Chapter 244 A Royal Flush: Isn't this good news?

Afternoon.

At the headquarters of the Eastern Country Satellite Network Group, abbreviated as "Eastern Satellite," the atmosphere in the president's office on the top floor was not good.

The group's General Manager, Zhou Weiguo, had just hung up a phone call. He leaned back in his chair, his brows furrowed and his hair somewhat disheveled.

"Old Zhou, how did it go?" the deputy General Manager, Chen Qiming, asked, handing over a cup of hot tea.

Zhou Weiguo took the cup but didn't drink; he just held it. He sighed, his voice weary: "The situation is not good. The Ugly Country has already formally submitted a proposal for the 'ownerless' status of near-Earth orbits to the United Nations."

After hearing this, Chen Qiming's heart sank.

No one spoke in the office; only the air conditioning hummed.

Both big bosses wore expressions full of worry.

"We started too late," Chen Qiming spoke first, his tone quite helpless. "In the field of low-orbit satellites, our technology was already weak, and the Ugly Country had that Silicon Valley Iron Man, Musk, who started working on near-orbit satellites several years ahead of us."

Zhou Weiguo rubbed his temples and said: "The comrades in the diplomatic department said that although they have contacted several friendly countries to prepare objections at the committee, the Ugly Country has a lot of say, so there isn't much hope. After all, we have become powerful in recent years; if we just showed a bit of our military strength, we could crush those small countries that follow the Ugly Country's lead. But when it comes to having a voice internationally, they still have the advantage."

The two exchanged a look and saw expressions of helplessness in each other's eyes.

They were like two masters who, despite having real ability, were blocked by a group of thugs using a set of rogue rules they had made themselves, unable to exert their strength.

Just when both of them were at a loss,

"Knock, knock, knock."

The office door was knocked on.

"Come in."

The door opened, and a young man wearing a black jacket, with an ordinary appearance but sharp eyes, walked in.

It was Comrade Xiao Zhang from the Special Front.

Zhou Weiguo and Chen Qiming both knew him and knew he was the liaison officer responsible for classified information docking.

"Comrade Xiao Zhang, is there any new situation?" Zhou Weiguo asked, perking up.

Xiao Zhang nodded. Without pleasantries, he took two documents out of his bag and handed them to the two men.

"General Manager Zhou, General Manager Chen, before we talk business, please sign this confidentiality agreement first."

The two took the documents and were stunned when they saw the red "Top Secret" stamp on them. Although they didn't understand what was going on, they knew that comrades from the Special Front wouldn't mess around.

Without hesitation, they picked up their pens and signed quickly.

Xiao Zhang put the documents away and a smile appeared on his face.

"I came here this time to bring a piece of good news to you leaders."

"Good news?" Zhou Weiguo and Chen Qiming exchanged a look, both quite puzzled. In the current situation, what good news could there be?

"What good news?" Chen Qiming asked urgently.

Xiao Zhang opened his mouth, as if remembering something. 'Right, the data regarding Starlink that Director Liu asked me to hand over hasn't been given to them yet.'

Therefore, he changed the subject and said: "I have a document here that needs your technical Experts to take a look at. General Manager Zhou, gather your Starlink engineers and take a look at this data."

...

Half an hour later.

The core technology confidentiality meeting room of the Eastern Satellite Group.

A dozen of the top Experts from the Eastern Country in the fields of satellite communications and carrier rockets were urgently called here.

They all had serious expressions, but their eyes were filled with confusion, and they occasionally looked at General Manager Zhou Weiguo, who was sitting at the head of the table.

Zhou Weiguo was also a bit confused; he didn't know what Comrade Xiao Zhang was up to.

After all the Experts signed the same level of confidentiality agreement, Xiao Zhang connected an encrypted USB drive to the meeting room's internal network system.

Soon, a massive amount of technical data was transmitted to the secure tablets in front of every Expert present.

The meeting room was very quiet, with only the sound of Experts swiping their screens.

However, this silence didn't last long.

"Hiss..."

"My God!"

"This 'Dandelion Protocol'... this kind of distributed ownerless network design..."

"And this integrated pulse-supercharging engine! This, how is this possible?!"

Exclamations kept ringing out in the room, each more exaggerated than the last.

These top Experts, who were used to seeing storms in their daily lives, were now looking at the data on their tablets as if they had discovered a new continent, their faces full of shock and joy.

When they saw the complete version of the "Dandelion Protocol" and the related technical data, the whole room erupted.

This set of technology was too mature!

Every algorithm and every design inside seemed tailored specifically for them, directly filling in all their shortcomings in the field of low-orbit satellite communications.

Zhou Weiguo and Chen Qiming watched the Experts' almost crazy reaction and were also very happy.

However, this joy didn't last for a few minutes before Zhou Weiguo's brows furrowed again.

He stood up and thanked Xiao Zhang sincerely: "Comrade Xiao Zhang, thank you so much! Also, thank those brothers in the Special Front abroad for us; to get this data from abroad, they must have paid a huge price."

He felt that such complete and advanced technology could only have been brought back from abroad through some secret means.

After thanking him, Zhou Weiguo's expression darkened again. He sighed and waved his hand: "But this is no longer just a simple Starlink Technology issue. The Ugly Country has started acting like a rogue, trying to forcibly lower their orbits and seize the 480-kilometer orbit we had already declared to the International Telecommunication Union. They are engaging in orbital hegemony, trying to physically choke off our Eastern Country's aerospace integration process."

After saying this, Zhou Weiguo sighed again: "Sigh, why am I telling you these things, Comrade?"

'After all, he isn't from the diplomatic department; telling him this is useless.'

However, after hearing this, Xiao Zhang shook his head.

"General Manager Zhou." Xiao Zhang looked at him and said.

"First of all, this data was not brought back from abroad."

Zhou Weiguo and everyone in the meeting room were stunned.

'Not brought back from abroad? Then where did it come from? Did it fall from the sky?'

Before they could react, Xiao Zhang continued: "Furthermore, telling me these things is useful."

Zhou Weiguo and Chen Qiming were completely dumbfounded: "What do you mean?"

Xiao Zhang said, somewhat puzzled: "Earlier, didn't I say I brought a piece of good news? I haven't even told you the good news I brought yet."

Zhou Weiguo and Chen Qiming felt their brains weren't working well enough; both were even more stunned and asked subconsciously: "Then... isn't the data about Starlink the good news?"