doomsday exile

above the sea.

After hearing the bad news that the submarine volcano may erupt at any time, the team fell into a brief confusion, but recovered quickly.

The Youlong has reached the seabed, and is more than 800 meters away from the sea surface. Even if it wants to rescue, it is beyond its reach.

"...It takes time to float up. That is a diving chamber for scientific research, not a nuclear-powered submarine!"

"Do you need to abandon the plan to salvage the meteorite?"

Everyone on the deck breathed a sigh of relief, their hearts hanging in the air.

They are not worried about their own safety.

If the submarine volcano erupts, the underwater operation of the Yulong submersible cabin will be bad or bad, but it will have little impact on the warships on the sea. Even if an earthquake occurs at the same time, the tsunami will be formed on the offshore continental shelf, and it will have no effect on the ships traveling on the wide sea. threaten.

The team leader frowned, struggled in pain for more than ten seconds, and punched his fist: "Tell Youlong, only one meteorite, no matter how big or small it is."

The person squatting next to the communication platform received the order, and the device immediately started calling.

"Data! Youlong carries a simple quartz pressure sensor and is measuring geological data near the seabed!"

"What? Good job! Request the Medusa to send over the relevant data of this area, and we will conduct a comparative analysis immediately!"

A group of people rushed to the instrument, rolled up their sleeves and started working.

Yuan Zhongxia couldn't help, so he turned to look at his laptop.

"Yan Long, how is the situation?"

"...The data is incomplete and needs to be continuously received. I don't know much about it." Yan Long was thinking about another matter. The situation was urgent just now, and Lu Di was forced to speak out.

Yao Ping was nervous and didn't pay attention. He might think it was the voice from the surface communication channel, but the people here clearly knew that the voice was in the diving cabin.

How could there be a third person on the Youlong diving cabin?

The team leader knew about Zhu Zhu's situation, and also knew that Zhu Zhu brought Huaxia's latest biological AI, so he skipped the situation and didn't mention a word.

The others were buzzing with the threat of a possible volcanic eruption, subconsciously carrying out the order without having time to think about it.

But as time goes by, someone will eventually react.

Yan Long whispered to Yuan Zhongxia: "Look around, is there anyone behaving abnormally?"

"You mean—" Yuan Zhongxia froze for a moment, and soon understood what Yan Long meant.

In this mission, in addition to doing everything possible to obtain technology from other countries, it is also necessary to prevent its own technology from being stolen, and the supervision of internal personnel is also indispensable.

Although those who can be dispatched are all "reliable" people from the files and usual performance, but this time there are too many people in the team, and most of them are ordinary scientific research personnel, not military units, and have not passed Militarized secrecy training.

With their authority, they do not have access to confidential technology.

Whether it is unintentional or intentional, they can't leak the secret.

But now, it is possible for them to tell what happened today—the strange sound in the diving chamber, and even before the volcanic eruption, they found signs of crustal activity that were not detected by all instruments.

Yuan Zhongxia glanced at the people on the deck, and saw that everyone was in a panic, and no one was looking around.

"Even if there are no internal problems, it's not easy to hide this matter." Yuan Zhongxia was worried.

The situation is critical now, and the Youlong can only salvage one meteorite. Huaxia wants to report the "crisis" in this sea area to the Earth Federation. It can only be said that it was "accidentally" discovered by the Youlong after it went down.

This kind of official explanation, it is strange that scientific expedition groups from various countries do not inquire behind their backs.

All right, why put out the quartz pressure detector?

And why are you sure that the volcano will erupt?

Even if Yuan Zhongxia is a layman, he also knows that the collection of geological data like this requires at least a month as a unit. Only through continuous data comparison can it be determined that the pressure value is gradually rising and there are signs of violent crustal activity.

The time difference is not close now.

Obviously, Youlong applied to the Earth Federation scientific research ship Medusa to send data after discovering a problem.

"...I'll talk about this matter later. I'm just mentioning it now to draw your attention. First, make sure that no one inside intends to leak it on purpose." Yan Long seemed to take a deep breath, and there was a hint of nervousness in his voice, "We must Get ready, Lu Di may continue to 'talk', or even 'show his face'."

