Copy Cache to the Sixth Node Sample

1

Hui Fa followed the two American men into a small dimly lit room at the far end of NASA’s Langley Research Center. There was only a single table with three chairs and a small notebook laptop in view. The two men turned and motioned to the chair in front of the computer as they took the other two seats for themselves. Hui sat hesitantly, this had at all been what she had expected when she accepted the invitation to work on America’s Mobility and Robotics team. Her nerves broke.

“If this is about that time I spliced into the ISS mainframe, I didn’t do anything I was just interested to see what the code was like, honest I left everything as it was I didn’t even download any data!”

The two men exchanged looks.

“Well,” The first man spoke, “What did you think?”

Hui was taken aback to say the least but as it became clear by their inquisitive looks that they were not, in fact, toying with her she spoke again.

“Well...it was clearly functional but…” She hesitated again, not sure what she was allowed to say.

“Go on.” said the other man.

“”But it was crude, like there were several lines of code, well more than several, that weren’t necessary they could’ve been replaced with a single more elegant solution, and their were a lot of contradictions, so they’re had to be even more code to nullify those lines, and I think there were some things that didn’t do anything? Like I could find a purpose I think they were left over from previous versions…” She stopped herself, surprised to see the two men smiling. “What? Did I say something wrong?”

“Not at all Miss Fa, do you know why you are here today?” The first man again, sitting back in his chair so the light could more easily illuminate his face.

“I...I was invited, to work with NASA on their Robotics team?” Hai asked, now more unsure than ever what she really was doing here.

“Yes and no” The first man again “But before we delve into specifics let us introduce ourselves, My name is James Mason and this is Kurt.”

The second man nodded, still with a flicker of a grin playing around his lips.

“You’ve been brought here to work on the robotics team yes but not our public one.”

Hui raised her eyebrows, what other team would there be? Wasn’t everything in America public?

“But before we get into that” James continued, “There are few things you need to know.”

As if on cue Kurt pulled several documents from inside his suit and laid them before Hui.

“These are some Non disclosure Agreements and Releases, before we proceed you must sign and date them and from that point on you may not repeat anything you here outside this room, Are we clear?”

The smiles were gone, both mens face’s were stern and looking Hui dead in the eyes. For the third and final time in her life, Hui hesitated, just what was she getting herself into? She looked down at the plastic table. On it the NASA logo was faded and scratched, this had been her dream for so long. To join the ranks of the greatest scientists mankind had ever known, to stand alongside the legacy that brought humans to the moon. She clenched her fists and closed her eyes, then looking up to the two stone faces before her whispered…

“Yes.”

As it turned out that would be the second most important “yes” she stated in her lifetime.

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2

After signing the myriad of forms and more than likely writing one or two incorrect dates, The second man, Kurt, leaned over and pressed the power button on the laptop. On it there were a number of already open documents and files all titled “Project Ricochet”. Before Hui had a chance to look more closely, James began speaking,

“On May 3rd, 2000 at approximately 11:57 PM a man by the name of Richard Godfreyes launched an unauthorized probe into high low solar orbit from a facility in the deserts of Columbia. Immediately after he sent this message to all major governments around the world. Again on cue, Kurt pressed the spacebar. A video player popped up and began to play.

The setting was of a windy desert plane, in center frame a thin middle aged man huddled in front of the camera. He spoke,

“The world is sick. I-i-it has become filled with ignorants w-w-who want to bring us back the dark ages.” He paused shuffling his feet. “A-a-and I don’t mean the governments with nukes and gas bombs, I mean the common people. The people who want us to teach t-t-the bible instead of physics or biology, the people who want to string their fellow man up under a tree. They’re fighting for superstition over science and they’re winning. So. I’ve devised a solution. You’re not going to like it a-a-and you’re going to think I’m crazy, that I’M the sick one. But I’m not. This is the only way. The rocket I’ve just launched, the one that I’m sure all you’re ballistic missile defense grids picked up has an 200 kilogram Tungsten sphere as its payload. As you’ve probably already seen this sphere is leaving Earth orbit at very high speed. But it’ll be back. In 22 years, 4 months, 16 days and” Here he paused to look down at his watch, “33 minutes from this moment. And when it does it will have a velocity of nearly 10% the speed of light, thanks to some orbital assists from the Sun and Mercury and it’ll land smack dab in the middle of Kursk, Russia. It may not kill all of you. But it will reset the world. So maybe we can do it right this time.” Richard suddenly drew very close to the camera. “So here is my ultimatum. If mankind cannot stop my probe by the time it returns then it doesn’t deserve to rule this planet.” He pulled away, looked down at his watch and said “22 years, 4 months, 16 days 32 minutes…” The feed cut abruptly and Hui was left staring wide eyed and frozen at a blank screen.

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Copy cache to the 6th node Y/N?