Guanghan Palace

Everything was moving in a positive direction.

Soon, the transport craft completed its acceleration phase and shut down its engines. It would then drift toward the Moon on inertia, reverse its engines to decelerate once it reached the designated distance, and dock with the Queqiao Transfer Station in lunar orbit.

Yue Yuan would change vehicles there once again.

Yes, it was that much of a hassle. With humanity's current technological level, transport craft could land directly on the Moon, but these things used nuclear fission. The radiation risk was too great, so they were basically only used in space.

The Shenzhou Spaceplane, Tiangong Space Station, Queqiao Transfer Station, Yutu Return Vehicle, and Guanghan Palace Moon Base—through these creations that technology had turned from myth into reality, Yue Yuan arrived on the lunar surface.

Guanghan Palace was not a palace, but the name of a base made up of clusters of multi-story buildings situated on the Moon's surface. Its full name was Guanghan Palace Base, though people generally preferred to call it Guanghan Palace.

Perhaps it was because of the beautiful visions people held for the Moon.

After going through a full set of security procedures, sterilization, and disinfection, Yue Yuan and his group of four boarded a moon buggy and headed straight for their target.

The moon buggy was electric, equipped with solar charging panels as well as a wired charging port. It was bigger than an ordinary sedan, and carrying four people did not feel cramped at all.

Due to the frequent traffic, a smooth road had formed between the landing field and Guanghan Palace. Before long, the moon buggy passed a fork in the road. Artemis Base lay to the right, while the buggy turned left here.

Though the bases had been built at different locations, they shared the same landing field.

Before long, the Guanghan Palace complex entered Yue Yuan's view.

The entire Guanghan Palace sat within a massive lunar crater. From afar, rings of solar panels could be seen arranged around the outskirts, while interconnected arc-shaped buildings stood in the center. Dome-shaped radar arrays were scattered unevenly through the spaces between the buildings and solar panels.

Yue Yuan's moon buggy entered the base through a U-shaped opening in the solar panels. He did not get out outside the buildings; instead, the buggy drove directly into the protruding building at the front.

This was the moon buggy garage.

Yue Yuan saw that once the moon buggy entered, the outer hatch behind it automatically closed. Then, amid a series of voice announcements, an airlock door slowly shut.

Yue Yuan was familiar with this process. Next, the garage would be pressurized to equalize the air pressure. Once that was done, he could open the door and get out, and the airlock leading to the base's main building would also open.

If they were driving the moon buggy out, the process would be reversed.

It was like a taikonaut's spacewalk in the last century, except the spacesuit had been replaced by a moon buggy.

It happened to be quitting time. After winding through the base for a while, Yue Yuan and his group finally found Doctor Yi, whom they had arranged to meet in advance.

Doctor Yi's full name was Yi Kai. He held doctorates in biological genetics and Cellular Dynamics, was an academician at the Biological Gene Research Institute, president of the Cell Biology Society, and currently headed the lunar base's Gene Recombination Research Group.

When Yue Yuan found him, he had just come out of the laboratory.

"Doctor Yi, we finally found you." Seeing the doctor, whose hair was already half gray, Yue Yuan smiled and stepped forward.

"You are... Young Master Yue—"

A look of confusion first appeared on Doctor Yi Kai's face, but his eyes soon widened in surprise and realization.

Seeing that Yi Kai was about to call out his identity, Yue Yuan quickly pressed a finger to his lips, cutting him off. "Doctor Yi, may we speak somewhere private?"

"Of course." Yi Kai adjusted his glasses, nodded, and gestured for him to proceed. Clearly, he had already received notice from higher up and knew the general situation.

He probably had not expected Yue Yuan to come in person.

Sure enough, as soon as the two entered the meeting room, Yi Kai said with a genial smile, "I never expected Major General Yue to come personally. I am truly honored. To be honest, I had planned to set off for Callisto tomorrow."

What did he mean, honored? Yue Yuan rolled his eyes and looked at the doctor, who was nearly seventy yet still remarkably robust. "Please, stop with the flattery. I've heard you aren't usually like this."

