Chapter 5: Mending the Cracks

  Location: Science Castle, Public Cafeteria and Energy Management Substation

  Time: Two days after the data breach incident

  Science Castle's operation was like a precision machine with excessive lubrication—beneath the surface smoothness lay a suffocating compression between metal components. This compression created fissures in life's most minute details. According to the Civil Cybernetic Act, existing civilian cybernetics must still maintain the same dietary requirements as bodies from the old era, along with corresponding digestive and conversion functions. This meant that even in this generation, the Chinese proverb "food is the paramount necessity of the people" remained relevant. Thus the public cafeteria often became a concentrated display window for these fissures.

  Thunderhawk was dispatched to handle a series of disputes. The first conflict stemmed from a brief malfunction in the hot water rationing system. An elderly female biologist and a young programmer nearly came to blows at the water dispenser over the remaining hot water.

  "My medication must be taken with hot water! This is a medical need!" the old woman's voice was shrill.

  "My concentrated caffeine tablets need hot water too! Without it I can't stay alert to complete my simulations!" The young man wouldn't budge an inch, his eye sockets deeply sunken.

  Thunderhawk's intervention was direct and effective. He didn't favor either side, but quickly checked the water dispenser's logs and found it was a simple filter cartridge blockage alert that the system had ignored. He used his basic maintenance access (attached to his security identity) to reset the alert and temporarily requisitioned a barrel of backup hot water from an adjacent functional area. "Problem will be solved in ten minutes. Now, distribute by need, maintain order." His calm voice and swift action dissolved the conflict invisibly. But he noticed in the logs that the frequency of such "minor malfunctions" had increased recently, as if the system was becoming fragile under some kind of pressure.

  Before he could catch his breath, a second conflict erupted in the meal pick-up area. This time it was between two scientists' children—a boy about ten years old wearing thick glasses, and a fashionably dressed girl. The boy accidentally splattered some sticky nutrition paste on the girl's limited edition (so-called limited within Science Castle) smart jacket.

  "Are you blind? This is what my dad exchanged project points for!" The girl's face turned red with anger.

  "I... I didn't mean to... your drone model crashed into my observation antenna yesterday!" The boy timidly but defiantly retorted. Other children gathered around, splitting into two factions, the atmosphere instantly tense. This was no longer about resource competition, but magnified interpersonal friction and invisible confrontation of family backgrounds among children under the tense environment.

  Verdandi Lee happened to be nearby. She immediately walked over, ignoring the focus of the argument, and crouched down, speaking gently to the boy on the verge of tears and the still indignant girl: "Your moms and dads are all working hard for the same important goal. We're here, more like one special big family, right? Accidents are inevitable." She took out a highly effective cleaning wipe (commonly carried by scientists) from a small toolkit she carried and handed it to the girl. "This should be able to wipe it off. As for the antenna, maybe we can look at fixing it together? I have some good adhesives in my lab."

  She didn't blame either party, but cleverly dissolved the confrontational emotions with a posture of "common goal" and "problem-solving." The girl accepted the wipe, her expression softening considerably, and the boy looked at Verdandi gratefully.

  Just as the atmosphere was easing, a third and most intense conflict erupted at the meal service window. A geologist's wife (middle-aged woman), trying to celebrate her son's birthday, got into a dispute with a materials scientist's daughter (young woman) who claimed neurological weakness requiring sugar over the last portion of synthetic fruit dessert. Both women's emotions were even more agitated than the previous two incidents; long-suppressed anxiety completely exploded as they nearly came to physical blows fighting over the meal tray.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Thunderhawk and Verdandi intervened almost simultaneously. Thunderhawk used his body to separate the two, his voice steady yet full of commanding presence: "Stop! Physical assault in public areas violates Science Castle Management Regulation Article 7!" His powerful aura temporarily controlled the scene.

