The aurora flickered sharply.
Crash.
The sound of ss breaking ripped through the silent night and An Zhe turned back to look at theboratory. Polly also stared at the window over there. "Rum?"
Fog was attached to the window ss, making what happened inside a blur. Only the shadow of a man could be seen.
"Sir!" Rum''s voice was rarely so excited. He mmed open the door with one hand, the shutters making a banging sound as they opened. His voice was clear but had a tremor. "The screen, the screen…"
Polly nced inside the room. The big screen was still showing the messy patterns like before.
Yet Rum said, "Just now—"
An Zhe coughed a few times and said, "I''m fine."
After confirming he was still awake, Polly strode into theboratory. An Zhe quietly swallowed blood and followed. His body was in a strange state, weakened to the extreme and painful to the extreme, yet it was because it reached this limit that it seemed empty.
In theboratory, Rum had dropped a ss bottle filled with antibiotic granules. The shards of ss were scattered everywhere on the ground but no one had the mind to clean it up.
Polly came to the big screen where the lines still waved like a clump of wriggling worms. "What''s wrong?"
Rum''s lips twitched as he said, "It clearly… it was clear just now."
An Zhe couldn''t describe Polly''s expression at this moment. It was like too many intense emotions were mixed together, turning it nk. Polly''s hand trembled slightly as he ced his right hand on the instrument''s joystick. "Are you sure?"
Rum''s eyes seemed hesitant or he might be trying to remember. Polly stared at him and three seconds passed before he answered, "I''m sure."
Polly Joan watched the screen and An Zhe stood behind him. At the height of human science and technology, this experimental institution had been used to study the artificial maic poles. Many equipment might''ve been lost due to years of disrepair but it was still a qualified and functioning physicsboratory. In this breathless silence, he saw Polly using the joystick to pull the wave line back.
Polly asked, "At what time?"
"Just now."
He was silent for a moment as he weighed his words. "It just blinked."
Polly took a deep breath and turned the instrument''s recorded time back three minutes ago. Then he yed it frame by frame on the small screen.
The beating and wriggling ck lines varied in depth. Some formed curves and some were scattered ck dots like stars. They were tangled together like this, like fat. Every frame changed their shape but this change was irregr. After spending nearly half a month in theboratory, An Zhe had long known that what the Simpson Cage captured was the frequency of basic particles interaction. Polly always described it as ''frequency.''
However, theplexity and chaos of this frequency were beyond the scope of humanity''s existing science. Polly strove to find a way to receive and process them to make them clearer, just like a person heard a song and tried to write a score or when they constantly adjusted the frequency of the radio to receive a clear signal. It was just that this work had no progress for ages. Polly once said that facing the chaotic lines, he was like a mortal who wanted to hear the will of God, like an ant trying to interpret humannguage.
An Zhe watched the still-moving big screen and sometimes turned his worried eyes to Polly. He found that Rum was the same. In this protracted experiment, there had been too many failures. If Rum''s ''clear'' moment couldn''t be reproduced then An Zhe would rather that Polly had never received the news.
One frame passed after another. The mes in the firece burned and from time to time, the firewood emitted a crackling sound that was especially thrilling in the silentboratory.
A ghostly image jumped off the screen like a ghost.
An Zhe couldn''t resist holding his breath.
On the grey-ck background, all the lines suddenly disappeared and this was followed by countless dense, white dots, translucent, faint white dots hidden in the background. Humannguage couldn''t be used to describe what type of shape they had and there seemed to be no regrity. They gathered in some ces and spread out in some ces. There were no white spots scattered in the centre of the figure but circled it like a crater. The grey and ck irregr circle looked like an ominous and sinister eye. It was like—it was like humans in the age of civilization had taken a photo of an immensely magnificent neb and then turned it into lifeless ck and white.
"Yes, it is this one," Rum stated. "Is the machine broken?"
"No…" Polly slowly shook his head. Perhaps his mood was too excessively tight but his pupils were slightly dted. "This is the unprocessed original picture. The previous lines were removed from the original picture."
An Zhe slowly thought about the meaning of this sentence while Rum tried to give Polly a preventative shot. He thought for a moment before repeating, "That… or the machine is broken."
