außer Kontrolle

Kapitel 20

"But as far as I know, although the media isn't reporting on it extensively right now, they're paying close attention. The experts Black Flag Group has hired are all highly respected; if this new energy source were a hoax, it wouldn't have been possible to hide it from all of them for such a long voyage. Black Flag Group's intention is to let the facts speak for themselves, which is quite different from previous energy scams. If this round-the-world voyage is successful, Black Flag Group will undoubtedly become incredibly wealthy, and even the global situation will change."

This is no exaggeration. The reason various countries are getting involved in wars in the Middle East ultimately boils down to the oil there. For a country, oil is its lifeline. If a usable new energy source emerges, the dramatic impact it will have is a major topic that will excite all international affairs analysts.

If a country controls this energy source, the global power structure will change; if a company controls this energy source, its power will be feared even by a nation.

"Could this be the secret hidden by the Black Flag Group? Could the deaths of Vebri and Yang Hongmin be related to this new energy source? And what is the background of that energy company?" I asked a series of questions.

Guo Dong answered my last question directly, because he had also been wondering about the first two questions, but like me, he didn't have the answers yet.

"It was originally a small energy research institute registered in the UK. It lacked funding and researchers, had no achievements, and was never noticed. More than two years ago, the institute was acquired by Black Flag Group at a very low cost and reorganized into a company."

"That's it?" I asked him in surprise.

Guo Dong spread his hands: "That's all. This new energy project was obviously not brought over before the acquisition. It seems more like Black Flag Group borrowed the shell to rationalize some technology that came from nowhere. In fact, even if it only takes three years to design and build a ship with a dual energy system, it is still incredibly fast."

"This is unbelievable. Could it be that aliens gave them new technology?" I muttered.

"Given your experience, you can't take this entirely as a joke," Guo Dong joked.

I chuckled. Aliens giving Earthlings new energy technology—that's such an old science fiction trope. If that were the truth, it would be far too cliché.

"Experts boarded the ship in the morning and set sail in the afternoon. Before departure, several experts who had visited the New Hope's energy and propulsion system were interviewed by reporters. According to them, the key parts of the new energy propulsion system are very compact, and some of the designs reminded them of nuclear power systems. However, Black Flag Group describes new energy as safe and clean, while the current use of nuclear energy is neither safe nor clean."

“Yes.” I sighed. “This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and the wounds of that disaster have yet to heal. Now, almost no country is building nuclear power plants anymore, precisely because these things have too many problems and are too dangerous.”

"More importantly, nuclear fission reactors are complex in structure and require numerous safety protection devices. The key parts of the New Hope are both compact and simple. If it is also nuclear energy, it is at least two generations ahead of the nuclear technology of various countries today. Moreover, Black Flag Group said that it is a new energy source, not a new way of utilizing old energy."

"After all that talk, I still don't really understand the mystery."

"Just by looking at it, you can't figure it out so easily."

Before I knew it, I had been chatting with Guo Dong until very late. This was different from our usual casual conversations. My mind was racing while we were talking, and eventually I was so tired and sleepy that I fell asleep.

As the night passed and dawn broke, the doorbell rang, waking us up. I squinted and got up to open the door, but before I could even open it a crack, Kou Yun, looking wide awake, flung the door open and jumped in.

It turns out this girl was too tired from playing yesterday and fell asleep quickly after returning to her room. I was wondering why she was so well-behaved yesterday, not coming over to bother us. Turns out she was waiting for me this morning. Of course, she woke up early too, since she never stays quiet and doesn't care about anyone else's safety. She just rushed over.

Now that she's here, I can't sleep peacefully anymore. I'm cursing in my heart and complaining out loud as I struggle to get up. Since I'm already up, Guo Dong obviously can't sleep well either, and he's been woken up by me with great resentment.

8. The two ends of 380,000 kilometers (6)

Kou Yun woke up in the morning full of energy and was unusually talkative. The two men, with their vacant stares, answered her with drawn-out "um" and "oh," occasionally interspersed with a painful yawn.

After washing up and getting ready for breakfast, the phone rang in my room.

It was Wang Jian calling, saying he'd pick us up in half an hour to go to the command center again. It was about that piece of ore.

Yesterday he told us to wait a while, and I thought it would take several days, but it's happened so quickly. Researchers are indeed very cautious in their words.

At the same time, we were also relieved, because even if we weren't woken up by Kou Yun, we would have been woken up by this phone call, and we wouldn't have been able to sleep for long.

After breakfast, Wang Jian was already waiting in the hotel lobby.

This was our second visit to the command center, but this time we didn't go to the underground base. Instead, we went to a meeting room on the second floor. We waited a short while before Zhang Hongjian strode in.

After exchanging greetings, he quickly got to the point.

