Chapter 1408 Refuge

In a grotto shaped like a tomb.

Professor Vernal, who was squatting next to a square stone, slowly stood up from the ground with his hands on his knees.

Seeing Professor Vernal standing up, Schultz, who was standing aside, lowered his arms wrapped around his chest, stepped forward and asked.

"Have you found any clues?"

"Of course... the value of the relics excavated here is not small, and it can be described as a good harvest." With an excited expression on his face, Professor Vernal looked at Schultz, and suddenly asked a question, "Did you hear Ever heard of the legend of the mummy?"

Facing this sudden question, Schultz was slightly stunned for a moment, with a bewildered expression gradually appearing on his face.

"I've heard a bit... what's the matter?"

"The ancient Egyptians believed that the soul is immortal after death. As long as the body is immortal, it will be reborn one day. Therefore, in order to prevent the corpse from decomposing, the pharaohs would order their servants to empty out their internal organs after death, dry them and wrap them With salt, spices, ointment, honey and sackcloth, make a mummy that does not rot for a thousand years."

The Adam's apple moved up and down, Schultz looked at the square stones, and said with a strange expression, "You mean...the purpose of these 'sarcophagi' is to prevent the remains from rotting?"

"Of course it's impossible," Professor Vernal smiled and continued, "If it's for anti-corrosion reasons, it's obviously the most unwise choice to store corpses in metal containers that are easily oxidized. Let's assume that billions of years ago The oxygen resources of Mars are almost the same as that of the earth - even more abundant, and the civilization here has mastered the technology to dig such a huge project on the seabed several kilometers deep, it is impossible for them to not even understand such basic chemical principles. "

"Then what do you think it's going to be here?"

"Obviously, this is a shelter."

"Shelter?"

"That's right," Professor Vernal nodded and continued, looking at Schultz with a satisfied expression on his face, "When an irreversible disaster happened on Mars, they sealed themselves in these iron coffins... At least billions of years ago, it was an iron coffin, and then hibernated with the help of special technology, waiting for one day to wake up. You should have heard of it, the cold dormancy technology that is very popular on the earth now, the X-0172 bacteria used seems to be Those Yankees brought it back from Mars."

Schultz nodded, and a dazed expression appeared on his face.

Of course he had heard of this incident, and he even remembered that the dormant bacteria caused quite a stir at the time.

But now, the X-0172 bacteria has changed from a scourge to a sweet pastry in people's eyes.

Especially for those terminally ill, it is simply a gospel. Under the circumstances that the current medical technology is not enough to cure them, they have an additional option to be separated from their relatives, but at least they can survive...

However, Schultz still didn't understand.

If these things are hibernation capsules, why are they finally annihilated in the dust of history.

"Obviously, they failed." As if guessing what Schultz was thinking, Professor Verner shrugged and continued, "Although they made some attempts to save themselves, their extinction is almost Doomed, dormancy with a time scale of a hundred years is nothing but a dying struggle in the face of hundreds of millions of time. The parent star has lost the protection of its magnetic field, lost its atmosphere, and even lost its ocean... no matter how developed it is Civilization also needs the soil on which to live.”

Facing the unimaginable doomsday catastrophe, Schultz was silent for a while.

After a long time, he asked.

"What do you mean these Martians...could be? Biologically, I mean."

"I don't know, but first of all, mammals can be ruled out. The gravity environment here is not conducive to bone development and calcium accumulation. Even if there are mammals in this ecosystem, their size should not be large, and it is even more difficult to develop a wide enough bone. Skull... In contrast, invertebrates should have an advantage, especially arthropods. Their volume will be larger than that on the earth, and they can theoretically have a larger brain to accommodate more neurons. "

"The signs of civilization are fire and the use of tools, but the essence is the ability to process and communicate information."

Having said that, 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. Just from the two samples of ants and bees, arthropods may still evolve to coordinate large groups, and Social systems engaged in more intensive productive activities."

As he said that, the excitement on Professor Vernal's face became more and more intense.

Looking around with squinted eyes, it seems that what is sitting in front of him at this moment is not some pile of rocks, but a gold mine!

