bad seeds - Chapter 14
"Use the most direct method!"
The tunnel roared again.
The small hole extended downwards at an angle of about five degrees and gradually widened. The drilling went smoothly, without encountering any hard rocks along the way. We advanced steadily, and after advancing more than ten meters, we finally drilled a passage large enough for one person to pass through.
The other end of the passage seemed to be a huge void. The echoes entering this void gradually faded into nothingness, and the light from our helmet lights couldn't determine how deep the void was or what was at the bottom. The stark contrast of the space and the darkness simultaneously pressed upon us, filling us with a deep sense of unease.
Liang Yingwu took a deep breath, adjusted his breathing, untied a nylon rope from his waist, tied one end around my waist, then squeezed my hand through his rubber gloves and said:
“I’ll go down first. You all stay here and wait for my signal. If I pull the rope three times, it means it’s safe down there, and you can all come down together. If I pull it twice, it means you have to pull me up. If I only pull it once…” He paused, and I could tell he was still very nervous, “that means you have to leave me behind and get out of here as quickly as possible!”
I nodded solemnly, hugged him, and made a gesture wishing him good luck.
The rope slid between Ye Tong's and my hands, and we watched his figure gradually disappear into the darkness, leaving only the dim light above us swaying back and forth.
Chapter 8 - Nuclear
A minute's wait felt almost as long as an hour.
It was only then that I felt the stuffiness inside the radiation protection suit; sweat dripped from my forehead to the corners of my eyes, and my breathing gradually became heavy.
The rope in his hand was suddenly pulled three times.
I can finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Using that small, multi-functional drilling machine, I secured the rope firmly to the rock wall with eight rivets, and then Ye Tong and I descended into the cave one after the other.
Actually, the cave isn't very high, only about seven or eight meters. The bottom of the cave is soft sand, so even if you jump down, you won't get hurt.
Upon reaching the ground, the beams of light above Ye Tong and me swayed around, but eventually all three beams fixed on the object in the center of the cave.
The object wasn't very large, only about the height of a person, and shaped like a cigar. However, hundreds of iron pipes of varying thickness radiated outwards from it, piercing into the cave walls. Near the object, the pipes suddenly split into many thin wires, enveloping the object like a cocoon. Through the gaps in the wires, the cigar-shaped object could be seen without a trace of rust, reflecting a dark silver luster under the yellow light.
"This is the 'nucleus' of the 'mother'."
Standing two meters away from the "nuclear," I felt an unprecedented sense of oppression, as if my mission was to kill someone who would never die. The "nuclear's" influence was so strong that my existence was almost insignificant in its presence. I couldn't even control myself and felt a sense of worship for this "demon" before me—a primal worship of immense power.
Ye Tong couldn't help but reach out to stroke the "core".
"Don't touch it!" Liang Yingwu suddenly shouted, and Ye Tong and I were jolted awake.
“If you don’t want anything to happen, you’d better not touch it!” he said sternly.
“Nado, do you remember where on the spaceship we found your so-called ‘divine box’?” he suddenly asked me.
Faced with this sudden question, I frowned, pondered for a few seconds, and finally shook my head.
"In the biological sample room!" Liang Yingwu's tone became somewhat excited.
"You mean..." Of course, he couldn't see my wide eyes behind the helmet, and at that moment, an unbelievable thought arose in my mind.
"What 'alien ruins'? That's all nonsense! This is a living being, you understand? It's alive!"
Ye Tong and I both turned around to look at him. Although we couldn't see each other's expressions, anyone could guess the astonished looks on our faces beneath our helmets.
“Just as I expected, the branch that left the ‘mother’ still retains the same active cycle as the ‘mother’. Ye Tong’s people use this to determine when to perform sacrifices and when to release plutonium—this is truly a great discovery!” Liang Yingwu almost forgot that we were still in danger, and was intoxicated by his discovery. “Do you know? Three million years ago, or perhaps even earlier, a meteorite fell here—the universe brought a ‘bad seed’ to Earth!”
"Cough! What should we do now?" Ye Tong asked loudly, his voice echoing throughout the cave.
Liang Yingwu immediately snapped out of his reverie and looked down. He saw a dozen or so cubes, each about three centimeters square, scattered on the sand. After a moment's thought, he took out a lead box from his spare pouch and began to put the cubes into the box one by one.
These must be the plutonium that has been used for over eight thousand years to suppress the growth of the "mother".
Each piece of plutonium carries the life of a young member of Ye Tong's clan. Each of them could have had a promising future, but when the "mother" was causing trouble, they chose to give their lives to the "god".
Eight thousand years may be insignificant for a life form like the "mother".
I wonder if our ancestors, those "gods" far away in the vast cosmos, knew what price the Demilshi tribe paid during those eight thousand years, which were an extremely long time for them.
After Liang Yingwu finished collecting all the cubes, he immediately said to us:
"Get out of here right now!"
"What are you going to do with these decaying plutonium?" Ye Tong asked.
“They are no longer useful. I will arrange for the ‘nuclear’ to be irradiated with radiation as soon as we get back.”
In the command tent in the area between Kruk and Tossou.
After rigorous disinfection, we were finally able to take off our bulky radiation protection suits and breathe some fresh air. Exhaustion quickly overwhelmed us, and Ye Tong and I slumped into our chairs in a rather unseemly position. This adventure had left us utterly exhausted.
After a brief meeting, the old man known as "General Manager He" finally agreed to let Liang Yingwu return to the leadership team of Baigong Mountain—it seems that our solo adventure played a decisive role.
Despite his exhaustion from the night before, Liang Yingwu still appeared to be in high spirits, issuing instructions methodically over the phone, indicating that he was confident in controlling the situation.
The clock struck 4:20 a.m.
However, neither Ye Tong nor I wanted to leave the tent to see the sunrise over the Gobi Desert that we had longed for.
We worked almost all night, and thankfully, our efforts earned us enough to cover the ticket costs.
"Double the manpower and tightly seal off the Baigong Mountain area. I want it so that not even a rat can get in. Enter the caves of Baigong Mountain and irradiate the core of the 'mother' with three times the original level of radiation. Closely monitor the growth rate of the 'mother' and provide data feedback at any time..." Liang Yingwu's tone remained calm and powerful. Everyone in the sealed-off area was busy, as if they, like the "mother," could forget the existence of time. I sincerely admire this work ethic.
"You still haven't told me what you need that plutonium for?" Ye Tong asked weakly, her eyes half-closed.
"We'll use them to restore the spaceship's energy," Liang Yingwu said, sounding somewhat excited.