Chapter 157: Latitude

Having the longitude but not the latitude is very troublesome, for the longitude that Li Wen reported was 15.1748657, and this longitude runs through the entirety of Europa and all through Africa.

So, searching by longitude could traverse from Northern Europe through Southern Europe, and then cut through North Africa, Central Africa, and South Africa.

Sun Ping was the picture of dejection as he whispered bitterly, "Why didn't I specify Africa first instead of reporting the coordinates directly?"

If he had mentioned Africa directly, the search area would have significantly narrowed. However, reporting only the longitude far from being helpful to the recipient, actually led to confusion.

For this longitude crosses the Alps.

According to previous intelligence, the Ark of the Covenant was hidden within the Alps.

That meant, after receiving the longitude, Poseidon might redirect the focus, which had already moved to Africa, back to Europa, something Sun Ping absolutely could not accept.

Sun Ping was swamped in self-blame, a heavy weight of regret, looking as if he had aged a decade in a few brief moments.

Gao Yuan was stunned; he didn't quite understand what was going on, but he could tell that something was terribly wrong, and the Serpent People had ruined everyone's efforts.

Several people grasped the critical point of the issue.

A general stood up, clenching his teeth he exclaimed loudly, "I propose we continue to activate satellites! Dammit, even if it means losing satellites! We must report the latitude even if it means losing our pants!"

Li Wen hesitated, but not for long, and promptly stood up.

Consumed with self-reproach, Sun Ping turned and said in a heavy voice, "I'm sorry, I've made a grave mistake."

Li Wen, with a serious face, said, "If there is a mistake, you must own it, but this time you can't really be blamed. We underestimated the schemes of the Serpent People, it's okay! We still have six satellites; let's activate the remaining satellites! Even if they are all discovered, we must report the latitude!"

The staff member spoke with extreme caution, "Report to the commander, there is one satellite left functional, the others would need to change orbits to be activated, and changing the satellite's orbit might result in detection and destruction by the Aliens."

Li Wen, usually calm and composed, was now truly frantic.

"Then activate one for now, Sun Ping! First say it's in Africa, then report the coordinates!"

Li Wen was not only frantic but also resolute. To obtain the medical pod, to cling to the last thread of hope, he had to be ruthless.

But just then, Xinghe suddenly said, "I've figured out your method of communication. There's no need to activate any more satellites. It's no use. As soon as you activate a satellite, it will be destroyed by the Serpent People, I am certain of it. Now, I want to know how it is that these satellites weren't destroyed by the Serpent People immediately?"

Li Wen exhaled and said, "Camouflage, they are disguised as space debris."

Xinghe continued, "Why the authorization process? I've observed that it takes at least ten seconds."

Li Wen waved his hand, signaling others to answer, and Sun Ping, in a low voice, said, "Our satellites are mainly used for top-secret communications, military and espionage use. To prevent ground terminals from falling into enemy hands, users must input a unique password to obtain communication privileges."

Xinghe still didn't understand and said, "But why set it up this way? The Serpent People aren't going to steal your ground terminals and eavesdrop; they just need to destroy them."

Li Wen sighed and whispered, "These measures are not meant to guard against Aliens but to protect against Earthlings, people from other countries."

Xinghe frowned as Li Wen continued with a look of helplessness, "In your world, there are no more nations, but here, the conflicts between nations are the main issue. In fact, before the arrival of the Serpent People, humanity had no hope of achieving true cooperation, even now, how many can truly work together sincerely..."

Sun Ping inhaled deeply; when Xinghe said it was no longer possible to use quantum communication satellites, he visibly aged a lot in a moment.

Finally, someone couldn't help but sigh, and then, the entire command center fell into an atmosphere of depression and helplessness.

Sun Ping slumped into his chair, head bowed, staring blankly at the seat before him for a long time, before suddenly rising again.

"There's a way! There's still a way!"

Everyone turned to look at Sun Ping, his face alight with excitement as he said, "Besides quantum satellites, we have another method of long-distance communication, long wave! Ultra-long waves for submarine contact, very low-frequency radio!"

A navy-uniformed general also stood up, urgently saying, "But do you have a long-wave radio station? Do your people have a long-wave radio station?"

Submarines, submerged underwater, cannot use the typical short-wave radio to communicate with the outside world, as short waves decay very rapidly in water. For long-range submersible vessels to receive instructions, they must either surface or extend an antenna to the water's surface for radio communication.

