72: Chapter 72 The Silent Echo

Ling Shu Base, Sub-level 7, codenamed "Echo".

This newly constructed laboratory is located 300 meters deep within the mountain, its four walls covered with "Silent Alloy" capable of absorbing specific consciousness harmonics.

In the center of the room floats a complex structure—it resembles a silver heart woven from countless optical nerve bundles, slowly pulsing with a soft blue light.

This is the first-generation "Controlled Consciousness Probe" designed based on the Gardener protocol, project codename: "Wind Listener".

Lin Shen, Academician Chen Qiming, the core logic module of Nuwa, and two technical representatives of the Gardener "Guardian Faction" (their projections now appear in more solid humanoid forms to facilitate detailed communication) are gathered around the holographic workbench.

On the table, the simulated connection map between "Wind Listener" and the lunar "Cradle" is displayed, with lines flickering and data cascading down like a waterfall.

"The biggest problem remains bandwidth and filtering." Gardener Representative Qi (the abbreviation he chose for himself) points to a sharply oscillating curve on the map.

"The information stream output by 'Cradle' is a raw, unclassified 'Civilization Memory Package' with extremely high density."

"Andrei Petrov's consciousness suffered an instant overload because his brain became a direct conduit."

"'Wind Listener' must act as both an intelligent valve and a translator."

"We have designed a seven-layer buffer protocol." Nuwa's voice comes from the central control pillar, simultaneously marking seven nested halos on the holographic table.

"From physical-level harmonic attenuation to consciousness-level semantic preprocessing."

"The most critical is the fourth layer—the 'Prototype Filter', which requires inputting the 'Civilization Memory Prototype' characteristics we wish to focus on; only then will the probe directionally receive relevant information streams and block others."

"This requires feature templates." Another Gardener Representative, "Cheng", interjects.

"We have shared an overview of the twelve basic civilization prototypes that 'Cradle' might have archived: agrarian city-state type, maritime trade type, interstellar nomadic type, collective consciousness network type, etc."

"But when it comes to specific details, especially templates that can safely resonate with human consciousness, we need you to provide them."

Lin Shen calls up the index of the Dragon Country Civilization historical database.

The vast ocean of data—from the patterns on Yangshao painted pottery to the astronomical records in the "Book of Documents"; from the irrigation charts of the Dujiangyan to the engineering archives of the "Two Bombs, One Satellite".

These are all "memories" of civilization, but which ones can constitute "feature templates" for a dialogue with ancient creations?

"We cannot exhaustively list every detail of a five-thousand-year civilization." Academician Chen Qiming muses.

"We need to find those... 'meta-symbols' or 'meta-narratives' that span eras and are branded deep within the collective consciousness."

"Perhaps we can start with the fragments Andrei received last." Nuwa suggests, pulling up the images from that time: rock art symbols, the starry sky, more than one moon...

"These images are highly symbolic."

"'More than one moon'—this might point to some astronomical anomaly record, or a mythological motif."

Just then, the laboratory door slides open.

Minister Li Weimin walks in, followed by someone who slightly surprises Lin Shen—a senior researcher at the Dragon Country Academy of Social Sciences, a titan of mythology and archaeological semiotics, Professor Chu Yunshen.

The old gentleman is nearly eighty, thin in stature, but his gaze is as sharp as an eagle's, and he holds an ancient wooden cane in his hand.

"Chief Engineer Lin, Academician Chen." Minister Li Weimin introduces, "Old Chu heard about the 7341 incident and the situation with 'Cradle' and volunteered to participate."

"He said... he might have seen those symbols."

Professor Chu Yunshen doesn't engage in small talk; he walks straight to the holographic table, his gaze locked firmly on the rock art symbol Nuwa pulled up.

He stares at it for a full minute, his fingers tracing the lines in the void.

"This is not ordinary rock art." Old Chu's voice is hoarse but firm.

"This is 'Priest Script', or rather, a specialized symbol system used to record major astronomical events and sacrificial rituals."

"I have seen similar variants in frozen tomb relics in southern Siberia, in the Altai Mountains."

He points to a spiral-nested graphic.

"This appears in multiple ancient Eurasian ruins and usually coexists with records of 'Great Cataclysms', 'Celestial Anomalies', and 'Descent of the Gods'."

"Can you interpret more?" Lin Shen feels a surge of spirit.

"It's hard to tell from just this."

"But combined with the description of 'more than one moon'..." Professor Chu Yunshen closes his eyes, as if searching his memory.

"In the mythological fragments of many ancient civilizations, there are records of 'two suns in the sky' or 'three moons shining together', usually accompanied by floods, earthquakes, and fire rain."

