Chapter 6 Chapter 3 The Big Praying Mantis Eating Food

The pilot told her that it was not a full-fledged sphere, but a sphere for living in. "It looks like a sealed big tent roof, but it is actually a test product of NASA's portable dwelling. We We hope to use it on Mars in the future, we call it the 'sojourner ball'." Rachel and the others came near the building, and a person came out from a small door on the side of the dome.It was a tall man, and the black wool sweater on his upper body made him look taller, looking like a bear.He walked towards the ice sports car. Rachel knew exactly who this man was: Lawrence Extron, the head of NASA.

Rachel had heard Extron's reputation for biting off the heads of those who stood in the way of his dreams. The head of NASA greeted her halfway, holding out a large gloved hand: "Miss Sexton, thank you for coming." Rachel nodded dubiously, her voice over the howling wind: "Frankly, sir. I don't think I have any other choice." When we were ushered into the igloo, Delta One was monitoring everything with infrared telescopes on a glacier a thousand meters further north. Lawrence Ekstrom, the administrator of NASA, was a tall, red-faced, irascible man who had the airs of a irascible Norse god.His forehead is covered with wrinkles, his bristling blond hair has been cut to the length required by the army, and his round head has well-defined veins on his nose.At this moment, his bright eyes were dulled by the continuous sleepless night.An influential aerospace strategist and adviser to military operations in the Pentagon before becoming administrator of NASA, Extron was known for his gruff temper and unquestionable determination to get everything done And famous.

Rachel Sexton follows Lawrence Extron into the Sojourner Ball and finds herself walking through a maze of eerie translucent corridors.Rachel was flabbergasted to hear Extron straight to the point expressing his disapproval of the president's enthusiasm for involving Rachel in this matter. "You know," Ekstrom said, "that you're involved in a classified NASA program, and it's something I hate. It's not just because you're a representative of the NRO. , your officers are always teasing us like kids who talk nonsense and because you're the daughter of the man who always wants to destroy my agency. It's time for us NASA to be proud. Recently my people have suffered Many accusations, we should have won this moment of glory. However, led by your father, waves of doubt came to us, and we found ourselves in such a political situation that we had to be forced to To share the glory with a random selection of unofficial scientists and the daughter of the man who tried to bring us down."

To Rachel's surprise, Director Ekstrom didn't know what Rachel's mission was here, he just introduced this discovery to Rachel on the order of the President.Two weeks ago, a new addition to the Earth-observing system, the Polar-Orbiting Density Scan Satellite, passed over the Milne Ice Shelf and spotted a density anomaly that was nothing like they had imagined.The polar-orbiting density-scanning satellite detected a boulder about ten feet in diameter buried in solid ice two hundred feet below the ice that was denser than any boulder found within a 400-mile radius.The stone weighed eight tons, was embedded in solid ice two hundred feet below, and had not been touched for more than three hundred years.

Rachel had already guessed that there should be a logical explanation for the stone's presence.However, Extron's explanation is that the rock found by the Polar Density Scanning Satellite is a meteorite, and what excites them is that the meteorite has features that have never appeared on other meteorites.As for what this characteristic is, Ekstrom shakes the burden and wants to introduce Rachel to someone who is more qualified to talk about it than him. At one forty-five in the afternoon, Senator Sedgwick Sexton's limousine pulled into the parking lot.Sexton came out triumphantly, striding toward the entrance.A potbellied CNN producer, with a warm smile on his face, informed them that they had been sent Marjorie Tench, a senior aide to the president.

Marjorie Tench was really scary looking.At this moment, she was listlessly sitting on a chair and smoking a cigarette, her right arm lazily raised and lowered to touch her thin lips, like a big praying mantis eating. God, Sexton thought.Such a face dares to come to the radio station to do a program. Even more fortunate than Tench's media-unpopular face was her attitude on one key issue: her vehement assertion that America's future leadership can only be guaranteed by technological superiority.Nowhere is her support for NASA more visible.Many believe it is her behind-the-scenes pressure that has forced the president to remain steadfast on the failing US space agency.

