Two days later, after a series of preparations, the Snow Dragon was ready, waiting for the white monster to appear in this sea area.
At dawn, all the crew members gathered in the dining room of the Snow Dragon, and Wang Jingzhong presided over a mobilization meeting to announce the next action plan.
According to the prophecy that Dad left for us, the white monster will appear in this sea area today, so from now on, we must be extremely vigilant and must not let go of any possible clues.
And because of previous encounters, we can already judge that the fish finder on the Snow Dragon is ineffective against the white monster. Therefore, the observation plan he formulated will mainly observe the surrounding sea areas visually to look for that white monster.
Traces of a monster.
The first is the visual observation on the deck. Except for the necessary crew members to maintain the Xuelong's navigation, all crew members in other idle positions go on the deck and use telescopes to observe the surrounding sea conditions as much as possible.
On the other hand, a temporarily rented KA-32 helicopter aboard the Xue Long will also be dispatched to observe the surrounding sea movements from the air.
Finally, the submarine submersible machine is dropped into the deep sea, and the ultrasonic photoelectric camera on the submarine machine is used to observe whether there are any traces of monsters in the surrounding area from the bottom of the sea.
In fact, in Wang Jingzhong's plan, he originally planned to put a Yellow River boat carried by the Snow Dragon at sea to assist in the observation, but in the end it was rejected because he was worried that the Yellow River boat was too small and might be overturned by monsters.
.
The arrangements were completed, and everyone immediately started busy. Gao Liang and I also went to the deck. Dr. Mo Xi did not attend this meeting, but was on the deck where the submarine submersible machine was fixed.
I heard from other crew members that she has been playing with the underwater diving machine since last night, and there is still no sign of it being finished. Gao Liang and I were afraid that she would delay her observation plan for a while, so we rushed over to take a look.
See what she is tinkering with.
Arriving at the middle of the deck, we saw Dr. Mo Xi right there. She had lowered the submarine submersible machine onto the deck. The original black shell had been opened for some reason, revealing the densely packed circuit boards and several wires inside.
The data lines were connected from these circuit boards to a laptop in Mo Xi's hand.
Seeing this, I couldn't help but feel a little anxious. I was about to start taking action. Why did Mo Xi dismantle the most important underwater diving machine? What on earth was she doing?
"Dr. Mo, what are you doing? The underwater diving machine will be launched into the water soon?" Gao Liang reacted faster than me. He rushed directly to Mo Xi and shouted.
Mo Xi raised her head. She had not slept all night, her face was frighteningly pale, and her eyes were covered with red bloodshot eyes.
However, her face still had a calm expression, and she replied calmly: "I am installing an active sonar on the underwater diving machine. As long as I install it, even if the monster can absorb ultrasonic waves, we can also observe it through sonar.
until it appears."
"Is this okay?" Gao Liang looked at Mo Xi with suspicion, "Didn't we already deduce that the monster can absorb ultrasonic waves? In this case, the sonar should be useless, right?"
"It's true that active sonar alone won't work, but it will be fine if active sonar and passive sonar are used together." When talking about his work, Mo Xi showed some excitement in his eyes.
It turned out that during the two days of waiting, Mo Xi had already thought of a way to find monsters through sonar. That was to use one active sonar and two passive sonar to cooperate to lay out an ultrasonic
A sonar network composed of.
Different from active sonar, passive sonar relies on sonar to passively receive the radiated noise generated by underwater targets such as ships and signals emitted by underwater acoustic equipment to determine the target's orientation and distance.
Mo Xi's method refers to making the submarine submersible aircraft become a sonar source, continuously releasing active sonar signals in the sea, and at the same time receiving the signals from the submarine submarine aircraft through the passive sonar on the Xuelong and KA-32 helicopters.
As long as the signal is suddenly interrupted, it means that we have discovered traces of the monster. Because based on previous experience, we are already sure that the monster has the ability to absorb ultrasonic waves.
Although this method also has limitations, for example, if the monster does not appear near the underwater submersible machine, it may not block the sonar signal of the submersible machine. However, compared to just relying on naked eye observation, Mo Xi's method is still
Greatly increases our likelihood of finding monsters.
