Earth Era

Just as the Minister of Health said, Wang Hao received a new notice in just a few days. His office location has been changed from outer space to a comprehensive space base orbiting the new Saturn, and a team of more than a dozen pathologists, microbiologists, and experienced clinicians is directly under the leadership of Wang Hao. In addition, there is a coordinator stationed directly here who is responsible for solving Wang Hao's resource or personnel needs at any time.

The office and scientific research conditions here are undoubtedly much better than before. Except that movement is still slightly restricted and the workplace is still subject to extremely high security levels, life here is no different from the past.

With the addition of these people, Wang Hao's work progress immediately accelerated a lot. In just a dozen days, the analysis of the remains of all the crew members of the Nimbus spacecraft was completed. At this time, Wang Hao divided the team into two. One part was responsible for tracing the cause of the disease, and the other part tried to find a cure for the disease.

As things have developed now, Wang Hao's team is no longer a pure scientific research institution, but has become a coordination organization. The cause of a disease may be caused by many factors. In this case, it may be caused by a combination of various factors such as the space environment, the spacecraft environment, the behavior of the crew, the various substances they are exposed to at work, etc. Yes, if you want to figure out the truth of the matter, you need the cooperation of many departments. The same goes for finding treatments for the condition. It is not easy to cure a completely new disease. It also requires the cooperation of many scientists and departments.

As a result, the coordinator assigned here became the busiest person in the team. A large amount of demand is generated every day, which he distributes to different departments or research institutes to request assistance and monitor progress. A large amount of feedback information also comes to him every day, and is then distributed to different people in the team. , and finally all the information is summarized here by Wang Hao, who controls the overall progress.

After the team was formed, the first thing asked to assist was the numerous galactic checkpoints run by the military. From now on, any spacecraft returning from outside the galaxy and all crew members on it must first come to Wang Hao for inspection before being allowed to enter the Phoenix Galaxy. Perhaps because of the direct attention of the head of state, Wang Hao's request was not rejected in any way. The military chief readily agreed to this request.

Today is the day when the first spacecraft to return from outside the galaxy after the Nimbus spacecraft arrives. This spacecraft is also a heavy transport ship, but the difference is that its destination galaxy is much closer than the Nimbus spacecraft, only less than four light years away, so its overall voyage time is less than four years.

There are a total of twenty-three crew members in this spaceship. Now, they all stood in front of Wang Hao. There is only a special glass barrier between the two sides.

These crew members did not die or suffer from any obvious disease like the crew of the Nimbus spacecraft. From the appearance, they still remained healthy. But Wang Hao did not dare to take it lightly, because Wang Hao knew that the early manifestations of the disease he was investigating, named "atypical genetic mutation syndrome", were not obvious. If his speculation is true, the crew members in front of him may also have suffered from early stages of this disease.

Under the scrutiny of Wang Hao and several colleagues, the twenty-three crew members in front of them were a little uneasy. This is understandable. Wang Hao knows that if he was surrounded by several warships under inexplicable circumstances and asked not to leave the spacecraft, and then was escorted all the way here without any explanation or communication, he would be the same. It will be so.

Thinking of this, Wang Hao's tone softened: "Don't worry, the reason why I invited you here is that there are some things that require your cooperation. After the investigation is completed, I guarantee that you can go back safely."

A tall young man with extremely tough cheek lines took a step forward and said with some uneasiness: "Sir, I am the captain of the Feiyan spacecraft. I can guarantee that there will be nothing wrong with us during the material transfer mission. Where there are violations, uh, of course, we will definitely cooperate with your investigation, what do you want to know?"

Before this inspection began, Wang Hao's team had obtained the flight log of the Feiyan spacecraft and the work logs of each crew member in advance, and conducted a detailed analysis of them to confirm what the captain of the Feiyan spacecraft said. It's all true. But Wang Hao doesn't care about those things. What Wang Hao cares about is only the similarities between the environment of the Feiyan spacecraft and the Nimbus spacecraft.

"Who is your ship's doctor?"

A man who looked a bit uncommunicative stood up: "Sir, it's me."

"During the mission, did you record the physical health status of all crew members truthfully and in detail? This includes any physical discomfort in any part that any crew member raised with you."