However, it might seem like the President would be misguided in sending such a person to confront Senator Sexton head-on, but the President is certainly not a fool.Gabrielle Ash vaguely felt that this meeting was not a good one. Gabrielle tugged on Sexton's sleeve as he walked toward the studio. "I know what you're thinking," she whispered, "but be smart. Don't go overboard. Remember, this woman is very good at her job." Sexton gave her a suggestive smirk and said, "Me too." As Rachel and the Chief marched around the rim of the dome, she noticed the surprised and disapproving looks of those who recognized her.Their whispers came clearly in this echoing space.

Isn't that Sexton's daughter? What is she doing here? I can't believe the chief is talking to her! The hatred that permeated her wasn't the only emotion, she also felt a palpable sense of elation—as though NASA had figured out who would have the last laugh. The chief led Rachel to a row of desks where only one man sat at a computer workstation.Finding out that he is Michael Tolan, one of the most prestigious "scientific celebrities" in the United States today, Rachel's excitement is beyond words.Tolan hosts a weekly documentary called "A Sea of ​​Magic."On the show, he allows viewers to witness fascinating ocean phenomena—undersea volcanoes, ten-foot sea worms, and deadly tides.Dubbed him a cross between Jacques Cousteau and Carl Seguin by the press, they lauded his breadth of knowledge, restrained enthusiasm, and love of adventure as the principles behind the show's production, which made "Magic Ocean" its top rating Rate.Of course, most critics concede that Tolland's rugged good looks and unassuming charisma endeared him to female audiences.

Tolland's brown eyes are as alert and passionate as they are on the TV show, and his voice is just as warm and earnest. He is forty-five years old and looks weather-beaten but full of life. His thick black hair is always blown in front of the forehead. .He has a strong chin, and his manner is free and uninhibited and exudes confidence.When Rachel shook hands with him, his rough, callused palms made her notice that he was not your typical "weak" TV personality, but an excellent sailor and a hands-on researcher. Tolan, however, admitted that he was chosen more for his public relations than scientific knowledge, and that the president called him in to make a documentary about the big press conference tonight announcing the discovery play on .

When Rachel asked what was so special about the meteorite, Tolland gave her a mysterious smile and suggested she check it out.He led Rachel to the next-door work area to find Mallinson to look at the specimen of the meteorite. Medalist and astrophysicist Corky Mallinson took Rachel and Tolland into his work area, stood by a shoebox, and picked out three small meteorite specimens.They are the three main types of meteorites in the world. All meteorites contain varying amounts of nickel-iron alloys, silicates and sulfides.People are classified according to the ratio of metals and silicates they contain.

