Chapter 789: An Open Secret

Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

Standing at the door of the dean's office, Chen Yunhai took a deep breath, straightened his collar, and knocked lightly on the door.

Soon, after hearing a "please come in" from inside the house, he opened the door and walked in, saying respectfully.

"You looking for me?"

"Well, there is something." Stopping the pen in his hand, Lu Zhou smiled at Chen Yunhai who was standing at the door, then stood up, made a gesture of invitation to the sofa and said, "Don't be so polite, hurry up!" Please sit down."

After taking a seat on the sofa, Chen Yunhai nodded his thanks to the secretary who poured tea for him, then sat upright on the sofa, and began to look at the draft papers piled up on the coffee table.

I saw some incomprehensible calculation formulas and symbols drawn on those draft papers, and beside these checking calculation steps, there were standard curves that seemed to be drawn with a ruler.

After looking at it for a long time, he didn't see any clues. Just when Chen Yunhai was about to give up, Lu Zhou came over with a cup of coffee and sat down opposite him.

"Some small personal interests, please don't take it to heart," Lu Zhou said, sweeping the draft paper on the coffee table aside, then took out a stack of documents that still had the temperature of the printer oil, put them on the coffee table and gently pushed them away In front of him, "About 2 hours ago, we cracked the signal sent from Mars to Earth, I believe you will be interested."

Upon hearing this sentence, Chen Yunhai's expression suddenly became serious, and he quickly scanned the document after picking it up from the coffee table.

When he saw those three eye-catching characters, his reaction was almost the same as that of Lu Zhou, he froze for a moment and then frowned.

"SOS...?"

Lu Zhou nodded.

"Yes, combined with the current events on Mars, it should not be that there is a problem with our cracking work, and New Virginia may indeed have encountered a little trouble."

After a pause, Lu Zhou continued.

"For us, this could be an opportunity."

The moment he heard the word "opportunity", Chen Yunhai's eyes moved slightly, and many thoughts flashed through his head, but half a minute later, he still shook his head.

"I understand what you mean, but I'm afraid it's very difficult... From the perspective of the White House, the Americans would rather die than agree with us to intervene in this matter."

If Huaguo is allowed to take over the rescue work, it will not only damage the national prestige of the United States, but also bring a series of uncontrollable risks such as technology leakage.

Although this statement may not be in line with humanitarianism, spaceflight itself is a risky thing, and the death of a few astronauts is not enough to affect the overall situation.

From the perspective of the overall situation, if the rescue work cannot be carried out, it is better to let the three astronauts die like this than to let Hua Guo intervene in this matter.

At most, prepare a special funeral for them afterwards.

Perhaps the stock price of Space-X will suffer a heavy blow after this, but the Ares project will not simply fall because of this. Their researchers will learn from this failure to pave the way for the next success...

"I know." Putting down the coffee cup in his hand, Lu Zhou nodded and continued, "Theoretically, it is unlikely that NASA's spacecraft will spend hundreds of millions of dollars for just three astronauts. A trip to Mars...and it is still in a situation where there is no certainty that the rescue will be successful. It is more in the interest of the US authorities to announce the death of the three astronauts after the 'accident' happened."

"That's right." Chen Yunhai nodded, "So I'm afraid it will be difficult to take advantage of this opportunity."

"Not necessarily," Lu Zhou shook his head and said with a smile, "If we let the Americans know, will the three astronauts be saved?"

Chen Yunhai's pupils shrank slightly, and his eyebrows raised an arc of interest: "You mean..."

"That's right, leak the news from our side," Lu Zhou nodded, and continued, "It's impossible to save it, but if it can be saved, it won't be saved..."

"Then it was not an accident, but a murder!"

...

U.S.

NASA headquarters.

In the Ares Project ground command center, the staff are busy working in their respective positions.

Standing in the command center, Director Carson was quickly reporting the current situation to the gloomy President.

"It has been confirmed that the dust storm on Mars is a global climate event, and it is estimated that it will take at least five months to stop. Our colonists are facing-"

Interrupting Director Carson's words forcefully, the president said in a tired and angry tone: "I don't care whether they encountered a sandstorm or something, I just want to know one thing now, where is your plan? "

Director Carson was silent for a while, then spoke in a heavy tone.

"Sir... Although I hate to say this, to be honest, the hope is very slim. Even if we launch the BFR rocket now and go to Mars through an unconventional transfer orbit, it will take at least three months to reach Mars orbit."

THE PRESIDENT: "Can our colonists last three months?"

Director Carson hesitated for a moment, and said in a difficult tone.

"There's only a 50% chance...the premise is still that they carry out some conscious self-help."

"Don't let them know yet," interrupted Director Carson, the president said decisively, "tell them that we are doing our best to rescue them, so they don't have to worry!"

"But our rocket..."

Meeting the president's gloomy gaze, Director Carson, who instantly understood the president's meaning, opened his mouth, swallowed the second half of the sentence abruptly, and nodded with difficulty.

"……I see."

Getting the three astronauts to "shut up" was more important than bringing the three astronauts back alive. And the premise for them to shut up is to convince them that NASA is doing its best to rescue them.

If once they know that there is no possibility of them surviving, and the BFS spacecraft equipped with high-power remote communication equipment floating in the orbit of Mars is still working...

For NASA, it would be a disaster.

At this moment, footsteps came from the corridor outside the command center.

Soon, the secretary of the White House Office appeared behind the two.

"gentlemen……"

After hearing the voice, the president turned around, looked at the tall and thin man, frowned and asked.

"What's wrong?"

Swallowing a mouthful of spit, the secretary continued in a heavy tone.

"The news has been leaked."

The president froze for a moment, and asked subconsciously.

"what news?"

"News about the colony of New Virginia..." The secretary took out a folded newspaper from the file bag he was carrying, and handed it to the president after unfolding it, carefully saying, "...read it for yourself."

The newspaper is Renren Daily Overseas Edition.

Taking the newspaper from the secretary, the president squinted at it.

However, just when he set his eyes on the newspaper, his heart skipped a beat.

I saw a line of eye-catching capital letters printed on the headline of the newspaper.

[Mars is experiencing a once-in-a-century abnormal climate, and global sandstorms cover the world. "New Virginia" may be in unprecedented danger! 】

WTF? !