Inside a grotto shaped like a tomb.

Squatting next to a square stone, Professor Vernal slowly stood up from the ground with his hands on his knees.

Looking at Professor Vernal who stood up, Schultz, who was standing on the side, put down his arms that were hugged in front of his chest, took two steps forward and asked.

"Did you find any clues?"

"Of course...... The excavation of relics here is not insignificant, it can be described as a good harvest," Professor Vernal looked at Schultz with an excited expression on his face, and suddenly threw a question, "Have you heard of the legend of the mummy?" ”

Faced with this sudden question, Schultz was slightly stunned, and a confused expression gradually appeared on his face.

"I've heard a little bit...... What's wrong? ”

"The ancient Egyptians believed that the soul of a person is immortal after death, and as long as the body is not destroyed, it can one day be reborn from the ground. Therefore, in order to prevent the body from decomposing, the pharaohs would instruct their servants to empty their entrails, dry them and wrap them in salt, spices, anointing oil, honey and linen cloth to make mummies that would not rot for thousands of years. ”

The Adam's apple moved up and down, and Schultz looked at the square stones, and said with a strange expression, "What do you mean...... The purpose of the existence of these 'sarcophagi' is to prevent the decay of the remains? ”

"Of course not," Professor Vernal continued, smiling, "and it would obviously be the least advisable choice to store the corpse in a metal container that is susceptible to oxidation for embalming reasons. Assuming that Mars billions of years ago had similar oxygen resources – if not more – than Earth, and that the civilizations here had the technology to dig such a vast undertaking at depths of several kilometers – they could not have been ignorant of such basic chemical principles. ”

"And what do you think this place will be?"

"Obviously, this is a shelter."

"Shelter?"

"That's right," Professor Vernal nodded, looking at Schultz with satisfaction written on his face, and continued, "They sealed themselves in these iron coffins at the time of irreparable disaster on Mars...... At least billions of years ago, it was an iron coffin, which then hibernated with the help of special technology, waiting to wake up one day. You should have heard of it, the cryodormancy technology that is very popular on Earth now, and the X-0172 bacteria used seem to be brought back from Mars by the Yankees. ”

Schultz nodded, and a sudden expression appeared on his face.

Of course, he didn't fail to hear about it, and he even remembered that some dormant bacteria had caused quite a stir at the time.

But now, X-0172 bacteria have gone from being a flood beast to a sweet spot in people's eyes.

Especially for those who are terminally ill, it is a boon. In the absence of current medical technology to cure them, they have one more option, although they must be separated from their closest relatives, but at least survive......

However, Schultz still did not understand.

If these things are hibernation pods, why did they eventually disappear into the dust of history?

"Obviously, they failed," as if guessing what Schultz was thinking, Professor Vernal shrugged his shoulders and continued, "although they have made some attempts to save themselves, their extinction is almost doomed, and dormancy on a hundred years of time scale is nothing more than a death throes in the face of hundreds of millions of long rivers." The parent star loses the protection of the magnetic field, loses the atmosphere, and even the oceans...... Even the most developed civilization needs the soil on which it can survive. ”

In the face of the unimaginable apocalypse, Scholz was silent for a while.

After a long time, he asked.

"You say these Martians...... What could it be? I'm referring to the biological sense. ”

"I don't know, but first of all, mammals can be ruled out, the gravity environment here is not easy for bone development and calcium accumulation, and even if there are mammals in the ecosystem here, they should not be large in size, and it is even more difficult to develop a sufficiently wide skull...... In contrast, invertebrates, especially arthropods, would be much larger than on Earth and could theoretically have larger brains to accommodate more neurons. ”

"The hallmark of the emergence of civilization is fire and the use of tools, but it is essentially the ability to process and communicate information."

At this, Professor Vernal shrugged his shoulders and said with a smile.

Of course, all this is just speculation, and even with all the prerequisites, the birth of civilization is full of coincidences. Just from the ants and bees, it is possible for arthropods to evolve social systems that can coordinate large populations and engage in more intensive production activities. ”

As he spoke, the excitement on Professor Vernal's face intensified.

His squinted eyes looked around, as if what stood in front of him at the moment was not a pile of rubble, but a gold mine!

