the only savior

Chapter 881 Abnormal Hole
The next day, afternoon.

28 hours after the successful moon landing.

The new Apollo team has completed the basic deployment of the moon base, and the entire moon landing plan should be more than half done here, and the rest is just a successful return.

But this time they came here, while landing on the moon, they also had another important task, which was to complete the exploration of the Gun of Longinus.

Inside the moon base.

"The work has been carried out smoothly, even more smoothly than we imagined. This is a good thing. I hope it will be the same in the future."

Tony was lying back on a soft black chair, and said to his companions with a comfortable expression.

In front of him is a monitor, which is showing the pictures taken by the Lunokhod 1.

They need to explore the Gun of Longinus, and according to intelligence, the area close to it is in a state of magnetic field chaos.

Therefore, they must first send a lunar rover to investigate the situation, and they cannot rush there in person.

To this end, the equipment provided by the aviation center has been specially modified.

For example, materials that can shield strong magnetic field interference, extended oxygen cylinders that carry a large amount of oxygen, manual mechanical power devices on lunar rovers, and so on.

They are not sure what kind of situation they will encounter here, but it is necessary to be fully prepared.

"Ah, the trip to the moon looks easier than I imagined, and I'm a little bit reluctant to be here. Unfortunately, I will go back in 72 hours. I really envy you can stay here forever..."

On the side, security officer John Ottos stretched his waist, looking at everything around him wistfully.

"Come on, Otos, do you think it's fun to stay here all the time? I think it's better to go back sooner. After all, it's not a good experience to live in this place of less than 300 square meters for a whole year. You Say yes, Alder?"

The speaker was a tall black man who was the deputy captain of the operation, Maximilian Hirsch.

And the person he questioned was the engineer in the team, Swallow Alder.

Swallow Alder is a fat white man with a beard, wearing a pair of glasses, and looks a little silly.

But if anyone really thinks he is stupid, he is very wrong.

No one is an ordinary person who can be selected by the new Apollo program and sent to space.

Each of them is a top talent in the industry, and they must not simply judge people by their appearance.

Swallow was concentrating on debugging an instrument in his hand, when he was suddenly asked by the vice-captain, he was slightly taken aback, and then said:

"Maybe, but I still like it here, and each of these devices is enough for me to play for a whole year..."

After he finished speaking, he lowered his head again and continued to tinker with the things in his hand.

"Cut, boring..."

The deputy captain rolled his eyes, and then continued to chat with the security guard Otos.

There are currently five people in this base. Except for the two captains, he and Tony, the rest are an engineer, a security officer, and a surveyor.

But in the end, it will be left on the moon, with only three people on its one-year mission.

Although the black vice-captain kept saying that it was boring to be here, how could he not yearn to stay in his heart.

But Maximilian, as the vice-captain of this operation, will return with the new Apollo 1 together with security officer Otos.

Several people were still chatting here. Tony, who was controlling the lunar rover over there, suddenly sat up straight, looked at the screen in front of him and said:
"Huh? Come and see, what is this?"

His voice immediately attracted the attention of several other people. Everyone put down their things and stood behind the black chair.

"Why is there a deep pit here? I remember that it wasn't there when I looked at it yesterday."

Tony pointed to the screen and said.

On the screen, there is a hole about two meters in diameter in front of the lunar rover, which is just embedded in a protruding sand dune.

The entrance of the hole was pitch black, and nothing could be seen from the outside.

"This is car No. 2, right? Where did you find it?"

Raiden Abbott asked aloud.

The No. 2 lunar rover is used to perform survey work around the base, and he, the surveyor, is in charge.

"Over there, the southeast declination is 18 degrees, about 2.5 kilometers away from us, and less than 50 meters away from the new Apollo."

Tony dropped a top view showing the location of Lunokhod 2.

"Is it next to the new Apollo... I have the impression that there was no such big hole found during the survey yesterday..."

Surveyor Raiden Abbott pondered for a moment, then said:
"Well...but that's an anorthosite area over there, which belongs to the layered type, and some areas will be very fragile. It's not impossible for such a situation to happen..."

"In addition, there is too much glass crystal dust on the moon, which is easy to cause attachment, so it blocks the entrance of the cave, and now it is affected by our activities, exposing the entrance of the cave..."

He explained why things might have happened, which sounded reasonable.

"Is that so..."

But Tony frowned all the time, he always felt that things were not as simple as he imagined.

After thinking for a while, he suddenly raised his head and said to everyone:

"Well, since it's so close to the spaceship, we'll ask Lei Xi and the others to send two people over there to take a look and make sure there's nothing unusual..."

"However, they don't have the technology and experience of traveling on extraterrestrial celestial bodies. Will there be any hidden dangers in letting them go out so rashly? Isn't it just a hole? Captain, are you being too cautious?"

Deputy captain Maximilian said.

Tony directly refuted his words, saying:

"They are all carefully selected astronauts, and they have absolutely mastered the theory and technology. This is not a problem. Besides experience, do you have this experience before coming here? Everyone needs opportunities, and they also need opportunities. Same."

After he finished speaking, his face became more serious, and he continued:

"Besides, don't forget that our mission this time is to explore the Gun of Longinus. The magnetic field strength of the moon is so low, but it is surprisingly terrifying in this area. Don't you think there is something tricky about it? One cannot be too cautious in a location like this."

"Well, you are the boss, you have the final say."

The black vice-captain shrugged.