After listening to Mo Xi's explanation, Gao Liang and I looked at each other, and the two of them immediately closed their mouths and waited quietly aside, hoping that Mo Xi would finish the work soon so that the submarine submersible machine could be launched into the water immediately.
Fortunately, the wait did not last long. Almost ten minutes later, Mo Xi unplugged the data cable on the submersible machine and announced to us that the active sonar on the submersible machine had been installed.
After packing up her things, she signaled to the crew members who were also waiting nearby and directed them to start installing the shell on the submersible machine.
With the efforts of everyone, almost at the same time that the KA-32 helicopter on the stern of the Xue Long took off, the submarine submersible machine was also put into the water in time.
After watching the submersible machine launch into the water safely, Mo Xi and we immediately returned to the cab.
In order to facilitate unified command during operations, the control system of the submersible machine has been placed in the cab these days.
After taking over the controller from a crew member, Mo Xi began to personally operate the submarine submersible. In order to expand the scope of the sonar network as much as possible, she had to keep the submersible as far away from the Xuelong and the KA-32 helicopter as possible.
After sailing for almost half an hour, Mo Xi looked at the data returned by the submersible machine on the screen, and then said to Wang Jingzhong: "The submersible machine is currently 15 nautical miles away from the Snow Dragon."
Wang Jingzhong calculated the distance, nodded and said: "Almost."
He turned around and gave an order to the crew: "Turn on the passive sonar and ask the helicopter to put down the sonar as well."
After a while, the liaison officer sent word that the KA-32 helicopter flying away from the Xue Long had lowered the passive sonobuoy.
Without Wang Jingzhong's order, Mo Xi had already pressed a button on the console, and then said to us: "The active sonar of the submarine submersible machine is activated."
The next moment, a sound that could not be heard by human ears spread on the bottom of the sea.
"Didn't find anything?" Wang Jingzhong asked the sonar operator in the cab.
The sonar officer paid attention to the fluorescent screen and replied: "Report to the captain, the sonar signal of the submersible machine is clearly visible. There seems to be no trace of monsters around."
"Continue to observe and make people on the deck more vigilant. The monster may appear at any time."
Although Wang Jingzhong gave the order, he turned around and asked quietly in our ears: "Two special commissioners, do you know exactly when that monster will appear?"
"This..." Gao Liang scratched his head and replied: "Do you still remember that satellite photo? That photo was taken around nine o'clock in the morning, and we are now... seven forty-five. If that
If the monster is punctual, it should appear in more than an hour at most."
After the bright voice fell, the cab fell into silence, and everyone began to wait quietly for the arrival of nine o'clock.
At the same time, I sat quietly next to Mo Xi, watching the magical underwater scene on the screen.
At this moment, the image on the screen suddenly flashed a few times, and then the underwater world above disappeared. The fluorescent screen was as milky white as the eyeballs of a dead fish.
"Dr. Mo Xi, what just happened?" I couldn't help but exclaimed.
My scream also alerted others, and Gao Liang and Wang Jingzhong immediately walked to the screen.
Seeing that the image on the screen disappeared, Gao Liang immediately asked softly: "Dr. Mo Xi, have you turned off the screen of the submersible machine?"
"It doesn't matter. It's on its own..." Mo Xi was also stunned and didn't know how to answer.
I had a bad feeling in my heart, but I still held out hope and asked: "Dr. Mo, is there something wrong with the receiver?"
Mo Xi checked it skillfully. When she pressed a button, an image consisting of red and green squares appeared on the milky white screen. "Everything in the receiving system is normal, there is nothing wrong with it," she said.
I asked her: "Then why can't I see the image?"
"I don't know, it seems that the video signal of the submersible machine has been cut off." Mo Xi pondered for a while, and then sat on the chair in doubt and frustration, as if talking to herself, "Is there something wrong with the submersible machine?
?”
She grabbed her hair with both hands and kept saying: "Impossible! My examination is perfect, there can be no fault!"