A few days later, Mars’ South Pole.
Two landing vehicles dragged a drill-like device forward slowly on the snow.
Behind the landing vehicle, there were five scientists wearing protective suits. These people followed the landing vehicle, chatting for a while, and behind them, a hemispherical building had been erected.
The diameter and height of this building even exceed the size of the Ares spacecraft. It is made of countless steel plates. These building modules are almost identical. Even if one piece is broken, it can be quickly replaced and repaired.
More than thousands of steel plate modules work together to construct a hemispherical building, and the top of the smaller half of the building is even completely replaced by glass to form a transparent dome.
This building built by XTN engineering robots will be the scientific research station for everyone in the future.
There is a small inertial fusion reactor inside the scientific research station, which can provide power for more than ten years. The inside is divided into three floors, and there is a large garden in the center that leads from the bottom to the top dome. The plants inside are all from For the living plants brought from the Earth, the light from Mars will shine in from the dome every morning, forming a greenhouse effect and providing sufficient photosynthesis for the plants.
This is not so much a scientific research station as it is a small ecological park.
Surrounding the scientific research station is a ring-shaped area, which contains scientists' living rooms, restaurants, conference rooms, various laboratories, and warehouses for storing supplies, etc. The total indoor area exceeds 5,000 square meters, completely It is enough for scientists here to carry out their daily work and life.
At this time, about a kilometer away from the scientific research station, a drilling well had been raised high. This was a weak part of the ice sheet found during previous geological surveys. At this time, as the drill bit was raised, several XTN engineers Under the control of the robot, drilling operations began on the ice sheet beneath its feet.
The five scientists before stood aside, watching silently as the drill bit penetrated deeper into the ice sheet.
Ten meters.
Twenty meters.
Fifty meters.
One hundred meters…
As the drill bit continued to penetrate deeper into the ground, a few hours later, there was a soft sound, and the green indicator light suddenly lit up on the control interface of the drilling head. Suddenly, everyone was refreshed.
Because this means that the drill bit has successfully drilled into the previously expected position.
A scientist walked up and looked at the screen next to the XTN engineering robot. He saw a light on the screen shining downwards, and the area where it was illuminated was sparkling.
"Found it, it's an underground lake!"
The scientist shouted excitedly, then he turned on the contactor and shouted loudly toward the contactor, "This is the drilling team, reporting to the headquarters, we have found the underground lake, repeat, we have found the underground lake!"
While everyone at the drilling site was celebrating, in a laboratory at the scientific research station, Hannibal was wearing protective clothing. He took out pieces of ice and snow samples and observed them under a microscope.
Time passed little by little, but apart from some crystals and iron filings, he found no trace of microorganisms from beginning to end.
"Is it true that there are no living things on Mars?"
Hannibal raised his head, frowned and murmured in a low voice, but at this moment, the door to the laboratory suddenly opened with a beep.
A man also wearing a lab coat walked in excitedly. He brought in a test tube rack with three test tubes inserted on it. The test tubes contained a transparent liquid of unknown nature.
At this time, the man rushed in and immediately said excitedly, "Hannibal, come and take a look at this!"
"What's this?"
Hannibal wondered.
"This is the underground lake water that the drilling team just extracted from under a hundred meters of ice."
The other party replied while placing the test tube rack on the shelf aside.
"Have you drilled into the underground lake?"
Hannibal raised his eyebrows.
"do not you know."
But the other party chuckled and said, "That's right. You stay in the laboratory all day and don't go out to appreciate the scenery of Mars. No wonder you don't know. Just half an hour ago, the drilling team just hit it. They found something under the ice cap. There are many underground spaces, which are filled with carbon dioxide, and underneath there is an underground lake with a temperature of about zero degrees. Do you know what this means?"
"The groundwater and the temperature around zero... this means that there is likely to be life in the underground lake... "
Hannibal suddenly woke up. He looked at the three test tubes. Without saying a word, he walked forward and took one of the test tubes into the biological cabinet. Then he started to extract the liquid in the test tube and drip it into a petri dish through his gloves. .
Then, he quickly placed the petri dish under the microscope and lowered his head to observe.
"How's it going? Did you find anything?"
Seeing Hannibal's flowing movements, the voice of the man beside him trembled. If new life is really discovered in the lake, it will be equivalent to a milestone in human history, whether it is him, Hannibal, or this person. Everyone on this scientific expedition team will be recorded in the history books of mankind...
At this time, Hannibal had no time to pay attention to the other party. He just stared at the drop of liquid in the microscope. In his sight, he seemed to have entered a vast unknown world...
"Hannibal?"
The man next to him shouted again.
Only then did Hannibal raise his head. He nodded and solemnly said, "Call the captain, and inform everyone that we have made a major discovery..."
Half an hour later.
Sixteen scientists gathered together, and all of them had arrived in the conference room of the scientific research station.
The reason why Ares does not return is because almost all the scientific instruments and living facilities on Ares have been evacuated, and all materials have been transferred to the scientific research station. In the near future, Ares The spacecraft will return to Earth carrying a large amount of soil, water, air, minerals and other materials that are only found on Mars.
"I believe you all understand why we are asking everyone to concentrate this time."
Without any delay, Zhou Xiong, the captain of the Ares, stood up and said, then looked at Hannibal, "Hannibal, tell everyone what you have discovered. I think everyone can't wait."
"good."
Hannibal nodded, and then walked to the podium. Suddenly, a large screen automatically appeared behind Hannibal, showing a pattern filled with a group of black dots.
"This is the microorganism found in the water after drilling into the underground lake."
Hannibal said softly, "Now this is the picture seen under a ten times microscope. Most of those black spots are some impurities, including minerals, soil, ice particles, etc., but after magnifying it thirty times, there will be New discoveries…”
As he spoke, the picture behind Hannibal continued to enlarge, and a gray spot appeared. It was only then that everyone discovered that what was on the screen was not a still picture, but a recorded video.
