Abnormal crossing

Chapter 146 Molde Star
"."

Although Gu Wei had not come into contact with many life-bearing planets in the past two months, he had seen many ordinary planets during his flight - in fact, let alone planets, he had seen stars many times.

Under the influence of what one sees and hears.

Gu Wei does have a certain ability to judge with the naked eye.

If he's not mistaken.

The planet in front of us has a diameter of about 5000 kilometers, which is visually smaller than the earth.

At the same time, compared to the Earth's slightly bulging equator and slightly flattened poles, this planet is relatively more rounded - to be precise, it should be more "smooth", like it has been polished.

Also, it’s different from the blue and white color scheme of Earth.

Although there are oceans on this planet, the land is mixed with many mottled blocks of color, which seems to be somewhat similar to
Mars?

And while Gu Wei was observing the planet.

"Drip drip"

Suddenly, a rapid alarm sounded at the main console, and the prompt sound of the MeeMee main program came from the ceiling:

"Captain, there is an external signal trying to break through the communication system violently, but it is too weak. Ahem, the strength is not high. I have temporarily intercepted it. What do you say now?"

"Violent breakthrough?" Milo frowned slightly: "This is not very friendly. Never mind, just connect."

Meow Meow main program: "Received."

Swah——

next second.

A dazzling blue light suddenly appeared in the holographic projection area of the main console, and the light quickly condensed into a tall human figure:

A humanoid creature with dark blue skin, no hair, wearing a silver-white uniform and a complex badge on his chest. His eyes have no pupils, only two flickering fluorescent lights, like two miniature generals embedded in his eye sockets.

The other party looked at Milo with a serious expression, and his tone was even colder than Jin's: "Unknown spacecraft, this is Tal Cohen, the commander of the First Fleet of the Molde Star Defense Force. You are about to enter the legal territory of Molde Star. Please stop immediately and inform your identity and purpose of the voyage."

"If you don't respond within 30 seconds, we will activate the defense protocol."

Gu Wei behind him raised his eyebrows slightly.

Is this planet Molde?
He thought this was a transit planet of the only fourth-level civilization in the maze.
To know.

From the perspective of outer space, this planet does not have much vitality and does not look like a life-bearing planet - although this kind of naked eye observation is strictly speaking not very reliable, it can more or less show the prosperity of a planet.

另外
Although this Avatar named Cohen, ahem, the blue-skinned creature, was quite serious, Gu Wei could still tell that he was a little nervous, and his serious expression seemed more like a forced gesture.

But think about it.

His own violent breakthrough was easily blocked by Meeme, and considering the deterrent power of the Puleng Puleng, it would be strange for Cohen to be relaxed.

"."

Milo at the console was obviously aware of this, and smiled gently upon hearing this: "Commander Cohen, don't be too nervous. I am a friend of Captain Jokovin, and I was asked by Captain Jokovin to come to your side to take over some matters."

"The Governor's friend?" Cohen was stunned for a moment, his expression was obviously a little surprised, but soon his face returned to its original seriousness: "Do you have any proof?"

"Of course," Milo signaled MeeMee to stop the spacecraft outside the legal line of the planet to avoid provoking the other party, and ordered: "MeeMee, send the clearance letter prepared by Captain Qiao Kewen."

Meow Meow: “Understood.”

After being devoured by the Eraser, Jokowin's ability to communicate with the outside world was limited to the spaceship. To be more precise, it was limited to the gap left by the Eraser.

At the same time, considering Jokovin's special status on Molde, it is not appropriate to make a full-channel announcement about his "death" when they meet.

So after several discussions.

In the end, Milo and Jocoven decided to enter the planet as guests first, and after meeting the planet's top leaders, they would inform them of the news of Jocoven and others' deaths.

For this purpose, Jokovin drafted a letter that could prove Milo's identity as a visitor so that the Flutter Flutter could pass the checkpoint.

as predicted.

Not long after Mee Mee sent the customs entry letter.

Cohen's figure reappeared in the holographic projection area, but compared to when they first met, his facial features were much softer this time. "Captain Milo, the customs clearance letter has been verified. I'm sorry for the offense just now. Please forgive me."

"It's just a small matter, a small matter," Milo waved his hand and glanced outside the ship: "Commander Cohen, what's next?"

