Chapter 218: Those Who Know Me, My Wife Among Them

Outer Space, Blue Star orbit.

The national space station of Tang Country.

As astronaut Sun Chenghai floated, intending to check on a subsystem, his eye suddenly caught a bright spot passing by the porthole.

His heart skipped a beat as he quickly adjusted his position to peer out the window, now only vaguely seeing the bright point flying off into outer space.

In the blink of an eye, he could no longer see it clearly.

Could that speed be too fast?

Sun Chenghai would bet that the bright spot was traveling at a speed exceeding 16.7 kilometers per second.

Because, in the time it took him to blink, it was already out of sight, and space is so vast—with his eyesight, seeing ten or twenty kilometers was not a problem.

But now, he couldn’t see that bright spot at all.

Did he see wrong due to an optical illusion?

The answer is no!

However, coming from the direction of the Earth and heading to outer space, it certainly wasn’t a meteor!

If it’s not a natural bright spot like a meteor, then it must be man-made, but does this world have any spacecraft that achieve third cosmic velocity just as they leave Blue Star?

If there were such crafts, would humans still need to be confined to Blue Star?

If there weren’t, then what he saw must be a UFO—could there really be extraterrestrials active on Blue Star?

“Chenghai, how is the spectrometer check going?”

As Sun Chenghai was pondering, Commander Nie Zhengyuan’s voice came through the headset.

This immediately snapped him back to reality, and he decided to report: “Commander, I just saw a bright spot flying from the direction of Earth into outer space at a velocity exceeding the third cosmic velocity!”

“What?! Are you sure you saw that?” Nie Zhengyuan exclaimed.

“I’m positive, I didn’t have blurred vision. After I saw it, I just blinked once, and then it disappeared, this speed definitely exceeds the third cosmic velocity!”

“Alright, go check the spectrometer first, I’ll ask Ma Tian to use the optical cabin’s survey telescope to search, and after you finish, go join him.”

“Understood, tell Ma Tian to search in the direction of the Moon, the bright spot flew towards the Moon.”

“Okay.”

In the space between the stars and the Moon, the Yilong space fighter jet was accelerating towards the Moon.

At this moment, Du Qiu was hugging Ning Shuangshuang, standing in front of the command cabin’s porthole, through which Ning Shuangshuang gazed at the approaching Moon, feeling a sense of dreamlike wonder.

“Du Qiu, did we really get to the Moon so quickly?”

“The maximum speed of the Yilong is 2,000 kilometers per second; this leg of the flight is to test that speed. The cruising speed is not that fast, only 1,500 kilometers per second,” Du Qiu responded, slightly boasting.

Hearing Du Qiu’s somewhat proud voice, she couldn’t help but retort: “Only 1,500 kilometers per second? Is that much different from the maximum speed?

If we fly from Blue Star to the Moon at this speed, it would only take about a minute longer than at maximum speed.”

Du Qiu laughed and explained, “If it’s just a means of transport between stars and moons, the difference in speed is not significant.

But in star interstellar warfare, having that speed might mean the difference between evading the enemy’s attacks or not.”

Ning Shuangshuang saw that the Yilong space fighter jet was already flying towards the far side of the Moon and asked, “Interstellar war? Who are you planning to fight? Aliens?”

There is no doubt that with the level of technology in Du Qiu’s space fighter jet, no country on Blue Star could possibly contend with it.

“Of course, aliens!” Du Qiu stated confidently. “Actually, the development of these technologies is not only for revenge against the United States but also to have the capability to protect Blue Star as soon as possible.”

“Are there really aliens coming to Blue Star?” Ning Shuangshuang’s curiosity was piqued.

Du Qiu nodded and said, “Yes, how can there be intelligent life only on Blue Star in this vast universe?

The United States once unearthed a small alien spacecraft from underground in the southern part of their country, it seems to be a common crewed lander.

The technological leap of the United States after World War II, especially in IT, was partly due to technologies extracted from that spacecraft.”

