Capturing a meteorite is just a trivial matter in scientific research, as long as the detection of microorganisms is done.

But capturing an extraterrestrial probe has risen to the level of contact with extraterrestrial civilizations, and has become a major diplomatic event.

Therefore, in less than a quarter of an hour, many scientists, military figures, and members of the think tank have gathered in the captain's room.

"Be careful, try not to break it!" An expert is directing the operation.

Drones cannot automate such a complex acquisition job, and people must designate relevant targets and send corresponding command plans.

From the calculation data on the screen, it can be known that this ancient space probe, because of inertial high-speed movement, the speed is about 36.8 kilometers per second.

This speed is already dozens of times that of ordinary gunpowder bullets, and the kinetic energy is quite amazing. In order to avoid breaking it outright, people wanted to adopt a more gentle way of capturing it.

"At about the same pace, yes, that's it. Slowly approach, a little closer, a little closer...... See that pole, it should be a load-bearing pole...... What is the distance between the two sides now? ”

"89.9 meters!"

"Okay, keep this distance...... Shoot a miniature hook at the target location! ”

"Three, two, one...... Launch! ”

Because of the delay of the signal, it took a few seconds for the miniature hook to be launched.

In the silence of the universe, there is no sound, and it is impossible to hear the sound of metal clashing. However, people can see from the screen that the metal hook has successfully circled the pole several times, and successfully circled the pole.

Suddenly, there was a small round of applause and cheers from the captain's room.

A soft nanorope is tied to a load-bearing pole, and the probe is then driven by the drone, slowly turning its direction in an attempt to pull it closer to Deep Space.

"Captain, do you want to be faster or slower? We suspect that the detector is so old that the load-bearing rod cannot withstand very large forces. ”

"Take your time and be conservative." Yu Yifeng pondered for a while and said, "Anyway, the Deep Space still needs to stop here to replace the engine, so there's no hurry." ”

Soon, the military estimated the specific data, and the entire process of pulling back took two days.

"Two days...... So let's go back and work as usual. ”

However, the crowd did not disperse immediately, but discussed it with great interest. Many people were in front of the screen, looking at the detector curiously.

Under the strong light of the drone, the external structure has been clear.

This is a typical deep-space probe, with engines and energy devices, taking up the vast majority of the volume.

The salient feature of deep space probes is that they fly in the universe for a long time and cannot be remotely controlled in real time on the ground, so they must have a certain degree of autonomous navigation capabilities; Flying outside the planetary system, away from the stars, it uses both solar sails and nuclear energy systems.

Finally, it has to withstand very harsh space environmental conditions and requires special protective structures.

"The only difference is that the device behind the engine seems to be equipped with a ...... Parachutes? It shows that this probe once had the ability to land on a planet with an atmosphere. ”

“…… But from the overall structure, it is very likely that it is an external detector of a low-level civilization. A very bold low-level civilization wants to use a probe to visit another planet with another star system...... This wonderful idea may take tens of thousands of years. Can they wait tens of thousands of years? ”

"They seem to have failed, though...... The probe did not reach another stellar realm before it was damaged, a failed scientific expedition. ”

Hearing this discussion, Yu Yifeng moved his gaze to the distant starry sky......

He sighed: "Like us, the earth civilization in the past, this civilization is curious and confused about the boundless universe, and then launches a probe to the outside world...... I want to find some truth in the dark. ”

An expert nodded, "Yes, and this probe seems to contain something...... It should be some information......"

"Information about its own civilization."

As the answer was discussed, there was a sudden silence in the captain's room.

Mankind has discovered the external detector of a low-level civilization!

Many first-generation old people recall distant memories of the past, and Zisensen has almost the same associations......

It's hard to put into words.

In Yi Feng's heart, there was also a little touch.

During the Earth period of mankind, the same probe was launched, representing the beautiful fantasy and expectation of mankind for the universe.

For example, the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 probes each carry a gold-plated aluminum metal disk.

The metal disk contains patterns and information that tell the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life: where the probe came from and when it will be launched.

And the "Voyager 1" probe carried a copper disk record, which is said to be able to remain in space for a billion years without damage!

There is a lot of content in the record, greetings from the president of the United States, the president of the United Nations, greetings in different languages, all kinds of music, and so on......

Now, such a similar gift has been sent by another low-level civilization to the hands of a new human civilization.

This probe, like a diplomat of a low-level civilization, silently tells mankind about their curiosity, confusion and loneliness in the distant starry sky......

Perhaps, they are wondering why the starry sky is so dark;

Perhaps, they are also struggling to step towards the stars.

This feeling is very wonderful, and there is a slight touch in everyone's hearts. Not because human beings are the dominant party at present, but because human beings, who were also once low-level civilizations, also had the same emotions......

Slowly and long, because of fate, we can meet each other......

Judging from the size of the probe, it may contain more information than it was emitted by humans. And they seem to be more prepared than humans, but strangely, on the surface, their technology is not stronger than that of earthlings, not as good as the Knicks, and not even as good as the Diggs......

This is an extraterrestrial civilization that has paid a huge economic price and is a lonely voice in the vast universe.

People are strange and curious......

Of course, moving is moving, and the necessary safety inspection still has to be done.

Two days passed quickly, and the probe was pulled closer to a distance of 3,000 kilometers from Deep Space, maintaining almost the same speed as the mothership.

Immediately after that, a medium-sized transport ship flew over. It is an unmanned scientific research spacecraft, which is loaded with a large number of safety testing equipment and robots, which will conduct a comprehensive safety inspection of the detector.

A whole bunch of staff members are already waiting.

…… The specific test results are almost identical to what people think.

