From the beginning, everyone knew that the Kunlun mission itself was full of risks and surprises, and several astronauts were mentally prepared to not be able to return to Earth or even to die for it. However, in
In many demonstration meetings before departure, no one believed that the "Cloud Body" would regard the approach of the human detection spacecraft as a provocation. Under the premise that the intelligence levels of the two parties were very different, unless the "Kunlun" was attacking the "Cloud Body"
If it releases hostility, the latter will most likely not attack it first. The two are like a giant and mosquitoes flying near him - as long as the mosquito does not try to get close to the giant, he will not be aware of the mosquito's existence at all.
How could you take the initiative to "slap" it?!
If the "Kunlun" was not destroyed by the "cloud body", then there might be other reasons for its loss of contact, perhaps it was temporary.
30 minutes later, NASA sent a telegram to Base
However, there seems to be no obvious abnormality in the "clouds" scattered near the sun that were previously observed. NASA asked the X Base: Has the "Kunlun" lost contact?
Li Zhanxiong looked at the message in his hand, his eyes dull and his body stiff. After a long time, he told his staff: "Notify CNSA that the 'Kunlun' has lost contact. The reason is currently unknown. Please provide them with the latest information on the 'cloud body' in Mercury's orbit.
And please provide the abnormal radio information from the direction of the sun received by various observatory stations in the past hour." Then he threw the message in his hand on the table, "There is no need to reply to NASA's call for the time being. We will wait until the situation is clarified.
Let’s see how to release the news.”
Li Zhanxiong walked out of the command center hall silently, asked the driver to drive him to the launch vehicle launch site, and stopped in front of the launch tower where the "Kunlun" took off. He got out of the car and told the driver to sit in the car and wait while he waited.
The man walked towards the tower with heavy steps. The setting sun shone with golden light, leaving a long, slender, lonely shadow behind him.
On the empty launch tower, there are a few small figures moving around. Those are the ground crews who are performing daily inspections and maintenance on the tower. The work they do for each rocket launch is not known to the world, but it is
It is an important part of whether the launch mission is a complete success. At this moment, they will not know that the "Kunlun" has lost contact, and even the information about the loss of "Fuxi" and "Express 1" will not be passed to
Here, if the entire project is regarded as a machine, then they are like the parts that operate in an orderly manner on the machine. Their emotions and ideas are only limited to their own limited work and living environment.
Li Zhanxiong looked away from the maintenance workers on the tower and looked at the sunset...
He was confused and even a little angry. There is still no answer to the loss of contact between "Fuxi" and "Express No. 1", and now the "Kunlun" is facing the same misfortune again. Although the loss of contact between these three spacecrafts is equal to
It was caused by unknown phenomena in the universe and basically had nothing to do with the spacecraft itself and ground control. However, as the supreme commander of Base X, he knew that he must bear responsibility for these successive space accidents.
A message suddenly came from the smart watch: "The 'Kunlun' has restored contact!"
Li Zhanxiong was pleasantly surprised and shouted: "Okay!" He turned around and strode towards the car.
As he walked, he asked the communications director of the control center for details. The communications director reported: "One minute ago, the control center received a voice call from Yan Shaojun, saying that the Kunlun had encountered a 'cloud body' in the orbit of Mercury.
It seems like we entered a black barrier, but now we have got out of it and are returning to the original track. We are still on the phone with Yan Shaojun, please come to the scene as soon as possible!"
Li Zhanxiong rushed back to the control center and saw that almost everyone in the hall was in an extremely excited state. Obviously, the recovery of the "Kunlun" had freed them from the dead silence.
The conversation between the communications director and the commander of the "Kunlun" Yan Shaojun is still continuing. Due to the signal transmission distance, the interval between the conversations between the two parties will be delayed by 11 to 12 minutes. But compared with the previous conversation with the "Express 1" in the orbit of Saturn
Contact, this is already the feeling of "reply in seconds"——
"...The power of the 'Kunlun' has been restored and the flight attitude is good! All crew members are in good health!" Yan Shaojun's slightly excited voice came from the loudspeaker.
"Can you still see the 'cloud body'?"
"It's right in front of us on the left, like a Great Wall, with no end in sight on both sides."
"How do you feel inside the Black Barrier?"
"Momentum disappears, sense of space disappears, time disappears!"
"What happened to the disappearance of the sense of space and time?"
"It was dark all around, without any reference; the spacecraft's atomic clock read 0, and time seemed to have stopped completely!"
"Based on your judgment, how long did the spacecraft fly within the black barrier?"
"Less than 10 minutes...I can't say, but it's not long."
