45: Chapter 45 Spirals and Costs

The air in the main control room of the Deep Space Technology assembly plant solidified.

Everyone stared at the screen, which displayed the image just sent by the lunar ruins: two intertwined spiral bands, arranged alternately with four different mathematical symbols—∑ (summation), ∫ (integral), ∇ (gradient), and ∂ (partial derivative).

The structure was identical to an artificial DNA double helix, but it was not composed of bases, but of mathematical symbols.

"It is using our language to describe its 'genetic information'."

Chen Xuan's voice came through the communicator. She was still in Xichang, but the shock in her voice was clearly audible. "Nuwa has just completed the preliminary analysis: these four symbol sequences correspond to four basic mathematical operation systems.

Summation represents discrete mathematics, integral represents continuous mathematics, gradient represents vector analysis, and partial derivative represents multi-variable systems."

Lin Shen approached the screen, his finger hovering over the image: "But why this arrangement? Why a spiral structure?"

"Because of information density," Nuwa's voice analyzed calmly. "A double helix structure can store the maximum amount of information per unit volume.

If each symbol represents a 'mathematical concept,' then the amount of information contained in this 'formula DNA' may exceed the sum of all human libraries."

Wang Zhenguo gasped: "You mean... this is a knowledge storage system? The lunar ruins are sending us their 'knowledge genes'?"

"Or perhaps it is demonstrating its principles of composition," Lin Shen pulled up all previous signal records. "The Riemann zero, spacetime structure, and now mathematical DNA... It is systematically demonstrating a complete technological system.

From basic mathematics to spacetime physics, and then to information encoding."

He paused, realizing something: "This is not random teaching. This is... an entrance exam. It is testing whether we can understand the connection between these fragments before it shows the full picture."

Just then, the alarm in the assembly plant sounded. It was not a shrill buzz, but three short, sharp beeps—from the self-test system of the kuafu probe.

"Dr. Lin, there is an abnormal fluctuation in the quantum entanglement particle source," the engineer at the monitoring console shouted. "The coherence time has plummeted from fifty-three minutes to seventeen minutes, and it's still dropping!"

Lin Shen rushed to the console. The data showed that the decay curve of the quantum state was experiencing eerie oscillations—not a smooth decline, but fluctuating up and down like an ECG.

"External interference?" Wang Zhenguo asked.

"No," Lin Shen stared at the fluctuation frequency, "this frequency... Nuwa, compare it with the frequency of the gravitational wave signal from the moon."

The calculation result appeared after 0.3 seconds: "Match rate 99.7%. The oscillation frequency of the quantum state is perfectly synchronized with the gravitational waves emitted by the ruins."

The entire control room went quiet. What did this mean? Did it mean that some entity on the moon, 380,000 kilometers away, was directly affecting the quantum state of the core components of the kuafu probe?

"Is it interfering with us?" Su Ting's hand pressed against the equipment at her waist, although she knew it was useless.

"No, it's establishing a connection," Lin Shen suddenly understood. "The essence of quantum entanglement is the real-time correlation of the states of two particles.

If the ruins can emit gravitational waves that resonate with quantum bits, then it is actually... 'shaking hands' with our quantum system. It is attempting to establish a communication channel at the quantum level."

On the screen, the oscillation of the quantum state suddenly stopped. In its place, the coherence time began to recover: eighteen minutes, twenty-five minutes, thirty-four minutes...

It finally stabilized at forty-one minutes.

At the same time, the next message sent by the ruins arrived. This time it was not an image, but a string of extremely concise binary code. Nuwa completed the decoding in one-thousandth of a second, and the result was displayed on the central screen:

[Are you ready to receive?]

Five words. Repeated in seven major Earth languages.

In the control room, some held their breath, and some subconsciously took a step back. Lin Shen felt his heartbeat quickening, but he forced himself to remain calm.

"Reply," he said, "using the same binary code, send: We are ready to learn."

"Dr. Lin," General Liu's voice came through the encrypted line, uncharacteristically carrying a hint of hesitation, "are you sure you want to do this? Once formal communication is established, there is no turning back."

"We have long since passed the point of no return," Lin Shen looked at the sky outside the window, where the darkness before dawn was fading. "From the moment we discovered the technology tree system, from the moment the 'Reapers' signal appeared, from the moment the lunar ruins awoke... human civilization has been standing at a crossroads.

Either learn to coexist with these entities, or be eliminated."

He paused, his voice lower: "And, the Imperial Alliance launch is in thirty-three hours. If they establish a connection first..."

The rest was left unsaid, but everyone understood.

"Send it," General Liu finally said.

Imperial Alliance, "ares-7" launch gantry.

Max Costa stood at the edge of the 300-meter-high launch platform, looking down. The rocket reflected a cold white light in the morning sun, like a giant sword pointing to the sky.

