Chapter 210 Signal Decryption
Beijing, deep winter.
2:00 AM, Li Xiao lifted her head from the computer, her eyes so sore she could barely keep them open.
She had been working for sixteen consecutive hours, had drunk four cups of coffee, and a small pile of takeout boxes had accumulated at her feet.
But she dared not stop.
Because what was on the screen made her heart race.
Three days ago, she had changed her approach—no longer treating the latter half of the signal as linear encoding, but as two-dimensional image data.
Mapping the pulse sequence onto a plane, each pulse corresponded to a pixel, and the intensity corresponded to grayscale.
The first attempt yielded a jumble of garbled code.
The second, after adjusting the mapping parameters, resulted in blurry stripes.
The third, fourth, and fifth attempts—all failed.
Just when she was about to give up, she suddenly remembered what Zhang Yuanli had said: "If it is a star map, there should be a center point."
A center point.
She extracted the brightest group of pulses separately to act as a reference point and re-mapped it.
Then, on the screen appeared—stars.
Dozens of points of light scattered against a black background.
Varying in size, brightness, and position with precision.
Li Xiao's hands began to tremble.
She zoomed in on the image and counted them one by one.
Twenty-seven stars.
One of them was the brightest, located right in the center of the image.
She pulled up the known star database and began to compare.
Position, relative brightness, distribution characteristics—three minutes later, the results were out.
The bright star in the center: HD 107146, about 12 light-years from Earth.
The other twenty-six: all real stars surrounding HD 107146, with positional accuracy within 0.1 arcseconds.
Li Xiao leaned back in her chair, gasping for air.
This was no coincidence.
This was a star map.
It was someone, 4.37 light-years away, showing her—showing humanity—their coordinates.
3:00 AM, Lin Mo's phone rang.
He had been asleep for less than two hours, but upon seeing the name "Li Xiao" on the screen, he was instantly awake.
"Senior brother," Li Xiao's voice trembled, "I found it."
Lin Mo sat up: "What?"
"A star map," Li Xiao said, "The latter half of the signal is a star map. The center is a star called HD 107146, 12 light-years from Earth. The twenty-six stars surrounding it are all real, and their positions match perfectly."
Lin Mo was silent for three seconds.
Then he said: "Where are you now?"
"The data center."
"Wait there. I'll be there immediately."
3:30 AM, Lin Mo pushed open the door to the data center.
Li Xiao was sitting at the computer, eyes red and swollen, but her spirit was exhilarated.
Seeing Lin Mo enter, she immediately pulled up the image: "Senior brother, look!"
Lin Mo walked to the screen and stared at the image.
On the black background, twenty-seven points of light were arranged quietly.
The one in the center was the brightest, surrounded by twenty-six dimmer stars.
Li Xiao explained from the side: "This is HD 107146, a sun-like star, younger than the Sun. I have verified all these surrounding stars; they are all real. The distance, brightness, and position—everything matches."
Lin Mo didn't speak, just stared at the image.
A civilization 4.37 light-years away was showing them a star 12 light-years away.
Why this one?
What did this mean?
He suddenly thought of a possibility—
"Li Xiao," he said, "is it possible that these are not 'their' coordinates?"
Li Xiao was stunned: "Not theirs?"
Lin Mo pointed to the bright star in the center: "If they live in Centaurus, why would they show us a star 12 light-years away? That is not their home."
Li Xiao frowned: "Then... what is this?"
Lin Mo was silent for a moment, then said slowly: "It might be a destination."
Li Xiao's eyes slowly widened.
"A destination?"
"Yes," Lin Mo said. "They are telling us—we are going here."
8:00 AM, the signal research group held an emergency video conference.
Seven people were spread across four cities—Lin Mo and Li Xiao in the Gobi Desert, Academician Chen Yuanshan in Nanjing, Zhang Yuanli and Wang Mingyuan in Beijing, Zhou Zhiguo at the General Staff, and Li Wei at the Purple Mountain Observatory.
On the screen, Li Xiao displayed the star map.
"This is the image decoded from the latter half of the signal. The star in the center, catalog number HD 107146, is 12 light-years from Earth. The twenty-six stars surrounding it have all been verified, with positional accuracy within 0.1 arcseconds."
The conference room was silent for a few seconds.
Academician Chen Yuanshan was the first to speak, his voice trembling slightly: "This is a star map. Without a doubt, this is a star map."
