At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Katz was called to Gao Tianjun's office by the staff. Gao Tianjun only said one short sentence to him: "Please follow me and leave immediately."
Gao Tianjun's tone didn't sound polite at all, like an order.
"Where are we going?" Katz asked.
"I'll tell you when the time comes." Gao Tianjun said, grabbing a black travel bag on the desk, obviously he was ready.
Katz followed Gao Tianjun downstairs obediently and came to a car that was already waiting at the door. An armed police soldier carrying a backpack came forward and handed the bag to him.
"In the bag are a few new sets of clothes and some daily necessities we bought for you." Gao Tianjun said, "We will keep your items here for you."
"Are we just leaving for a short time?" Katz asked. From the time he was called to Gao Tianjun's office to the time he was ready to get in the car, it only took three or four minutes. Everything was so sudden that he had no time to communicate with Gao Tianjun.
Interaction. However, through Gao Tianjun's serious expression, he realized that he was about to participate in an important, highly confidential mission.
"Maybe."
"Thank you!" Katz showed a meaningful smile.
After arriving at the airport, the car drove directly from the special service channel to the apron. A small business jet was waiting there. Several soldiers stood upright under the ramp. When Gao Tianjun approached, they all gave him a military salute, and then
Line up on both sides, please ask Gao Tianjun and Katz to board the plane.
After Katz boarded the plane, he found two soldiers standing at the door of the cabin. They also gave Gao Tianjun a military salute. He felt that the atmosphere seemed a bit mysterious and tense.
Gao Tianjun and Katz sat on the seats on both sides, and the two soldiers sat in front of them. Two more soldiers came up to the cabin door - two of them who had just saluted Gao Tianjun below - and they closed the cabin.
door, and then pulled down the shading panels of all the portholes one by one from front to back, and then sat in the back seat of Gao Tianjun and Katz.
The plane entered the runway and began to taxi. No one spoke in the cabin. Katz suddenly felt like he was being escorted, and he could also feel the two pairs of eyes behind him staring at him.
"Sorry, Mr. Katz! Our sun visor needs to be closed the entire flight. If you have any discomfort, please try your best to overcome it."
Katz shrugged nonchalantly, closed his eyes and rested.
After a while, with the harsh roar of the engine and a continuous and violent push on his back, Katz knew that the plane had begun to take off...
More than two hours later, the plane landed at the X Base dedicated airport.
Two military off-road vehicles drove onto the tarmac at high speed and stopped in front of the aircraft door. Under the guidance of two soldiers, Gao Tianjun and Katz walked down the ramp and got into the first vehicle, while the two soldiers got into the second vehicle.
Car. The two cars left the plane, turned around and drove outside the airport.
Katz and Gao Tianjun were sitting side by side in the back seat of an off-road vehicle. He looked out through the window. He saw several military transport planes and armed helicopters parked near the tower, and the afterglow of the setting sun coated them with a layer of golden light.
Katz looked at his watch, and the hands pointed to 19:30 pm.
"This is the Northwest Territory, right?" Katz asked.
"Yes." Gao Tianjun answered briefly.
"If I guess correctly, this is your X base. Now you have an important task that requires my help, right?"
"Exactly."
"What an honor!"
Shortly after the off-road vehicle left the airport, several tall black figures in the distance quickly appeared in their field of vision. Katz could identify those as launch towers for launch vehicles. In the bright red sunset, they seemed to tower in the vast sky.
The giants on the plain are sacred and majestic.
Katz noticed that on the rearmost launch tower, a silver-white launch vehicle had been erected, and the fairing at the top of the rocket body reflected the bright red glow...
He looked with great piety at the launch vehicle that was about to pierce the sky and fly into the unknown. While he was in awe, there was also a hint of desolation.
Since the Soviet Union's first manned spacecraft took off to orbit the Earth in the early 1960s, human exploration of the universe has not stopped for a moment. With the manned landing on the moon and the exploration of Venus, Mars, asteroids and other celestial bodies in the solar system,
With the successive launches of unmanned probe operations, people are becoming more and more interested in the exploration of the origin of life on earth and extraterrestrial life, and have begun to target the exploration of distant outer solar system space. However, despite human beings relying on their own wisdom,
He and his tireless and tireless spirit have obtained a large amount of information and made major breakthroughs one after another, but they have never been able to fully prove the deep laws of the operation of the sun itself and its planetary system. People have given infinite expectations and prospects to Voyager 1 and
The glorious footprints that Probe No. 2 has experienced during its journey of more than 50 years and spanning tens of billions of kilometers are actually filled with more unsolved mysteries!
