“This is your immigration card, please take it…”
“Thank you.”
After Professor Leonard took the card from the customs officer and thanked him, the customs officer looked at the person behind him blankly.
“Next.”
“…”
The Atlantis Space Station was a geosynchronous orbit transfer station affiliated with the North Sea Alliance.
As the seventh orbital transfer station built by the Federation of Human Alliance, it was mainly responsible for the transfer of personnel and materials to the ground and to the Moon. At the same time, it was also the only customs from the North Sea Alliance to the outside of Earth.
Tens of thousands of people traveled to and from here, or to a colony on the Moon, or to a distant Martian colony, or an outpost on the Lagrange point everyday.
Under such high traffic flow, of course the customs officer was not in the mood to chat with him. He threw the stamped passport and a registration card into his hand, then began to go through the procedures for the next person.
Can’t machine replace these jobs? They occupy most of the service industry anyway, at least they can give me a smile…
Professor Leonard, who was in a bad mood, reached out and clicked on his watch, expanding the holographic interface.
“Where are you guys?”
In the holographic panel, a dark-skinned face in the video chat smiled honestly at him.
“We have encountered a little trouble here… Don’t worry. Anyway, does your proof really work?”
Professor Leonard said impatiently, “This is a certificate issued by the University of Oxford. We are a formal scientific investigation team hired by the North Sea Alliance… Really, is this your first time? I am beginning to doubt your professionalism.”
“Ahem! Please don’t doubt us, we are just a little worried. After all, you know the current situation. The security situation on the Mars colony is very bad… Ok! Passed smoothly, we are here!”
A big dark-skinned man waved at him with a smile on his face. He and two younger men, as well as a robot employee, walked toward him.
“Hey, buddy! Nice to meet you!”
Leonard took out the business card from his bag and read the information inside. He raised his eyebrows and glanced at him and the three employees behind him.
“Mammoth Mining Company?”
“Yes, my name is Jim. These two are my assistants, Hughes from North America and Shinichi Tanigawa from East Asia. Don’t worry about the robot bionic person. Although it looks a bit older, it has all the functions.”
The tall North American and the thin Asian man next to him nodded slightly to express their greetings.
After introducing his employees, Jim looked at Professor Leonard and grinned.
“As you can see, we are as strong as mammoths, excellent at drilling holes.”
Leonard: “… A mammoth can’t drill holes.”
Also, the machines were the ones drilling the holes, not the humans.
“Ahem! This is not the point.” Jim raised his calloused hand awkwardly and patted Professor Leonard on the shoulder, “Let’s go to Mars, we’ll prove our professionalism by helping you find those treasures!”
Jim waved his hand and walked toward the direction of the boarding gate.
For some reason, Professor Leonard was suddenly worried about this trip to Mars…
…
A century ago, around the beginning of the 21st century, it took at least 2 to 3 weeks to travel from Earth to Mars. There were also restrictions about flying window periods.
Leonard, who grew up in the 22nd century, couldn’t imagine how anyone could tolerate such a long journey.
People back then had an average life span of less than 80 years.
Especially since the journey had no access to the internet, there was no entertainment in any sense. It was impossible to even take a bath.
After landing on the surface of Mars through the elevator cabin, Dr. Leonard, with his sore shoulders, walked down the gangway together with the tourists. His feet finally stepped on the solid ground.
“… We’re finally here.”
The terminal of the aerospaceplane was located on the edge of the city. After passing through the customs connected to the buffer room, they were inside the city as soon as they exited the customs.
Leonard looked up, and the first thing he saw was a hemispherical aerogel film shrouded in the sky above the city.
Like the dome of a greenhouse, this layer of aerogel film with a thickness of several meters enclosed a large circle of land in the desert. It blocked the high-energy rays from space and also played the role of an atmosphere. It kept clean air in the city and acted as a “blue sky” to the residents in the city.
The interior of the city was even more amazing. The designers seemed to have brought utilitarianism to the extreme, squeezing value from every square inch of land.
Each of these alloy-paved pipelines connected the columnar tower buildings to form the road network complex of the entire city.
