Apart from Su Huilan, who had also received the news beforehand, everyone else was shocked.
"Have you found out the cause of the accident?" Qingmu asked.
Mei Yiqiu said, "A professional team is already investigating. The current feedback indicates that the research vessel was attacked by a weapon similar to a missile or torpedo. During the search of the nearby waters, some metal fragments not belonging to the research vessel were also found, which were Former Soviet Union- made submarine. Therefore, it is suspected that the Russia military was involved. Although Russia has denied this, it has caused great tension in other countries around the world, especially the US, China, Europe, and countries in the Southern Hemisphere such as Australia and New Zealand. It is estimated that the situation in the Pacific Ocean region will not ease in the short term."
"You mean Russia submarine attacked our research vessel?" Mei Ziqing asked, her mouth agape in surprise.
"It's not certain yet. Because it involves the military and various countries' power struggles, the investigation has entered a very delicate stage, and a lot of information is being kept secret. Fortunately, the Space Management Committee has some authority in this matter. Our team members sent me a message saying that Russia were indeed involved, but they can't be sure whether it was a submarine that attacked the research vessel."
Mei Yiqiu patted his pipe as he spoke, clearly getting a craving for a smoke, "Let's go outside to talk. No smoking here, damn it, how could I have agreed to that rule in the first place!"
Mei Ziqing covered her mouth and chuckled.
The group left the rooftop laboratory and went to Mei Yiqiu's office. The professor eagerly packed his tobacco and took a deep drag.
"Why did the Russia attack our research vessel?" Bian Ziyuan asked.
"It's not necessarily the Russia. The Former Soviet Union sold submarines to many countries, and terrorists might have some," Su Huilan said. "Besides, our research vessel doesn't have the capability to destroy a submarine together with it. The fact that the submarine also had an accident indicates the presence of a third-party force."
Mei Yiqiu a puff of smoke, nodded, and said, "That's right, this is precisely what worries governments around the world. However, I have some other thoughts..."
"What?"
It's still too early to say for sure.
The professor, pipe in mouth, faced the wall, seemingly contemplating his words; his silhouette and the smoke were reflected on the wall.
"The accident occurred in a huge ocean basin with a depth of 5,000 meters. Search and rescue operations are very difficult to conduct in such a place. Fortunately, we knew the location of the research vessel before the accident. This was not only because it had a specific destination, but also because we received a signal from it before the accident."
"A signal? Hasn't it been missing for months?"
"That's right, so the people who received the signal thought they had made a mistake. And the message they sent was strange, almost exactly the same as the last message they sent four months ago—'Arrived at destination, preparing to anchor, requesting satellite angle calibration.' How to put it... well, it's like a telegraph operator repeating a sentence that was supposed to be repeated three times. They said it twice four months ago, and then stopped for more than four months before saying it a third time."
Mei Yiqiu's words left everyone stunned and bewildered, finding the whole thing extremely strange.
"Then what?"
"We then sent them a signal confirmation request and located their position. But we didn't receive a response from them; it was as if they had disappeared again."
"This sounds a bit like a paranormal event!"
"No, it's not supernatural at all," the professor said. "The underwater pyramid ruins are a phenomenon beyond scientific explanation, and the Ghost Island that frequently appear in that area also prove its mystique. It was precisely because of this inexplicable signal that we had the idea to search for the research vessel again; otherwise, we might not even know about the shipwreck. If no one investigates, even if the Māori of the Southern Islands find ship or submarine wreckage, they would just dispose of it as scrap."
"Professor, you just said you had other conjectures..." Qingmu looked at Mei Yiqiu, waiting for him to continue.
The professor took a few more puffs of his cigarette and slowly said, "Besides the mysterious forces of nature, could there also be human factors involved in the disappearance of the research vessel? I've always suspected that—someone doesn't want us to know the truth about the deep sea!"
"You mean..." Su Huilan frowned, her voice heavy, "That someone can control the mysterious spatial forces there, causing our research vessel to lose contact?"
Mei Yiqiu nodded.
"To make a ship equipped with all the most advanced cutting-edge equipment suddenly disappear in the Pacific Ocean, while being continuously tracked and located by navigation satellites, is no easy feat. But if we possess some technologies we've never known before, such as alternate dimension transformation or multi-dimensional overlap, then it becomes understandable."
But what evidence is there?
"I have no evidence, I'm just reasoning. Of course, even my reasoning isn't logically sound." Mei Yiqiu contradicted himself, but didn't stop his reasoning. "First of all, the research vessel did have an accident, and this time it was clearly deliberate. Think about it, who would want to shoot down a research vessel?"
Everyone remained silent, racking their brains for a long time without being able to come up with an answer.
"The scientific research project poses no threat to any government or conglomerate. There's nothing of value on the research vessel. The equipment, while expensive, is only valuable for scientific research; it's just scrap metal if sold. Besides, there are no pirates in that area. The nearest land is the Southern Islands, with a population of less than ten thousand. Somalia pirates wouldn't waste money on fuel to sail that far out to sea to rob people."
"There's only one explanation: someone doesn't want the research vessel to get close there. There must be some secret there."
Mei Ziqing asked, "But if he could use natural forces to make the ship disappear, why is he now trying to destroy it with weapons?"
Mei Yiqiu said, "Perhaps that natural force was subject to some limitation, such as its time running out, or something else caused it to disappear, or our research vessel broke free from its constraints. If it's the last one, it means the people on board likely possessed the secrets of the deep sea, in which case their murder was inevitable. And this possibility is very high, after all, there were seven top scientists on board."
"Who wouldn't want us to know the secrets there?" Mei Ziqing said, puzzled. "That's hindering human progress!"
Mei Yiqiu said, "If it weren't for the Ancient Egypt who built the pyramids, it would probably only be those newly emerged Parasites. Judging from this incident, they not only mastered certain spatial principles that we don't know, but they also already possessed sufficient resources in the human world. Otherwise, even if they could silently destroy research vessels and submarines, they would definitely be discovered."
"Are you saying they may have infiltrated or even controlled high-ranking officials in some countries?"
"It's not a possibility, it's a certainty!"