"Most modern scholars believe these are exaggerated descriptions by ancient people of rare astronomical phenomena (such as auroras, sun dogs, or comets), or purely mythological fiction."

"But what if..."

"What if it were true?" Academician Chen Qiming interjects, his voice tightening.

"What if, at some point, there really were extra 'luminous bodies' in Earth's sky that were not natural satellites?"

"'Cradle' might be archiving the memories and experiences of the last, or the last few, civilization cycles in response to some 'celestial disaster'."

Gardener Representative Qi's light projection ripples faster.

"This fits the trigger logic of 'Cradle'—responding to extinction-level threats."

"It may believe that the 'Reapers' threat currently facing humanity has some similarity to the ancient 'anomalous celestial phenomena', which is why it released the relevant 'prototype package'."

The clues begin to connect, but the fog remains thick.

"We need more specific feature templates to attempt filtering." Lin Shen concludes.

"Old Chu, could you please lead a team to dig deep into Chinese and foreign ancient books, myths, and archaeological records for all symbols and narrative patterns related to 'anomalous celestial phenomena', 'prehistoric great cataclysms', and possible 'extraterrestrial visitors' or 'civilization restarts'?"

"Especially those 'motifs' that span different civilizations and appear repeatedly."

"This is exactly my field." Professor Chu Yunshen nods, a light unique to scholars igniting in his eyes.

"Give me access and computing resources, and I will sort out a characteristic thread of 'Civilization Crisis Memory'."

"Nuwa, cooperate fully with Professor Chu to establish a feature extraction model."

Lin Shen orders, then turns to another critical issue.

"Regarding the other line, the aggregation of Sarah Chen's consciousness fragments, how is the progress?"

The light of Gardener Representative "Cheng" appears somewhat dim: "Progress is slow."

"Her fragments are scattered and in a state of deep 'protective dormancy'."

"We have tried to call out with gentle resonance signals, but the response is extremely weak."

"As mentioned before, we need a strong 'emotional resonance anchor' to strengthen the signal."

Max Costa.

This name surfaces in everyone's mind.

"The Empire... will not easily agree to let their astronauts, especially the focal person of the 'Zeus Station' incident, participate in such a sensitive and potentially risky project." Minister Li Weimin frowns.

"Especially this involves consciousness technology; the Empire is very wary of such technology."

"But Sarah Chen was once their astronaut, and Max has been looking for her." Lin Shen ponders.

"We can propose limited cooperation."

"We won't involve core technology sharing; we will just use the emotional connection between Max and Sarah as a 'signal amplifier' to help the Gardener locate and stabilize her fragments."

"This is also in the Empire's interest—they might also want to figure out what happened to Sarah and the truth behind the 'Zeus Station' incident."

"This will require high-level diplomatic negotiations." Minister Li Weimin feels it is tricky.

"Then initiate it." Lin Shen is determined.

"At the same time, we cannot just wait."

"Nuwa, before Professor Chu's feature templates are completed, can we first conduct the first low-intensity detection test using broader 'human collective subconscious' common characteristics?"

"The goal is not to obtain specific information, but to verify the effectiveness of the 'Wind Listener' buffer protocol and try to establish a stable, low-bandwidth feedback channel."

Nuwa quickly performs a simulation: "Theoretically feasible."

"We can input the 'greatest common divisor' symbolic database statistically derived from global cultural elements as a primary filter."

"The risk is that insufficient filtering precision may lead to excessive irrelevant information noise, or accidentally triggering an unknown, high-intensity 'prototype package'."

"Control the connection depth and set up multiple circuit breaker mechanisms." Lin Shen makes the decision.

"We need to take the first step as soon as possible, even if it is a small one."

"'Cradle' is learning, and our time is running out."

"The 'Pruning Faction' fleet will not wait for us to be ready."

"What about volunteers?" Academician Chen Qiming asks.

"This time, we need adapters with higher consciousness intensity and stronger stability."

Lin Shen pulls up a short list screened from the "Spark Project" volunteers.

On it are Zhao Yan (former pilot, high electromagnetic sensitivity), Elena Costa (linguist, psychic rhythm perception), Kevin Li (former engineer, consciousness harmonic tuning capability).

And several other top figures in other fields.

"I suggest that I serve as the main consciousness for the first test." Academician Chen Qiming suddenly speaks.

"Old Chen!" Lin Shen and Li Weimin exclaim simultaneously.

"My consciousness stability has been trained for a long time, I have personal experience with consciousness connection states, and..." Academician Chen Qiming smiles.