In the gaps between the tower buildings, there was a green landscape designed using genetic engineering, which thrived on this exotic land.
It was difficult to sum up the grandeur of this city in one sentence.
It was like an oasis in the desert, a beacon to disperse the dark night.
In fact, this was true. As the largest city on Mars built by the Pan-Asian Cooperation, this Martian colony called Tiangong City was not only the most developed and most expensive area on Mars, but it was also the safest place on Mars.
As for why it was necessary to emphasize its safety…
This will be mentioned later.
“We will rest here for one night. After the cargo is unloaded from the transport spacecraft, we will immediately set off to the archaeological site.”
“Okay, you are the boss, you make the call, we just dig.”
The black man named Jim smirked and made a gesture of drilling a hole. This action not only made Leonard’s eyebrows twitch, but it also caught the attention of the Pan-Asian policeman standing next to him on duty.
Leonard lowered his voice and whispered in his ear, “I hope you don’t cause any trouble. The closest colony of the North Sea Alliance is 100 kilometers away! If we are sent back there, our plans will all be ruined!”
Their action was only known to the North Sea Alliance and was not approved by the Pan-Asian Cooperation. They did not even submit a written application at all! If the Asians found out they were not an investigation group of a mining company at all and that they came here under the name of archaeology to excavate the remains of the Martian civilization, they would definitely be prosecuted.
“Yes, yes, okay.” Jim quickly showed an apologetic smile. He said, “Rest assured, those Asians won’t bother us for this little thing. Let’s go, let’s find a hotel first.”
“I have already booked the hotel online.”
Although the network on Mars and the network on Earth were independent due to the delay, the data on both sides were still connected.
Whether it was booking tickets or shopping, everything could be done through an internet terminal.
Leonard put on the AR glasses and quickly found the capsule hotel he had booked according to the road signs.
The group rested for a night, then came to the exit gate the next day. After providing the proof, they put on the light extravehicular spacesuit and passed through the buffer room at the edge of the city.
The rover and excavator of the Mammoth Excavation Company were parked here.
Leonard looked at the two pieces of engineering equipment and the signs on them. He felt that these pieces of equipment did not look like their own equipment; they seemed to be rented.
“Are you sure these pieces of equipment belong to you guys?”
“Uh, of course… Is there a problem?”
Leonard stared at the big black guy for a while. Although Leonard wanted to force him to tell the truth, it would be too late to hire another construction team.
Also, his research project had been withdrawn by the dean. This archaeological operation was entirely at his own expense. He could not afford to hire a more expensive and more reliable construction team.
Leonard sighed and put his hand on Jim’s shoulder. He lowered his voice and spoke.
“Okay… I hope you guys are professionals. We want to excavate the remains from billions of years ago. We must be very, very careful. If something goes wrong, it will be a loss to the entire archaeology field!”
Jim grinned and gave an answer.
“Don’t worry, boss, I guarantee that the relics of the Martian civilization will be dug out exactly the same as they were buried!”
Even with 10,000 worries in his heart, there was no time to look back.
The group got into the car. Using the map Leonard obtained from the Hiddell Mining Company employee, they drove to the side of a rift valley and stopped in front of an abandoned mine.
At the entrance of the mine, there were signs and simple roadblocks left by the Hiddell Mining Company, but judging from the degree of wear and dust on the surface, it looked like it had been abandoned for a long time.
“Are you sure it is here?”
Leonard clicked on the holographic map on the watch and carefully compared the features of the nearby landscape. He looked at the suspicious mine.
“It should be right here.”
In fact, according to the agreement between him and the netizen who claimed to be “Dr.Z”, the two should first meet in Tiangong City and then act together.
But…
Out of selfishness and self-confidence in his abilities, he did not abide by the agreement.
Academics was inherently full of competition. If a fool put his bargaining chips out like this, Leonard felt that he needed to teach Dr. Z a lesson.
Jim looked at Professor Leonard, who was comparing the map. He and the two employees looked at each other and exchanged strange expressions on their faces.
Professor Leonard frowned.
“What?”
