The Milky Way Orion Arm left-handed upper arm.

An elliptical aircraft is hovering over the meteorite, and the carrier of the aircraft firmly grasps the rocks on the surface of the meteorite, and floats in the starry sky with the meteorite.

The oval-shaped aircraft shimmered with a dark red light, flickering like a candle flame in the deep night sky, almost transparent under the shadow of the stars.

"Drop!"

In the silent starry sky, the instruments inside the aircraft flickered slightly, and a thin glass-like screen slowly emerged with a large amount of garbled characters.

Numbering... Star District... X-98176532，... Log Briefing:

... Status Description: Engine system destroyed, communication system destroyed, control system destroyed...

Intelligent Status Description: Loss of Control of Warehouse 1, Control of Warehouse 2, Control of Warehouse 3... The crash landing system is normal.

Message Status Description: Level 1 information permission, which needs to be reclaimed.

...

A large amount of text began to flicker on the screen, and one of the instruments in the aircraft gave a slight vibration before stopping.

"Drop"

Information recovery failed! The power source is insufficient... Reserve energy remaining 0.000.... 0001%。

Re-plan your information recovery program:

1. Look for outposts .... There are no outposts in the unknown sector...

2. Look for information repeaters... No signal...

3. Spaceship maintenance tools... Destroyed...

...

1098871. Coordinate query... No frame of reference...

1098870. Meteorite orbit analysis... Analyzing...

...

The information recovery plan is put on hold, and the information retention plan is initiated:

1. Detect allies... No allies...

2. Detection of high-level intelligent life... No message...

3. Detect the singularity... No message...

4. Detect pulse signal... No message...

...

8997889. Detection of microwave radiation... No signal...

8997890. Detection of electromagnetic waves... Weak signal...

"Drop"

Weak electromagnetic waves have been detected and coordinates are being discerned... Coordinates: Barred Spiral Galaxy Arm 2... Planet Three of the star system.

Meteorite orbits are being calculated... The calculation is complete.

Weapon system left-handed 48.179... 198° upspin 75.327... 163°。

"Bang!"

A dazzling light flashed in the dark starry sky, and the aircraft used the momentum of the weapon as a counterthrust, instantly speeding up the meteorite by dozens of orders of magnitude.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! ”

The continuous thrust reversal caused the meteorite to continue to accelerate, and a large amount of dust on the meteorite began to fall off, bringing a long trail with it.

During the high-speed movement, a large amount of data appeared on the screen inside the aircraft again:

“... The energy of the system is about to run out, all the energy is supplied to the smart crystal, the whole warehouse enters a dormant state, it is expected to reach the destination after three cycles, and the intelligence will be awakened after three cycles. ”

Then, the lights of the many instruments in the ship began to flicker alternately, and all the energy began to converge towards the crystal at the core of the console.

Starting with the aircraft's engine system, the instruments around the console gradually went out and eventually fell silent completely.

The flying machine in the deep starry sky seems to merge with the rocks, turning into a dazzling comet in the starry sky and flying fast, passing through countless planets all the way to the solar system.

The meteorite's speed in the starry sky is diminished to an imperceptible degree, but the meteorite's trajectory is calculated so precisely that each time it crosses the star, it makes the most of the gravitational slingshot that it always maintains an extremely high speed.

When the meteorite passes through a nebula dust, a large amount of electric ions hit the aircraft behind the meteorite, and the ultra-high-speed aircraft collided violently with the nebula dust, bringing bursts of ionization sparks on the aircraft.

Due to the forced shutdown of all the systems of the aircraft, the damage caused by ionizing sparks to the aircraft did not get any feedback, under the high-intensity impact and high temperature burning, the system originally used to disperse the interstellar dust was finally destroyed, and a large number of high-temperature particles poured into the control room, and the entire control room was like a sea of scorching fire.

A large number of particle streams hit the wall bin inside the aircraft, and the shape of the closed ring of the control room caused the particles to gradually rotate and accelerate, forming a larger particle storm, and some of the instruments in the wall chamber began to be melted by high temperatures, exposing the wrapped instrument components. The intelligent core that was originally wrapped in the center of the console was also eroded in the particle storm...

The vehicle traveled all the way through the nebula dust, from the Orion Arm to the cantilever, using the gravitational pull of the center of the Milky Way to obtain maximum acceleration, and all the way to the slingshot effect of the stars, and finally reached the boundary of the Oort cloud in the outer solar system.

"Drop"

In the control room, the core of the aircraft is activated, and the intelligent core in the control room is also awakened. At this time, the control room has been completely destroyed by high-temperature particles, and it is almost impossible to see the original appearance, because of the invasion of high-temperature particles in the intelligent core, the original crystal clear surface is burned black at this time, and many melted and cooled high-temperature particles are attached to it, which looks like a piece of burnt black charcoal. The already cracked glass screen was now blackened by the erosion of high-temperature particles, but it was still functioning normally.

