Beneath Deep Space

Capturing a meteorite is just a trivial matter in scientific research, as long as the detection of microorganisms is done well.

But capturing an extraterrestrial probe has risen to the level of contact with extraterrestrial civilizations and has become a major diplomatic event.

Therefore, in less than a quarter of an hour, many scientists, military personnel and think tank members had gathered in the captain's room.

"Be careful and try not to break it!" An expert is directing the operation.

UAVs cannot automatically complete such complex capture work. People must specify relevant targets and send corresponding instructions.

From the calculation data on the screen, we can know that this ancient space probe is moving at a high speed due to inertia, with a speed of approximately 36.8 kilometers per second.

This speed is dozens of times that of ordinary gunpowder bullets, and the kinetic energy is quite amazing. In order to avoid destroying it directly, people want to adopt a more gentle capture method.

"Keep the same speed, yes, that's it. Approach slowly, a little closer, a little closer... Do you see that pole? It should be a load-bearing pole... What is the distance between the two sides now?"

"89.9 meters!"

"Okay, keep this distance... launch a micro-claw at the target location!"

"Three, two, one... launch!"

Due to the signal delay, the micro-claw is launched after a few seconds.

In the silent universe, there is no sound, and it is impossible to hear the sound of metal collision. However, people saw on the screen that the metal hook had successfully circled the pole, circled it several times, and successfully wrapped around the pole.

Suddenly, there was a burst of small applause and cheers from the captain's room.

The soft nano-rope is tied to the load-bearing pole, and then the probe is driven by the drone, slowly turning its direction, trying to bring it closer to the Deep Space.

"Captain, do you want it to go faster or slower? We suspect that this detector is too old and the load-bearing rod cannot withstand very large forces."

"Take your time and use a more conservative plan." Yu Yifeng pondered for a while and said, "Anyway, the Deep Space still needs to stop here to replace the engine, so there is no rush."

Soon, the military estimated the specific data. The entire pull-back process would take two days.

"Two days...then everyone should go back and work as usual."

However, the crowd did not disperse immediately, but discussed enthusiastically. Many people were in front of the screen, looking at the detector curiously.

Under the strong light of the drone, the external structure is clearly visible.

This is a typical deep space probe, with engines and energy devices taking up most of the volume.

The distinguishing feature of deep space probes is that they fly for a long time in the universe and cannot conduct real-time remote control on the ground, so they must have certain autonomous navigation capabilities; they fly outside the planetary system and away from stars, so they use solar light sails and nuclear energy systems at the same time. .

Finally, it has to withstand very harsh space environmental conditions and requires a special protective structure.

"The only difference is that the device behind the engine seems to be equipped with a... deceleration parachute? It means that this probe once had the ability to land on a planet with an atmosphere."

"...But judging from the overall structure, it is very likely that it is an external probe of a low-level civilization. A very enterprising low-level civilization actually wants to use a probe to visit another planet in another star system... This wonderful idea may take tens of thousands of years. Can they wait for tens of thousands of years?"

"However, they seem to have failed...the probe was damaged before it reached another star field. It was a failed scientific expedition."

After hearing this discussion, Yu Yifeng turned his gaze to the distant starry sky...

He said with emotion: "Like us and the earth's civilization in the past, this civilization is curious and confused about the boundless universe, and then launches detectors... to find some truth in the dark."

An expert nodded and said: "Yes, and this detector seems to contain something... it should be some information..."

"Information about our own civilization."

When the answer was discussed, there was a sudden silence in the captain's room.

Humanity has discovered an external detector of a low-level civilization!

Many first-generation elders recalled their distant memories, and Qi Sensen had almost the same association...

This feeling is difficult to express in words.

Yu Yifeng also felt a little touched in his heart.

During the human era on Earth, the same detector was launched, representing human beings' beautiful fantasies and expectations for the universe.

For example, the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 detectors each carry a gold-plated aluminum metal disk.

This metal disk records some patterns and information, telling possible extraterrestrial intelligent life: where the detector came from and when it was launched.

The Voyager 1 probe even carried a copper disk record, which is said to be able to remain in space for a billion years without damage!

The record contains a lot of content, including greetings from the then President of the United States and the then President of the United Nations, as well as greetings in various languages, various music, etc...

Now, such a similar gift is sent to the hands of the new human civilization by another low-level civilization.

This detector, like a diplomat from a low-level civilization, silently tells humans their curiosity, confusion and loneliness about the distant starry sky...

Perhaps, they are wondering why the starry sky is so dark;

Perhaps, they are also struggling to reach the starry sky.

This feeling is very wonderful, and everyone's heart is touched. Not because humans are currently the dominant party, but because humans, who were also low-level civilizations, also had the same emotions...

On a long and slow road, only because of fate can we meet each other...

From the size of the probe, the information inside may be more than that sent by humans. And they seem to be more prepared than humans, but it is strange that, on the surface, their technology is not better than that of the earthlings, not as good as the Nixes, or even the Digs...

This is an extraterrestrial civilization that has spent a huge economic cost and is speaking alone in the vast universe.

People are very strange and curious...

Of course, being moved is touching, but necessary safety inspections still need to be done.

Two days passed quickly, and the probe was pulled close to 3,000 kilometers away from the Deep Space, maintaining almost the same speed as the mothership.

Afterwards, a medium-sized transport ship flew over. It is an unmanned scientific research spacecraft, which is loaded with a large number of safety detection equipment and robots. These equipment will conduct a comprehensive safety inspection of the detector.

A large number of staff members have been waiting.

... The specific test results are almost the same as people imagine.

