In the lively living cabin, four young students, led by Taras, were singing songs by the Soviet Gems one after another, with Dr. Murat leading the vocals and Dr. Pavel providing accompaniment on the accordion.
.
As for the transport truck driver, Apolly, he had already danced a Cossack dance in the small space that was vacated, which extremely tested the endurance of his knees - even though this dance did not match the singing and accompaniment at all.
On the contrary, Wei Ran became the only spectator. However, in order to avoid being dragged into the talent show, he also took the initiative to pick up the camera and took photos of the people in the car one after another.
When they had enough troubles and filled their stomachs with food, everyone who was drunk also climbed into their own beds, covered themselves with blankets and began to compare their snoring.
According to what we just learned at the dinner party, since the people in this car started working on this job in September, having a party every time they complete supplies has become a default entertainment activity for everyone.
In normal times, Dr. Murat and Dr. Pavel would take their students on duty every six hours, taking turns to carry out sampling and analysis work.
At the same time, every three days, both parties will take half a day to rest and half a day for intensive discussions. Of course, the half day mentioned here refers to a full 12 hours.
Not only that, Weiran and Apolly also have similar jobs, but their jobs are relatively easier. In addition to providing timely meals for the two groups and driving the transport vehicle, most of the rest of the time
All are free.
Where there is freedom, there is also a lack of freedom. At least, they are not qualified to use the only vehicle-mounted radio station that this huge transport vehicle can communicate with the outside world. It can even be said that there are only Murat and Pavel in the entire team.
These two doctors hold the rights to use the car radio.
Because only they know the password to the safe in the living cabin, and one person holds the password and the other holds the key.
As for what else is in the safe that looks no different from the size of a washing machine in later generations besides the car radio, the only thing Weiran can be sure of is that perhaps it is only the two that he has glanced at briefly, similar to laptop computers.
device of.
Squinting at the snow that was rising outside the window, Wei Ran finally yawned and closed his eyes amid the growing drunkenness.
When he woke up to the piercing sound of the alarm clock, there was a fish belly white outside the window, but the gray sky could only barely be considered dawn at best.
After queuing up to brush their teeth and wash their faces in the simple bathroom, Apolly and the student named Gennady had already dug out a dry toilet in the tent with a stove outside and laid it to prevent falling.
of logs.
After still queuing up and completing the somewhat troublesome process of pooping, peeing, shoveling snow and burying feces, when Wei Ran was holding his butt that was about to freeze off and was about to get into the living cabin, the bald Agrawan had already taken him with him.
With the young man named Sharip, he set up a new tent a hundred meters away, and Taras had already driven the drill core sampling equipment over.
A busy day began. Outside the carriage, Taras and Sharip guarded the tent and equipment and began sampling work.
In the carriage, Apolly distributed the cooked oatmeal to everyone one by one, then took his rifle and pulled the sleigh on skis towards the forest in the distance again.
After breakfast, Dr. Murat immediately started working at his desk, while Pavel and the student named Gennady fell back to sleep. The only exception was the bald Agavan.
"Aren't you going to rest?" Wei Ran asked as he walked towards the cab.
"I can't sleep now." Agrawan tightened the cotton hat on his head and asked honestly, "I go to the cab won't affect your rest, right?"
"No." As Wei Ran spoke, he helped the other party open the passenger door, and then quickly walked around to the side of the driver's seat.
After getting into the cold car, Wei Ran touched the frost that had condensed on the window, and then started to start up this behemoth step by step according to the steps that Apolly had emphatically reminded him of. This was the job Apolly assigned him -
Hot car.
Even though this big car has a start-up preheating system, it is enough to successfully start in the cold weather of minus 50 degrees. But just before he got in the car, he glanced at the thermometer posted outside the driver's door. At this time, the outside temperature had already
It reached minus 58 degrees.
In such low temperature weather, if the engine is not started multiple times every day, it is almost the same as committing suicide.
After a slightly long wait, the electrically heated fuel tank and oil line lit up a green light on the instrument panel. Seeing this, Weiran started the first ignition.
Without any effort at all, the tank's diesel multi-fuel engine behind the cab was started smoothly. The low roar instantly overshadowed the noise of the small fuel generator that had been working all night in the cargo hold.