“Nothing…” With an unnatural smile on his face, Jim shrugged his shoulders. He then looked back at his two employees. He clapped his hands and said, “Guys, it’s time to work.”
Construction on Mars was not the same as that on Earth. Because of the difference in gravity environment and air density, many techniques applicable on Earth were not necessarily applicable here.
Strictly speaking, it was impossible to dig anything just by relying on the small drilling rig carried behind the rover.
Fortunately, the Hiddell Mining Company, whether they went bankrupt or moved locations, had dug the mine to a depth of one kilometer below the ground. They even left a simple magnetic track deep into the mine, which solved most of the trouble for them.
Therefore, what they had to do was actually very simple, that was to expand the mine to a certain extent according to the directions marked on the drawings.
The drilling vehicle was removed from the back of the rover. With the cooperation of the robot driver, the three “professionals” he hired quickly started to work.
Although these people looked unreliable, they were quite efficient when working.
After reaching the deepest part of the abandoned mine, the drill bit in the front section of the rig began to move.
Truckloads of soil were transported out of the cave entrance, and in just an hour, a spiral downward passage expanded the abandoned mine cave to a depth of tens of meters.
Jim walked to the side of Professor Leonard. He wiped the dust off the mask and asked, “Are you sure there are treasures of the Martian civilization there?”
“Treasures?” Leonard frowned upon hearing this word. “I don’t remember saying that there are any treasures there, but there are quite a few precious cultural relics… You should be careful when digging. If you arrive at any artificially created structure, remember to stop and call me over.”
“Oh, I know… Don’t worry.” The big black man named Jim chuckled. “If we dig up a treasure, we will definitely ask you to come and have a look.”
A shout suddenly came from the communication channel.
“Boss! We found a tunnel! It doesn’t look like it was left by the Hiddell Mining Company, it seems to be… the remains of the Martian civilization?”
Before Jim had time to react, Leonard jumped out of the hood of the rover.
“A tunnel? How wide is it? Wait, you guys stop first… I’ll come and see myself!”
He didn’t care about the surprised expression on Jim’s face. He rushed into the mine alone and followed the spiraling passage to the bottom of the mine.
The American named Hughes jumped down from the co-pilot seat and walked toward him.
“… Have we dug enough? I’m not sure whether to move on.”
Leonard stepped forward quickly and walked to the entrance of the cave. He squatted down and fumbled along the edge of the entrance for a while. An expression of excitement suddenly appeared on his face.
“Quick, keep going! This is it!”
The American named Hughes nodded quickly. He was about to turn his head back and order the robot man sitting in the driver’s seat to start the drill, but the drill moved on its own as if it was out of control.
The hard rock wall shattered suddenly. The huge drilling rig rushed straight down the slope and plunged into the wall leading to the opposite side. The robot man sitting in the cockpit collapsed on the steering wheel, as if it were broken.
“Sh*t… Why is it malfunctioning! These second-hand purchases are no good!”
After the out-of-control drill crashed into the cave, the cockpit door was crushed and could not be opened. The robot man was still collapsed on the steering wheel. Hughes cursed and then glanced behind him at Professor Leonard.
“Look at what you guys did!” Professor Leonard walked into the cave and grumbled angrily, “Look at this, so much damage, I only hope you haven’t bumped into any precious cultural relics or specimens! No one finds out about this! Otherwise, we’ll be prosecuted!”
Hughes was standing next to the rover. Jim was catching up from behind. Professor Leonard turned on the flashlight in his hand and walked toward the cave to continue exploring the past.
The tunnel was so deep that he couldn’t see the end, but he could feel something in front of him.
After turning over a pile of rocks, he soon saw a silver-white metal rectangular parallelepiped about two meters tall and one meter wide lying on the side of the wall.
“… What’s that!”
Dr. Leonard widened his eyes and looked at the metal artifact in front of him in disbelief.
His intuition told him that this couldn’t be the equipment left by the Hiddell Mining Company, let alone any other human beings.
He was certain that they were definitely the first people to step foot here!
If that was the case, there was only one possibility…
“The treasures of the Martian civilization!”
