Chapter 32 first quarter

Trevize said, "Are you ready, Janov?" Pelorat looked away from the reading machine, looked up and said, "You mean the jump, old partner?" "Yes, hyperspace jump." Pelorat swallowed. "Well, are you sure you won't feel any discomfort? I know it's a stupid thing to be afraid, but whenever I think about being transformed into a formless, formless tachyon, no one has ever seen Or detected that thing..." "Come on, Janov, this is fully fledged technology, I assure you on my honor! You once said that the jump has been used for 22,000 years, but I have never heard of it in hyperspace. When we return from hyperspace, we may end up in a bad place, but accidents still only happen in ordinary space, not when we are transformed into tachyons."

"That doesn't seem like much consolation." "We can't make any mistakes when we return. To tell you the truth, I planned to do it without telling you, so that you would not know that you have made the jump. But for the sake of later, I think it should let you experience it for yourself, so that You understand that there will be no problems at all, and you will never have to worry about it in the future." "This—" Pelorat said hesitantly, "I think you're right, but to be honest, I'm not in a hurry." "I promise you that……"

"No, no, old fellow, I wholeheartedly accept your pledge. Only—have you ever read 'Saint Tristi Mart'?" "Of course I have. I'm not illiterate." "Yes, yes, I shouldn't have asked at all. Do you remember what it says?" "I don't suffer from amnesia either." "I seem to have a real talent for offending people. I have to say, I've been thinking about one of those passages—Saint Tristi and his friend Bane, setting off from Planet Seventeen and getting lost in space. I Thinking of those hypnotic scenes, of being among the stars, moving slowly through deep, unchanging space... You know, I never believed those descriptions before. I loved that story and was deeply moved by it. Touched, but I never really took it seriously. But now, as I get used to the fact that I'm in space, I really feel that feeling. It's a silly idea, and I know it, but I don't want to give up. Saint Tristi..."

"And I am that Bane." Trevize said with a trace of impatience. "It can be said that all the scattered and misty stars outside are still. Of course, our sun is an exception. Although we cannot see it, it must be constantly shrinking. The Milky Way is always so dim and majestic, as if Unchanged from time immemorial; silent and solemn in space, without any disturbance..." "except me." "Except for you—but, Grenn, my dear brother, it's fun to talk to you about Earth and try to teach you a little bit of prehistory. So I don't want it all to end so soon."

"No, it won't end right away anyway. You don't think we'll be able to appear on the planet's surface consummately after a jump, do you? We'll still be in space, and the jump hardly takes any time. It will be at least another week before we have a chance of landing, so please take it easy." "The landing you are referring to is of course not Gaia. After we finish the transition, it is unlikely that we will appear near Gaia." "I know that, Janov, but we will reach the correct sector, as long as your information is correct. Otherwise, then..."

Lorat shook his head vigorously with a straight face. "If we don't know Gaia's coordinates, what's the point of getting to the correct sector?" Trevize replied: "Janov, suppose you are on the terminal star and want to go to the town of Akirop, but you only know that the town is in the isthmus, but you don't know the correct location. When you arrive at the isthmus, What would you do?" Pelorat thought carefully for a long time, as if thinking that the correct answer must be extremely subtle.Finally he had to give up trying and replied, "I guess I'll ask someone."

"Exactly! What else is there to do? Now, are you ready?" "You mean, now?" Pelorat stood up hastily, his originally kind and expressionless face now showed a bit of worry. "What should I do? Sit? Stand? Do something?" "God, Pelorat, you don't have to do anything, just come with me to my room, because I have to work on the computer. And then sit, stand, do somersaults as much as you like, whatever is comfortable for you .And my suggestion is that you better sit in front of the display screen and stare at it carefully. It will be very interesting. Come on!"

After speaking, they walked along the short corridor to Trevize's room.After entering the door, Trevize immediately sat down in front of the computer. "Shall you do it, Janov?" he asked suddenly. "I will tell you the data, you only need to meditate once, and the computer will handle other tasks." Pelorat said: "Thanks for your kindness. This computer doesn't seem to be very compatible with me. I know you will say that I just need to practice more, but I don't believe it will help. There must be something special about your mind, Ge orchid……" "Do not be silly."

"No, really. The computer seems to be only compatible with you. When you hook up with it, it seems to be integrated. But when I hooked up with it, it was still two independent entities-a Janov Pelorat and a computer, that's not what it is anyway." "Bullshit." Although Trevize said that, he felt a vague sense of accomplishment in his heart.He reached out and stroked the computer sensor board with his fingers, as if he was touching a favorite toy. "I'd rather be a spectator," said Pelorat. "I mean, I hope the jump can be avoided, but since it must be done, I'd rather be a spectator."

He looked a little anxious, his eyes fixed on the display screen.Now the main body of the picture is the hazy Milky Way, and the foreground is the dark stars like thin powder. "Let me know when it's about to start." He stepped back slowly, and finally leaned against the bulkhead. Trevize smiled, and at the same time put his palm on the sensor board, and immediately felt that the mind and the computer became one.Every day this contact becomes easier and more intimate.However much he scoffed at Pelorat's words, he did feel it.He found that he almost no longer needed to think about those coordinates deliberately, the computer seemed to know what he was going to do, and he didn't need to drive his consciousness to "tell" the computer, and the computer would automatically "read" those data from his brain.

