowly, now it has reached 12%. For every percentage point it climbs, a pile of astonishing technical details is parsed out.

"Energy system confirmed." Chen Guang reported in the communication.

"Antimatter annihilation as the main, stellar energy absorption as the auxiliary."

"But the antimatter it uses is not the hydrogen antimatter we conventionally understand, but a kind of... composite antimatter particle, the annihilation efficiency is 37% higher, and there is almost no radiation residue."

"Meaning they can safely play with antimatter?" Wang Hao interjected, "We have to be careful with magnetic levitation traps to store even a little antihydrogen, they use this thing as fuel?"

"Technology gap." Li Yang's voice came from the lunar base, with welding sounds in the background, "Just like us looking at people a hundred years ago burning coal steam engines. However..."

He paused: "I found a structure suspected to be a 'cockpit' from a relatively large piece of wreckage."

The screen switched to the lunar laboratory.

Li Yang pointed to a twisted metal tubular structure with complex interfaces and fixing devices inside.

"No life support system, no control interface, not even a seat." Li Yang said, "More like a... slot. Used to plug something in."

Chen Guang suddenly said: "Torch Dragon-3 found a matching structure in the database. In the technical data left by the Gamma-7 civilization, there is a similar design description."

"They call it 'consciousness carrier interface'—used to directly connect pure energy life forms or artificial intelligence consciousness carriers."

"So the probe has no pilot," Feng Yan understood, "It is the pilot itself. An AI that can fly, fight, and extract deuterium-tritium."

"And it's a highly specialized AI." Chen Guang pulled up the analysis report.

"Inferring from its behavioral patterns, its 'thinking' is completely task-oriented: scouting, assessment, replenishing energy, transmitting intelligence."

"No extra movements, no emotional simulation. Just like..."

He thought for a moment and found a suitable metaphor: "Just like a program executed perfectly."

Wang Hao muttered: "So we are fighting a... program?"

"Much more complex than that." Zhao Kaiyuan's voice joined in, with irrepressible excitement.

"Old Chen, I read the data! There really is stored information in the fragment, using quantum bit encoding, but the encryption method... damn, this encryption method is simply amazing."

"Using the random fluctuations of cosmic background radiation as a key, changing the password every second."

"Can it be cracked?"

"Give me some time, Torch Dragon-3 is cracking it with all its might, I've called upon the computing power of the entire solar system." Zhao Kaiyuan paused.

"But I read some unencrypted cache data from the scraps, guess what I found?"

"Don't keep us in suspense."

"It has a database inside, recording the... death reports of seventeen civilizations."

The temperature in the laboratory dropped sharply.

"Death reports?" Feng Yan repeated.