The first meteorite that Corky introduced to Rachel was the iron core meteorite, which looked like a small dark gray iron ball, and the outer hard shell had turned black after being burned.The charred outer layer is called the fusion crust.The second piece is the stone-heart meteorite. This meteorite has a slight green color because it has a high content of olivine.The third piece is a stony meteorite, which is the most common type of meteorite, and more than 90% of meteorites found on the earth are of this type. Corky's eyes bulged with excitement, "The meteorite buried under the Milne Ice Shelf is a stony meteorite—like the one in your hand. The stony meteorite looks similar to igneous rocks on Earth, which makes They are very difficult to identify." Immediately afterwards, Corky picked up the meteorite and began to demonstrate with great interest how the meteorite reached Ellesmere Island.As the meteorite approached the earth, it was attracted by gravity and began to accelerate its fall.When falling to a certain level, the meteorite begins to rub against the atmosphere.The gas surrounding the meteoroid glows incandescently as surface material melts in the resulting heat.When the meteor hits the wall of the atmosphere, its speed is suddenly reduced due to the high density of the air.The meteor immediately cooled down and stopped heating.The meteor's surface hardens from a molten state into a charred fusion crust.The meteorite exploded on impact with the Earth's surface, and one piece fell to Ellesmere Island, where it ended up on the Milne Glacier, where the snow and ice quickly buried it and protected it from erosion by the atmosphere. After the explanation, Corky returned the specimen to Rachel and asked her to see the cross-section of the specimen. Rachel brought the rock close to her eyes, tilting it toward the dim halogen light overhead.She saw tiny specks of metal glistening in the stone.Many small grains are scattered in the cross-section, like tiny mercury grains, each about one millimeter in diameter. "These little bubbles are called 'chondrules,'" Corky said, "and they're structures that don't exist on Earth at all. Some chondrules are very old—perhaps made of the earliest material in the universe. Others are new." Many, like the ones in your hand. The chondrules in this meteorite are only about 190 million years old." "Is 190 million years new?" "Of course! Cosmologically speaking, that was yesterday. But the point here is that this specimen contains chondrules—definite evidence for meteorites." Corky then showed Rachel an easy way to determine the origin of the meteorite. "In rocks on Earth, the mineral nickel is either extremely high or very low. There is no middle value. But in meteorites, the nickel content is in the middle range. So if we analyze a specimen and find If the nickel content is within an intermediate range, we can identify the specimen without doubt as a meteorite." Knowing this, Rachel still felt very annoyed, because she still didn't know why she came here. Corky let out a long and cautious breath, and then took out a small disk-shaped stone tablet from his breast pocket.This is a meteorite discovered by NASA. Rachel took the rock, saw the fusion crust, and saw the chondrules.In addition, Corky told her that they had tested it through a petrographic polarizing microscope to prove that its nickel was in the middle range-never like a stone on Earth.So, this rock is from space. But when she turned the rock over to see the other side, Rachel was taken aback. "That's..." Rachel stammered, almost unable to utter the word, "That's... a bug! There is a fossil of a bug in this meteorite!" "It's an isopod," said Corky, "an insect with three pairs of legs, not seven." Rachel didn't even hear what he was saying.She carefully examined the fossils in front of her, her mind spinning rapidly. "You can clearly see," said Corky, "that the shell on its back is divided into pieces like a watermelon worm on Earth. But its two distinct tails-like appendages, distinguish it from lice-like different things." Rachel's mind had long since cast Corky out of the blue.The taxonomy of species doesn't matter at all, and the baffling episodes flash out—presidential secrets, NASA excitement...   There are fossils in meteorites!Not a little bit of bacteria and microorganisms, but advanced life forms!Evidence of life elsewhere in the universe! Ten minutes into the CNN debate, Senator Sexton thought his worries were unfounded.Although this senior advisor was well known for her ruthlessness and intelligence, she was more a victim than a capable opponent at the moment. I have to admit that at the beginning of the debate, Tench repeatedly emphasized that Sexton's anti-abortion platform discriminates against women, which gave her the upper hand. error.Tench in quality When asked how Sexton could fund education without raising taxes, he pointedly mentioned the scapegoat that Sexton always looked for—NASA. Tench deftly sidestepped both the recent NASA failure and the secretive