Chapter 4 CHAPTER THREE THEY HAVE A HOME HERE

The answer, though strange, is absolutely correct.After the three friends got this answer, they immediately fell asleep again.Where could they find a more peaceful and still place than here?On the earth, whether it is a house in a city or a hut in a country, it is affected by the vibration of the earth's crust.At sea, ships are pitched by waves, nothing but bumps and waves.In the sky, the balloon always sinks and floats in the air layer with different air density.Only this projectile, floating in absolute truth and absolute silence, can bring absolute peace to its guest.Therefore, if they had not been awakened by a sudden sound around eight o'clock in the morning on December 2nd, that is to say, eight hours after their departure, they might have remained sound asleep.Apparently it was the barking of dogs.

"Dog! This is the sound of a dog barking!" Michel Ardan said loudly, getting up. "They're hungry," said Nicholl. "Oh!" said Michel, "we've forgotten them!" "Where are they?" asked Barbicane. They searched for a while before they found one under the couch.Shocked and frightened by the first impact, it hid in this corner until hunger compelled it to cry. This was the lovely Diana, who, after many calls, shyly left her refuge.All the while Michel Ardan was politely encouraging it to show courage. "Come out, Diana," he said, "come, my daughter! You, your fate will be recorded in the history of dogs! You, the cultists will ask you to be an Arnie Bethes' partner, Christians will also invite you to be friends with Saint Roque! If it is like the 'Wow' that Jupiter gave to the beautiful goddess Europa at the price of a kiss, if the devil in hell also You deserve a bronze statue of you! You, your fame will surpass those heroes of Montalgis and San Bernardo! You rush into interstellar space, maybe you will be Eve the size of the moon: You, you will prove in heaven the words of Tusnel, who said: 'God made man and saw how weak he was, so he gave him a dog!' Come, Diana! Come here!"

We don't know whether Diana was happy to hear this, but she came out slowly, whining and squawking. "Very well!" said Barbicane, "I have seen Eve, but where is Adam?" "Adam?" replied Michel. "Adam is not too far away! Always somewhere nearby: it must be called! Satellite! Come here, Satellite!" But the satellite didn't show up.Diana was still humming.They checked that he was not hurt, so they brought him a pot of appetite stimulant food, and he stopped whining.The satellite seems to be missing.It took them a long time to find it in a cell on top of the projectile, and it was inexplicable that the first impact should have knocked it here.The poor animal, who had suffered the most, looked pitiful.

"Damn it!" said Michelle, "it won't acclimate!" They took the poor dog down with great care.The dome had crushed its head, and it seemed to be struggling to regain consciousness.Still, they let him lie comfortably on a cushion, and he let out a sort of whimper, which seemed to be a sigh. "We'll take care of you," Michelle said. "We are responsible for your life. I would rather lose an arm than my poor satellite lose a paw!" he said, bringing the dog a little water, which he drank greedily. down. After the two dogs were taken care of, the three travelers re-observed the earth and the moon carefully.The earth is still like a gray disc with a long and narrow "crescent moon" beside it, but it is narrower than the previous night; compared with the moon disc that is getting closer and closer to a full circle, it looks even more gigantic.

"Oh!" said Michel Ardan, "it's annoying, why don't we start when the earth is full moon, that is to say, when our earth is opposite the sun?" "Why?" Nicholl asked. "Because, if that were the case, we would see the shape of our continents and oceans, the continents glowing in the sun's reflection, and the oceans a slightly duller color, as some world maps depict! I wish I could It is good to see the poles of the earth, human eyes have never seen them yet / "Of course," replied Barbicane, "but if the earth is exactly 'full moon', then the moon is exactly new, which means that we cannot see the moon when the sun shines on it. But for us Say, it's better to see the destination than the starting point."

"You are right, Barbicane," said Captain Nicholl; "besides, after we reach the moon, we will have plenty of time to watch at our own ease, during the long lunar night, our ants-like And the wriggling earth above!" "Our kind!" exclaimed Michel Ardan. "They are no more of our kind now than the Moonmen are of our kind! We are the only three of our kind in this new world we now inhabit, that is, in this projectile! I am Barbie Kang's kind, and Barbicane is Nicholl's kind. There are no other human beings except us, until the moment we become ordinary moon people, the three of us are all the inhabitants of this miniature world."

"In about eighty-eight hours," the captain corrected him. "Since when do you count..." asked Michel Ardan. "Half past eight," Nicholl answered. "Very well," Michelle continued, "we have no reason not to have breakfast right away." For the inhabitants of this new celestial body cannot live without food, and their stomachs are also governed by the inescapable law of hunger.As a Frenchman, Michel Ardan declared himself a chef, an important position that no one could compete with.The gas supplied him with sufficient fire for his cooking, and the larder provided him with the ingredients for his first feast.