"Just an ordinary instrument, nothing particularly dangerous...... The engine uses nuclear fission energy as well as solar energy, and all energy has been depleted. ”

"The metal material used is ordinary titanium...... Composite materials are the result of layers of bonding and molding of fiber textile materials and synthetic resins, and basically all of them are damaged, and they have a very long history......"

One of the biologists suddenly wondered, "Huh...... There are some low-level life-sustaining equipment in it, do you want to carry living things? ”

"Strangely, inside these glass spheres, there seems to be an ultra-small microbial ecosystem, using light to replenish energy. Is there any purpose in putting so many micro-ecosystems? ”

"But when the energy is exhausted, all the species inside seem to have died...... It's been too long for the time being to know if the genetic material has been damaged. Captain, do you want to open it and take a look? ”

Everything has its own lifespan, whether it's protein or genetic material, it has its own shelf life. Some scientists have suggested that DNA can be preserved for up to 1 million years, but certainly not more than 5 million or 6 million years. So it's impossible to clone a dinosaur with dinosaur eggs or dinosaur blood, because the genetic information has been lost.

Now people just don't know how long this probe has been launched, and whether the genetic material in the biosphere has been preserved......

If you have one, you can also see the alien microbes sent by the other party.

Yu Yifeng thought about it, but still shook his head. If robots are used for biochemical control, it is still somewhat unsafe.

"These little biospheres are set aside and opened by our biologists. Don't rush yet! ”

After a vigorous search, a robot carefully took out an aluminum box.

That's ...... The most significant discovery.

"In this box...... It seems that there is still some information! It can be easily taken out, and it should be the specific information of the other party's civilization. The rest of the equipment, all the probes, the circuit boards, the nuclear engines, and so on, looked very old, and some of the wiring was damaged. ”

After a few hours of hard work, people have completed the initial exploration of the probe, and the space inside is not large, just a large suitcase.

"Captain, do you want to completely disassemble the probe?" A staff member asked.

Yu Yifeng thought about it and frowned.

An item of a low-level civilization, from the current point of view, seems to be very crude, and there is no technology to parse.

In terms of the specific era of science and technology, it is still less than the level of mankind at the beginning of the 21st century.

Slowly and slowly, flying here, and dismantling it like this, it seems that there is something unbearable.

"Forget it, let's isolate and keep it for the time being, it's not bad to be a historical artifact. Take out all the information inside and read it! ”

Inside the box is a piece of high-purity uranium-238, part of which has decayed into plutonium-239.

There must be a moral to this.

The answer is simple, this piece of high-purity uranium-238 represents the age of this detector.

This is...... A small tacit understanding between different civilizations, humanity has done almost the same thing.

"If uranium-238 was close to 100% pure at the time of its voyage and its half-life was about 4.17 billion years, then ...... Judging from the existing decay phenomenon, it has passed...... 150 million years! ”

"This is a ...... from 150 million years ago Drifting bottles! ”

After reaching this conclusion, everyone was slightly shocked in their hearts, and the vicissitudes of history were coming, so long, so long ago!

Such a history, inexplicably, adds a heaviness to the probe.

150 million years ago, the earth was still in the age of dinosaurs, right?

Just drifting across the ocean to come here, not being swallowed by the stars, not being captured by the planets, just passing it into the hands of human beings, is really a kind of fate in the dark......

This also makes people more curious about the content of the material.

Also, 150 million years ago, the Milky Way had a ...... Wisdom and civilization!

Soon, the robot carefully took out the gold-plated aluminum sheets in the metal box, very thin, very thin, less than 0.1 millimeter, but there were more than 200 of them!

The gold-plated aluminum sheets are cleverly elevated less than a millimeter, so the metal sheets between each other are not glued together due to time.

There is also a metal plate with a diameter of more than 30 centimeters at the bottom, which seems to store a large amount of information.

The scales painted on the metal disc are also very rough, like a classic vintage record.

Only this kind of rough stuff can stand the test of time and transmit information to humans 150 million years later.

Something that is too delicate will lose information due to the interaction between atoms. Just like the electronic disk of human beings, it can never afford to travel through time for hundreds of millions of years.

The first thing one looks at is the thin sheet of gold-plated aluminum, which has a large number of pictures and text. This unknown civilization seems to be passing on an entire dictionary.

The first picture turned out to be a color image drawn with different colors of metal.

It is an abstract, artistic picture of the starry sky.

In the glass-colored sky, a star the size of a bowl is rising in the upper left corner of the picture. The two "moons" on the right, one is setting and the other is in mid-air.

It was easy to identify that these two were the moon, "so this unknown planet should have two moons, one large and one small." ”

The most amazing thing is that the stars in the image, some of which are just small dots, some are the size of grapes, they are spinning and churning, trying to compete with the sun, and then helplessly fall with the moon.

It is impossible to guess whether these large and small starlights are artistically processed or real.

At the bottom of the image, there is a black shadow, a shadow representing despair...... Such a powerful lineup of light, still a shadow that can't be illuminated.

It's a bit puzzling, but it's this shadow that sublimates the idea of the image.

"If the stars were close to each other, it would be possible to become the size of a grape like this. Or there's a red giant nearby or something, and it looks bigger......" One astronomer tried to force an explanation, but he only said half of it, art cannot be interpreted by science.

This image undoubtedly represents the top art of a civilization.

Only this top-notch, proud, stuff would appear in the scarce and precious collection of information. For low-level civilizations, every gram of space material sent would cost a lot of economic resources.

A beautiful image.

Through the starlight outside, everyone felt a silent emotion.

This feeling is not sadness or loneliness, but understanding. In all kinds of worlds in the world, there are always some lonely souls, and there are always things that cannot be solved.

And lonely souls can also have strong resonances, although we are not an era, or even a region, but we have once had a common emotion.

We are just ordinary members of the underworld.