28 Sincerity

"Ladies and gentlemen, like you, I am saddened and regretted by the current situation, many people think that they should fall into the wormhole, and I support it! Because hypocrites do not deserve our sympathy and trust. There are also those who oppose falling into a wormhole, and I agree, because human civilization still has a chance to be redeemed - just like in "The Day the Earth Stood Still", the alien super civilization learned that the Earth civilization could wake up at a critical moment and give up the plan to destroy humanity. ”

Ryan coughed, his eyes fixed on his audience again.

"Missiles are coming, and I share your nervousness, fear, and even hatred for those who fire missiles at us. But friends, if they only launched the missiles because of insufficient intelligence or out of confusion, then I believe that they are still sincere in allowing us to work with them to plan for the future of human civilization, rather than killing us here. So, I think: we need to give them the opportunity to show sincerity. AI, how long does it take for a space station to fall into a wormhole at full speed? ”

"It takes 63 minutes and 15 seconds." The AI responded.

"Friends, I now have control of the station, and I assure you that if the decision-makers in the fugitive fleet do not show sincerity by 11 a.m. tomorrow, I will order the station to crash into a wormhole in order for everyone to survive. If they show sincerity, we will definitely have a way to defend ourselves against that missile. Now use your collective wisdom to think about how to avoid an attack on the space station and what kind of 'sincerity' to ask for from the fugitive fleet! ”

Ryan's speech ended, again without applause, but as if it had awakened something in people's hearts. The anxiety and restlessness of the moment were swept away, and with it, everyone began to bury their heads in the discussion of something - about how to deal with the missile, of course.

Three members who couldn't fit in because their expertise wasn't right came to Ryan and said, "We probably won't be able to help, so we're going to take turns taking care of Miller, and we'll let you know as soon as he wakes up." ”

"Look, you've saved everyone again." Gao Jie said to Ryan with satisfaction, she noticed that his hands were trembling slightly, "You succeeded, don't be nervous." ”

"We haven't dodged the missiles yet, so it's better to be nervous." Ryan said with a wry smile, slumped into a chair next to him.

As if to comfort Ryan and at the same time relieve him of some of the workload: "You have a good rest, and the matter of spying on Lucien and taking care of the three rebels will be left to me and Shilka." ”

Everyone is doing their job, and order is in order on the space station.

……

As Gao Jie thought, the level of professionalism of the Minerva crew was indeed the best of humanity, and within an hour two main countermeasures were analyzed.

The first countermeasure is to let the fugitive fleet take the initiative to order the missile to "self-destruct", and most large and medium-sized missiles and nuclear missiles will be equipped with self-destruction devices, and choosing to let the missile self-destruct is naturally the fastest and most trouble-free method. But this countermeasure is extremely uncertain: Minerva has not received information about the weapons and equipment of the fugitive fleet, and of course there is no way to know which type of missile is locked onto the space station, whether it is equipped with a self-destruct device, and if the missile is not equipped with a self-destruct device, this countermeasure will be completely ineffective.

The second countermeasure is active defense, that is, intercepting missiles. The space station has two space shuttles, the Owl and the Chariot, as well as a large number of parts and materials that have been dismantled from the supply spacecraft, which engineers can use to build two missile interceptors, set their course, and then intercept missiles or drones in the same way as they would on Earth. This countermeasure is a countermeasure after the first countermeasure is ineffective, but it also has its flaws: first of all, it is necessary to know the ballistic data of the incoming missile (it is known that the missile cannot be detected), so that the interception device can be deployed in advance, but only the fugitive fleet can provide ballistic data; The second is to worry about whether the explosion of the missile when it is intercepted will affect the Minerva, the destructive power of shrapnel flying at cosmic speed is much higher than that of meteorite rain, not to mention that the wreckage after some explosions is even larger, if it hits Minerva, the consequences are unimaginable.

Both tactics at the same time shed light on what the sincerity of the fugitive fleet was: a self-destruct command or ballistic data.

"Can't we change our trajectory to dodge missiles?" Ryan asked, puzzled.

The engineer replied impatiently: "The space station target is too big, and changing course will not escape the lock-on of the missile." Unless we fall into a wormhole......"

"Oh oh, thanks, I see!" Ryan doesn't want the word "falling into a wormhole" to come up so often that it affects everyone's mood.

"Okay, then we'll go outside the space station to modify the two shuttles, please give us the corresponding permissions, and please turn off centrifugal gravity."

Ryan operated on the PDA: "The AI will listen to you, go ahead, pay attention to safety." ”

Fifteen minutes later, the station stopped spinning, and everyone strapped themselves to their seats to continue their work, even Miller, who was still asleep in his hospital bed, was properly accommodated.

Researchers are designing unmanned programs for the two space shuttles, so that they can make corresponding interception responses based on the ballistic data of incoming missiles, of course, this program can be edited in advance, waiting for the ballistic data to be known, and then directly filled in the program to calculate the direction of travel, speed, interception time and location.

According to the researchers' and engineers' assumptions: the "interceptor device" made of space shuttles and consumables would meet the incoming missile head-on, and explode before it could pass by the missile, instantly forming a large piece of metal to intercept the missile, and if the first interception fails, there will be a second time in a short time - there could be two space shuttles here.

No matter how advanced the missile is, the most direct and violent form of physical interception is still the most effective.