The communications director looked back at Li Zhanxiong, with a kind of surprise in his eyes.
Li Zhanxiong understood what he meant: The communication between Base
The atomic clock uses the electromagnetic waves radiated when the electrons inside the nucleus jump between two energy levels as a standard frequency control metronome to control the accuracy of the clock and has extremely high stability - the atomic clock carried on the "Kunlun",
It has reached an error of less than 1 second every 20 million years. Humanity has long applied atomic clocks to spacecraft, detectors, satellites and other aerospace fields, and there has never been a similar abnormality. This is the first time!
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! So, what exactly caused the atomic clock on the "Kunlun" to "stop"?!
"How did you escape from the black barrier? Did you escape independently, or were you pulled out by unknown gravity?" Li Zhanxiong asked.
"It's hard to say...it seems to have been pulled out by a tiny point of light."
"A very small light spot? Please describe that light spot in detail!" Li Zhanxiong continued to ask.
"It was a tiny red luminous point whose size could neither be measured nor described! It was like the firefly we have seen, but it was red. It seemed to be guiding us consciously, but we couldn't feel it.
Does it have gravity? Then, we somehow escaped from the control of the black barrier."
Li Zhanxiong fell into deep thought.
"Can you still see that red dot now?" the communications director then asked.
"We only saw it in the darkness. Now there is sunlight and glowing 'clouds' outside the cabin. The whole space is very bright, and we can no longer see it. Maybe it has disappeared."
"Is there anything abnormal about the 'Cloud Body' now?"
"No 'cloud' anomalies have been found, and detection work is in progress."
"'Kunlun', please try your best to end all detection projects within 30 minutes, and do not approach the 'Cloud Body' again! If there is any abnormality, leave immediately and don't make unnecessary sacrifices. We want you alive!" Li Zhanxiong gave the order.
"This is the most spectacular, gorgeous, and daunting sight I have ever seen!" Sean leaned against the porthole, looking at the psychedelic "Great Wall of Clouds" that stretched in front of the Kunlun while holding a
Taking pictures with the camera, he exclaimed, "It's at least hundreds of thousands of kilometers long!"
"Spectral analysis results show that it has no physical core. The entire body is densely composed of countless small single molecular particles. There is no such component on the earth." Vera reported. "Moreover, these molecular particles seem to be maintaining a certain kind of energy.
The high-speed motion of the sequence, and its luminescence phenomenon, may be caused by the magnetic field formed by the high-speed motion between molecules."
"Can its quality be detected?" Yan Shaojun asked.
"We don't detect that it has mass. It's like a real cloud, and although you can see it there, you can't touch it."
Yan Shaojun moved his eyes to the central control screen, which clearly displayed the "cloud" picture taken by the extravehicular camera. The scene in the picture was simply beautiful - on the dark background, the "cloud body"
"Like a slender cigar with a fiery red halo, or more vividly, like a long "baguette", extending from the dazzling light ball of the sun, straight across the front of the spacecraft, towards
The distant space stretches with no end in sight...
Yan Shaojun's eyes couldn't help but fall on a photo sandwiched in the lower left corner of the console, and his thoughts returned to that quiet evening full of romance and comfort many years ago——
She and Deng Kai drove to the Gobi Desert near the base to watch the sunset. There was also such a long cloud strip on the horizon, glowing red under the sunset, stretching into the distance against the earth...
"Deng Kai, look! That colorful cloud looks like a wave on the beach!" She excitedly pointed at the colorful cloud and said to Deng Kai. "I want to use it as the background for a photo!"
"It's a pity that you didn't come out wearing a skirt..." Deng Kai was also attracted by the beautiful scenery in front of him. He looked at her in the air force training uniform and said with regret, "I think if you can wear a dress, then
It can better express the beauty of harmony between man and nature!”
"Then I'll take off my jacket and just wear a shirt for the photo! Besides, as long as the person is beautiful, that's fine!" Yan Shaojun smiled naughtily at Deng Kai, took off his training clothes, revealing the white shirt underneath, stretched out his arms and turned around
He walked around in a circle. "How is it? This is pretty good!"
Deng Kai smiled with satisfaction, picked up his phone and took a photo...
The photo in front of her was the one she was most satisfied with selected from the dozen or so photos Deng Kai took for her that year.
Yan Shaojun stared at the photo, as if Deng Kai had come to her side again...
"Discover a new 'cloud body'!"
Sean's report quickly brought Yan Shaojun back to reality. She looked at the screen and saw more than a dozen small "cloud bodies" suddenly appearing around the "Great Wall of Cloud Body". They looked like a group of
The child follows the mother, suspended next to the huge "cloud".
