Groups of drones entered the ice cave, and even the group of drones on the shaft jumped down. The scene in front of Ye Han's eyes quickly split, from the complete Europa to forty-eight small screens.
Each screen is very small, but the images on the screen are very clear, and wherever Ye Han moves his eyes, the screen will automatically enlarge, allowing him to see more clearly.
The screens zoomed in and out one by one, but Ye Han never found what he was looking for. All the screens showed straight ice holes without any bends.
He couldn't help but wonder, was it because he was unlucky and all the ice holes were missed? Or was the drone's location too shallow, not deep enough for the aliens to hide?
Ye Han knew that he was too anxious, but he couldn't control his emotions. He kept telling himself to be patient, and continued to wait silently with a bit of expectation and a bit of uneasiness.
Five minutes and fifty-three seconds later, the No. 1 screen froze, and He Lu immediately shouted: "Captain, the No. 1 shaft drone hit the bottom and lost the signal!"
Ye Han had the urge to complain, wasn't it just broken? Why are you talking so literary?
His eyes turned to screen No. 1, and the pictures on the screen immediately switched one by one in a slideshow - the drones all moved in groups, so there was more than one picture transmitted back.
The first picture is of a straight ice cave, which should have been taken from the bottom of the cave upwards, but only the ice cave can be seen, and no matter how much you zoom in, you cannot see the entrance.
Ye Han looked at the data in the lower left corner of the screen. The depth at the time of shooting was 82,641 meters, which means that the vertical depth of Shaft No. 1 exceeds 82 kilometers.
The drone's lens is not a large telescope, and the focal length of the lens is on the cave wall, so it is impossible to clearly see things more than 80 kilometers away.
The screen switched to a photo of the cave wall, a very flat arc cylinder.
Switch again, this time to the bottom of the cave.
Ye Han originally thought that the bottom of the cave was a flat ice surface, but he didn't expect that what appeared on the screen was a thick layer of pure white that looked very delicate, exactly like winter snow.
After thinking about it for a while, he understood that the process of drilling a hole was that the laser melted the ice into water, and the water boiled under the irradiation of the laser. The steam flew up along the ice hole until it flew out of the ice hole.
However, the cave is more than 80 kilometers deep. After the laser ceased fire, there was still a large amount of water vapor in the cave. This water vapor gradually condensed in the low temperature of about minus 160 degrees, and then slowly fell to the bottom of the cave, and finally formed the word picture.
image.
If it were on the earth, these tiny ice particles would float upward slowly due to the influence of air resistance, and the drone would definitely be able to capture a scene like falling snow when it falls.
But it's different on Europa. The air here is very thin, and the resistance is almost negligible. Whether it's snow particles or drones, they all fall freely under ideal conditions that ignore air resistance. There is no chance of anyone chasing them.
It’s a matter of whom.
At this time, Ye Han heard He Lu's voice again, reporting that drones in several other holes had landed, but the result was the same as in the shaft, not a single drone survived.
Ye Han ignored the other ice caves and first called up the image of Cave No. 1. The signals returned by several drones each occupied one screen and were played in fast forward mode. The nearly six-minute video took only thirty seconds.
It was finished in seconds, and nothing was found. Hole No. 1 was just a hole.
Then I called up the videos of several other ice caves, and the results showed no difference.
In this way, Ye Han took the trouble to read them one by one. Every time, he told himself that he would definitely find something in the next hole. But until he finished the last hole, there was still nothing unusual. All the ice caves were just ice caves.
Ye Han sighed helplessly, took off his helmet and rubbed the corners of his eyes: "Luo Qi, report to the flagship that our ship has found nothing. Then ask the flagship if any friendly forces have found anything."
Luo Qi immediately followed the instructions and soon received a reply: "Boss, the flagship said nothing was found."
Ye Han was immediately surprised: "You didn't find any? Have you reported everything?"
"More than half of them have been reported, and there is still a third that has not been reported."
Ye Han had a headache and suddenly had a bad premonition.
No one can say clearly about the probability, but more than two-thirds of the battleships have not found it, and the possibility of the remaining one-third gaining something is very low.
Just a few minutes later, Luo Qi received the notification from the flagship. As expected by Ye Han, more than 30 warships did not find any of them. The more than 700 ice caves were all ordinary holes. The flagship asked each ship to
Head to the virtual meeting room to gather immediately.
When Ye Han entered the virtual conference room, almost everyone had arrived, but a second later, the last captain took his place.
Huo Qiang immediately said: "Do you all understand the situation? I called you here for two purposes. First, it was not found that there was a problem with our location selection, or it was just bad luck that we did not encounter aliens. Second, next
What should we do? Leave the equator or dig new holes in the ice. Let’s start discussing now. If you have any ideas, feel free to tell us.”
"Let me tell you first, it's just a suggestion." Zhuang Bo said without hesitation, "Could it be that aliens are not near the equator at all?"
"Probably not." Wu Han said, "The aliens from Io and Ganymede both landed near the equator. They can't get under the ice and then drill holes to leave, right?"
"Is that because we are unlucky? Not one of the more than 700 holes is useful. Isn't this too bad luck?"
"Is it not deep enough?" A captain said hesitantly. "Except for the ice cave near the equator which is relatively vertical, the rest of the inclination angles are not small. The farthest one is almost 45 degrees. The length is about the same, but it is vertical.
The depth is only half the difference!"
"Yes, what if aliens are hiding at the bottom of the ice? I have calculated that the average depth of the vertical shaft is 80 kilometers, and it is only about ten kilometers from the bottom of the ice. The outermost inclined shaft is only 50 kilometers deep, and is still far from the bottom of the ice.
There are fifty kilometers, and there are more than 700 holes, but the only ones with deep enough vertical depth are those near the equator, and there are only fifty or sixty of them. Is it strange that I can't find anything?"
"That makes sense, but once it leaves the synchronous orbit, it's impossible to stabilize the battleship's posture. The engine is too unstable and there's no way to drill holes!"
"Who says it's not the case? Otherwise, the battleship will continue to hang on the equator, and the inclined hole will increase the time according to the angle. The furthest one will increase the time to two hours, or until the water is pumped out..."
With each other's words, the captains, an alternative plan gradually took shape.
Hearing this, Huo Qiang pressed his hands and said: "Very good, the first step is to increase the time. Wu Han, please convey the order immediately. Let's discuss the second question. What should we do if we still haven't found it?"