Yuan Zhongxia was shocked, knowing that Yan Long was implying that something might happen underwater, he murmured: "It can't be so unlucky!"

"Be prepared, no matter what, rescue comes first."

Yan Long said firmly to Yuan Zhongxia, "The backpack next to me contains Lu Di's gloves, take it out quickly."

"Is this thing waterproof?"

Yuan Zhongxia pulled his backpack and asked.

Yan Long reminded: "Go over there to find a spare specimen box, which is waterproof and resistant to water pressure."

Yuan Zhongxia slapped his forehead and forgot about it.

The specimen box can't be taken whenever you want, but you have to find the team leader. Yuan Zhongxia heard good news just as he walked over.

"Pressure increased from the previous minute, but at a slower rate."

"According to the data sent by the Medusa, it is not yet the critical point. There is at least one more day before the Youlong can return."

***

deep under water.

Yao Ping held his breath, his forehead was sweating, and his eyes were fixed on the operation interface.

On the seabed below, a mechanical device resembling an octopus stretched out a tentacle-like probe, skimmed lightly among a pile of indistinguishable rocks, and then stopped suddenly, smoothly pushing a meteorite about five centimeters away. "Into the specimen box.

"Okay, come back." Zhu Zhu said hastily when he saw the display light of the storage device was on.

"No, this one is too small."

Yao Ping insisted, "We chose a half-meter-sized meteorite fragment, which is in this direction. This little guy is an unexpected harvest."

Zhu Zhu frowned, and was about to persuade, when a voice appeared on the communication channel.

"Call Youlong, the submarine volcano may erupt within a day, please evacuate as soon as possible after the mission is completed, do not approach the seabed, over."

"Youlong received it."

Yao Ping turned his head, gritted his teeth and said, "It's only a 3-minute delay... No, 2 minutes, it's just here, otherwise we'll make this trip for nothing, and we won't have a chance in the future."

Seeing that he persisted like this, and what he said was very reasonable, Zhu Zhu couldn't dissuade him.

Zhu Zhu lightly buttoned his glasses, waiting for Lu Di's reply.

"It's fine for now."

Lu Di stared at the seabed. The current situation made him very uneasy, as if he was squatting in an oil pan, or the kind of pan that was burning on all sides.

Even knowing that the pot is not heating up so quickly, and the pot will not be turned over for a while, it is still irritating.

—Because I can see it.

Time passed by, Yao Ping didn't say anything big, he found the relatively large meteorite fragment in about 2 minutes, but this time the operation was not as easy as the small meteorite, he was anxious and grabbed it. Both fetches failed.

Lu Di wished he could rush out of the cabin to pick it up for him.

But this is just thinking about it, because Lu Di can't tell which one is a meteorite from a pile of messy stones, and Yao Ping has to use the machine to point it out to him. With this time, he can perform the third and fourth times Crawled.

What's more, Yao Ping's spirit was about to break down. At this time, a person appeared suddenly. Even if Zhu Zhu explained that it was an intelligent AI, it would scare Yao Ping into a daze. time.

"……drop."

With a sound of success, the meteorite finally rolled into the specimen box in the third grab.

Yao Ping lifted his spirits, pressed the keys continuously, emptied the seawater in the box, and manipulated the mechanical equipment to return to the diving chamber.

"Crack."

The specimen box carried by the equipment was successfully docked to the bottom of the bilge, and then slowly lifted into the pressure chamber.

Like fruit falling into a bag.

I didn't have time to check it, so I hurried away with the bag in my arms.

"go!"

Yao Ping turned on the propeller, and Zhu Zhu assisted in turning the diving chamber with his head up, ready to float up at the fastest speed.

Lu Di's eyes also left the seabed, but out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a red shadow flying across the "bottom of the pot", and then - the pot cracked?

"Quickly adjust your position and step back!"

Lu Di yelled, Yao Ping shook his hand, Zhu Zhu grabbed the joystick in time, and the diving chamber retreated rapidly while rising.

