Chapter 15 Chapter Thirteen

Indira wasn't as sympathetic as he'd hoped, and maybe she was a little jealous after all.And what's more, the disaster they jokingly called "the dragon's woe" caused their first real quarrel. Very innocent at first, Indira complained: "I'm always asked why I'd spend my life studying such a horrible time. It's not a good answer to say there were worse times." "Then why are you interested in my century?" "Because it marks the turning point between barbarism and civilization." "We people in the so-called 'developed countries' think we are very civilized. At least war is no longer sacred, and wherever it breaks out, the United Nations will do its best to stop it."

"It's not very successful, I would say it's only 30 per cent. But what we find most incredible is that people - until the 21st century! - can calmly accept actions that we consider atrocious. And believe in those heinous send--" "Finger." "—that's nonsense, any reasonable person would definitely sneer at it." "Please give me an example." "Your trivial failure led me to do some research and what I found gave me the chills. Did you know that in some countries thousands of girls were brutally castrated every year just to keep their virginity? A lot of people died because of it - and the authorities turned a blind eye."

"I agree that's really scary - but what can my government do?" “There’s a lot it can do — if it wants to. But to do so would be to offend the countries that supply the oil, and those countries would also import weapons that maim and kill thousands of civilians, like landmines.” "You don't understand, Indira, usually we don't have a choice, and we can't change the world. Didn't someone say 'politics is the art of the possible'?" "Quite right, that's why only second-rate minds go into politics. Geniuses love the impossible."

"Then I'm glad you've got enough geniuses to correct everything." "I smell like gunpowder? Thanks to our computers, we can run a test run in the bitspace before the policy is actually implemented." Poole had always been amazed by Indira's vast knowledge of the time, but he was equally surprised by her ignorance of many things he took for granted.On the other hand, he has the same problem.Even if he lived another 100 years, as confidently assured, he couldn't learn enough to feel comfortable.In every conversation, there are allusions he doesn't know and jokes that make him confused.Worse, he always feels on the verge of being rude: he's about to unleash a social disaster that would embarrass even his closest friends...

…Like that time he had lunch with Indira and Anderson, luckily in his own home.The food served in the automatic kitchen is always flawless, specially designed for his physical needs, and there will be no mouth-watering dishes, which always make 21st-century gourmets despair. On this day, however, an extraordinary delicacy emerged, bringing back vivid memories of deer hunting and roasting for Poole in his youth.However, that dish was a bit different in taste and texture, so Poole asked the obvious question. Anderson just smiled, but Indira looked like she was going to throw up.It was a few seconds before she said, "You tell him—but not until we've finished eating."

What did I say wrong now?After half an hour, Indira was clearly engrossed in the video monitor across the room.At this time, Poole's knowledge of the third millennium has made great progress. "Corpse food is actually going to be phased out in your time," Anderson explained. "It's no longer economically acceptable to raise animals—bad—to eat. I don't know how many acres of land it takes to feed a cow, but The plant food produced by the same size of land can feed ten people. If it is combined with hydroponic technology, it may be able to feed hundreds of people. "But it wasn't economic factors that ended the whole horror thing. It was disease. First the cattle, then spread to other food animals. It must have been some kind of virus that affected the brain and caused a horrible death. Although a cure was found in the end, it was too late to turn things around. But anyway, synthetic food was cheaper at that time, and there were all kinds of flavors.”

Considering weeks of mediocre meals, Poole was rather reserved.Why else, he thought, would he dream of ribs and prime steak? Other dreams were more disturbing, and he feared that it would not be long before he would have to ask Professor Anderson for medical assistance.No matter how much other people tried to make him at ease, the strangeness, and the complexity of this new world, nearly broke him.As if subconsciously trying to escape, in his sleep he often returned to his earlier life.But when he woke up, it only made things worse. He once went to the Tower of the Americas and looked down at the hometown he missed. In fact, this was not a good idea.When the air is clean and the binoculars can see clearly, he will see people busy in the streets he knows...

