Chapter 15 Chapter 12 The Barren Ocean Environment

After the computer started, Rachel saw Tolan fiddle with a series of files and asked, "What are we doing here?" "Check the database of large marine lice. I want to see if we can find some fossilized prehistoric marine life, like the one we saw in the meteorite that NASA found." He opened a search page and put those descriptive After entering the keyword, click the "Search" button.After a few seconds, the screen refreshed, showing a list of four animal fossils.Tolland opened the lists one by one, checking the photos.None, however, looked anything like the fossils from the Milne meteorite.

Tolland frowned. "Let's try something else." He deleted the word "fossil" from the string of search terms, and clicked "Search." "Let's search for all living species. Maybe we You can find a living descendant of a paleontology that has some of the physical characteristics of a Milne fossil." The screen refreshed. Tolland frowned again.Hundreds of entries pop up on the computer, "Well, that's too many. Let's narrow it down." With Rachel watching, Tolland opened a drop-down menu called Habitat.Tolland scrolled down the list, selected an entry, and wrote: Destructive Edge/Trench.

The page has been updated.This time, Tolland laughed. "That's great. Only three." Tolland clicked through the three entries one by one and looked carefully.Neither of the first two had anything to do with the creature they were looking for, and the last was a creature called a giant deep-sea worm.After clicking on the photo, they found that the creature looked like a giant water louse, which was very similar to the fossil in the NASA rock. This creature has a history of 190 million years of evolution.Considered one of the oldest species in the ocean, this rare and recently classified species, the deep-sea giant louse, is a carrion-eating deep-sea isopod that looks like a magnum shrimp.The two-foot-long animal has a crustacean-like mollusc-like exoskeleton, with bones embedded in joints into the head, thorax and abdomen.It has paired appendages, tentacles, and compound eyes, just like those of land-dwelling insects.This seafloor-dwelling creature has no known natural predators and lives in barren pelagic environments that were previously thought to be lifeless.

Seeing this, Tolan suddenly raised his head, "This can just explain why there are no other fossils in this specimen!" Rachel stared intently at the creature on the screen, excited but not sure if she fully understood what it meant. "Imagine," Tolland said excitedly, "190 million years ago, a group of these deep-sea creatures were buried in deep-sea mud tanks, and as the mud evolved into rocks, the worms in these rocks It becomes a fossil. At the same time, the sea floor is like a slow-moving conveyor belt, moving continuously towards the trench, bringing these fossils into a high-pressure zone, where these rocks form pellets!" At this time , Tolland said more quickly, "and it is not uncommon for these fossilized cuff-bearing fractures to stand on the accretionary wedge of the trench, so that in this excellent location Come on, this stone will be discovered!"

Tolland began printing pictures of the deep-sea creature on a laser printer, beginning to focus on the authenticity of the meteorite.At this time, Corky's nasal voice suddenly came from the laboratory, "Impossible!" Both Tolland and Rachel turned their heads. "Test the damn ratio again! It doesn't make sense!" Holding a piece of computer printing paper in his hand, Xavier ran over in a panic, his face pale with fright.According to the titanium-zirconium ratio of the meteorite specimen, NASA's meteorite is a common seafloor rock. In no time, Rachel had gathered all the documents and evidence they had.The evidence is overwhelming: GPR photographs showing the socket of the Milne Ice Shelf, photographs of living sea lice resembling fossils found by NASA; Dr. Pollock's article on marine chondrules; showing that Microprobe data from a meteorite with very little zirconium content.

The conclusion cannot be denied.This is a scam. Just as they were about to disembark, the Coast Guard pilot rushed in and told them that all onboard radar and communication equipment had failed. Rachel stuffed the papers under her shirt and said, "Get on the plane, let's go!" Gabrielle walked through Senator Sexton's dark office with a pounding heart.The only room in the room was the eerie neon glow of Sexton's computer screen. She slipped behind the senator's desk and sat down.She looked at his computer and took a deep breath.If the Senator accepted a bribe from the Space Frontier Foundation, there would be proof of it.

Sexton's computer screensaver is an ever-changing slideshow of the White House and its surrounding grounds, designed for him by one of his hard-working staffers, a visionary and positive thinker.Around the image, a ribbon slowly moves with the words: President Sedgwick Sexton of the United States... President Sedgwick Sexton of the United States... President of the United States... Gabrielle touched the mouse, and a security dialog popped up immediately. enter password: She expected this.This is not a problem.When Gabrielle walked into Sexton's office last week, she saw him tap three keys in rapid succession and had a brief chat with him about the password.

