After a 20-minute drive, the rover reached the edge of The Gates of Hell.
Along the edge, Fan Tong found a pass that could allow the Martian rover to go through. Fan Tong turned the steering wheel and drove the rover over.
The rover continued along the rugged and narrow path toward the depths of the mountains. The signal was affected by the nearby hematite and began to drop.
Aubrey glanced around at the surrounding steep cliffs and rock walls. When he felt the depressive atmosphere, he shrank his neck and couldn’t help but speak.
“Speaking of which, why is it called The Gates of Hell? Doesn’t this name make you guys nervous?”
Fan Tong spoke casually.
“I’m afraid you have to ask NASA about this since they named it.”
As the first organization to send the probe to Mars, the terrains were mostly named by the Curiosity rover.
Perhaps the scientific researcher in charge of the naming at that time felt that the name was artistic. It was difficult to judge whether it was artistic or not, but it was definitely a fitting name.
“There will be several meters of cracks randomly appearing around The Gates of Hell. These cracks are very similar to earthquake cracks, through which you can directly enter the ruins. Of course, these cracks are not the only way to enter the ruins. When I came out, I passed through a fixed entrance. Its location is probably in the middle of The Gates of Hell mountain range, embedded in the rock wall on the side of the rift… Over there, we are here.”
The rover’s engine was turned off. It slowly stopped beside a ridge. After getting out of the car, the group followed Fan Tong’s footsteps to an upright stone pillar about four to five meters high.
Behind this stone pillar was a steep downward slope.
When the shine of the morning light hit the back of the stone pillar, it was like some kind of natural miracle; people couldn’t help but stare in awe.
The appearance did look like a relic.
“Strange…”
Professor Vernal, the archaeologist from Oxford University, frowned and walked to the stone pillar. He squatted down and groped along the surface of the stone pillar for a while. He suddenly spoke.
“Is this a marine sedimentary environment?”
A hint of surprise appeared on Fan Tong’s face. He nodded and spoke.
“I had the same idea… Billions of years ago, this place should have been an ocean.”
“The altitude is quite deep.” Using his palm, Professor Vernard traced the outline of the stone pillar and felt the hard surface through his suit. He muttered, “The hydrogeological environment here is unique. There should have been many major geological disasters in the past. Volcanic eruptions, plate collisions, and special tectonic movements that are not seen on Earth… This is incredible.”
“Let’s focus on the ruins below the ground.” Astrophysicist Aubrey walked in front of the group of people and turned his head to Lu Zhou. “What do you think? Boss.”
“I have no opinion, but if we stand outside, we won’t be able to figure out anything.” Lu Zhou thought about it for a moment and continued, “Let’s go ahead, I’ll take the lead.”
Wang Peng raised his hand with the paratrooper rifle and walked to the entrance of the cave.
“Let me go first.”
Aubrey and Vernal looked at each other with a strange look. Fan Tong also shrugged helplessly. He threw aside the stone sample he was holding.
“I said that weapons are useless… But since you insist, do what you want.”
However, having a person holding a gun lead the way still brought a sense of security to the group.
Even though everyone knew in their heart, that if there were any living aliens, the weapons on Earth would hardly be a threat. But at least in the psychological sense, the muzzle still brought some comfort to them.
Schultz asked quietly as he walked beside Lu Zhou, “Are you sure those Martians are… dead?”
Lu Zhou looked at the surrounding environment vigilantly. He shrugged his shoulders and replied in a casual tone, “I’m not sure… But if they weren’t dead, we would have seen them from Earth long ago.”
If they could survive in this universe for billions of years…
Even if they couldn’t dominate the Milky Way, they would have dominated the solar system long ago.
Dr. Lomonov, an aerospace engineer who had not spoken yet, suddenly said, “What if we have actually seen them, but we just didn’t realize it?”
Aubrey couldn’t help but shiver. He spoke with a dry cough.
“Don’t say that!”
The group continued to advance toward the depths of the tunnel.
So far, the expedition had been smooth, without any twists or turns.
By relying on the mark left by Fan Tong when he came out, they smoothly advanced at least two kilometers into the cave. According to the data displayed by the depth detector, they were now more than two hundred meters deep from the surface.
As they walked deeper, the feeling of alienation from civilization became stronger. They felt like a baby cut from the umbilical cord and was thrown into a bottomless well.
There was less and less talking. Everyone remained silent.
Fan Tong suddenly stopped and looked at the fork in the road ahead.
“Something’s wrong…”
Everyone stopped.
Lu Zhou cast a questioning glance at him.
“What?”
“The marks end here.”
Fan Tong walked to the side of the rock wall. He reached out his hand and fumbled on it for a while. He found a scratch cut off from it.
This was the mark left by the multifunctional shovel when he came out of the underground ruins. Originally, this clue should point directly to the deepest part of the ruins, but it had been cut off.
Fan Tong looked at the two paths in front of him. The expression on his face became more solemn as he muttered to himself, “I see… The passage inside the ruins has changed. I didn’t see any intersections in the path before, and I walked about a kilometer before I saw the first intersection.
“But now it’s here already.
“I’m afraid things aren’t that simple.”
Professor Vernal stepped forward and squatted beside the intersection. He used a multifunctional shovel in his hand to crack some debris from the rock wall. He pinched it in his hand.
“This is incredible.”
Schultz gulped, looked at him, and asked, “What’s incredible?”
“Three billion years ago… Or even earlier, this should have been a cave covered with metal alloys.” Professor Vernal stood up and carefully packed the samples into the sample bag. He marked the sample label and said, “Although the traces of civilization have been weathered away by time, the rocks don’t lie.”
Professor Aubrey frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
“What I’m saying is, judging from the weathering traces, the structure of the path on the left is obviously more complex than the path on the right.” After Professor Vernal glanced at Fan Tong, he looked at Lu Zhou and said, “You are the captain, you choose which way to go.”
