Chapter 13 Chapter 6 Taizhuo Plate

Great Huanshan Province: From near the center of the front side of the moon to the south, it is located in the east of Zhonghuanshan Province. The craters that are densely impacted by external forces may have a large area, including the largest crater on the moon; in the north, some craters have been impacted into fragments, forming the so-called "imbrium". Landing and Maneuvering: Landing is generally difficult due to the rough, sloping surface; relatively less difficult on some horizontal valley bottoms.Action is possible almost everywhere, but requires choosing a path along some flat, circular valley bottoms where it's easier.

Construction: Generally somewhat difficult due to slope and many large pieces of loose material; digging in lava at the bottom of some circular valleys is difficult. Taizhuo: Craters after the Maria era.Fifty-four miles in diameter, the wall is 7,900 feet higher than its surroundings, and the valley floor is 12,000 feet deep; it has the most prominent system of light radiation on the moon, some of which can extend for 500 miles. (Excerpt from Engineers, Special Survey of the Lunar Surface, U.S. Geological Survey, Army Department of Engineers, Washington, D.C., 1961.) Moving at fifty miles an hour on the lunar crater plain at this time, the mobile laboratory looked very much like an oversized trailer mounted on eight deformed tires.But it goes far beyond that function; it's a completely self-contained base where twenty people can live and work in it for weeks.Really, it's a land-based spaceship—and it can actually take off in an emergency.If it approaches a fault or canyon that's too big to go around and too steep to cross, it can fly over the obstacle using its four pedestal jet engines.

Looking out the window, Floyd could see a well-rutted road unfolding before him, with dozens of vehicles leaving hard-pressed tracks on the moon's fragile surface.Along the way, there are thin and tall poles at equal distances, with flashing lights hanging on each of them.Although it was still late at night, and the sun was still hours away, no one would get lost on the two hundred-mile journey from Kolevius Base to TMA-1. Compared with the clear nights in New Mexico or the Colorado plateau, the stars here are only slightly brighter and have slightly more stars.However, there are two things in the dark sky that make it impossible to think that this body is still on the earth.

One was the earth itself—hanging like a cluster of burning torches in the northern sky.The light radiating from that huge hemisphere was dozens of times brighter than the full moon, casting a layer of blue-green will-o'-the-wisps on this land. The second strange phenomenon in the sky is a dark red cone of light obliquely shooting to the east. The light grows brighter the closer it gets to the horizon, faintly revealing flames that are unseen beyond the lunar limb.This is a vast scene that humans rarely see from the earth, and it can only be glimpsed during a total eclipse.This is the corona, the morning light on the moon, heralding that the sun will soon shine on this sleepy land.

Floyd, Halvorson and Michaels sat in the front lookout, just below the driver's station.Freud's thoughts turned and turned inseparably from the wide gap of three million years that appeared in front of him. Three million years!In contrast, the ever-changing history, the ups and downs of emperors, generals and ministers, are just a momentary event.Not only man, but all the animals that now live on the earth, did not exist then - when this black monster was carefully buried in the most prominent and prominent ring valley on the moon! It was buried, and consciously buried, and Michaels sees no doubt about it. "At first," he explained, "I was hoping it marked the location of some subterranean construction, but recent excavations have ruled that out. It sits on a broad platform of the same black substance, with the It's all untouched rock. The ones who designed it—the creatures—would keep it buried unless there was a strong earthquake. Those creatures took the long view."

There is something proud in Michaels' tone, yet also sad; Floyd can relate to both.One of humanity's oldest questions has finally been answered; here's the proof, beyond doubt, that humans are not alone in the universe with intelligence, and knowing this, you can't help but feel the pain of time.What happened here has been unknown to the world for hundreds of thousands of generations.Maybe that's not a bad thing, Floyd thought.And yet—how much could our ancestors have learned from these creatures that roamed the universe while they still nested in trees! A few hundred yards directly ahead, on a horizon that was eerily close to the Moon, a signpost was approaching.At the base of the signpost was a tent-like structure, wrapped in gleaming silver foil, apparently for protection from the heat of daylight.When the car passed by, Freud could see the road sign in the bright light: The third emergency replenishment station liquid oxygen 20 kg water 10 kg MK. Type 4 food packs 20 Type B toolboxes 1 clothing repair equipment 1 set "Have you thought about this?" Floyd asked pointing out the window, "Is this a storage place left by an unaccounted-for expedition? "

"It's possible," Michaels admitted. "The magnetic field does mark its location, and it's easy to find. But, it's not that big—it won't hold much supplies." "Why not?" interrupted Halvorson. "Who knows how big these creatures are? Maybe they're only six inches high, so this cache is as tall as a twenty or thirty story building." Michaels shook his head. "Impossible," he retorted, "an intelligent being cannot be small; at least a brain of a certain size is required." Freud noted that Michaels and Halvorson generally held opposing views, yet there seemed to be little animosity or friction between the two men.They seemed to respect each other, merely acknowledging that they couldn't agree.