The ship's doctor thought for a moment and said with some anxiety: "Sir, I can only guarantee that I have recorded all the cases where the crew formally asked me for help. I did not record the complaints in daily life or informal situations."

"Can you recall cases that you did not document?"

"I can recall some, but not completely."

"Very well, tell me what you can recall."

Although he didn't know what Wang Hao's purpose was, the ship's doctor still didn't dare to neglect, so he recalled it carefully: "Not long after setting off - sorry, I can't remember the specific time - David, the warehouse manager, once complained to me that his waist always felt sore..."

A fat man with blond hair and blue eyes immediately shouted: "It was just my waist that was twisted occasionally, and it is completely healed now."

Wang Hao smiled as softly as possible and said: "It doesn't matter, I'm just making a record. You continue."

The ship's doctor recounted all the cases he could recall, and one of Wang Hao's subordinates made corresponding records. After questioning the ship's doctor, Wang Hao ordered his men to individually inquire about the physical condition of each crew member.

After finishing all this, several hours have passed. But this inspection is not over, it has just begun. The feeling of the human body is the most inaccurate. No matter how detailed the record is, it can only be used as a reference. In the end, you still have to rely on the data obtained from the instrument inspection to speak for itself. So under Wang Hao's arrangement, every crew member underwent the most detailed examination, and the results were obtained five days later.

The test results made Wang Hao's heart a little heavy. Gene sequencing data shows that the crew members of the Feiyan spacecraft also have symptoms of genetic mutations that are almost the same as those of the Nimbus spacecraft. It's just that it seems to be in its early stages, and the area where the mutation occurred is small, so it hasn't shown obvious symptoms yet.

"Continue to observe." Wang Hao sighed and made a decision: "Assume for the time being that the source of the pathogenic radiation comes from outside the Phoenix Galaxy, and that the Phoenix Galaxy is safe. Now that they have returned to the safe zone, I want to know about them Will the course of the disease progress further? And, we can try to use them as living specimens to test various treatments."

Through inspections by experts from the engineering department and the mechanical department, Wang Hao has been able to determine that there is no possibility of some unknown radiation source inside the hull of either the Nimbus or Feiyan spacecraft. Moreover, the target galaxies of the two spacecraft are not the same - the target galaxy of the Nimbus spacecraft is dominated by a yellow dwarf star in its prime, while the target galaxy of the Feiyan spacecraft is an aging red giant star. That being the case, the only suspect source of radiation is space.

This is not good news. If there is suddenly this kind of pathogenic radiation in space that even multiple layers of armor cannot isolate, and the disease progresses very quickly without any effective means of treatment, then there is no reason why only the Nimbus and Feiyan spacecrafts will be affected. , the rest of the spacecraft can be safe and sound.

If this can be confirmed, I am afraid that the original plan to return to the solar system next year will have to be postponed. And if human civilization is unable to resolve these threats, then human civilization may be trapped in the Phoenix Galaxy for a long time.

"Two months later, the Blue Danube passenger spacecraft will return to the Phoenix Galaxy from Galaxy No. 15, carrying a total of 1,329 passengers. I hope they will return safely..."

After receiving the notice that they could not leave for the time being and could only stay here, the crew of the Feiyan spacecraft were a little uneasy, but with the comfort of the captain, people finally showed a cooperative attitude. However, the constant appearance of serious-looking doctors and researchers in the past few days, as well as the continuous examinations, and the various drugs that were continuously injected into the body, still made the crew's tension rise to the top.

Due to the confidentiality regulations, Wang Hao could not tell them what happened. Instead, he could only ask them to cooperate over and over again. He even had to contact the company to which they belonged, and their boss directly came to appease them and proposed that during the cooperation with the inspection, The allowance was ten times the usual amount, which temporarily suppressed the uneasy mood.

Time passed quietly in constant discussions and experiments. More than a month later, when the Blue Danube spacecraft was about to arrive, Wang Hao received two pieces of news.

The first news is bad news. The treatment plans formulated by many experts have all failed on these crew members, and their mutated genes have never been repaired.

The second news can be regarded as good news. The news is that while the mutations cannot be repaired, they are not continuing to develop. This means that even if it cannot be cured, this disease will not have any impact on the lives of the crew.