However, Trevize still "tells" the computer the instructions for the jump, and then asks it to start in two minutes. "Okay, Janov, we still have two minutes: 120... 115... 110... Pay attention to the video screen." Pelorat acted on his words, the corners of his mouth tightened a little, and he held his breath unknowingly. Trevize continued to count down softly: "Fifteen...ten...five, four, three, two, one, ○." They didn't notice the slightest movement, and didn't feel anything at all, but the picture on the video screen changed suddenly.The star field has become noticeably denser, while the Milky Way has disappeared without a trace. Pelorat was taken aback, and quickly asked, "What's going on?" "What's going on? It's just that you're nervous and scared yourself. You don't feel anything at all, admit it." "I admit." "That's right. In the distant past, when hyperspace travel was fairly new, during the jump, the passengers—according to the books, anyway—would have a strange feeling in their bodies that some You may also feel dizzy or nauseous. This may or may not be a psychological effect. In any case, as the hyperspace jump experience continues to accumulate and the equipment continues to improve, the feeling will gradually decrease. By means of With the help of our computer, any physical reaction will be far below the threshold of sensation. At least, I don’t feel anything myself.” "I must admit, neither do I. Where are we now, Grant?" "It's just a step forward, and we've come to Kargen's star field. There's still a long way to go. Before we make another jump, we need to check the accuracy of this jump." "My concern is—where did the galaxy go?" "All around us, Janov, we're in it now. If we adjust the focus of the video screen, we can see the Milky Way farther away, it looks like a bright band across the sky .” "It's the so-called 'Star Bridge'!" Pelorat exclaimed happily. "On almost every inhabited world, there are people who describe the Milky Way in the night sky like this, but you can't see it on Terminus. Let me see, old partner." The display screen suddenly tilted to one side, and the star image field seemed to pour down with it. Soon after, a pearl-like celestial body almost filled the entire screen.The picture continued to move, and the appearance of the celestial body gradually narrowed, and then began to expand again. "The star field near the center of the Milky Way is denser, and would appear denser and brighter if there were no dark clouds in the spiral arms," ​​Trevize said. Similar night skies can be seen on most inhabited worlds. scene." "It's the same on Earth." "That makes no difference, it cannot be used as a signature to identify the Earth." "Of course not, but you know—you haven't studied the history of science?" "Haven't really studied it, but of course I know a thing or two. But if you do have any questions, don't expect me to be an expert." "Being able to make this jump brought me back to the question that has been bothering me. Allow me to start at the beginning—we can model a universe in which hyperspace travel is impossible, based on the laws of physics, And the speed of light in a vacuum is the absolute speed limit." "indeed so." "The geometric structure of this universe makes the speed of any object less than the speed of light. That is to say, the time required for our displacement just now cannot be shorter than the time for light to travel the same distance. If we really move at the speed of light, we The time experienced will be different from the normal time in the universe. For example, assuming that this place is 40 parsecs away from the terminal star, then if we fly here at the speed of light, we will not feel the passage of time at all; but in the terminal star and other parts of the Milky Way, but about 130 years have passed. However, the speed of the transition we just completed is not just the speed of light, it is actually equal to a thousand or ten thousand times the speed of light, but the time in other places is almost timeless. Change, at least I hope not." Trevize said: "Don't expect me to tell you the mathematical structure of 'Orangen's hyperspace theory'. I can only say this - if you move at the speed of light in ordinary space, then every parsec, the outside Time will pass by three to twenty-six years, as you just said. This is the so-called 'relativistic universe', and man has known this fact for a long time, even as far back as prehistoric times - I think, That's your academic domain - and the laws of physics have not been overthrown. However, when we make hyperspace leaps, we are not subject to those conditions, which means that special relativity does not apply, and the laws of physics therefore have It is different. From the point of view of hyperspace, the galaxy is just a tiny object, and the ideal description is a point without scale, so it will not produce any relativistic effect at all. "In fact, in the mathematical formulation of cosmology, there are two different galactic notations: "Oh, but I can tell you one more thing. In theoretical physics, there's a wonderful trick of tricking people into putting only in the equation of , or vice versa, and asking the students to solve the answer. The students are very excited. It is possible to fall into a trap, and it is usually unnoticed, so sweating and panting, it is nothing, until some well-meaning senior speaks out, and he can get out of the sea of ​​​​suffering. Once, I really Got teased like that." Pelorat thought seriously for a while, and then asked in a daze, "But which one is the real galaxy?" "It's both, it depends on your behavior. Suppose you want to go from point A to point B in Terminus, then you can take a car by land or a boat by sea. Different routes have different situations, so Which is the real Terminus, the land or the sea?" Pelorat nodded. "Analogies are always dangerous," he said, "but I'd rather accept this than delve into the meaning of hyperspace at the risk of insanity. From now on I'll focus on current job." "The jump we just made," Trevize said, "could be considered the first step to Earth." However, he secretly doubted in his heart: what is waiting ahead may not be just the earth.