On the Moon Palace.

in the experimental chamber.

Sitting on a chair next to the porthole, looking at the silver-white planet outside the window, Ian Crawford, professor of astrobiology and planetary science at Birkbeck College, University of London, suddenly smiled and spoke.

"About six years ago, I wrote an assessment that detailed the economic viability of mining on the moon."

Sitting across from him, Stephen Parubi, with his beard running from his chin to his sideburns, snorted through his nose.

"And then?"

"I later published that paper in the Journal of Physical Geography and sent a copy to the UKSA," Ian Crawford shrugged his shoulders and continued, "although the UKSA bureaucrats probably treated it like waste. ”

Professor Stephen: "Isn't it? ”

"Of course not," Professor Ian smiled and lifted his chin in the direction of the porthole, "Aren't the Chinese now turning it into a reality?" ”

"And then sooner or later they will find out that instead of sending production lines and workers to the moon, it is better to build them on Earth and send them into space," Professor Stephen muttered, "and besides, it's nothing remarkable, we have similar plans,"

Although his Stanford University is not an exclusive university, as an American, he does not like to hear any favorable news about China's space race, especially now that the Ares program has become a mess.

In a not very good mood, he subconsciously stretched his hand to his chest, and then remembered that he was wearing a cabin spacesuit, not the jacket with cigarettes in the inner pocket.

"Damn, isn't there a place to smoke?"

He took his hand back with a curse, and just as Professor Stephen was about to get up from his chair, a voice came from the side.

"Smoking on the space station will add at least two million smoke particles to the ventilation system of each space module, so you might as well smoke on the ground."

Floating in from the direction of the cabin door, Professor Zhao Shuxuan grabbed the handrail of the bulkhead with one hand, and the latest test report with the other arm, and continued to speak, "Okay, everyone. That's it for the break, time is running out, and there are three unfortunate Ares Project colonists waiting to be saved. ”

When he heard the Chinese researcher put the word misfortune together with Project Ares, Professor Stephen's eyes flashed with displeasure, but he didn't say anything more.

The Ares project is indeed ill-fated, every day from the beginning of the sandstorm to the present seems to be full of misfortune, and now the top astrobiology, microbiology, and clinical biology experts from 7 countries are sitting here, either to do anything else, or to clean up the mess of the Ares program.

While distributing the printed version of the test results in his hand, Zhao Shuxuan concisely explained the situation to the other researchers in the experimental cabin.

"The latest test results have come out, except for the No. 3 colony, the levels of antibodies and hypnotic pheromones in the bodies of the No. 1 and No. 2 colonists have decreased, and the metabolism is gradually returning to normal levels from the perspective of heart rate, and it should not take long to wake up...... Do you need me to give you a moment to review the results? ”

"No, I've read it," Professor Stephen pushed his glasses aside, and continued, "The point of the matter now is not the antibodies or the X-0172 bacteria at all. ”

Professor Ian: "Spores." ”

"That's right, Spore," Professor Stephen nodded, glancing around at the other scholars in the chamber, "Only by getting rid of the Spore can we really solve those troubles." ”

Professor Leslie asked, "Do you have any good ideas?" ”

"We now have two options."

"The first plan was to find a way to stop the X-0172 bacteria from forming spores. The second solution is to find a way to kill the spores directly, and get rid of them at all. ”

Professor Leslie thought for a moment, then spoke softly, "The second method is difficult. ”

"Yes, so the most likely option is the first option that is feasible at the moment," Professor Stephen continued, glancing at the environment inside the chamber, "IMHO, the research conditions here are too rudimentary. I don't know if physical experiments would be more convenient in a gravityless environment, but if we're going to find a way to stop the X-0172 bacteria from forming spores as soon as possible, it's best to send samples to Earth and study them using experimental facilities on the ground. ”

When he said this, Professor Stephen's eyes fell on Professor Zhao Shuxuan.

As the representative of the Chinese researchers, and the person in charge of the entire X-0172 bacteriological project, he is the only one who has the right to apply to the Lunar Palace to send the inactivated samples to Earth.

Of course, Stephen wanted more than just inactivated samples, he hoped that he would find a way to convince the Lunar Orbit Construction Committee to send the intact X-0172 bacterial spores to his lab at Stanford University.

Only there will he be more confident that he will be able to find a way to eradicate this bacterium once and for all.

However, the Huaguo researcher did not get his wish.

Shaking his head, Zhao Shuxuan simply rejected his proposal.

"It's too risky, and even a fully inactivated sample can't guarantee safety."

"There is no such thing as 100 percent safety in theory, but we can be virtually foolproof," Professor Stephen tried to convince, "even if it is the terrible smallpox virus, don't we keep samples of it?" ”

Zhao Shuxuan hesitated for a moment, but finally shook his head.

"This matter needs to be carefully considered."

Professor Stephen sighed heavily.

"We've been thinking about it long enough."

……

The academic discussion ended without any constructive results.

Seeing that it was not too early, experts from various countries returned to the living chamber one after another after simply settling for dinner, and burrowed into the living space shaped like a tree hole.

Lying upright on the bed, Professor Stephen connected his laptop to the data interface of the bulkhead and connected to the Earth's network with the communication channel provided for them by the Moon Palace.

Although there are various problems such as slow speed and high latency, it is enough to use this small water pipe to deal with some of the things in their own work and exchange ideas with researchers in their own countries.

Logging into the instant messaging app, Professor Stephen was about to contact his assistant, who sent a voice call request and got in touch with him.

"I'm sorry to bother you in your busy schedule, Professor, but I have something to report to you."

Stephen was slightly stunned, then frowned and asked.

"What's the matter?"

"At your request, we searched the database for studies on spores and anaerobic bacteria, and we found this paper on Arxiv."

After a pause, his assistant continued.

The authors declared...... He found a way to inhibit the formation of spores by X-0172 bacteria. ”

"It's impossible, or possibly, there are only seven people in the world who wrote this paper, including me," Professor Stephen said with a smile and shaking his head. ”

His assistant nodded.

"Okay professor."

Arxiv's paper, Stephen actually had no hope at all.

The first-hand information of X-0172 bacteria is basically on the Moon Palace, and other scholars who want to do research in this area must first find a way to get specimens.

However, there are currently less than a dozen inactivated specimens sent to Earth, which are only possible in some large research institutions, and the people who have access to these specimens cannot be the kind of scholars who are satisfied with Arxiv.

Of course, knowing that the probability of finding a valuable paper from Arxiv is almost zero, that doesn't prevent him from seeing what the author of the paper has written.

After all, even if it is a good way to develop research ideas.

Opening the paper, Professor Stephen's gaze casually swept across the screen, but just as he glanced at the third page, a soft grunt suddenly came out of his mouth.

His brows gradually became a hint of seriousness, and he turned the paper back to the introductory part and read it carefully again.

"What the hell is this...... How is it written? ”

The more he looked down, the more surprised he became.

The eyes were constantly changing with doubt, surprise, scorn, disbelief, and finally all the thoughts turned into deep shock.

Turning the paper back to the beginning, Professor Stephen now only wanted to know one thing, and that was who had written it!

However, the moment he saw the author's name, he was suddenly stunned.

“Z……？”

What's that?