Chapter 1407: Shelter
Inside the grotto shaped like a tomb.
Professor Vernal, who squatted beside a square stone, slowly stood up from the ground with his hands on his knees.
Schultz, who was standing at a side, took two steps forward and asked, “Did you find any clues?”
“Of course… The relics here are valuable.” Professor Vernal looked at Schultz and suddenly raised a question, “Have you ever heard of the legend of the mummy?”
Schultz was slightly stunned. A confused expression gradually appeared on his face.
“A little bit… why?”
“The ancient Egyptians believed that the soul of a person is immortal after death. As long as the corpse is immortal, one day it can be reborn. Therefore, in order to prevent the corpse from decaying, the pharaohs will order their servants to hollow out their internal organs after death, dry and wrap them with salt, spices, ointment, honey, and linen cloth. These mummies won’t rot for thousands of years.”
Schultz gulped and looked at the square stones with a weird expression. He said, “You mean… The reason for these stones is to prevent the decay of the body?”
“Of course not.” Professor Vernal smiled and continued, “If it is for anti-corrosion reasons, it is obviously unwise to store the corpse in a metal container that is p.r.o.ne to oxidation. Let’s a.s.sume billions of years ago that the oxygen resources on Mars are almost the same as that of the Earth, or even more abundant, and the civilization here had the technology to excavate such a vast project on the seabed several kilometers deep, they wouldn’t be ignorant of such basic chemical principles.”
“Then what do you think this is?”
“Obviously, this is a shelter.”
“Shelter?”
“Yes.” Vernal looked at Schultz, he nodded and continued, “When an irreparable disaster occurred on Mars, they sealed themselves in these iron coffins billions of years ago. Then they were hibernated with the help of special technology, waiting for one day to wake up. You should have heard of it. Cryo-hibernation technology is very popular on Earth, it uses the X-0172 bacteria that the Americans brought back from Mars.”
Schultz nodded, and a look of realization appeared on his face.
He obviously heard of this before; he even remembered that some dormant bacteria caused a lot of sensation at the time.
The X-0172 bacteria had changed from a biological disaster to a miracle technology.
For those who were terminally ill, this was a gift from G.o.d. Since current medical technology was not advanced enough to cure them, they could at least survive, albeit they would be separated from their families…
However, Schultz still didn’t understand one thing.
If these things were dormant cabins, why did they go extinct?
“Obviously, they failed.” Professor Vernal shrugged and continued, “Although they made some attempts to save themselves, their extinction was almost guaranteed on the scale of hundreds of years. They had no chance of surviving for millions of years. Their planet lost the protection of a magnetic field, their atmosphere, and even the ocean… Even the most developed civilization needs land to live on.”
Schultz thought about the unimaginable doomsday catastrophe and went silent for a while.
After a long time, he asked, “These Martians… What could they be? I mean biologically.”
“I don’t know, but mammals can be excluded. The gravity environment here is not good for bone development and calcium acc.u.mulation. Even if there are mammals in the ecosystem here, their size should not be large. It is even more difficult to develop sufficiently wide skulls… Instead, invertebrates should have an advantage, especially arthropods. They should be larger than on Earth and theoretically have a larger brain to accommodate more neurons.
“The signs of civilization aren’t fire and the use of tools, but in essence, it is the ability to process and communicate information.”
Professor Vernal shrugged and said with a smile.
“Of course, all of this is just speculation. Even with all the prerequisites, the birth of civilization is full of coincidences. Judging from our ants and bees, arthropods may have evolved to coordinate large groups and a social system engaged in intensive production activities.”
The excitement on Professor Vernal’s face grew stronger.
He squinted his eyes and looked around, as if a gold mine were sitting in front of him!
“… Everything here is interesting. It is like the pyramids of the Martian civilization. We may be able to recover the reason why Mars lost its magnetic field. And what the Martians did to try and save themselves. Whether it is to understand the history from billions of years ago or to help our own future, these precious relics have great significance.
“I want to build a semi-permanent research station here to research these—”
Just as Professor Vernal, who was overexcited, was describing his vision to Schultz, a tremor suddenly came from the ground.
Professor Vernal reached out and grabbed the stone next to him. The rubble and dust fell from the ceiling. The expression on Professor Vernal’s face suddenly changed from ecstasy to horror.
“F*ck?! Again?”
“We must get out of here!”
Schultz was the first to react. He grabbed Vernal’s shoulders and tried to drag him away. But it was like Vernal had no intention to leave.
“Wait a second, let me get a few more samples…”
Schlutz s.n.a.t.c.hed the multifunctional shovel in his hand and threw it out fiercely.
Schultz used all his strength and woke him up from his stupefaction.
“What the f*ck are you doing?!
“If we stay here for any longer, we’ll die!”
Another wave of violent tremors came.
Professor Vernal finally realized the seriousness of the problem. They rushed to the nearest exit.
As soon as the two of them pa.s.sed through the s.p.a.cious grotto and through the exit, the tunnel behind them closed like an avalanche.
Schultz suddenly felt a strange feeling in his heart.
Accurately speaking, it was a feeling of intuition.
He felt like the collapse of these tunnels seemed a bit unusual.
However, the current situation didn’t give him time to think.
He had no other choice except to use all his strength to run away…
…
On the other hand, inside another tunnel.
After listening to Professor Aubrey’s explanation, Professor Lomonov stroked his chin through the helmet of the s.p.a.cesuit. He nodded thoughtfully and spoke.