“…… Everything here is very interesting, it is like the pyramid of Martian civilization, through the excavation of them, we may be able to restore the reason why Mars lost its magnetic field, and what Martian people living here made to save it at the end of their lives. Whether it's learning about billions of years ago or about our own future, these precious relics are instructive. ”

"If possible, I'd like to build a semi-permanent research station here to study these—"

Just as Professor Vernal, who was excited, was describing his whimsical idea to Schultz, who looked confused, suddenly there was a tremor of the earth shaking again from under the feet of the two.

Reaching out to hold the stone next to him, looking at the rubble and dust shaking off the ceiling, the expression on Professor Vernal's face suddenly changed from ecstasy to horror.

"Fack?! Again? ”

"We have to get out of here!"

Standing firm, Schultz, who was the first to react, grabbed his shoulders and wanted to drag him away from here, but he vomited blood and found that this guy was like crazy and had no intention of leaving.

"Wait a minute, I'll get a few more samples back......"

One snatched the multi-purpose shovel in his hand and threw it hard.

Schultz used all his strength to shake him out of his stunned state.

"What the hell are you thinking!?"

"If we stay here any longer, we will all become specimens ourselves!"

As he spoke, there was another violent tremor.

This time, there was no need for Schultz to remind him, and Professor Vernal, who had completely recovered his senses, finally realized the seriousness of the problem and rushed to the nearest exit with a rolling belt.

Almost as soon as the two of them passed through the spacious grotto and drilled through the hole on the other side, the tunnel behind them closed like an avalanche.

Glancing back, Schultz, who had palpitations, suddenly had a strange feeling in his heart.

No, it's a gut feeling, to be exact.

I always felt that the collapse of these tunnels seemed to be a little unusual.

However, the current situation did not allow him to think about it anymore.

He had no choice but to use his strength to suck forward......

……

It was about the same time, in another tunnel.

After listening to Professor Aubrey's explanation, Professor Lomonov touched his chin through the helmet of the spacesuit, nodded thoughtfully, and said.

"I see......"

Aubrey: "Do you understand?" ”

Lomonov: "...... Probably? ”

Hearing the uncertain speech, Professor Aubrey sighed, threw the multi-purpose shovel in his hand aside, leaned against the rock wall next to him, and farted. The strand sat on the ground.

Shet...... It seems that I spoke in vain. ”

"It's your confusion," complained Professor Lomonov, "what standard Euclidean space?" And what kind of four-dimensional matter interferes with three-dimensional space...... What does this have to do with earthquakes? ”

"There were no earthquakes, the road under our feet hadn't even changed, and if my inference was correct, nothing would have happened even if we were swallowed up by the collapsed tunnel, except that it would have moved from one three-dimensional coordinate to another with the space that had been moved."

Lomonov: "Is this in accordance with the law of conservation of energy?" ”

"Conservation of energy? Of course it is conserved," Professor Aubrey continued, sighing, drawing marks on the ground with a multifunctional shovel in his hand, "The state of motion of matter has not changed in any way, nor has the energy, but the order in three-dimensional space has been disrupted. If you don't understand standard Euclidean space, you should understand the hamster wheel, right? ”

"Are you like hamsters on a hamster wheel now?"

"So to speak," Professor Aubrey began, "this space is circular, and it is impossible to say that the road under our feet now is the same as the one we have walked before. ”

Hearing this circular statement, a strange expression suddenly appeared on Professor Lomonov's face.

The question he wanted to ask was, if that was the case, was it necessary to move on?

But just as he was about to ask, the ground shook violently, and Professor Aubrey got up from the ground, looked at the rubble that shook off the ceiling, and the tunnel that could collapse at any moment, and ran away.

“WTF？！ Isn't it once every two hours? It's only been a few minutes, why are you here again?! ”

Lomonov shouted as he staggered ahead as he tore his throat.

"Didn't you say you would be fine if you swallowed up that collapsed tunnel!"

"I said it!"

"Then you're still running a fart?!"

"Theory is one thing, experiment is another! What's more, I'm just guessing, do you dare to try your own life!? Shet, stop talking nonsense, let's run! ”

Tiny rocks and dust kept falling from the top of the cave, smashing on the heads and shoulders of the two men.

The collapsed tunnel behind him was getting closer and closer, and the two people, whose legs and feet were not very convenient, invariably showed desperate expressions on their faces.

