In a parallel universe that cannot be reached by humans, there is a world similar to reality, and in this universe, all kinds of things and stories happen that we cannot understand.

And for us, these are stories, and for the individuals in the midst of it, this is the living reality.

On July 18, 1991, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (AASA) Deep Space Probe Contact Center, Wanderer 1 Contact Control Room

Bob came to the control room early in the morning, today is a sunny day, although the temperature outside is a little high, but the constant temperature and humidity of the control room is still a very comfortable atmosphere. Today is the day when Wanderer 1 sends the operating status and relative position of the space according to the established procedure. Although there were two people in the same group, Pixar and Andre, Bob, who has always been meticulous and conscientious, habitually turned on the computer and checked the full set of signal receiving systems.

Wanderer 1 carries three plutonium energy batteries, providing enough energy power to last until 2025, as a deep space probe launched in the 70s, this energy technology is still available today, compared to the other side of the ocean and the octagonal building in China are more keen to put box technology into how to create a more powerful poxpooooooom, Bob would rather the grandfathers on Capitol Hill allocate more money to AASA, after all, except for Wanderer 1 and its sister 2, no deep space probe can achieve the feat of flying out of the solar system。 And the lack of money is the biggest reason.

"Hell, why don't you spend more money to upgrade the latest computer self-check program, I'm still using an old machine from five years ago, and this self-check program isn't as fast as my personal computer!"

The green self-test program on the black screen was running slowly, and the gradually scrolling sentences and data faithfully and dedicatedly outlined the current state of the detector, Bob stared at the lines of scrolling content, muttering to himself

"Well, the orbit number PLS-098 is moving towards PLS-30, which is between the orbit of the celestial star and the wide area of the horizontal orbit, and it is a little more inclined to the king starfish."

"The uploaded data totals 2093kp, which should contain photos of the Skystar satellites Miranda and Ariel, last time Andre controlled the detection angle of the vehicle, took a few photos, and transmitted them to the central computer in a while."

"89% of fuel remaining, well, the attrition rate is normal, it seems that the orbit change when I borrowed the gravitational slingshot in the orbit of the stars last time didn't consume much fuel"

"The remaining 79% of the battery is also within a reasonable range, and the necessary standby sleep can really save a lot of power loss, but unfortunately the space is limited, otherwise you can bring two more batteries"

Suddenly, a line of blood-red font appeared on the screen, and at the same time, the alarm bell in the control room went viral, and the shrill chirping immediately caused a commotion throughout the control room.

Everyone was suddenly stunned, looking at the big screen in the control room in confusion, the blood-red warning prompt on it greatly occupied almost half of the screen, and there was a string of information that was also blood-red and constantly scrolling, as if the computer also knew the seriousness of the matter, and the speed of information flow scrolling was several times faster than the speed of the vehicle's self-test

Object Collision Warning

"Distance: 128 km, Speed: 1721 km/h"

"Distance: 120 km, speed: 1931 km/h"

"Distance: 102 km, Speed: 2113 km/h"

"Distance: 93 km, Speed: 2364 km/h"

"Distance: 82 km/h, speed: 2460 km/h"

"Distance: 76 km/h, Speed: 2876 km/h"

"Distance: 64 km/h, speed: 3210 km/h"

"Distance: 53 km, Speed: 3455 km/h"

......

"Hell, it's a massive high-speed celestial body, the orbits are calculated, and the collision probability is 93.22%"

"The orbital intrusion is too fast, and it is too late to carry out an emergency orbit change of the spacecraft!"

"Start the emergency disengagement procedure immediately, ditch all unnecessary equipment, and leave the memory and propulsion system behind!"

"It's too late, there is still 1 minute and 23 seconds before the vehicle will be impacted, the emergency disengagement procedure will take 5 minutes to complete, and if you manually intervene, it will take 15 minutes for the signal to reach the current orbit!!"

"FU*K, can anyone tell me why the deep space telescope didn't capture this high-speed, massive object, and the people in Davis and Musk's group are blind?"