Now, facing his computer again, Gabrielle was sure Sexton hadn't bothered to figure out how to set a different password.Why should it be set?He trusts me unreservedly. She typed SSS. Invalid password - access is denied. Gabrielle's eyes widened in surprise. Obviously, she overestimated the senator's trust in her. The attack came without warning.In the low air to the southwest, above the Goya, a gunship approached murderously, pressing down like a bumblebee.What is this and why is it here, Rachel knows very well. In the darkness, the nose of the helicopter fired intermittently, a stream of bullets sweeping across the Goya's fiberglass deck, cutting a line across the stern.Rachel threw herself on the ground, trying to hide, but it was too late, and she felt a burning pain as a bullet grazed her arm.She fell hard to the ground, rolled, and crawled behind the transparent bulbous dome cover of the Triton.

Rachel was lying on the deck, trembling all over, holding her arms and looking behind Tolland and Corky.The two men apparently rushed to a storage room and hid, their legs shaking, eyes scanning the sky, full of fear. Rachel crouched behind Triton's transparent, curved sub cabin, looking in horror at their only means of escape, the Coast Guard helicopter.Xavier and the pilot rushed into the helicopter, but it was too late. A hundred yards away, high in the sky, a red light as thick as a pencil suddenly appeared in the empty dark night. This red light pierced the night sky and shot down obliquely, searching for the deck of the "Goya".Then the light found its target, landing on the side of the stationary Coast Guard helicopter.

The "Hellfire" missile slammed into the fuselage of the plane, and the plane exploded like a toy.As the flaming shrapnel rained down, steaming, noisy shock waves thundered across the ship.The flaming wreckage of the helicopter tumbled toward the broken tail, swayed for a moment, and then crashed from the stern of the ship into the sea in a puff of hissing steam. Rachel closed her eyes, struggling to breathe.In the chaos, Michael Tolan yelled.Rachel felt his strong hands trying to pull her up.But she couldn't move. Both the Coast Guard pilot and Xavier died. Now it's our turn.