“I see…”
Aubrey: “Do you understand?”
Lomonov: “… Sort of?”
Professor Aubrey sighed and threw the multifunctional shovel in his hand to the side. He leaned against the rock wall next to him and sat on the ground.
“… Why did I explain it to you?”
“Your explanation was confusing.” Professor Lomonov complained, “What is standard Euclidean s.p.a.ce? And what kind of four-dimensional matter interferes with three-dimensional s.p.a.ce… What does this have to do with earthquakes?”
“There is no earthquake, the road under our feet has not even changed. If my inference is correct, nothing will happen even if we are swallowed by the collapsed tunnel. We will follow the moved s.p.a.ce from the three-dimensional coordinate to another three-dimensional coordinate.”
Lomonov: “Does this conform to the conservation of energy?”
“Energy? Of course it is conserved.” Professor Aubrey drew a mark on the ground with the multifunctional shovel in his hand. He sighed and continued, “The order in the three-dimensional s.p.a.ce is disrupted. If you don’t understand standard Euclidean s.p.a.ce, you should understand a hamster wheel, right?”
“You’re saying we are like hamsters on a hamster wheel?”
“You can say that…” Professor Aubrey said, “This s.p.a.ce is circular. Perhaps we have been walking in the same place.”
Professor Lomonov’s face suddenly showed a strange expression.
Then what’s the point of walking around?
However, just when he was about to ask, the ground trembled violently. Professor Aubrey stood up from the ground and looked at the broken rocks shaking from the ceiling. He began to run away.
“WTF?! Isn’t it once every two hours? How many minutes has it been?!”
Lomonov ran and shouted, “Didn’t you say that we won’t be swallowed by the tunnel!”
“I did!”
“Then why are you running?!”
“That’s just a theory! I’m not going to risk my life! Shut up and run!”
Small rocks and dust continued to fall from the top of the cave, landing on their shoulders.
The tunnel behind them was getting closer and closer to collapse. The two people, who were not very athletic, had desperate expressions on their faces.
However, suddenly, there was a bright light ahead.
Professor Aubrey’s despair instantly turned into ecstasy.
“Exit! The exit is ahead! Quick!”
Although they could not find any clues to the extraterrestrial civilization, at least they survived. Perhaps Congress would be disappointed by this, but Aubrey believed that if he died in the cave ruins, it would cause even more trouble for his country.
Keeping himself alive was the highest priority!
“I’m never going to explore underground again! Cough…”
They finally broke through the darkness. Professor Aubrey put his right hand on the stone pillar at the entrance of the cave and panted desperately.
However, the moment he raised his head, he froze.
Besides the rover, the two Chinese people w.a.n.g Peng and Fan Tong as well as the British archaeologist and the German mathematics researcher were also here.
Everyone except Academician Lu…
w.a.n.g Peng saw Professor Aubrey running out of the cave. He took a few steps forward, reached out, and grabbed his shoulder. w.a.n.g Peng’s eyes were bloodshot.
This creepy feeling made Aubrey shudder.
Professor Aubrey, who was being stared at, felt that he had forgotten how to breathe.
“Where is Lu Zhou?! Where is he?!”
“How would I know?” Professor Aubrey replied with a trembling tone, “I am not his bodyguard, is he not with you guys?”
“…”
Although w.a.n.g Peng did not trust the American, he still let go of Aubrey’s shoulders.
He cast his gaze to the tunnel entrance. He clenched his fist; a flash of determination suddenly flashed in his eyes.
“I’ll go find Academician Lu.”
Fan Tong stared at him like he was crazy.
“Are you mad?! This entire mountain range is probably going to collapse!”
“Then you guys go back first—”
Before he could finish speaking, the entrance of the cave suddenly began to shake. The tremors from the ground came from all directions. The stone pillars began to collapse to the side.
Everyone rushed to the rover next to them frantically.
“Quick! Drive!”
“w.a.n.g Peng is not here yet!”
“Who cares! He wants to die, but we can’t all die because of him!”
Fan Tong gritted his teeth and glanced back at the pa.s.sengers sitting in the car.
No one wanted to die, including himself.
He finally made up his mind. He muttered sorry in his heart, grabbed two cans of oxygen cylinders, and threw them out of the rover door. He then started the rover and drove away as fast as possible.
There was no point in staying here with the Martians who had died billions of years ago.
Fan Tong avoided the rocks that had fallen from the ridge. He stepped on the accelerator and finally escaped from danger.
As soon as they had just escaped, a giant rock wall about ten meters in length crashed into the tunnel entrance, setting off a cloud of dust.
They could have been stuck inside forever…
The sand and dust rose from the gravel; it was visible even from the satellites.
They felt the aftershocks coming from under the ground.
“Sh*t…”
Fan Tong slammed his fist on the steering wheel and gradually slowed down. He leaned his forehead on the steering wheel. His shoulders were trembling.
Schultz patted him on the shoulder in silence.
Everyone in the car was silent on the way back.
Only Professor Aubrey whispered, “It’s like an entrance to h.e.l.l”. After receiving no response, he lowered his head in silence.
June 10th.
On this day.
The largest earthquake ever was observed on Mars. Even the Mars scientific research station several kilometers away could clearly feel the tremor of the shaking mountains.
And on that same day.
The Mars scientific research station lost two outstanding members…