Soon, the spacecraft received the order, and two astronauts left the cabin with their equipment and went to the target area for detection.

About 10 minutes passed before and after, and the other party's reply came from the communication channel of Tony and the others.

"Captain, this hole seems to be very deep. We have extended the detection equipment to a maximum of 30 meters, but we still haven't reached the bottom line. If we need to continue exploring, we may need to return to the spaceship to marry a detection robot."

"What? So deep!?"

On the side, surveyor Raiden Abbott showed a look of shock.

He originally thought it was just an ordinary small hole, but he didn't expect it to be more than 30 meters deep, which was a bit beyond people's expectations.

"Could it be that there is actually a huge cave underneath?"

Abbott began to get excited.

As a geologist who studies celestial bodies, I am obsessed with these extraordinary discoveries.

"Use the detection robot..."

On the side, Tony also fell into deep thought after learning the result of the matter.

The detection robots have a very strong anti-interference ability, and each one is extremely precious. They originally planned to keep it to explore the Gun of Longinus.

Moreover, due to the harsh environment and technology of the moon, these robots will basically become consumables after being used, and one will be less if one is used.

Now if he is asked to take out too many holes, Tony can't help hesitating.

However, if he couldn't make a decision, he asked the headquarters, and Tony immediately reported back the information here, and handed it over to the Aerospace Center for decision.

Lu En has been in the command center for the past two days and has not left. He received Tony's report immediately and attached great importance to it.

Logically speaking, it's just a naturally formed cave, and there shouldn't be anything worth fighting for.

But it was different in that place.

The gun of Longinus may contain a secret on the far side of the moon. This secret is too important, and Luen is unwilling to give up any possibility.

"Maybe, this is the place we're looking for..."

Rune muttered to himself.

He remembered a sentence said by the philosopher Ointo Standing.

"Any inconspicuous corner that you ignore may be your entrance to the truth."

"Tell them, let them investigate there immediately, the information this time is very valuable, I hope they can continue to maintain such a cautious attitude!"

Soon, the order from the aviation command center was conveyed.

Tony also breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the order, because of a certain intuition in his heart, he still tends to be able to investigate that area.

It took some time to explore the unknown of the robot, and it took everyone about an hour to set up the relevant parameters.

It took another hour to move the robot from the base to the cave entrance, and the preparations were considered complete.

This time it was the black vice-captain Maximilian who sent the robot over.

The next work will also be guided by him on site, and the other two astronauts will cooperate.

In fact, it is on-site work, but in fact, there is not much that requires manpower to complete.

Most of the exploration tasks are left to the engineering expert Swallow Alder who controls the robot in the rear.

The only thing the black deputy captain needs to do is to expand the opening of the cave so that the robot can enter it smoothly.

But that being said, when the environment is changed to the moon, just this seemingly simple excavation work will become very difficult.

Fortunately, the Aerospace Center has considered this possibility in advance and equipped them with special equipment.

This allowed Maximilian to wear a heavy spacesuit and dig holes on the moon, whose gravity is only one-sixth of that of Aquamarine.

The work progressed much more difficult and slower than imagined.

Even in the weak parts, it is anorthosite, and it is difficult to dig effectively under such space conditions.

In the end, it took the three of them more than two hours to change their spacesuits back and forth six times before successfully expanding the hole by half, enough to accommodate the passage of a detection robot.

This is a spider-like robot with a body width of 2.5 meters. It has four pairs of mechanical feet and a built-in balance and stability structure, which allows it to move freely on a [-]-degree cliff.

The three returned to the spacecraft after placing the spider robot, and the security officer Otos originally planned to go with them.

However, because Lunokhod 3 loaded the spider robot and vice-captain Maximilian, there was no place for him to sit, so he stayed here temporarily.

In the base, through the screen, Tony and the others are observing the spider robot constantly moving downward.

Under the illumination of the light, it can be seen that there is a slanting passage around it, which seems to have no bottom.

Spider robots move very slowly, especially in such a dangerous environment, so they need to move forward with caution.

Fortunately, along the way, the width of the channel shows no signs of narrowing, which allows the robot to move downward smoothly.

"How long have we been walking? Why is this passage so deep? There can't really be anything down there...?"

Otos looked at the still advancing picture on the screen, and couldn't help asking.

He felt that the spider robot had been walking in this invisible passage for more than ten minutes.

But the scene in front of him is still the same, and there is no change at all, as if it has never moved in place.

"We walked for 8 minutes, covering a total distance of more than 60 meters, but it seems that we have not yet reached the end."

Chubby engineering expert Alder said.

Unlike his calmness, surveyor Raiden Abbott had a confused expression on his face.

"It shouldn't...it shouldn't be...how can there be such a long passage here..."

"It stands to reason that although there may be fragile areas on the outside of the area with layered terrain, the inside is still very strong. Unless it is caused by changes in the earth's crust, this will not happen..."

"But this is the moon. Shouldn't the interior of the moon have been cooled long ago? Where would there be crustal movement... Could it be that it was left a long time ago? Or is our speculation wrong...? "

The nearly fifty-year-old professor was talking to himself in disbelief, as if he had fallen into deep self-doubt.

In the cave, the spider robot continued to move forward with a steady pace.

80 m.

100 m.

200 m.

……

Later, even Ald, an engineering expert, began to feel restless.

Everyone did not expect that the bottom of this seemingly inconspicuous hole actually extends to such a depth.

(End of this chapter)