"I have pure curiosity about 'Cradle', without excessive fear or fanaticism, which may be the safest psychological state."

"Besides, if something happens, this old bone of mine can withstand more tossing than a young person."

His words carried an unquestionable resolve.

Lin Shen and Minister Li Weimin exchanged a look and finally nodded slowly: "Nuwa, design the highest level of personal protection protocol for Academician Chen Qiming. Gardener Representative, please assist in calibrating the consciousness harmonic matching between 'Listen-to-the-Wind' and Academician Chen Qiming."

Preparations were underway with intense urgency.

Professor Chu Yunshen and his team dove into the vast ocean of ancient text data.

Diplomatic channels with the Empire were quietly activated.

Meanwhile, in the 'Echo' laboratory, 'Listen-to-the-Wind,' connected to Academician Chen Qiming, was about to send its first active 'whisper' to the Moon.

Seventy-two hours later, it was test day.

Academician Chen Qiming lay down in the specially designed connection chair, his head surrounded by gentle neural interfaces.

'Listen-to-the-Wind' hovered before him, its pulsating blue light becoming rhythmic.

"Primary filter loaded. Symbolic database generated based on seventy-six major global cultural elements."

"Connection depth limit: cognitive surface 0.1, only one-thirtieth of the Andrei incident."

"Seven-layer buffer protocol on full standby, fuse threshold set at 50% of the safety limit."

"Gardener 'Cradle' interaction protocol interface ready."

Nuwa's voice reported each status steadily.

Lin Shen stood before the main console, his palms sweating slightly.

He knew the risks, but he also trusted in the preparations made by Old Chen and Nuwa.

"Old Chen, are you ready?"

Academician Chen Qiming closed his eyes, a calm smile on his lips: "Begin. Let me hear... the echoes of the ancient past."

"Listen-to-the-Wind, initiate. Connection established."

In an instant, Academician Chen Qiming's body on the connection chair tensed slightly.

On the main screen, the curve representing his conscious activity began to fluctuate rhythmically, gradually synchronizing with the pulses of 'Listen-to-the-Wind.'

"Connection stable. Buffer layer functioning normally."

"Passing through the 'Cradle' outer interface... Contact successful."

"Information flow beginning to seep in, flow rate is extremely low, within the safety range."

"Primary filter active, noise suppression rate 89%."

Everything seemed to be going smoothly.

Lin Shen stared intently at Academician Chen Qiming's physiological data and consciousness harmonic chart.

Time ticked by second by second.

About three minutes later—

"Regular feedback signal detected." Nuwa's voice carried a hint of confusion. "It is not information actively sent by 'Cradle,' but rather... an 'echo' to the 'feature inquiry signal' we sent."

"Content?"

"Parsing... It is a set of extremely simple, repetitive geometric pulse signals. Translated into a pattern understandable by humans... it is like a question, or a... confirmation request for a 'handshake protocol'."

The holographic console displayed a set of continuously flashing symbols: ○ ● ○ ● ○ ● ...

"Binary?" Lin Shen frowned.

"Not exactly. It is a more fundamental alternating confirmation signal of 'existence/non-existence,' 'yes/no'." The projection of Gardener Representative Qi leaned in to analyze. "'Cradle' is confirming the establishment of the communication channel and asking... if we are ready to receive 'yes/no' type Q&A."

This was an unexpected development! 'Cradle' was not a one-way output; it possessed interactive capabilities!

"Reply with an affirmative signal, using the same protocol." Lin Shen ordered immediately.

Nuwa controlled 'Listen-to-the-Wind' and sent a matching set of pulses: ● ○ ● ○ ● ○ ...

After a brief silence, 'Cradle's' feedback came through again. This time, it was a slightly more complex pulse sequence with clear grouping intervals in between.

"It is sending a sequence of 'yes/no' questions," Nuwa quickly translated. "Question one: Is the information recipient a 'carbon-based neural network intelligence'? Question two: Is the information recipient currently in 'planetary surface survival mode'? Question three: Has the information recipient detected 'extraterrestrial order disturbance threats'?"

Three questions, pointing straight to the core.

"'Cradle' is rapidly building a basic cognitive model of us!" Academician Chen Qiming's voice came through the communication channel, filled with suppressed excitement. "It is confirming if we are the 'indigenous civilization in need of help' in its presets, and whether we are aware of the threat (Reapers)! The answer must be cautious!"

Lin Shen weighed the options quickly. Concealment was meaningless; 'Cradle' might perceive this information through other means.

"Answer truthfully. Yes, yes, yes."