emergency meeting between the president and NASA administrator. For the next few minutes, both Sexton and Tench talked around corners.Tench tried to change the subject, but to no avail, and Sexton kept forcing her to stay on NASA's budget. "Senator," Tench argued, "you want to cut NASA's budget, but do you know how many high-tech workers will lose their jobs?" Sexton jumped at the question and said, "Marjorie, what we're talking about is saving a lot of money if it means a bunch of scientists at NASA have to drive marketable technology in BMWs. If it goes elsewhere, then let them go. In terms of financial expenditure, I promise that there will be no compromise." As a rebuttal to Sexton's anti-NASA stance, Tench asked him a straightforward question. "Senator, if I tell you we can't explore space for less than what NASA currently spends, are you going to abolish the space agency entirely?" The question fell like a boulder on Sexton's leg.After all, Tench is no fool.She asked a brilliant question just now, and she gave Sexton a sudden blow-she carefully designed a true-or-false question, forcing Sexton, who was sitting on the fence, to make a clear choice and thoroughly clarify his position. Sexton instinctively tried to avoid the question, but Tench was insistent.In desperation, Sexton had no choice but to say that he would abolish his country's space program, divert NASA's current budget directly to the education system, and then condemn NASA's huge expenditures for little return Tench sighed heavily, and said, "Insignificant? Maybe apart from the exploration plan for alien intelligence, NASA has achieved great results." For this project, Sexton has always regarded this as a costly and fruitless treasure hunt. "I'm saying that if any government agency spends thirty-five years and spends forty-five million dollars and doesn't get a single result, that agency should have been axed a long time ago." Sexton paused. A moment later, so that people could appreciate the significance of his speech, "Thirty-five years later, I don't think we will find aliens, it is extremely obvious." "But what if you're wrong?" Sexton rolled his eyes and said, "Oh, for God's sake, Ms. Tench, if I'm wrong I'll have my head off." Marjorie Tench's jaundiced eyes were fixed on Senator Sexton. "I'll remember you saying that, Senator." She smiled for the first time. "I think we'll all remember." In the Oval Office six miles away, President Zach Herney turned off the television and poured himself a drink.As Marjorie Tench had promised, Senator Sexton was hooked — completely hooked. Rachel Sexton stared dumbfounded at the meteorite fossil in her hand, and Michael Tolan felt that he was equally delighted.Rachel's elegant face seemed to take on an expression of innocent wonder now—like a little girl seeing Santa Claus for the first time. I can understand how you feel, he thought. Just when Rachel was still immersed in this shock, a particularly tall Asian man came between them arrogantly.He's Dr. Willie Ming, Chair of the Department of Paleontology at UCLA.Ming is another unofficial hired by the president. Dr. Ming specializes in paleontology of extinct arthropods and raptors.He explained to Rachel that the most impressive feature of this creature is that it fits perfectly with the Darwinian taxonomy and taxonomy.If such a creature were to be found on earth, it would be classified in the order Isopods, in the same class as the two thousand species of lice.However, after seeing the pictures on the X-ray printing drawings, Rachel was speechless in amazement.The insect looked about two feet long. On Earth, Ming explained, insects stay small because gravity inhibits their growth.Insects cannot grow too long beyond what their exoskeletons can support.On a planet with reduced gravity, however, insects could have evolved to be much larger. "The thought of slapping a mosquito the size of a vulture is terrifying." Corky joked, taking back the ice body core sample from Rachel and sneaking it into his pocket. Ming frowned, "You better not steal that thing!" "Don't worry," said Corky, "we have more than eight tons left at the place where this fossil was taken." The data in front of her was churning in Rachel's analytical mind. "How can life in space be so similar to life on Earth? I mean, you say that this kind of insect meets the Darwinian classification principle?" Corky explained it all to Rachel in terms of germ theory.Embryospermia refers to the theory that life on Earth originated from another planet.If this is the case, then the fundamental origin of life on Earth should be the same as that of alien life. The germ theory, Rachel thought, still unable to understand its hidden meaning, "So this fossil not only confirms the existence of life elsewhere in the universe, but in fact confirms the germ theory...Earth Life originated elsewhere in the universe." Corky gave her a quick nod with enthusiasm, "Strictly speaking, we may all be aliens." He rested his fingers on his head like two tentacles, squinted his