11: Shocked scientists

October 4, 2025, afternoon.

A Y-8 military transport plane wove through dense clouds, finally landing at a restricted military airfield near Pingtang County, Guizhou Province.

The cargo door opened, and amidst the massive airflow stirred up by the propellers, a burly, stern-faced old man stepped down quickly.

He was Academician Chen Haikang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a member of the State Council, and the general director of Project Starlight Seeker.

His vacation had come to an abrupt end after he received that incoherent phone call from Liu Zhaodong.

Half an hour later, he was already standing in the main control center of the "Sky Eye"—the 500-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope.

This was the ear with which Earth listened to the heartbeat of the universe, and it was also the nerve center of Project Starlight Seeker.

Inside the control center, the quiet of the holiday was long gone.

Those urgently recalled were the core members of the project team—astrophysicists, data analysts, cryptography experts, and consultants in quantum theory.

The air was thick with a tense atmosphere composed of caffeine, adrenaline, and immense confusion.

"Old Liu, where is it?"

Academician Chen Haikang took off his coat and got straight to the point, his voice loud and steady, like a stabilizing force that instantly silenced the slightly noisy hall.

Liu Zhaodong had been waiting there; he didn't say much, simply handing over a multi-encrypted, military-grade USB flash drive.

"All the raw email data is inside."

Academician Chen Haikang took the USB drive and looked around, his gaze sweeping across the faces of every top scientist.

"Everyone," he said in a deep voice, "I know it's unreasonable to call everyone back from their holiday today. However, we may be facing the most important 'contact' in human history. I don't care who the sender is, whether it's a prank or the real 'the guide', I only need one thing—facts."

He handed the USB drive to his assistant, Wang Yue, who was standing beside him.

Wang Yue was a woman in her early forties with neat, short hair and sharp eyes; she was Academician Chen Haikang's most capable assistant.

"Wang Yue, immediately import the email content into our Tianhe supercomputing sub-center. Establish the highest level of isolated sandbox; I want to conduct the most rigorous verification of every bit of data in this email in an absolutely secure environment."

"Yes!" Wang Yue acknowledged the order and left.

The massive state apparatus, because of one small email, began to operate at high speed with thunderous momentum.

The verification work began with the easiest and most critical part—the precise atmospheric data of the three habitable planets in the HIAL-137 Galaxy.

On the main screen, the data from the email was clearly listed, accurate to one decimal place.

Next to it was the fuzzy data with a huge margin of error, obtained by the James Webb Telescope after months of observation and complex calculations.

"Academician Chen, Dr. Liu," reported the team leader responsible for planetary science, a young researcher named Li Zhe, his voice tight with tension, "Direct comparison is meaningless; the error margin is too large. I suggest performing a reverse simulation verification."

"Explain the plan," Academician Chen Haikang said concisely.

"We... we will input the precise data from the email as the 'standard answer' into our planetary atmosphere model. Then, our supercomputer will simulate what kind of spectral absorption lines would appear if a planet truly possessed such a precise atmosphere, when its light travels 13 light-years, passes through interstellar dust, and is then received by the James Webb Telescope's instruments... Finally, we will compare the simulation results with the real raw data observed by the Webb Telescope, pixel by pixel."

This plan was equivalent to using the standard answer to reverse-engineer the questions on an exam paper to see if they matched the original questions.

This was the most scientific and rigorous method for verifying such ultra-long-distance observation data.

"How long will it take?"

"With [Tianhe]'s computing power fully engaged, it is expected to take 15 minutes."

"Execute."

The entire control center fell into a suffocating silence.

Everyone, including Academician Chen Haikang, stared fixedly at the progress bar constantly scrolling in the center of the screen.

15 minutes had never felt so long.

Finally, the progress bar reached 100%.

On the screen, two spectral charts were placed side by side.

On the left was the real spectrum captured by the Webb Telescope, blurry and full of noise.

On the right was the virtual spectrum simulated by the supercomputer based on the email data.

The two charts, at every peak, every dip, and every insignificant fluctuation... overlapped perfectly.

"The matching degree... 99.999%." Li Zhe looked at the final calculation result and muttered, as if all his strength had been drained, "That 0.001% difference is within the instrument's margin of error... This means... this means..."

"It means the data provided by the sender is real." Liu Zhaodong finished the sentence for him, his voice hoarse and filled with incredible shock, "He... or rather It, possesses an observation device with precision far exceeding the Webb Telescope, perhaps even... deployed locally in the HIAL-137 Galaxy, or perhaps it is the civilization on the HIAL-137 Galaxy that is contacting us."

A sound of gasping echoed throughout the control center.

If the Webb Telescope was a magnifying glass held by humanity, then "the guide" had placed the cell slice directly under their microscope.

"Continue!" Academician Chen Haikang's voice pulled everyone back from their shock, "Verify the data on the [Anomalous Structure]!"

The email provided the dimensions and mass of that giant shipyard, accurate to a shocking degree.

These data, likewise, could not be directly verified.

And... it was also hard to believe—a man-made structure with a mass and volume approaching that of the Moon.