Breakfast began with Sanhuai's delicious bisque, served hot with expensive Liebig biscuits made from the fattest cuts of ruminant meat from the Phan Pass steppe.The beef bisque is followed by a few compressed steaks, as tender and delicious as the steaks in British cafes.Michelle's imagination is particularly rich, and he even likes these things to be a little "bloody".After the steak came canned vegetables, "fresher than fresh," said the lovely Michelle, and finally, in the American fashion, tea and buttered toast.Everyone said that this drink tasted very good, and it was brewed with the best tea leaves presented by the Russian Tsar.The Tsar sent several boxes of these teas to the three travelers.

Finally, to round off the feast, Ardan brought in a bottle of Nocturne, which he said he found "accidentally" on a food shelf, and the three friends toasted the great unity of the Earth and its moons Come. And then, as if the rich grapes brewed on the slopes of Burgogne were not enough, the sun came to the party.At this moment, the projectile stepped out of the conical shadow cast by the earth, and the light of the "brilliant celestial body" directly irradiated the bottom of the shell due to the intersecting relationship between the orbit of the moon and the orbit of the earth.

"Sun!" cried Michel Ardan. "No doubt," replied Barbicón, "I have been waiting for it." "However," said Michel, "can the conical shadow left by the earth in space extend beyond the moon?" "Being able to extend far beyond the Moon is a feat if you don't take into account the refraction of the atmosphere," Barbicane said. "However, whenever the moon enters the shadow of the earth, it is because the centers of the three celestial bodies, the sun, the earth and the moon, are exactly in a straight line. If the moon is full, a solar eclipse may occur. If you leave during a lunar eclipse, We have to stay in the shadows all the way, and that's inconvenient."

