Read Online Vampire's Day (Book 2): Zero Model by Yuri Hamaganov - Free Book Online
Authors: Yuri Hamaganov
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sarcophagus and capsules in it. Now they had to find out what had happened to the contents of the capsules.
“Carefully, lift the first.”
They began with the closest capsule, the manipulators picking up the cylinder of dark glass and raising it from the pedestal with a jeweler’s precision.
“On Earth, the weight will be eighteen kilogram and two hundred grams, on Mars it is two and a half less.”
“Highlight it in the visible spectrum.”
A powerful beam passed through a dark glass.
“That it’s, down at the bottom. Now let's try in the ultraviolet.”
“We don’t know how ultraviolet radiation will affect it.”
“We don’t know how the normal lamp might affect the contents. We'll have to risk it.”
Using the ultraviolet they could make out a dark substance that filled the capsule to about a third. Walt instructed his assistant to slowly turn the arm and then watched as the substance was slowly poured into the capsule. It was a viscous and thick liquid, not frozen despite the temperature of minus twenty-five Celsius.
27. Cargo-2
Immediately after they’d pulled back the hatch in the hardware compartment , Francis ordered her men to retreat. It wasn’t just for safety reasons, not at all.
She hadn’t been a part of the first team that discovered the Object. Walt hired her towards the end of the operation, when the rover had already exposed the sarcophagus. It seemed that her colleagues were ahead of her everywhere, and she hadn’t become a pioneer, in the same way as Walt had, but events had been turned on their head, and now she was the first person to get access to the Prometheus lander and its cargo. She would be the first person in the world, the first scientist in history to take into her hands the object created by extraterrestrial intelligence. Or, at least, fragments of the object.
First she carefully selected a splinter that was half a palm long, the dark, almost opaque, glass contrasting with the bright color of the suit gloves. The glass was smooth and about thirteen millimeters thick. She took the chip out with her fingers and carefully examined it, then handed the piece of dark glass to her assistant, giving the order to make an immediate analysis. Made by unknown tools, the glass was particularly strong; in fact, it seemed almost like translucent armor. But this armor couldn’t withstand the impact of the escape velocity, and now, in front of her, is a whole pile of dark debris instead of capsules.
Naturally, the contents of the broken capsules had spilled out even before the lander separated from Prometheus. What had happened to the heavy viscous fluid?
Had it boiled and evaporated away completely due to the hole in the armor, and the temperature of a thousand degrees inside the hardware compartment in those seconds when the lander entered the upper atmosphere? And if not, then perhaps it had mixed with salt water, and boiled again when the ball was in the raging fire. In any case, leakage had occurred. But what was the degree of risk? It was completely unknown, as were the possible consequences. In the meantime, they needed to collect the debris and scrape the inside of the lander, to see if there was anything left.
“Look at this, Walt.” A small camera was pointed at a pile of dark debris.
“Both capsules were completely destroyed. The cargo spilled out and there is a high degree of probability that it was lost into the atmosphere or the ocean water, which came into the hardware compartment through the hole and then boiled in the fire. Now we are trying to find at least small traces, but will have to wait for the first results in the morning.”
The camera looked at the pile of dark debris, and then Francis ordered it to be cleared. The debris was removed piece by piece and then packed in sealed and numbered plastic containers.
Thus, the contents of capsules get into the Earth's atmosphere and water is more than a day ago. The consequences?
“Carefully, lift the first.”
They began with the closest capsule, the manipulators picking up the cylinder of dark glass and raising it from the pedestal with a jeweler’s precision.
“On Earth, the weight will be eighteen kilogram and two hundred grams, on Mars it is two and a half less.”
“Highlight it in the visible spectrum.”
A powerful beam passed through a dark glass.
“That it’s, down at the bottom. Now let's try in the ultraviolet.”
“We don’t know how ultraviolet radiation will affect it.”
“We don’t know how the normal lamp might affect the contents. We'll have to risk it.”
Using the ultraviolet they could make out a dark substance that filled the capsule to about a third. Walt instructed his assistant to slowly turn the arm and then watched as the substance was slowly poured into the capsule. It was a viscous and thick liquid, not frozen despite the temperature of minus twenty-five Celsius.
27. Cargo-2
Immediately after they’d pulled back the hatch in the hardware compartment , Francis ordered her men to retreat. It wasn’t just for safety reasons, not at all.
She hadn’t been a part of the first team that discovered the Object. Walt hired her towards the end of the operation, when the rover had already exposed the sarcophagus. It seemed that her colleagues were ahead of her everywhere, and she hadn’t become a pioneer, in the same way as Walt had, but events had been turned on their head, and now she was the first person to get access to the Prometheus lander and its cargo. She would be the first person in the world, the first scientist in history to take into her hands the object created by extraterrestrial intelligence. Or, at least, fragments of the object.
First she carefully selected a splinter that was half a palm long, the dark, almost opaque, glass contrasting with the bright color of the suit gloves. The glass was smooth and about thirteen millimeters thick. She took the chip out with her fingers and carefully examined it, then handed the piece of dark glass to her assistant, giving the order to make an immediate analysis. Made by unknown tools, the glass was particularly strong; in fact, it seemed almost like translucent armor. But this armor couldn’t withstand the impact of the escape velocity, and now, in front of her, is a whole pile of dark debris instead of capsules.
Naturally, the contents of the broken capsules had spilled out even before the lander separated from Prometheus. What had happened to the heavy viscous fluid?
Had it boiled and evaporated away completely due to the hole in the armor, and the temperature of a thousand degrees inside the hardware compartment in those seconds when the lander entered the upper atmosphere? And if not, then perhaps it had mixed with salt water, and boiled again when the ball was in the raging fire. In any case, leakage had occurred. But what was the degree of risk? It was completely unknown, as were the possible consequences. In the meantime, they needed to collect the debris and scrape the inside of the lander, to see if there was anything left.
“Look at this, Walt.” A small camera was pointed at a pile of dark debris.
“Both capsules were completely destroyed. The cargo spilled out and there is a high degree of probability that it was lost into the atmosphere or the ocean water, which came into the hardware compartment through the hole and then boiled in the fire. Now we are trying to find at least small traces, but will have to wait for the first results in the morning.”
The camera looked at the pile of dark debris, and then Francis ordered it to be cleared. The debris was removed piece by piece and then packed in sealed and numbered plastic containers.
Thus, the contents of capsules get into the Earth's atmosphere and water is more than a day ago. The consequences?
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