Chapter Fifteen: The Secret of the Northern River Star

It only stopped when the image of an orange giant star appeared.

"You've missed two space stations!"

"To be precise, two ships!"

"Ships?" Zhang Mingyang couldn't believe his ears.

"Come and see for yourself," Wang Bowen said, pointing to a location on the interstellar map. "They're right here!"

Looking at the spot Wang Bowen indicated, Zhang Mingyang exclaimed in disbelief, "11.4 light-years away? With current human technology, there's no way we could get that far!"

Wang Bowen smiled. "Twenty years ago, I thought the same. But after seeing it with my own eyes, I had to believe it was real."

Zhang Mingyang stared intently at the interstellar map, unable to fathom what kind of energy could send a ship so far, so swiftly.

Wait!

"Grandpa Wang, you said you saw that ship with your own eyes?"

Wang Bowen nodded. "Mingyang, what I'm about to tell you is a state secret of the highest order. You must never share it."

By now, curiosity had consumed Zhang Mingyang; the notion of secrecy was forgotten.

"Alright! I won't tell a soul."

Wang Bowen continued, "Twenty-one years ago, I was just transferred from the Astronomical Institute to the Space Agency and happened to join this project. I saw it launch with my own eyes."

"Incredible! To travel 11.4 light-years in twenty years? What kind of technology did it use?"

Wang Bowen switched off the interstellar map and started up another system. A square box appeared on the screen.

"Grandpa Wang, what is that?"

"Antimatter."

"Antimatter?" Zhang Mingyang thought he had misheard. Was a practical antimatter device truly possible? He had only ever written about such technology in academic papers, never imagining he’d see one for real.

"Who designed this device, Grandpa Wang?"

"Wang Huairen."

"Wang Huairen?" The name was unfamiliar. "Grandpa Wang, could you introduce me to him? I have some ideas that could take antimatter energy even further!"

Wang Bowen shook his head with a sigh. "You want to meet him, and so do I. In fact, everyone does. But no one knows where he is."

"No one? Has he disappeared?"

Wang Bowen motioned for Zhang Mingyang to sit. "Let me explain. Only two people in the world have ever designed antimatter propulsion systems: Wang Huairen, and an American named Child. Both were students at the Boles Institute of Technology under the energy master ‘Bongel-Stede.’ After graduation, one joined NASA, and the other came to our National Space Agency."

"From the start, both men displayed astonishing talent. Quantum technology and antimatter systems were developed and operational within three years. Almost simultaneously, they completed designs for the ‘Voyager’ and ‘Explorer’—antimatter-powered starships."

"Twenty years ago, both ships launched in secret, marking the first time humanity sent antimatter-driven ships into space."

"But just when we thought these two would shape humanity's future, they both vanished without a trace, along with most of their research."

Zhang Mingyang was utterly absorbed. If he hadn’t seen it for himself, he would have thought this was a science fiction tale.

"Grandpa Wang, did you ever try to find them?"

Wang Bowen replied with a bitter smile, "Of course we did. For twenty years, we’ve turned the world upside down looking, but to no avail."

Zhang Mingyang lowered his head, deep in thought. "How could such geniuses disappear so easily?"

"We wondered the same, but the reality is, they simply vanished."

Gazing at the interstellar map, Zhang Mingyang asked, "Grandpa Wang, how did those two ships end up here? And why are they still moving quickly?"

Wang Bowen pointed to an orange giant star. "Because of that."

Looking at the marked star, Zhang Mingyang exclaimed, "Pollux! In Gemini!"

"Mingyang, did you bring the photos from the envelope?"

"Yes, I'll get them."

Zhang Mingyang hurriedly opened his case and took out three photographs.

"Here, Grandpa Wang."

Wang Bowen picked out the overexposed one and asked, "Do you know what this is?"

Zhang Mingyang replied, "Didn’t you say it was an overexposed photo, Grandpa Wang?"

Wang Bowen smiled. "How could I give you an overexposed photo? It was too risky to say more over the network, so I couldn’t tell you the truth then."

"Mingyang, this photo was taken in 1992."

"1992? That long ago?" Zhang Mingyang had thought it was an old film photograph from the last century.

"Not only was it taken in 1992, it’s of a structure on that star."

"A structure on a star?" Zhang Mingyang broke into a cold sweat, already guessing the truth. "Grandpa Wang, is it an alien civilization?"

Wang Bowen shook his head. "We don’t know. The night your father had his accident, it was after intercepting a signal he sent out."

At the mention of this, Wang Bowen’s face filled with regret. "If I hadn’t told him to bring it over right away, maybe none of it would have happened."

The sheer volume of information tonight overwhelmed Zhang Mingyang; his mind reeled. Hearing the truth behind his father’s death left him stunned—he'd always believed his father's fatal accident was a work-related car crash. "Grandpa Wang, did you ever investigate?"

"We did, but found nothing. Your father was driving on a rural road—no surveillance cameras, no witnesses. The only clue was a heavy truck's skid mark at the scene. The driver was never found."

"And you just gave up?" Zhang Mingyang was agitated, his eyes red, fists clenched.

"Mingyang, calm down. You're not alone in your pain—this is a wound for our entire Space Agency. We will find the culprit and uncover the truth."

Wang Bowen comforted Zhang Mingyang, then quickly changed the subject. "Actually, our first contact with Pollux was in 1977. Our country's Beihai Observatory detected its signal for the first time. At the time, researchers thought it was just a regular electromagnetic pulse. But every year on June 8th, it sent another signal, each stronger than the last. By 1988, it was clear something extraordinary was happening."

"In May 1989, the Space Agency founded Institute 145 to investigate in secret. In July 1992, the Beihuan Mountain Telescope photographed it for the first time—the very photo you just saw."

"When the image first came back, we thought it was simply overexposed. But a second shot proved otherwise."