So how do submarines submerged deep underwater receive orders? For example, nuclear submarines tasked with a nuclear counterstrike, which cannot surface or extend an antenna for safety reasons, must rely on ultra-long or extremely low-frequency waves to communicate.

However, as the wavelength of extremely low-frequency waves is greater than 100,000 meters, the relative amount of information transmitted in a unit of time is minuscule, meaning that the communication speed is extremely slow.

How slow is the signal transmission with extremely low frequency waves? Sending a single letter takes two minutes, sending "ok" takes four minutes, and sending a slightly more complex command with more words can take dozens of minutes.

So, aside from submarines, no other military branch would adopt Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) radio communication.

But the issue of long transmission time with small information quantity is easily solved, that is, send codes when communicating with submarines, pre-agreed phrases or numbers that represent certain meanings, so submarines understand immediately upon reception.

Furthermore, the transmission range and underwater depth of ELF signals are determined by the power of the transmitting station, so the stations communicating with submarines must be very large, extremely large.

The receiving stations are not that big, but who would have this kind of ELF radio station that is only used on submarines?

"Poseidon has an ELF radio station!"

Sun Ping's statement was emphatic, and he said with excitement and satisfaction, "Because we've discussed this issue, he's always been worried about what to do if communication is cut off. When we were discussing, I mentioned offhand that we could use an ELF radio station. ELF can ensure global communication, unlike shortwave which can't guarantee contact without a relay. I didn't take it seriously at the time, but Poseidon did, and he even devised a set of ELF communication codes with me. I... I really didn't expect that we might actually need to use it."

Li Wen frowned and asked, "When was this?"

"When Poseidon and his crew were still in the country."

"Years have passed, are you sure they have an ELF radio station?"

Sun Ping was very serious and confident, "Please believe me, just as I believe in Poseidon. Since he said he would use the ELF radio station as the last means of communication, then he will definitely have an ELF radio station! It's just that, for sure, we can only communicate one-way."

An ELF radio station requires very high transmission power, so the receiver equipment does not make great demands, but transmitting signals would require specially constructing a communication station.

Li Wen thought for a moment and then looked towards the naval general, who, without much hesitation, said, "We will provide an ELF radio transmission station!"

Li Wen took a deep breath and said, "Good, that's settled then!"

A process that has not been very smooth, but the outcome still retains some hope.

Just then, Xinghe spoke up again, "I need to find the medical pod myself, and I need to bring a communicator, also known as 'Revelation'."

Li Wen hesitated. He looked at Xinghe and said, "Is that necessary?"

Xinghe replied, "Very necessary. Without integrating the medical pod with the communicator, it all becomes meaningless."

Li Wen thought for a bit and said, "We need to discuss this issue. I hope you can wait."

Xinghe nodded and said, "Are you sure your spies can find the medical pod? And after finding it, can they bring it here?"

Who would dare give a firm answer to this question? Because no one can guarantee the completion of this mission, naturally, no definite answer could be given.

Li Wen shook his head and said, "I can't guarantee it, but we will do our best."

Xinghe was silent, looking over at Gao Yuan.

Gao Yuan didn't know why Xinghe was looking at him, but he could see that Xinghe was starting to hesitate, or rather, to worry.

After a long contemplation, Xinghe spoke softly, "You need the medical pod. With it, no matter how the Serpent People might upgrade their virus in the future, the medical pod will be able to create a vaccine in the shortest time possible. All you would have to do is replicate the vaccine."

Given such a function of the medical pod, how important would you say that is?

Xinghe continued, "The communicator, it doesn't play a major role now. You can't use the communicator to contact our planet, the power isn't sufficient, and now the communicator only serves to find the medical pod."

"It can also monitor the Serpent People's ships," a general said in a low voice.

Xinghe nodded and agreed, "Yes, that's correct. But the Serpent People's ships are in the sky, what can you do with that information once you know the location?"

Indeed, what use is knowing the location?

Li Wen nodded and then said to Xinghe with a grave tone, "We will obtain the medical pod, that's my promise to you!"

"So, relying solely on the Uranus and Pluto plans, is that somewhat insufficient?"

A general's remark resonated with many, with nods all around. Even Gao Yuan felt that entrusting humanity's future to spies was not about reliability but rather it was indeed insufficient.

Even Sun Ping said solemnly, "The Sanitation Worker Organization has an army in Africa, and they have been prepared since a long time ago. I have no doubt that they now possess a very formidable military force."

Li Wen decided, and he addressed Xinghe, "We need to hold a meeting to discuss. Please give me some time. After we have formulated a detailed plan, I will inform you."