Chapter 24 Chapter Nineteen At the End of the Tunnel

The sudden appearance of a complete stranger is the greatest shock to an independent small world where everyone knows each other. When Dr. Buddha walked slowly along the corridor into the main lounge, he encountered such an unexpected experience.He stared at the intruder in amazement, wondering how the stowaway could have evaded detection without being detected.The other party looked at him awkwardly and bluffing, obviously waiting for Dr. Buddha to speak first. "Well, Willis!" said Dr. Buddha at last. "I'm sorry I didn't recognize you. I think you've made the ultimate sacrifice for science, or should I say for your fellow man?"

"Yes," Willis replied sullenly, "I tried to put my head in a hood, but those damn hairs made too much noise, making it impossible for outsiders to hear what I said." "When are you going to go for a walk?" "When Greenberg came back, he and Bill Chane went digging." When the comet flew past Earth for the first time in 1986, it gave the impression that the comet was much less dense than water, meaning that it was either composed of a permeable material or filled with honeycomb-like holes.Both guesses turned out to be correct. At first, the cautious Captain Smith firmly forbade any spelunking activities, but his attitude softened when Dr. Pendry reminded his assistant, Dr. Qian, that he was an experienced speleologist.In fact, this is one of the important reasons why Dr. Qian was chosen for this task.

"There's no way the cavern could collapse in such a low gravity," Pendray told the somewhat reluctant captain, "so there's no danger of being buried." "What if I get lost?" "Dr. Qian would take this concern as an insult to a specialist. He was twenty kilometers deep into Doormouth Caves. In any case, he is qualified enough to be a competent guide." "How to communicate in the cave?" "Those wires have fiber-optic lines in them, and the radio on the spacesuit should come in handy as well." "Oh! Where is Dr. Qian going to explore?"

"The best place is the disused fountain at the bottom of the Little Ent, which has been extinguished for at least a thousand years." "So I guess it's supposed to be quiet for a while longer. Great, anyone else want to go?" "Greenberg volunteered and has been involved in several underwater caving expeditions in the Bahamas." "I also tried once, but once is enough. Tell Grinber that he has to take good care of himself. The depth he can explore is limited to the place where he can see the entrance, and no further. In case he and Dr. Qian lose Contact, without my permission, he can no longer follow Dr. Qian for further exploration."

The captain told himself that he would never allow Greenberg to do this. Dr. Qian knows a lot of jokes about speleologists wanting to get back to the surface, and he has absolute confidence in his concentration. "It must be a dangerous and noisy place, with cool running water and bumpy ground," he remarked. "I like caves simply because of their harmony, and the sense of being out of time and space. You know where there have been for thousands of years. Nothing has changed, only the stalactites have thickened." But when he got deep into Harley and used up the inextricable thread that would bind the grim beat, he realized that this was no longer true, although he didn't have any scientific proof, but in His geologist's intuition told him that this subterranean world had formed only yesterday (on the time scale of the Cosmos), younger than some of the human cities.

The long, variable, dark tunnel he was gliding along was about four meters wide, and his sense of the absence of gravity reminded him of diving into caves on Earth.The low-gravity conditions could easily hallucinate him, as if he were carrying too much weight on him and thus making him continually sink toward the bottom of the water, and only when there was no resistance at all did he remember that he was moving in a vacuum, whereas Not in the water. "Dr. Qian, you have already left my sight," said Greenberg, who was fifty meters away from the entrance. "The radio connection is still very clear. What do you see?"

"It's hard to say, I have no way of making out any structures, so I can't describe them. They're not any kind of rock, they crumble when touched, I feel like I'm probing a giant swiss cheese..." "You think it's organic?" "Yes. But of course it has nothing to do with life, except that it is the perfect raw material for life. All kinds of hydrocarbons, chemists would be interested in these samples. Can you still see me?" "Only your light, but it fades again quickly." "Oh, here are some real rocks, which don't seem to belong here, but may be foreign. Ah! I've struck gold!"

"You're kidding!" "It's the iron sulphide that fooled a lot of people in the Old West. It's very common on the outer layers of artificial satellites. Of course, don't ask me what it's doing here..." "I can't see you anymore. You are already two hundred meters away." "I'm passing a very special road, it looks like a meteorite rock formation. Something big must have happened at that time, hope I can find the correct time. Wow!" "do not scare me!" "Sorry, I was really taken aback. There is another big cave in front of me, which is completely unexpected. Let me shake the light and observe it..."

"It's almost spherical, about 30 to 40 meters wide. It's unbelievable! Halle is full of surprises! There are stalactites and stalagmites." "What's so strange about this?" "Because there is no limestone here at all, and there is no running water, not to mention the gravity is so low here, how can there be stalactites! It looks like some kind of wax, and the shape is very special, like a candle that is about to drip. Alas, strange things... …” "What happened?" Dr. Qian's tone changed suddenly, and Greenberg noticed it immediately. "Some of the stalactite columns have been destroyed, they've fallen to the ground, almost as if..."

"continue!" "...Like something hit them by mistake." "This is crazy. Could it be that an earthquake snapped them off?" "There were no earthquakes here, just microseisms from the fountains. There may have been a big bang here, but it was centuries ago, because there was already a layer of wax several millimeters thick on the collapsed cylinder." Dr. Qian gradually regained his composure.He was not a fantasist, and cave research was not the sort of research for such a man, but the feel of the place reminded him of some troubling associations.These fallen columns look like the bars of a cage, broken by the escaping monsters within...

