122: Chapter 121 Ashes and Omens
The 'pioneer' was docked at the third dock of the Moon's orbit, its streamlined silver-gray hull glowing with a cold metallic luster under the blue light of the distant Earth.
Zhao Yan stood before the observation window, with his twelve-person mission team performing final equipment checks behind him.
Everyone's movements were crisp and precise, yet a tense silence permeated the air—the instinctive solemnity before stepping into the unknown darkness.
"Captain, the three observers from the review team have arrived at the docking tunnel." The adjutant reported in a low voice.
Zhao Yan did not turn back: "Receive them according to protocol. They may enter all areas except the core cockpit and weapon control zone, but all data access requires secondary authorization from me or Commander Lin Shen."
"Understood. Also..." The adjutant paused slightly, "The supervisor dispatched by 'Blade', codename 'Ashes', has arrived early. She did not use the standard docking tunnel and appeared directly outside the No. 3 airlock. The monitoring system did not capture any approach records of any vessel."
Zhao Yan finally turned around. She was forty-seven hours early and had appeared in this near-demonstrative manner. "Where is she?"
"She has been arranged in the second briefing room. She requested to see you and Commander Lin Shen alone."
When the briefing room door slid open silently, the first thing Zhao Yan saw was a matte black, skin-tight tactical suit and a head of silver-white hair tied back simply.
The woman known as "Ashes" stood with her back to the door, looking up at the Solar System star map projected on the wall.
She stood tall, yet gave off a strange "low presence," as if one's gaze would naturally slide away if not looking intently.
"Captain Zhao Yan." She turned around, her voice calm and without waves, her pupils a rare dark gold, "I am from the Seventh Execution Court, Blade of Supervision - Ashes. Ordered by the Presiding Judge, I am to supervise this 'Silent Outpost' operation throughout and ensure the effective use of intelligence regarding the 'Gardener Chief'."
She handed over a prism-shaped data crystal. Zhao Yan took it and inserted it into his personal terminal.
A holographic image unfolded, showing an extremely complex energy flow analysis chart, with a starship structure resembling a spiky sea urchin at the center.
"'Gardener Chief's' flagship, 'Crown of the Pruner'." Ashes walked closer, her finger lightly tapping a slowly pulsing red dot in the starship's core area, "This is its core power hub—an ancient 'Void Tide Engine', which obtains near-infinite energy by extracting background fluctuations from micro-dimensions. But precisely because it is ancient, it has a design flaw."
The image zoomed in. Fine, spiderweb-like energy conduction cracks appeared around the red dot.
"Every thirty-seven standard hours, the engine needs to execute a 0.3-second 'Resonance Reversal' to balance dimensional pressure. At the moment of reversal, the flagship's overall shield will experience periodic decay, with the decay magnitude being about seven percent of the normal value. The duration... is 0.1 seconds."
Zhao Yan's pupils constricted slightly. 0.1 seconds, seven percent shield decay. In interstellar-level warfare, this is an almost negligible window. But if it is a carefully planned lethal blow—
"Source of intelligence?" Zhao Yan asked.
"The Seventh Execution Court had a limited conflict with the Order Reconstruction Faction four eras ago. This is one of the battlefield data pieces transmitted back by the three 'Blades' who sacrificed themselves at that time." Ashes' dark gold eyes were without ripples, "It took us two thousand years to fully decipher this flaw model. We are giving it to you now because humanity is the only civilization currently capable of approaching the 'Gardener Chief'."
"Why us?"
"Because you possess the Inheritor of the 'technology tree system', and..." Ashes' gaze seemed to pierce through the bulkhead, looking toward the direction of Earth, "...two awakening prisoners. The 'Gardener Chief' has an extraordinary interest in them. This means you will become a target, and it also means you may gain an opportunity for contact."
The data crystal continued to pour out information: the flagship's weak point coordinates, the precise time calculation formula for the resonance reversal, and a special armor-piercing trajectory model for this model of shield. All of it was highly confidential tactical intelligence that absolutely does not exist in the Galactic Council's public database.
"What is the price?" Zhao Yan asked in a deep voice.
Ashes was silent for a moment.
"If you successfully use this intelligence to cause substantial damage to the 'Gardener Chief', the Seventh Execution Court will formally recognize humanity's status as a 'collaborator' in the Galactic defense system and grant access to some restricted military technology." She paused, "But if you fail, or if the intelligence is leaked causing the 'Gardener Chief' to patch the flaw in advance—the Execution Court will view humanity as an uncontrollable risk factor and take necessary measures to ensure the threat does not spread."
Necessary measures. Zhao Yan understood the meaning behind those words.
"Does the review team know about this intelligence?"
"The review team knows that 'Blade' will provide assistance, but they do not know the specifics. There is an information barrier between the Council and the Execution Court." Ashes' answer was clever, "I suggest that after the mission departs, you choose an appropriate time to share parts with the examiners. The 'Crystal Analysis' officer can be trusted, the 'Hidden Scale' officer is neutral, the 'Shadow' officer... requires caution."
Just then, Zhao Yan's personal terminal vibrated. It was an emergency communication request from Lin Shen.
In the Qinling Command Center, the screen in front of Lin Shen was displaying the real-time dynamics of the third node's signal.