  Meanwhile, Verdandi once again employed her superior emotional resonance ability. She first expressed birthday wishes to the mother and offered to gift her private honey reserve, endowing it with ritual significance; then turned to the young woman, suggesting with concern that she find healthier soothing tea, showing respect for her "discomfort" (whether genuine or not). Her intervention compensated for the emotional gap left by Thunderhawk's forceful methods.

  Isabella Chen, as cafeteria manager, finally controlled the situation amid this multi-party mediation, casting grateful glances toward Thunderhawk and Verdandi. Thunderhawk noticed the lingering worry deep in her eyes, as if concerned about someone close.

  After the disputes settled, Thunderhawk and Verdandi walked side by side through the somewhat empty corridor.

  "Every time I see scenes like this, I feel like we're managing a pressure cooker," Verdandi sighed softly, "and the pressure valve seems increasingly unreliable."

  "Pressure cookers will eventually explode," Thunderhawk responded, his gaze sweeping over the smooth alloy seams on the corridor walls. "The key is finding the source before the explosion. You handled it well, beyond my job scope."

  "I just feel that if we lose even this bit of mutual understanding, what difference is there between us and those cyberbrains outside eroded by the 'Devourer' virus?" Her words were understated yet struck heavily at Thunderhawk's heart. She still believed in Project Noah's redemptive meaning, but this faith was developing cracks. Thunderhawk fell silent for a moment, then an ancient wisdom about "spirit" surfaced in his mind. He responded softly, as if speaking to himself: "My people believe that all things have spirit, not because of their strength, but because they are 'connected' to other lives. All things share kinship, as do hearts."

  Verdandi didn't speak, only responded with a faint smile tinged with gratitude.

  This collaboration handling serial disputes established a subtle trust and understanding between them. Thunderhawk saw the resilience and wisdom beneath her kindness, while she perceived that this "security guard" was different from others—he possessed a steadiness and insight that didn't belong to this cold environment, and a gentle, sincere heart that contrasted intriguingly with his rugged exterior.

  Night, off-duty time. Thunderhawk activated the higher authorization key regenerated based on preliminary intelligence and Thunderhawk's own exploration of system vulnerabilities, provided by Black Cat. This invisible key silently embedded itself into Science Castle's internal network...

  He didn't dare access the core database—that would be walking into a trap. His target was the Energy Management Substation's underlying logs—those data streams recording seemingly mundane, non-sensitive energy flow directions.

  Behind an interface disguised as routine security scanning, Thunderhawk's cyberbrain began rapidly processing massive amounts of data. Dr. Hawkins's questioning echoed in his ears. He set filtering conditions: searching for persistent high-energy consumption patterns obviously inconsistent with public research projects, especially peak values during nighttime hours.

  Data streams cascaded past his visual interface like waterfalls. Most energy consumption matched expected research and life support needs. But soon, an anomalous pattern was locked: there was a massive, nearly constant energy stream flowing not toward any known laboratory or residential area, but deep underground, pointing to a region marked on official maps merely as "Cornerstone Server Cluster (No Access Zone)". Its baseline energy consumption was absurdly high, and during specific early morning periods, regular brief pulse-like peaks appeared, as if... something was periodically "breathing" or conducting high-intensity calculations.

  This was definitely no ordinary server. The energy required by Dr. Hawkins's particle imaging equipment was, in comparison, like candlelight to the sun. The NRCan's speculation was no wild guess.

  Thunderhawk quickly captured key data patterns, preparing to encrypt and store them. Just as he was about to disconnect, an inconspicuous correlation record in the logs caught his attention: recently there had been several high-level maintenance directives requiring temporary adjustment of cooling system power to the "Cornerstone" area, one signatory being... Ryan Zhang, that anxious-looking senior system engineer.

  Clues began twining like vines. Energy anomalies, authorization barriers, and key figures' seemingly casual connections.

  Thunderhawk exited the system, feeling his cyberbrain slightly overheated from high-speed calculations. Science Castle's holographic projection flickered with false starlight outside his window. He knew he had just touched one corner of the massive shadow beneath this iceberg's peak.