After the meeting, the deep-sea exploration mission for the alien irregular object in the southern sea of Country Z, in charge of Li Mosen and Burton, began in an orderly manner. This operation was named "Operation Probe."
The probe operation consists of an unmanned deep-sea probe, a manned deep-sea probe and a data analysis ship.
At 7:10 a.m. Z country time, all equipment and personnel went to the predetermined sea area to assemble.
The observation of the unknown object in the orbit of Venus and the analysis and summary of lunar data, which Liu Hanyang is in charge of, are also being carried out one after another.
After completing the selection of major satellites with the aerospace departments of the seven countries, Liu Hanyang will connect with the aerospace departments of Z, the Aerospace Administration of M, and the European Space Agency respectively to organize the implementation of the "Yuexing" 5 lunar exploration on the lunar surface. Take over the vehicle and implement the orbit change of the European Space Agency's "Fess" Venus probe.
The target detected by the "Fess" after the change of orbit is the mysterious irregular body on the seabed.
After three days of collaborative work, Liu Hanyang successfully completed the takeover of the "Yuexing" 5 lunar exploration rover. He should have immediately gone to the ESA headquarters in Nili to start the orbit change of the "Face" probe. .
But in his subconscious, he was still a little worried about rashly conducting deep-sea exploration when the brief contact in the southern waters of country Z was not clear.
But without detection, it is impossible to find out where the irregular body comes from? What is the purpose?
In short, he vaguely felt an inexplicable danger, but he had no concrete alternative plan, but he still hoped to learn more about the contact incident in the southern waters.
At this moment, he thought of the MR holographic image reconstruction system.
The MR holographic image reconstruction system is an image restoration technology based on quantum mechanics. It can restore the entire process of the event through quantum processing of events that have occurred but have not been captured by the image.
By collecting the actor's past image data, personality traits, ways of doing things, adaptability, calmness index, behavioral patterns and other parameter indicators, after quantization processing, the original image of the event is reproduced in a probabilistic manner.
The accuracy of restoration is 90---95%.
This set of instruments was originally developed by Liu Hanyang to restore the unconscious observations of the double-slit interference experiment. Another use is to discover and simulate (reproduce) the environmental images of exoplanets.
This system had been used before to help Rene search for traces of Jenny, but the technology at the time was still very immature. Afterwards, Liu Hanyang carried out large-scale upgrades and improvements, making the system increasingly mature and stable.
Liu Hanyang decided to find Zhou Yun. By collecting the past image data, personality, handling methods and other parameters of Colonel Zhou Hengxiang, and using the MR holographic image reproduction system to restore everything that happened at that time, there may be unexpected gains.
"Operation Probe" started as scheduled in the southern waters of Country Z. The data analysis ship and a manned deep-sea detector on which Li Mosen and Burton were aboard were 50 nautical miles away from the operation area, which has been proven to be a safe distance.
Only unmanned detectors can penetrate within 50 nautical miles to carry out deep-sea detection missions for irregular objects.
Once the unmanned detector encounters an unexpected incident, Probe No. 2 will be activated, that is, the manned detector will take over the follow-up work of the unmanned detector.
But this will still be an extremely dangerous mission, and both unmanned and manned detectors may be attacked by irregular objects.
Even so, "Operation Probe" must still be carried out, because there is no alternative.
Before the operation started, according to the relevant marine data in the operation area, the target was located in the canyon area of the submarine mountain range, and the detector needed to be released in advance in an area 60 nautical miles away from the target.
After diving into the sea, the probe will go around the mountain peaks on the seafloor and approach the target from the side of the canyon.
The unmanned detectors in Li Mosen and Burton's telescopes gradually disappeared from the sea, disappearing into the surging waves of the undercurrent.
The detector began to dive, and turned into a light spot slowly falling on the sonar device in front of Li Mosen.
"I'm really worried that the detector will be destroyed before it gets close to the target." Li Mosen said uneasily.
"It's also possible to disappear without leaving a trace," Burton added.
What surprised the other two people was that the detector was safe and sound throughout the entire process of approaching the target. It was neither attacked nor had any electromagnetic interference. All instruments worked normally.
The sunlight at the 300-meter seabed cannot penetrate at all. The entire area where the detector is located is pitch black. It only relies on the searchlight on the top to move forward with difficulty...
About 500 meters away from the target object, the image data returned from the detector was quickly transmitted to the huge screen on the ship of Lemmerson and Burton.
This is a huge object, with a pale orchid-colored light all over its body. It perfectly outlines the shape of the object, but no structure on its surface can be seen clearly.
Judging from the shape, it seems to be a huge outline composed of bright light, like a huge castle on the seabed, and the detector is simply a small point of light in front of it.
The two of them stared intently at the huge silhouette on the screen...
So far, this is the only two scientists on Earth to witness this alien object so close. They watched quietly as if they were in an unknown fairy tale world.
Suddenly, the irregular orchid-colored light began to slowly shrink until it completely disappeared, and the seabed fell into darkness and deathly silence.
Only the beam of light emitted from the detector emitted a pale light, illuminating an area about 100 meters ahead.
"That object seems to have sensed the detector." Burton said worriedly.
"The detector is still 500 meters away from it, and no information can be collected from this distance." Li Mosen emphasized.
"Let the detector accelerate closer to the object, maybe we don't have much time left."
"That's all. There may be something to gain."
The detector began to accelerate forward, and its thin beam of light continued to shine everywhere on the irregular body, like a firefly flying around on a majestic castle.
"There are still 80 meters to go until we touch the object." Li Mosen watched attentively.
Suddenly, a dark shadow with dancing tentacles quickly passed over the searchlight, followed by another.
It moves so fast, almost in the blink of an eye.