Now, this big Eastern country seems to be starting a new era of space exploration. Will they break through the dimensional restricted area defined by the God of the Universe for tiny humans in one fell swoop? Or will they ultimately return in vain?
Katz thought that the reason why Gao Tianjun brought him to Base
.When leaving "601", he had already had a mental interaction with Jacob through the air, and the latter knew that he was going to carry out a special mission with Gao Tianjun.
"They are going to look for the 'Summer Solstice'! This may be an opportunity for you to directly contact the 'Marginal Space'..." This was the message Jacob passed to him.
After the off-road vehicle entered the gate of a steel-concrete building, it began to drive down the wide and gentle slope into the tunnel. The tunnel led to a grand and spectacular underground base, which was a hidden project specially built for wartime defense——
At a depth of tens of meters below the ground, there are wartime command posts, control centers, data centers, dormitories, canteens, hospitals, material warehouses and other functional units, all of which are distinguished by numerical codes and criss-crossed tunnels connect them to each other.
, like a maze. The top of the tunnel is neatly planned and covered with various pipes, cables and lighting facilities. There are also independent elevators built in each functional unit, which can quickly reach the ground. In addition, there are several other tunnels
The steel gates guarded by heavily armed soldiers lead to several underground secret launch silos. These launch silos are more than 100 meters deep. The huge wellheads are cleverly disguised and cannot be detected by satellites. If it enters wartime
, in the event that the ground launch site is destroyed by the enemy, they will carry out the task of launching intercontinental missiles or reconnaissance satellites. However, these underground launch silos are under the highest-level management. In X base, in addition to the command and staff organizations, there are only operations
Only the center, maintenance department and security department know their exact location and access password.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
Gao Tianjun's intention of bringing Katz to the underground base was entirely out of the need to keep the "Express No. 1" mission secret, especially to prevent the immortal man from unexpectedly changing due to a sudden whim. He explained to Li Zhanxiong that only in such a closed environment
Only in this environment can relatively effective control over Katz be formed.
Katz admired the underground structures extending in all directions and with bright lights along the way. He couldn't help but be impressed by the designers and builders of this project. He told Gao Tianjun that this was the most complex and incredible underground project he had ever seen in his life.<
/p>
After turning several intersections in the tunnel, the off-road vehicle stopped in front of a door marked with a "3525" fluorescent license plate. Gao Tianjun jumped out of the car and said to Katz: "We are here, please get out of the car!" p>
After Katz got off the car, he saw a young soldier standing at the door, looking at him with bright eyes. He smiled at the soldier, but the soldier looked away instantly without any expression on his face. Katz turned to look at him
Looking around, he found that this was a row of steel-structured single-story houses built against the tunnel wall. There seemed to be about seven or eight houses, but only this one had soldiers standing guard on the door. He realized that this might be his house in Base X.
The reason why soldiers are sent to guard his residence is because of his special abilities as an immortal.
The interior furnishings of "3525" are very simple. Except for a single bed, a table and a chair, there is no movable furniture. The TV and video phone are fixed on the wall. The innermost part of the room is the bathroom.
There are no windows in the whole room and it is all illuminated by lights; there are two small blinds on the upper part of the wall near the door, which are the openings of the air supply and exhaust pipes.
"You rest here first. I will discuss the specific work with you later." After Gao Tianjun finished speaking, he turned around and left in an off-road vehicle.
Katz was about to go out to take a look again, but the door was closed by a soldier. Only then did he notice that the soldier had been avoiding looking at him.
"Please don't worry, I won't cause you any trouble!" Katz conveyed this signal to the soldiers through the door. There was a dry cough from outside the door, but he did not respond.
Katz had a weird smile on his face...
"Express 1" was a secret launch mission. Base X did not hold a press conference, nor did it conduct an astronaut farewell ceremony as usual. Even many staff within the base did not know the details of this mission.
Content.
Different from "Project 1", the thruster of "Express 1" has completed loading of helium 3 fuel on the ground, and does not need to dock with the "Tiangong" space station for fuel refueling. After separation from the booster rocket,
It will fly directly into the orbit of Saturn and is scheduled to arrive at Saturn in 30 days.
With 180 minutes left before launch, Gao Tianjun was allowed to enter the astronaut departure center and met with Deng Kai. The latter and Zhang Nan were conducting final inspections before departure with the help of ground crew. Both of them had put on spacesuits.
