Chapter 13 Chapter 10 Before Landing

Harper sighed, and said: "In that case, the evidence would be planted by others to discredit me if necessary. Only one person could do that kind of thing." "Who?" Harper looked her in the eyes. "Laurence Extron hates me." Shocked, Gabrielle asked, "The director of NASA?" Harper nodded firmly and said, "He's the one who made me lie at the press conference." Even with the Aurora's atomized methane propulsion system running at half power, Delta was racing through the night at three times the speed of sound—more than two thousand miles an hour.At this moment, "Aurora" was speeding fast over the desolate Labrador Sea, and Delta-1 was instructed that the situation had changed.Before Rachel Sexton and the two scientists landed, they had to deal with another target.After pondering for a while, the commander told them a name.

The three looked at each other.It was a name they were very familiar with. In an envisioned "zero casualty" military operation, the death toll and target statistics curve is climbing rapidly.The commander felt every muscle in his body tense as he prepared to tell them exactly how and where to eliminate this new target. "The bets have been greatly increased," said the commander. "Listen carefully. I will only repeat my orders once." High in the skies over northern Maine, a G4 jet was heading toward Washington at high speed.On the plane, Rachel Sexton began to explain her theory of why there might be an excess of hydrogen ions in the molten crust of the meteorite, while Michael Tolan and Corky Mallinson watched quietly.

NASA commissioned expansion cycle engines at a base called Plum Brook.NASA overcame the problem of liquid oxygen and hydrogen freezing in space by turning the fuel into a "slurry-hydrogen" mixture, a cryogenic fuel made of pure hydrogen in a semi-frozen state.This fuel provides enormous amounts of energy and burns very cleanly.In Rachel's view, if a huge rock is placed behind such a slurry hydrogen engine, it will be scalded by the unprecedentedly high-temperature exhaust gas with high hydrogen content, and an out-and-out fusion shell will be formed on the surface.In this way, streaks with a certain direction and reflowed melt will also appear on the fusion shell.Also, completely burned hydrogen fuel leaves no chemical residue, just hydrogen.Excessive hydrogen ions also appear on the molten spot.

In this case, all NASA needs is a fossil that is 190 million years old.Put the fossil in the exhaust gas of the hydrogen engine for a while, and then bury it in the ice. This is a quick meteorite.Rachel remembered Corky explaining that chondrules were created by rapid heating and cooling in space.She believes that on Earth, this process can also be achieved by rapidly cooling rocks in a cryogenic freezer after being heated by a slurry hydrogen engine. Although Corky repeatedly emphasized that this is just an absurd idea, after hearing Rachel's bold assumption, Tolan began to think in a new direction.If fusion crusts make sense... what other possibilities exist?

"A logically rigorous proof is like a house of cards," Rachel said. "Take out your original hypothesis, and everything falls apart. Here, the location of this meteorite is found as an original hypothesis." "When I got to Milne, the head of NASA told me that the meteorite was found in a three-hundred-year-old pristine ice sheet, and it was denser than what was found there," Toland said. Any of the rocks in the world are bigger, and I take that as logical evidence that the rock fell from space." "You, and the rest of us think so." "The medium nickel content, while convincing, is not convincing."

"That's close too," Corky said from the sidelines, obviously listening. "But not precisely." Corky reluctantly nodded his head to express his acquiescence. "And," said Toland, "this never-before-seen space bug, despite its odd appearance, may actually be a very ancient deep-water crustacean." Rachel nodded: "Also, now this melting shell..." "Although I don't like to say it," Tolland said, glancing at Corky, "I gradually feel that there is more negative evidence than positive evidence." Corky insists that the small chondrules on the boulder are chondrules, and the only question is why anyone put meteorites under the ice.

Tolland wanted to believe his friend's sound reasoning, but something was wrong.With a bewildered sigh at Corky, he said, "I don't know either. Two pieces of evidence out of three aren't too bad, Corky. But we're only left with a third." Reliable. I just think we're missing something."