eyes, and kept vomiting. tongue, like some kind of insect. Tolan looked at Rachel, smiled lovingly, and said, "This guy is the pinnacle of evolution." Rachel Sexton walked beside Michael Tolland through the sojourn sphere, feeling a dreamlike fog enveloping her, with Corky and Min following close behind. Now Rachel realized that NASA had found irrefutable evidence.What they are presenting here are genuine specimens of meteorites in which biological organisms can be seen with the naked eye.That was a louse several feet long! To make it easier for mainstream society to understand, the president asked Tolland to make a short documentary about the meteorite.Rachel was only now beginning to realize the ingenuity of the president's plan.Politics is a mass media game, and Rachel immediately thought that Michael Tolland's presence on the television screen would inspire enthusiasm for a press conference and convince people of its science.Skeptics will have a hard time challenging the president's data if it comes from a handful of respected unofficial scientists and some of the country's television industry's biggest science personalities.And it was at this time that Rachel understood the purpose of her trip.As the White House intelligence liaison responsible for analyzing and validating data, and the daughter of a man who built his campaign around accusations that NASA was wasting money on the space industry, her testimony will be hugely important. Adds to the credibility of this documentary. At this moment, Rachel learned that NASA was planning to salvage the meteorite out of the water, and that it was Dr. Manger, a glaciologist at the University of New Hampshire and the fourth president hired by the president, who came up with a way to salvage the meteorite. first and last unofficial scientist. The limousine ride back from the CNN studios to Sexton's office felt like a long ride to Gabrielle Ash.Senator Sexton sat across from her, looking out the car window, apparently still thinking triumphantly about the debate.But the smug satisfaction on Marjorie Tench's face as she drove away made Gabrielle nervous. Sexton's private mobile phone rang, and he fumbled in his pocket to find it.He answered the phone, Talking to the phone about a meeting at his DC apartment.Gabrielle was amazed that Sexton had canceled all arrangements for this meeting. Gabrielle was tempted to ask who the mysterious figure who called was, but Sexton was clearly being vague.Yet she had a strange feeling that Sexton knew the call was coming. After Tolland introduces Dr. Manger to Rachel, Rachel is surprised to see that Nora Manger has an endearing mischievous look on her face despite her tough talk.She has a fairy hairstyle, brown hair mixed with a little gray, and her eyes are sharp and quick - they are a pair of clear and transparent eyes.Rachel liked the steely self-confidence about her. Nora Manger led Rachel around the base of the tower device, pointing to the drill holes under the tripod device and said: "These holes are all left when we drilled rock samples and irradiated meteorite X-rays. At present We use these drill holes to put many wear-resistant The ring-head wood screws were placed in the empty ice cave below, and they were screwed into the meteorite.After that, we dropped two hundred feet of braided wire rope into each hole, hooked the wood screws with industrial hooks, and at this point we were just trying to winch the meteorite up.It will take the girls hours to pull it up to the ground, but they're getting there. " Nora also told Rachel that they used gallium arsenide semiconductor lasers to heat the meteorite as they pulled it upward.Nora directed the laser beam down, melting the ice so that the laser could shine on the meteorite.Meteorites that are too thick to be melted by the laser begin to absorb the heat of the laser, eventually heating up slowly enough to melt the ice around them.When NASA workers hoisted the hot meteorite, the heated meteorite melted the surrounding ice under the action of an upward force, making it easier to lift up.Meltwater from glaciers that accumulated on the meteorite's surface seeped down from the edge of the meteorite, refilling the ice cave. She also told Rachel that the meteorite was a solid block of ice, without any fault cracks or glacier avalanches.It has remained intact under the ice since it fell in 1716. Rachel was really surprised when she heard that Nora Manger actually knew the exact date when the meteorite landed. At this time, Tolan came over. "For the record," Tolland said, "Dr. Manger's date of 1716 is perfectly acceptable. NASA proposed the exact same impact date before we got here. Manger Dr. Ge himself drilled the core of the ice body and tested it himself, and the results further confirmed the results of NASA's work." Rachel admired it. "The fact that the age of the icy core matches the historical record actually confirms that we are seeing exactly the same meteor that Jong Sol saw in 1716," Corky added. part." Just then, a NASA worker yelled