Nasa Administrator Lawrence Extron sat by his videophone in the Field Safety Communications System room of his sojourn, studying the tired eyes of the President of the United States. Extron told President Herney the truth of the matter.NASA intercepted the meteorite's coordinates from an urgent radio transmission -- and then pretended that a polar-orbiting density-scanning satellite had spotted the meteorite. After hearing his words, the president was furious. Across the city, Sedgwick Sexton took another swig of his brandy and paced up and down his flat, increasingly annoyed. Where the hell is Gabrielle? In the dark, Gabrielle Ash sat at Senator Sexton's desk, staring dejectedly at his computer. Invalid Password - Access Denied She'd tried several other passwords that seemed possible, but none of them worked.Gabrielle searches the office and suddenly sees something odd glimmering on the calendar on Sexton's desk.It turned out that someone had traced the date of the general election with red, white, and blue highlighters.Gabrielle moved the calendar closer to see an exaggerated, shimmering exclamation prominently marked on the date: POTUS! The POTUS acronym is the code for "President of the United States" used by the United States Secret Service.On election day, if all goes well, Sexton will be the new POTUS. Gabrielle was about to leave when suddenly she stopped and glanced at the computer screen again. enter password: She looked at the calendar again. POTUS. Gabrielle felt a sudden surge of hope in her heart. POTUS captured Gabrielle's heart instantly as an ideal Sextonian cipher. She typed the letters quickly. POTUS She held her breath and hit the "retry" button.The computer beeped. Invalid Password - Access Denied Gabrielle became discouraged and gave up trying.She walked back toward the bathroom door, ready to retrace her steps.Halfway through the walk, her cell phone rang suddenly.Sexton was in a hurry.Gabrielle told him she would be there in ten minutes. Gabrielle hung up, too engrossed to notice the loud, distinctive ticking of Sexton's cherished Jordan grandfather clock just a few feet away. Michael Tollan took Rachel behind Triton and realized she was hurt only by the blood on her arm.He could tell from the tense look on her face that she didn't know the pain at all.After settling her down, Tolland turned back to Corky.The astrophysicist crawled toward them across the deck, his eyes terrified and blank with terror. We've got to find a place to hide, thought Tolland, who hadn't quite figured out what had just happened.For a split second, Tolland cast a hopeful glance at the Triton sub, wondering if he could get everyone under the water and out of the way of the bullets. absurd.Triton could only hide one man, and it would take a good ten minutes for the control winch to lower the sub through the deck hatch and lower it thirty feet into the sea.Also, the Triton will not work underwater without a fully charged battery and compressor. "They're coming!" yelled Corky, pointing to the sky, his voice shrill with terror. Tolland didn't even look up.He pointed to a nearby bulkhead where an aluminum ramp led down below decks.It was obvious that Corky didn't need help.He lowered his head, hurried towards the intersection, then went down the slope and disappeared.Tolland put a strong arm around Rachel's waist and followed.When the plane came back and was shooting overhead, the two of them disappeared below deck. In panic, Tolan rushed to the storage cabinet with Rachel, opened the cabinet door, and pulled out a flare gun.At the far end of the deck below Corky ran toward a small motorboat tied there. Rachel stared with wide eyes.Escaping a helicopter attack in a motorboat? "There's a radio in the launch," Tolland said, "and if we can get far enough to avoid the helicopters..." Rachel did not hear what he said afterwards.She just saw something that made her blood go cold. "Too late," she said hoarsely, holding out a trembling finger.We're fucked…… Tolan turned his head to look, and saw the black helicopter descending and facing them, like a dragon, staring at the mouth of a hole.For a split second it seemed to Tolland that the plane was coming straight down through the center of the ship toward them.However, the helicopter began to turn at an angle again, aiming at the target. Tolland looked in the direction of the barrel.No! The helicopter targeted Corky on the launch.Tollan reacted instinctively, taking aim with the only weapon he had at hand. He pulled the trigger, the flare gun in his hand hissed, and a blinding light flashed along a horizontal track under the boat, shooting straight at the helicopter.As the speeding flames approached the windshield of the helicopter, the bazooka under the fuselage itself also emitted light.Almost at the same instant as the missile was fired, the plane swerved to avoid the oncoming flames and flew higher, out of sight. "Watch out!" Tolland yelled, jerking Rachel down the aisle. The missile went off course, just missed Corky, came down the Goya, and hit the bottom of the mast thirty feet below Rachel and Tolland's feet. There was only a loud noise, as if the end of the world was coming, sea water and flames spewed up under their feet, countless twisted and deformed metal parts flew in the air, and finally scattered on the corridor under their feet.Metal bumped against metal as the ship moved on a slight tilt for balance. As the smoke cleared, Tolland could see that one of Goya's four main struts had been badly damaged.The turbulent waves beat against the barge, seeming to snap it apart.The spiral staircase to the lower deck looks as if it is suspended by a thin rope. "Come on!" Tolland yelled, urging Rachel to run there.We have to go down! But they came too late.There was only a crackling sound, and the stairs fell off the destroyed support poles and fell into the sea. Above the ship, Delta One struggled with the controls of the Kiowa helicopter, bringing it back to normal.He had been dazzled by the oncoming flames and raised the plane reflexively. As a result, the "Hellfire" missile deviated from the target.He cursed at his mother, and now he was hovering above the bow of the ship again, ready to descend and complete the task. Eliminate everyone on board.The commander's order was very clear. "Damn! Look!" the Delta Two sitting in the back seat yelled, pointing out the window, "Speedboat!" Delta One turned around immediately, and saw a bullet-ridden Crest speedboat passing Goya and sailing into the darkness. He has to make a decision. Crest Phantom 2100 was struggling to move forward on the sea, and Corky's bloody hands were tightly holding the steering wheel of the speedboat.He kept pushing the throttle lever forward hard, trying to maintain maximum speed, until now, he felt the burning pain.Looking back at "Goya," Corky was forced to make a hasty decision. Break each one. Corky knew that if he could lure the helicopter away from Goya, far enough away, maybe Tolland and Rachel could radio a distress call.Unfortunately, the helicopter did not follow.Knowing it was his turn to radio the distress signal now, he groped around the weatherboard to find the radio.He lightly pressed the power switch, but nothing happened.The water shield has been swept by bullets, the radio dial has been smashed, and the loose wires are hanging in front of him. At this moment, two armed soldiers came out of the helicopter, jumped onto the deck, and then the helicopter lifted into the air again, turning around and chasing after Corky at full speed. Corky was suddenly discouraged.Break each one.Apparently he wasn't the only one using this brilliant strategy tonight. Delta Three was making his way across the deck, approaching the rattling passage leading to the deck below, when he heard a woman's cry from somewhere beneath his feet.He turned and gestured to Delta Two, signaling him to go below decks to see what was going on.His companion nodded and stayed behind to search the upper deck.The two were able to keep in touch via an encrypted walkie-talkie; the Kiowa's jamming system cleverly provided an unrecognizable bandwidth that allowed them to communicate themselves. Delta Three gripped his flathead machine gun and walked quietly toward the passage to the lower deck.With the vigilance of a well-trained killer, he began to move a little bit down, with the gun pointed downward. The slope of the corridor restricted the line of sight, and Delta Three crouched low to see better.Now, he could hear the shouting more clearly.He went on down.Halfway up the stairs, he immediately understood that this labyrinth of curved passages led to the bottom of "Goya".At this time, the shouting became louder. That's when he saw her.On the opposite side of the zigzag, Rachel Sexton was leaning over the railing looking down, calling out to the sea for Michael Tolland in despair. Tolland fell?Maybe it was blown down? If this is the case, Delta Three's job will be much easier than expected.All he had to do was go down a few feet and fire a shot, like a sack.The only thing that made him vaguely uneasy was that Rachel was standing next to an open equipment box, which meant that she might have a weapon in her hand—or a speargun, or a shark gun— — but neither of these are worth the machine gun in his hand.Delta Three confidently controlled the situation. He raised his gun and took another step down.At this point, Rachel Sexton could be seen almost clearly.He raised his gun.