Chapter 704 - 683: Unrest

What could safely preserve itself on Earth for hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of years?

Firstly, its shell material would have to be extremely inert and nonreactive, secondly, a copious source of energy, and a comprehensive redundancy mechanism.

If contemporary humans were tasked with preserving a machine to maintain its normal functions for tens of thousands of years, they would have to build a sealed metal storage room, then create a vacuum, ensure absolute dryness, wax sealing, and such, yet they still couldn’t guarantee success.

The ’Black Shuttle’, however, made people believe in its capacity to do just that.

It was a chance encounter with an alien machine that was still operational, storing many kinds of advanced knowledge...

But for people to completely trust it, it still had a number of issues to resolve, thankfully, the base’s scientists spared no effort to address these despite the cost.

The three characters on the surface of the ’Black Shuttle’ were actually the abstraction of a universal language evolved in a certain world line, translated as ’Karst’.

This was the only text on this pseudo-alien artifact; no other textual markings were inside its structure, and ultimately, it was sealed to the point where it couldn’t be opened without force.

The exterior of the ’Black Shuttle’ was covered with a layer of silicon carbide crystals that were insulating, and beneath that, there was a metallic film that clamped down tightly under the action of electromagnetic force leaking from the modified C172 battery, creating an indestructible unified defense.

Such a completely sealed shell ruled out the possibility of disassembly with care; any detection attempts would be blocked, revealing only a flawlessly integrated construct.

The metallic hydrogen battery had enough power to maintain its state for 7 years; once the battery depleted, it would lose the ability to contain the metallic hydrogen and the entire artifact would be completely destroyed by a violent compression explosion and combustion process, leaving no evidence whatsoever.

Seven years was ample time to fulfill its mission, by which time the base would certainly possess the conclusive power over everything.

Xiao Okada had just been double-checking that the internal components were correctly positioned; once sealed, the ’Black Shuttle’ could no longer be opened.

At that moment, Lin Ju also came up beside him, observing together this counterfeit that might be unprecedented in history.

"Is it powered on yet? Let’s try it out,"

"Of course, it doesn’t have a physical switch—it’s been operating since it was assembled,"

Xiao Okada explained while moving a nearby tool rack that held a classic CRT monitor with its signal port connected to a receiving antenna.

He twisted the frequency tuning knob and stopped at 3650Mhz; immediately, the monitor displayed a complex continuous wave pattern.

"It’s simple mathematical encryption, decipherable by any civilization that has entered the radio era, equipped with a self-translating system. After inputting sufficient samples of this civilization’s text and symbols, the ’Black Shuttle’s’ artificial intelligence can comprehend the language and mathematical system of the civilization and thus communicate."

The ’Black Shuttle’s’ communication methods were set to radio and gravity waves; not only did it have a radio transmitter, but it also genuinely possessed a gravity wave transmitter—designed by the base using knowledge acquired, although it was inoperable and lacked the most important antenna material, it still looked the part.

To ensure foolproof success, they had even begun transmitting the concocted data associated with the supposed ’discoverer’ to the AI for self-learning; in its configuration, everything was as described.

It governed itself as a beacon of enlightenment left on Earth by an alien civilization, who would pass on knowledge to a varying extent once the civilization reached a certain level—at least that’s what the ’Black Shuttle’s’ artificial intelligence believed.

Xiao Okada’s focus had now shifted to a laptop. Its hard drive was filled with terabytes of miscellaneous data, and the ’Black Shuttle’ was rapidly absorbing the information.

Lin Ju glanced at the displayed time; even with the assistance of Stellar III, it would take 4 hours, and probably even longer including setup time.

It seemed another sleepless night lay ahead.

A few resting individuals would wake up to continue Xiao Okada’s work once he was compelled to sleep, pressing on until the ’Black Shuttle’ was finished.

In a dozen hours or so, upon its reemergence, it would become an unknown creation set to change the fate of human civilization.

Lin Ju touched its smooth surface with mixed feelings, patiently sitting beside it and watching the researchers who were still busy at work.

...

"...three, two, one, ignition!"

"Ignition!"

The flames from the space shuttle launch, even though transmitted through thousands of kilometers onto the screen, still illuminated the faces of those in the control center, with the white-hot flames almost filling the entire screen.

The launch of Typhoon went off without a hitch, and if not for its highly special significance, it wouldn’t even be worth much attention.

Zhong Cheng stood up and clapped vigorously, unable to resist stealing a glance at the composed Lin Ju.

The latter had only flown into the Capital that morning, and although the entire process was very ordinary, Zhong Cheng’s heart had been beating exceptionally hard since then, feeling as if something big was about to happen.

Whenever he had a moment, he would ponder whether he had overlooked something, and in parallel, he began to supervise the launch process of Typhoon even more rigorously. But so far, the space shuttle had been functioning perfectly normal, and as long as it didn’t explode upon entering space, any losses wouldn’t be a significant issue.

But that unsettling intuition hadn’t disappeared, causing Zhong Cheng to appear a bit more solemn than usual.

"What’s wrong, Director Zhong?"

"Nothing."

Declining the concern from others, Zhong Cheng continued with today’s schedule in an orderly fashion:

Meeting with the leadership, speaking at the Academy of Sciences, presenting on stage, press conference...

It wasn’t until around seven in the evening, when the last public event was about to conclude, that he finally breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that his recent irregular lifestyle from too many late nights could naturally lead to palpitations or inexplicable tachycardia.

He maintained that thought until he returned to the Aeronautics Commission Building, packed his things, and went down to the underground parking lot carrying his briefcase.

Next to his old Accord, there was another car parked with someone inside.

...

"Director Zhong, are you heading home?"

Zhong Cheng nodded. He remembered a similar scenario a few months back, but that time the person who was startled was the other party.

And now the situation was reversed; he finally understood the source of his unease today.

Seeing that no one else was nearby, Lin Ju tapped on the car door:

"How about I treat you to dinner? You’ve always been the one treating me whenever we are in the Capital."

Zhong Cheng noticed the words "in the Capital."

"Where are we eating?"

"My place, Manman has made quite some progress with her cooking lately."

"Alright."

Zhong Cheng didn’t have time to think further, as if driven by some force, he got into the car, only sending a brief text message to his loved one explaining that he might not be able to come home tonight.

The car drove straight to Capital Airport and stopped next to a ready C810.

The wind was still blowing at the airport in the evening, but Zhong Cheng’s slightly swollen head couldn’t feel it at all, as he followed silently.

Forty minutes later, the plane landed on a runway at a base located over two thousand kilometers away.