102: Chapter 101 Elena's Historical Puzzle

Countdown: 11 hours 19 minutes

In the Archaeology and Decoding Center of Bedrock Base, the air was thick with the scent of caffeine and data coolant. Seven holographic screens surrounded Elena Costa, each scrolling at different rates through streams of symbols from the builders' civilization, fragments of topological star charts, and waveform analyses of Sarah Chen's consciousness pulses.

"Coordinates locked." Elena's voice sounded exceptionally clear in the empty workstation. With a swipe of her finger, the central main screen projected a 3D model of the Solar System. A red trajectory line extended from Earth, passing through the asteroid belt, skimming past the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn, and finally stopping at the edge of the Kuiper Belt.

A dim point of light flickered there.

"The target is approximately 47.3 astronomical units from the Sun, with an orbital inclination of 7.2 degrees and an eccentricity of 0.18." Elena pulled up comparison results from the astronomical database. "It's not in any known catalog of asteroids or dwarf planets. Estimated diameter... around 32 kilometers. Preliminary composition analysis shows abnormally high metal content and... some kind of unknown carbon-silicon polymer signal."

Lin Shen's upper-body hologram floated on the communication panel to the left of the workstation. Behind him, Chen Qiming and Zhou Zhe could be seen in heated discussion over the wording of a report in front of another screen, while Chu Yunshen rested with his eyes closed in a corner—but Elena knew the strategist's brain was processing all the information at an incredible speed.

"What are the matching results from the Cradle database?" Lin Shen asked.

Elena brought up a second screen. It displayed star chart fragments extracted from the core archives of the moon's "Cradle"—holographic mapping records of the Solar System drawn by the Sower Civilization during its peak, with precision down to the centimeter. On this star chart, the coordinate point in the Kuiper Belt was clearly marked with a complex three-dimensional symbol.

"Match successful." Elena zoomed in on the symbol. "The literal translation of the builders' script is: 'Observatory/Outpost · Code: Silent Watch'. The clearance level is marked as 'Directly Under Sower Council Jurisdiction', and the access key requires... dual-factor authentication, consistent with the unsealing conditions of the ice abyss anchor: 'Key Holder' and 'Network Administrator'."

"Another dual-factor." Lin Shen said thoughtfully. "So theoretically, Sarah and you must both be present to open that place?"

"Or at least, to obtain full access." Elena nodded. "But there's a problem." She pulled up a third screen, showing a damaged log file with data loss warning signs flashing along its edges. "I cross-referenced all records mentioning 'Silent Watch' in the Cradle database. Most are routine maintenance logs and observation task lists. But there's one encrypted file from about five hundred thousand years ago, with a damage level as high as 73%. I only recovered part of the content."

Fragmented text appeared on the screen:

[Timestamp: sower Era, Cycle 8, Rotation 4, *] (Corresponding to approximately 503,000 years ago on Earth)

[From: Silent Watch, Station Master Antares]

[To: Sower Council, Emergency Affairs Committee]

[Subject: Infiltration Confirmed and Silent Protocol Initiation]

...Confirmed at least three peripheral sensor nodes hijacked by unknown signal sources. Signal characteristics have a 92.7% match with 'Order Reconstruction Faction' standard intrusion protocols. Defense arrays have been activated, but a latent logic bomb has been detected in the internal network.

Recommendation: Immediately initiate Deep Silent Protocol, cutting all active links between this station and the Gaia Network, retaining only a one-way channel to receive the 'successor protocol activation signal'.

Warning: This station stores critical evidence of the Schism War, as well as coordinates of potential dormant units of the 'Reconstruction Faction' within the Solar System. If this station is completely compromised, this intelligence will be permanently lost.

...I have destroyed all conventional access paths. The only way to restart: a qualified Inheritor (dual-factor) must personally visit the station's core and perform a manual system reset via the physical interface.

May the fireseed never be extinguished.

——Antares, Final Log.

Silence fell over the workstation. Only the cooling system emitted a faint hum.

"Five hundred thousand years ago." Lin Shen repeated the time. "That corresponds exactly to the Middle Paleolithic period on Earth. It was also the period when the Sower Civilization's civil war was at its most intense."

"And the station master of 'Silent Watch', after confirming that the outpost had been infiltrated by the 'Order Reconstruction Faction'—which is today's 'Pruning Faction'—chose self-imposed silence." Elena pointed to the last few lines. "He destroyed the conventional access paths, leaving only a backdoor: an Inheritor must go there in person to manually restart it. This explains why it's completely invisible in our astronomical observations—it's not disguised as an asteroid, but has truly entered a kind of... technical suspended animation. All active signal transmissions have stopped, keeping only minimal life support and passive monitoring."

