Along with the rumbling sound of the water, the Jiaolong sank into the sea water. However, Song Wenbin could not hear any sound in the titanium alloy spherical bulkhead in the cabin. He could only see bubbles rising outside the bulkhead.
The scale pointer inside the bulkhead was showing the depth of the submersible's dive. In just ten seconds, the Jiaolong dived to a depth of 200 meters, far exceeding the maximum depth that a human can dive.
Before entering the deep sea, Song Wenbin was a little nervous, but when everything happened, he felt that it was nothing, so he patted Su Tina's hand on his arm and said softly: "Let me go, wait until you are really going to die." It’s not too late to hold me.”
His tone was very relaxed, which affected Sutina. After Sutina pinched him secretly, she slowly let go of her hand, hugged her knees, and sighed: "I really hope the one below is really a sunken ship, so that we can be considered worthy. This trip is over.”
"It will be good if we can get down to the point safely."
Song Wenbin looked at the decreasing numbers on the scale and muttered, "I hope I don't run into any deep sea monsters or something."
"I'm going to die!"
Su Tina, who just felt a little safe, wanted to catch him angrily. Song Wenbin immediately warned: "It's very small in here, don't move around."
"Can you please stop being so clumsy...?" Sutina restrained her voice and complained dissatisfiedly: "I'm already very nervous..."
"I said, compared to some imaginary animals, I'm more worried about the oxygen here." Huo Yu said with some worry: "The space here is so small, will we die of lack of oxygen?"
"No, there are oxygen bottles here." Sutina said confidently, it is enough for us to work for five hours.
After Huo Yu thought for a moment, he looked at the enclosed space around him and asked, "What about the carbon dioxide we exhale?"
"I don't know." Su Tina muttered, "It must have been sucked away by Song Wenbin."
Huo Yu was stunned and couldn't help but chuckle.
"Hey!" Song Wenbin was annoyed: "I sucked her carbon dioxide, so why don't you suck mine? Do you still have to differentiate between high and low at this time?"
Sutina blushed inexplicably and spat, "Who wants to suck your carbon dioxide?"
As soon as she finished speaking, Sutina couldn't help but laugh, as if she suddenly forgot that there was the unfathomable Java Trench under her butt.
Song Wenbin always felt that the two colleagues were laughing inexplicably, so he warned: "You'd better really be talking about carbon dioxide."
As soon as the words came out, Huo Yu laughed even harder, laughing so hard in the cabin.
"Laughing Mao, can you be more serious!
"
Song Wenbin said loudly: "Our voices will be transmitted to the mother ship, okay? It may even be transmitted back to the command center in China."
However, his words could not stop the two colleagues from smiling inexplicably.
Huo Yu even openly made the sound of vomiting in the cabin, "Ugh...I don't want the misogynistic part of me to stay in my body."
"Hahahahaha..."
Song Wenbin couldn't hold back his laughter. After laughing, he said angrily: "Did you make a mistake?
This is the Java Trench in the Indian Ocean. Shut up!
! "
Sutina finally thought of where she was, and she covered her mouth forcibly, her face turning red from suppressing it.
There is no doubt that the voice was transmitted word by word to the control center on the mother ship far out at sea. In the control center, a group of old men in their 40s and 50s covered their heads. They wanted to laugh but did not dare to laugh. They held the microphone and hesitated to speak.
To be honest, they have been working for decades and most of the time they only laugh when they complete the project. Even the young people in the same unit are always nervous at all times. No one dares to be like these three. Weird guys are generally showy.
"What's the depth now?"
The captain couldn't help but ask knowingly. He really didn't want to see these three people playing tricks anymore.
Sutina quickly put down her hand and said: "781 meters."
"Okay, pay more attention to your surroundings."
"Jiaolonghao understands." Sutina replied.
Huo Yu finally stopped laughing. Song Wenbin glared at her secretly and whispered: "I'm totally embarrassed."
Huo Yu glanced at him indifferently and snorted.
After being reminded by the captain, Su Tina no longer joked shamelessly with Huo Yu and Song Wenbin, but the captain asked them to look outside, and there was really nothing to see. After the depth exceeded one thousand meters, it was completely dark outside. It was as dark as in the universe, and there was water everywhere. Except that the numbers on the scale are still changing, everything else is the same.
Song Wenbin originally wanted to see if he could see deep-sea creatures, but considering the vastness of the ocean, the probability of encountering deep-sea creatures while diving is undoubtedly about the same as the probability of encountering planets while flying in space. If it weren't for the row of searchlights made of unknown material at the bottom of the boat, they wouldn't even be able to see the bubbles in the water. Even with headlights, all that can be seen is sea water, bubbles, and some floating objects, that's all. Even if the searchlight illuminates some possible marine luminous creatures, those luminous creatures will quickly escape from the falling Dragon Boat, making it impossible for the probe on the ship to capture their ghostly figures.
This made Song Wenbin suddenly feel a little incredible. He felt that there was some undetectable meaning in it. This incomparable majestic force that could flatten conventional nuclear submarines, to these creatures living in it, seemed to There is no general. They can swim freely and survive in it. Even become one with him. If one day, he can be like these deep sea creatures and become one with this majestic power?
Thoughts flashed through his consciousness, and the silence of the deep sea amplified his thoughts. When he came to his senses, the Jiaolong had sunk to a depth of more than 1,000 meters.
After another half hour of stopping and going, we descended to a depth of 2,000 meters. We still didn’t reach the bottom at all, not even half of the way. After another half hour of walking, we dropped to a depth of 4,000 meters. The Jiaolong was still working steadily without any abnormalities.
