War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 660 Tinder
In the lively living cabin, four young students headed by Taras are singing the songs of the Soviet Gem Band one after another under the lead of Dr. Murat and the accompaniment provided by Dr. Pavel on the accordion .

And Apoli, the driver of the transport truck, has already danced a Cossack dance that tested the endurance of his knees in the small space vacated—even though the dance, the singing and the accompaniment did not match at all.

On the contrary, Wei Ran became the only audience, but in order to avoid being dragged up for the talent show, he also took the initiative to pick up the camera and took pictures of the car of people one after another.

When the tossing was enough, the food was filled, and the drunken people also climbed into their own beds, covered themselves with blankets and began to compare their snoring.

According to what I learned during the dinner just now, since the people in this car started working on this job in September, having a party on the day of completing the supply every time has become a default entertainment activity for everyone.

In normal times, Dr. Murat and Dr. Pavel would take their students on duty every 6 hours, taking turns sampling and analyzing.

At the same time, every three days, the two sides will take half a day to rest and half a day to discuss intensively.Of course, the half day mentioned here is a full 12 hours.

Not only that, Wei Ran and Apoli also have similar jobs, but their jobs are relatively easier. Except for providing meals for the two groups of people in time and driving the transport vehicle, most of the rest of the time All are free.

Where there is freedom, there is also freedom. At least, they are not qualified to use the only on-board radio station of this huge transport vehicle that 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 right to use the car radio.

Because, only they know the password of the safe in the living cabin, and one person has the password and the other has the key.

As for the safe that looks the same size as the washing machine of later generations, there is nothing in it other than the car radio, the only thing Wei Ran can be sure of is the two ones that he has seen before, which are similar to laptops. device of.

Squinting his eyes to see the snowstorm rising outside the window, Wei Ran finally yawned and closed his eyes in the increasingly violent drunkenness.

When he woke up to the piercing sound of the alarm clock, there was a white belly outside the window, but the gray sky could barely be regarded as dawn at best.

After queuing up to brush their teeth and wash their faces in the simple toilet, Apoli and the student named Gennady have dug out a dry toilet in the tent with a stove outside, and covered it to prevent it from falling of logs.

After still queuing up to complete the slightly troublesome process of defecating, urinating, shoveling snow and burying excrement, when Wei Ran was clutching his butt that was about to be frozen to get into the living cabin, the big bald Agwan had already brought Watching the young man named Shalip re-build a tent a hundred meters away, and Taras has already driven the core sampling equipment over.

The busy day began. Outside the carriage, Taras and Sharip guarded the tent and equipment and started sampling.

In the carriage, Apoli distributed the cooked oatmeal to everyone one by one, and then took his rifle, stepped on the skis and pulled the sleigh to the distant forest again.

After breakfast, Dr. Murat immediately started to work at his desk, but Pavel and the student named Gennady fell back to sleep.The only exception is the big bald Agwan.

"Aren't you resting?" Wei Ran asked as he walked towards the cab.

"I can't sleep now." Agwan fastened the cotton cap on his head, and asked honestly, "Will my going to the cab affect your rest?"

"No..." Wei Ran helped the other party open the co-pilot's door while speaking, and then quickly walked around to the side of the driver's seat.

Getting into the icy compartment, Wei Ran touched the frost that had condensed on the window, and then started to start the giant machine step by step according to the steps that Apolly had reminded him. This is the job assigned to him by Apolly—— hot car.

Don't look at this big guy with a start-up preheating system, which is enough to successfully start in the cold weather of minus 58 degrees, but just before he got in the car, he glanced at the thermometer attached to the driver's door, and the temperature outside was already high. It was minus [-] degrees.

In such low temperature weather, if the engine is not started many times a day, it is almost no different from suicide.

After a long wait, the electrically heated fuel tank and oil circuit made a green light on the instrument panel. Seeing this, Wei Ran started the ignition for the first time.