But his attention was not on the rocket, but on his slightly trembling right hand.

"Commander?" The young astronaut Sarah Chen walked over; she was the science officer for this mission. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Max clenched his fist, stopping the trembling, "it's probably just the last ground training session being too exhausting."

Sarah did not press for more, but there was concern in her eyes. As the youngest member of the team, she was both excited and uneasy about this mission. Launching fifty days early, a compressed training schedule, and those vague mission briefings... everything felt unusual.

"Sarah," Max asked suddenly, "do you believe there is anything special on the moon?"

Sarah was stunned: "Do you mean water ice resources?"

"Not just water ice," Max looked toward the moon, which was hanging in the western sky, presenting a perfect semicircle. "My father participated in the ground support for the Apollo program.

He told me something before he passed away—he said that some things were sealed away forever in top-secret files. About the moon, and why we never went back after 1972."

"Do you think... this mission is related to those secrets?"

"I know it is," Max took an old metal badge out of his pocket, engraved with the words "Project Daedalus-1971". "This was left by my father. He never explained what it was, only saying 'If one day you go to the moon, take it with you'."

Sarah stared at the badge, feeling an inexplicable chill.

Just then, the communication from the launch command center came through: "All crew members, please return to the ready room immediately. Launch time may be advanced again."

"Advanced again?" Sarah was surprised.

The voice in the communicator was serious: "Orbital observations show that the abnormal activity at the lunar south pole is intensifying. To ensure the mission's success, the joint command has decided to advance the launch window to twenty-two hours from now. Repeat, launch in twenty-two hours."

Max and Sarah exchanged a look. Twenty-two hours—this meant they had to cancel even their final ground simulation training and go directly into the launch procedure.

"Let's go," Max put away the badge and took one last look at the rocket. "History is urging us on."

Dragon Country, National Strategic Command Center, ninth basement level.

This was a facility few people knew about, codenamed "Root". In the center of the room was a huge holographic sand table, displaying the real-time status of the entire Solar System. At this moment, five red dots lit up on the sand table: the Moon, Mars, Venus, Europa, and the Mariana Trench.

Between the five points, there were almost invisible lines of light connected, forming a three-dimensional pentagonal structure.

"Nuwa's simulation results are out," Li Weimin stood by the sand table, his face grave. "If these five points are indeed anchor points of some kind of monitoring network, then the geometric structure they form has a property: any violent disturbance at one point will be transmitted to the other four points through this network."

General Liu stared at the sand table: "Transmission speed?"

"Theoretically... instantaneous."

Li Weimin pulled up the simulation data. "Action at a distance based on the principle of quantum entanglement. In other words, if we awaken the lunar ruins, then the 'things' on Mars, Venus, Europa, and in the Earth's trenches might also awaken simultaneously or sequentially."

"Earth has one too?" Zhou Min, the head of the Bureau of Diplomatic Strategy, was hearing this detail for the first time. "The Mariana Trench? What's there?"

"There was a deep-sea exploration during the Soviet era that recorded anomalous sonar signals."

Li Weimin pulled up a declassified file. "In 1978, the Soviet deep-sea probe 'Vityaz-7' discovered a regular geometric structure at the bottom of the trench, approximately 1.2 kilometers in diameter. The record at the time described it as 'non-natural construction, material unknown.' But during recovery, the probe lost contact, and all data was destroyed."

A silence fell over the room.

"So," General Liu said slowly, "could Earth itself be... part of a larger ruin?"

"Or a dormant node."

Lin Shen's voice came through the communicator. He was still at the assembly plant but had joined the meeting. "Nuwa has a new analysis of the 'mathematical DNA' sent by the ruins: hidden within that spiral structure is a message about 'seeding'."

New images appeared on the holographic sandbox.

The double helix of the mathematical DNA unfurled, and at specific positions, the sequence of symbols formed meaningful combinations.

Nuwa translated them into human language:

[Seeding Era: Galactic Standard Year -4,712,398]

[sower: Civilization Code 'Origin']

[Seeding Target: Third Spiral Arm - Orion Arm - Star System G-8754 (Local Name: Solar System)]

[Seeding Content: Civilization Evolution Acceleration Protocol]

[Status: Dormant, awaiting trigger conditions...]

"What are the trigger conditions?" Zhou Min asked.

"Not yet parsed," Lin Shen replied. "But Nuwa discovered that a segment of the DNA sequence is 'encrypted,' and the encryption method is identical to the genetic coding of the pandora virus. We need the original strain of pandora as a key to unlock that information."