……

Everything was going according to plan, and dinner began and ended in a hurry.

Time has unwittingly entered March 17, and if the sincerity of the fugitive fleet is not seen within 11 hours, the Minerva will say goodbye to the solar system.

At 0:51, the two engineers returned to the space station, centrifugal gravity restarted, and the members finally no longer had to tie themselves to their seats, and regained their down-to-earth feeling. Ryan was approached by two engineers who believed that their renovation work would definitely help the space station survive this difficult time, and they were willing to guarantee it with their lives. Ryan understood their determination and let the two of them rest for a while. It must be noted that one of the engineers is from Japan, and after the Toda Meiko leak, he felt that his national honor had been hurt and thought that he could not hold his head up in the space station, so he tried his best to prove himself in this renovation work in order to win back the self-esteem lost by Toda Meiko.

At 1:24, the engineers who had finished the rest began to discuss with the researchers about the introduction of the program into the modified shuttle, and it went smoothly.

At 2:42, Shilka found Ryan and whispered to him, "The commander is awake." ”

Not wanting to disturb anyone, Ryan nodded, left his seat as if nothing had happened, and went to the infirmary with Shilka.

In the corridor, Shilka told Ryan, "Gao (Jie) and I have already explained to the commander what happened in the past two days, and he also knows that the missile is on its way." ”

"Great, I don't have to say too much."

Entering the infirmary, Miller had already sat up, with a bandage on his right shoulder, his upper body lying weakly, his eyes were very melancholy, and his face did not look very energetic.

"Ryan, thank you for saving me and the Minerva," Miller thanked heartily, his voice still sounding powerful, "I already know where we are now, about what you said about falling into a wormhole without a sincere response before 11 o'clock...... Although I don't agree with it, it does stabilize everyone's mood. So leave it to me to communicate with the fugitive fleet, and I'll make sure they show sincerity. ”

"Authority has been transferred to you, Commander." Ryan moved the PDA and said, "I'm honored to be able to make these contributions to the space station. ”

Miller nodded, and his gaze instantly became sharp: "AI, use the surveillance camera in the infirmary to record me, and then send this video and video to the fugitive fleet and broadcast it to the entire space station." ”

"Yes, Commander Miller." The AI replied, "The camera has been calibrated and the recording has begun." Gao Jie, Ryan, Shilka, and the surrounding members all dodged slightly to avoid disturbing the video.

Miller said in a sonorous voice: "This is Miller Batalov, the commander of the Minerva space station, to issue an announcement to the United Nations Space Command and the spacecraft of all human civilizations on Earth: The previous mutiny on this space station has been successfully suppressed, and the four mutineers have been forcibly detained, and there are no other casualties except for minor injuries. In order to strictly enforce the discipline of the space station, to demonstrate the spirit of human civilization, and to promote the future of human civilization, we have executed Lucien Brown, the main culprit of this mutiny. The Minerva space station continues to obey the orders of the Space Command and the decision-makers of human civilization, but we learned from our colleagues at Mir-2 that a missile is flying towards us, and in order to avoid unnecessary sacrifices, I ask the launcher of the missile to activate the missile self-destruct mechanism, and if there is no self-destruct mechanism, its ballistic data must be handed over to us. Otherwise, we would have to protect ourselves by falling into a wormhole, but that's definitely not what anyone wants to see. Human civilization still has a chance to be redeemed, please don't waste it! Miller nodded, motioning for the AI to end the recording.

"Video is being transmitted, the video is less than a minute long, and it is expected to be transmitted to the fugitive fleet in 53 minutes."

After the AI finished speaking, Miller lay on the bed again, breathing heavily. It seems that the video just now consumed a lot of energy.

"Why did you say we executed Lucien?" Shilka asked, somewhat puzzled, but Miller didn't answer, still gasping for air.

"If they think there's no danger here, they'll do what we say." Gao Jie explained that when she looked at Miller again, she saw that he was already asleep.

Soon, the recording of the Commander was broadcast to all members of the space station AI, and everyone was convinced that Commander Miller had returned to power. Next, it's up to the fugitive fleet to reply to see if they're sincere enough.

Everyone stayed up all night, waiting for a message from the fugitive fleet in the communication room, regardless of the members' attitudes towards the fugitive fleet: expectation, hatred, envy, apathy...... Their reply this time has touched people too much-

Finally, at 7:10 a.m. on March 17, the communication room received a reply from the fugitive fleet!

The excited British correspondent struggled to overcome his curiosity not to click on it, and quickly transferred the information to the commander's PDA, and Miller, who had woken up, clicked on the message with trembling fingers—

Dear Commander, We are confident that the rebellion on the Minerva space station is over, and we will be providing information on Space Mine at your request. Since the "Space Mine" does not have a built-in self-destruct mechanism, we will provide you with its complete ballistic data, launch time, estimated hit time, design data, etc., and we believe that you and your team can successfully deal with this "Space Mine" with enough wisdom and ability. Good luck!

(The following is various information and ballistic data of space mines)

Miller let out a long breath, tears streaming down the corners of his eyes. "Take it to the people who need it." Miller instructed Shilka, who picked up the PDA and ran to the room where the researchers and engineers were.

"God bless us!"

——

Finally, the fugitive fleet has shown their sincerity, and the next step is up to the Minerva crew.

At this time, there were still 10 hours and 45 minutes before the space mine hit Minerva.