Yu Lian's heart skipped a beat. He wasn't at all surprised that something major had happened in the Tianshu system of New Shenzhou, but that it had happened already, at this point, was a bit unexpected.
Still, as a mature adult, he kept his poker face and asked calmly, "Encrypted communication? Have they notified Earth yet?"
"Of course. But Earth should get the news twelve hours after us," Rose said with a smile. "Those were Eisen's exact words."
"So, if this is such an important, urgent encrypted communication, why are we getting it twelve hours before Earth?"
Yu Lian gave Rose a meaningful look, but Rose replied with complete seriousness, "Perhaps because of signal interference? The Katai and Bakwi behind the Far Shore Defense Line have been unusually active lately, stirring up tensions along the border. Maybe there's gravitational interference from the Empire along the Shanhai Route, causing some signal delay."
That excuse probably wouldn't fool even the members of Congress, but it could at least count as a reason.
"So, what exactly happened?" Yu Lian asked, feigning nonchalance.
"A space leviathan emerged from Tianshu G, the gas giant that's the seventh planet in the Tianshu system. It's the largest leviathan on record, as far as we know." Rose looked incredulous. Clearly, this was beyond even his wildest imaginings.
"And then?" Yu Lian showed just the right amount of shock and concern. "What about the research team in the Tianshu system? And weren't the Ninth Fleet and the Defense Fleet supposed to be holding some kind of joint exercise?"
He was genuinely concerned, but only to a limited degree. If that leviathan had caused some catastrophic natural disaster, the news he'd received would surely have been more than this.
But the same question remained... How had that thing woken up?