"Did they come out from inside?" Yan Shaojun asked.
"No, they seem to appear out of thin air!" Sean replied. "I have been observing to confirm that they did not emerge from the mother's body, but appeared suddenly! Please trust my judgment."
"Prepare the orbital thrusters!" Yan Shaojun suddenly became alert. She instinctively stretched out her hands and grasped the rudder tightly.
"They don't seem to have the intention to attack us..." Vera said hesitantly, "Maybe... they are not targeting us, or they are not aware of our existence at all?"
Hearing what Vera said, Yan Shaojun also felt a little lucky. After all, the "Kunlun" was as small as a grain of sand in front of the "Yunti"! If the "Yunti" was a living giant, it would
Obviously there is no way to detect the existence of this small spacecraft. But how did the "Kunlun" get sucked into the black barrier dozens of minutes ago?!
Crossing hundreds of millions of kilometers from the earth to the orbit of Mercury to detect "clouds" at close range is a sacred mission given to them by all mankind. Yan Shaojun does not want to give up easily!
"The 'Cloud Body' has changed again!" Vera whispered.
Through the display screen, Yan Shaojun saw that several small "cloud bodies" were being integrated into the "Cloud Great Wall", and at the same time, more and more small "cloud bodies" appeared on the screen. Due to the size of the display screen
Limited, she could only see part of it, so she set the spacecraft to autonomous control, then left the control console and approached the porthole to check the outside environment.
This is a magnificent picture played out in space - along the perimeter of the "Great Wall of Clouds", countless small "clouds" are emerging out of thin air, and then integrated into the huge matrix one after another.
, like colorful cotton being sucked into a long cotton sliver. The closer to the end of the sun, the brighter the light emitted by the "cloud" is golden; while far away from the sun, its light is
Gradually becomes dark red...
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "They seem to be gathering, and they are in order!" Mr. Yan stared outside the cabin intently.
"This is not like a random phenomenon, but more like something intelligent..." Vera said.
"We are now more than 50,000 kilometers away from them. If we can still see those small 'cloud bodies' with such a size at this distance, then their actual size should be larger than the moon!" Yan Shaojun judged.
Suddenly, she seemed to realize something was wrong in the cabin - what was Sean doing? She hadn't heard him speak for a long time!
She looked back at Sean and saw him sitting on his seat with his head hanging down, his hands hanging down weakly, and the camera dropped at his feet.
"Sean!" Yan Shaojun called, feeling a little uneasy in his heart.
Sean didn't say a word, still sitting there with his head bowed.
Yan Shaojun moved to Sean and pushed him with his hand. "Sean! Sean!"
At this time Vera also reacted, she came over and asked: "What's wrong with him?"
Yan Shaojun reached out to Sean's nostrils, tested his breathing, and said, "He seems to be asleep!"
"What's going on? Should we send him to the ambulance cabin?" Vera suddenly became nervous.
"Sean! Sean!" Yan Shaojun continued to push him hard.
Sean seemed to have a reaction. His breathing began to become heavier and faster.
"Send an ambulance!"
Yan Shaojun and Vera carried Sean to the ambulance cabin at the back, let him lie on the diagnostic table, and connected him to sensor electrodes. The AI diagnosis showed that Sean's heart rate, blood pressure, respiration and
Nervous reactions and other body functions are normal, only the brain waves are a little messy.
"What's going on with his brain waves? This is not normal!" Yan Shaojun murmured.
Sean opened his eyes, his pupils were dilated, and he looked a little scary.
"What are you?" he asked coldly, staring at the cabin roof.
Yan Shaojun and Vera looked at each other in surprise. They were puzzled by Sean's sudden abnormality.
"What are you?" Sean repeated again.
"I am Yan Shaojun, and she is Vera. Don't you remember, Sean?"
"Master Yan... Vera... who are you?" Sean was still indifferent.
"Is he suffering from mental disorder?" Vera whispered to Yan Shaojun.
Yan Shaojun suddenly realized that since those "cloud bodies" are densely composed of countless small individual molecular particles, then if these molecular particles exist independently of the "cloud body" parent body, they obviously cannot see it.
It’s also undetectable!
She felt an inexplicable fear!
"That's not Sean talking!"
"What are you?" Sean continued to ask.
"It's not Sean?!" Vera asked in surprise, "Who is that?!"
"It's a 'cloud body'! It's another kind of life form! They are a high-level intelligent life form that exists in the form of a single molecular particle! It is this intelligent life form that is asking us!"