Volume 4 Cosmic Docking
The long, cold winter is approaching, and the air in the city is already quite chilly. Walking on the streets of a secluded place at night, you can feel the cold air going straight from your throat to your lungs with just one deep breath.
The coat was no longer enough to keep the temperature balanced; walking outside for even a short while left me feeling chilled to the bone. Those who were sensitive to the cold had already donned down jackets, burying their necks under scarves and trying to breathe as lightly as possible to avoid being attacked by the cold air.
After a long night, as dawn breaks, the lawns in the city and the vegetation along the riverbanks are likely covered with a thin layer of frost. This frost will melt away when the new sun rises. At that moment, water droplets will drip from the leaves and seep into the soil.
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a city in the beautiful country, the wide river is a particularly unique sight. Even at night, many white pigeons can be seen circling along the riverbank, sometimes taking flight and sometimes landing on the moored boats.
Facing the river and the city, there stands a building in a corner, like a silent giant hidden in the night, with only a few lights on. Though called a building, it is more like a European-style tower.
Beside the dark iron railing stood a middle-aged man, about forty years old, wearing a hat and with slightly curly brown hair, holding a cigarette in his hand.
Wisps of pale blue smoke rose and then dissipated in mid-air.
The man gazed at the quietly flowing river, lost in thought.
He had an identification card in his breast pocket, wrapped in a black leather case, bearing the name "Göring," 42 years old, the head of the second group of satellite observation stations, which could also be considered a scientific researcher.
However, Göring's field was astronomy.
As its name suggests, the satellite observation station, a black building, is responsible for several satellites launched into space by the United States.
Satellites can be categorized into scientific satellites, experimental satellites, application satellites, and artificial satellites.
Technology test satellites are launched into space to conduct observations when experimenting with new technologies or measuring new principles, in order to see if they can be used.
Applications of satellites are all-encompassing, including communication satellites, meteorological satellites, reconnaissance satellites, and interceptor satellites. This has become standard equipment for major powers.
Artificial satellites are simpler; some map navigation systems use these satellites to illuminate cities and transmit data, and they can also be used to detect climate or pollution.
Goering was in charge of observing the universe, and his second office had a huge screen that monitored the data transmitted back from space every day.
This touches upon a common question of human understanding: we know a great deal about Earth, but very little about the heavens above us. Besides life on Earth, are there other life forms in the universe? Not only researchers, but everyone has their own ideas, and some firmly believe in their own understanding.
Assuming other civilizations do exist, would they be enemies or friends?
To ensure safety and to better explore the sky above, major countries have allocated countless funds over the years to launch scientific satellites, which can be considered as taking the first step in the vast universe.
The job was rather tedious; Goring had been working here for over a decade, rising from an unknown junior employee to a team leader. The satellites became more advanced, the images clearer, but still, no life appeared.
It made him wonder if our civilization was truly unique, so brilliant yet so lonely...
With his team members keeping watch all night, he would come out for some fresh air, to look at the flowing river and the brightly lit city in the distance—a rare pleasure for him.
If it weren't for work, Goring would have liked to have a couple of drinks and sit for hours, looking down at the earth from this height.
He pulled his heavy overcoat tighter, tightening the collar, and exhaled a puff of smoke. It was described as smoke because it was impossible to distinguish whether it was hot breath or cigarette smoke.
In fact, many researchers work quietly and diligently in their positions. Not everyone has the opportunity to stand in the limelight and be admired by thousands. Some people's names never even appear in the public eye, just like Pittsburgh across the street. Who would have known that Göring, standing by the railing, was also a researcher who had persisted for more than a decade?
It was an ordinary day; the river was as calm as ever, and the wind was as strong as usual. He looked up at the myriad stars in the sky, which were equally beautiful and mysterious from afar and up close.
Alright, why bother smoking? There are cigarette butts all over the place.
With that thought in mind, Goering extinguished the flickering red light in his hand and turned to walk into the corridor of the observation deck.
In the dimly lit and enormous room, two young people sitting in chairs were drowsy, completely unaware that the flow of the images on the gray screen in front of them had begun to change. Originally fixed in one position, the images were now rotating in one direction following gravity.
But, suddenly, a huge shadow appeared, enveloping the entire satellite.
The flowing gray turned into a dark, iron-like black, and nothing could be seen in the hazy darkness. Magnetic fields exist in the universe, and it was clear that the magnetic field around it was now disordered, producing some noisy and piercing low-frequency sounds. Since there are no conditions for sound to travel in space, the source could only be interference with the transmission channel to the ground.
In this situation, the low-frequency sound becomes faster and more urgent, almost like a whistle suddenly being blown in a silent environment!
Two sudden "crunch" sounds shattered the silence in the observation room!
The two young people woke up with a start, and before they could even rub their sleepy eyes, they stared wide-eyed at the screen!
They noticed that the image began to show wavy curves, as if covered by a layer of fog, and gradually nothing could be seen. They didn't speak, their minds blank, seemingly shocked speechless by the situation.
"Hey, what's going on here?"
"I...I don't know either. Could it be that something is interfering with me?"
Because they were dozing off, they didn't see the huge shadow earlier and naively thought it was just a interference with the ground-to-air signal, which is why this happened.
The two researchers thought that they should wait patiently for a while, and maybe it was just a problem with the magnetic field, and it would return to normal soon.
They didn't even consider reporting it to their superiors.
Footsteps echoed down the corridor. At that moment, Goring had no idea how serious the problems were with the project he was in charge of.
This will be an event that will shock the entire world!
The already turbulent scientific community is about to be engulfed in a massive upheaval...
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