"Just keep flying along the track," Cohen said, his tone still serious, but without the initial hostility. "The A-7 channel authority of Molde has been unlocked for you. There is no upper limit on the validity period. It will be based on your return date."

"Our pilot ship will pick you up near the orbit later. The Federal Speaker's Office has also been notified of your visit."

Milo nodded: "Thank you."

Although due to the gap in technological levels, the so-called A-7 waterway authority being opened or not actually has no practical impact, the attitude shown by this approach is still quite comfortable.

So MeeMee quickly restarted the engine and the spacecraft gradually approached the planet Mold.

After a while.

A smaller silver-gray spaceship also appeared on the side of the spaceship, approaching the Flutter Flutter and flashing rapidly.

Gu Wei: “.”

Not surprisingly.

This small spaceship should be the so-called pilot ship.

Why is it that this flashing action gives me the feeling of a taxi driver on Earth turning on his high beam and asking if you want to get in the car?
Then under the guidance of the pilot boat.

The Flutter Flutter was getting closer and closer to the planet Mold. In less than half an hour, the spacecraft entered the planet's atmosphere.

At the same time, as the perspective zoomed in, Gu Wei could see the situation on the surface of the planet more clearly:
The mottled patches of color he saw from outer space were actually red and gray land, interspersed with a dense network of gullies.

The rift valley, which is hundreds of meters deep, spreads across the ground like blood vessels on the surface of the planet to the end of the sight.

There seemed to be dense forests on the ground outside the gully rift, but these forests were not green as in the traditional concept.
A mirror-like reflection.

Instead, there was an inexplicable emerald halo on the terminator at the end of the sky.

See this situation.

Gu Wei couldn't help but turn his head to look at Meime: "Meimei, what's going on? Why are there so many rifts on Molde? The color of the forest is weird too."

"It's normal." Compared to Gu Wei's surprise, Meow Meow seemed very calm: "Do you still remember the price Molde paid to send Qiao Kewen away from the maze?"

"cost?"

Gu Wei blinked and quickly thought of something: "I remember that most of the phosphate mines on the planet were sold?"

Gu Wei remembered what Qiao Kewen said.

More than a thousand years ago, a lost spaceship left a communication bracelet for Molde. According to the Star Alliance Education Act, each bracelet can refresh the opportunity to participate in the Star Alliance civil service examination once a year, and if the results are outstanding enough, one can be admitted to major colleges.

But Molde was too backward. The generation gap in knowledge was like the civilians in primitive African tribes being unable to understand the neutron transport equation. Thousands of years had passed and no one had reached the required score until Jokovin appeared.

At that time, Qiao Kewen was admitted to an academy that was ranked extremely low in the starry sky, and became the first life in the history of Molde civilization qualified to set foot on the starry sky.

To this end, Molde sold 85% of the phosphate mines on the planet to raise enough money for Jokovin to study.

"Well, what you see is the price of selling the phosphate ore," Mee Mee looked at the rift valley below and explained:
"The disappearance of the phosphate layer will directly lead to the exposure of iron and aluminum oxides in the strata, making the surface appear a mixture of rust red and aluminum gray. At the same time, without the plant roots to fix it, the soil will form a network of gullies within two years."

"The remaining remains of higher plants cannot form a phospholipid bilayer, and the cell structure is replaced by silica. Almost all forest vegetation will be vitrified - the trunk is transparent, and the interior is petrified or semi-petrified vascular bundles. Plants that do not evolve in this way can only become extinct." (Note: The inspiration for silicification comes from DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c00814)

"At the same time, the planet's Fe absorption band will be unusually strong, while the phosphorus characteristic spectral line will completely disappear. In addition, the glassy region will increase the planet's overall albedo, which is why you see the mirror reflection."

"It's also thanks to Qiao Kewen that he lived up to the efforts of the mother planet and immediately introduced some technologies to give back after he had the capital. Otherwise, the entire planet would not be able to last another 500 years. But even so, many of the costs that have been paid are irreversible."

Gu Wei remained silent after hearing this.

That's it
He had previously thought that these mirror trees were some kind of special species, but he didn't expect that they were the product of passive evolution?

This is true even for plants and soil.

What about animals?
What about the Molders?
This determination to gamble on the future of the planet is really admirable.
"Oh, right, Meimei," Gu Wei then thought of something and asked Meimei, "I have a question. Why would a consortium go all the way to the maze to buy phosphorus? Is it really that valuable?"

