5 I am right here

"Have you found anything so far?" Ryan asked.

Wang Chen took a sip of vodka and replied with a vacant look in his eyes: "There is no clue, I don't know where it came from?" But it must have been a high-speed impact, and the outer walls were all perforated! If it goes a little faster, or hits the fuel chamber or something, the space station will be in danger. ”

"Can you describe the shape of that thing again?" Silka asked with a frown, her expression rarely worried.

Wang Chen didn't think about it, and said: "The cuboid is the size of your women's lipstick box, a metal substance, the surface is very smooth, without the slightest damage or scratch." Minerva AI confirmed that it wasn't a part of the space station, and I checked the design diagram and found nothing like it. ”

Ryan suddenly asked, "What ......is the ratio of its length, width to height?"

"Ah, no, no," Wang Chen interrupted him with a smile, "It's not 1 to 4 to 9, I remember it seems to be 2.4 centimeters, 2.4 centimeters, 9.6 centimeters...... Yes, it's this size. ”

"That's a lipstick box, hahahaha......" Ryan said with a smile, trying to ease the tension of the two ladies next to him, he saw that Gao Jie and Sylka were not in good spirits, "but I would love to know what kind of metal it is made of." ”

"The people in the lab are using instruments to analyze, and the results should be available." Wang Chen replied, and after that, the four people in the cabin fell silent. Gao Jie silently poured a glass of vodka for Silka, who smiled and shook his head in resignation.

It's November 16, 2099, and the "impact" happened three days ago, five days after everyone was stationed on the station. From the station...... No, it should be from the moment they were successfully selected as members of the space station four years ago, they have a variety of feelings for alien civilizations: anticipation, admiration, doubt, fear...... This long-term brewing temporarily came to naught when they entered the space station and heard Miller's "no signal of alien civilization at all", which cast a haze on everyone's hearts, but the busyness of the space station just now alleviated the negative emotions, but caught up with this "impact incident", this incident involved the safety of the space station and all the personnel, most of the people were very nervous, and some staff directly showed depression and absent-mindedness. Of course, Miller knew that this would not work, so he arranged for Gao Jie and Silka to provide psychological counseling to these people one by one, and finally prevented the panic from spreading like an infectious disease. After two days of heavy work, the two of them were exhausted, so Ryan suggested that they relax with another wine tasting.

"If you two want to watch any book or classic movie, you can go to the 'butler', its built-in storage device covers almost 70% of the text materials on the earth network four years ago, and there are many classic movies, videos, and music that can be used for leisure." Wang Chen suggested.

Ryan pretended to be unhappy and said, "Why didn't you say it earlier?" I can only look at the PDA connected to the station's LAN in boredom......" He was about to continue, but suddenly stopped, his eyes looked at the door of the cabin, and the others also looked in the direction of the door, it turned out to be another member of the space station from the United States: Mike Carmack.

"Welcome to join us, Mike!" Ryan raised his hands in a gesture of hugging Mike, but the latter waved his hand a little solemnly, as if to indicate to him that things weren't going to be rosy right now, "Okay, what's the trick to help with?" Ryan also immediately observed his words and said with a serious attitude.

After Mike greeted a few people, he offered to borrow the "housekeeper", and Wang Chen happily agreed. Just as Mike was about to leave the cabin with the "butler", he turned back to the four of them and asked, "We're about to cut the thing, do you want to come and see it?" ”

……

On the way to the laboratory, Mike explained to Gao Jie and others the results of the instrument's analysis of "that thing": aluminum-nickel alloy is the mainstay, and also contains gold, silver, copper, palladium and other metal substances.

"Sounds like a cell phone." Wang Chen said.

"Indeed." "But there are a small number of substances, we can't define what they are, and ...... We didn't detect radiation on it. ”

"That's really weird," Silka added, knowing something about it, "and it's rare for something to be exposed to cosmic rays without being radiated, unless it has its own healing function." ”

Mike raised his eyebrows and said, "There are people in the lab who think so, including me. So we tested it, and the instrument showed that it did have a strong current movement inside, but only inside. ”

"Wouldn't it be very hot?" Ryan also joined the discussion.

Mike's answer was unexpected: "On the contrary, that thing, like a normal metal, has a temperature that varies depending on the ambient temperature." The energy reaction within itself didn't raise its temperature, and there was no radiation or magnetic field, so I wondered if its energy would be used for its own repair function. You know, there's no metal on Earth that has such characteristics, so we're going to try to cut it and see if it's really capable of repairing itself. ”

"You've come to see it as a product of an alien civilization?" Gao Jie heard the meaning of Mike's words.

Mike didn't answer, but nodded. Several people stopped communicating, and Research Room (No. 1) was in front of them.