"Wait, the impactor has deflected its orbit and the estimated probability of impact has dropped to 54.23%," shouted a small technician staring at the computer screen

The crowd commotion gradually subsided, but the tension still did not dissipate, Bob's originally ruddy face was pale with tension, without a trace of blood, he joined AASA in 77, his first project was Wanderer 1, Wanderer 1 was like his child, no, he knew more about Wanderer 1 than his child, and for 14 years, he never stopped paying attention to it.

He knew everything about it, from the design principles to the operating mechanism to the trajectory range, everything it could and could not do, he remembered in his heart, and he never imagined that its mission would be cut off here.

Although he is well aware of the horror and unpredictability of the universe, and knows that not every vehicle can start and finish well, he still hopes that it will be healthy until 2025, when he should retire.

Perhaps, when his children grow up, he will tell them that you have a brother who was born of human curiosity, courage is its character, wandering is its mission, attachment to earth ball is its nostalgia, and the vastness of the universe is the romance it chooses.

It should be like a traveler, drifting through the infinite space, exhausted and dying in a foreign land, rather than dying unsuccessfully.

Time passed bit by bit, and a short period of about 1 minute finally passed, but the expected collision did not happen, and the unknown high-speed massive celestial body, intersecting with an amazingly subtle and infinitely fascinating orbit, passed by Wanderer 1, and after 21 minutes and 57 seconds, the third wave of signals passed back, and the Wanderer 1 system self-tested, only scratching part of the shell, and the remaining other functions were intact.

"Hoo ......"

As if it was the aftermath of the catastrophe, the people in the room breathed a sigh of relief, and then everyone cheered, Andre hugged Pixar warmly, and couldn't see the thunderous appearance of the deep space telescope team who was scolding just now, Bob's face flushed with excitement, and he re-calibrated the orbit of Wanderer 1 with joy, and performed a self-inspection procedure again, and finally couldn't help wiping the sweat beads from his head after confirming that there was no major problem, and silently recited in his heart:

"Thank God, thank God for bless your poor child"

......

The people in the control room are lucky, they will never know, what they missed, and they will never know, the fate of mankind has been profoundly changed since 14 years ago, and at that time, everyone thought it was a dull and even boring day, and the day was: 12:56 on September 5, 1977

It was the time of the launch of the Wanderer I.

————————————————

July 18, 1991, the orbit of PLS-299

The high-speed, massive object that almost collided head-on with Wanderer 1 more than ten minutes ago was actually just a 2.4-ton stony meteorite. At this moment, it is quietly hanging in the orbit of PLS-299, pulled by the gravitational pull of the celestial star, making an almost elliptical orbital motion.

The appearance of the meteorite is unremarkable, the dark appearance is not smooth at all, and the edges and corners are not rounded at all.

Just like the common shattered stars in the asteroid belt of the solar system. But the asteroids in that belt are speeding around the orbital ring in a regular manner at the moment. How could such a strange meteorite appear at such a distance from the solar system?

"The world often does not move according to the will of man, and if it exists, it must be reasonable." If someone or other instrument could see through its interior, they would be frightened by the magical, weird, and terrifying images inside.

There is a cavity with a small diameter inside the meteorite, and at this moment a "being" that I don't know how to call and is difficult to describe exists:

On the other hand, it has no characteristics of fog, in this mass of endless disturbances, constantly flickering strange filaments or configurations, and at the same time, it is constantly changing colors, from infrared spectrum to ultraviolet spectrum, from pure color to mixed color. Its form is also constantly changing, from a cloud of mist to a ball of cake, and from a ball of cake to a square body.

The unfathomable appearance of the world beyond the events.

