Five minutes later, Paraná boarded the submersible and headed to the bottom of the sea, accompanied by his lieutenant Terstin and Third Fleet Chief Engineer Gates.

Paraná always had an inexplicable fear of those bottomless abysses. For some reason, he always felt that there was something terrible in that place where the sun would never shine. Therefore, when he heard that he was going to dive to the bottom of the sea at 50,000 meters this time, he was a little frightened when he had always been brave. And when he was already standing in the small compartment of the submersible, diving in a dead silence, the fear intensified.

Just as he was about to say something to dispel his uneasiness, Gates spoke first: "Paraná, you seem to have an incomprehensible bias against scientists, can you explain why?" Gates is a middle-aged man in his seventies, and he calls Paraná by his first name, who is not very senior.

I don't know if Barana is happy or helpless, he sighed and said: "Gates, you have just been transferred to the Third Fleet, and you may not know enough about my experience. It seems to me that these so-called scientists are not only useless, but they only cause trouble for people. ”

"Oh? What do you mean by that? ”

"When I was the captain of a light warship, I was once sent to transport a mysterious batch of ore, which was said to be used by scientists for research. At that time, the ore had just been delivered to my ship, and suddenly there was a bright light, and then countless monsters flashed from the bright light, and rushed up, killing almost everyone in the cabin. At that time, Testin was my deputy, and if he hadn't desperately escorted me to escape, I was afraid that I would not have escaped my fate. That's why I make sure you all bring weapons," Paraná shuddered at the thought of this, and he pulled his lightsaber out of his jacket pocket, "I don't think those scientists are doing anything safe. ”

"And they're not like you engineers. You'll help the fleet update its equipment and repair the damage, but the scientists are hell-bent on harnessing forces that don't belong to them. They couldn't be sure if an unknown object was safe, so they rushed to test it, which is why I was on guard against them, I'd rather face an entire fleet of Chrisselis than work with a single scientist. ”

Gates shook his head and said, "Not all scientists are like that. Do you know the current president of the highest academy of sciences on earth? That's a man who sat in this seat at the age of nineteen. ”

"Hmph, young and frivolous, I'm afraid it's more dangerous than those old immortals. He (he) don't split the earth in half. ”

"He? No, no, no, it's her. But speaking of youth, didn't you become the commander of this fleet at the age of twenty? ”

"Woman!" Barana muttered, but not because of Gates' joke, "Women's natural impulsiveness makes them less suitable for this job." Gates shook his head with a smile when he heard this, the commander still lacks life experience.

It seems that the Joint Council has been full of loopholes lately, Barana silently thought, next time I have a routine contact, I should question them in passing.

Suddenly, the submersible shook slightly, and Testin, who had been silent, looked at the console: "It's almost there." ”

Parana looked at the display, which had just been pitch black, showing the exterior of the submersible. There seemed to be a wandering light above it.

Suddenly, the speed of the deep submersible increased dramatically, almost as if it was in free fall through the air. The three of them were defenseless, and all of them suddenly entered a state of weightlessness, suspended in the middle of the cabin.

Parana hurriedly grabbed the handle next to him to stabilize his body, turned around and shouted: "Gates! What's going on? ”

There wasn't anything around Gates to scratch onto, but he was calm: "I don't know. This submersible was prepared by those scientists who should have anticipated this situation. But judging by the speed of the fall, we are certainly not diving in the water now. ”

Parana was a little angry: "I told you not to trust those hateful scientists!" Now what! ”

Before the words fell, the speed of the deep submersible suddenly slowed down, and the two were caught off guard and fell heavily to the ground. Only Barrana grabbed the handle without falling, and he got up and rushed to the console with unimaginable speed, looked at it, and said, "It seems that the top of the submersible has opened a parachute, and we are now falling in some kind of gas." ”

After a pause, he said hatefully: "These scientists who pretend to be ghosts, they will definitely not be spared after I go down." ”

"It's a huge gas space to be maintained under the ocean at such a depth," Gates said in amazement, "and even if there's nothing else down there, it's a huge discovery." ”

Parana thought about it and felt reasonable. Even if the density of the sea water in Io is calculated according to freshwater, the water at a depth of 50,000 meters will withstand a pressure of 500 million pascals......

However, what happened next proved that the situation at the bottom of the sea had reached a certain point. With a slight vibration, the submersible finally touched the bottom of the sea, and by this time the bright light on the monitor was already dizzying. Gates picked up the communicator and prepared to make contact, but he heard the hatch of the deep submersible open with the sound of depressurized gas, and looked out of the door, only to find that the bottom of the sea was full of searchlights, illuminating the gas space under the deep sea as if it were day.

The gas in the space outside the door appeared to be at standard atmospheric pressure, as the trio did not perceive a change in air pressure inside the cabin. This fact left all three dumbfounded, and perhaps the incident could only be explained by magic.

Directly ahead was a towering temple, made of unknown metal that shimmered like steel. Paraná estimated the height of the temple to be at least three thousand meters high. The walls of the temple are densely covered with patterns of different shades, and some are carved with symbols that seem to be written words.

As the three of them slowly walked out of the cabin, amazed by the marvelous miracle, a scientist in a white lab coat greeted him, and Testin recognized him at a glance as Ray Torlop.

Retotripe is a skinny old man. Despite his gray sideburns, Testin secretly told Paraná that he was not yet a hundred years old.

Instead of introducing himself first, he pulled out a display panel from his pocket and handed it to Paraná. Judging by the data displayed on the panel, the gas here is the same as the air on the surface of the planet Io, and it is indeed eerily at standard atmospheric pressure. This gaseous space is a perfect hemisphere, with a radius of about five kilometers, and the place where they landed is about a kilometer from the center of the sphere.

Barana raised his head a little puzzled, and only then did Riptrito speak: "Mr. Commander, I am the head of the field team of the highest Academy of Sciences, Riptrep, and I have been ordered to investigate an alien ruin. Long before you built the Io Fortress above, my expedition team was already conducting research activities in this space. I beg your pardon for not telling you in time, but since the subject of this scientific mission is also of great importance to other planets, for the sake of the safe conduct of the research work, I ask the United Council of the Earth to send your Third Fleet to escort it.

"Listen to me. We found this planet two years ago while searching for a habitable planet. It is a completely habitable planet, and even though its surface is almost entirely covered with oceans, it is not difficult for humans to establish a habitation in the oceans. But we felt very strange. Why are there only bacteria and primitive algae on this planet suitable for life? This is the most rudimentary state of life succession. Biologically, there should be at least amphibians on this planet. We finally came to the conclusion that there was originally a higher life on this planet, but it was completely destroyed in a catastrophe, and life began to recycle.

"Therefore, we cannot carve this place into a new colony until we find out what destroyed life on this planet. However, after conducting an in-depth investigation during this time, we made a major discovery. There was an ancient civilization here, and their technology was enough to allow us to level Chrissyris and unify the solar system! ”