……

Gao Jie and the others stood in the passage outside the research room, and as mentioned earlier, they were able to see the scene in the research room through the glass on the bulkhead: there were five people inside, four researchers (Mike was among them), and Commander Miller, all five of whom were wearing protective suits and goggles. The "butler" is on the side, the outstretched mechanical arm holding the laser cutting pen.

"Looks like they're going to let the 'butler' do the cutting." Wang Chen speculated. Several people in the lab had been discussing, gesturing as if they were hesitating which direction to cut, and Miller placed a camera in the corner, and the footage was uploaded to Minerva's memory.

Ryan suddenly remembered something and asked Wang Chen: "Wang, you said before that there are a lot of text and video materials in the 'housekeeper', it is so small, how did you store so many things?" ”

Wang Chen replied: "There is no major exaggeration in those contents, the entire content of the English version of Wikipedia is less than 30 G, and all the works and documents in human history add up to 5TB to 10TB to solve...... The video is not a high-definition version, the kind that can be watched smoothly on a PDA. ”

"Oh, I thought the 'housekeeper' was using DNA storage technology." Ryan said with a sudden realization, but his face became serious.

Wang Chen nodded: "DNA storage is a good idea, but its write and read speed is too slow...... Wait, I see what you mean! ”

"yes, you think so too." Ryan said that the mysterious conversation between the two made Gao Jie feel foggy, "But where is the reading interface?" Ryan asked Wang Chen rhetorically.

"I think there's an answer soon." Wang Chen turned his gaze to the research room, the researchers had already found a place, and the housekeeper stretched out the laser cutting pen to "that thing......

However, just as the cutting pen was about to shine like a blowtorch, the robotic arm of the "butler" suddenly froze! Not only the robotic arm, but also the "housekeeper" stopped working, the display screen went out, and it was completely still! The five people in the research room were suddenly at a loss in the face of this sudden "accident", and the researcher first put away the cutting pen, and then checked what was wrong with the "housekeeper".

Wang Chen looked at the researcher inside's operation of the "housekeeper", and said strangely: "The switch doesn't respond, no, the electricity is full......" At this time, the researcher tried to move the mechanical arm, but something even stranger happened - no matter how much force was used, the mechanical arm of the "housekeeper" did not move at all, as if frozen! The people in the research room looked at each other inexplicably, and even the four people who were watching outside noticed something strange and felt deeply uncomfortable.

Miller saw that the cutting work could not be carried out, so he simply took off the mask and opened the hatch, signaling Gao Jie, Wang Chen and others to come in. Wang Chen went straight to the "housekeeper" to see if it had any mechanical problems. Gao Jie, Ryan, and Sirka finally saw "that thing": a metal cuboid the size of a lipstick box, with a smooth and translucent silver-white surface, reflecting the white walls, floor, and ceiling of the research room, but it could not clearly reflect the appearance of the people in the cabin like a mirror.

"Can I touch it?" Silka asked the researcher, and the answer was "Not recommended." The three of them had no choice but to continue to observe. Wang Chen's side was also powerless against the "housekeeper", no matter how hard he tried, the mechanical arm still did not waver.

"Let's lift it up." Wang Chen told the researchers that they all helped the handles and were ready to lift the suddenly "stubborn" robot together, however, an even more shocking accident happened-

The "butler" suddenly withdrew its mechanical arm and retracted into the hemispherical shell, almost scratching the researcher, and at the same time, the display screen also lit up, but it flickered irregularly, and the announcer kept making noises similar to those emitted by radio, which was very strange intermittently - the convulsions of the "butler" frightened Wang Chen and the researcher to the side immediately, and everyone in the research room stared at it with wide eyes.

After just ten seconds, the murmur stopped, and the "butler" competed to speak to the people in the cabin: "Hello, commander! It turned to point the camera on the case at Miller, who looked at it with shocked and suspicious eyes, "Sorry to scare you." I have a request, and I ask you to grant it. "Its voice was as usual, a magnetic, suave masculine tone, but judging from the content, it was like a command. As an intelligent robot, the "housekeeper" has the function of actively communicating with humans, but the words just spoken, including apologies, requests and commands, are completely beyond the limits of its function - obviously, this is not the "butler" they know, it has been controlled by an inexplicable force!

"Are you a 'housekeeper'? Or something else? Miller asked decisively, with a hint of uneasiness in his tone, and the rest of the lab slowly calmed down, confirming each other with their eyes: this is definitely not a "butler".

——

The "butler's" response was in line with everyone's speculation: "I'm not a 'butler', I'm borrowing its body." I am what you call an 'extraterrestrial civilization'. I have come here to meet you as agreed. Commander, please grant my request: gather all the humans here, I have something very important to say to you-

"A matter related to the survival of the earth's civilization."

Although it is not quite the same as imagined, the promise of "Meet me at the gate" has been successfully fulfilled by both earth-based and extraterrestrial civilizations.