Seeing that the argument could not go on like this, Shiller suddenly thought of a method. He said to Howard, "Do you have your blueprints at hand? If so, show them to the Chinese party's people. They will understand that you're telling the truth."
Howard was somewhat skeptical, as he was clearly agitated, feeling that the other party simply did not trust him. Shiller ignored him and had Ultron send the blueprints directly to Zhengxian.
Soon, the argument subsided. Having examined the blueprints, Chinese technical experts unanimously concluded that Howard was telling the truth. They did not exchange another word with Howard; instead, they immediately arranged for maritime search and rescue and salvage operations.
Clark was controlling the speed of the Space Station, but he had discovered earlier that there was an internal deceleration suspension device within the Space Station that was also controlling the speed. Now, although the people inside the Space Station were unconscious, they were not in any life-threatening danger, and there was even a possibility they would wake up once descending to a certain altitude.
The Space Station was gradually piercing through the Earth's atmosphere, and Clark was very carefully controlling the attitude and speed of the Space Station, while also constantly monitoring the heart rates of everyone inside, to prevent anyone with a health condition from dying due to an accident.
But, as he was controlling it, Clark realized something was off. He immediately connected to Shiller's communication and said, "Was there a part of your drill that included destroying the deceleration device?"
"Of course, not!" Shiller said decisively. He was already in a car on the way to the airport with Natasha and Coulson. Despite the accident, the plan had to continue, and traveling to Texas would not delay the remote control command.
"The deceleration device is broken," Clark reported truthfully. "It was fine before we entered the atmosphere. If it were functioning normally, the people inside would only faint or suffer minor concussions from impacts; overall, it would still be stable. But now that it's broken, without me, the people inside wouldn't survive three seconds."
"Can you tell how it broke?"
Clark wanted to say he didn't know, as he wasn't quite clear on the operation principle behind the device. After thinking for a bit, he said, "I don't need to hold up the Space Station, so I can fly over and take a photo for you, but don't expect me to be able to fix it. I just checked it, and if it weren't in a different universe, I'd think it should have a bat tag on it."
"What do you mean?"
"It's so complex that even a super brain couldn't figure out how it works," Clark said frankly. "Your scientists had some kind of leap in thinking at a certain point, and I don't have that kind of scientific inspiration."
Shiller knew he was referencing the miraculous research thinking of the Stark father and son, but he still asked Clark to go in and take a picture for him.
This photo hit the mark. Shiller sent the device to Howard, and Howard let out a scream.
"This was intentionally damaged!!!" Howard yelled on the other end, seemingly explaining to a group of foreign scientists, "Someone destroyed the dynamic core of the deceleration system! See here? This part was smashed!!!"
There was another flurry of discussion in various languages on the other side. Finally, the scientists collectively gave Shiller an answer: the device was not naturally damaged, someone had targeted the core of the deceleration system and directly knocked it out of commission.
This made Shiller even more suspicious. He made a call to Nick to confirm that it wasn't Nick's doing. Nick also assured Shiller that it wasn't his doing. The two compared notes and realized that neither was the culprit behind the incident, and then it dawned on them that there had been a mysterious third party secretly causing trouble all along.
After pondering for a moment, Shiller said to Clark, "Can you find a way to suspension the Space Station in midair without anyone noticing? Just a few tens of thousands of feet high will do."
"I can hold the Space Station and fly for a while," Clark said, "but if something else flies by, it might see me."
"As long as you cannot be seen from inside the Space Station, that's fine. We now suspect that there's a mysterious person causing sabotage inside the Space Station; don't let them see you."
Doing this was not difficult for Clark; after all, he was very good at lifting things and flying. He slowly reduced the Space Station's descent speed to zero and then just held it there, flying in mid-air.
Shiller immediately notified the countries through Howard, and S.H.I.E.L.D. blocked the Space Station because now was not a good time to test collision safety. The mysterious person could sabotage the deceleration system, so they could sabotage other parts as well. It was not worth risking so many lives.
Howard couldn't object either. He had confidence in his own technology, but he had no faith in the malice of this mysterious person. If the saboteur damaged certain structures in the outer shell, and it crashed down, he would indeed become a historical sinner.
What relieved both Shiller and Nick was that this group of scientists did not pin their hopes on these superpower methods; they started looking into how to rescue in mid-air.
The Space Station was currently in the middle of the thermosphere, at about 400 kilometers in altitude. The Space Station itself was insulated and temperature-controlled, so the thermosphere's temperature did not affect it at all.
Most of the previously mentioned powerless districts were on this falling half, and the staff inside had been evacuated. Thus, there were not many people on this entire half now, and there was enough oxygen for a while.
However, this altitude was somewhat awkward for human space flight. Aeronautical planes definitely wouldn't work, and most countries' space planes wouldn't either. Wakandan aircraft, however, were very suitable for this altitude.
But all of Wakanda's aircraft had been sent to the other half to pick up people, after all, more than half of them were still there waiting for rescue.
Wakanda's aircraft were good but too small; they couldn't carry many people at a time. Just this task was keeping them busy enough.
Shiller thought they would at least need to discuss for a while, but as soon as he sat down on the plane, Ultron informed him that the discussion result was out.
The few Kree Guard Ships previously captured by humans were now docked at the Star Port on the edge of the Solar System. These ships were quite large and had a full range of life support facilities, making them very suitable for evacuation.
The only problem was that flying close to Earth could be dangerous, as these ships were not custom-made for Earth. Most of the modifications were geared toward interstellar travel; close Earth rescue was not considered, so there were definitely risks involved.
But now there was no time to worry about that; they had to use these large ships to evacuate the remaining people in the Space Station. Then send Wakandan and Space Station's own small ships to rescue the people in the half of the Space Station that was falling.
The moment the plan was finalized, the headquarters and technical centers of almost all the countries on Earth lit up layer after layer, like bright fireworks shooting towards the sky—
The largest near-Earth rescue in human history had begun.