Of course, that is utterly absurd, but Botu Qian has learned not to ignore any sign, any red flag, until he has found out the cause of it.His prudence had gotten him out of danger several times, and he would not act recklessly until he was sure the cause of his fear was harmless, continuing to probe down.He was honest enough to admit that it was fear. "Bill, are you okay? What happened?" "I'm still shooting. The shapes remind me of sculptures in Indian temples, all erotic." He deliberately deflected his thoughts away from the fear he faced.At the same time, the mindless act of filming and collecting samples also distracted most of his attention. There should be no problem, he reminded himself over and over again, fear in moderation is good, and panic only hurts when it's overdone.Twice in his life he panicked (once in the mountains, once underwater), and it still haunts him with horror.Thank goodness he wasn't panicking so much now, he didn't know why, but he felt relieved anyway.There seems to be an element of comedy to the whole situation. He started laughing now, not a hysterical laugh, but a laugh of real relief. "Have you seen the old Star Wars movie?" he asked Greenberg. "Of course, many times." ' Well, I know what's bothering me.There's a section in that story where Luke's spaceship dives into an asteroid, only to crash into a giant snakelike creature lurking in a cave. " "It wasn't Luke's ship, it was Han Solo's Millennium Falcon. I never understood how that poor monster was barely making ends meet. It must have been growing hungry, waiting for the sudden arrival of space delicacies." Ray Princess Er is just an appetizer." "I never want to be food." Dr. Qian said very calmly, "Even if there is life here (it would be great if it is real), the food chain must be very short, so unless you find something bigger than a mouse or a mushroom I'm surprised by things... Now let's see where we go... On the other side of the cave there are two exits, one is bigger, I'm going to go that way..." "How far have you gone?" "Oh, it's half a kilometer away. We're in the middle of a cave now... damn, blocked by a wall. I've got a clue now... keep going, the smooth wall is now real rock... what a pity ..." "what is the problem?" "Can't go any further. There are more stalactites...they're too close for me to get through...they're such a beautiful color...the most beautiful greens and blues I've ever seen on a Harley. Hold on I'm now To take pictures of them..." Qian Botu leaned against the narrow tunnel wall to aim the camera.He reached for the light and dark switch with his gloved fingers, but—accidentally cut off the main light. "Poor design," he complained. "This is the third time I've made a mistake." He didn't correct his mistake immediately, because he felt that this kind of darkness and tranquility could only be enjoyed in a deep dark cave.The gentle din of his life support system disturbed him, but at least—' --what is that?Behind the stalactite-stacked gates that prevented him from going further, he could see a faint light like a dawn suit; as his eyes had adapted to the darkness, it began to brighten again, making his eyes especially sensitive, and he noticed Small amount of green.Gradually he could see the outline of the obstacle ahead... "What's going on?" Greenberg said worriedly. "It's nothing... just observing." And thinking, he should add.He sees four possible explanations. It may be produced by the filtering of sunlight through some natural light-transmitting substances such as ice or crystals, but how can it be so deep underground?not quite like... Is it radiation?He didn't bring a radiation detection counter with him, and there aren't any heavy elements here, but it's worth coming back for further study. The most likely, he thought, was some phosphorescent mineral, but there was a fourth possibility, the least likely, but the most exciting. Dr. Qian will always remember that moonless (or magic star) night on the shore of the Indian Ocean, when he was walking along the beach under the shining starry sky.The sea surface was extremely calm, and the waves slowly rushed towards his feet, triggering streaks of light. He was already in the shallows (he still remembers the feeling of the water around his ankles, like taking a warm bath), and every step he took gave off a light, even clapping his hands when he touched the surface. Might similar glowing organisms evolve in the interior of Halley's Comet?He would rather think so.It would be a pity to destroy such a wonderful natural work of art (the obstacles reminded him of the decorative glass windows he had seen behind the altar of the cathedral, with the faint light behind them), but he had to go back and get some explosives to blow up the passage , not to mention there are more other passages ahead... "I can't go any further on this route," he told Greenberg, "so I'm going to try another route. I'm going back to the intersection now, please put the reel in the rewind switch position." He There was no mention of the mysterious light. When he turned on his light again, the mysterious light disappeared. Greenberg didn't answer right away, which was unusual, maybe he was talking to the spacecraft.Botu Qian was not worried, he would repeat his message again when their communication was connected again. He didn't worry for long, for Greenberg had a brief message. "Very well, Greenberg, I don't think I'll be able to reach you for a minute. Now I'm going back to the original hole, now into the tunnel, and hopefully there's no obstacle there." This time Greenberg immediately replied: "I'm sorry, Dr. Qian, please return to the ship immediately. There is an emergency... No, not here, nor Cosmos, Cosmos is all normal. We may have to return to Earth immediately." Dr. Qian finally found a reasonable explanation for the destroyed cylinder within a few weeks. The reason is that when the snow planet passes through each perihelion, it will eject some material into space, so its mass distribution will constantly change. .In this way, its rotation will become unstable every thousands of years, causing its axis to change, and it is a very drastic change, just like a top that loses energy and is about to fall; at this time, it will cause The shaking was equivalent to an earthquake measuring 5 on the Richter scale. But he has been unable to understand the mysterious luminescent phenomenon.While the question was overshadowed by the sudden, more dramatic changes ahead, this sense of missed opportunity would haunt him for the rest of his life. Although he occasionally gets emotional, he never mentioned it to his colleagues. He just left a mysterious foreshadowing for the next expedition, and he will not be able to solve this mystery until the space adventure in 2133. .