, but I haven’t put on my helmet yet.
When Gao Tianjun met Deng Kai, Deng Kai's wife, Air Force Colonel Yan Shaojun, was also present. She also graduated from the University of Aerospace Science and Technology and was an alumnus of the same class as Gao Tianjun and Deng Kai. After joining the army, she was also selected to join the astronaut training brigade.
Seven or eight years ago, Gao Tianjun met Yan Shaojun at a reunion of old classmates, before she and Deng Kai got together. Gao Tianjun never saw her again until he later received an invitation from Deng Kai to his wedding.
, just found out that they were getting married. Due to work reasons, Gao Tianjun was not able to spare time to go to BJ to attend the wedding of Deng Kai and Yan Shaojun. He only made a phone call to express his blessings.
Gao Tianjun has always been a serious person. Even when old classmates get together, he rarely takes the initiative to joke, not to mention that he is still facing such a serious atmosphere now.
He stepped forward and fist bumped with Deng Kai, and said, "We haven't seen each other for two years, right? I didn't expect that we would meet on such an occasion!" Then he turned to Yan Shaojun and briefly chatted with her.<
/p>
"I heard that you are currently responsible for the research of a secret project?" Deng Kai asked Gao Tianjun, "Did you not participate in the 'Express No. 1' mission this time?"
"Unfortunately, I can't provide you with technical support in person this time. But I will still participate in the mission in another way. Today I have received permission from the headquarters to see you off. I wish you a successful completion of the mission.
!"
"Thank you, Tianjun! I will find time to invite you to my house when I come back. Then I will let you taste Shaojun's cooking skills!" Deng Kai said easily.
The meeting time was only 5 minutes. Before saying goodbye, Yan Shaojun suddenly remembered something. She took out a small object and hung it around Deng Kai's neck with her own hands. "This is the safety buckle I prepared for you.
It will bring you good luck!"
Gao Tianjun noticed that it was a flawless white Hetian jade ring pendant.
Deng Kai smiled at Yan Shaojun and said, "Aren't you my luck?"
Yan Shaojun stuffed the safety button into Deng Kai's collar, gently touched his collar with his hand, then took a step back and gave him a solemn military salute.
Gao Tianjun also paid a military salute to Deng Kai...
According to the arrangement of the X Base Command, Gao Tianjun will take Katz into the observation seat of the ground control center after the "Express 1" is launched and enters the deorbit, where they will observe the flight of the spacecraft and the landing on Enceladus.
The entire process. If necessary, Gao Tianjun can consult with Katz, and the consultation results will be reported directly to General Li Zhanxiong.
"Remember, you and '3525' are just special observers from the '601' institute!" Li Zhanxiong emphasized to Gao Tianjun. "3525" is Katz's temporary code name at the X base.
In the past, when X base carried out launch missions of launch vehicles, it would often arrange for some guests to come and observe. Among them were officials from CNSA and the military, as well as experts from collaborating units. Sometimes, they would also arrange for local national model worker representatives or national representatives.
Young students who were commended for their sexual behavior came here.
"Understood!" Gao Tianjun replied. Although he felt a little regretful that he could not participate in the launch mission in person, he also clearly realized that Li Zhanxiong had actually placed certain expectations on them by allowing him and Katz to enter the control center.
!
15 minutes before the launch of the rocket, Gao Tianjun followed Li Zhanxiong to the control center. A real-time picture of the two astronauts entering the spacecraft was playing on the big screen. Because both of them were wearing helmets, Gao Tianjun could not tell which one was Deng Kai and which one.
Zhang Nan.
He suddenly had an indescribable feeling and subconsciously looked at his watch - a green light spot on it was still flashing steadily. That indicated that everything in room "3525" was normal and the door was still locked.
The 60-second countdown begins...
Gao Tianjun glanced at his watch again, which showed that everything was normal.
The countdown enters the final moment: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6...
Gao Tianjun suddenly felt flustered. He instinctively looked at his watch again, and his head suddenly felt like it was exploding - the watch had issued a red warning and was vibrating rapidly at the same time!
"Something's happening!" he exclaimed. But at the same time, the loud rumble of the rocket engine erupting came from the loudspeaker in the hall, completely covering up his voice.
On the main screen, the flames ejected from the lower part of the booster rocket quickly formed a thick smoke, wrapping the launcher and the rocket body. After a few seconds, the rocket slowly rose from the thick smoke and pointed straight into the blue sky... Gao Tianjun rushed out of the control center desperately...