After the engine stabilized, Weiran turned on the electric heating of the windshield and the heating system of the cab.
After finishing these tasks, it was just the first step. He opened the door again and got into the rumbling cargo hold. He first temporarily extinguished the small fuel generator, then climbed onto the roof of the car and picked up the
The large broom fixed near the engine radiator grille carefully swept away the snow covering the roof of the car.
Finally, after knocking off the amber ice condensed on the stove chimney of the living cabin, he climbed into the cab through the skylight.
In such a short time, the temperature in the cab has jumped from below zero to 20 or 30 degrees above zero. Even Agrawan has taken off his heavy cold-proof clothes, mask and even boots, and is sitting cross-legged in the passenger seat.
On the driver's seat, a piece of white material was processed with a small hacksaw.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! "What is that?"
While Wei Ran was asking questions, he sounded the horn first, waited for a while, and then started to drive the transport truck to move.
"mammoth tusk"
Agrawan stopped what he was doing, threw away the white object in his hand and said, "This was accidentally made when we were taking core samples three days ago. I guess there must be a mammoth buried there, at least...
There should be a big enough mammoth tusk."
"What do you want to use it for?" Wei Ran asked vaguely, even though he already had the answer in his mind.
“Birthday gift for Mr. Pavel”
Agrawan explained with a smile, "The handle of the revolver that the Academy of Sciences gave him was cracked last time because he used it as a hammer. I'm going to make a new pair for him."
"So it was you who did it..." Wei Ran muttered to himself, and then asked enthusiastically, "Do you need my help?"
"Thank God if you can raise that stove later." As Agrawan spoke, he pointed behind Wei Ran.
Subconsciously looking at the back of the seat, Wei Ran pulled off a dirty blanket and found a small cast iron stove there, with several chimneys in the belly of the stove.
"I'll help you rise later."
While Wei Ran was talking, he had already steered the transport truck in a circle and returned to its original position, and pointed the front of the truck at Taras and Sharip, who were working in the wind and snow dozens of meters away.
After extinguishing the engine that had finished warming up, Weiran took out the dirty little stove behind him. Agrawan also took the initiative to help fold up the two seats in the middle, leaving an empty space of nearly one meter between the two.
A small square space.
He handed over the work of erecting the chimney to Agwan, and used iron buckets to carry some burning charcoal and chopped firewood from the living cabin and got into the cab again.
Agrawan's movements were not slow either. After a short period of work, he had already stretched the chimney out from one of the four skylights above his head, and even used thick canvas around the skylight to block the gap between the chimney and the edge of the skylight.
Gap. Obviously, he must have done this kind of thing often.
He poured the flaming charcoal in the iron bucket into the stove and threw a few extra pieces of firewood into it. Agrawan also took the initiative to throw a cigarette to Wei Ran.
After a while, the lingering smoke flew out along the gap in the car window. When the two of them threw their cigarette butts into the fire, the cab became warm again, and Agrawan also put on his clothes.
The cold-proof clothes on his body were spread on his legs, and he continued to play with the mammoth tusks in his hands.
Beside the crackling fire, Wei Ran rummaged boredly through the four small drawers on the windshield door.
Some of these small drawers are densely packed with switches that control the roof lights, while others seem to have had their original equipment removed and become just like glove boxes. There are not only newspapers from October 1991, but also
There are rolled-up magazines, and even personal letters, photos, and even miscellaneous items belonging to April, such as screwdrivers and nail clippers.
"What are you looking for?" Agrawan couldn't help but asked curiously.
"Find something interesting to do," Wei Ran replied slowly, "otherwise wouldn't it be too boring?"
“It’s really boring here”
Agrawan sighed, "When I set out, I thought this would be a wonderful adventure, but a week after arriving here, I started to want to go home."
"Just missing home?" Wei Ran, who found nothing, sat down again and deliberately looked at the other party with a different look.
"Of course, there are also my beautiful female classmates."
Agrawan pulled back his shiny bald head and said in a rather regretful tone, "A female classmate has already agreed to watch a stage play with me."
Wei Ran looked at the two bastards who were busy taking samples and analysis outside the window, and said nonchalantly, "When you find that bacteria early, you can go back to watch the stage play with your female classmates. I
And April doesn’t have to be primitive here.”