"...everything here is very interesting. It is like the pyramids of Martian civilization. By excavating them, we may be able to restore the reason why Mars lost its magnetic field, and what the Martians living here did at the last moment of their lives. What rescue attempts have been made. Whether it is to understand the history of billions of years ago, or to our own future, these precious relics have great enlightenment significance."

"If conditions permit, I would like to build a semi-permanent research station here to study these—"

Just as the excited Professor Vernal was describing his unconstrained ideas with the bewildered Schultz, the earth-shaking tremor suddenly came from under their feet again.

Stretching out his hand to support the stone next to him, watching the crushed stones and dust falling from the ceiling, the expression on Professor Vernal's face suddenly changed from ecstasy to horror.

"Fack?! Again?"

"We have to get out of here!"

Standing firm, Schultz, who was the first to react, grabbed his shoulders, trying to drag him away from here, but he vomited blood and found that this guy was crazy, and he had no intention of leaving at all. No.

"Wait a minute, I'll get a few more samples back..."

He snatched the multi-purpose shovel from his hand and threw it out viciously.

Schultz exhausted all his strength to wake him up from his stupefied stunned look.

"What the hell are you thinking!?"

"If we stay here any longer, we'll all have to become specimens ourselves!"

With that said, there was another violent shock.

This time, Schultz didn't need to remind him. Professor Vernal, who had completely recovered, finally realized the seriousness of the problem, and rushed towards the nearest exit.

Almost at the moment when the two of them passed through the spacious grotto and got out of the hole on the other side, the tunnel behind them closed like an avalanche.

Glancing back, Schultz, who had lingering fears, suddenly felt a strange feeling in his heart.

No, to be precise, it was an intuition.

I always feel that the collapse of these tunnels seems a bit unusual.

However, the current situation no longer allowed him to think too much.

He had no choice but to run forward with all his strength...

...

Around the same time, in another tunnel.

After listening to Professor Aubrey's explanation, Professor Lomonov touched his chin through the helmet of the spacesuit, nodded thoughtfully and said.

"I see……"

Aubrey: "Did you understand?"

Lomonov: "...probably?"

Hearing the uncertain speech, Professor Aubrey sighed, threw the multi-purpose shovel aside, leaned against the rock wall next to him, and sat down on the ground.

"Shet... It seems that I was talking in vain."

"You were confused," Professor Lomonov complained. "What standard Euclidean space? And the interference of four-dimensional matter in three-dimensional space... What does this have to do with earthquakes?"

"There was no earthquake, and the road under our feet didn't even change. If my deduction is correct, nothing will happen even if it is swallowed by the collapsed tunnel, but it will follow the moved space, from a three-dimensional The coordinates are moved to another three-dimensional coordinates."

Lomonov: "Does this conform to the law of conservation of energy?"

"Conservation of energy? Of course it is," Professor Aubrey drew marks on the ground with a multifunctional shovel in his hand, sighed and continued, "The state of motion of matter has not changed in any way, and neither has energy. The order in three-dimensional space is messed up. If you can't understand standard Euclidean space, you should understand the hamster wheel, right?"

"Are you so we're like hamsters on a hamster wheel now?"

"It can be said," Professor Aubrey said, "this space is circular. Maybe the road we are walking on now is the one we walked before."

Hearing this cycle, Professor Lomonov suddenly had a strange expression on his face.

What he wants to ask is, if this is the case, is it still necessary to move forward?

However, just when he was about to ask this question, the ground suddenly trembled violently, which scared Professor Aubrey to stand up from the ground, looking at the broken rocks shaking from the ceiling, and the possible collapse at any time Tunnel, spread his legs and run.

"WTF?! Isn't it every two hours? It's only been a few minutes, why come again?!"

Lomonov ran forward with staggering steps, and shouted at the top of his voice.

"Didn't you say that it would be fine to be swallowed by that collapsed tunnel!"

"I did!"

"Then you are still running?!"

"Theory is one thing, experiment is another! What's more, I'm just guessing, do you dare to risk your own life to try!? Xie Te, stop talking nonsense, run away!"

Small stones and dust kept falling from the ceiling of the cave, hitting the heads and shoulders of the two men.

The collapsed tunnel behind them was getting closer and closer, and the two people, whose legs were not very convenient, had expressions of despair on their faces in unison.