Immediately afterwards, Zhu Zhu felt a huge force hit the diving cabin, and the diving cabin rolled three times in the sea water, and the alarm sounded.

They all pinned themselves to their seats, and the impact did no harm.

But Yao Ping's face suddenly turned pale.

"The hull on the right side is damaged, the water pressure here is too great, and the damaged part has ruptured and fallen off."

Fortunately, the cabin has three floors, so it cannot threaten the people inside for the time being.

"What's going on?" Zhu Zhu asked anxiously.

When the diving cabin rolled over, Lu Di "saw" the bottom of the pot through the front cabin.

The flames did not rush out, but thick black "smoke" leaked in, spread all over the seabed, as if a dozen twisted and winding "pillars" rose from the bottom of the sea in an instant.This is the abnormality that occurs after the extremely high temperature from the ground meets the extremely low water temperature of the deep sea.

Lu Di tried his best to find an adjective: "It's like 'high temperature steam', we were wiped by that thing."

If you didn't run fast enough just now, you might get sprayed right.

"It's a precursor to a volcanic eruption, the activity of the fumarole."

Yao Ping managed to stabilize the diving chamber, and then he came back to his senses, "Wait, who was talking just now?"

"It's an AI, you can call him a ghost." Zhu Zhu made up a lie without blinking an eye, "It was also a ghost who discovered signs of an eruption of a submarine volcano before."

Sure enough, Yao Ping didn't delve into it. He frantically pressed the console, trying to get out of danger as soon as possible.

"Youlong called the sea surface."

In the communication channel, there is only the sound of barking, but nothing can be heard.

"Oops! We are trapped in this messy 'air flow', and the earth's crust sent us an electromagnetic particle disturbance."

"Then go up as soon as possible."

"...I think so too, but there are propellers in the damaged part of the cabin, and now we can only rely on one-sided propulsion to go up." Yao Ping was driving the diving cabin with a pale face, struggling to float up, and the scale on the instrument panel suddenly swayed from side to side.

Before Zhu Zhu could speak, another strong vibration came from the diving chamber.

The "black pillar" rising from the bottom of the sea is exploding.

The icy sea water collided with the high-temperature material coming out of the earth's crust, first solidified for a short time, and then began to explode.

"Don't panic, you can hold on! We are already more than 100 meters away from the seabed!" Yao Ping shouted.

He was sincerely thankful that the diving chamber did not land on the seabed, and at the same time regretted in his heart that if he hadn't delayed the two minutes, maybe he would not be in danger now.

Lu Di didn't complain, because he could see the scale of the "pot crack".

Even if you walk 2 minutes earlier, you may not be able to avoid it.

Lu Di did not expect such a wave of "surprises" to come before the volcano officially erupted.

Regret is useless, all the rush, now hard work is the key.

"Front, left...avoid the three o'clock direction."

Lu Di spoke again, this time reporting the dangerous direction of the aftermath of the explosion.

The shock wave is invisible, but in Lu Di's eyes, it is like a blooming firework, every trajectory is clearly visible, as long as it is avoided reasonably, the shock can be minimized.

I don't know how long it has passed, and an anxious voice came from the communication channel.

"...Youlong, please answer Youlong!"

"Youlong received the message that the current depth is 553 meters. We have encountered short-term fumarole activity on the seabed and have broken away."

Yao Ping was pleasantly surprised, knowing that he had left the area of ​​strong electromagnetic interference, he was sweating profusely, and his heart was beating so fast that he was about to jump out.

"God knows, I suspect I'm flying a fighter jet."

Roll left and right in the sea water, plus dodge quickly.

Zhu Zhu, the fighter assistant, wiped off his sweat angrily, and was about to speak when he suddenly felt a shock in the diving chamber.

"what happened?"

On the instrument panel, an area turned completely red and was constantly flashing.

Yao Ping was tongue-tied: "I hit something, but I don't know what it is... Youlong called the sea, we're in trouble, over."

"It's a sperm whale, it lost its direction and hit you, pay attention! Yulong, you are sinking, Yulong!"