It didn't take much effort at all, and the diesel multi-fuel engine from the tank behind the cab was started smoothly.The low roar instantly overwhelmed the noise of the small fuel generators in the cargo hold that had been working all night.

After the engine stabilized, Wei Ran turned on the electric heating of the windshield and the heating system of the cab.

It was only the first step after finishing the work. Pushing the car door again, Wei Ran got into the rumbling cargo compartment again, temporarily extinguished the small fuel generator, and then climbed onto the roof, picked up the The big broom fixed near the engine radiator grill carefully cleaned the snow covered on the roof.

Finally, he knocked off the amber icicles that had condensed on the chimney of the stove in the living cabin, and then he got into the cab through the skylight.

In such a short period of time, the temperature in the cab has jumped from below zero to twenty or thirty degrees above zero. Even Agwan has already taken off his heavy winter clothes, mask and even boots, and is sitting cross-legged in the passenger compartment. For the driver's seat, a white thing is processed with a small hacksaw.

"what is that?"

While Wei Ran was asking questions, he first honked the horn and waited for a while before driving the transport vehicle to start moving.

"Mammoth Tusk"

Agwan stopped his work, threw the white object in his hand and said, "This was accidentally found 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 heart.

"Birthday present for Mr. Pavel"

Agwan explained with a smile, "The grip of the revolver issued to him by the Academy of Sciences was cracked last time because he used it as a hammer. I'm going to make a new pair for him."

"So you did it." Wei Ran muttered to himself, and then asked enthusiastically, "Do you need my help?"

"It would be thankful if you could raise that stove later," Agwan pointed to Wei Ran's back while speaking.

Subconsciously glanced at the back of the seat back, after Wei Ran tore off a dirty blanket, he found a small cast iron stove there, and there were several chimneys in the belly of the stove.

"I'll help you get up later"

While Wei Ran was speaking, he had already steered the transport vehicle in a circle to return to its original position, and pointed the front of the vehicle at Talas and Sharip who were working in the wind and snow dozens of meters away.

Turning off the warm-up engine, Wei Ran took out the dirty stove behind him, and Agwan also offered to help fold up the two seats in the middle, leaving a nearly one-meter-long seat between them. Small square space.

After handing over the work of erecting the chimney to Agwan, Wei Ran brought some burning charcoal and chopped firewood from the living cabin in a metal bucket and got into the cab again.

Agwan's movements were also not slow. After such a short period of work, the chimney had already been protruded from one of the four skylights above his head, and he even used the thick canvas around the skylight to block the gap between the chimney and the edge of the skylight. gap.Obviously, he must have done a lot of things like this.

He poured the flaming charcoal in the iron barrel into the stove, and threw a few extra pieces of firewood into it, and Agwan also threw a cigarette to Wei on his own initiative.

A moment later, the lingering smoke fluttered out along the cracks in the car windows.After the two of them threw their cigarette butts into the fire one after another, the cab was warmed up again. Agwan also spread the winter clothes on his body on his legs, and continued to play with the mammoth ivory in his hand.

Beside the crackling fire, Wei Ran was rummaging through the four small drawers on the door above the windshield, bored.

Some of these small drawers are densely covered with switches that control the lights on the roof, and some of them seem to have been removed from the original equipment, but instead they have become glove boxes. There are not only newspapers from October 1991, but also There are rolled magazines, and even personal letters and photos belonging to Apolly, and even sundries such as screwdrivers and nail clippers.

"What are you looking for?" Agwan couldn't help asking curiously.

"Find something interesting." Wei Ran replied slowly, "Isn't it too boring?"

“It's really boring here”

Agwan sighed. "When I set off, I thought it would be a great expedition, but after a week here, I started to want to go home."

"Just homesick?" Wei Ran, who had nothing to gain, sat down again, deliberately looking at the other party with different eyes.

"Of course, there are also my beautiful female classmates."

Agwan pulled his shiny bald head, and said in a rather regretful tone, "A female classmate agreed to go to the stage play with me."