"But he also warned that the station stores critical evidence and 'dormant unit coordinates'." Lin Shen's gaze sharpened. "Dormant units... that term reminds me of the message Nuwa intercepted—the query command sent by the 'Consciousness Sealed' anchor to the 'ice abyss', with 'Hibernators' in the signature residue."

Elena felt a chill run down her spine. "You mean, 'Silent Watch' might contain the location information of those 'Hibernators'? And those Hibernators might be Pruning Faction units that have been lurking in the Solar System since five hundred thousand years ago?"

"The probability is high." Lin Shen's hologram turned slightly, looking at the draft report being prepared on another screen. "But this leads to a new question: should we include the existence and potential risks of 'Silent Watch' in the report to the Galactic Council?"

Elena did not answer immediately. She pulled up a fourth screen and began a rapid logical deduction:

Option A: Complete concealment.

Risk: If the Galactic Council already knows of the outpost's existence (given their technological level, the probability isn't low), concealment will severely damage human credibility.

Benefit: Retain a secret site that may contain important intelligence and technology, avoiding premature exposure to the Council or other forces.

Option B: Partial mention.

Risk: Mentioning it but concealing key details (such as dormant unit coordinates). If the Council discovers something is being held back, it could still lead to a crisis of trust.

Benefit: Demonstrate human candor and responsibility, while leaving operational room for subsequent independent exploration.

Option C: Full disclosure.

Risk: The Council may demand to share all findings or even send their own team to take over the outpost. Humanity will lose control over this potential technological treasure trove and intelligence source.

Benefit: Maximize the demonstration of transparency and cooperation, potentially in exchange for technical support or information sharing from the Council.

"I lean toward Option B." Elena finally spoke, her finger drawing a layered structural diagram in the air. "In the 'Legal' section of the report, we can state it like this: In the process of inheriting the legacy, humanity discovered an ancient observatory in a silent state. According to limited historical records, the site may store critical evidence regarding the split of the Sower Civilization, as well as residual risks from hostile factions that may exist within the Solar System. As Inheritors, humanity has a responsibility to investigate and assess these risks. However, given the potential security hazards at the site (infiltration, logic bombs), we request technical guidance from the Council and propose a limited joint investigation under the supervision of Council observers."

She paused: "This way, we haven't concealed key information, yet we keep the 'right of investigation' in our own hands. At the same time, we partially transfer the hot potato—the potential risk assessment and responsibility—to the Council. If they agree to a joint investigation, we gain legitimacy and technical support; if they refuse or delay, we have a reason to act on our own in the future."

Lin Shen was silent for a moment. Elena could see in the background behind him that the argument between Chen Qiming and Zhou Zhe seemed to have reached a consensus, and the two began quickly revising a section of the report.

"A very good strategy." Lin Shen finally nodded. "Elena, please integrate this part into the 'Legal Layer' appendix of the report. Emphasize two points: first, this is a potential risk actively discovered by humanity, reflecting our sense of responsibility; second, we are willing to cooperate within the Council's framework to resolve it, showing our willingness to cooperate."

"Understood." Elena began operating the interface rapidly, packaging the analysis results and wording suggestions to send to the report drafting team.

Just as she was about to close the log file, a footnote at the end of the damaged text, which had been almost completely erased, caught her attention. The pixel loss of that line of characters reached 90%, but the stroke structure remaining at the edges...

Elena's heart skipped a beat. She pulled up the glyph library for the builders' script and started the image restoration algorithm. The remnants on the screen began to be filled in by the AI. Although most of the content remained garbled, several keywords gradually emerged:

...dormant units... with Gaia Network... deep binding...

...Warning: any large-scale operations on the network... may...

...trigger... Awakening Protocol...

Awakening Protocol.

This term was exactly the same as the title of the information Nuwa had intercepted earlier.

"Dr. Lin." Elena's voice was a bit dry. "I think I've found the connection between the 'Hibernators' and the 'Awakening Protocol'."

She shared the restored fragment. "According to the hint in this footnote, those 'dormant units' (Hibernators) that went into hiding five hundred thousand years ago are deeply bound to the Gaia Network. And our recent operations on the network—activating the successor protocol, transferring ice abyss samples, or even just large-scale queries—these actions themselves might be unintentionally triggering some kind of 'Awakening Protocol'."

Lin Shen's brow furrowed. "You mean, the more we try to take control of the legacy, the more likely we are to wake up a sleeping enemy?"

"More than that." Elena pulled up a fifth screen, showing a real-time monitoring map of the Gaia Network's energy fluctuations. The energy background value curves of the seven main anchors had shown a slow but steady upward trend over the past six hours, currently 0.53% higher than the baseline. And the interval between peaks and troughs... "Look at this cycle. The pulse interval averages 3.7 seconds, with an error within plus or minus 0.05 seconds. And this is..."