That pulsing frequency was accelerating, and an additional piece of information that had just been parsed plunged the entire analysis room into an icy coldness.
"The signal has an embedded timestamp." Elena's voice was a bit dry, "It points to... a precise moment twenty-seven hours from now. The coordinates are not in deep space, but in an empty area on the outskirts of the Kuiper Belt, only 0.3 light-minutes away from the 'Silent Outpost' preset route."
"Content?" Lin Shen asked.
"It is still a mixture of encrypted prisoner consciousness fragments, but this time... a strong gravitational field disturbance forecast has been added." Elena pulled up the gravitational wave simulation, "The forecast shows that at that precise moment, the coordinate will generate a brief micro-gravitational anomaly, with an intensity sufficient to tear open a metastable spacetime fold."
"Spacetime fold..." Lin Shen instantly associated it with something, "Has the route adjustment plan for the 'pioneer' been finalized?"
"The final version was just finalized by Captain Zhao Yan and the navigation team two hours ago and has already been uploaded to the ship's main control system." Zhou Zhe replied from the side, "But theoretically, if there is a prophetic signal capable of precisely predicting gravitational anomalies, that means..."
"It means our route might have been predicted." Chu Yunshen took over, his expression grave, "Or worse—the signal itself is bait to lure us to a specific location."
Lin Shen pulled up the complete historical data of the third node. From the faint flickering when it was first discovered, to the current main artery pulsing and sending gravitational anomaly forecasts with timestamps, the evolution curve of its behavior pattern presented a disturbing intelligence.
This phenomenon occurred within the same timeframe as the 'Abyss Devourer' learning communication protocols and the 'cold fang' releasing decodable whispers.
Three prisoners—two on Earth, one in deep space—seem to be awakening synchronously in some way.
He connected to the encrypted channel with Zhao Yan. Zhao Yan appeared on the screen, along with the silver-haired, dark-eyed woman behind him.
"Who is this?"
"Blade of Supervision - Ashes." Zhao Yan introduced briefly, "Lin Shen, we may have encountered a route safety issue."
After listening to the latest developments of the third node, Ashes showed a slightly grave expression for the first time. "A gravitational anomaly forecast with a timestamp... This fits the typical intervention style of the 'Covenant of the Watchers'. When they seal high-risk entities, they are accustomed to setting up multi-layered trigger-based warning mechanisms."
"What are the trigger conditions?"
"Usually signs of awakening by the sealed object, or external forces approaching the sealed location." Ashes looked at Lin Shen, "Your monitoring and suppression actions on the two prisoners likely activated this mechanism. The third node is not a prisoner, but an alarm left by the jailer."
Alarm. This meant that their previous judgment about a 'distress signal' might need to be completely revised. That was not some distress signal, but something more complex—perhaps a warning, perhaps a trap, perhaps a test.
"Does the route need to be adjusted?" Zhao Yan asked.
"Adjustment is of little significance." Ashes shook her head, "If this is a mechanism set by the 'Covenant of the Watchers', then it does not lock onto specific coordinates, but 'intent'. Any action attempting to approach the 'Silent Outpost' or investigate the truth about the prisoners may trigger subsequent reactions. The key is how you deal with that predicted gravitational anomaly—that is the first test of the mechanism."
Lin Shen pondered for a moment.
"Maintain the original route. But the 'pioneer' needs additional defensive modifications for micro-gravitational anomalies, focusing on strengthening the transient overload capability of the spacetime shield. In addition, at the moment of the anomaly forecast, the ship must enter a full silence state, with all active sensors shut down, retaining only passive reception and internal consciousness protection fields."
He looked at Ashes: "Supervisor, does the Execution Court have experience or technical advice for dealing with such 'mechanism tests'?"
Ashes took another smaller black crystal from her bosom.
"This is a 'Silent Mask', a short-term presence shielding device. Once activated, it can make the carrier 'transparent' at the macroscopic physical and most consciousness perception levels for no more than 300 seconds. The side effect is that the user will endure a strong sense of nothingness, and prolonged use may lead to blurred self-cognition. It is recommended to enable it only at the critical moment of crossing the anomaly area."
Zhao Yan took the black crystal. It was cold to the touch, almost weightless.
"Thank you."
"No need." Ashes' dark gold eyes swept over Lin Shen on the screen, "A reminder: the mechanisms of the 'Covenant of the Watchers' often have multi-layered properties. Passing the first test may unlock some information or permissions, but it will also trigger deeper protocols. You must be prepared to face chain reactions."
Before the communication ended, Lin Shen asked one last question:
"Supervisor Ashes, do you think the 'Covenant of the Watchers' foresaw today's situation when they sealed these prisoners seven eras ago?"
The silver-haired woman's mouth seemed to move very slightly.
"One of the tenets of the Covenant is that 'time is an observable river'. All the mechanisms they left behind are prepared for a specific 'possibility branch' in the future. As for whether that branch is now... there will be an answer soon."
The screen darkened.
The countdown continues:
67 hours and 9 minutes until departure.
26 hours and 51 minutes until the gravitational anomaly predicted by the third node.
And deep in the Ruins, the latest wave of scattered composite probes has quietly attached to the communication antennas of three foreign civilian scientific research ships passing over the Pacific Ocean. On the surface of those probes, waveform patterns extremely similar to human language characters began to emerge.
Imitation is entering a new stage.