About TMA-1 - Some people like to call it Taizhuo plate, so as to retain some of its acronyms (Tazhuo plate: the first letter of each word is T and M, which is the same as in the acronym TMA-1 The first two letters are the same.) -- surely no consensus can be found.In the six hours since he landed on the moon, Floyd has heard a dozen theories but subscribed to none.Shrines, markers, tombs, geophysical instruments—these are perhaps the more common assumptions, and some dissenters have debated them red-faced.Lots of people bet on it, so a lot of money will change hands if the truth ever comes out - if ever it does.

The plate's black, hard material is so impenetrable that Michaels and his colleagues' attempts to gently scrape specimens from it have so far failed.They didn't doubt that a laser could cut in—for there was no doubt that nothing could resist such an astonishing concentration of energy—but it was up to Freud to use such violent measures.He had decided to try x-rays, sound waves, neutron rays, and all other nondestructive heuristics before calling on the heavy guns of lasers.It is savagery to destroy what one does not understand; but man is perhaps still a savage compared with the creatures who made it.

Where could this creature possibly have come from?Is it on the moon?No, that is absolutely impossible.If there was ever a native life in this barren land, it would have been destroyed during the last crater-forming period, when much of the moon's surface was white-hot. from earth?Not at all, though perhaps not absolutely impossible.Any advanced culture on Earth - presumably non-human - would have left many other vestiges of existence during the Ice Age.If anything, Freud thought, we would have known all about it long before we got to the moon. So, there are only two other possibilities—planets and stars.Yet everything points to the absence of intelligent life elsewhere in the solar system—indeed, there is no life at all, except on Earth and Mars.Planets close to the sun are too hot, and planets far from the sun are too cold, unless any life descends deep into the atmospheres of these planets, where the pressure reaches hundreds of tons per square inch.

So, maybe these uninvited guests are from the stars—however, that's even harder to imagine.Looking around at the stars dotted with the ebony moon, Freud couldn't help thinking how many of his scientific colleagues had "proved" the impossibility of interstellar travel.The voyage from the Earth to the Moon was still breathtaking, and the nearest star was hundreds of millions of times farther away... Speculation was a waste of time; he had to wait for more evidence. "Please fasten the belt on the seat and secure all moving objects," said the loudspeaker in the cockpit suddenly. "We are about to pass a forty-degree steep slope." On the horizon there appeared two pillars with twinkling lights, and the car passed between them. They were descending the inner slope of Tejo, which leveled off after a few thousand feet.As they climbed down the slope, Michaels pointed to the wide flat plain that gradually opened up in front of him. "Look, it's over there," he called.Floyd nodded; he had noticed a cluster of traffic lights a few miles ahead, and he was staring at them intently as the car drove cautiously down the hill.Although the car was big, it was clearly manoeuvrable. However, Floyd was still so nervous that he didn't even dare to breathe before walking on a flat road. Now he could see a cluster of air-filled igloos--the makeshift shelters for field workers--shimmering like silver bubbles in the groundlight.Near the igloo, there were radio towers, drilling equipment, some parked vehicles, and a large pile of rubble apparently excavated before the slab was found.This little camp in the wilderness looked lonely and vulnerable compared to the forces of nature that quietly surrounded it.There is no sign of life here, and it is not at all clear why people came here from far away from home. "You can just see the mouth of the crater," Michaels said, "just over there to the right—about a hundred yards from the radio antenna." "So here it is," Floyd thought to himself.By this time the car had passed the air-filled igloo and came to the edge of the mouth of the pit.He leaned forward to see more clearly, but his heart couldn't help beating.The car began to climb carefully down the slope of compacted gravel, towards the bottom of the pit. Here, the TMA-1 stood, exactly as he had seen it in the photos. Floyd stared for a moment, blinked, shook his head, and stared again. It was difficult to make out the object, even in the brilliant light of the earth; his first impression was of a flat rectangle, like a sheet of black carbon paper, with little thickness.Of course, that was only an illusion; although he was looking at a solid object, the light reflected by it was so weak that he could only see a circle of outlines. The occupants of the car remained absolutely silent as it descended to the bottom of the pit.There is a feeling of awe, but also an unbelievable suspicion—how could it be believed that such a miracle would happen somewhere else, but on this dead and silent moon? The car stopped less than twenty feet from the slab, facing sideways so that the passengers could take a good look.However, there was nothing to see in that thing other than a geometrically accurate shape.It didn't have any marks on its body, its whole body was as black as rosewood, and there was no place with a lighter color.It was the very embodiment of the night; and Freud wondered for a moment whether some special force of nature had formed the thing during the birth of the moon, with all the fire and pressure.However, he knew that this slim possibility had already been discussed and rejected. By some signaling device, the floodlights around the mouth of the pit were suddenly turned on, and the bright groundlight paled in comparison to the much brighter light.In the lunar vacuum, of course, the beams of the floodlights are completely invisible; they are just overlapping blinding white ellipses centered on the plate.The beam of light shining on the plate seemed to be completely absorbed by the red sandalwood surface. "Pandora's box (Pandora is the first woman made of clay by the gods in Greek mythology. The gods sent a box to Pandora, and she was not allowed to open it without authorization. Out of curiosity, Pandora opened the box secretly, and all the disasters that tormented mankind flew out of the box, leaving only hope on the plate),” Freud thought, suddenly feeling ominous—“waiting for curious humans to go Open.What will they find after opening it? "