"why?" "Because, although our projectiles float in a vacuum, we can withstand the rays and heat of the sun. We can thus save gas, which is always advisable anyway." In fact, with no atmosphere to cool the sun's rays, the projectile was warm and bright, as if winter had suddenly turned into summer.Above was the moon, below was the sun, and the light from both sides made the projectile radiant. "How comfortable it is here!" said Nicholl. "I feel the same way!" exclaimed Michel Ardan. "Just put a layer of humus on our aluminum planet, and we can grow green peas in twenty-four hours. I'm only worried about one thing, and I hope the shell walls don't melt!" "Be at ease, my esteemed friend," answered Barbicane. "The projectile has already experienced a higher temperature when it passed through the atmosphere. Even if it looks like a burning fireball to the Florida audience, I will not feel strange." "Maston may think we've been scorched!" "It surprises me," replied Barbicane, "that we should not be scorched. It is a danger which we had not foreseen." "I was worried, too," Nicholl said nonchalantly. "But you did not tell us, noble captain," exclaimed Michel Ardan, shaking the hand of his companion. At this time, Barbicane was arranging the interior of the projectile, as if he would never leave this place again.As we recall, the base of this skycar was fifty-four square feet.Twelve feet high up to the vault, all the travel implements and utensils inside were carefully arranged, and everything was kept in its proper place, thus leaving leeway for the three guests.The panes at the bottom are thick enough to bear the enormous weight.Barbicane and his companions were thus able to walk to and fro, as if on a floor: but the sunlight, coming in directly from below, left many strange shadows within the projectile. They started by checking the water and food boxes.The two containers did not suffer any damage due to the shockproof installation.The food is plentiful and can feed three travelers for a whole year.This was what Barbicane had prepared in advance for the eventual landing of a projectile in an absolutely barren region of the Moon.As for water and fifty gallons of brandy, it was only enough for two months.But, according to recent observations by astronomers, the moon has a thin atmosphere, very dense, at least in the deep valleys, and will not lack streams and water sources.Thus the three intrepid explorers were freed from hunger and thirst during their journey and for a year after they settled down on the lunar continent. What remains is the question of the air inside the projectile.That's no problem either.The Potassium Chlorate in the Raise and Reno devices is enough for two months.Of course, some gas needs to be consumed here, because the materials that produce oxygen must be kept at a high temperature of 400 degrees.This is no problem either, as gas is plentiful.The device is automatic and just needs to be tended at any time.Potassium chlorate turns into potassium chloride after reaching this temperature, releasing all the contained oxygen.How much oxygen can eighteen pounds of potassium chlorate produce?Capable of producing seven pounds of oxygen, enough to supply the projectile's guests for consumption. But it's not enough to just replace the oxygen: Exhaled carbon dioxide also needs to be absorbed.The air in the shell was then, after twelve hours, filled with this poisonous gas, released by the combustion of the elements of the blood with the inhaled oxygen.Nicholl knew there was something wrong with the air as soon as he saw Diana struggling to breathe.Because of the weight—the same phenomenon happened in the famous "dog cave"—the carbonic acid gas always sinks under the air.Poor Diana always hangs her head, and naturally suffers earlier than her master.Captain Nicholl rushed to the rescue.He took out a few containers containing caustic potash from the inside of the projectile, shook them a few times, and then placed them on the ground. This material is very easy to absorb carbonic acid gas, so the poisonous gas is completely absorbed in a short time, and the inside of the projectile is reborn. Filled with fresh air. Now start inventorying the instruments.All the thermometers and barometers survived the impact: only the glass tube of the lowest thermometer was shattered.From a box stuffed with cotton wool they took a fine aneroid gauge and hung it on the wall.Of course, it can only withstand the air pressure inside the projectile and give instructions.But it can also indicate the humidity of the air.Its pointer is now oscillating between 735 and 760 millimeters, indicating that it is "sunny" Barbicane also brought a few compasses, none of which were damaged. We can understand that the compass will only turn wildly around in the present environment, without a certain direction, because the shell is too far away from the earth, and the magnetic force at the poles cannot have a noticeable effect on the instrument.But on the moon, maybe we can measure the special phenomenon in those two miles.In any case, it is always interesting to be able to verify whether the earth's satellites are also affected by magnetism like the earth; There is also a boiling point altimeter to measure the height of the mountains on the moon, a sextant to measure the height of the sun, and a theodolite.It was a geodetic instrument, used to make plans and measure angles to the main line of the earth, and finally a telescope that was extremely useful when approaching the moon.All these instruments have been carefully checked, and despite the violent vibrations during the departure, they are all intact. As for all the utensils, picks, pickaxes, and various tools carefully selected by Nicholl, as well as the saplings and bags of seeds that Michel Ardan was going to plant on the moon, they still remained in their original corners on the upper layer of the paraboloid. inside.Above it was a sort of barn, in which the profligate Frenchman had piled up a great deal.No one knew what was in it, and the merry lad never told them.He often climbed up the studs fixed to the wall as escalators, and climbed to his warehouse to inspect.He tidied here and there, and as he fiddled quickly with one hand into several mysterious boxes, he sang an old chorus of French songs in an out-of-tune voice, and his voice was overwhelming. The current environment adds a little joy to the atmosphere. Barbicane was pleased to see that his rockets and other guns were intact.These powerful firearms can reduce the speed of descent when the projectile descends due to the gravitational force of the moon after passing the line of weightlessness.Due to the difference in mass between the two celestial bodies, the falling speed of the objects on the moon is one-sixth of the falling speed of the objects on the earth. The inspection was over, and all three were satisfied.Then, they returned to the windows on the sides and the bottom again, and continued to observe the space. Same sight.The sky is full of densely packed stars and constellations, bright and bright, a spectacle that can make astronomers go crazy with joy. On one side is the sun, its dazzling disk, without halo, like a flaming circle. The mouth of the furnace emerged sharply against the black background of the sky.On the other side was the moon, which seemed to stand motionless in the center of the astral world, casting the reflection of the sun on infinite space.There is also a black disc with a silver thread on one side, as if someone had cut a big black hole in the sky: this is our earth.Here and there, clusters of nebulae seem to be incomparably huge snowflakes in the world of stars. From the zenith to the nadir, hangs a ring-shaped white belt composed of fine sand-like stars. This is the Milky Way. In the Milky Way, the sun It's just a fourth-class star! Faced with such a novel and indescribable scenery, the three observers could hardly move their eyes away.How meditative all this was, how many new emotions it aroused in their souls!Under the control of this emotion, Barbicane began to write his diary of his journey to the moon. He recorded one by one what happened every hour at the beginning.He wrote quietly in his thick, square font and somewhat commercial style. At this moment, the mathematician Nicholl re-studied his orbital formula and calculated the numbers very skillfully.Michel Ardan chatted with Barbicane for a while, "Barbicane ignored him, chatted with Nicholl for a while, Nicholl didn't listen to him at all, and chatted with Diana for a while, Diana couldn't understand him He finally had to talk to himself, asking and answering questions, walking up and down, feeling here and there, looking here and there, stooping to look at the window below, and climbing to the projectile vault, all without a word. In this miniature world, he is the embodiment of French restlessness and rapping, and this title, the reader must pay attention, is really well deserved. On this day, or rather—for this is not accurate—the last event in the twelve hours that make up a day on Earth is a good, well-cooked dinner.Until now, there has not been an accident that can shake the confidence of the three travelers.So they fell asleep in the confidence of certain victory, while the projectile was moving across the sky at an average rate of diminishing speed.