Chapter 13 Chapter Thirteen

Circle after circle of colorful halos are reflected on the ground around the huge stone black tower.Carlos drove the landing vehicle to the edge of the halo.A group of people stared at the huge stone black tower and the colorful halos on the top of the tower, dumbfounded and horrified.Later, Hinch's broken voice broke everyone's amazement. "Finally found their lair." He stared at Anderson, his eyes were bloodshot and glowing fiercely, and shouted loudly, "I want to go in." "I'm sorry, sir, I thought this was not within the scope of our mission." Anderson shook his head and replied, "We are not here to take risks. Our mission is to investigate, then report the results of the investigation, and avoid all unnecessary risks. I think that our task is over, and that all we need to know is known. I am appalled by this new discovery. In my opinion, it is imperative that the situation be cleared as soon as possible, by radio or by any other means possible. Report to the ship."

"Report what?" Hinch growled. "What's there to report?" "All circumstances should be reported, sir. Taken together, these circumstances convincingly prove that spiritual animals still exist here. This is a highly sophisticated technological civilization, which may be older than this frost. What's more, they don't seem to be kind to us..." "Don't you have the idea of ​​'Ice God'?" Xin Qi deliberately pulled his tone and mocked, "Now, can you tell everyone what the 'Ice God' is?" "I don't know, sir." Anderson restrained himself, "But, I have to say, we have discovered a potential danger that may pose a threat to the spaceship and the entire plan of colonization here. While there is still a chance, we We must retreat quickly, at least within the range of radio wave communication..."

"If you are timid and afraid, then..." Hinch stared at Anderson and Cruz, paused, and said, "But I don't, I want to go in. Prepare a spacesuit for me." Anderson stared at him hard for a moment. "You can't, sir," Anderson shrugged, and the boss persuaded reluctantly, "really can't. Of course, you are the team leader, and it's up to you." "Sir..." Carlos swallowed and said, "Sir, you are risking your life. You can't go alone." "Then would you like to come with me?" "Yes, sir." Carlos was taken aback by his answer.He saw Anderson and Cruz frowned and looked at each other, as if to say, he is a fool.But he didn't say anything else, and followed Hinch to the airlock below.

Carlos picked out a well-fitting space suit for himself from the storage compartment while he was still on the spaceship, and went to the beach in it.The special close-fitting fabric is covered with various ducts, which can not only ensure the circulation of air throughout the body for repeated recycling, but also absorb sweat vapor and keep the body temperature constant.The oxygen supply equipment is installed on the back, and there is a slight vibration feeling when working.A crystal-clear helmet is also worn on the top of the head. Now, Anderson helped him dress tightly, and told him to check and adjust the various control switches on his body.

"Pay attention to check your oxygen supply equipment," Anderson further explained, "The air in the air bag can be used for 10 to 20 hours." Carlos followed Hinch, down to the frosty ground.Standing there, looking up at the tower, the tower is like a mountain ghost, covering half of the starry sky.He shivered, as if the severe cold outside entered his body through his spacesuit.God!If the so-called "ice gods" really existed, how powerful would they be! The top of the tower high into the starry sky bloomed with colorful halos one after another, and the glow that sprinkled was brighter than the starlight, outlining the strange figures of Carlos and Hinch one after another on the frosty surface.The majesty and strangeness of this tower frightened him, making him feel that he was suddenly caught in the hands of death, and this frosty world turned into a eerie hell in an instant.Father Francisco's warning rang in his ears again.This is hell, Lord Hades is waiting to collect his ghost.

Isn't Xinqi next to him a demon?I saw him wearing a tight yellow space suit, as thin as a spider; a big helmet covering his head, and a black hat inside, under the hat was a small and extremely disproportionate face, haggard like ashes; A pair of heavy glasses, blocking two empty eyes, blind, completely human; holding a gun in his hand, and a long-bladed knife hanging on his belt, he looks like a king of hell. Carlos recoiled in horror.Suddenly, a strong feeling of homesickness spread in his heart, and his hometown appeared so close to him again.Ah, the flat-roofed adobe house where he was born, the hillside where he used to graze, and the chapel where his mother often went to pray, all of which warmed his heart.However, the incidents he had experienced since he left suddenly turned into a nightmare, which made him afraid.Death changed face and appeared before him again.

