Chapter 195 Gale Crater
"Marus, what are you doing?"
A deep voice came from behind, frightening the body of the thin and low-level Proxima Centauri to tremble violently.
Malus, that is the collective name for these low-level Proxima Centauri hatched by the incubation center.
Congenital deficiencies, coupled with various acquired factors, result in their extremely thin bodies.
They generally have low IQs and are located at the bottom of Proxima Centauri civilization, responsible for the simplest and most tiring work. Atoka, who was executed a few years ago, is one of the thousands of Marus.
The skinny Malus didn't have time to think too much. He quickly turned around and placed his forelimbs on top of the thinking organ.
There is no other reason. The only people who call them that are the superior Proxima Centauri.
"Sir, I, I..."
Malus didn't even dare to look up to see the identity of the speaker.
His body was shaking violently, and his thinking organs were running at extremely fast speeds, but he couldn't find any reliable reason.
For the first time, he hated his inferior thinking apparatus so much.
"Forget it, I'm in a good mood today, so I won't cause trouble for you!" The deep voice gradually faded away along with the footsteps, "Work hard, otherwise..."
Malus breathed a sigh of relief and slumped to the ground.
He cautiously cast his gaze in the direction of the sound.
A touch of gray!
There was a chill behind him.
…
Mars.
Inside Mars City No.1.
"Professor, Bai Yixuan and the others have sent back the first test report."
Zero's electronic synthesized sound sounded in Lu Yongchang's office.
"Um?"
Lu Yongchang quickly raised his head and looked at the holographic image that lit up in front of him: "Mount Sharp?"
"Did they choose a location that NASA had explored..."
Lu Yongchang nodded secretly.
It's a good choice.
Rather than trying your luck aimlessly, it is better to start from a place with some data to support it.
"What are the test results?"
Zero quickly projected the result in front of Lu Yongchang.
Looking at the data displayed above, a look of surprise flashed in his eyes.
"Calcium sulfate, magnesium sulfate, and some fragmented iron ore..."
Lu Yongchang immediately sat up straight and read the report carefully.
"Sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon..." He frowned and muttered to himself, "These elements are incredible!"
They are all key chemical ingredients for the existence of life.
Thinking of the geographical location of Mount Sharp and the previous detection reports of NASA's Mars probe, Lu Yongchang couldn't help but frowned.
Could it be said that Mars was really a vibrant world like the Earth before?
After pondering for a while, he frowned and said to Zero: "Zero, let them go drill over there in Gale Crater."
…
Mount Sharp.
Bai Yixuan sat on the Mars rover, silently waiting for the response from Mars City.
Soon, his watch vibrated slightly.
Come to respond!
Bai Yixuan's eyes moved slightly, and he quickly lowered his head to look at his watch.
When he saw the information displayed on the watch, a look of surprise flashed across his face: "This..."
"Everyone, we have to go down." Bai Yixuan adjusted his mood, stood up, and looked down at the Gale Crater at his feet, "Professor Lu asked us to go to Gale Crater and have a look."
"team leader?"
As teammates who had been with Bai Yixuan for several years, Hong Fan and Xia Wanyi naturally noticed Bai Yixuan's surprise at that moment and immediately asked.
"Did the professor say something?"
Facing the inquiry from his old teammate, Bai Yixuan hesitated for a moment: "It's not that important."
"The professor said that based on the sample analysis we just conducted, there is a possibility of life in Gale Crater."
"Of course, not now, but before." Bai Yixuan quickly added, as if fearing that his teammates would misunderstand, "I'm not talking about the fungal life discovered last time when I dug a hole, but life similar to the one on Earth."
Hearing this, a look of shock flashed across the faces of the five teammates.
"Similar to Earth?!"
"Captain, are you sure?!"
Hong Fan smacked his lips and turned to look around.
Inside Gale Crater, the eyes were red.
In addition to fine gravel, there are large rocks everywhere.
In such an environment, could life like Earth be born?
Bai Yixuan shrugged: "Professor Lu said, but don't have high hopes, the probability of this happening is very small."
…
The foot of Mount Sharp, inside Gale Crater.
Andrew and Bruno squatted down and used tools to gently brush away the red Martian sand on the surface, revealing the ground with some lines inside.
"Is this sedimentary rock?"
Bruno's eyes lit up and he quickly stood up and waved to his teammates.
When everyone got closer, Bruno pointed to the ground and said excitedly: "Everyone, look at what this is!"
"Typical sedimentary rock!"
"This kind of pattern is usually only formed by the transportation and sedimentation of water flow and glaciers!"
Through the glass mask, Bruno saw the surprised looks on everyone's faces.
He reached out and tapped the rock in front of him: "Professor Lu is right."
"Anyway, this place may have been a lake in the past, and there was indeed the possibility of life."
Bai Yixuan knelt down and reached out to gently brush the rocks in front of him.
Through the gloves, he clearly felt the texture of the rock surface.
At this moment, he held his breath slightly.
It was as if he was not touching the rock, but the pulse of Mars for billions of years!
After a long time, he exhaled a long breath, stood up and said, "Let's go this way."
"Hong Fan, bring the drilling equipment, let's see what it's like underground!"
...
With the joint efforts of the six people, the drilling equipment was quickly built again.
Under the joint action of the motor and the drill bit, the red stone chips quickly splashed out.
Because of gravity, some fine dust floated in the air and did not fall to the ground.
The air around the drilling hole quickly became turbid.
Bai Yixiuan, who was responsible for controlling the drilling equipment, glanced at the display on the side through the turbid air.
Looking at the various data displayed on it, Bai Yixiuan shook his head helplessly.
"This place is really difficult to drill. It is estimated that there are sedimentary rocks underneath?"
As soon as the voice fell, the drill bit sank down instantly as if there was no obstacle!
"Fuck!"
Looking at the rapidly descending drill, Bai Yixuan didn't have time to think about it, and pressed the emergency stop button with muscle memory.
"Captain?!"
The movement at this moment obviously scared several teammates next to him.
"What's going on? Why is the drill..." Hong Fan squatted down with a look of fear and observed the drilling machine.
Bai Yixuan swallowed slightly, stood up slowly, and pressed the switch to reverse the motor with trembling hands.
"I don't know either. It doesn't seem to be a rock layer below."