Wei Ran looked at the two big grievances who were busy taking samples and analyzing outside the window, and pretended to be casual and perfunctory, "When you find that bacteria early, you can go back to watch the stage play with your female classmates. And Apoli don't have to be primitive people here."

"Find it sooner?" Agwan was stunned, and then said with a laugh, "We have found those psychrophilic anaerobic bacteria a long time ago."

"Have you found it long ago?" Wei Ran looked at him in surprise.

"certainly"

Agwan spread his hands as a matter of course, "Otherwise, what do you think we are busy with? The collected core samples all contain the 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.

"Just the opposite"

Agwan spread his hands, "We still need to collect enough samples. Only when there are enough samples can we prove this bacterium."

Having said that, Agwan paused, hesitated for a moment and lowered his voice to ask, "Victor, you must not know what the bacteria we are looking for are used for?"

"I don't know," Wei Ran replied bluntly, "and Comrade Battalion Commander also forbids us to be curious about these things."

"If you can help me take a picture of driving this transport vehicle, maybe I can reveal something." Agwan's voice became lower and lower, "Of course, it's just a pose, I don't know how to drive this big guy."

"You are not afraid of leaking the secret."

"I'm already a Latvian, am I not?"

Agwan said mockingly, "Soon this research will have nothing to do with me, and even if I tell you, do you dare to speak out? I just want to talk to someone about the secret I have kept 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 tinder," Agwan whispered.

"What can it be used for?" Wei Ran also lowered his voice, "Can it be used to make biological weapons as powerful as nuclear weapons?"

"You really are a soldier"

Agwan laughed dumbly, "We didn't use it to kill people, on the contrary, we are going to use it to create people."

"Making man?"

"To be precise, it's the Human Creation Project."

"The plan sounds like it needs men and women more than anything."

"exactly"

Agwan leaned most of his body over, "It's true on Earth, but it's different on Mars."

"Where is it?" Wei Ran raised his eyebrows, "Mars?"

"maybe!"

Agwan said nonchalantly, "We all know that there is no life on Mars, at least no signs of life have been found so far."

"So?" After Wei Ran finished speaking, he subconsciously glanced at the rearview mirror, "If you plan to say something, can you explain it in detail?"

"In 1982, Dr. Murat discovered a psychrophilic anaerobic bacterium in the Antarctic ice."

Agwan paused, then continued, "At that time, Dr. Pavel had just graduated and was sent to the North Pole. It happened that he and Dr. Murat were students of the same teacher. So Murat contacted them through their common teacher. Pavel."

"and after?"

Seeing that the other party stopped talking here, Wei Ran subconsciously raised his head to look around, and then urged the other party to continue talking.

"Later Pavel found the same psychrophilic anaerobic bacteria in the Arctic ice"

Agwan's tone was full of admiration, "After completing their respective work on the North and South Poles, under the leadership of their common teacher, they began to study this kind of bacteria that commonly exists in the deep ice of the North and South Poles.

In 1988, they came up with a genius idea.Whether it is possible to try to send this psychrophilic anaerobic bacteria to other planets, the first choice among them is Mars, because it is so similar to the earth. "

"But what's the use of sending some bacteria up there?" Wei Ran asked puzzled.

"It's really useless if the bacteria that are sent up die."

Agwan paused for a moment and asked back, "But what if those bacteria can survive on Mars?"

"What's the use of surviving?"

"Of course it works"

Agwan immediately retorted, "This kind of bacteria, which we call tinder, lives in the ice layer. If they can survive and multiply around the polar regions of Mars, it will first prove that there is water on Mars. There is water. , there are bacteria that can survive in water, do you know what that means?"

"It means that research funding can be defrauded"

Wei Ran muttered silently, but nodded at the same time, "But hasn't the space race ended long ago?"

"This is not a meaningless space race," Agwan said a little excitedly, "This is space colonization, even if it is just space colonization with bacteria!"

"Isn't this enough to fill you up?"

Wei Ran slandered again, maybe because of the limitations of their respective times, or maybe because of the different professional fields, at least, as a history student, he really couldn't see any prospects for this scientific research project.