A nightmare world. In a flash, the spaceship carried him to this world.Everything was too sudden, and it was too late to accept.The cold planet, the dead black sun, the strange starry sky that shines forever, the mysterious master and his great masterpiece.This is not the wonderful world that "Space Seeding" agitators like Steck promise their followers.Chinese sci-fi like a dam However, here are his goddesses, Kip and Dai.Although he can't figure out what the "life environment construction" plan is, these experts who build quantum spacecraft are worthy of respect and love.As for himself, for God's sake, he would give his all for the survival of these people.

"Coward," Hinch taunted him, "don't dare to go? Or let the 'Ice God' freeze you?" A surge of anger rushed into Carlos's heart, and he clenched his fists.But soon, the anger dissipated, leaving no room for humiliation.After all, he had nothing to be proud of either.He had done nothing for his goddess; he had done nothing worth boasting about; he even felt hopeless.Hinch, who is like a pig and a dog, still laughs at him and drives him to turn around on the ice, only to freeze to death in the end. However, he is not a coward, not a coward. He followed Hinch, striding toward Taki.This place is very flat, covered by frost, it seems that it is not an ordinary ground, but a flat road.Further on, the road was blocked by piles of gravel, among which were large boulders larger than houses.

After crossing the gravel pile, we came to the bottom of the tower.Hinch glanced back at Carlos, then walked towards the square door opening.The cave is about 10 meters high. At the beginning tens of meters, you can see a little dim starlight, and then go inside, it is pitch black.Carlos stopped and checked the situation in the cave with the help of a small flashlight.He soon discovered that the tunnel ahead was blocked by a huge metal plate.Due to the erosion of the years, some scars have appeared on it. "Is that a door?" Carlos said to himself. He shone the metal plate repeatedly with a small flashlight, hoping to find something, but there was nothing on it.There was no knob, no handle, no lock, not even a gap.It seems to be naturally connected with the tunnel wall.There are no features to indicate that it is a door.So what about the door, what about the non-door, there is no key anyway.

"It's okay!" Hinch said bitterly. "Anderson has a key that works." Carlos breathed a sigh of relief, after all, he could go out of the cave.Although it was still endless night outside, it was much better than inside the cave.He hurriedly followed Hinch, exited the cave, and returned to the landing vehicle.Cruz remained on watch in the bubble chamber, and Anderson came to fetch them from the airlock below. "There's a wall blocking the tunnel!" Hinch yelled through the walkie-talkie, still in his space suit, "Damn monsters, trying to keep us out of their lair, no way! Anderson, how do you let us pass?" Fault ice wall, now use the same method, let us cross this wall."