"Let's use reverse simulation again." The expert responsible for gravitational waves and orbital mechanics immediately proposed a plan, "We will substitute this mass and size into the HIAL-137 Galaxy model. If the data is true, then the orbital perturbations it causes to the surrounding inner planets, as well as the micro-gravitational lensing effect it itself creates, should perfectly match the gravitational anomaly data we have already observed."

"Execute!"

It was another long wait.

This time, the computational load was even larger, as it required simulating the complex gravitational interactions of over a dozen celestial bodies within the entire galaxy.

Half an hour later, the results were out.

"Report!" The data analyst's voice went up an octave, filled with shock, "It matches! It matches perfectly! The tiny eccentricity of the third planet's orbit that we previously couldn't explain, and the anomalous bending of starlight in that region... all the observational data have been perfectly explained! This mass, this size, is the final answer!"

If the first verification still held a "one in a trillion" possibility of coincidence.

Then this second verification completely crushed all wishful thinking.

"the guide" not only knew what was there but also precisely knew how much "it" weighed.

"This is not speculation, not a theoretical model..." Liu Zhaodong held onto the table to steady himself, "These are parameters from an engineering manual. The only way they know this so clearly is... that thing was built by them."

This conclusion sent a chill down everyone's spine.

What they were analyzing was not an astronomical observation report.

It was a product manual from an alien civilization.

"Open the attachment." Academician Chen Haikang's expression was grave to the extreme.

He pointed to those few massive encrypted data packages, "Wang Yue, use the highest-level quantum computer to decrypt them, regardless of cost, regardless of the price!"

"Academician Chen," Wang Yue said, looking troubled, "The other party is not using any encryption algorithm known to us. It's more like a 'lock' based on logic. We might need to follow the order in the email, first understanding the prerequisite theories, before we can open the subsequent documents."

Academician Chen Haikang immediately understood the other party's intention.

This was not showing off; it was guiding.

Forcing a decryption might result in getting nothing.

"Then open the first one, [Foundational Theory of Micro-Material Science]." He ordered, "Immediately distribute all the formulas and theories previewed to the theoretical physics group!"

A few minutes later, in another physically isolated room, several of the country's top theoretical physicists looked at the strange and beautiful formulas projected on the wall, falling into a deathly silence.

They sometimes furrowed their brows, sometimes picked up pens to calculate frantically, and sometimes stared at the screen as if dumbfounded, as if they had seen an oracle.

After a long time, a white-haired old academician tremblingly took off his glasses and said in a voice that was almost like sleep-talking:

"It... it has solved the problem of dimension compactification in string theory... and here, this model of the 'subatomic stability field', if valid, then the strong nuclear force and gravity could be... unified on a macroscopic scale!"

"Old Chen..." the old academician said through the internal communication in a trembling voice to Academician Chen Haikang, "I cannot judge the full authenticity of this information right now. However, looking only at the content of this first page... if it is true, then this is not our next step in physics; this is the physics of several centuries... several centuries from now."

Liu Zhaodong added from the side, his voice filled with awe: "The email says this is the prerequisite for manufacturing the subsequent two types of equipment. I understand now... without this material science that can 'construct' matter at the atomic level, we simply cannot build containers capable of withstanding the energy density of controlled nuclear fusion and the stress of ion thrusters! This is a complete, logically closed... technological system that we currently cannot even imagine!"

The entire control center was dead silent.

Everyone present was a prodigy standing at the pinnacle of the pyramid of human intelligence.

But at this moment, they felt like a group of primitives who had just learned to make fire by rubbing sticks together, having accidentally picked up a smartphone that had fallen from the sky.

They couldn't even understand why the screen would light up.

While everyone was still immersed in this subversive shock, Academician Chen Haikang's voice was like a basin of ice water poured over everyone's heads.

"Wang Yue, open the last attachment."

The text document, which was only a few KB in size, was opened.

A brief introduction to the [Fifth-Generation "Ghost" Stealth Force Field Generator], along with that most crucial, well-intentioned "reminder", was clearly displayed on the main screen.

"...On the route from the HIAL-137 Galaxy to the Solar System, ten tiny 'spacetime disturbance points' traveling at five times the speed of light are about to appear. They are wrapped in a negative gravitational lensing field and cannot be observed by conventional means."

If they had seen this sentence a few hours ago, everyone would have scoffed.

But now, after three consecutive, irrefutable shocks, every word of this sentence was like a ten-thousand-ton hammer, slamming hard into everyone's hearts.

"They are coming." Wang Yue's voice was as low as a whisper, yet it clearly carried throughout the entire hall.

"Five times the speed of light, at a distance of 13 light-years..." Liu Zhaodong quickly did the mental math, "They have already set off. Estimated arrival time... should be two and a half years, maybe even shorter."

Fear.

An unprecedented, tangible fear replaced all the academic shock from just moments ago.

No longer distant observations, no longer theoretical studies.

But the cold, approaching... reality.

Academician Chen Haikang closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

When he opened his eyes again, there was no hesitation or doubt in them, only steel-like determination.

He turned around and gave the final order to Wang Yue.

"Connect me to the central highest-level encrypted line."

"Just say, 'Project Starlight Seeker' has urgent Class A intelligence that needs to be reported to the highest level immediately."

"Our guests will be at our doorstep in two and a half years."