"Yesterday's image transmission lasted a total of one hour and thirty-two minutes from the time we connected. After you left, the ore was turned over twice more. Apart from that, the lunar rover did not make any other movements. We consulted several experts about the ore in the images. Previous lunar orbiters have also captured images of some open-pit mines on the moon, but none of them have been as close as these. We compared them and, based on the moon's natural conditions, we deduced that the two most likely types of ore are iron and titanium. These two metals are extremely abundant on the moon. Under normal circumstances, they are scattered in lunar basalt or lunar regolith, and only in rare cases do they accumulate into natural ores that are more easily utilized."

"Iron...and titanium?" I asked, somewhat disappointed. These sounded like two rather uninteresting metals. I was hoping to hear about some earth-shattering treasure, which would at least explain why the Black Flag Corporation would send a lunar rover to keep an eye on it. But then I thought, even if it were such a large colored diamond, what good would sending a lunar rover to watch it do? They could only look but not eat, only fantasize. The Black Flag Corporation wouldn't be that bored, would they?

"Yes, that ore should be rich in iron or titanium. However, it is not appropriate to simply call it iron ore or titanium ore."

"What should it be called?" This time, it was Kou Yun who rushed to ask the question.

Zhang Hongjian paused for a moment, as if pondering whether or not he should say something, or how he should say it.

"Are you all familiar with the history of human moon landings?" he asked a seemingly unrelated question.

"They should know something about it, right?" After saying that, I suddenly thought of Kou Yun; I guessed she was the only one who didn't know.

"Sigh, I know less," Kou Yun said timidly, raising her hand.

They definitely don't know anything about what's missing.

Zhang Hongjian smiled slightly at Kou Yun and said, "Let me give you a brief introduction. In the early 1960s, NASA proposed the Apollo moon landing program. They spent eight years conducting numerous unmanned and manned near-Earth orbit flight tests or lunar landing rehearsals with Apollo 1 through 10. Finally, on July 20, 1969, Armstrong and Aldrin successfully landed on the moon for the first time aboard the Apollo 11 spacecraft. From then until the end of 1972, the United States launched seven spacecraft to the moon, including the Apollo 13, which returned midway. A total of twelve astronauts set foot on the moon. At that time, countless people exclaimed that humanity had embarked on its journey into space."

At this point, Zhang Hongjian gave a meaningful look: "Back then, I was very young. When I heard the news, I was incredibly excited and determined to work in space exploration so that Chinese people could also go to the moon. However, since 1972, NASA has scaled back its operations, and the lunar landing program has been interrupted. To this day, Americans have never been to the moon again. Yet, starting last year, the United States, Europe, China, Japan, India, and other countries have all launched lunar landing programs. Judging from the lunar landing timetables announced by various countries, they are almost vying to return to the moon. What secrets lie behind this sudden halt and sudden revival? I guess you don't know."

As he spoke, my heart pounded. It seemed Zhang Hongjian was about to reveal a secret that would affect the moon landing plans of various countries.

"Actually, it's not exactly top secret," Zhang Hongjian said with a smile, glancing at our expressions. "If you pay attention to news reports on this topic, you can guess a thing or two. It's still on the surface, just something everyone tacitly agrees on, without any official announcement. After 1972, the Americans stopped pursuing moon landings for a simple reason—it wasn't profitable. With the level of human spaceflight at the time, a single moon landing required a huge amount of manpower and financial resources, with almost no return. After so many years of this, it finally couldn't hold on any longer and had to take a break. The reason why almost all countries are planning to return to the moon this time is actually the same: moon landings can generate profits, and huge profits at that!"

"Profits?" I frowned and asked, "Has aerospace technology developed to the point where investment yields returns? In my mind, this is still a money-losing endeavor. Establishing a settlement on the moon or developing lunar mineral resources seems like a long way off."

"You're half right. Establishing a habitable area on the moon is still a long-term goal, but the lunar landing programs of so many countries are indeed aimed at the resources on the moon. Of course, transporting iron and titanium back from the moon would be too costly; even gold mines wouldn't cover the round-trip transportation costs. But there is something on the moon whose value far exceeds that of gold."

"What?" Kou Yun and I asked at the same time.

"Helium-3, ever heard of it?"

I'm sure I've seen this term before, but that's all I've seen.

"I think I vaguely remember it, but please tell me more about it."

"Helium-3 is the most suitable fuel for thermonuclear reactors. Thermonuclear reactors are different from the reactors in nuclear power plants that you usually think of. Thermonuclear reactors aim to achieve nuclear fusion, while we previously used nuclear fission. Nuclear fusion is clean and safe, with no radioactivity, and the amount of nuclear fusion fuel on Earth is ten million times that of nuclear fission. Just last year, the European Union, the United States, Canada, China, Japan, and other countries cooperated to start construction of the International Thermonuclear Reactor in Cadarache, France. The optimistic estimate is that it will be completed in 8 to 10 years, but it may take as long as 30 years."