"Find it earlier?" Agrawan was stunned, then laughed loudly and said, "We have found those psychrotrophic anaerobic bacteria long ago."
"Have you found it a long time ago?" Wei Ran looked at him in surprise.
"certainly"
Agrawan spread his hands as a matter of course, "Otherwise, what do you think we are busy with? Those collected core samples all contain the kind of bacteria we are looking for."
"So we will be able to leave here soon?" Wei Ran deliberately let a look of surprise appear on his face.
“Quite the opposite”
Agwan spread his hands and said, "We still need to collect enough samples. Only with enough samples can we prove this bacteria..."
Having said this, Agravan paused, hesitated for a moment and then lowered his voice and asked, "Victor, you must not know what the bacteria we are looking for are used for, right?"
"I don't know," Wei Ran replied simply, "and the battalion commander also forbids us from being curious about these things."
"If you can take a photo of me driving this transport truck, I might be able to reveal something." Agrawan's voice became lower and lower, "Of course, it's just a pose, I don't know how to drive this."
big guy."
"Aren't you afraid that if the secret is leaked..."
"I'm already a Latvian, aren't I?"
Agrawan said mockingly, "Soon this research will have nothing to do with me, and even if I tell you, would you dare to tell it? I just want to talk to people about the secrets I keep in my heart."
"I'll go to the dormitory to get my camera later." Wei Ran indirectly agreed to the deal.
"This bacteria is what we call fire," Agravan said in a low voice.
"What can it be used for?" Weiran also lowered his voice, "Can it be used to make biological weapons as powerful as nuclear weapons?"
"You are indeed a soldier"
Agwan burst into laughter, "We are not using it to kill people. On the contrary, we are planning to use it to create people."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Creating humans?"
"To be precise, it's a human-creation plan."
"This plan sounds like it needs men and women more than anything else..."
"You're right"
Agrawan leaned over with most of his body, "That's true on Earth, but it's different on Mars."
"Where?" Wei Ran raised his eyebrows, "Mars?"
"maybe!"
Agwan said nonchalantly, "We all know that there is no life on Mars, at least there is no sign of life found so far."
"So?" After Wei Ran finished speaking, he glanced at the rearview mirror subconsciously, "If you plan to talk about it, can you elaborate on it?"
"In 1982, Dr. Murat discovered a psychrophilic anaerobe in the Antarctic ice."
Agravan paused and continued, "At that time, Dr. Pavel had just graduated and was sent to the Arctic. It happened that he and Dr. Murat were students of the same teacher. So Murat contacted us through their common teacher.
Pavel."
"and after?"
When Wei Ran saw that the other party had stopped talking here, he subconsciously raised his head and looked around, and then urged the other party to continue speaking.
"Pavel later discovered the same psychrophilic anaerobic bacteria in the Arctic ice."
There was deep admiration in Agrawan's tone, "After they completed their work in the North and South Pole, under the leadership of their common teacher, they began to study this bacteria that is commonly found deep in the ice of the North and South Pole.
In 1988, they came up with a genius idea. If they could try to send this kind of psychrophilic anaerobic bacteria to other planets, the first choice among them would be Mars, because it is so similar to the Earth."
"But what's the use of sending some bacteria up there?" Wei Ran asked puzzledly.
"If the bacteria sent up are dead, it's really of no use."
Agravan paused for a moment and then asked, "But what if those bacteria can survive on Mars?"
"What's the point of surviving?"
"Of course it works"
Agwan immediately retorted, "This kind of bacteria that we call fire lives in the ice. If they can survive and multiply around the poles of Mars, it first proves that there is water on Mars. There is water.
, there are bacteria that can survive in water, do you know what this means?”
"It means you can defraud scientific research funds."
Wei Ran muttered silently, but nodded at the same time, "But isn't the space race over long ago?"
"This is not a meaningless space race," Agravan said with excitement, "This is space colonization, even if it is just space colonization with bacteria!"
"Isn't this what I'm going to do when I'm full..."
Wei Ran slandered again, perhaps because of the limitations of their respective eras, or perhaps because of differences in professional fields. At least, as a history student, he really couldn't see any prospects for this scientific research project.