at Dr. Manger, "The top buckle is about to come out!" "The tour is over, friends," Nora said. "It's time to reveal the truth." She grabbed a folding chair and climbed up, then yelled, "Five minutes to the ground, guys!" Throughout the sojourn sphere, scientists dropped their work like dogs in response to the ringing of the dinner bell and hurried to the digging area. Nora Manger put her hands on her hips and surveyed her territory: "Okay, let's pull this behemoth up." "Stand aside!" Nora yelled, making her way through the growing crowd.The workers spread out, and Nora was in control, ostentatiously checking the tension and alignment of the wire ropes. "Pull!" shouted a NASA worker.Workers tightened the crank, and the wires rose another six inches up the borehole. The steel wire rope continued to rise, and Rachel felt that everyone was moving forward step by step full of expectations.Corky and Tolan were nearby, looking like kids at Christmas.On the far side of the borehole, Lawrence Ekstrom, the director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, came over and found a place to watch the meteorite salvage process. "The buckle!" shouted a NASA worker, "the top one's out!" The wire ropes slowly rising up from the borehole changed from silver braided ropes to yellow leads. "Six feet to go! Keep the meteor steady!" The crowd around the scaffolding suddenly held their breath and became silent, as if they were waiting for a certain spirit and ghost to appear at a seance—everyone looked as far as they could, wanting to see it first. That's when Rachel saw the meteorite. The vaguely shaped meteorite emerged from beneath the thinning ice and began to take on its true colors.Rectangular in shape, the meteorite was dark and hard to see at first, but its shape gradually became clear as it melted an upward channel. "Keep it up!" shouted a technician.Workers tightened the cranks, and the scaffolding creaked. "Five feet to go! Keep your balance!" Now Rachel could see the ice on top of the meteor bulging like a beast about to give birth.At the top of the raised ice, the small circle of surface ice around the point where the laser hit began to disappear, gradually melting, and forming a widening hole. "Okay, turn off the laser!" Like some Paleolithic god rushing in, the boulder broke through the ice with a "sizzling" sound of water vapor.The meteorite was hanging on the wire rope, dripping wetly. The rough surface glowed brightly under the fluorescent light. The surface had been scorched, and layers of petrified deep purple appeared.One side of the meteorite is smooth and round, and this cross-section was obviously formed by frictional explosion when it passed through the atmosphere rapidly. Up until this moment, the exciting event hadn't really moved Rachel.What hangs in front of her eyes is something from another world thousands of miles away, but there is a sign hidden in it—no, it should be a kind of evidence—proving that human beings are not alone in the vast universe. People shouted and applauded involuntarily, and even the director of NASA was intoxicated.He patted the male and female employees and congratulated them.The chief turned to Rachel, who looked happier after his gloom had cleared. "So, Ms. Sexton, will the skeptical professionals be convinced?" Rachel couldn't help smiling slightly, and said, "I'm almost dumbfounded." "Very well, then come with me." Rachel followed the chief through the sojourn ball to a spacious metal house that looked like an industrial shipping container.The house is painted with military camouflage and stenciled letters: PSC.Field Safety Communication System, Rachel thought.These mobile communication stations are standard field equipment.From here, Rachel begins a conversation with the president. On the third floor of the senator's office building, Gabrielle Ash paced briskly up and down in front of her computer terminal on her long legs.There was a new email on the screen, but she didn't know how to explain it. The first two lines read like this: Sedgwick's admirable performance at CNN I have more information to tell you. Gabrielle has been getting similar messages over the past few weeks.Although the return address was spoofed, she tracked down a "whitehouse.gov" domain.It seems that the mysterious person who provided her with the information was an insider in the White House, but whoever it was, that person recently disclosed to Gabrielle a lot of important political information, including the secret meeting between the director of NASA and the President. thing.However, the information displayed on Gabrielle's computer screen at this moment made her nervous.This message was different from anything she had received in the past.The first two lines of the message didn't bother her too much, it was the last two lines: East Date Gate, 4:30 p.m. Come alone. The person who tipped her off had never asked to meet before.But the source has done nothing more than help her over the past two weeks.Needless to say, he or she can be of great help.