And always in the depths of his heart was the memory that his beloved once lived on the earth below.Mother, father (before he ran away with another woman), dear Uncle George and Aunt Leah, younger brother Martin, and a long line of dogs of equal importance—the first being his passionate puppy, The last one was Ricky. The most important thing is the memory about Helena, and that mystery... This relationship began at the beginning of his training as an astronaut. The two met by chance, but as time passed, they became more and more serious.Just before he was ready to go to Jupiter, they were planning to make the relationship permanent—once he returned.

If he didn't come back, Helena hoped to have a baby for him.He still remembers the mixed feeling of seriousness and joy when they made the necessary arrangements... Now, 1,000 years later, no matter how hard he tried, he still had no way of knowing if Helena had kept her word.Just as there are many gaps in his memory, so does the collective record of humanity.The worst one was caused by an asteroid impact in 2304. Although there are backup and safety systems, a few percent of the information base is still destroyed.Poole could not help wondering whether the data of his own children were among those irretrievably numerous bits.By now, maybe the 30th generation of his descendants is walking the earth, but he'll never know.

It was easier for Poole to discover that some women in this day and age didn't treat him like spoiled goods the way Aurora did.On the contrary, they often found this different choice very exciting; but this weird reaction also prevented Poole from establishing any intimacy.He's not in a hurry, all he really needs is a healthy, mindless exercise once in a while. No brains - that's the sticking point.He no longer has the goal of living, and the heavy memory weighs him down.He often used a famous book he read when he was young, and said to himself: "I am 'alone in a different generation and a stranger'."

He even used to look down on that beautiful planet (he would never set foot on it again if he followed the doctor's instructions), while wondering what it would be like to visit space again.It's not easy to break through the airlock without setting off the alarm, but someone has managed it.Every few years, someone who is determined to die will turn into a fleeting meteor in the earth's atmosphere.Perhaps his redemption was already brewing, but it appeared in a completely unexpected way. "Commander Poole, good to see you. Are you all right?" "I'm sorry, I don't remember you, I've seen too many people." "Don't be sorry, the first time we met was near Neptune." "Captain Chandler! How good to see you! There's everything in the automatic galley, what would you like to drink?" "Anything over 20% alcohol is fine." "How did you come back to Earth? They told me you never came within the orbit of Mars." "Almost right. Although I was born here, I feel that this place is dirty and smelly, the population is too large, and it is about to approach the billion mark." "We were more than 10 billion at that time. By the way, have you received my thank you letter?" "Yes! I knew I should get in touch with you, but I've been putting it off until Hyuga sails again. Here I am! Toast!" The captain drained the glass with astonishing speed.Poole tries to analyze his visitor: a beard—even a small goatee like Chandler's—is a rarity in this society, and no astronaut he knows has a beard—beards and space helmets are no peace Co-existing.Of course, as a captain, you may only need one EVA for several years, and most of the EVA work is done by robots; At the time, it seemed that Chandler was clearly an anomaly, but Poole admired him wholeheartedly. "You haven't answered my question yet. If you don't like Earth, why are you back?" "Oh, mostly catching up with old friends. It would be nice to have some real-time conversations without hours of signal lag! But of course that's not the real reason. My old rusty ship needs repairs, at the Outer Rim Shipyard. The armor is going to be redone, and I can't sleep well when it's only a few centimeters thin." "Armor?" "Dust cap. You didn't have that kind of problem back then, did you? But Jupiter is dirty outside, and our normal cruising speed is thousands of kilometers—seconds! So there's a constant smattering of light bumps, like raindrops on the roof .” "You are joking!" "Of course I'm joking. If we could have heard anything, we would have died. Fortunately, such unpleasant cases are rare, and the last serious accident was 20 years ago. We know all Where is the swarm of comets, where is most of the garbage, we are careful to avoid it-except when adjusting the speed to drive the ice. "Would you like to come over to the ship and have a look before we leave for Jupiter?" "Great...you mean Jupiter?" "Well, of course it's Ganymede-Wolf City. We have a lot of business there, and a few crew members have settled there, and they haven't seen their families in months." Poole could no longer hear what he was saying. Suddenly—completely unexpectedly—and perhaps just in time, he found a reason to live. Commander Frank Poole wasn't the type to leave work behind - a little cosmic dust, even traveling at 1,000 kilometers per second, didn't seem to be able to stop him. On the world once called Jupiter, he still had unfinished business.