The spaceship hovered silently in the darkness, face to face with the glowing iron cylinder.

Chen Hao leaned back in his seat, his arm still throbbing slightly. He didn't speak, just stared at the screen, watching the circle of runes flash blue light on and off.

“It’s stopped moving,” Susan said softly. “It’s been like this ever since that pulse.”

“It’s not standing still.” Nana stood in front of the control panel, her finger tracing the data stream. “It’s waiting. We have to do something, or it will do it again.”

“I know it’s waiting,” Chen Hao rubbed his temples. “The question is, what is it waiting for? A handshake? A high-five? Or perhaps a dance first?”

Carl, carrying his toolbox, emerged from the rear cabin and nearly tripped over the threshold upon hearing this. "You're not actually planning to dance, are you?"

“I mean we need to figure out its rules.” Chen Hao sat up straight. “Last time we sent a drone over, it fired a shot right away. Now we don’t move, and it doesn’t move either. That means it recognizes actions, not people.”

Nana nodded: "According to the knowledge base records, some ancient navigation nodes used a contactless authentication protocol. After receiving the signal, they had to send back a weak wave of the same frequency within a specified time to pass the first stage of verification."

"So—" Susan looked up, "that shot it fired at us was actually a test?"

“Almost.” Nana pulled up the waveform diagram. “The energy encoding structure is clear and contains a standard response template. We just need to copy this frequency and send it back at extremely low power to trigger the next interaction.”

“It sounds simple.” Carl put the tools on the table. “But we don’t have the equipment to send this kind of signal. The main array is off, and the backup antenna is only used to receive messages.”

“It can be modified,” Nana said. “The secondary communication module supports manual frequency tuning. You just need to rewrite a pulse sequence and connect it to the external transmitter port.”

"You want me to use this communicator as a signal flare?" Karl grinned. "This thing can't even send out interstellar broadcasts, and you expect it to exchange secret signals with alien technology?"

“Long-distance transmission is not required,” Nana said calmly. “Within 300 meters, as long as the frequency matches, it can be recognized.”

Chen Hao stroked his chin: "Then let's give it a try. Anyway, it's better than getting hit a second time."

“But you can only try once,” Nana cautioned. “If the signal is incorrect or the power is too high, it may identify it as an attack.”

"Understood." Chen Hao looked at Karl. "Let's get started, but don't weld it backwards."

Carl rolled his eyes, opened the panel, and began disconnecting the wires. Susan activated the timer, preparing to record the response interval. Nana, standing nearby, input parameters, reversing the waveform of the high-energy pulse into reproducible code.

“Switch to the blue light band,” she said. “The original signal peak was around 482 nanometers, which is the standard communication window for most navigation beacons.”

"That's all you know?" Chen Hao leaned closer. "How can you be so sure that something from another civilization is used for navigation?"

"The comparison results are in." Nana clicked on the data page. "Three of the seven ancient civilizations' relics use similar structures, and all of them function as spatial positioning systems. Based on the current coordinate offset, orbital stability, and energy release pattern, they are identified as lost automatic calibration devices."

“It sounds like a road sign,” Susan said.

"To be precise, it's an interstellar refueling station," Nana said. "These devices typically provide three services: route optimization, energy replenishment, and hazard warning."

"Then we've hit the jackpot!" Chen Hao laughed. "We just got beaten up and now we're getting a gift?"

“The prerequisite is that the authentication is completed,” Nana said. “Otherwise, it will just continue to wait or upgrade its defense level.”

Ten minutes later, Carl connected the last wire and patted the modified antenna box: "Alright. Now this thing can emit the 'greeting' signal you mentioned. But I'm telling you, if it burns out, the repair bill is on you."

"Put it on your tab." Chen Hao waved his hand. "Prepare for launch."

Susan pressed the timer button: "Three-second short pulse, execute as planned."

Nana confirmed the frequency was correct: "The signal has been loaded, and the output power has been reduced to the lowest setting."

"Send it," Chen Hao ordered.

A faint blue light shone from the control panel, traveling along the modified antenna and drifting like a wisp of smoke towards the distant device.

Everyone held their breath.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

Signal terminated.

The device remained stationary, the runes still glowed blue, and the rotation speed remained unchanged.

"No response?" Susan asked.

“Wait a minute.” Nana stared at the reading. “It’s processing.”

Ten more seconds passed.

Suddenly, the entire circle of runes turned from blue to gold, slowly completing a full circle, as if nodding.

Immediately afterwards, a fan-shaped light screen unfolded from the top and floated in space. Countless stars appeared on it, with crisscrossing flight paths extending outwards. One of these paths was highlighted and pointed directly towards the home star system.

“This is…” Chen Hao’s eyes widened.

“Real-time navigation map,” Nana said. “Accuracy improved by 47 percent, avoiding three known gravity trap zones.”

Before he could finish speaking, a soft golden beam of light shot out from the bottom of the device and gently touched the energy interface at the tail of the spaceship.

A slight humming sound came from inside the ship.

"Energy readings are rising!" Susan looked at the gauges. "It's not charging, it's direct injection! The loss module is initiating a self-check, and the repair program is starting!"

"The engine compartment temperature has dropped." Carl checked the backstage area. "Cooling efficiency has recovered to over 90%."

"Is this thing really helping us?" Chen Hao couldn't believe it.

“Not only that.” Nana quickly browsed the newly acquired data. “It also updated the navigation protocol to automatically avoid spatial disturbance zones within the next 72 hours. In addition… a hidden resource point was detected and marked as collectable.”

“So it wasn’t going to attack us,” Susan said softly. “It was planning to help from the beginning.”

"It's just that the method is too hardcore." Chen Hao grinned. "Next time, could you at least hold up a sign that says 'Please press here to start'?"

Carl leaned against the wall, wiping his sweat. "All I want to know right now is, is there an instruction manual? Even just one page would be helpful."

“No,” Nana said, “but it has already completed service initialization. As long as we keep the routes stable, subsequent support will continue to be available.”

"Let's go then." Chen Hao sat back in the driver's seat. "Don't just stand here like an idiot. Who knows if it might suddenly want to treat us to dinner."

The spaceship slowly turned around and detached from the docking position. The cylinder behind it gradually dimmed, the runes extinguished, and it returned to being a silent metal object, continuing to rotate at a constant speed in the void.

On the main screen, the new flight path is clearly visible, like a paved road home.

Chen Hao stared at it for a long time, then suddenly smiled.

"This time I'm really going home."

Susan said softly, "It has been waiting for someone to understand it."

Carl yawned: "Next time you encounter something similar, could you pick someone with a better temper?"

Nana stood in front of the control panel, silently monitoring the new system's operation. The data flow was stable, energy reserves continued to increase, and navigation errors had reached zero.

She didn't speak, but simply placed her hand on the control panel, feeling the subtle vibrations emanating from the spaceship.

At this point, a prompt appears on the terminal.

[Auxiliary Unit Offline]

The service agreement has been activated.

[Next calibration point: 1.7 light-years from current location]