"What takes so long to build?" Kou Yun exclaimed.

"This project is indeed extremely difficult because the only usable fuels currently available are tritium and deuterium. Achieving nuclear fusion with these requires temperatures of hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius, and the thermonuclear reactor needs to withstand such high temperatures for an extended period of time. Therefore, the difficulty is immense, and there are countless technical hurdles to overcome. However, if we use helium-3 and deuterium for fusion, the ignition temperature of the fusion is greatly reduced. With our current level of technology, it can be said that utilizing it is not difficult. But the reserves of helium-3 on Earth are extremely limited. Some say it's 500 kilograms, others say it's tens of tons. These helium-3 reserves are scattered everywhere, so whether it's 500 kilograms or tens of tons, it's practically useless. The cost of refining it is prohibitively high."

"So that's how it is. There must be a lot of helium-3 on the moon." I said, but then I suddenly thought of Black Flag Group's new energy sources.

"Yes, actually, whether it's Earth or the Moon, helium-3 originates from the Sun. Helium-3 was initially formed on the Sun due to thermonuclear reactions, and then dispersed in all directions by the solar wind, although only a small amount reaches Earth and other planets. Because of the atmosphere and magnetic field, it's difficult for them to land on the surface of rock layers. The Moon, however, has no atmosphere, so the particles carried by the solar wind can easily land on the lunar surface. Because the lunar soil is frequently bombarded by asteroids, the soil is constantly being turned over after each impact, approximately every 400 million years. Therefore, the lunar soil layers have absorbed a lot of helium-3, and the content is relatively even. The Moon is 4.6 billion years old, and its helium-3 reserves are very abundant. Since detailed exploration has not been conducted, we can only say that the reserves of helium-3 on the Moon are between several million tons and several hundred million tons."

8. The two ends of 380,000 kilometers (7)

At this point, Zhang Hongjian looked at us and said, “You may not yet understand the significance of these millions of tons. In terms of oil prices, each ton of helium-3 is worth as much as $4 billion, and about 10 tons of helium-3 can meet China’s energy consumption for a year. The world uses about 100 tons a year. A few hundred grams of helium-3 can solve the electricity needs of cities like Beijing and Shanghai for lighting for a year.”

"Wow, that's amazing!" Only after Zhang Hongjian said that did I realize how incredible this fuel called Helium-3 was.

"Yes. The Russians have estimated that purifying helium-3 on the moon and then transporting it back by spacecraft would cost $1.5 billion per ton, far lower than oil. And as space technology develops, the cost will continue to decrease. Therefore, countries with the potential to land on the moon are now desperately developing their space technology. Although the moon is a resource belonging to all mankind, whoever can establish a foothold on the moon first will gain the upper hand, and whoever can bring helium-3 back first will control the future!"

Zhang Hongjian's last words were resounding. The old man was getting on in years, but the fire that had been ignited in his heart in 1969 had not yet been extinguished.

"We've gotten a bit off-topic, let's get back to the main point. Theoretically, all lunar soil contains enough helium-3 to be directly extracted from it, but in some places, the concentration of helium-3 is even higher. Titanium and iron can absorb large amounts of helium-3, so that ore, regardless of whether it contains titanium or iron, should be correctly called helium-3 ore. If such a large piece of ore were refined, it could potentially yield tens of grams or even more of helium-3."

Guo Dong and I exchanged a glance, and we both saw a hint of horror in each other's eyes.

Black Flag's lunar rover is eyeing helium-3 ore; their new energy source is safe, efficient, and clean, and its power unit looks like a nuclear reactor.

Is there a coincidence between these two things?

9. The Strongest Thief (1)

I pulled my baseball cap down so the brim almost met my sunglasses. I tugged at Kou Yun beside me, and we slowly moved to the other side of the ship's railing, hiding behind the stairs.

"Brother, are you hiding from them?" Kou Yun asked, looking at the group of people who had just come down the open-air curved staircase.

"Yeah, it's really inconvenient if they see us now," I replied with a wry smile.

"Oh..." Kou Yun said, sneaking his head out to peek.

I pulled her back immediately.

"Hey, I'm telling you, either go out openly or stay hidden with me. Showing half your forehead like this will attract their attention!" I said angrily.

"Then forget it." Actually, this girl likes to sneak around and cause trouble for me. If I really asked her to go over there just to see those people, there aren't any handsome guys, so she's not interested.

The group didn't linger on the deck for long and quickly disembarked, which relieved me.

They're all acquaintances of major media outlets in Shanghai. If we run into each other, do you think it's better to tell them to call the police or not? Maybe we shouldn't put them in a difficult position. That's what I was trying to say with good intentions.

