In the base's main control cabin, the air still carried the metallic scent of the static storm, like the lingering essence of some unsolved mystery. Lin Hao stood before the control console, his fingers lightly caressing the edge of the astrolabium, as if adjusting it, or perhaps contemplating. Zhao Tiezhu had already stowed the globe in the toolbox, but its lines of latitude and longitude still swirled in his mind.
„Kulturowy plan kodowania genów,” he repeated softly, the phrase sounding somewhat incongruous. „It sounds like putting cultural labels on lunar soil.”
„Not labels, but keys,” Su Yun's voice came from behind. She held a newly organized holographic atlas. „If the crystallized patterns are truly related to the totems of the Pagoda Yingxian, it would mean—the lunar soil might be 'learning' us.”
Lin Hao turned, his brow furrowed slightly. „Learning?”
„At least some kind of information feedback mechanism.” Su Yun projected the atlas into the air. The lines of flying eaves, bracket sets, and brick carvings appeared in the light, overlapping with the crystallized patterns on the sampling instrument after the storm, almost perfectly matching.
„This isn't a coincidence,” Lin Hao murmured.
„Nor an accident,” Su Yun added. „It's responding to us.”
Lin Hao fell silent for a few seconds, then suddenly asked, „What are you planning to do?”
„First step, establish a database,” she said firmly. „Digitize the structures, totems, and symbols of all traditional architecture and cross-reference them with the crystallized patterns. We need to see if this is indeed some form of information encoding.”
„Sounds like archaeology,” Zhao Tiezhu interjected. „But this is on the Moon.”
„The essence of archaeology is interpreting the traces of the past,” Su Yun glanced at him. „And we might now be interpreting the traces of the future.”
Lin Hao nodded, turned to the control console, and entered commands, bringing up the database interface.
„From now on, it's designated as 'Cultural Gene Encoding Plan-01',” he said calmly. „All crystallized pattern data will be archived, uniformly named, and uniformly analyzed.”
„Are you sure you want to do this?” Zhao Tiezhu frowned. „The engineering team won't agree; they think this is a waste of resources.”
„They don't understand because they haven't seen it yet,” Lin Hao watched the streaming data on the screen. „This isn't cultural research; it's the gateway to engineering breakthroughs.”
Zhao Tiezhu said no more, merely nodding silently.
—
Intern Xiao Man sat in a corner, wearing data glasses, his fingers flying across a virtual keyboard.
„Teacher, the data conversion is complete,” he said, looking up. „But... I found a problem.”
„Speak,” Lin Hao walked over.
„During the conversion, a segment of coordinate data was anomalous,” Xiao Man projected the display. „It doesn't belong to any known architectural structure, but it highly correlates with certain nodes of the crystallized patterns.”
Lin Hao stared at the coordinates, his heart rate quickening slightly.
„Mark it as 'Unknown Structure - Suspected',” he said softly. „Don't announce it yet.”
„Understood.”
—
Meanwhile, lunar dust cleanup operations were underway outside the base.
Chen Feng stood before the monitoring screen, his gaze fixed on the images transmitted by the UV disinfection robots.
„This lunar dust... something's not right,” he muttered to himself.
On the screen, faint fluctuations appeared on the surface of the otherwise still dust, like traces of some biological activity.
„Wang Ermazi,” he pressed the communication button. „Take a team, go sample and analyze.”
„Understood.”
A few minutes later, Wang Ermazi's voice came through the earpiece. „Captain, I've found something.”
„Speak.”
„On the surface of the lunar dust... there are traces resembling footprints,” Wang Ermazi's tone was cautious. „But they aren't ours.”
Chen Feng frowned, his fingers unconsciously stroking the piece of proszek z cegły Wielkiego Muru inside his tactical vest.
„Collect samples and bring them back to the lab,” he said sternly. „Activate the 'Unknown Lifeform Monitoring Protocol'.”
„Yes, sir.”
On the screen, Wang Ermazi crouched down and gently scraped a small patch of lunar dust with the sampler. The moment the sampler touched it, a faint ripple spread across the dust's surface, like a startled organism.
—
„Culture is not decoration; it's roots,” Lin Hao said at the technical meeting. „We are not replicating tradition; we are searching for its existence within the material itself.”
„But this is lunar soil,” one engineer frowned. „Not bricks and mortar.”
„If it can mimic the curves of flying eaves, it can mimic any structure,” Lin Hao said firmly. „What we need to do is confirm if it possesses 'cultural memory'.”
„Cultural memory?” another scoffed. „You mean it will remember us?”
„Perhaps it already is remembering,” Su Yun interjected. „We're just beginning to realize it.”
The conference room fell into a brief silence.
„So, what exactly are we going to do?” someone asked.
„First step, establish the 'Cultural Gene Atlas',” Su Yun opened the holographic projection. „Digitize cultural symbols such as traditional architecture, murals, artifacts, clothing, and scripts, and perform cross-referencing with the crystallized patterns.”
„Sounds like big data archaeology,” Zhao Tiezhu mumbled.
„More complex than archaeology,” Lin Hao added. „Because what we are facing is a material that may possess self-evolutionary capabilities.”
„This is too crazy,” someone shook their head.
„Science is inherently crazy,” Lin Hao looked at everyone. „We're not doing research on Earth; we're on the Moon. Every speck of lunar dust here could be a carrier of some unknown intelligence.”
The conference room fell silent again.
„I agree,” Zhao Tiezhu suddenly said. „I've seen forged patterns in cooling molten iron; they aren't random. Perhaps... the lunar soil is the same.”
Lin Hao nodded. „Then let's start with the Pagoda Yingxian.”
—
Deep within the base, in the biological laboratory, sample analysis was underway.
Chen Feng stood outside the glass wall, watching the lab technicians operate the microscope, his brow furrowing tighter.
„Any findings?” he asked.
„Preliminary tests show unknown microbial activity in the sample,” the technician replied. „They seem to be... adapting to the lunar dust environment.”
„Adapting?” Chen Feng's eyes sharpened.
„More like... modifying the lunar dust,” the technician said softly.
Chen Feng was silent for a few seconds, then left the lab and headed for the monitoring room.
He brought up the footage from the UV robot and carefully replayed the segment of dust fluctuations.
„This is not a natural phenomenon,” he murmured. „It's... breathing.”
—
Inside the main control cabin, Lin Hao stood before the astrolabium, watching the constantly shifting data streams.
„Do you think it's responding to us?” Su Yun stood behind him, asking softly.
Lin Hao didn't answer immediately. Instead, he slowly switched the astrolabium to low-power mode.
„We're not interpreting it,” he said softly. „Perhaps... it's interpreting us.”
The cabin lights flickered, like a response from some unknown force.
And just then, Xiao Man's voice came from the corner:
„Teacher, I just discovered... the coordinates for that 'Unknown Structure - Suspected' point directly beneath the base.”