Jim’s familiar and unpleasant voice was heard in the communication channel. Professor Leonard frowned and corrected him.
“It’s a cultural relic! You idiot, can you—”
Halfway through his words, he stopped.
Because when he turned around, a gun had been aimed at him.
Professor Leonard gulped. His face suddenly changed from dissatisfaction to tension and fear.
He didn’t know why this guy had a gun in his hand, let alone what he wanted to do.
He only knew that if that idiot pulled the trigger, even if it only scratched a layer of fabric on his spacesuit, he would be dead.
Jim, with the electromagnetic pistol in his hand, smiled playfully.
“Can I what?”
“What I’m saying is, I’m an idiot, can you guys… help me see what this is?”
Professor Leonard was trembling; his back was soaked with sweat. Even the temperature control system of the spacesuit couldn’t cool him down.
This was the first time he was pointed at with a gun.
However, this explanation did not seem to satisfy Jim.
The black man smiled and continued talking, “That sounds like an order.”
“Please…” Professor Leonard kneeled on his knees. He put his hands on top of his head and begged, “I was wrong, I didn’t mean to order you guys…”
“Don’t do this, my dear friend.”
Jim walked to Professor Leonard and squatted down. With a cruel smile on his face, he patted his mask lightly with the muzzle and said, “My guys and I have to thank you. If it wasn’t for your archeological certification, we wouldn’t have been able to leave Earth through the customs of the Atlanta Space Station.”
Professor Leonard’s face went pale.
This meant that they were either fugitives on Earth or air pirates who fled between Mars and the Jupiter asteroid belt.
Although he had always heard that Mars was a paradise for criminals, he didn’t expect to actually see it happen to a scholar like him…
“We planned to say goodbye to you in Tiangong City. We just wanted to use you to escape Interpol and start a new life on Mars. But since you mentioned the relics of Martian civilization, there must be something valuable in it. It just happens that we need some start-up capital… to start a new business,” said Jim with a smile. He was proud of his own ingenuity. He looked at the metal cuboid lying on the ground and said, “I didn’t expect this to actually work.”
“…”
Professor Leonard didn’t react at all. He hung his head low.
He knew that he wasn’t going to survive; these desperadoes had no reason to let him go.
Jim admired the expression on Professor Leonard’s face. He rubbed his index finger against the trigger of the electromagnetic pistol and said casually, “Now, my dear Professor Leonard, if you can use your knowledge to tell me what this metal box is and what price it can be sold for, maybe I can let you go.”
Professor Leonard gulped, but in the end, he did not speak.
Seeing his unresponsiveness, Jim sighed and stood up again.
“Well, it looks like you have made a choice.”
He took a dagger used to cut ropes from his waist.
Professor Leonard closed his eyes in despair, but when he was ready to die, he heard a gunshot.
The gunshot seemed to come from far away.
Then there was a thump. Something fell on the ground.
Professor Leonard slowly opened his eyes, and he saw that Jim was the one that fell on the ground.
He was wondering if this guy was betrayed by his own teammates when he saw a blood-stained bionic robot slowly walking from the cave entrance.
A shuddering feeling climbed to the back of his head. Professor Leonard trembled and sat back on the ground. He looked like he just saw a ghost.
A robot…
Attacking humans?!
He had never heard of such an unthinkable thing.
This should be absolutely impossible!
If there was a bionic injury accident, the company that produced the bionic robot would not only be prosecuted. The entire production line would be abandoned, and the personnel involved could face jail time!
“Who are you?”
The robot man shook the blood on its arm.
It walked next to Jim’s corpse and picked up the electromagnetic pistol that had fallen. After looking at it, it pinned it to its waist.
Cold electronic sounds came from the communication channel.
“Danger, eliminated.”
A feeling of fear came to his heart.
Professor Leonard thought of the “Dr.Z”, who he had never seen in person. He suddenly felt like he was trapped ever since he read that paper.
He looked at the robot man walking and asked in a trembling tone, “Your master… Who is it?
“Is it Dr. Z?”
He originally thought that the bionic man would not pay attention to him, but it actually responded.
With one short sentence…
“None of your business.”