"It is surrounded by smooth stone faces, which separate the complexity and chaos of the world. It imagines that this smooth plane extends infinitely in all directions, so that a simple flat world, a cold and flat platform for thought. ”

In the constant movement of the body, there is a metal disc inside. This disc is the golden record of Wanderer One. In that brief intersection, it was able to pull out the disc containing the ball of earth to send messages into outer space from under the heavy wrap of the sturdy Wanderer 1 shell. I saw that it kept changing its form again, and finally stopped. The diffuse body emitted countless tentacles, and invisible fluctuations swept across the entire solar system. Eventually, the wave rests on the third orbit of the earth ball. A glimmer of light flashed, and in the orbit of the Heavenly King, it had disappeared.

Ward 130, the weather was gloomy and thunderous.

Jiang Henglian quietly looked at his wife Su Baijin, she had just woken up from her deep sleep, her face was no longer as ruddy as usual, and she was slightly pale. Jiang Henglian hugged her gently, silent but warm. After a while, he squinted his gaze to a child next to him, who was sleeping quietly after a day of crying, and still had a few teardrops on his young face. Jiang Henglian smiled and wiped away these tears. At this time, foreign news was being broadcast on TV, and it was difficult to make people feel good about the turbulent situation. He turned to his wife and said:

"I have to go back to the unit in two days, and the school has already said hello, so you can rest in peace first, and your mother will come over tomorrow."

"Well, you have to be careful when you go back to the unit, you have to worry about it on the teacher's side. There is more chaos abroad now, people's hearts are in turmoil, and don't force things that you can't force. ”

"Of course I know, but I'm just going to work hard for you here."

"Don't worry too much about my side, Ah Ling and her mother will take care of me, things are important on the unit's side, not to mention that I'm also worried about the teacher's situation, you can go with peace of mind, don't worry about my side"

"Hey, it's an eventful time, I'm glad I had you, otherwise I wouldn't have wanted to take this mission"

As a senior researcher of the Institute of High Energy Physics, Jiang Henglian studied under the master of High Energy Physics Maklov Tolsmakarsky, returned to China in 70 years and entered the Institute of Atomic Energy of the Academy of Sciences, and participated in the establishment of the Institute of High Energy Physics in response to the call above, and made great contributions to the establishment of the institute. Today, the situation abroad is turbulent, in order to lay out in advance, the unit decided to let him lead a team to lobby Professor Maklov, and strive to see in advance whether he can "invite (deceive)" the professor back from abroad, as Professor Maklov's protégé, this mission is only suitable for him. But it coincided with his wife's birth, and he was reluctant to leave his wife and go to Moscow at this time, but he understood better than anyone else the significance of Makelov to the Institute of High Energy Physics, but it was not good to abolish his public because of his children's personal affairs.

The two of them are warm, but they don't know that a visitor from outside the world is approaching the earth ball at high speed, and they don't know how this world will have a profound impact on the fate of everyone on the earth ball in 26 years

The indescribable one outside the sky was carrying the 2.4-ton stony iron meteorite, and in an inclined orbit, it was attacking the earth ball at an initial speed of Mach 109.

The atmosphere is 920,000 kilometers, the first shell is crumbling, and the speed is Mach 113

The atmosphere is 830,000 kilometers, the second shell is crumbling, and the speed is Mach 135

The atmosphere is 770,000 kilometers, the third shell is crumbling, and the speed: Mach 156

The atmosphere is 680,000 kilometers, the fourth shell is crumbling, and most of it falls towards the Caribbean Sea, speed: Mach 199

The atmosphere is 540,000 kilometers, the fifth shell is shattered, and a silver ring falls with most of the debris towards a certain country and Tianzhou, speed: Mach 234

......

The atmosphere is 20,000 kilometers, the 37th shell is shattering, and the speed: Mach 3476!

A sharp whistling sound suddenly appeared in the sky above, and a scorching meteor struck directly towards the Shuidian District Maternal and Child Health Hospital in a beautiful and thrilling arc.

