Looking down from the air, the ice sheet surrounded by the steel structure instantly spread out layers of dense cracks. In a series of muffled sounds accompanied by violent tremors, large pieces of ice were thrown into the air.
Previously, the L-shaped drilling rig sent low-temperature explosives under the ice sheet and inserted them into the ice layer layer by layer. The entire project took three years, and the 15-kilometer ice layer was accurately blasted into a neat square ice crater.
At the same time, the Sventowit, which was embedded in the ice layer, surged up along with the huge water pressure below. Fortunately, the starship's titanium alloy armor was strong enough. Otherwise, just this blowout alone would be enough to crush the frozen Sventowit into pieces.
"The target is floating up!"
"Continue blasting, stop the ice from solidifying!"
"Yes!"
Deafening sounds came one after another along the ice surface. The low-temperature explosives embedded in the nearby ice layer exploded intensively, generating a huge amount of heat in the shattered ice layer, preventing the upwelling seawater from backfilling the gap and solidifying.
"Sensor temperature 11 degrees Celsius!"
"Continue blasting!"
Tan Ming's eyes stared at the ice layer marked red on the holographic screen.
That was the ice layer where the Sventowit was located. Under the push of the water, it was quickly rising at a speed slightly slower than the speed of the seawater. Once the ice layer froze, all previous efforts would be in vain. In order to keep the water temperature above the freezing point, in addition to explosives, they even prepared anticoagulants …
Of course, that was the last resort.
Injecting anticoagulants would cause unpredictable effects on the fragile ecosystem under Europa's ice sheet. If possible, he hoped to solve this problem with the low-temperature explosives. Otherwise, the price of saving these people would be a little too heavy …
As the ice layer marked red continued to rise, the explosives on both sides of the shaft exploded one after another.
Looking at the constantly changing temperature and water speed parameters on the screen, Tan Ming felt his palms were already soaked with sweat.
The ice layer suddenly stuck several times, and his heart almost jumped out of his throat.
Fortunately, there was no mishap in the end. The red layer of ice finally touched the green line that was two kilometers deep under everyone's gaze.
"The target has reached the safe layer!"
Enthusiastic cheers erupted in the command room.
Tan Ming felt his legs go limp, and he collapsed into the chair. He looked at the ceiling and let out a long sigh. Looking at the layer of ice that was rising at a constant speed, the corners of his mouth finally curled into a sincere smile.
The hard work of the past three years had not been in vain.
…
The astronauts sitting in the space vehicle fastened their seat belts and unfolded the memory metal shield on top of the vehicle.
The ice fragments that had been pushed into the air by the water pressure began to fall one after another. The lowest of these fragments may have flown more than ten meters, and the higher ones were even thrown into low orbit. Although Europa's gravity was only one-seventh of Earth's, the extremely thin atmosphere meant that these heavy objects thrown into the air almost maintained the kinetic energy of takeoff and smashed back.
The densely packed ice chunks smashed into the semi-arc-shaped memory metal shield, leaving fist-sized craters. The most unlucky car was almost completely buried under the ice. Fortunately, the quality of the memory metal shield was up to standard, and the space car inside was completely fine.
Finally!
The blowout was coming to an end!
The layer of ice that sealed the Sventovet floated up and blocked the hole that was spewing ice fragments. A rectangular ice pillar rose from the center of the steel structure, and accompanied by a series of rumbling sounds that shook the earth, it formed a giant cuboid tower that was thousands of meters tall.
At this time, the Sventovet was like a specimen in amber, frozen in the center of the "ice tower". The explosives below stopped exploding, and the surging seawater quickly froze the crack. After losing its upward momentum, this cuboid icicle with a vertical area of thousands of square meters finally stopped moving upward hesitantly.
The hail falling from the sky gradually stopped, leaving only crushed snow and ice fragments flying in the air.
The bowl-shaped memory metal shields retracted to the center, exposing the space vehicles hiding below. The astronauts got out of the vehicles one by one, took out the equipment from the trunk, and walked to the colleagues buried under the snow, ready to help them.
At this time, two astronauts carrying toolboxes stopped and looked in the direction of the ice pillar.
Fine ice fragments slowly floated down from the surface of the ice pillar, and from a distance, it looked like a dense fog. Jupiter in the distance shone a gentle light, and when it passed through the icy mist, it faintly refracted a rainbow.
"That thing is a rainbow? This, this is incredible! "One of the astronauts widened his eyes and stared in disbelief.
He had been working on Europa for almost two years, but it was the first time he saw such a beautiful scene.
"It should be … Dammit, I left my camera in the staff dormitory."
"It doesn't matter. I extracted the video from the action recorder. You can take a screenshot as a souvenir."
"That's different!"
…
Just two hours after the Sventovet broke through the ice sheet, in the holographic conference room of Future Building, Jiang Chen met Gorowen the First again. Over the past three years, the Earth Defense Alliance has received considerable help from the Sventovet, and now the Earth Defense Alliance fulfilled its promise and liberated the Sventovet from under the ice sheet.
"I hope to discuss our future residence with you." As always, without any small talk, Gorowen went straight to the point.
"The Earth Defense Alliance Resolution No. 51 has been voted. You can build your home 100 kilometers away from Tiangong City. There are abundant groundwater, graphite mines, and aluminum deposits there. Of course, if you are not satisfied with the environment on Mars, we can discuss it again. " Jiang Chen sent the location he mentioned, along with the local topographic map and mineral reserve distribution map, to Gorowen.
"No, we are very satisfied." After reading the dozens of gigabytes of data in about two seconds, Gorowen nodded and continued, "About your plan, do you have any results?"
"Which one are you referring to?"
"The Earth Federation."
When Jiang Chen heard this name, his expression was a little awkward. He coughed and said, "Thanks to your old friends in the Void, the situation on Earth is far more complicated than you remember. I said at the beginning that it would take at least five years. "
Because of the survivors in the Void, the history of the world has been messed up since World War II. Although from Jiang Chen's standpoint, the history of the world should be the so-called original appearance of history. But if there were no external factors interfering, the current global situation should be dominated by Pan-Asia, NATO, and the Soviet Union, instead of the current situation where no one was left …
"Correction, we are not friends with them." Looking at Jiang Chen, Ge Luowen continued, "We just promised those poor people to preserve the last spark of Earth's civilization as a reward for their help."
"Speaking of which, I've always wondered why you use this statement … I mean, didn't you also come from Earth?" Jiang Chen asked, "If you must preserve the spark of Earth civilization, aren't you the spark yourself?"
To Jiang Chen's surprise, he thought Gorowen would answer him without hesitation like he answered other questions. However, this time, he thought for a long time, so much so that Jiang Chen began to wonder if the quantum communication was malfunctioning.
"I can understand your confusion, but I can't answer you," Gorowen said slowly. Ge Luowen spoke slowly. His eyes were so calm that no one could see through his true thoughts. "Perhaps in the eyes of those pitiful people, we have already become something else."
"How ironic. Even my body has been destroyed …" At this point, Ge Luowen shook his head, and just like before, he bade farewell without saying goodbye.
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