novelraw Chapter 437 437: A False Alarm
Chapter 437 437: A False Alarm
Overall, Jason still couldn't quite bring himself to believe that the memories of these scientists had been subjected to massive "tampering"...
They had just concluded a major meeting regarding the specific design details of the Super Hadron Collider. During that session, everyone, both young and veteran scientists alike had debated with genuine excitement, all envisioning a more powerful future for humanity.
Expressions and demeanors like that couldn't be faked. It was impossible for alien consciousnesses, which possessed completely different ideologies, to integrate so flawlessly and harmoniously into human society!
However, just to be on the absolute safe side, Jason and Lily still paid a visit to the Light Lake Supercomputing Center.
Regarding the breach of personal privacy, he could only offer a silent apology in his heart. The survival of the Federation was the absolute highest priority. He had to determine whether Peter's terrifying claim of a "mass memory overwrite" was actually real!
Naturally, telepathy couldn't be used out in the open; it had to be done covertly. He decided to act as if they were just doing a routine inspection... A simple walk around the facility.
As they toured the center, Jason noticed that everyone was working quietly and diligently. Especially after the Super Hadron Collider project had been announced, the workload for computational modeling had multiplied several times over, forcing the researchers to kick into high gear. Many of the staff were so deeply engrossed in their terminals that they didn't even notice Jason and Lily walking past them.
"Director Frank, thank you for all your hard work during this busy period," Jason said, striking up a casual conversation with a man nearby.
Frank, the director of the Silver Lake Supercomputing Center, was a man in his late forties. Perhaps due to years of excessive mental exertion, his hairline had receded significantly.
Hearing Jason's greeting, Frank quickly waved his hand dismissively. "Not at all, Captain. It's just doing our jobs... With the new quantum computers coming online, the processing tasks have become much more manageable. We will definitely complete the modeling on time. You don't need to worry at all, Captain Jason!"
After making small talk for a few minutes, Jason casually pivoted the conversation. "By the way, has there been any progress on analyzing that small alien metal sphere?"
Frank paused, then shook his head with genuine regret. "That metal sphere is likely some kind of high-density data storage drive. It's secured by an unknown quantum lock. Without the decryption key, I'm afraid the probability of us ever unlocking it is virtually zero. Even with a supercomputing quantum array, brute-forcing a quantum encryption like that is physically impossible."
This matched the reports Jason had read previously. It seemed that cracking the metal sphere truly was beyond humanity's current technological capabilities.
Jason nodded understandingly, then asked his real question. "Tell me, recently... has anyone in the facility fainted from overwork?"
He was slightly nervous as he asked. According to Peter's detailed account, he had completely lost consciousness the moment his memories were invaded. If a large number of people in this facility had mysteriously fainted recently, things would be incredibly bad.
"Huh?" Hearing this, Frank was taken aback, mistakenly thinking the captain was interrogating him about poor workplace management.
His voice rose slightly in defense. "Captain Jason, we don't force unauthorized overtime here! We strictly adhere to the labor standards set by the Federation. Everyone in this facility is mandated to engage in twenty minutes of physical exercise every morning, noon, and evening, an hour in total every day. The staff is in excellent health! It's simply impossible for anyone to pass out from exhaustion."
At this point, Frank suddenly remembered an isolated incident. "Oh... wait, I remember now. Peter fainted about a year and a half ago. Yes, Peter..." Frank mused. "We actually had to carry him to the infirmary ourselves. The young man just collapsed out of nowhere for absolutely no reason. It happened to be on the exact same day the military launched the nuclear strike on the Martian spacecraft..."
Speaking of Peter, Frank sighed deeply. To think that an ordinary, underperforming tech worker could suddenly transform into an unparalleled genius in an entirely different field like materials science. The universe was truly unpredictable. Frank then briefly gossiped about Peter's usually lackluster performance prior to his 'breakthrough.'
"Was it *only* Peter who fainted?" Jason pressed.
"Yes, absolutely," Frank confirmed.
Having confirmed this crucial piece of intelligence, Jason felt a massive weight lift off his chest. He chatted with Frank for a few more minutes to keep up appearances before finally turning and leaving the Light Lake Supercomputing Center.
"Well? How was it?" Jason asked in a low voice the moment the heavy doors closed behind them.
Lily thought about it seriously, running back through the mental scans she had just performed, then shook her head. "They are all perfectly normal humans. I didn't sense any localized fluctuations indicating an extraterrestrial presence or overwritten neural pathways."
"Are you absolutely sure?"
"...Yes, I'm sure."
Only then did Jason finally let out a long breath of genuine relief. It seemed Black had been telling the truth, the neural transmitter really was a disposable, single-use device, and poor Peter had just been unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The fear of a mass invasion had been a false alarm.
However, Jason didn't consider this investigation a waste of time. Humanity had gotten incredibly lucky this time; they hadn't brought anything systemically catastrophic aboard, and the collateral damage was limited to a single slacker. But what if they weren't so lucky next time?
An invisible weapon capable of overwriting a person's core memories and consciousness completely exceeded the scope of conventional warfare. It surpassed anything humanity had ever imagined.
After some deep thought, Jason decided to convene a highly classified security council meeting. This wasn't just to establish protocols to guard against future cognitive weapons; they urgently needed to figure out exactly what to do with the alien consciousness currently squatting inside Peter's brain.
Within the hour, responding to Jason's emergency summons, a select group of individuals arrived at the secure conference room. It was a very tight circle: a few trusted former special forces commanders, key scientific figures like Professor Hao Yu and Roman, and core associates including Arthur Lambert and Evan.
When Jason selectively briefed them on the situation, the room descended into stunned silence.
An extraterrestrial lifeform had technically managed to 'resurrect' itself aboard their ship through a bizarre method of neural memory invasion!
It was like a venomous snake that could still strike after its head was cut off. It proved that the alien civilization's life science technology was countless times more advanced than humanity's.
"So, you're telling me there is a literal alien consciousness currently walking around inside the Noah?!"
Austin jumped out of his chair, his expression menacing. "I say we execute the host immediately! This entity is far too dangerous to be kept alive. No one knows what kind of internal sabotage it might be planning!"
"Their technology is vastly superior to ours. We absolutely cannot allow any seeds of danger to take root on this ship! Not even a microscopic risk is acceptable! Furthermore, that metal sphere needs to be tossed into the incinerator immediately..."
As the head of the Federation Security Department, Austin was hyper-vigilant when it came to internal threats. His philosophy was 'better safe than sorry.' Even though they had tentatively confirmed that the metal sphere was a single-use device, what if they were wrong? What if it reactivated? The fragile lifeboat of human civilization could be capsized by a single mistake.
"...No, executing him is entirely inappropriate. It isn't a physical alien; it's just a digitized memory engram!" The counter-argument came from Dr. Arthur Lambert. As the resident radical of the scientific community, Arthur had instantly recognized the astronomical value this alien data could bring to humanity.
"It's just a fragment of archived memories! Do we really need to be so terrified of it?!" Arthur argued, his voice rising with excitement. "Peter is essentially just suffering from dissociative identity disorder right now. His dominant human personality has successfully suppressed the alien persona. Think about the possibilities! What if we could exploit it?"
"Think about it," Arthur pressed, leaning over the table. "If just a tiny scrap of its knowledge gave us the room-temperature superconductor and advanced our research by decades... what else does it know?"
"Perhaps we can finally fill in our massive blind spots regarding the universe! We could extract crucial cosmic intelligence and technological blueprints directly from its memory banks!"