The tremor of more than 200 decibels resounded in all areas within an area of 5 kilometers in an instant, and the fragile glass of the building was deformed in an instant that far exceeded the design stiffness, and then was severely fractured and shattered into countless flickering fragments by the instantaneous increase in air pressure in the room. The striking object easily penetrated the 12 examination rooms of Clinic Building 3, entering from the east and exiting from the west, and bombarded the small square in front of the hospital at an angled downward angle.

"Boom", a pop sound, the hard cement ground was like tofu under the full swing of a 20-kilogram sledgehammer, failed to hold on to even a fraction of a second, the strong impact force set off a cloud of smoke and dust up to more than 70 meters, and the shock of the ground was like the water surface bombarded by the main gun of a 155-mm battleship, in the form of a soil wave that continued to 140 meters away......

Jiang Henglian's head was dizzy, his eyes were black, and he staggered to his feet, and it took a full two minutes to react to what was happening, he struggled to get up, his eyes were still blurry, and his mind was like an MK-II grenade exploding, buzzing. moved his body slightly, but spit out two mouthfuls of blood with a wow, and then looked at his wife under him, the color changed from pale to a miserable white face like a defeated soldier. He was always calm and strong, and he panicked instantly.

"Jin'er, Jin'er, you're okay, don't scare me"

"Wake up, wake up"

After shaking for a full minute, Su Baijin woke up slowly, and it took another minute before he became a little conscious, and then immediately turned pale

"Horizontal chain, but what about it?!!! but how ?!!!"

His wife's voice was like an echo, mixed with the buzzing in his head, but he roughly understood what his wife meant

At this time, Jiang Henglian reacted, hurriedly turned around, and looked at the crib where the child was lying, the whistle sounded the glass shattering in just a few seconds, his first reaction was to protect his wife first, and the second reaction was to kick a bed of patients into the crib with his foot, and when he wanted to take the next step, the shock wave had already arrived.

Jiang Henglian hurriedly ran to the crib, because of the rapid rise in air pressure and the shock wave shock, the room was in a mess, and the crib was also pushed three meters away from the hospital bed, it turned out that it was next to the bed.

"Whew", when he lifted the quilt, Jiang Henglian breathed a sigh of relief, the baby was fine, just crying, but the quilt was on it just now, and the crying was very small, plus he couldn't hear anything clearly now, so he didn't hear it

"It's nothing, the quilt protected him, it didn't hurt"

The two were stunned, and after three minutes of relief, Su Baijin asked:

"What's going on, is it shelling?"

"I don't know, I didn't see the fire just now, it seems to be a meteor"

Su Baijin looked out of the window, where there was no glass, the smoke and dust in the square were still drifting, and the hideous mushroom cloud was still filling the sky like the shape of a box burst

"Boom", the third pop exploded again, and the strange thing was that no one heard it except Su Baijin, and this pop appeared directly in her mind, first a ball of light that was ten million times brighter than the sun, and in an instant her vision was filled with a color:

white

white

white

white

white

white

white

white

white

white

I don't know how long it took for the color to fade gradually, but the sight was still white in the near distance, golden in the distance, and the light she saw after reflection was blue-green, and then she saw a huge mushroom cloud, from the ground to the sky was more than ten kilometers high, she was as small as a grain of dust, and then there was a storm formed by a huge shock wave, and all the houses would be blown down, and the scorching wind spread to all sides at a speed she could not imagine, and she was swaying helplessly like a small fishing boat in a typhoon, shivering and helpless under the power of heaven and earth, and I don't know if it would be torn to pieces in the next moment。

The last picture she saw before she was confused seemed to be a cheering crowd, and a person in the crowd shouting at her, she recognized it, it was Jiang Henglian......

Two days later, the upper echelons announced that at 9:12:44 p.m. on July 18, a meteorite attack occurred in a certain area, damaging four buildings, killing 21 people and injuring 45 people, and the economic losses could not be counted.

At the same time, the world mourned, and this incident was the most serious accident in history when a meteorite hit a densely populated area, causing a large number of casualties and serious economic losses.

On July 19, the upper echelons named the incident "Cloud Piercing Incident".