However, at this moment, a bright light appeared in front of him.

The moment he discovered the bright light, the expression on Professor Aubrey's face froze slightly, and despair turned into ecstasy in an instant.

"Exit! The exit is ahead! Quick!"

I can't take care of that much anymore.

Although no clues of extraterrestrial civilization were found, at least they survived. Perhaps Congress will be disappointed by this, but Aubrey believes that if he dies in it, he may cause more trouble to his homeland and the people of the world.

And as long as he is still alive, then everything is easy to say!

"I will never go to this kind of place to explore again! Ahem——"

Finally breaking through the desperate darkness, Professor Aubrey, who ran out of the tunnel, put his right hand on the stone pillar at the entrance of the cave, panting desperately, and it took him a while to recover.

However, the moment he raised his head, the whole person was slightly stunned.

It's not just them.

Beside the Mars rover, including Wang Peng and Fan Tong who were separated from them before, the British guy who studied archeology and the German guy who studied mathematics are also here.

Except Academician Lu...

Seeing Professor Aubrey running out of the cave, Wang Peng took a few steps forward, stretched out his hand and grabbed his shoulder, and stared at his eyes with bloodshot eyes.

The creepy feeling made him shudder.

Professor Aubrey, who was stared straight at him, felt that he even forgot how to breathe for a while.

"Where is Lu Zhou! Where is he?!"

"How would I know?" Professor Aubrey replied tremblingly, "I am not his bodyguard, let alone he is with you?!"

"..."

Although he didn't trust the Yankee's rhetoric, Wang Peng finally let go of Professor Aubrey's shoulders.

Turning his gaze to the shaking hole, he clenched his fist tightly, and a flash of determination suddenly flashed in his eyes.

"I'm going to find Academician Lu."

As if looking at a lunatic, Fan Tong stared at him with wide eyes.

"Are you crazy?! With the scale of this earthquake, the entire mountain range may suffer!"

"Then you guys go back first—"

Before finishing this sentence, everyone standing at the entrance of the cave was staggered by the sudden tremor coming from the soles of their feet. The stone pillars all let out an overwhelmed hum, and began to collapse to the side.

Seeing this scene, everyone's expressions changed, and they frantically ran towards the Mars rover next to them.

"Quick! Drive fast!"

"Wang Peng hasn't come up yet!"

"I can't care so much anymore! He is going to die, are you going to drag everyone to die with him?!"

Listening to the roar coming from the communication channel, Fan Tong gritted his teeth and looked back at the passengers sitting in the car.

No one wants to die, including himself.

Especially when the death is unclear.

Finally made up his mind, he silently said sorry in his heart, grabbed two cans of oxygen cylinders and threw them out of the car door, and then started the rover at the fastest speed in his life.

There's no point in staying here any longer than to bury the Martians who died billions of years ago.

Dodging the rocks rolling down from the ridge, Fan Tong exerted all his strength to step on the gas pedal to the bottom, and rushed all the way as if desperately, and finally rushed out of the pass that he passed through without any danger.

And almost at the moment they escaped, a huge rock wall about ten meters long separated from the towering ridge, and collapsed in a cloud of dust towards the pass they had passed through before.

If it was a second late, they might have been left inside forever...

Rolling gravel rose into the sky with the dust, not to mention through the car window, even if you look down from the height of a satellite, you can clearly see it.

Speeding all the way in the desert, feeling the aftershocks coming from under the cushion, looking back at the people behind him, all the expressions on their faces showed aftermath.

"Grass……"

Punching hard on the steering wheel, Fan Tong, who gradually slowed down the speed of the car, suddenly hit his forehead on it, his shoulders trembling like twitching.

Schultz patted him on the shoulder silently, expressing comfort.

Everyone in the car was silent, and there was no exchange of a word on the way back.

Only Professor Aubrey muttered in a low voice, "It's like the entrance to hell", and after receiving no response, he also lowered his head in silence.

June tenth.

this day.

The most serious earthquake occurred on Mars since human observation. Even the Mars scientific research station several kilometers away can clearly feel the tremor of the ground shaking.

And also on the same day.

The Mars scientific research station lost two outstanding team members...