244: Chapter 244 26 Years Ago

Chu Ge and Commander Wang circled the brightly lit control center of "Tianzhi."

Busy engineers around the circular workstation greeted the two as they saw them.

Directly in front of the workstation was a large data monitoring screen, which now displayed surveillance footage from all areas of the construction zone.

As Chu Ge looked at the dense array of dynamic images before him, a certain place suddenly came to mind.

"Commander Wang, come, let me take you to see something shocking."

After speaking, Chu Ge looked up to orient himself within the control center's spatial layout, then walked straight in one direction.

Commander Wang and Captain Gong followed closely behind.

The three arrived at an elevator entrance, and a red light swept across Chu Ge.

The elevator doors opened immediately, and Chu Ge stepped inside.

Once Commander Wang and the others entered, the doors closed automatically, and the voice of "Tianzhi" rang out again.

[The elevator is about to start. Please fasten your seatbelts; you may experience a brief state of weightlessness.]

Chu Ge and the others obediently fastened their seatbelts.

The elevator then started, plummeting rapidly downward.

The elevator was transparent on all sides, and flickering red lights were spaced along the elevator shaft walls.

At this moment, with the elevator's rapid movement, those red lights gradually blurred into a single line.

Chu Ge timed it; after about 15 seconds, the elevator began to decelerate and then slowly came to a halt.

As Chu Ge and the others stepped off the elevator, a massive underground cavern came into view.

The cavern had a dome and felt circular; Chu Ge instantly recalled the time he had just calculated.

"Commander Wang, the depth of this cavern seems much deeper than originally planned."

"Yes, it wasn't supposed to be this deep, but during construction, we happened to detect a natural cavern here."

"After the engineers surveyed it, they felt the size of this cavern was quite suitable, so they just dug an elevator shaft and tidied it up to look like this."

"The workload was significantly less than originally expected. General Chu, what do you think of this place? To be honest, it's my first time down here too."

Commander Wang finished speaking and looked at the surroundings with a smile, while Chu Ge also observed.

"It's quite good, as if it were tailor-made for the AI Brain."

At the mention of the "AI Brain," both of them turned their gaze forward simultaneously.

A spherical object with a diameter the size of a football field hung suspended in mid-air.

A field of green dots flickered across its surface, making it look like a colorful ball from a distance; under the rendering of the dome lights, its neon-like brilliance was quite dazzling.

This was the AI Brain of "Tianzhi."

Chu Ge and the others stopped to watch for a moment before preparing to continue forward.

It was a weightless environment down here, and ahead was a long corridor suspended in the air.

The entrance to the corridor was a three-way junction, with two other corridors extending in arcs to either side.

Chu Ge and the others fastened their safety ropes, chose the corridor leading straight ahead, and walked forward.

When they reached the bottom of the massive sphere, several engineers were using equipment to read data; seeing that the newcomers were Chu Ge and the others...

...they all stood up.

"Hello, Commander Wang and I are just here to take a look. Please, carry on with your work."

"Yes, Academician Chu!"

After the greetings, Chu Ge looked at Commander Wang, who was still staring blankly beside him.

"This is Tianzhi's brain? It's really damn huge," Commander Wang muttered.

"Yes, a massive AI Brain composed of 1,080 Central Crystal Cores similar to the [Soul Blade]."

After Chu Ge finished speaking, he looked up at the protruding crystal cores; each core corresponded to a point of light.

Those points of light, emitting a green glow, were flashing on and off rhythmically.

"No wonder it can control such a massive base."

"Controlling the base doesn't require such powerful sensing capabilities; the threshold it's set to is actually only 80% of its full capacity."

"Why not 100%?"

Commander Wang turned around and looked at Chu Ge in confusion.

"80% is enough; 100% isn't necessarily a good thing."

Chu Ge said casually and did not continue the topic.

Commander Wang pondered Chu Ge's words and didn't speak either.

The two of them stood in silence, looking at the "AI Brain" before them for a long, long time...

...

NASA Headquarters,

Director Tom Brown made several phone calls in a row before brewing himself a cup of coffee. He looked at the caramel next to him, hesitated for a moment, and then tore open a packet.

After taking a sip, Tom walked back to his luxurious chair and leaned back comfortably.

The coffee was soon gone. He suddenly remembered something and quickly picked up the phone on the desk.

A familiar number was dialed.

"Honey, I might not be coming home tonight. Yes, the Pentagon, the big shots from the State Department are all here."

"Oh, no no no, it's not about that. I can't say for now. Okay, that's all."

Tom Brown hung up the phone and sat back down with his hands clasped.

After a while,

The sound of helicopters circling in the air drifted over.

Tom walked to the window, looked at the helipad not far away, and then checked his watch.

"The big shots from Washington, how rare; they're actually ten minutes earlier than scheduled."

Tom Brown straightened his clothes and headed downstairs.

20 minutes later,

In the same office as two hours ago, the room was once again full of people.

Except this time, the people here had almost completely changed.

U.S. Secretary of State Brzezinski, National Security Advisor Condori Zaless, Director of the Pentagon Intelligence Agency Rodriguez, Senate Chairman Little John William, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Anderson Edwards, Secretary of Defense Charles Barney...

When the American heavyweights come out in full force, it usually signifies the severity of the situation.

Regarding their stance toward China, the last time this happened was 26 years ago.

Tom looked around and realized that he was now the one with the least power, the smallest person in this office...

Just two hours ago, he was still the boss of this office.

Tom Brown frowned and walked out of the conference room.

A moment later, a young man followed him back in, and the young man sat obediently in the back.

He was Jack, a satellite technician.

The big shots didn't even look up; they were looking at those satellite photos, each with their brows furrowed.

"Tom, how much longer until the satellite passes over there again?"

Charles was the first to speak.

"Soon, about 2 minutes."

After hearing this, everyone put down the photos in their hands and looked at the large screen at the front of the conference room.

Thus, Tom Brown accompanied these big shots as they reviewed the footage from earlier.

The satellite photos were still as clear as before, almost identical to the ones taken previously, except for the positions of the construction machinery.

The photos came one after another, and the satellite soon completed its pass.

The office was unusually quiet.

After a long while,

"Everyone, we are in big trouble now!"

Presidential Security Advisor Condori broke the silence; she represented the President of the United States.

"The President is not in Washington. I have already notified him, and he is rushing here aboard Air Force One. Before that, let's think about how to respond."

"Respond? It's too late for anything now. Their base is almost finished. I suggest immediately deploying two more carrier strike groups to the Asia-Pacific region."

Charles's tone was somewhat high.

"Start a war?" Brzezinski asked.