außer Kontrolle

Kapitel 19

8. The two ends of 380,000 kilometers (3)

“Okay, let’s give it a try.” Zhang Hongjian turned on a microphone next to him, tapped it a few times, then bent down and said, “Prepare for docking. Turn on the big screen. Password: EAGLEELGAE. Three attempts. Report progress via channel four.”

The big screen lit up, but the screen was filled with static.

Zhang Hongjian sat down and put on his headphones. Various messages kept popping up on the two screens in front of him.

The atmosphere in the hall suddenly became tense. Although no one left their seats, I could feel that everyone was fully engaged in their work, with low progress reports coming and going.

Time always seems to drag on when you're anxiously waiting. We can only stare at the big screen, unable to do anything to help. But the static on the screen just won't disappear.

"Try EAGLE, space, ELGAE." I heard Zhang Hongjian give the command again.

Half a minute later, he looked up at me and said, "This password is incorrect."

My heart skipped a beat. Wait a minute? The consequences could be dire.

Guo Dong's expression also turned ugly.

I racked my brains to find out if I had missed anything.

"By the way, Vebri works in Switzerland, where they speak French and German. How do you say eagle in French and German?"

As soon as I said that, the group looked at each other, realizing that none of them knew either of the two foreign languages.

"Ouyang, go and look up the words for eagle in French and German," Zhang Hongjian instructed through the microphone.

“But Nado, Vebri is British, and most of the software in his laptop is in English, including Windows XP,” Guo Dong told me.

My heart skipped a beat. If that's the case, Vebri probably wouldn't use another language to set the password; it must be English or numbers.

Eagle, Eagle, EAGLE... I repeated it to myself several times.

“Remove one of the E’s,” I suddenly said to Zhang Hongjian.

"What?" he asked me, puzzled.

"EAGLELGAE. Try this one, remove the 'E' from the middle, and use the original word's suffix as the beginning of the second half. This is more aesthetically pleasing."

"New password, EAGLELGAE. Try three times." Zhang Hongjian didn't waste any words and directly issued the new order.

Password approved!

This time, without Zhang Hongjian relaying the message, I directly heard a voice loudly report.

"Establish signal contact in eight seconds."

"Eight, seven, six, five, four, three..." I counted silently in my mind.

Everyone's eyes were glued to the big screen.

The snow on the screen flickered, then a blurry image appeared. After a few seconds, the image stabilized, and the scene 380,000 kilometers away slowly became clear.

“That’s what it looks like on the moon,” Kou Yun sighed.

"Is this what the moon looks like?" I couldn't help but ask Zhang Hongjian.

Because the scene before us is somewhat different from what I had imagined the lunar surface to be like.

I've seen several photos of the lunar surface, mostly taken by the American Apollo missions. It's a grayish-white world, completely unlike the bright, clear moon we see from Earth. Because of countless meteorite impacts, the moon, without an atmosphere, has been plowed over like a giant plow. Each impact blasted everything hard it encountered into dust, which, over millions of years, settled to form the thick layer of lunar regolith. The most common material on the moon is lunar regolith, finer than sand, which can easily slip into a spacesuit. The flat lunar plains, the undulating lunar hills, and the few weathered, porous lunar rocks, like the lunar regolith, are all grayish-white.

Of course, weathering is just a metaphor; there is no air on the moon, so there is no wind. The rocks turned into such a terrible state because they were swept away by the outer edge of the meteorite impact and broken apart by the temperature difference of 300 degrees Celsius between day and night on the moon.

But what is now displayed on the big screen is not such a simple lunar soil and rock.

There is only one stone in the center of the picture. The surface of the stone is uneven and has many edges, but it is not a loosely structured weathered stone. On the contrary, it makes me feel that the stone is dense and some details are even relatively smooth.

The stone is dark red, which reminds me of the color of Mars. Under the light, the stone is slightly transparent, like a fiery gemstone, with a flowing red glow, which is quite eerie.

Actually, I don't think it looks like a stone; it looks more like a metallic ore or a crystalline ore.

"What is this?" Guo Dong asked at the same time.

The image is mostly still, but it's not a photograph; it's continuously transmitted video data. It's a close-up shot with no reference points, so the approximate size of the rock is unknown.

We were lucky; we caught the rover's cameras start operating. Due to lifespan and power limitations, the camera system can't operate continuously; filming for two or three hours a day is quite a long time. But what's the secret behind filming a rock like this?

“This should be…” Zhang Hongjian frowned as he examined the image on the screen, his tone hesitant.

"This should be a rare open-pit ore on the lunar surface. There are more than ten kinds of metal ores with abundant reserves on the lunar surface, but open-pit ones like this are very rare. However, it is difficult to determine which kind it is based on just this one image."