Zhang Yuanli adjusted his glasses: "Twenty-seven stars, forming a three-dimensional structure. Look—"
He drew a few lines on the image: "These stars are on the same plane, these are on another plane. This is not a random distribution; it was intentionally chosen."
Wang Mingyuan frowned: "But why HD 107146? What is special about this star?"
Li Wei pulled up the data: "HD 107146, spectral type G2V, almost identical to the Sun. It is about 300 million years old, much younger than the Sun. It has a debris disk, and planets may be forming."
He paused and added: "From an astronomical perspective, this is a star very worthy of study. Young, sun-like, with the potential for planet formation—if we are looking for extraterrestrial life, this star would be a key target."
Zhou Zhiguo suddenly spoke: "So, are they telling us that they are paying attention to this star? Or is it—"
He hesitated, then voiced the conjecture: "Do they come from there?"
The conference room was silent again.
Lin Mo said slowly: "I have an idea."
Everyone looked at him.
Lin Mo said: "If they are a signal sent from Centaurus, why show a star 12 light-years away? That is not their coordinate. But if it is a destination—"
He paused: "They are inviting us."
Wang Mingyuan gasped: "Inviting us to go 12 light-years away?"
"Not an invitation," Lin Mo shook his head, "it's an announcement. They are telling us they are going there. Or, they are already there."
Intense discussion erupted in the conference room.
Academician Chen Yuanshan said: "12 light-years, with current technology, would take hundreds of thousands of years to fly."
Zhang Yuanli said: "But if it is a civilization much more advanced than ours, they might have a faster way."
Li Wei said: "Perhaps they have already established a colony there? Or perhaps that is their home star, and Centaurus is just an outpost?"
Zhou Zhiguo said: "Regardless, this news must absolutely not be leaked."
The discussion lasted for a full two hours.
Finally, Director Fang Lin's voice came from the conference system—she had been listening the whole time without speaking: "Lin Mo, what do you think?"
Lin Mo was silent for a few seconds, then said: "Director Fang, I think we need to do three things."
"Speak."
"First, continue monitoring. The signal won't stop; there might be more information to come."
"Second, initiate preliminary research on a 'response plan.' Not to respond immediately, but to be prepared—if we want to respond, how to do it, and what to say."
"Third," he paused, "accelerate the progress of the space elevator and deep space exploration. If that is really the destination, we must have the capability to go and see."
Director Fang was silent for a moment, then said: "Agreed. Lin Mo, you take the lead and write a report on these three things. Security clearance: highest."
"Understood."
The meeting ended, and the others logged off one by one.
Lin Mo sat alone in the conference room, staring at the star map on the screen.
Twenty-seven stars, looking at him quietly.
The one in the center was the brightest, like an eye.
12 light-years.
With humanity's fastest probe, it would take hundreds of thousands of years to fly.
But if they had Nuclear Fusion, had the Plasma Engine, had the space elevator—perhaps it could be shortened to a few hundred years.
A few hundred years, still too long.
But what if they could live for hundreds of years?
What if humanity could break through the limit of lifespan?
He didn't know.
But he knew one thing—that signal was not an accident.
It was sent to them intentionally.
Someone in the depths of the universe was greeting them.
Someone was telling them: We are here. We are going there. Will you come?
Lin Mo stood up and walked to the window.
Outside the window, the starry sky over the Gobi Desert was still brilliant.
Low in the southeastern sky, that dim star was still twinkling.
He suddenly remembered what Wang Zhenguo had said: "You go and see for me."
Yes.
He would go.
To see for his teacher.
To see for humanity.
To see what secrets were hidden in that young star 12 light-years away.
Three days later, Li Xiao sent new analysis results: "Senior brother, I discovered one more thing."
"What?"
"That star map, if we recalculate the relative positions with HD 107146 as the center—guess what?"
Lin Mo waited.
Li Xiao said: "Alpha Centauri is also on the map."
Lin Mo's pupils contracted slightly.
"In what position?"
"On the edge. A very small point." Li Xiao said, "If HD 107146 is the center, Alpha Centauri is the one at the very edge. It's like—"
She paused, then voiced the conjecture: "Like an outpost."
Lin Mo was silent.
An outpost.
A civilization, establishing an outpost 4.37 light-years away, declaring to the universe that they were going to a home 12 light-years away.
Or, conversely—their home was 12 light-years away, and there was an outpost at 4.37 light-years, greeting humanity.
Whichever explanation it was, it pointed to the same conclusion: Humanity had been discovered.