"It's just an ordinary instrument, nothing particularly dangerous... The engine uses nuclear fission energy and solar energy, and all energy has been exhausted."

"The metal material used is ordinary titanium alloy... The composite material is the result of fiber textile materials and synthetic resins bonded layer by layer. Basically, all of them are damaged. The history is very long..."

A biologist suddenly wondered: "Huh... There are some low-level life-support equipment inside. Do you want to carry organisms?"

"Strange, these glass balls seem to have had a super-small microbial ecosystem that uses light to replenish energy. What is the purpose of putting so many micro-ecospheres?"

"But after the energy is exhausted, the species inside seem to have all died... It has been too long, and it is not clear whether the genetic material is damaged. Captain, do you want to open it and take a look?"

Everything has its own lifespan, whether it is protein or genetic material, it has its own shelf life. Some scientists have proposed that DNA can be preserved for up to 1 million years, but certainly not more than 5 million or 6 million years. Therefore, it is impossible to clone dinosaurs using dinosaur eggs or dinosaur blood, because these genetic information has been lost.

Now people just don’t know how long this probe was launched, and whether the genetic material in the ecosystem is preserved...

If it is, you can also see the alien microorganisms sent by the other party.

Yu Yifeng thought about it and shook his head. If robots are used for biochemical control, it is still a bit unsafe.

"Put these small ecosystems aside for now, and let our biologists open them by themselves. Don't rush!"

After a vigorous search, a robot carefully took out an aluminum box.

This is... the most significant discovery.

"There seems to be some information in this box...! It can be easily taken out, it should be the specific information of the other civilization. The other equipment are detection devices, circuit boards, nuclear engines, etc., which look very old, and some circuits are damaged."

After a few hours of work, people have completed the preliminary exploration of the probe. The space inside is not large, just a large suitcase.

"Captain, do you want to completely dismantle the detector?" a staff member asked.

Yu Yifeng thought about it and frowned.

From the current perspective, an item from a low-level civilization seems very rough and there is no technology to analyze it.

From the specific technological era, it is not yet at the level of humans in the early 21st century.

It has come a long way and flown here. It seems a bit unbearable to dismantle it like this.

"Forget it, just isolate it temporarily and keep it as a historical relic. Take out all the information inside and read it!"

Inside this box of information, there is a piece of high-purity uranium-238, part of which has decayed into plutonium-239.

There must be a meaning for doing this.

The answer is simple. This piece of high-purity uranium-238 represents the age of this detector.

This is... a small tacit understanding between different civilizations. Humans have almost done the same thing.

"If the purity of uranium-238 is close to 100% when it just set sail, its half-life is about 4.17 billion years, then... from the decay phenomenon that has already occurred, it has been... 150 million years!"

"This is a drifting bottle from 150 million years ago!"

After reaching this conclusion, everyone was slightly shocked, and the vicissitudes of history came to them. What a long, long-ago detector!

Such a history, inexplicably, adds a heavy weight to the detector.

150 million years ago, the earth was still in the dinosaur era, right?

It just crossed the ocean and came here, not being swallowed by stars, nor captured by planets, and just passed to human hands. It is really a kind of fate in the dark...

This also makes people more curious about the content in the data.

Also, 150 million years ago, the Milky Way already had... intelligent civilization!

Soon, the robot carefully took out the gold-plated aluminum sheets one by one from the metal box. They were very thin, very thin, less than 0.1 mm, but there were more than two hundred sheets!

The gold-plated aluminum sheets are cleverly spaced by less than a millimeter, so the metal sheets are not stuck together due to time.

There is also a metal disk with a diameter of more than thirty centimeters at the bottom, which seems to store a lot of information.

The scales painted on the metal plate are also very rough, like a classic old record.

Only this kind of rough thing can withstand the test of time and can transmit information to humans 150 million years later.

Anything that is too delicate will lose information due to interactions between atoms. Just like human electronic disks, they can never withstand the journey of hundreds of millions of years.

People first look at the thin gold-plated aluminum sheet, which has a large number of pictures and text. This unknown civilization seems to be passing on the entire dictionary.

The first picture turned out to be a colorful image drawn with different colors of metal.

It is an abstract, artistic starry sky image.

In the glazed sky, a star as big as a bowl is rising in the upper left corner of the picture. Of the two "moons" on the right, one is falling and the other is in mid-air.

People easily recognized that these two were the moon, "So, this unknown planet should have two satellites, one large and one small."

The most amazing thing is that some of the stars in the image are just small dots, and some are as big as grapes. They are spinning and tumbling, trying to compete with the sun, but helplessly set with the moon.

It's hard to guess whether these large and small stars are artistically processed or real.

At the bottom of the image is a black shadow, a shadow that represents despair...a shadow that cannot be illuminated by such a powerful lineup of light.

It's a bit confusing, but it's this shadow that sublimates the concept of the image.

"If the distance between stars is relatively close, it is indeed possible for them to become the size of grapes. Or there may be red giants nearby, which look larger..." An astronomer wanted to forcefully explain, but his words were only Half of the time, art cannot be explained by science.

This image undoubtedly represents the top art of a civilization.

Only the most top-notch and proud things will appear among rare and precious materials. For low-level civilizations, sending every gram of space material requires a large amount of economic resources.

A beautiful image.

Through the starlight outside, everyone felt a silent emotion.

This feeling is not sadness or loneliness, but understanding. In all kinds of worlds, there are always some lonely souls and there are always some things that cannot be solved.

And lonely souls can also have strong resonance. Although we are not of the same era or even the same region, we have had common emotions.

We are just ordinary members of all sentient beings.

The two-in-one chapters will not be split and will not be updated tonight.