Zhang Hongjian slowly spoke these words, his expression growing increasingly solemn. A hint of doubt flashed across his eyes, and what he was thinking about was far more complex than just these two sentences.

As a seasoned criminal investigation team leader, Guo Dong's observational skills are second only to mine. I could sense how reserved Commander Zhang was in his speech; of course, he wouldn't have missed it either. I couldn't say anything, but it was different for him, who bore the heavy responsibility of solving the case.

8. The two ends of 380,000 kilometers (4)

“Commander Zhang, this case is being taken very seriously by everyone, but the details are complicated and progress is slow. Your expertise is very important to us,” Guo Dong said tactfully.

Zhang Hongjian nodded, but didn't answer immediately. He stared at the screen for a while before speaking, "I have a rough idea, but I'm not involved in lunar mineral research. Science demands precision, especially for those of us working on satellites and rockets. Even the slightest oversight is unacceptable; it's become a habit. So, it's best not to speak hastily. We have experts, equipment, and databases here. You can wait a while until we have more certain results, and then I'll tell you. Don't worry, I want to know the truth more than anyone else." As he said this, his gaze involuntarily drifted over Yang Hongmin's empty seat.

"Ah, look!" Kou Yun suddenly shouted, pointing at the big screen. Her shout was so crisp and loud that it startled us all. In a place like this, we were all hesitant to speak loudly, but this girl didn't seem to care at all.

The scene on the big screen has changed.

It wasn't a big deal; the lunar rover simply used its robotic arm to push the ore, flipping it over. As we watched, the robotic arm slowly withdrew from the camera's view, the ore wobbling before settling back down. After a slight adjustment of the camera, the ore was back in the center of the frame, looking almost identical to before.

What are they doing? A big question mark popped into my mind.

The rover's actions were either pre-programmed or remotely controlled by the Black Flag Group. The intention behind flipping a rock 380,000 kilometers away is truly baffling.

"Commander Zhang, from a professional perspective of lunar exploration, was there any significance to the rover's actions just now?" Guo Dong asked.

“No,” Zhang Hongjian answered readily. “It seems like a pointless action. I don’t know why they would do it. If our lunar rover goes up there in a few years, we’ll either collect samples to bring back or conduct simple analysis on-site. This sudden push after half a day of inactivity, unless…” Zhang Hongjian shook his head at this point.

"Unless what?" Guo Dong pressed.

“Unless there’s a problem with the lunar rover’s programming.” Zhang Hongjian smiled, realizing that this was unlikely. He continued, “But as far as I know, even if we take into account all the simulations on Earth, nothing like this has ever happened. Every aspect of the lunar rover undergoes rigorous testing. Sudden loss of contact or mechanical malfunctions can occur under extreme external conditions, but a programming error causing the lunar rover to move erratically is too basic an error.”

"Could it be Vebri's doing? If he can put in a backdoor, wouldn't it cause the lunar rover to go out of control if he puts in a virus as well?" I asked.

"No, it's already a huge scandal that he let it in through a back door, the virus... unless he's crazy, he wouldn't do that, oh wait." It seemed like a researcher was reporting new information through the headset. Zhang Hongjian listened for a while and said, "Understood."

"The lunar rover only made the pushing motion because it received a remote command," he said.

"If this backdoor program is used to its fullest potential, to what extent can it achieve?" Guo Dong asked.

Since it's impossible to guess Black Flag Group's intentions, I estimate that Guo Dong hopes to obtain as much information about the lunar rover as possible for analysis.

"Sharing signals is fine and won't be detected. This program can try to seize control, but that will inevitably alert the owner. If the owner isn't prepared, there's a chance of success."

"What if they were prepared?" Guo Dong asked. Clearly, the Black Flag Group already knew about the backdoor.

“The chances would be very slim then. Moreover, if we were discovered interfering in other people’s trade secrets, it would cause irreparable and enormous damage to the reputation of our country’s aerospace industry. Under normal circumstances, I would not approve such a thing.” Zhang Hongjian’s tone was resolute when he said the last sentence.

I completely understand.

In any country, national interests take precedence over the life and death of individuals. Even if Yang Hongmin was an outstanding scientist, it is impossible for China's aerospace industry to be disgraced in order to solve the mystery of his murder.

However, this will make our investigation much more difficult.

"By the way, Commander Zhang, using the lunar rover's robotic arm that appeared earlier as a reference, how big is this thing approximately?" Guo Dong asked.

None of us had any concept of the size of the lunar rover, so we couldn't make a comparison.