Spacecraft system detection: The control room was severely damaged by high-temperature particles, and the intelligent core was damaged, and the degree of damage was recoverable.

Route detection: yaw, high-energy particles weaken the angular momentum of the meteorite, the skewness of the course is 0.000... 001%。

Route calibration: calibration system damage, weapon system damage, power system damage... Yaw is irreversible.

The vehicle will enter the target galaxy after 0.1 cycles and receive gravitational traction from the target star...

The skewness of the course will cause the aircraft to be misaligned with the target galaxy by 9 microunits, which cannot be captured by the gravity of the target planet, and the aircraft will fly away from the star system after the misalignment with the target planet, and the information preservation plan will fail...

"Drop"

The smart core is running out of energy, and the smart core is shut down.

"Drop"

The intelligent core is restarted and the information preservation plan is re-established.

Contingency plan is being calculated...

The emergency plan is complete: only the forced landing of the intelligent core...

——

At the same time, the NASA space monitoring station in country M.

At this time, it was still late at night in North America, and a black monitor was watching a movie on his mobile phone to pass the boring and long night, and there was a burst of dripping sound on the instrument of the monitoring station, and the black monitor raised his head slightly helplessly to take a look, but he couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

...

"Alert! Alert! The S-class technician immediately headed to the conference room!"

"Alert! Alert! The S-class technician immediately headed to the conference room!"

"Alert! Alert! The S-class technician immediately headed to the conference room!"

...

Late at night, NASA was in a mess, with a large number of researchers being woken up from their slumber, and some even being dragged to a conference room wearing only a pair of shorts.

A high-ranking general of the army flicked the ashes of his cigar and frowned at the conference table where there were still many vacancies.

"Are all the key people here?" The general asked his lieutenant beside him.

"Dr. William and Dr. Smith live far away and haven't been able to make it to the point."

"Don't wait! Here we go. ”

A blonde and blue-eyed beauty in professional clothes stood up with a tablet, although she said that her appearance was beautiful and temperamental, but her eyebrows and eyes revealed a touch of deep exhaustion, after all, it was four o'clock in the morning North American time.

But now the stakes are so high that everyone present has no time to worry about.

The blonde beauty projected the flat panel in her hand onto the screen in the conference room and explained: "Three hours ago, the detection station discovered a meteorite entering the solar system from the Oort Nebula..."

After a pause, the blonde beauty looked around, and continued: "Just half an hour ago, the monitoring station found that this meteorite had just passed through the orbit of Pluto and gained acceleration again, and the computer program preliminarily calculated that the meteorite would hit the earth in the near future. ”

"Impossible! From the Oort Nebula to Pluto, a distance of several astronomical units and hundreds of millions of kilometers, it is impossible for an ordinary meteorite to reach such a speed! ”

A fat man looked at the display of the meeting and retorted loudly.

The blonde beauty glanced at the fat man, sighed and said, "I also hope that there is a problem with the instrument, but our people have checked it three times with the instruments of different observation stations, and the data is consistent." ”

"Oh my God!"

"God forbid!"

There was a cacophony of discussion in the conference room, and most of the people present were astronomy experts, and they knew very well what a meteorite of this speed meant.

"Quiet! Let Rachel continue! ”

The general slapped the table and shouted loudly.

The discussion at the meeting came to an abrupt end, and the blonde Rachel went on to say that the type of the meteorite was being determined, but judging by the current data, the mass of the meteorite should be between 400 and 1,000 tons.

"Can you be sure that the meteorite's orbit reached Earth?" The general asked in a deep voice.

Rachel took a deep breath and replied, "The meteorite will also pass by the two giant planets Jupiter and Saturn, and its orbit may be deflected by gravitational effects, but the error will not exceed 100,000 kilometers. ”

"How long does it take for a meteorite to reach Earth?" The general spoke again, but in a much more solemn tone.

"Thirteen hours!"

The general's brows tightened, and after a moment of silence, he said: "I will report this matter to the president, you continue to monitor the movement of the meteorite, and in addition, to find out the composition of the meteorite, my people need to calculate the explosive yield." ”

After the general finished speaking, he hurriedly got up and left, and the conference room erupted again.

"A mass of a few hundred tons hits the earth at that speed, and the whole city will be destroyed."

"That kind of missile with ordinary speed can't hit it at all, and we need to build a firepower network in low-earth orbit."

", at that kind of speed and mass, it is impossible for any firepower network to stop a meteorite, only a nuclear bomb with the maximum yield."

"Have you thought about radiation?"