At this time, inside the gray spot, there were several strange-looking worms with six or seven short legs swimming freely in the water.
These small worms are completely transparent, and only an outline can be seen under the microscope, but it is still clearly distinguishable. They have two long tentacles, which are even longer than the body itself. At the same time, there is an obvious truncated body in the abdomen. Apparently a very common worm creature.
"Chaetognathus seaworm."
Hannibal said carefully, "How about this tiny worm? Isn't this tiny worm very similar to a chaetognath? Except that it has no eyes and longer tentacles, it is almost exactly the same as a chaetognathus sea worm in the ocean, with a size of about 0.1 -0.2mm or so…”
As he spoke, Hannibal turned around and swiped with one hand. The video on the screen automatically moved down, and a new scene appeared. The worm creature from before was now devouring a creature smaller than itself, as if Lice-like pear-shaped worms.
"And after my observation, I found that they are extremely ferocious carnivores,"
Hannibal said cautiously, "What it swallowed was another kind of marine worm. This worm is about 0.04 mm in size, Gram-negative, and is a type of algae."
"In addition, we also discovered three types of algae. These algae are all large single-cell prokaryotes and do not contain chlorophyll and chloroplasts. They should be anaerobic organisms and do not need photosynthesis. What they need is water temperature. , living by relying on chemical reactions caused by the temperature of water.”
Following several strange-looking microorganisms that seemed inexplicably normal in the microbial world, Hannibal's expression became more solemn, "Next, is a special thing I discovered..."
As he said that, the video camera behind him once again showed one of the round transparent bubbles. The size of this bubble was obviously several times larger than the previous worm. Not only that, there was also a group of red things in the bubble. , and as time passed, the red thing was still beating slowly.
Like a heart.
"this is… "
Everyone started talking in low voices.
"Yes, everyone read it correctly. This is the egg of a creature."
Hannibal showed a sigh of relief, "The closest thing on earth is the eggs of fish. Some small fish can indeed lay eggs less than one millimeter, but this also shows one thing, that is, what everyone sees In the underground lake, there are also life forms similar to fish on Earth, but I have not seen the original owner of this egg so far, so I am not sure whether it is a vertebrate."
Following Hannibal's words, everyone was even more shocked. One of the men immediately asked, "Does that mean we can fish by the underground lake?"
Everyone laughed when they heard this.
"I don't know if fishing is possible, but I found that some algae organisms in the water need methane and sulfide."
Hannibal added, "This is similar to the archaeal community in the deep sea of the earth. You must know that there is no sunlight and oxygen in the deep sea of the earth, so the early archaea on the earth lived in symbiosis with seafloor worms. The archaea relied on the continuous supply of sulfide from seafloor chimneys. Energy, supplied to the worms, the worms secreted a hard shell to protect the archaea, and this metamorphosis became the basis of the biological chain of submarine chimneys, and apparently these organisms are like this."
Undersea chimneys, also known as undersea hot springs, refer to the fountain effect deep under the sea. The principle is similar to that of volcanic fountains.
The reason why it is called this is because the hot water ejected from the submarine fountain looks like a smoking chimney from a distance, and the "smoke" also contains substances such as sulfide and methane. In 1979, A doctor named Bischoff saw this strange scene for the first time at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean at 2,500 meters.
Generally speaking, the vicinity of such chimneys on the seabed should be extremely poisonous, and no living thing can survive. However, the miracle of life is amazing. Those diving scientists discovered that the chimneys that were originally supposed to be deserted were actually surrounded by various substances. There are many kinds of creatures that exist. These creatures use the heat, methane and sulfide emitted from the hot springs as energy to survive. Just like fish need oxygen and algae need sunlight, they also have their own unique survival system.
At this time, after hearing Hannibal's explanation, everyone suddenly realized that if life really existed on Mars, it would indeed be like this. Since the ice cap blocks the sunlight and there is no oxygen, so here Life has evolved a new form of survival based on local materials.
However, whether they survive on oxygen or methane, these organisms still belong to the carbon-based category.
"Everyone, next, we have one more task to do."
At this moment, Zhou Xiong stood up again and said, "The discovery of living things on Mars is a great discovery of the century, because the existence of these creatures has confirmed for the first time that humans are not the only ones in the universe. So next, Everyone in the biology team may need to work harder, I hope to get all the data about this group of creatures, including their past and their possible future."
"Don't worry, Captain Zhou Xiong."
One of the scientists who is also engaged in biology suddenly laughed and said, "Although the existence of life on Mars is very shocking, I have to pour cold water on it, because these life forms are quite primitive, and we are not even sure whether mammals exist, but According to the current environment, the living environment of this underground lake is not optimistic. According to previous geological scans, its diameter is only about twenty kilometers. Although it is already very large, it is not suitable for the evolution of enough mammals. To say that this size is completely insufficient…”
"Simply put, the environment here is too harsh, which fundamentally prevents the emergence of sufficiently intelligent life, such as dolphins and whales."
Another scientist echoed, "Even if intelligent species does appear in this environment, it can only live in tribal groups like killer whales. Civilization can only be passed down from generation to generation by an old grandmother. It is not possible at all." It becomes a climate.”
"maybe."
Zhou Xiong glanced at Hannibal when he heard this, and saw that Hannibal also agreed with this point of view. He then smiled and said, "Although I say so, these alien life forms are indeed of great research value, and the alien life on earth is of great value." People are also eagerly awaiting our news. We must screen out a batch of biological samples and all statistical data before Ares returns, and bring them back to Earth."
"Of course this is no problem."
Everyone nodded and agreed.