However, at this moment, a bright light appeared in front of him.

At the moment of discovering the bright light, the expression on Professor Aubrey's face froze slightly, and despair turned into ecstasy in an instant.

"Exit! The front is the exit! Fast! ”

I can't take care of that much anymore.

Although they were unable to find any clues to the extraterrestrial civilizations, at least they survived. Congress may be disappointed by this, but Aubrey believes that if he dies inside, he will cause even more trouble for his country and the people of the world.

And as long as he is alive, then everything is easy to say!

"I'll never venture into a place like this again! Ahem—"

Finally breaking through the desperate darkness, Professor Aubrey ran out of the tunnel with his right hand propped up on the stone pillar at the entrance of the cave, panting desperately for a moment before relieving himself.

However, the moment he raised his head, the whole person was slightly stunned.

It's not just them.

Next to the rover, including Wang Peng and Fan Tong, two Chinese who had been separated from them before, as well as the British who studied archaeology and the German who studied mathematics, were also here.

In addition to Academician Lu......

Seeing Professor Aubrey running out of the cave, Wang Peng took a few steps forward, reached out and grabbed his shoulder, his eyes bloodshot staring at his eyes.

The creepy feeling sent him shudder.

Professor Aubrey, who was staring straight at him, felt like he had forgotten how to breathe for a while.

"Where's Lu Zhou! Where is he?! ”

"How do I know?" Trembling all over, Professor Aubrey shuddered and replied, "I'm not his bodyguard, and besides, isn't he with you?!" ”

“……”

Although he did not trust the Yankee's words, Wang Peng finally let go of Professor Aubrey's shoulder.

Turning his gaze to the shaking hole, his fists clenched tightly, and a flash of determination flashed in his eyes.

"I'll go find Academician Lu."

As if looking at a madman, Fan Tong looked at him with wide eyes.

"Are you crazy?! With the magnitude of this earthquake, the entire mountain range is going to suffer! ”

"Then you'll go back first—"

Before he finished saying this, the people standing at the entrance of the cave were suddenly staggered by the tremor from the soles of their feet, and the feeling of shaking the ground and mountains came from all directions, and even the stone pillar standing at the entrance of the cave let out an overwhelmed moan and began to collapse to the side.

Seeing this scene, everyone's faces changed, and they ran frantically to the Mars rover next to them.

"Quick! Hurry up! ”

"Wang Peng hasn't come up yet!"

"I can't care so much! He himself is going to die, are you going to drag everyone to die with him?! ”

Listening to the roar coming from the communication channel, Fan Tong gritted his teeth and glanced back at the passengers sitting in the car.

No one wanted to die, including himself.

Especially the death is not clear.

Finally made up his mind, he silently said sorry in his heart, grabbed two oxygen cylinders and threw them out of the car door, and then started the rover at the fastest speed in his life.

There is no point in staying here other than to bury the Martians, who died billions of years ago.

Dodging the rocks rolling down from the ridge, Fan Tong used his strength to step on the accelerator to the bottom, and rushed all the way like a desperate ride, and finally rushed out of the pass he passed when he came without danger.

And almost at the moment when they had just escaped, a huge rock wall about ten meters long separated from the towering ridge and collapsed in a cloud of dust towards the pass they had passed through earlier.

If it's been a second too late, they'll probably have been left in forever......

Rolling rubble rises with the sand and dust, not to mention through the car window, even if you stand at the height of the satellite, you can see it clearly.

Racing all the way through the desert, feeling the aftershocks coming from under the cushions, and looking back at the people behind him, his face showed the expression of the aftermath.

"Grass ......"

Fan Tong, who slammed his fist on the steering wheel and gradually slowed down the car, suddenly slammed his forehead on it, and his shoulders shook twitching.

Schultz silently patted him on the shoulder, offering comfort.

Everyone in the car was silent, and there was no exchange of words on the way back.

Only Professor Aubrey muttered "It's like the entrance to hell", and hung his head in silence after receiving no response.

June 10.

this day.

Mars had the worst earthquake since human observations, and even a few kilometers away from the Martian research station could clearly feel the tremor of the earth shaking.

And on the same day.

The Mars expedition station lost two excellent team members......