"The pandora virus..." Li Weimin remembered something. "The global pandemic broke out three years ago, and Lin Shen woke up three years ago. Between these—"

"Not a coincidence." Lin Shen interrupted him. "I had Nuwa trace the timeline. The point when the pandora virus was first discovered and the time I woke from my vegetative state are less than seventy-two hours apart. Furthermore, the three locations where the virus first broke out—Jiangcheng in the Dragon Country, California in the Federation, and Siberia in the Empire—form an equilateral triangle on the Earth's surface, which perfectly matches one face of the icosahedral structure sent by the lunar ruins."

More fragments pieced together to form a disturbing picture.

"So the virus might be... a key?" Zhou Min's voice was a bit dry. "A biological key used to 'activate' a certain system?"

"Or a test," General Liu said. "A test to see if human civilization has the capability to crack this level of biological coding. And we passed the test—we developed vaccines and specific treatments. That's why the ruins started communicating with us."

This deduction made the temperature in the room seem to drop a few degrees.

"If that's the case," Li Weimin said with difficulty, "then if the Imperial Alliance forcibly scans the ruins, they might trigger... defensive mechanisms we don't know about. Or worse: they might activate the system incorrectly, leading to unpredictable consequences."

"And we can't stop them right now." Zhou Min shook her head. "Diplomatic channels have already been tried. We proposed international negotiations on the grounds of 'protecting potential alien ruins,' but the Imperial Alliance's response was 'freedom of lunar resource development.' They even turned around and accused us of trying to monopolize lunar scientific discoveries."

General Liu's fingers tapped on the console, and he finally made a decision. "Lin Shen, how soon can 'Kuafu' be launched?"

"In eight hours," Lin Shen replied. "All tests are complete. But there's a problem: our carrier rocket 'vermilion bird-2' is still in the final verification stage. If we use it for the launch, the success rate is only 87%."

"Accept the risk," General Liu said. "'Kuafu' must reach lunar orbit before 'Zeus Station'. Additionally, initiate the second phase of contingency plan 'Bu Tian': mobilize all resources of the 'Tiangong' space station to establish a monitoring and exclusion zone in lunar orbit. If the Empire insists on landing... we must have the capability to intervene on-site."

"Specific authorization for intervention?" Lin Shen asked.

General Liu was silent for a long time. On the holographic sandbox, five red dots blinked silently, like five closed eyes.

"If their actions could trigger a global catastrophe," he finally said, "authorized to use non-lethal but effective interference means. If necessary... you may render them 'temporarily incapacitated'."

This was a dangerous authorization, meaning the Dragon Country might have to directly confront another major power in space.

But no one in the room objected. Because everyone had seen the sandbox, seen the network formed by those five points, and seen the words 'Seeding Era' and 'Civilization Evolution Acceleration Protocol.'

Humanity might not be the first inhabitants of the Solar System.

And right now, we might be awakening those sleeping landlords.

Countdown: 22:18:09

In the assembly plant, the 'Kuafu' probe was slowly moved into the transport capsule. Lin Shen stood before the observation window, watching this creation that carried humanity's thirst for knowledge and fear.

Su Ting walked to his side. "Dr. Lin, you should rest. You've been working for forty hours straight."

Lin Shen shook his head. "I will rest after 'Kuafu' launches."

"Do you think... we can succeed?" Su Ting rarely asked such questions. As a member of the Special Affairs Office, she was accustomed to executing orders, not questioning them.

Lin Shen did not answer directly. He looked at the brightening sky outside the window, where the moon was setting in the west.

"Do you know why I named this probe 'Kuafu'?" he said. "In mythology, Kuafu chased the sun and eventually died of exhaustion. But where he fell, it turned into a peach forest, nourishing future generations."

He paused. "We may never catch up to those ancient existences, and we may never fully understand their intentions. But at least... we must leave a mark. We must let those who come after know that we tried, that we sought knowledge, and that we were not overcome by fear."

The transport capsule doors closed, and 'Kuafu' set off on its journey to the launch site.

Meanwhile, in Xichang, Chen Xuan stared at the screen; the ruins had just sent new information. This time it was no longer mathematics or images, but a low-frequency sound wave. When Nuwa converted it into the audible range for human ears, the sound that played left everyone who heard it stunned.

It was a melody. Simple, ancient, and repetitive.

It took Chen Xuan a few minutes to remember where she had heard it—it was a Dragon Country folk song her grandmother used to hum when she was a child. A song about the moon and longing.

The ruins were playing human music.

Or rather... it was playing what it had 'heard' from human civilization.

"It is learning us," Chen Xuan said into the communicator, her voice filled with unmistakable shock. "Just as we are learning it."

Lin Shen heard this in the assembly plant and suddenly felt a profound irony. Two civilizations, separated by 380,000 kilometers and potentially millions of years of time, were conducting a clumsy dialogue using mathematics and music.

And a third force, carrying high-powered radar and deep-drilling equipment, was preparing to intrude upon this dialogue uninvited.

Countdown continues: 21:47:22.

Less than a day until collision.