Ning Shuangshuang turned her head, looking at Du Qiu in surprise. “How do you know all this?”

Before Du Qiu could answer, Star Ocean’s voice rang out.

“Sir, someone on Tang Country’s space station just happened to see the Yilong flying by. They are now mobilizing the optical cabin’s telescope to search.”

Hearing Star Ocean’s voice, Ning Shuangshuang’s mouth opened wide in surprise.

“Du Qiu, that voice…”

Du Qiu hurriedly explained, “That’s the artificial intelligence Star Ocean. I wanted it to have your voice, so I used it as Star Ocean’s voice. Discovering the American’s secret was also Star Ocean’s merit.”

“Artificial intelligence? Is it the really advanced kind?”

With so much about artificial intelligence that night already astonishing Ning Shuangshuang, hearing about AI itself wasn’t too shocking.

After all, for the last two years, Tang Country has been heavily promoting AI development, and it seems like every internet company is working on AI and can supposedly develop it.

What truly surprised Ning Shuangshuang was that Du Qiu used her voice.

After listening to Du Qiu’s explanation, any rising dissatisfaction in her vanished. They had been apart for two years, and she herself yearned to hear Du Qiu’s voice more often.

She could understand Du Qiu’s actions and felt a sense of sweetness towards it.

“Yes, it’s like the ones you see in science fiction novels and movies, a true strong artificial intelligence,” Du Qiu further explained.

“Madam, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Star Ocean!” Star Ocean’s voice suddenly rang out again, surprising Du Qiu somewhat. Indeed, with the development of the emotional module, Star Ocean appeared to be more polite than AI without emotional models.

Although Ning Shuangshuang felt a bit odd hearing her own voice greet her, Star Ocean’s form of address did give her a bit of joy.

“Star Ocean, hello, and thank you for accompanying Du Qiu and assisting him!”

“That is my duty. Now with madam by the sir’s side, he won’t be lonely anymore…”

“Cough cough…” Du Qiu interrupted abruptly with a cough. “Star Ocean, did you just report that someone saw the Yilong?”

“Yes, the Tang Country space station is currently using its survey telescope to search for Yilong!” Star Ocean promptly replied.

Du Qiu asked in surprise, “Didn’t we activate the dynamic visual camouflage system we just successfully developed? Wasn’t that also one of the test items for this test flight?”

“Yes, according to the test flight plan, it should have been tested on the return flight within the atmosphere, as it was believed that it wouldn’t be seen in space.”

Du Qiu’s expression turned serious. “We can’t be careless. Even though few people might see it near Blue Star, there are still many survey telescopes that automatically take pictures.

Remember to write it in the regulations, before approval, all spacecraft must activate the dynamic visual camouflage system, and the radar stealth system must also be activated.

Until the construction of Heaven is complete, we cannot let any country on Blue Star find out!”

“Yes, sir.”

Ning Shuangshuang tugged at Du Qiu’s arm, saying, “Don’t be so stern, I guess this test plan was confirmed by you, right?”

Star Ocean’s voice arose, “Madam is wise. The dynamic visual camouflage system was initially planned as an earlier test, but sir changed the plan to use Yilong to pick you up at night.

He thought there was no risk of being seen at night, so he planned to carry out the test after returning to space.”

Du Qiu, upon hearing this, could not help but smile. In such a short time, he found out that Star Ocean would actually tattle to Ning Shuangshuang.

Ning Shuangshuang gave Du Qiu a look. “See, it’s your mistake. I thought that with Star Ocean being so powerful, it couldn’t possibly make such a basic error.”

“Those who know me, my wife among them!” Star Ocean voiced at the right moment.

Du Qiu patted his forehead and remarked, “Star Ocean, do you think you’ve found a backer?”

“No, I think I’ve found a good BFF,” Star Ocean replied.

Ning Shuangshuang laughed out loud, “Star Ocean’s right, we are good BFFs; we even have the same voice.”

“Thank you, madam, for liking me.”

“Alright, Star Ocean, quickly complete the test with Yilong so we can head back.”