The debate in the conference room continued, Rachel walked out of the conference room with an electronic tablet, she could not leave the monitoring station at a single step, the general and his deputy walked in front, followed by seven or eight guards, she saw an officer trotting up to the general, and vaguely heard the words "theater meeting", "O League", "Z country" and so on.

Taking a deep breath of cold air, Rachel looked up at the sky, which was the direction of the meteorite's arrival, it was already late autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, and the night was so cold in the early morning, Rachel tightened her coat tightly and walked quickly towards the monitoring station.

——

The general walked to a conference room, which was originally NASA's academic lecture hall and is now used as a makeshift conference discussion room, with the leaders of several countries already online on the screen of the lecture hall.

"General House, tell me about the specifics."

The general gave a military salute to the screen and sat down at the conference table, where the camera was already set.

"Technicians have confirmed that the mass of the meteorite is between 400 and 1,000 tons, and the speed of the meteorite is being measured, but the speed is likely to exceed our expectations, and the technicians estimate that the meteorite will reach the Earth in 13 hours."

"Thirteen hours?"

The heads of state all looked shocked.

The leader of country E was the first to speak: "Our technicians have determined that the main body of the meteorite is rock, but there are also a large number of metal reactions, and it is likely that the core of the meteorite is metallic, and we must consider increasing the blasting yield." ”

"Nuke?" The leader of country Z asked bluntly.

Indeed, the current situation can only be intercepted with nuclear bombs, after all, nuclear warheads are ready-made, and it is obviously unrealistic to allocate the appropriate amount of explosives within thirteen hours.

General House was silent for a moment and then spoke: "Considering the speed of the meteorite's flight, we must launch a considerable number of nuclear bombs to form a fire interception surface in low-earth orbit..."

Nuclear weapons are precious strategic resources, and country M wants to stop meteorites, but at the same time it does not want to exhaust all its nuclear deterrent forces.

"Country E provides an equal proportion of nuclear warheads."

"It's the same as country Z."

"It's the same as country F."

"It's the same in country Y."

The president of country M instructed General House: "House, let the researchers determine the trajectory of the meteorite as soon as possible, I need a detailed assessment report, and at the same time immediately prepare for the launch of the nuclear bomb." ”

The theater meeting ended quickly, and General House rushed to the nearby base where the troops were stationed, and there were very strict procedures for firing nuclear weapons, and he, the senior general, had to be present.

The world's high-ranking armed forces are flowing in a surging manner on this ordinary day, but ordinary people are not in the slightest aware of the impending crisis.

Country Z.

A certain military base has become a pot of porridge at this time, and there are only a few countries that have the ability to detect meteorites in space, and these countries are undoubtedly the first to get the data, and countries Z and E have already reported the meteorites as soon as they detect meteorites because it is daytime.

According to the analysis of the Earth's rotation data and the timing of the meteorite impact, the landing point is likely to be in Eurasia. If you're lucky, it'll fall into the ocean, maybe the Indian Ocean, maybe the Pacific Ocean, but it's also bad luck and hit the city directly.

According to the impact model simulated by the supercomputer, if the meteorite hits the city, more than 80 million people will die directly, hundreds of millions of people will be affected, the dust cloud formed by the meteorite impact will cover a large area of the Eurasian continent, and the shock wave generated by the impact will also cause a large-scale strong earthquake, and countless people will lose their lives.

In the face of this situation, even if there is only a 1 in 10,000 probability, it will never be allowed to happen, not to mention that the probability is far more than 1 in 10,000 now, according to the area of Asia, the probability will be 1 in 4.

What a frightening probability.

"Beichuan Beichuan, this is No. 1!" In the control room of the aircraft carrier in the South China Sea, a senior officer is giving orders on the radio.

"Beichuan received, please speak."

"The headquarters ordered that all ships immediately end their cruising missions and go to the silos in Area 018 to wait for instructions on their next move."

"Kitagawa received!"

The captain of the Beichuan couldn't help frowning when he heard the order, the 018 area transmitter was loaded with a nuclear bomb, is there going to be a war? At the same time, all nuclear-armed countries began to issue orders for the transfer of their naval fleets and urgently recalled troops carrying nuclear warheads, and many people began to speculate about whether a large-scale nuclear war would occur.

Inside an office.

"Chief, the deployment has been completed, we have prepared sufficient yields, and even if other countries do not use nuclear forces, we are confident that we will intercept the meteorite outside low-earth orbit." A senior officer reported to the old man with a Chinese face sitting on the desk.

"Has the impact site of the meteorite been confirmed?"

"Not yet, the meteorite enters the solar system from the Oort Nebula, and will pass through Pluto, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars respectively, and will eventually hit the earth, and technicians have monitored and found that the meteorite will change its orbit and speed due to the influence of gravity when it passes through the planet, and the meteorite has only passed through Jupiter, and the final impact site is still uncertain."

"How much longer?"

"Ten hours!"