Chapter 251: NASA: An Extraterrestrial Mechanical Civilization?

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Sparking and blazing the entire way, Tang Rui arrived at the meeting location in just 50 minutes.

As the aerospace launch center with its own airport, there was no need for him to find another place to land.

“Calling the control tower, requesting permission to land.”

“Control tower received, expecting to land in a few minutes.”

“I’m landing now.”

The control tower was stunned; they hadn’t seen the plane yet.

Although they knew Tang Rui’s plane was stealth and wouldn’t be detected by radar without the Longbo lens, it was surprising not to see it at all during landing.

Please report your current location, can you turn off the Longbo lens? I can’t see you,” the control tower had no choice but to ask Tang Rui.

“Okay, I’m turning off the stealth system.”

Tang Rui then remembered he hadn’t turned off the optical stealth.

The next second, he deactivated the optical stealth.

The control tower watched as a sci-fi-styled aircraft appeared out of thin air above the hangar, with a ripple-like distortion.

Gulp!

The control tower was stunned at the sudden appearance of the aircraft. “That’s real stealth!”

“Tang, is this white aircraft yours?”

“Yes, it’s a new build.”

As the spacecraft landed, Tang Rui opened the hatch and stepped out.

The ground crew, however, were cluelessly staring at the spacecraft’s electric thrust nozzle.

How were they supposed to maintain it?

They hadn’t seen the nuclear-powered rocket engine nozzle, mainly because it was shut down upon entering Earth to avoid neutron radiation.

It had only been five minutes since he shut down the nuclear power nozzle from outer space. The neutron radiation would dissipate after about fifteen minutes, so he had to keep the engine nozzle closed.

Even standing beneath the spacecraft’s tail nozzle, one wouldn’t be harmed thanks to neutron radiation shielding materials.

“This aircraft doesn’t need maintenance,” Tang Rui told the bewildered ground crew.

“Um… where is the fuel intake? What fuel does it need? Any special considerations?” the ground crew asked.

“No need for that, there’s plenty of fuel left. Just help me tow it to the hangar.” “Okay, no problem.”

Hearing Tang Rui say this, the ground crew breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, they had never seen such an aircraft model before.

They didn’t even know where to start.

“Tang, I’m a student of Chief Designer Liu. He asked me to come pick you up.” A military vehicle stopped near Tang Rui, and the young man in the passenger seat got out and spoke to Tang Rui.

“Thank you.”

“No trouble at all.”

Tang Rui was not new here, having previously helped deliver supplies to the space station.

However, his previous visits were always hurried, and he had never really explored the inside.

Even when he was invited by Professor Yu for a meal, he didn’t go anywhere else.

This time, he was truly entering the interior of the Aerospace Command Center, seeing its situation for the first time.

“President Tang, the teachers are all in the meeting room inside. You can go straight in,” the soldier guarding the corridor told Tang Rui.

“Thank you.” Tang Rui nodded and walked in, unobstructed by the soldier.

He saw many familiar faces as he entered the meeting room, including his teacher Professor Yu, all prominent figures in aerospace.

“Teacher, Chief Designer Liu, Chief Designer Zhang…”

Tang Rui greeted the Professors with a smile and sat next to Professor Yu.

“Why are you so late? Were you conducting experiments?” Professor Yu asked.

Seeing that it was nearly time, and Tang Rui had just arrived, Professor Yu found an excuse for him.

Sometimes experiments indeed couldn’t be disturpted.

“No, I was outside. When I got the message, I hurried back. I didn’t even have time to change clothes.”

Tang Rui knew what Professor Yu meant, but it was indeed not easy for him to come back so quickly.

At that moment, the door of the meeting room opened, and the head of the Aerospace Command Center entered.

Snap!

The signal jammer was activated.

Then, a bunch of data appeared on the meeting room’s projection screen.

No text.

Just data.

There is an urgent situation. This is data received by our lunar probe an hour ago. Please take a look.”

Straight to the point, no unnecessary talk.

At this time, he wasn’t in the mood for anything else.

The attendees turned their attention to the data on the big screen, starting to analyze it.

No analysis was really needed.

Just by looking line by line, one could see the issue.

Tang Rui was initially puzzled about what had happened on the Moon, as he

didn’t notice anything unusual there an hour ago.

But, after seeing the data, his expression became very strange.

