Chapter 57 Chapter 48: Lucy

"Hey, Gurneymede Center, we have landed perfectly, I mean little Chris landed on a flat surface of a special rock, probably like granite, we call it "refuge rock". Two kilometers away, but I bet there's no need to get any closer... "We've put on our spacesuits and are ready to go down in five minutes. We'll keep the monitors up and, of course, we'll be in touch with you every fifteen minutes." "What do you mean 'there's no need to get any closer'?" Little Chris asked. Vandenberg smiled evilly.For the past few minutes he seemed to forget his age, almost a carefree little boy.

"Ambient interest," he said cheerfully, "'look around you' in Latin, let's put the big camera out first, oops!" The Billy lurched suddenly and jolted up and down on the shock absorbers of its landing wheels, a jerk that would have caused seasickness if it had lasted a few more seconds. "Gurnymede's earthquake report is correct," Chris Jr. said after they calmed down. "Is there any serious damage?" "Probably not, thirty hours until the rendezvous (Io and Europa rendezvous), there looks like a solid slab of raw stone, don't waste any time here. Fortunately we don't need to waste time here. My mask is on Okay? I don't feel right."

"Let me help you tighten your belt. It's much better. Is it hard to breathe? Good, it's just right now. I'll go out first." Vandenberg wanted him to take the first step, but Chris Jr. was in command, and it was his job to check on Billy and get him ready for immediate takeoff. He walked around the space shuttle, inspected the landing wheels, and then gave a "thumbs up" to Vandenberg, who began to climb down the ladder to meet him.Apparently he was wearing the same light breathing gear he had been probing the shelter for, but something seemed odd to him, so he made some adjustments when he landed.Then he glanced up and saw what little Chris was doing.

"Don't touch it!" he yelled. "It's dangerous!" Little Chris jumped a good distance from the rock fragments he was examining, which to his untrained eyes looked like a large piece of glass that hadn't fully melted in a furnace. "It's not radioactive, is it?" he asked worriedly. "No. But stay away from it until I get there." To his surprise, Little Chris found that Vandenberg was wearing thick protective gloves.As a space official, it took a long time for Chris Jr. to get used to exposing his skin to the atmosphere on Europa, because nowhere in the solar system (not even Mars) is that possible.

Vandenberg came down very carefully, and picked up a long piece of glass-like substance that glowed eerily even in such diffuse light, and Chris could see that it had extremely sharply cut edges. "It's the sharpest knife known in the universe," said Van den Berg cheerfully. "We've been through all this just to find a knife?" Van den Berg started laughing, but found it difficult to laugh under a mask. "So you still don't know what the hell is going on?" "I'm starting to feel like I'm the only one who doesn't know." Vandenberg put his shoulders on the shoulders of little Chris, and turned his companion's face to the looming Mount Zeus in front. Seen from this distance, it occupies half of the sky. The only mountain.

"Appreciate this landscape for a minute, I must first take an important message out." He keyed in a series of numbers on his console, waited for the "Ready" light to flash, and then said, "Gurnymede Center Daima 109, this is Fan, do you get it?" After an extremely short wait, a distinctly electronic voice replied, "Hello, Fan, this is Gurneymede Center Code 109. Ready to receive." Vandenberg paused for a moment, enjoying the momentous moment he will always remember in his life. "Contact Earth to call Uncle Qisanqi, forward the following message: Lucy is here, Lucy is here. End of message. Please repeat."

Whatever he means, whatever it means, maybe I should stop him from saying that.Little Kris thought as Gurneymede repeated its message.But it is too late, the message will reach Earth within an hour. "I'm sorry, little Chris." Vandenberg smiled evilly. "I hope I can seize the opportunity." "Unless you tell me everything right away, I'll use this glass knife to carve you." "Glass, really! Well, I'll explain later, it's quite fascinating, but it's also complicated, so I'll tell you straight up. "The entire Mount Zeus is a diamond, with a mass of about one million metric tons. If you like, the whole thing is about two times ten to the seventeenth power of carats, but I can't guarantee that it is completely gem-quality."