Chapter 61 Chapter 51: The Ghost

Even in his worst nightmares, it never occurred to Van den Berg that he would be stranded with a madman in a place fraught with danger.Fortunately, little Chris does not seem to be a violent person, maybe he can make the space shuttle take off again, and fly back to the Galaxy safely... Little Chris was still staring aimlessly, and the silent conversation was still on his lips.The alien city remains utterly desolate and anyone would have thought it had been abandoned for centuries, yet Vandenberg is now noticing evidence of recent activity by some creatures.While the Piltie whipped up the surrounding snow when it landed, there was still some powdery residue on the rest of the small area.It was a page torn from a book, full of symbols and hieroglyphics, some of which he could still read.

In that direction there is a trail of a heavy object being dragged across (or moving under its own power).At the entrance of a newly closed igloo there is a very clear track of wheeled traffic.Farther in the distance was a small thing that looked like an abandoned container (couldn't see clearly because it was too far away).Maybe Europas are sometimes as inattentive as humans... The presence of life here is so obvious and unmistakable; van den Berg felt as if there were thousands of eyes (or other senses) looking at him, and he couldn't guess who was watching from the shadows. Friendly or hostile.They may be very apathetic, just waiting for the intruder to leave on their own so that they can continue their interrupted mysterious work.

Then, little Chris spoke again into the air. In a sad tone, he whispered, "Goodbye, Grandpa." Then, turning to Vandenberg, he said in a normal tone, "He said it was time to leave, and I think you must have thought I was crazy." The smartest way, Vandenberg thought, was not to agree with him.Before long, he discovered that there were other things to worry about. Now little Chris stared anxiously at the data the Billy computer was feeding him.Now he said in an apologetic tone: "Van, I'm sorry about all this, this landing took more fuel than I expected, so we have to change the course of this mission."

This, Vandenberg thought dejectedly, was just another way of saying "we can't get back to the Galaxy," and he had a hard time refraining from saying "it's all your grandpa's fault."Just ask, "Now what do we do?" Little Chris studied the cosmic chart and made more marks on it. "We can't stop here ('Why not?' thought Van den Berg, 'if we're going to die anyway, let's use as much time as possible to learn.'), so we have to find a place where the universe The Space Shuttle could easily pick us up." Vandenberg took a deep breath to relax.He complained that he was so stupid that he didn't think of this problem.He felt like a man who had been taken to the scaffold and then let down.The Cosmos spacecraft can reach Europa in four days at most. Although the living conditions in the Pitty are not luxurious, compared to other environments he can imagine, it is still good.

"Leaving this ghost weather, to a surface that is stable and flat, and closer to the Yinhe, although I'm not sure how much it will help us, but it will definitely not have any problems. We still have enough fuel to fly 500 kilometers , except that we cannot venture across the sea." For a while, van den Berg could not stop thinking about Mount Zeus, there were too many things he could do there, but as Io and the magic star gradually approached the alignment, the increasingly severe earthquake made it impossible for him to stay on Mount Zeus at all.He didn't know if his instruments were still functioning properly, and he was going to check them again when he was done with the problem at hand.

"I'm going to land on the equator. Anyway, this is the best place for the space shuttle to land. The radar map shows that there is a flat area in the interior sixty degrees west." "I know, that's the Masada Plateau." (Van den Berg added in his heart: Maybe there is another expedition, and never miss any unexpected opportunity...) "That's the plateau, goodbye, Venice, goodbye, grandpa..." When the rumbling sound of the rocket gradually diminished and finally disappeared, little Chris checked the safety of the ignition circuit for the last time, loosened his seat belt, and stretched his body as much as possible in the small space of the Billy. arms and legs.

"Vision isn't bad for Europa," he said cheerfully. "From now on, we have four days to verify that the space shuttle rations are not as bad as they complain. So, which one of us will start first?" chat."