The yacht I'm standing on is the New Hope New Power Yacht, which has recently been making headlines in various Asian countries.

Two weeks ago, we were returning to Shanghai from Jiuquan when we encountered a typhoon. Our plane plunged into a storm cloud, and terrifying bolts of lightning exploded in the dark clouds outside. The plane shook violently, as if it were being squeezed and tossed around by a giant's hand.

My heart was pounding, and Kou Yun was ashen-faced. The captain desperately steered the plane out of the clouds, circling for a long time before diverting to Hangzhou. After waiting for most of the night at Xiaoshan Airport, where the temperature dropped to 20 degrees Celsius, Kou Yun developed a fever when the plane landed at Pudong Airport at 5 a.m. the next morning. When she got home, her temperature had spiked to 39.2 degrees Celsius.

So he received intravenous drips, took medicine, and stayed in bed until a week ago when Kou Yun finally recovered completely.

During my free time while taking care of Kou Yun back in Shanghai, I didn't go back to my parents' house. Since Guo Dong had specifically provided a certificate to put their minds at ease, I wouldn't go back until the truth came out. Otherwise, I wouldn't know how to deal with their barrage of questions. However, taking advantage of Kou Yun's gradual recovery, I went to the Circus City to visit the Fantasy Troupe again. Since Kou Feng was considered a key breakthrough point, and Director Zhang and the other troupe members had spent a considerable amount of time with him, perhaps they could find some useful clues.

To give myself a suitable reason, I carefully crafted a story, saying that I had never heard of a magician as legendary as Kou Feng in China, and that no one could see through his magic tricks. It would be a pity for such a talent to be lost, so I had to write a feature article about him, hoping that through this article I could find Kou Feng and bring him back to the magic stage.

I presented my fabricated reporting plan with great detail, and Commander Zhang beamed with pride, already imagining Kou Feng's return to the Illusionary Rainbow Regiment and the restoration of its former glory. He answered all my questions about Kou Feng without reservation, and even mobilized all the members of the regiment to provide me with materials, digging up even the most trivial details to make my report more vivid and compelling.

This isn't the first time I've used my press pass to lie, so I don't feel guilty at all. I'll tell them later that my article was rejected by the boss, and maybe some kind people will comfort me.

After two days of interviews, I actually got a lead, but following it led to a dead end. Given my position, it wouldn't be convenient to continue investigating further, no matter how many lies I made up. So I had to call Guo Dong, who then handed it over to his subordinates at the Shanghai Public Security Bureau's Special Affairs Division for assistance in the investigation.

Kou Yun had been lying in bed for so long, and in her own words, "I was so bored I felt itchy bugs crawling into my head, I was going crazy." There was nothing more to say, so I decided to play along with her.

I went up to the Oriental Pearl Tower and down to the Huangpu River, strolled through Xintiandi and soaked up Hengshan Road, and even went to Tropical Storm Carnival with indoor skiing. My wallet went from thick to thin and then back to thick again, repeating this process three times. Of course, this wasn't magic; it was just three visits to the ATM. Sadly, I have no income right now, and I'm just living off my savings.

The next day, Guo Dong suddenly called me and told me that the New Hope was about to arrive in Shanghai.

This news was completely unexpected. I had some idea of the speed of sea travel from Shanghai to Europe. The round trip for a fast freighter through the Suez Canal typically takes 56 days. Of course, this includes time spent stopping at ports along the way, but the sea voyage itself takes at least twenty days each way.

However, the New Hope had only left London a few days ago, and the ship did not sail directly to Shanghai; it had to dock at some major cities along the way.

"Because the New Hope's top speed is close to sixty knots," Guo Dong told me.

"Sixty knots? That's almost a hundred kilometers per hour!" I exclaimed.

"It's 111 kilometers per hour," Guo Dong corrected me.

"This ship has some serious power."

"Yes, and the New Hope will make fewer stops in Asia than it will in the Americas, where it will eventually go, and in Europe, where it will eventually return. So it will arrive at the port of call in two days, stay for one day, and be open to the public for limited tours."

Guo Dong told me last time that the ultimate goal of the New Hope's round-the-world voyage is to prove the authenticity and reliability of new energy sources, and then raise substantial funds. Perhaps the Black Flag Group has already exhausted its resources in the process of developing energy, leaving it with no choice but to seek international venture capital injections. If this voyage is successfully completed, without them even needing to promote it, a flood of investment capital will surely come. From this perspective, choosing the United States and Europe to showcase themselves is perfectly natural.

Guo Dong asked me if I was interested in going aboard the New Hope, and of course I said yes.

The New Hope cruise ship passed under the Yangpu Bridge and docked at the newly built Shiliupu Passenger Terminal. The Black Flag Group offered 100 visitors each in the morning and afternoon, plus media reporters, and planned to invite celebrities to a trendy party on the deck in the evening.