Zhang Fan sat in the cockpit of the "Feiyu" lander and pressed the detonation button for the core of the "Helios" heavy nuclear fusion interplanetary cruise missile.
The surrounding air seemed to tremble slightly, but no mushroom cloud rose, and no large crater appeared on the ground.
But Zhang Fan knew that the nuclear explosion had already occurred.
What is an underground nuclear explosion like?
Contrary to popular belief, a nuclear explosion would immediately create a mushroom cloud and a large crater.
An underground nuclear explosion would generate an instantaneous pressure of over 2 million atmospheres within one-tenth of a second. This is equivalent to placing a freight train on a square centimeter of ground.
Under the action of such a high-pressure shock wave, a large cavity with a diameter ranging from tens to hundreds of meters will be instantly generated underground.
The rock closest to the epicenter is instantly heated and vaporized. As the shock wave descends and becomes insufficient to vaporize the rock, it is melted and pushed around by the shock wave, exhibiting fluid properties.
During the expansion of the cavity, some of the lava is squeezed into the gaps in the cavity wall, while some flows to the bottom of the cavity due to gravity. A large amount of rock vapor condenses into droplets and falls into the liquefied layer at the bottom of the cavity, or adheres to the liquefied layer on the cavity wall. The liquefied layer eventually condenses into a glassy substance.
This process might be difficult to understand in words, so just watch a top-secret video of an underground nuclear test on Earth:
After a loud bang, as the light gradually dimmed, a spherical man-made cave with a diameter of 200 meters appeared in front of us.
The cave was a sea of red, with crimson lava hanging from the circular cave walls, slowly flowing down to the bottom. Lava dripped from the top, creating a light rain of lava that gathered at the bottom of the cave to form a fiery red lava pool.
The nuclear warhead in this video has a yield of 200 kilotons. The core of the heavy nuclear fusion interplanetary cruise missile is:
4 million tons.
Zhang Fan didn't think any insect could survive under those conditions.
The "Feiyu" hovered over the explosion site.
As time passed and the temperature dropped, the underground lava rain stopped, and the lava flow on the cave walls also ceased.
Because the rock mass developed many cracks after the explosion, its integrity was not as good as the original rock mass. In addition, the top of the cavity began to collapse due to the pressure of gravity after the surface rock layer at the top of the cavity loosened.
Within seconds, the vault collapsed to the ground, forming a crater larger than the blast cavity in diameter.
The "Bird's Nest" has now disappeared without a trace on Mars.
Zhang Fan sighed, adjusted the direction of the "Feather" and prepared to head to the "Soyuz" space station.
Buzzing—
Um?
Zhang Fan couldn't believe his eyes.
A colorful insect was flying outside the porthole directly in front of the cockpit of the "Feiyu".
Seeing a colorful insect flying in the Martian sky is such a magical sight.
Zhang Fan felt like he must be dreaming.
The insect has two large compound eyes bulging outwards on its triangular head, a long, thin neck connected to a long, large abdomen, exaggerated seven-colored wings on its back, and a pair of crystal-clear sickles held aloft on its chest.
The most eye-catching feature was the seven-colored crystal on the insect's forehead—
It is the queen cockroach.
The transparent scythe swung lightly.
Zhang Fan felt as if the world before him was separated by a thin line, creating a sense of spatial displacement.
The "Feather" was split in two, and the cut was as smooth as a mirror.
Zhang Fan fell from the sky. He saw insects flying out of the pit all over the mountainside, and he saw the colorful cockroach brandishing a transparent scythe as it swooped down from the sky...
What Zhang Fan saw was an upside-down world.
never mind.
Zhang Fan closed his eyes...
...
Insects... cockroaches... giant beetles... the Feather... the Bird's Nest... the Alliance...
Zhang Fan felt a headache, patted his head, and opened his eyes.
Where is this place?
Shouldn't I be dead?
The last image Zhang Fan remembered was him falling from the sky. Even if he wasn't killed by insects, falling from a height of several thousand meters would have been enough to turn him into mincemeat.
Where are the insects?
Zhang Fan looked around; he found himself in a very strange place.
This is a huge space, like a football stadium. The semi-circular dome above is made up of opaque white hexagonal pieces, which looks like a beehive at first glance.
The dome itself was emitting light.
The ground was covered with soft soil.
Zhang Fan grabbed a handful of soil from beside him, his eyes glazed over in a daze.
If he had to put it into words, he felt this place resembled the central garden of the "Bird's Nest".
But this was clearly not the case. Zhang Fan took a few steps forward and picked up a white fragment from the ground.
These are insect eggshells.
This is the ovary.
But what about the queen cockroach? What about the other insects? Where did they all go?
Zhang Fan continued walking forward, checking all the insect eggs he saw along the way, but every single one was empty; the insects inside had long since vanished.
Zhang Fan continued forward and soon arrived at the point where the dome connected with the ground. The dome seemed to extend deep underground.
Knock knock knock.
Zhang Fan tapped the hexagonal panels of the dome a few times with his fingers and found that they had a similar texture to the shells of insect eggs.
Was this dome made by insects?
Zhang Fan walked around the edge of the dome but didn't find a single insect.
Even more incredibly, although he was wearing a spacesuit, he wasn't wearing a helmet.
The dome contains oxygen that humans can breathe.
Zhang Fan sat on the ground, lost in thought.
There were trees in front of him, and hammocks among the trees...
That's Bob's hammock.
Many things here were transplanted from the "Bird's Nest".
But what about Bob?
He was the only living, moving being inside the entire dome.
Coo coo coo—
I'm hungry.
Although Zhang Fan didn't know how long he had slept, his stomach told him that it must have been quite a while.
Is there anything we can eat?
Zhang Fan walked around the insect garden again.
Palm heart, daylily, kudzu root...
Good grief, are they here for wilderness survival?
The palm kernel is quite good, crisp and refreshing.
After filling his stomach, Zhang Fan walked to a hexagonal dome-shaped panel and stood there. He had noticed earlier that some of the hexagons where the dome connected to the ground were empty, like doors.
Through the empty hexagon, you can see the exterior of the dome—ridged lava tubes.
Zhang Fan reached out and touched the rock wall. The rock was warm and moist, indicating that there was not only a heat source but also a water source.
Zhang Fan turned on the arm monitor on his spacesuit. The monitor's battery was low, so he quickly checked his surroundings.
The composition of the rocks and soil indicates that this is indeed Mars, and the gravity is about one-third that of Earth. However, air quality tests show that this place has the same air density as Earth, and the oxygen content is sufficient for humans to breathe.
The insects actually built a closed ecosystem underground, similar to Earth?
But caves always have an exit, so how did they manage to physically isolate themselves from the Martian surface?
Zhang Fan continued walking forward and finally discovered the secret.
In front of him was a "wall" made up of hexagons, like a dome, but the "wall" was transparent, like a transparent glass curtain wall perpendicular to the ground.
Zhang Fan reached out and was surprised to find that his fingers went in as if touching the surface of water.
Zhang Fan took a deep breath, put on his spacesuit helmet, walked through the transparent wall to the back, and the readings on the arm monitor immediately changed dramatically, becoming the same parameters as in the Martian wilderness.
A wall separates two worlds.
There are so many mysteries to explore here.
Zhang Fan
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