"Use high-energy explosives?" Anderson shook his head. "Aren't you trying to provoke the other party to attack us?" "If they're capable, then come." Hinch tilted his head, squinting at Anderson, as if the light from the car had hurt his eyes, "In my opinion, they've died long ago, and they've been dead for tens of billions of years If there are still alive, wouldn’t they have cleaned up the pile of broken rocks in front of the cave?" "I think there must be some who survived. Moreover, people can still see us and know what we are doing." Cruz retorted from the side. "Think about it again," Anderson persuaded again, "They won't welcome us like this." "It's either killed by them, or not, that's all, what's there to be afraid of?" Hinch said nonchalantly, "Maybe, they have something good that can be used by us. I just want to see it." As he spoke, he raised his head and looked fearless, "We will see the outcome in a while." "Are you crazy?" "Aren't we all lunatics?" Hinch screamed. "Don't forget, we're all dead people with nothing to cling to and nothing to risk. God knows, maybe they've got some good stuff." , we can just grab some." "You're really crazy," Anderson told him. "Whatever you say, Anderson, let me into the tower!" Hinch ordered, clutching the gun in his yellow-gloved hand. Anderson frowned, not knowing what to do for a moment. "Okay, I'll go and install explosives for you." Finally, Anderson reluctantly said, "However, I will install a timer so that everyone retreats to a safe place before detonating." Carlos took a box of dynamite and returned to the cave with them.Dynamite is little cubes wrapped in foil.The wall was extremely hard, and Anderson held the laser drill and drilled through the metal plate without even a single scar.I had to turn to drilling holes in the stone wall of the nearby tunnel.A silent laser hit the stone wall, and in an instant, powder splashed everywhere, and the smell of burning was pungent. "Stay on the sidelines," Anderson whispered to Carlos, "If you find any movement, report it to me immediately." Carlos was on guard.But it was dark everywhere, and I couldn't see anything.Anderson cut three deep holes in the wall around the metal plate, filled them with dynamite cubes, and installed a timer.Then, he packed up the tools and led everyone out of the hole. When he got behind the gravel, Hinch stayed and waited. "Just stop here." He muttered, "I can rush in later and see how those monsters are running around with their pants up." "I don't want to see whether people wear pants or not." Anderson laughed as he hurried back with Carlos. Driven by Cruz, they retreated to the beach below, about two kilometers away.Then, squeeze into the bubble chamber and peer through the binoculars.Hinch crouched behind the gravel, out of sight.Anderson silently counted the time, and finally said: "It's time!" There was no sound, Carlos only felt the car body vibrate (there was no explosion sound, because there is no air on this planet, and sound cannot be transmitted. - Translator's Note).Over there, Hinch straightened up, stood there looking around for a while, and then rushed into the hole; here, everyone took turns watching with binoculars.No movement was found.Hinch didn't come out, and nothing else came out. A long time has passed.Everything was as usual, the stars in the sky were still on, and the signal lights on the top of the tower were still changing colors, but there was no sign of Hinch.Anderson updated his logbook, and Cruz boiled water and made a synthetic drink. "Oh, this is not good coffee." Anderson drank the bitter drink in his cup, made a face, put down the cup, and said, "Do you want to go in and find Mr. Hinch?" "I don't think it's necessary." Cruz said with a straight face, "We are not stupid." "I don't think it's necessary." Carlos also shook his head, "We should rush back to report the situation immediately." "We can't leave now." Anderson looked at his watch and said, "Give him another 8 hours, and then his oxygen will run out. We are leaving now, what if he is still alive? " Three hours later, Carlos was still in the bubble chamber.Suddenly, he felt a violent shaking, and he couldn't breathe for a while.The sky seemed to be dark all of a sudden.He curled up on the seat, looked up and saw the giant lamp on the top of the tower suddenly dimmed, flickered, and finally went out.Under the starry sky, from bottom to top, the boulder black tower became a pitch-black silhouette. "What happened? I fell asleep just now, so I don't know." Anderson asked as he walked, and walked up to the bubble room. "Looks like an earthquake? The lights on the tower went out too." They looked out, only to see the shadow of the tower and the white ice.Anderson wrote down the situation in the driving log, then shook his head, and said, "This planet has been frozen to the depths, and there should be no energy to generate earthquakes..." "My God! That's Mr. Hinch." Carlos suddenly pointed forward and shouted. I saw Xin Qi rushing out of the hole with bare feet like crazy.There is no gun or knife on him.He ran wildly, but there was nothing chasing him behind him.As he fled to the side of the gravel, he fell and lay there stretched out.Immediately, he turned over again and continued to run wildly with bare feet, beating around his head with both hands, as if he was wrestling with some invisible opponent. "Go and save him! Open the door of the airlock!" Carlos yelled at Cruz. "Just go." There was a humming motor below, and the car started.Then, with a "click", the inflation door of the airtight chamber also opened.The car quickly drove to the side of Hinch.He was still beating wildly with both hands in the air, and the situation was also very strange.The helmet on the head is still there, but the black beret inside is gone; the glasses hang askew from one ear.While fleeing, he turned his head and looked back in horror, suddenly left, then right, and kept rushing, as if he didn't see the landing vehicle beside him at all. "Sir! Run this way! Run this way!" Carlos shouted eagerly through the walkie-talkie. Hinch seemed to be deaf, and didn't react at all. He just circled around the car for a while, and then fled into the distance and disappeared into the darkness. "Follow him," Anderson told Cruz. "When he runs out of energy, he'll stop and we'll pick him up." They followed Hinch's footprints on the ice and chased forward.The footprints are sometimes clear and sometimes blurred.He ran very fast, and the car drove for a long time, but he still hadn't caught up.After chasing about 6 kilometers, Carlos found a wide ice crack on the ice ahead.When the footprints reached the edge of the ice crevasse, they broke. "Stop! Stop!" Carlos yelled. Cruz braked a few meters from the crevasse.The ice crack was about two meters wide, with clear and sharp edges. "It was cracked by the earthquake just now." Anderson stared at the crack in the ice and said expressionlessly. The ice crevasse stretched straight along the left and right sides, disappearing at the end of the field of vision.Anderson and Carlos went to the crevasse to check it out.Under the heat lamp, the edge of the ice crevasse is pink; at a depth of a few meters, the ice wall becomes dark; further down, it is pitch black, bottomless. "The 'Ice God' was enraged by Mr. Hinch," Carlos said, "and he cracked the ice and swallowed him."