However, the dynamic image still captured one of the frames.
The screen zoomed in. It was a mechanical creature that looked like an octopus, with four long mechanical tentacles. At the end of the tentacles were three sharp blades about 30 centimeters long.
Its whole body is made of a hard metal. After being scanned by a detector, it was found that its atomic composition is extremely dense and does not belong to any metal element on the earth.
Now, a total of 3 mechanical creatures appear on the detector, and they move quickly...
Two streams of green light are emitted from their eyes, and the green light is projected crosswise onto the surface of the detector, forming a large honeycomb network.
"What do they seem to be scanning for?" Li Mosen said.
"They are also interested in us. We need to scan that big guy as soon as possible." Burton was a little excited. He took out a pill from his pocket and motioned to Li Mosen to pat him on the back. "How many meters is the detector away from it?" ?”
"20 meters, you can start the scanning process."
Li Mosen said, patting Burton's back hard, his neck tilted up, and the pill went straight to his throat.
Before Li Mosen could give the order, the transmission screen suddenly stopped, but fortunately the detector's signal did not disappear.
"The image transmission equipment must have been damaged. It must have been the damn octopus." Burton swallowed the pill stuck in his throat. It may have been caused by Li Mosen's back-slapping technique not being as professional as his assistant Les.
"They tried to make us blind and deaf, these alien idiots! But they are mechanical idiots. They must not have thought that I would spare a hand." Burton cursed angrily, with a weird smile on his face.
Li Mosen looked at Burton in surprise, and Burton mysteriously pointed to another light spot on the sonar detector: "This is a small seabed exploration robot. Once the equipment on the detector is destroyed, it will start and it will secretly Sneaking out of the detector and then detecting the object is like attacking from the east to the west! I studied "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu."
Sure enough, the picture began to recover, and the robot slowly climbed up the irregular body.
A laser probe protruded from its head, and the laser began to cut the surface of the irregular body. Soon, a piece of metal about 3 square centimeters was cut off, and then sent into the small cabin in the abdomen of the robot.
"Can it crawl back on its own?" Li Mosen asked.
"Of course, as long as it can surface, the positioning system on it will transmit coordinates and we can find it."
When Burton finished speaking, the screen shook violently and the signal began to become extremely unstable.
Through the four cameras on the robot's back and abdomen, Li Mosen and Burton finally saw clearly: a long blade was inserted into the back of the seabed exploration robot, and then a mechanical octopus quickly left.
"Damn it! It's nailed up!" Burton said indignantly.
The two stared blankly at the pinned detection robot. Its 12 wheels were still spinning hard, as if it was trying to leave.
"It seems that it can't come back." Burton said helplessly, but his eyes still showed reluctance, "Emergency activation of Probe No. 2!"
The Probe Two that Burton refers to is the launch of manned exploration, which is the backup plan for this operation.
Li Mosen was a little hesitant, because he had learned from the experience of the "Lux" and the "Nanchuan" that rashly carrying out manned detection would take a lot of risks, and the backup plan could not be activated unless it was a last resort.
Seeing Li Mosen's hesitant expression, Burton became a little anxious: "That metal piece is one of the few results of this operation. If we can't get it back, the probe operation will be a complete failure."
"In fact we have failed!"
"No, we did not fail! Look at these image data." Burton pointed at the screen, "Look at the piece of metal again. Although we cannot completely scan the object, the image at least tells us what it looks like. Like? Can a piece of metal tell us what elements it is made of? By analyzing its spectrum, we can locate it in that region of the universe?"
Li Mosen still hesitated, but after a moment he picked up the communication microphone: "Order Probe 2 to dive urgently. The mission goal is to recover the unmanned underwater exploration robot. Attention, turn off all detection and scanning instruments for alien irregularities!"
The Probe 2 manned probe has dived. There are three members on it, namely the driver, the detector and scanner, and the navigator.
Probe No. 2 had a relatively smooth journey. When it approached the irregular body, it was not attacked by the mechanical octopus, and there was no communication interruption. Everything seemed to be developing for the better.
Twenty minutes later, Probe 2 approached the small seabed exploration robot. It was still spinning its wheels hard, and the recovery device extending from Probe 2 quickly picked it up.
Until this moment, Li Mosen had a slight smile on his face, and Burton also breathed a long sigh of relief.
Probe No. 2 immediately began to evacuate. When it passed Probe No. 1, it saw two long snake-like emerald green light bodies, shooting out rapidly from the irregular body's opened hatch. The light bodies were twisting. It quickly wrapped around Probe No. 1 and Probe No. 2 like a sucker sucking prey.
"Quick! Release the submarine escape capsule!" Li Mosen shouted.
The escape capsule was ejected, and Probe No. 2 was like a load being removed. All external appendages were quickly detached from its body along with the escape capsule.
Despite this, the body of Probe 2 and the ascending escape capsule were successively enveloped by emerald green light beams. Like the Nanchuan ship, they slowly transformed from a complete whole into an outline until they completely disappeared.
Li Mosen and Burton witnessed the entire process, looking like sculptures at the scene that was no longer on the screen.
After a long time, Burton let out a sad sigh.
They knew they had been deceived and had been deceived by the irregular body.
The purpose of the irregular body pinning the detection robot is to induce more rescue or action.
It's literally a bait.
"I could understand "Sun Tzu's Art of War" when I was 8 years old, but these alien idiots should be able to understand it as soon as they are born. They can understand Einburton's theory of relativity in their mother's womb." Burton said desperately. said.
Fortunately, when Probe 2 ejected the submarine escape capsule, it had to break away from the external accessory structure of its fuselage, and the submarine robot was part of it. It was ejected to the seabed by the huge momentum and miraculously avoided the emerald-green light beam. attack.
