Chapter 619 - 606 M Incident

"Once again, humanity’s footprints are imprinted on the lunar soil, but this time, we come to conquer,"

Standing before the Presidential Palace Lawn, John, backlit by the setting sun, delivered a televised address to the nation.

It was now 18:00 Central time on the 23rd. One hour ago, Origin carried two Artemis III astronauts to a successful Moon landing, and they performed an extravehicular activity within five minutes.

"The Moon is our closest ally, a stepping stone for humanity to reach space or even farther realms, a frontier for expanding into space. It holds vast resources waiting for our exploitation, just like San Francisco in 1830, a land laden with treasure..."

John’s speech, grandiose and impassioned, coupled with the intermittent switching to various highlights of spaceflight, was very impactful, immersing television viewers in the experience.

However, McMaster, who was offscreen, kept getting distracted, staring intently at the sunset that served as John’s backdrop.

The sun displayed a brilliance on the horizon, as if trying to illuminate the entire earth as much as possible before extinguishing.

He looked at the sunset as if he saw the end of all human civilization.

But the sun would rise again after setting, whereas the end of human civilization would result in deathly silence.

"Such a beautiful sunset,"

suddenly said a middle-aged Caucasian man standing beside him, seemingly just appreciating the view.

McMaster, weary, turned his head and whispered,

"David, you are now more important than any of us."

David Ussnor, a career astrophysicist and mathematician, currently head of the Sociology Department at Princeton University, a member of the American Mathematical Society, and also a fellow of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences.

An astrophysicist heading a Sociology Department was already a focal point of interest, but David was also somewhat famous for being an alien enthusiast—not one of those lunatics chasing UFOs everywhere, but a scholar genuinely researching alien civilizations.

To study possible alien structures and even types of language, David had also spent a significant amount of time on cryptography, philosophy, and linguistics, and had achieved considerable success in these fields.

However, he now also had a covert role as the head of Office Thirteen at the Pentagon, directly responsible to the President.

With just over two days, the fully mobilized Federal Government had made preliminary preparations.

Upon discovering an unknown signal—now referred to as the "M Event," with M standing for the first letter of Mars—the Bureau took only 8 hours to secure all 22 individuals who knew about it, four of whom had heard of it in casual conversation.

Meanwhile, agents worked through the night following high-level directives to find someone proficient in astronautics and sociology, preferably also knowledgeable in linguistics and encryption. David was nearly a perfect match for the profile.

The Pentagon formed two teams, one centered around David and another independent group, to systematically analyze the M Event. Both teams reached a definitive conclusion:

The signals were not sent by humans.

The odd encryption method, camouflaged as natural signals, was clearly a characteristic of intelligent life, and it was possible to deduce that their malicious intent outweighed any benevolence.

Between two unfamiliar civilizations, arbitrary kindness seems improbable, but there is always a reason for sufficient malice to arise.

Was it a probe, a spacecraft, or something else that sent the signals? Why do it secretly? What are they relaying? What is their level of technology, and where do they come from?

For the moment, these questions remained unanswered, but the mere confirmation of "their" existence was more than enough.

The Pentagon named Office Thirteen after M’s position in the alphabet, and the number thirteen itself historically represents misfortune in Western culture, sending a chill down the spine of the very few in the know.

To date, fewer than thirty high-level officials and experts were aware of the M Event and Office Thirteen, but they were on par with the highest echelons of power.

Clearly, they had no intention of making the M Event public, nor did they plan to share it with other nations. Instead, they dispatched agents to ascertain whether the other two probes, European and from the Federation, had also received the signal.

After all, there remained a very slim chance that America could engage with aliens early and gain an advantage from it.

Only in the final moments, when it became necessary to disclose the truth, could the outside world possibly learn of this ultimate secret.

But for McMaster, his first priority was always America’s safety, and the pressure from the aliens felt almost limitless.

Surprisingly, David didn’t overreact upon learning everything, only showing mild surprise before acting as if it had been expected.

"Humanity was bound to face this day, sooner or later, nothing to be surprised about," he said.

These were David’s first words upon the establishment of Office Thirteen, but unlike him, who could calmly accept any outcome, elites like McMaster and John could not. In their view, the Federation had already begun shouldering the mission to save all of humankind.

The world was in chaos, yet it was ultimately up to the beacon of freedom to guide the direction of civilization!

...

"Why do I get a sense of doom and compassion here?"

Zhong Cheng looked at a clip of John’s speech on his phone, expressing his feeling with uncertainty.

"Really?"

Lin Ju was full of question marks, not picking up on any such sentiment.

"Maybe it’s just my imagination... Actually, I feel more like he’s kind of criticizing us, there’s something off about the tone of those few lines."

"How normal is that, we should be thankful he didn’t jump out and scold us for disturbing the Moon’s harmony."

"True, let’s just focus on our spaceship."

It was 8 AM, and all four astronauts on the Black Rabbit Space Station had entered the Chapter 9, ready to land at any moment.

Artemis III had already landed one step ahead of them, but from the ground to the Moon, no one cared too much, just focusing on working according to the plan.

Since the Chapter 9 was large and the astronauts had confidence in themselves, this landing consisted of four astronauts plus three robots, without leaving anyone behind on the Black Rabbit Space Station.

Having more people was certainly advantageous. Although this landing was short, with "14" included, a total of eight workers plus a vast array of auxiliary engineering machinery could accomplish a considerable amount of work.

Zhong Cheng’s plan was to stay only 36 hours, during which astronauts would need to work a total of 20 hours to complete the scheduled tasks, then they could return to the space station for a hearty meal and good sleep, awaiting the arrival of the scientific research team and preparing for the second landing.

At 8:30 AM, the Chapter 9 detached from the Black Rabbit Space Station.

Just then, Lin Ju stood up with a hint of pain, saying:

"I’m feeling a bit unwell, you guys go on without me."

"What’s wrong?"

Zhong Cheng immediately asked with concern.

"I had spicy hotpot with Manman yesterday morning, been like this all night— I’ll go lie down somewhere."

"But the landing..."

"Hey, what’s so strange about that? It’d be interesting if I were landing myself, but just watching will make anyone sick."

Zhong Cheng then felt a bit more relieved, quickly instructing:

"Xiao Wang, take Director Lin to rest. If it’s not good, call a doctor immediately, got it?"

"Yes... Follow me, I’ll help you over..."