She pulled up the real-time bio-electric monitoring of Sarah Chen's consciousness crystal.

The cycles of the two curves were identical.

"The network is using Sarah's consciousness fluctuations as a 'metronome'." Elena's voice carried a hint of unease. "This isn't passive resonance; it's active synchronization. The Gaia Network is adapting to her, or... she is unconsciously guiding the network. And if the network itself is bound to those Hibernators, then this synchronization..."

She didn't go on. But the conclusion was already clear enough to make one's heart race.

Zhou Zhe's voice came through the communication channel, interrupting their thoughts: "Dr. Lin, the team in Antarctica has completed the disguised implantation of icequake data. The energy fluctuation model has been generated, which can explain 83% of the possible monitored signals. Additionally, General Zhao's team is on their way back and is expected to arrive in one hour."

"Received." Lin Shen responded, then looked at Elena. "Continue your analysis. I need to know what we might face if the Awakening Protocol is truly triggered, and how long the time window is."

"I'm trying to start with that query command from the 'Consciousness Sealed' anchor." Elena pulled up the data packet intercepted by Nuwa and began reverse-parsing the command's structure. "Although the sender's signature on the command is damaged, the protocol type is a standard 'Internal Network Status Confirmation'. The recipient is the ice abyss, and the query content is 'Status Confirmation'. Combined with the keyword 'Hibernators'... I speculate this might be a preparatory check for an 'Awakening Sequence'."

She tapped the keyboard, pulling up the network protocol archives of the builders' civilization.

"In the sower system, 'dormant units' are typically set to wake up in response to specific conditions. These conditions might include: changes in network core permissions (like the activation of the successor protocol), anomalies in specific anchor states (like energy fluctuations in the ice abyss), or... external threats reaching a threshold (like the approach of the Pruning Faction's main fleet)." Elena's speaking speed grew faster. "And awakening is usually phased: Phase one, the network sends a status confirmation command to the dormant unit to check its availability; Phase two, if a confirmation response is received, it begins transferring energy and updating intelligence; Phase three, full activation."

"We might be in phase one now." Lin Shen summarized.

"Or about to enter phase two." Elena pointed to another set of data on the screen. "In the past twenty minutes, the overall data traffic of the Gaia Network has increased by 1.2%, with the proportion of encrypted data packets that cannot be traced back to a source rising from 0.3% to 0.8%. Nuwa is trying to crack them, but the encryption level is very high."

The workstation fell into a brief silence. Outside the window, the simulated sunlight system was gradually brightening, simulating the arrival of morning—though at seven hundred meters underground, it was only a psychological comfort.

"Add this part of the analysis to the report as well." Lin Shen finally said. "But not as a formal chapter, but as a 'Technical Appendix' titled 'Preliminary Observations and Risk Hypotheses Regarding the Activation Phenomenon of the Gaia Network'. Use the most objective and academic language to describe the phenomena and possibilities, without making any inflammatory conclusions. We want the Council to see that we have not only discovered the problem but are also actively researching it."

"Won't that make us seem too... alarmist?" Elena hesitated.

"On the contrary." Lin Shen's hologram leaned forward, his gaze sharp. "This will let the Council see that humanity is a civilization with 'predictive risk management capabilities'. And in the evaluation systems of advanced civilizations, this capability is often more important than simple military force or technology."

Elena understood. She began organizing the data and writing the appendix.

Just as she was about to finish, the workstation's warning light suddenly flashed—not an emergency alarm, but a priority alert. Nuwa's synthesized voice sounded:

"Professor Costa, an abnormal data pattern has been detected. Source: Near the coordinates of 'Silent Watch' you are analyzing, approximately 120,000 kilometers away."

A new screen popped up, showing real-time images sent back by the deep-space monitoring network. In the Kuiper Belt, behind and to the side of that dim light point (Silent Watch), in an area of darkness that was originally empty, extremely faint ripples of spatial distortion were now appearing—like the shimmering of light and shadow when hot air rises, but in a vacuum, this usually meant only one thing:

The stealth field of some large object had produced a momentary flaw due to energy fluctuations.

The ripple lasted for only 0.3 seconds before disappearing. The monitoring system didn't even have time to capture its spectral characteristics.

But it was enough.

Elena watched the darkness as it gradually smoothed over, and slowly exhaled.

"Dr. Lin," she said, "I don't think we need to debate whether to investigate 'Silent Watch' anymore."

She sent the monitoring screenshot over.

"Because it looks like... someone, or something, has already arrived there before us. And they are likely monitoring that outpost."

Countdown: 9 hours 04 minutes

Less than nine hours remained before the report had to be submitted to the Galactic Council.

And at the edge of the Solar System, beside an outpost that had slept for five hundred thousand years, shadows were stirring.