Seeing the disapproval on Wei Ran's face, Agwan lit a cigarette again and asked slowly, "Victor, if we succeed, if those bacteria named Tinder continue to multiply on Mars. Do you know what it means? What are you wearing?"

"All I know is that those bacteria definitely couldn't help the Soviet Union plant the flag on Mars."

"It is true"

Agwan was not angry because of Wei Ran's ridicule, but changed the subject and said, "About 4 billion years ago, various microorganisms probably existed on the earth, and even the appearance of these microorganisms is only as small as that of the earth." The formation of itself is about [-] million years late.

Of course, for our lifespan of less than a hundred years, [-] million years is too long, but for the earth itself, [-] million years is almost as short as the day we are experiencing now.

But today, 4 billion years later, intelligent life like us has appeared on the surface of this planet.We've created civilizations, built gigantic machines, and even explored other planets. "

"So?" Wei Ran asked calmly.

"Didn't it all start with those microbes that appeared on Earth about 4 billion years ago?"

At this time, Agwan's face showed the color of Soviet-style fantasies, "If the bacteria we send to Mars can eventually reproduce and evolve more advanced life, even if there is only such a tendency.

Then, we may be able to reversely confirm the process of the emergence of life on the earth.

Even we might as well make a more bold hypothesis, assuming that the beginning of all life on earth is a group of tenacious bacteria carefully selected by boring intelligent life to colonize space? "

"Sincerely wish you all success"

Wei Ran said in a calm tone, he couldn't tell whether Agwan was telling the truth, or 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 30 years later, at least according to public information, no country seems to have carried out the so-called "bacterial space colonization".

However, in any case, in the few days left before the disintegration of the Soviet Union, these scientific researchers are still working on their conjectures and assumptions, which in itself is admirable and has nothing to do with nationality.

"We will succeed, we will succeed for sure." Agwan said with certainty.

"So, this time the other teams are also for this?"

"How is it possible? They are all research teams of other polar projects, some are climate, some are geology, and some are even doing mineral vein exploration. Our car is the least valued project."

Agwan shook his head regretfully, "There's nothing we can do about it. After all, our scientific research has only just begun, and it may take at least ten or even twenty years before sending fire to Mars or some other planet with more suitable conditions." time."

"That you"

"Another way you can understand"

Agwan thought for a while, but couldn't help laughing, "Let's put it this way, what we're doing now is more like breed selection."

"To that fire?" Seeing the other party nodding, Wei Ran couldn't help asking, "Are there any differences in bacteria?"

Agwan spread his hands, but did not answer the question directly.At this moment, continuous gunshots were suddenly heard outside the cab.

Subconsciously glanced at the gunshot, Wei Ran immediately pushed the heavy steel skylight above his head, raised the AK rifle that he had been holding in his arms just now, and before he even had time to open the folded butt, he pointed at the gun in the distance. The wolves that approached Taras and Sharip pulled the trigger!
Amidst the dense gunshots, the wolf running in the front rolled and fell to the flat snow surface, but the remaining dozen or so wolves also accelerated.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Agwan, who didn't even have time to put on the winter clothes, also got out from the skylight on the other side, and used a Nagan revolver to shoot bullets at the wolves that couldn't reach them.

Fortunately, the intensive gunshots, the companions who fell one after another, and the "prey" who had already sneaked into the living cabin and many other factors finally turned the direction of the wolves that did not get a bargain. He turned his head and ran into the coniferous forest on the edge of the lake.

"If only I could give this to me this time."

Wei Ran patted the rifle in his hand lightly, while secretly muttering, 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 for self-defense at any time, at least it won't be much stronger than the Bobosha in the metal book?
Having had enough of the hysteria left over from childhood, Wei Ran retreated into the warm driver's cab in the howling wind, put on the corresponding cold-proof clothes as quickly as possible, and then carried the gun with a new magazine. With a rifle, he rushed towards the two wolves who had just stayed behind.

(End of this chapter)