The affirmative pulses were sent back.

'Cradle's' feedback paused for about ten seconds. This was a considerable amount of time in Earth-Moon communication.

Then, a new data stream with slightly increased intensity began to pour in.

"Warning, information flow density increasing, but still below the threshold," Nuwa reported. "The content... is not a specific 'prototype package,' but a set of... coordinates? Or perhaps, an index?"

A strange star map appeared on the holographic console, but it was not marked with stars; instead, it showed abstract symbols constantly changing shape, each with a complex pulse code beside it.

"This is... the index directory of the 'civilization memory prototypes' sealed within 'Cradle'!" Gardener Representative Cheng exclaimed. "It is showing us a menu of 'help' it can provide! But it requires us to use the correct 'key' (feature template) to select!"

The index directory scrolled rapidly, as vast as a galaxy.

Among them, the pulse codes of several symbols showed a startling similarity to the 'priest text' and 'abnormal celestial phenomenon' symbols that Professor Chu Yunshen was analyzing.

"It really is waiting for us to state our specific needs..." Academician Chen Qiming murmured.

Just then, a sudden change occurred.

The scrolling of the index directory stopped abruptly. In the center of the screen, an unfamiliar dark red symbol suddenly popped out, flashing violently! The shape of this symbol was seventy percent similar to the 'Pruning Faction' emblem provided by the Gardener Representative!

At the same time, the pulse signals from 'Cradle' became sharp, rapid, and filled with warning.

Nuwa's alarm sounded: "High-intensity external interference signal detected! Source location—outside lunar orbit, characteristics... 65% match with 'Pruning Faction' communication residual signals! Interference target: attempting to interrupt or corrupt our communication channel with 'Cradle'!"

"Pruning Faction... they are already here?" Minister Li Weimin was horrified.

"No, it's a remote sensing and interference device! They must have deployed probes on the outskirts of the Solar System, and after monitoring 'Cradle's' active signal, they initiated remote interference!" The projection of Gardener Representative Qi fluctuated violently. "They are trying to prevent 'Cradle' from further contact with us!"

"'Listen-to-the-Wind,' boost the signal, maintain the connection!" Lin Shen ordered sharply.

"Interference intensity is increasing! Connection stability is dropping!"

'Cradle's' feedback began to become intermittent, and that dark red 'Pruning Faction'-related symbol kept trying to overwrite other indices.

"Activate anti-interference protocol, use the 'Guardian Faction' spectrum encryption provided by the Gardener!" Lin Shen ordered.

A silent battle of offense and defense, taking place within the communication frequency band, unfolded in an instant.

Nuwa and the Gardener Representative operated in coordination, and the pulse signals of 'Listen-to-the-Wind' became complex and encrypted.

The interference signals crashed in like a tide, but were temporarily blocked outside the encryption layer.

The connection was barely maintained, but the index directory from 'Cradle' began to become unstable, and some symbols started to blur and distort.

"We must end this connection!" Nuwa warned. "If we continue, the interference may trace back and attack 'Listen-to-the-Wind' or even Academician Chen Qiming's consciousness!"

"Send the termination signal peace protocol, and arrange a time for the next connection!" Lin Shen decided decisively.

A pre-arranged 'friendly termination' pulse was sent.

'Cradle,' amidst the interference, struggled to return a short confirmation pulse, and then the connection was actively severed—not by Nuwa, but by 'Cradle' itself, as if it, too, had realized the danger.

Academician Chen Qiming let out a long breath and opened his eyes. His forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat, but his eyes were strikingly bright.

"We... established a dialogue." His voice was a bit hoarse, yet full of strength. "Although it was interrupted, we proved one thing: we can communicate with it! It is willing to communicate!"

Lin Shen looked at the dark red symbol that had frozen on the main screen, and those glimpses of codes related to human ancient memories in the index directory.

The first active contact had achieved results beyond expectations, but it had also drawn out shadows earlier than anticipated.

The tentacles of the 'Pruning Faction' were closer and faster to react than anticipated.

They would not sit idly by and watch humanity merge with 'Cradle.'

The next contact might not just be remote interference.

"Speed up the work on Professor Chu Yunshen's side." Lin Shen's voice rang out in the silent laboratory, cold and firm. "We need to get the 'key' to open specific 'prototype packages' as soon as possible. Before the 'Pruning Faction's' physical fleet arrives, we must get the 'things' from 'Cradle' that will make us strong enough."

Outside the window lay the eternal snow of the Kunlun Mountains.

And 380,000 kilometers away, in the shadows of the Moon, a struggle across the sea of stars had quietly begun.