This…

The data in front of him was vibrational data released by geological detection equipment, nothing special to discuss.

“As everyone has noticed, these peculiar vibrations are definitely not naturally occurring, and as of now, they are still continuously happening.” Swipe!

Another image appeared on the big screen.

The red dots marked locations where mechanical dogs were conducting detections near the Sea of Storms during the past hour.

This…

The Professors in the room furrowed their brows even more upon seeing this image.

“Now let’s not worry about what it is. Based on the current situation, let’s first analyze its purpose or its internal logic.”

The room fell silent at these words.

No one spoke.

Everyone was buried in thought.

Only Tang Rui felt awkward, so he spoke up since no one else did.

“This is for detecting the geological structure of the Moon.”

“President Tang’s point makes sense. Based on the current situation, this seems to be a detection. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be so regularly distributed, and each detection site is evenly spaced, with identical detection times.

“But why do you think it’s detecting the Moon’s geological structure, President Tang? Any reason?”

Ring, ring, ring…

Just as Tang Rui was about to explain that he arranged it, the red secure phone in the meeting room rang.

“Okay… I understand, switch the signal to the meeting room.”

After hanging up, the head of the Aerospace Command Center spoke, “Let’s pause the discussion, NASA has urgently adjusted the direction of a space telescope to photograph the Sea of Storms.”

As he finished speaking, the image on the big screen changed to the space telescope’s footage.

Taking photos of the Moon in the modern day was easily achievable with a few thousand dollars’ worth of astronomical telescope, let alone the world’s top space telescopes.

It would be a waste of resources to use a space telescope for Moon photos unless it’s for finding the truth.

Soon, the photo was taken.

As the photo was analyzed and magnified, the alien constructs on the ground became clearer.

When NASA’s supercomputers finished analyzing all the pixels and composed the final photo, everyone could clearly see what the alien constructs on the Moon were.

“Is that a dog?”

“Why does it look so familiar?”

I remember Tang’s company made mechanical dogs, very similar to this like…”

At this point, everyone in the meeting room realized something was off.

Thinking back to what Tang Rui had said.

This…

“Did you release those dogs?”

Professor Yu knew Tang Rui best. Seeing Tang Rui’s expression, he understood the situation.

Another mix-up.

“Um…” Tang Rui nodded.

Why did you send dogs to the Moon?” Professor Yu was puzzled by Tang Rui’s move.

“Why would you send individual weapons to the Moon?

“Were you preparing for war?”

Professor, as I had said, to detect the Moon’s geological structure data.”

Well then.

He’d wait right here.

“Tang, how did you get there?” The head of the Aerospace Command Center asked helplessly.

The cause of the situation was found.

No aliens.

Their own ‘traitor’ was revealed.

Ridiculous.

I flew there. I built a spacecraft to try landing on the Moon. I thought since I was going there anyway, I might as well bring something and detect the Moon’s geological data, preparing for a future lunar base.”

Tang Rui spread his hands and simplified the explanation.

“Directly from Earth to the Moon?”

“Yes.”

“What fuel?”

Nuclear reactor combined with liquid hydrogen.”

“What about safety?”

“Safety is no issue, except the main engine can’t be used on the ground, the tail nozzle’s particle stream has neutron radiation.”

Wait… you said you just came back from outside, not from the Moon, right?” Professor Yu suddenly thought of a problem.

He proposed the question in shock.

Right, I was on the Moon when I got the message. It took 50 minutes to come

back, almost missed it.”

Listen to that.

Does that sound human?

The big shots in the room fell silent.

“You flew the spacecraft here directly, where’s the spacecraft parked?”

“At the airport.”

“Let’s go see the spacecraft.”

“Yeah, let’s go together.”

The group stood up, eager to see the spacecraft.

As for the meeting.

What meeting?

It was just a mix-up, not as important as seeing a spacecraft.

Just kidding.

This was a spacecraft capable of returning from the Moon to Earth in an hour, its value immeasurable.

Tang Rui led the group back to the airport to see the spacecraft.

Meanwhile, at NASA, the reaction to seeing the mechanical dogs was different.

After all, NASA’s people weren’t concerned about warfare.

Plus, the mechanical dogs had no logos.

So, upon seeing the mechanical dogs, they all exclaimed loudly, frantically calling out to God.

Ten minutes later, a report of an alien mechanical civilization invading the Moon reached a building next to Pennsylvania Avenue..