One Thousand Four Hundred and Twenty-Three Is It Strange?

Groups of drones got into the ice cave, and even the group of drones on the shaft jumped down. The scene in front of Ye Han's eyes quickly split, from the complete Europa to forty-eight small screens.

Each screen is very small, but the images on the screen are very clear, and wherever Ye Han moves his eyes, the screen will automatically enlarge, allowing him to see more clearly.

The screens zoomed in and out one by one, but Ye Han never found what he was looking for. All the screens were straight ice holes without any bends.

He couldn't help but wonder, was it because he was unlucky and all the ice holes were missed? Or was the drone's location too shallow, not deep enough for the aliens to hide?

Ye Han knew that he was too anxious, but he couldn't control his emotions. He kept telling himself to be patient, and continued to wait silently with a bit of expectation and a bit of uneasiness.

Five minutes and fifty-three seconds later, the No. 1 screen froze, and He Lu immediately shouted: "Captain, the No. 1 shaft drone hit the bottom and lost the signal!"

Ye Han had the urge to complain, wasn't it just broken? Why are you talking so artistically?

His eyes turned to screen No. 1, and the pictures on the screen immediately switched one by one in a slideshow - the drones all moved in groups, so there was more than one picture transmitted back.

The first picture is of a straight ice cave. It should have been taken from the bottom of the cave upwards, but only the ice cave can be seen. No matter how you zoom in, you cannot see the entrance.

Ye Han looked at the data in the lower left corner of the screen. The depth at the time of shooting was 82,641 meters, which means that the vertical depth of Shaft No. 1 exceeds 82 kilometers.

The drone's lens is not a large telescope, and the focal length of the lens is on the cave wall, so it is impossible to clearly see things more than 80 kilometers away.

The screen switched to a photo of the cave wall, a very flat arc cylinder.

Switch again, this time to the bottom of the cave.

Ye Han originally thought that the bottom of the cave was a flat ice surface, but he didn't expect that the picture showed a thick layer of pure white that looked very delicate, just like winter snow.

After thinking about it for a while, he understood that the process of drilling a hole was that the laser melted the ice into water, and the water boiled under the irradiation of the laser. The steam flew up along the ice hole until it flew out of the ice hole.

However, the cave is more than 80 kilometers deep. After the laser ceased fire, there was still a large amount of water vapor in the cave. This water vapor gradually condensed in the low temperature of about minus 160 degrees, and then slowly fell to the bottom of the cave, and finally formed the word picture. image.

If it were on the earth, these tiny ice particles would float upward slowly due to the influence of air resistance, and the drone would definitely be able to capture a scene like falling snow when it falls.

But it's different on Europa. The air here is very thin, and the resistance is almost negligible. Whether it's snow particles or drones, they all fall freely under ideal conditions that ignore air resistance. There is no chance of anyone chasing them. It’s a matter of whom.

At this time, Ye Han heard He Lu's voice again, reporting that drones in several other holes had landed, but the result was the same as in the shaft, not a single drone survived.

Ye Han ignored the other ice caves and first called up the image of Cave No. 1. The signals returned by several drones each occupied one screen and were played in fast forward mode. The nearly six-minute video took only thirty seconds. It was all released in seconds, but nothing was found. Hole No. 1 was just a hole.

Then I pulled up the videos of several other ice caves and found no difference.

In this way, Ye Han took the trouble to look at each one one by one. Every time he told himself that he would definitely find something in the next hole. But until he finished the last hole, there was still nothing unusual. All the ice caves were just ice caves.

Ye Han sighed helplessly, took off his helmet and rubbed the corners of his eyes: "Luo Qi, report to the flagship that our ship has found nothing. Then ask the flagship if the friendly forces have found anything."

Luo Qi immediately complied and received a reply soon: "Boss, the flagship said nothing was found."

Ye Han was immediately shocked: "Didn't you find any? Have you reported everything?"

"More than half have been reported, and a third has not yet been reported."

Ye Han had a headache and suddenly had a bad feeling.

No one can say clearly about the probability, but more than two-thirds of the battleships have not found it, and the possibility of the remaining one-third gaining something is very low.

Just a few minutes later, Luo Qi received the notification from the flagship. As expected by Ye Han, more than 30 warships did not find any of them. The more than 700 ice caves were all ordinary holes. The flagship asked all ships to Head to the virtual meeting room to gather immediately.

When Ye Han entered the virtual conference room, almost everyone had arrived, but a second later, the last captain took his place.

Huo Qiang immediately said: "You all understand the situation, right? I called you here for two purposes. First, it was not found that there was a problem with our site selection, or it was just bad luck that we did not encounter aliens. Second, next What should we do? Leave the equator or dig new holes in the ice. Let’s start discussing now. If you have any ideas, feel free to tell us.”

"Let me tell you first, it's just a suggestion." Zhuang Bo said without hesitation, "Could it be that aliens are not near the equator at all?"

"Probably not." Wu Han said, "The aliens from Io and Ganymede both landed near the equator. They can't get under the ice and then drill holes to leave, right?"

"Is that because we are unlucky? None of the more than 700 holes are useful. Isn't this too bad luck?"

"Is it because the depth is not deep enough?" A captain hesitated and said, "Except for the relatively vertical ice holes near the equator, the rest have a large inclination angle. The farthest one is about 45 degrees. The length is about the same, but the vertical depth is half the difference!"

"Yes, what if the aliens are hiding at the bottom of the ice? I calculated that the vertical shaft is 80 kilometers deep on average, only about 10 kilometers away from the bottom of the ice. The outermost inclined shaft is only 50 kilometers deep, and 50 kilometers away from the bottom of the ice. There are more than 700 holes, but only a few near the equator have enough vertical depth. There are only 50 or 60 of them at most. Isn't it strange that nothing can be found?"

"That makes sense, but there is no way to stabilize the attitude of the warship after leaving the synchronous orbit. The engine is too unstable to dig a hole at all!"

"Who said it wasn't? Otherwise, the warship continues to hang on the equator, and the inclined hole increases the time according to the angle. The farthest one is increased to two hours, or until water is pumped out..."

The captains talked one after another, and an alternative plan gradually took shape.

Hearing this, Huo Qiang pressed his hand and said, "Very good, the first step is to increase the time. Wu Han, you pass the order down immediately. Now let's discuss the second question. What if we still can't find it?"