"No." Polly shook his head and marked a dazzling red star at the time node where this image frame had appeared. He spoke much faster than usual and it was difficult for him to hide his excitement. "If the particle frequency changes suddenly, the analyzer can''t get a result in a short time. It will show the original picture for a short time, proving we are right. Call Tang Lan over here."''
Some timeter, Tang Lan pushed open theboratory door, he was a dull ck-blue colour. He was obviously a bit weak. "Sir, is there something you needed from me?"
Polly asked, "Were you asleep? I''m sorry to wake you up."
Tang Lan shook his head. "I woke up when Rum called."
"You didn''t sleep well?"
"I just wanted toe to you." Tang Lan stated. "The fluctuation suddenly amplified and for a second, I felt a very sharp noise. Then I woke up.''
"How about now?"
"It''s okay now."
Polly didn''t speak for a long time until Tang Lan questioned, "Sir, what''s the matter?"
"Our approach is correct. Once the fluctuation was amplified, it showed this anomaly in real time. This type of wave can be captured by the Simpson Cage in a method simr to the maic field." Polly looked solemn.
Tang Lan raised an eyebrow. "Isn''t this good news?"
"No, I''m thinking of a question."
No one spoke in theboratory and only Polly''s voice was heard. His gaze moved away from the small screen with the frame capture and shifted to the big screen filled withplex lines. "We want to capture the frequency of the fluctuation and analyze the cause of the distortion. However, what if it is currently showing the artificial maic field of Earth struggling with the unknown fluctuation from the universe?"
"I see what you mean." Tang Lan looked up. "The maic field can resist the fluctuation but the Simpson Cage receives both of them at the same time. It is a mutual disturbance."
"Yes. I''ve been thinking. If the maic field canpletely resist the fluctuation, why is there still gic infection on Earth? It makes sense if the two of them are deadlocked. The fluctuation has always affected the but the maic field is also resisting, so that material hasn''t beenpletely distorted. The frequencies of the two are tangled together."
"In that case…" Tang Lan frowned. "Sir, if you want to use the Simpson Cage to analyze the fluctuation then you have to either wait for the fluctuation to ovee the maic field or for the artificial maic field to no longer work."
"That''s right," Polly spoke slowly.
"However, once the fluctuation prevails, material will be distorted and the Simpson Cage will be affected.
"No, there''s a way."
Everyone looked at Polly and no one spoke. In the silentboratory, they only listened as Polly continued, "The Hignd Research Institute has its own movable independent maic pole that can generate a small maic field with a limited range. This is the research result of the past. It was how we can survive when the artificial maic poles failed a month ago."
"If the artificial maic field that envelopes the disappears… we can adjust the position of the independent maic poles so that it protects the core equipment of the Simpson Cage while at the same time, exposes the receiving area to the greatest extent." Polly''s grey-blue eyes were narrowed slightly as he gazed down at the burning sea of fire.
"Then we can parse the pure frequency of the fluctuations."
"Yes, that''s right…" Polly took a deep breath and the fire of hope that filled his eyes went out. "But—"
His words came to an abrupt end before they finished. The room suddenly became silent and no one spoke. Finally, Tang Lan said, "The fluctuation can only be seen… if the artificial maic field fails?"
He looked out at the night sky, his voice rough.
Polly sat down slowly in front of theputer, facing themunication channel of the base and he was slow to act. He murmured, "It is only in the face of death that you can see the truth."
Standing in the corner, An Zhe quietly watched as it all happened.
Polly''s spection was well founded. If there was only that strange fluctuation left in the world then the instrument might show its full picture.
In fact, this was possible. Polly was now facing themunication channel and he must be considering his wording. As long as either one of the Northern Base or Underground City Base promised to close the artificial maic pole, the truth would be revealed. But then what? What would happen to the two bases after losing the maic field? The disaster a month ago directly reduced the surviving poption of the Northern Base to 8,000.
An Zhe couldn''t imagine what type of struggle Polly was facing now. The benevolent scientist had left the base because he couldn''t stand to see a few people sacrificed for the majority. However, the world seemed to be like this. It killed the living, killed the benevolent and made the truth seekers feel despair.
Facing the screen, Polly slowly closed his eyes.
Then Tang Lan interjected. "I''ll do it."