"That depends on how you compare it," Mee Mee said, circling him twice. "The value of phosphorus alone is not high or low, but in large quantities it's really not cheap."

Gu Wei pretended to listen attentively.

"Phosphorus is the 18th most abundant element in the universe, but its abundance is only 0.0007%," Mee Mee pulled out a series of tables in front of Gu Wei. "And its formation mechanism is quite special. It can only be formed in a Type II supernova explosion. After it is formed, it is rarely distributed in the interstellar medium. Most of it appears in planetary systems."

"So phosphorus, on a cosmic scale, is still subject to distribution probability - if you're unlucky, the abundance is low, and if you're lucky, the abundance is high. Molde should be the latter, as it has a relatively large reserve of phosphate ore."

Then MeeMee paused and continued, "In addition, from the market perspective, Xinghai's demand for phosphorus is also very high."

Gu Wei blinked: "Demand? For example, phosphate skeleton?"

The phosphate skeleton is a necessary condition for the existence of most life forms. Although Gu Wei is not a practitioner in the biological field, he has not forgotten this high school knowledge. What's more, Mie Mie just mentioned the vitrified vegetation.

"Well, that's just one aspect," Mee Mee didn't deny Gu Wei's guess, but she wasn't completely sure either: "Whether it's the phosphate skeleton or adenosine triphosphate, it's more about the field of natural evolution. Although there are many institutions in Xinghai working on these topics, they're still not that impressive compared to the size of Xinghai."

"The reason why phosphate rock is in high demand in Xinghai is that the market is more in the industrial sector."

Gu Wei was stunned: "Industry?"

This hit his blind spot.

The main use of phosphorus on the earth is still in the agricultural field. For example, phosphorus fertilizers such as superphosphate and diammonium phosphate are the key to increasing crop yields.

When it comes to industrial phosphorus, Gu Wei can only think of detergents such as sodium tripolyphosphate, or deoxidizers in metallurgy - the former has gradually been replaced by zeolite due to environmental issues, and the volume of the latter is actually not that high and is not irreplaceable.

Then Meow Meow tapped the floor of the spaceship: "Well, industry, such as engine coolant."

"Take our spacecraft as an example. The Flutter Flutter consumes more than 500 tons of rhodium phosphide solution every year. In addition, the antimatter confinement ring uses phosphorus-doped superconducting ceramics, and the oscillating crystal of the phase shield is yttrium lanthanum phosphate."

"And the synaptic transmission of "Mech Overlord" also depends entirely on the phospholipid membrane. Without it, you can't even watch the pornographic movies on StarNet."

Gu Wei: “.”

Learned a lot.

Phosphorus has these uses?
No wonder some people are willing to buy it - this thing is definitely not a scarce resource, but if it is large in size, you won't lose money if you buy it and sell it a few times.

It's a pity that I have already traveled to the sea of stars. If I were still on Earth, I could make a phospholipid membrane as a brain-computer interface material and I guess I could at least get a first-tier paper published?
Well, not necessarily.

After all, the division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences this year is quite outrageous. A large number of journals were inexplicably downgraded to the second zone. Gu Wei's circle of friends cursed more people than the Chinese national football team lost 0-7 to the Japanese.
Then Gu Wei leaned against the star screen and looked for a while. Soon, a group of buildings finally appeared in his field of vision.

The building complex is close to a huge crack and is located at the ground level, but in fact it can be said to be on the edge of a cliff. The building complex covers a wide area but is generally low. The tallest and most central building is a white tower that is about 30 to 40 meters high.

In the central square in front of the white tower, a fountain stands quietly. The spring water gushes out from the top of the central sculpture, turning into a crystal water curtain, and falls lightly into the circular pool below.

At this moment, a group of formally dressed humanoids have gathered by the fountain.

Another moment passed.

thump.
With a slight vibration, the Flutter Flutter stopped steadily at the designated spacecraft docking point.

Seeing this, Milo waved to the people on the spaceship:

"Mee-mee, stay alert, and everyone else follow me off the boat!"

Note:
Yesterday I had some health problems again, still heart problems, so I was hospitalized in another city to do a 24-hour electrocardiogram (actually I could have taken the test home after paying a deposit, but the hotel environment was just so-so. So I just stayed in the hospital first)
(End of this chapter)