Chapter 200 Stubborn Bacteria

Mars City, outside Port 10, temporary laboratory.

Academician Ding Xueming looked at the indicators in front of him worriedly and sighed deeply.

"It's... it's hard!"

Even though various physical cooling measures were taken, the body temperatures of the six starship pilots still remained above 38 degrees.

This is undoubtedly extremely harmful to the human body!

While Ding Xueming was worried, a researcher quickly walked up to Ding Xueming holding a document.

"Mr. Ding, the blood sample test results are out."

Upon hearing this, Ding Xueming quickly turned around and took the document handed over by the researcher.

The moment he saw the data, Ding Xueming's brows instantly wrinkled.

"The percentage of white blood cells and neutrophils increased, C-reactive protein increased, and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate increased..."

He murmured softly: "This is a typical inflammation caused by bacterial infection!"

At this moment, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Bacteria are fine, as long as they are not viruses!

Bacterial infections, according to past experience, are relatively easy to resolve.

"Have the pathogen been found?" Ding Xueming turned to the researcher and asked, "Where is the lesion?"

There was some hesitation in the researcher's eyes.

"Old Ding..."

"Huh?" Seeing the researcher's appearance, Ding Xueming couldn't help but feel a little bit in his heart, "Say! What's going on?!"

"...The pathogen has been found, but we found this bacteria all over the patient's body." The researcher said with a bitter look, "Now the six patients have varying degrees of inflammation all over their bodies, which is also the reason why the high fever does not go away. "

Ding Xueming's face instantly turned ugly.

"Has the drug resistance screening experiment been done?"

“Are our antibiotics working?”

The researcher slowly shook his head: "Mr. Ding, so far, this bacteria has shown extremely strong drug resistance."

"The most effective antibiotic is only marginally effective."

Although he had expected this result, the moment he heard the researcher's answer, Ding Xueming felt a chill rising from his back.

He swallowed slightly and asked the last question dryly: "What about the speed of transmission and reproduction speed?"

The researcher's face became increasingly ugly.

"We've determined that it can be airborne and spread faster...than any bacteria we've identified so far."

"The rate of reproduction is the same."

The moment he heard the result, Ding Xueming felt his eyes go dark.

It spreads quickly, has strong reproductive capacity, and there is no cure...

With a background in infectious diseases, he had never seen this kind of bacteria before!

Humanity, finished?

…

Inside the biology laboratory.

Lu Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi carefully observed the samples from Gale Crater through the microscope.

"Huh?" Lu Yongchang's eyes lit up, "This structure is quite similar to the Martian fungus we discovered before."

Mao Zhengzhi nodded quickly in agreement.

"Yes, the unusually thick cell walls and cell membranes... this should be the reason why they survived the starship's disinfection measures."

Lu Yongchang shook his head: "It should be more than that."

As he spoke, he reached out and put a drop of disinfectant on it.

The stimulation of the disinfectant made these bacteria act more intensely.

The next moment, an incredible scene appeared in front of everyone.

Bacteria begin to clump together spontaneously.

Just like ants encountering a flood, countless ants will immediately huddle together to form air chambers to protect the important queen and some ants.

Even if the ants on the periphery will be washed away by the flood, there will still be a steady stream of ants going to fill the gap without hesitation.

The reason is simple.

As long as the queen ant and the middle ants are kept alive, their population will not be destroyed.

The behavior of these bacteria is very similar to that of ants!

"No wonder..." Looking at the scene in front of him, Lu Yongchang murmured to himself, "No wonder they can survive the disinfection measures of Xuannv No. 2."

"yes."

There was some emotion in Mao Zhengzhi's eyes.

"They're just trying to survive."

"It's just that if they survive, it's not good for us."

Lu Yongchang nodded slightly: "Continue testing and count the number of bacteria in each sample."

…

"Zero, sort out the data."

Lu Yongchang raised his hand and gently rubbed his shoulders through the protective clothing.

The huge holographic image quietly unfolded, wrapping everyone present in it.

That is a complete 3D model of Gale Crater.

The next second, red dots of different colors appeared in the 3D image.

The depth of the color indicates the number of unknown bacteria in the sample.

The darker the color, the more bacteria there are.

Because of the difference in sampling depth, the position of the red dot also changes in depth.

Through this holographic projection, the researchers clearly discovered the rules.

The lightest red spot is located on the outermost surface of Gale Crater.

The foot of Mount Sharp, located in the center of Gale Crater, is a series of dense red to black dots!

Lu Yongchang took a deep breath and murmured to himself: "Maybe Fang Xu really got it right..."

"What?" Mao Zhengzhi on the side was stunned, "What did Academician Fang say?"

"... He said that there might be magma activity under Gale Crater, which just explains the phenomenon of moisture underground." Lv Yongchang said as he reached out and tapped the red dot in the holographic image.

"Look, in the same area, as the depth increases, the color depth of the red dot also increases."

"The closer to the center, the deeper underground, the more bacteria there are."

"This also shows that the environment over there is more suitable for bacteria to survive." Lv Yongchang cast his eyes on Mount Sharp in the center, "Perhaps, there is residual magma activity under this mountain."

Mao Zhengzhi shrugged: "Whether there is magma or not, our first priority now is to understand this bacterium."

"Just now, Mr. Ding has sent the inspection information over."

Lv Yongchang's eyes moved, and he quickly asked: "How is it? How are Bai Yixuan and the others?"

Mao Zhengzhi stretched out his hand and "dragged" a holographic projection screen in front of Lv Yongchang: "Take a look for yourself, the situation is not optimistic."

"With the help of a large amount of antibiotics, the six drivers are out of danger, but at present, we can't cure these stubborn bacteria."

"As long as there is a little relaxation, even if there are only a few residual bacteria, they will quickly multiply to the initial scale!"

"And... the large-scale use of antibiotics can easily lead to drug resistance in bacteria."

"In other words, these six drivers are now in a state of chronic death."

Looking at the various test data sent by Academician Ding Xueming, Lv Yongchang fell silent.

After a long time, he turned around and looked at the instrument on the side, and said in a slightly hoarse voice: "Go on, I believe we can find a solution."