Since they don't need to control the ship, there really isn't anything to do while sitting inside. Sutina, who had been silent for an hour, couldn't hold it in any longer. She took out Huo Yu lightly and asked in a low voice: "Hey, Huo Yu, why did you do that that day..." (She pointed to her mouth)
Huo Yu was startled and looked at Sutina, wondering why she suddenly asked her such a question in the deep sea.
But Su Tina's expression was very concerned. Huo Yu knew that he couldn't avoid it, so his expression became a little gloomy: "When I am particularly emotional, it is easy..."
"Shh, stop talking and focus."
Song Wenbin interrupted Huo Yu in a low voice. Perhaps Su Tina still didn't understand why Huo Yu suddenly bit him that day, but now was not the time to raise such a question.
"Watch carefully."
He said to Sutina somewhat harshly.
"But that was really scary." Sutina whispered, "That really scared me."
"I..." Huo Yu seemed to want to say something.
But Song Wenbin didn't want the two of them to continue this topic. He didn't want people outside the show to know about Huo Yu's uncontrollable weird impulses. Song Wenbin, who has been immersed in the Internet for more than ten years, knows very well that in this era, any outrageous action will be criticized by countless online moral pacesetters. Even if the joke they just made is put online, it will be picked out by someone with a single intention. , Song Wenbin will guess what they will say, and will definitely make them joke regardless of the occasion. He knew more clearly what kind of criticism would arouse if Huo Yu bit someone and the bad guys found out, but that was not what he wanted to see.
"It's only four thousand meters. There's nothing scary about it. I remember that some people in the United States have dived into the Mariana Trench..." Song Wenbin said right and wrong.
Huo Yu glanced at him and said nothing in tacit agreement.
"You mean the American Trieste 2?"
Sutina's attention was diverted, and she said fluently: "Yes, that ship can indeed dive to a depth of 10,000 meters. That is a pity. That ship does not have operational functions. In fact, the whole world can The only one operating on the seabed at a depth of 7,000 meters is the Jiaolong."
With that said, Su Tina began to talk to Song Wenbin about the characteristics of various submersibles, starting from Trieste 1 to James Cameron, talking about a lot, until there was a crackling sound from the roof of the Jiaolong. A soft sound.
The conversation came to an abrupt end. They seemed to be unintentional, but in fact their hearts were tense. On the scale, the depth had reached more than 4,700 meters. If something happened to the submersible, the water pressure would kill them in an instant.
"Mother...mother ship...we...we heard voices..."
Sutina said fearfully, holding Song Wenbin tightly with her palms.
Song Wenbin was also frightened in his heart. There were pop, pop, pop sounds outside the submersible, as if a water ghost was tapping on the submersible's hatch. It was as terrifying as a water ghost.
"It's okay, that's because the pressure shell is bearing the load, everything is normal."
The voice from the mother ship returned to the Jiaolong.
Even so, Song Wenbin felt horrified enough. In such a silent environment, all psychological activities were infinitely amplified. Having traveled to so many countries and regions, the environment here was undoubtedly the most extreme and frightening.
"We... how far are we from the target?" Sutina asked stammering. To be honest, she already wanted to finish the matter quickly and leave the quiet and terrifying place immediately.
"There are still about 300 meters, but there may be a seamount there. We have to go slower." The voice on the mother ship replied.
"Understood." Sutina said.
While he was talking, the strong searchlight in the bilge had already illuminated something. For the first time, Song Wenbin saw something other than sea water and floating objects on the screen in the cabin. He immediately sat upright and stared at the screen intently.
Unlike the shallow water, there is not much sediment here, but there are many strange rocks. Some of these rocks look like giant candied haws, round and lumpy, piled up in the deep sea.
"The geological activities here are still very frequent... I hope there won't be any earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or the like..." Sutina looked at the screen with all her concentration, and kept mumbling.
Song Wenbin thought that he didn't need to scare her, she could scare herself to death.
"Depth 4820, flow rate 0.2, water temperature -0.5 degrees Celsius, robotic arm, normal, engine, normal, voltage, normal. Sonar system, normal. Distance from target point, 312 meters."
The voice of a ground worker came into the cabin. It was a female voice. It was very rational and reassuring.
"Received." Song Wenbin replied.
As the submarine continued to descend, Song Wenbin was finally able to see clearly what was on the screen, which was the top of the seabed illuminated by the searchlight. It was very incredible. They were at the bottom of the sea nearly 5,000 meters deep, under incredible water pressure, but at the same time, he was at the top of the seafloor peaks, flying over the tops of those peaks like an aircraft.
Under the Jiaolong's searchlight, Song Wenbin could see that the cliffs on both sides of the seamount were mostly asymmetrical "V" shaped, generally with a ladder-like landform, with the upper part of the ditch slope being gentle and the lower part being steeper. The average slope is 5 to 7 degrees. Occasionally, you will encounter slopes above 45 degrees.
From time to time, the Jiaolong would stop, then change its direction and fly around the tops of the seabed.
Extreme environments in the deep sea. Seamounts, reefs, trenches, and various complex terrains are hidden in darkness. When a manned submersible dives, the only obstacle avoidance technology method it can rely on is collision avoidance sonar. Collision avoidance sonar is a device used to detect obstacles in water. It is installed around and below the submersible, and its maximum operating distance can reach more than 100 meters.
Not long after, under the control of sonar and the sea surface control center, they arrived directly above the target area.
The three people in the metal cabin couldn't sit still. They all sat upright and stared at the illuminated area on the screen with wide eyes. After all the hard work and traveling to several countries, can they really see the super treasure that was lost hundreds of years ago?