"Hahaha!" Yi Kai laughed heartily, pulled over a chair, and slowly lowered himself into it. Then he raised his brows at the standing Yue Yuan and continued, "That depends on who I'm dealing with. At such a young age, Major General Yue has made Callisto Base flourish so impressively. He is among the outstanding figures of this new era and deserves a few flattering words from this old man."

Uh... When had "I" turned into "this old man"?

Yue Yuan had heard that this old man was from the last century and had gone into hibernation twice for unknown reasons. That was rather thought-provoking, since the use of hibernation was subject to strict review procedures; not just anyone could go into hibernation.

What was more impressive was that after waking from hibernation, he had still relied on his exceptional abilities to firmly remain at the forefront of science. He had truly received reinforcements from the future.

None of this information was on his résumé, but Yue Yuan estimated that Yi Kai was supposedly part of the Zero Zero Generation. After all, hibernation technology had only begun to approach maturity in the latter half of the last century.

By law, time spent in hibernation did not count toward one's age.

"Doctor, you're a straightforward man, but there are some things I should make clear in advance. Do you know that once you leave for Callisto, there's no telling when you'll return to Earth?" Yue Yuan reminded him.

He knew that people from the last century had a deep attachment to their homeland. They were the sort who wanted their ashes returned to Earth even after death. So he gave him a reminder. Once he left, he might truly spend the rest of his life there.

But after saying that, Yue Yuan felt something was strange. He had clearly come to bring Yi Kai to Callisto, so why had it turned into discouraging him? Besides, he himself was also from the last century.

"Damn, uh..." Yi Kai habitually blurted out a catchphrase from his era, showing none of the self-awareness of a seventy-year-old man. But he immediately caught himself. "Well, wherever the country needs me, that's where I'll go. Besides, being able to go to Callisto, the foremost frontier of cosmic exploration, is truly more than I could ask for."

"Then that couldn't be better. But first, I hope you'll take a good look at these. If there are no issues, I'll have Pi Te bring over the official documents for you to sign later." Yue Yuan pulled out an internal-use phone from behind his back, tapped its lit screen a few times, and handed it to Yi Kai.

A Non-Disclosure Agreement. Hearing Yue Yuan's words, Yi Kai already had a general idea of what was on the phone. After all, he had signed plenty of these.

Different projects had different confidentiality levels. He knew that much. Yet when he casually looked over the contents, his expression turned grave.

After a long while, Yi Kai, his beard trembling as he carefully finished reading, looked up at Yue Yuan. He found that the latter had somehow moved to the meeting room window and was looking at something outside.

"Does it have to be this exaggerated?" Yi Kai muttered.

He had not expected the project he was joining to be at Top Secret Level, and one specifically emphasized at that. In other words, the confidentiality period was not twenty years, but for life.

Yue Yuan had sharp hearing and caught it. Turning around, he smiled. "It's not exaggerated. Standard procedure."

"The project..."

"You won't be told the project details until we reach Callisto. So, are you still going?"

"Yes. Absolutely. Uh, I mean, I definitely am!"

"Pack your things. We depart at seven thirty tonight."

Seeing Yi Kai be so direct and resolute, Yue Yuan did not waste any more words and set the itinerary immediately.

If he had not seen in the files that Yi Kai was rather old, he would not have come down personally. The appointment had already been issued, after all. He could simply wait for the man at Callisto.

But this project was somewhat special. It truly concerned Yue Yuan himself, and he had to take part in it. That was why Yue Yuan felt it was better to first meet the project's main person in charge.

After all, although he did not mind providing his serum for research, he would feel much more at ease giving it to someone he understood better.

This simple meeting left Yue Yuan with a rather good impression of the future project leader. Despite his age, Yi Kai was a man of genuine temperament.

Having received notice earlier, Yi Kai quickly wrapped up his final affairs and cleanly followed Yue Yuan onto the journey to Callisto.