Seeing Wei Ran's disapproval, Agravan lit another cigarette and asked slowly, "Victor, if we succeed, if those bacteria named Tinder continue to multiply on Mars. You know what this means.
What are you wearing?"
"All I know is that those bacteria will definitely not be able to help the Soviet Union plant the flag on Mars."
“That’s true”
Agrawan was not angry because of Wei Ran's ridicule. Instead, he changed the topic and said, "About four billion years ago, various microorganisms probably already existed on the earth. In fact, the emergence of these microorganisms was only smaller than
The Earth itself formed about 300 million years later.
Of course, for our life span of less than a hundred years, 300 million years is too long, but for the earth itself, 300 million years is almost as short as the day we are experiencing now.
But today, four billion years later, intelligent life like us has appeared on the surface of this planet. We have created civilization, built huge machinery, and have even begun to explore other planets."
"So?" Wei Ran asked calmly.
“Didn’t it all start with those microorganisms that appeared on Earth about four billion years ago?”
Agravan's face now showed a Soviet-style fantasy, "If the bacteria we send to Mars can eventually reproduce and evolve more advanced life, even if there is only such a trend.
Then, we may be able to reversely prove the process of the emergence of life on the earth.
We might as well make a bolder assumption and assume that the beginning of all life on earth was a group of tenacious bacteria carefully selected by boring intelligent life to colonize space?"
"Sincerely wish you success"
Wei Ran said in a calm tone. He could not tell whether Agrawan was telling the truth or whether he was making up a science fiction story to pass the boring time.
But at least, he can be sure that in the world almost thirty years from now, at least according to public information, no country seems to have ever carried out so-called "bacterial space colonization."
However, no matter what, in the few days left before the collapse of the Soviet Union, these scientific researchers were still working on their conjectures and hypotheses. This in itself is an admirable act that has nothing to do with nationality.
"We will succeed, we will definitely succeed." Agrawan said with certainty.
"So, the other teams are also doing this this time?"
"How is it possible? They are all research teams on other polar projects, some on climate, some on geology, and some even conduct mineral vein exploration. Our car is the project that receives the least attention."
Agrawan shook his head regretfully, "There is nothing we can do about it. After all, our scientific research has just begun. It will probably take at least ten or even twenty years before we can send fire to Mars or other planets with more suitable conditions."
Years of time.”
"That you..."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Change it to a way you can understand"
Agrawan thought for a while, but he couldn't help laughing, "Let's put it this way, what we are doing now is more like breed selection."
"To that kind of fire?" Seeing the other party's nod, Wei Ran couldn't help but ask, "Are there any species differences in bacteria?"
Agrawan spread his hands, but did not answer the question directly. At this moment, continuous gunfire suddenly came from outside the cab.
Subconsciously following the sound of gunfire, Wei Ran immediately pushed open the heavy steel skylight above his head, raised the AK rifle he had been holding in his arms, and without even having time to open the folded stock, he pointed at the gunfire in the distance.
The wolves approaching Taras and Sharip pulled the trigger!
Amidst the intensive gunfire, the wolf running at the front rolled and fell on the flat snow, while the remaining dozen wolves also accelerated their speed.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Agwan, who didn't even have time to put on his cold-proof clothes, also got out of the skylight on the other side and fired bullets at the wolves with a Nagan revolver that were out of reach.
Fortunately, the intensive gunfire, the companions who fell one after another, and the "prey" that had already slipped into the living cabin, and many other factors, finally made the wolf pack that had not obtained any advantage change its direction.
He turned around and ran into the coniferous forest at the edge of the lake.
"It would be great if you could give me this this time."
Wei Ran patted the rifle in his hand, and while muttering secretly, he also secretly hoped that the metal book could understand human speech.
After all, this is an AK. If you can take out a big AK at any time to defend yourself, at least it must be much stronger than the wave of sand in the metal book?
Having had enough of the hysteria left over from his childhood, Wei Ran also retreated into the warm cab in the howling cold wind, put on the appropriate cold-proof clothes as quickly as possible, and then carried the gun with the new magazine.
rifle, and quickly rushed towards the two wolves that had just been left behind.
