“The footage has been deleted.”
Pan-Asian First Fleet command center.
In front of the holographic computer, the information technology expert pushed his glasses and continued solemnly, “And it was deleted very cleanly. All traces have been erased, and there is no residual data.”
“Deleted?” The commander frowned slightly. “What about the backup in the black box?”
“Although it sounds weird to say this, looking at the timeline markers, the black box stopped writing data a few minutes after we confirmed that the flight was hijacked. It was like it was turned off.”
The people in the command room looked at each other with shock in their eyes.
Especially the engineers from Pan-Asian Airlines and East Asia Heavy Industries, they couldn’t believe it.
Turning off the black box before the flight was not difficult.
However, during the flight, turning off the black box through some kind of mysterious means, this was almost impossible.
Then again, they still hadn’t figured out what happened on the N-177 flight. This was an incredible thing in and of itself.
“The most confusing thing is not this… I cracked some of the unclaimed robot memory and found traces of man-made changes inside.”
The commander, with his arms crossed, frowned.
“Changes?”
“Yeah… but although the traces of the changes cannot be erased, I have not yet figured out where the specific changes are. The hackers who hacked into these memories carefully erased all the operation records. I even suspect… that these traces of intrusion are related to the hijacking case itself.”
The staff member pondered for a while and said, “Although there is no surveillance video, judging from the evidence at the scene, the robots were shot by the hijackers’ rifles. Logically speaking, there is no need for the hijackers to shoot these robots for no reason… Did someone exploit the loopholes in these robot systems to attack those hijackers?”
“Impossible.” The information technology expert said, “From the logic of AI, robots are forbidden to attack humans. If your hypothesis is true, the problem we face is probably more terrifying than the hijacking itself.”
To some extent, the large-scale application of robots had greatly filled the labor shortage caused by the aging population in East Asia. Although these robots lacked creativity, they were obedient, so they had unique advantages in the service industry and pure manual labor.
In the 22nd century, due to the high level of education in the Pan-Asian region, those low-end and manual-intensive jobs were often performed by robots.
The breakthrough of robotic technology had, to a certain extent, enhanced the Pan-Asian Cooperation and even the prosperity of various regions of the world.
However, the premise of all this was based on the safety of the robotic technology itself.
If the robots were no longer safe, they could face a heavy blow to the industrial chain, and they would also have a ticking time bomb on their hands. These robots were integrated into all corners of society; there was no possibility of dismantling all of them.
Pan-Asian Cooperation without robots would fall into the trap of labor shortage and rising production price index. Even with the economies of the Pan-Asian Cooperation, it would be difficult to maintain the current model of high welfare and high expenditure on public facilities.
Therefore, even knowing that this possibility existed, most people were not willing to make such an assumption at all.
Obviously aware of this, the commander coughed and forcibly ended the topic.
“That’s because someone hacked into the system of the robots and used those robots as meat shields to resist those hijackers… Anyway, compared to the hijacking incident, this is just a trivial matter. If the people from the Security Bureau are interested, let them investigate, that is their line of work. However, I still recommend putting this matter aside. This is a special situation. We shouldn’t prosecute any actions the passengers on the flight made.”
“Nevertheless, there are some things I can’t let go of.” Yang Wu frowned as he recalled the previous call. He continued after thinking for awhile, “I want to see that person.”
Commander: “Who?”
Yang Wu: “The person who took the flight back from the hijackers and got in touch with us in the cockpit. My intuition tells me that he should know something about this.”
A smile appeared on the commander’s face.
Intuition?
Do you really need your intuition for that?
Everyone knows that the N-177 flight rescue must have something to do with him.
First, the hijackers were killed, then the best course for slowing down using the slingshot effect was calculated fascinatingly. The set of expert-level operations overwhelmed everyone. Even now, the aerospace technology experts of the Pan-Asian First Fleet still couldn’t believe that this kind of complicated mathematical model could be calculated by the human brain.
If it weren’t for that person, they would have had to stand at the press conference and apologize to the world.
However, no matter how curious they were, the law was the law.
According to the law of the Pan-Asian Cooperation, the fleet had no law enforcement power. They couldn’t subpoena or investigate citizens of any member state without authorization.
“This matter should be left to the intelligence department. We should just investigate the evidence collected at the scene.”
Yang Wu still reluctantly said, “Can you tell me who he is? I want to contact him through private channels.”
Commander: “His identity information should be registered on the flight… But I don’t recommend you to do this. This involves citizen privacy. If this gets leaked, you will be in a tough spot.”
Yang Wu frowned as he hesitated.
He wanted to visit that person not entirely out of curiosity, but also for closure.
He didn’t know why he felt this way.
The live interview of the site was being shown on the holographic TV on the wall. Yang Wu’s eyes focused on the person in the holographic screen.
Yang Wu subconsciously took two steps toward the holographic screen.
For some reason, he felt that his face looked familiar.
Like he had seen it somewhere…
“—Hero, may I ask for your name?”
Facing the camera and recording pen, the person in the camera opened his mouth and hesitated for two seconds.
But soon, the hesitation and confusion completely disappeared from his eyes.
It was also at this moment that Yang Wu’s pupils shrank. He matched this face with his memory.
His memory from a long time ago.
Even before 2050…
When he was a child, the adults always talked about that person, and they used that man’s story to inspire himself.
The person in the camera slowly spoke.
“I am Lu Zhou.
“From a century ago…
“It seems that a lot of things have happened during the century when I was away…
“Sorry to keep you all waiting.
“I’m back.”
Inside a hospital dozens of kilometers away, a pair of chopsticks fell on the table.
A man with a resolute face stared at the news on the holographic screen with tears in his eyes.
An old man with wrinkles who sat next to him opened his mouth wide, his face covered with tears.
The corners of his mouth twitched. He muttered to himself, “I have to tell the President… No, what am I talking about, this is the 22nd century… The President has been gone for a long time.”
Wang Peng didn’t hear what Director Li was saying. He just muttered to himself, “He is not dead…”
The memories flashed in his mind, and he seemed to have returned to the Mars desert a century ago.
He almost gave up on survival until he desperately pulled out a wrist-mounted computer with a broken screen from under the yellow sand…
He considered ten thousand possibilities.
Not one of them considered that Lu Zhou was still alive.
He never thought they would meet again after a century…
Lagrange Point military base.
Brigadier Li Gaoliang, who was watching the news, pushed his chair away and stood up.
Lu Zhou!
It’s Lu Zhou!
Other people may not recognize him, but I know it’s him!
Dumbfounded, a group of soldiers nearby stared at him.
The adjutant gulped and asked, “Sir… What’s wrong?”
“Nothing! You won’t understand.” Li Gaoliang stared at the person on the screen. He clenched his fists and waved his hand excitedly. “Prepare the transport ship, I want to return to Earth!”
On Earth.
At the former site of the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study not far from the Jinling Aerospace Airport, a robot guide that was smiling and introducing visitors to the place where Academician Lu worked during his lifetime suddenly stopped.
The unsentimental mechanical pupils zoomed into the sky.
It’s him!
My master!
He’s back!