"About this size," Zhang Hongjian gestured with his hand, "slightly smaller than a basketball."

After waiting a while longer, the screen remained still. Wang Jian led us out of the command center and gave us a quick tour of the base. After dinner, we were accommodated at the Aerospace Hotel.

There were two rooms; Guo Dong and I shared one, and Kou Yun shared the other. She insisted on sharing a room with me, but I loudly stopped her, which made Guo Dong look at me with a very ambiguous expression.

After showering and lying in bed, we found that there were very few channels on TV, but while we were watching, we were thinking about this unsolved case.

The more clues I have, the more confused I become; I'm completely lost no matter how much I think about it.

We can see images of minerals taken by the lunar rover, indicating that signals are constantly being transmitted back. But what value is there in this kind of information, which is essentially just empty footage, that makes it necessary for the precious lunar rover to keep taking pictures non-stop? And we also need to maintain a clear signal connection with Earth to transmit these tens of minutes or hours of empty footage to the Black Flag Group's mysterious base.

It is considered mysterious because the investigation team has yet to find the location of the Black Flag Group's space control center, and there is not a trace of it in any of the group's businesses.

Through the backdoor program, the communication and data transmission between this lunar rover and Earth were as clear as an exhibit in a shop window. Apart from the continuous stream of still image data, the lunar rover had not sent back any other information, and the Black Flag Group had only issued a command to push the rock, nothing more.

However, Guo Dong and I both knew that the enormous secret that led to the murders of Vebri and Yang Hongmin was probably hidden in the ore images that were of no scientific value to Zhang Hongjian. That sudden movement of the ore was absolutely justified.

We were pretending to be watching TV, but we were actually racking our brains.

"Looks like the time isn't right yet. I just can't figure it out." I sighed and made a self-deprecating remark.

Guo Dong chuckled but didn't reply.

"Do you think it's possible that the Black Flag Group is deliberately creating a fuss, knowing that someone might be spying through the back door, and is just trying to mislead us?" I suddenly thought of this possibility.

"Perhaps, but if that's the case, even if we keep monitoring them, they'll eventually slip up. Besides, everyone who knows the password is dead to them, so is it really necessary to do this?"

"I only said that because I couldn't think of anything else," I said with a wry smile.

8. The two ends of 380,000 kilometers (5)

"By the way, there's some unusual news about the Black Flag Group."

"Oh?" I perked up my ears. Guo Dong had been on the phone for a long time during his visit to the base that afternoon, so I guessed there was some new information.

"Black Flag Group announced yesterday that one of its shipyards has partnered with a newly established energy company to build a yacht that uses new energy sources as its power source."

"New energy? What kind of energy?"

"The Black Flag Group has created a buzz, without announcing details about the new energy source, only stating that it's efficient, safe, and clean. The yacht using this energy is called the New Hope, and it has two power systems: a conventional petroleum-powered system and the new energy source announced by the Black Flag Group. To demonstrate the effectiveness of this new energy, the New Hope will undertake a round-the-world voyage. Energy and marine engineering experts have been invited to join the voyage. This morning, the Black Flag Group shut down the petroleum-powered system in front of these experts. This afternoon, the ship departed London, heading directly to Asia. They announced that it will stop at Shanghai and Hong Kong in China, spending a day in each city. Throughout the voyage, the experts on board will monitor the operation of the power system to ensure that the ship uses the new energy source, not petroleum. Only after the successful completion of the voyage and the New Hope's return to Europe will the Black Flag Group reveal the secrets of this new energy source."

After hearing Guo Dong's detailed explanation, I was genuinely taken aback. At a time when the world is crying out for an energy crisis and the price of oil is soaring, the emergence of a new energy source that can replace oil would be nothing short of groundbreaking.

"This is explosive news!" I exclaimed.

"That's not necessarily true. Haven't there been plenty of similar news stories over the years? There have been quite a few jokes about water turning into oil, so the news media are quite cautious. Moreover, the major media outlets in Europe and America are much more rigorous than ours. Before the final results were released and Black Flag Group kept the details of its new energy source a secret, they did not conduct large-scale reporting, and even if they did, they wrote very restrainedly."

I coughed loudly. I was a Chinese journalist sitting right in front of him. Wasn't this like pointing at a monk and cursing a bald monk?

Guo Dong realized what was happening and said with a smile, "Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot you're a reporter, but that's true."

I smiled wryly, unable to refute it. You can't exactly say that domestic media outlets are superior to major European and American news agencies. There are some elite journalists in China (a little self-deprecating thought pops into my head, like myself), who produce some good reports, but the overall level of the industry can't be raised by a few outstanding individuals. It requires long-term accumulation; you can't rush it.