Chapter 16 Chapter Fourteen Farewell to Earth

"Anything you want, as long as it's reasonable," was what he was told.Frank Poole wondered if his new friend would consider returning to Jupiter a reasonable request.In fact, even he himself is not sure and is reconsidering the matter. He had promised many dates in the past few weeks.Most of them he didn't care much about, but there were some he felt a pity to give up.In particular, he did not want to disappoint the students of his high school alma mater, who had planned to visit him next month. (What a surprise that the school still exists!) In any case, he was relieved, and a little surprised—because both Indira and Professor Anderson thought the idea was a good one.For the first time, Frank understood that they were also concerned about his mental state; perhaps a vacation away from Earth would be the best therapy.

And most of all, Captain Chandler couldn't be happier. "You can sleep in my cabin," he promised, "and I'll kick the mate out of her cabin." Several times, Poole wondered if this bearded, swaggering Chandler was another Reborn animals.He could easily picture himself standing on the bridge of the battered three-masted ship with the skull flag flying from it.Once he made up his mind, things moved with incredible speed.He had accumulated little fortune and had even less to take with him.The most important thing is Miss Prinkle: his electronic secretary, who is now the life of his two lives, and the megabit information library attached to it.Miss Prinkle was not much older than the personal assistants of his day.Usually she'd carry it in an easy-to-extract holster around her waist, like an old-fashioned cowboy .45.The two can communicate directly by voice, or through the brain cap.And her main task is to act as an information filter and buffer between the outside world and Poole.Like all good secretaries, she knew when and in what tone to answer:

"Connecting you immediately." Or, as she often says, "I'm sorry Mr. Poole is busy, please leave your message and he will get in touch with you as soon as possible." Usually this means: he won't call back phone. He didn't need to say goodbye to many people.Although it was impossible to talk in real time due to the slow speed of the radio waves, he would keep in touch with Indira and Professor Anderson-they were his only true friends. To his somewhat surprise, it dawned on him that he would miss his mysterious but useful "manservant," as he now had to take care of all the daily chores by himself.Danny accompanied him all the way to the outer ring around the earth (at an altitude of 36,000 kilometers from Central Africa). When they parted, Danny bowed slightly, but other than that, there was no emotional ups and downs.

"I don't know, Tim, if you'd like that comparison. But, do you know what the Goliath reminds me of?" They were such good friends now that Poole could call him by his first name—but only when they were alone. "I don't think it's a good thing." "Not really. But when I was a kid, I stumbled upon a stack of sci-fi magazines that my uncle George had thrown away - known as 'cheap magazines' because they were printed on cheap paper. . . Yes. Each has a gaudy but awesome cover, with drawings of bizarre planets, monsters and, of course, spaceships!

"When I grew up, I realized how ridiculous those spaceships are. They are usually propelled by rockets, but they have no fuel tanks! Some have rows of windows from bow to stern, like a passenger liner at sea. My favorite One, with a huge glass dome, seems to be a greenhouse for ships traveling in space... "Those ancient artists are going to laugh at me back now, but they'll never know. The Goliath is closer to their dream than the flying fuel tanks we used to launch from various bases. Your inertial engines are so good Unbelievable: no visible support structures, unlimited range and speed...sometimes I feel like I'm the one daydreaming!"

Chandler laughed, pointing to the view from the window. "Do those look like daydreams?" This was the first time Poole had seen the real horizon since coming to Star City, and it wasn't as far away as expected.He finally reached the outer edge of the giant wheel with a diameter seven times that of the earth, so the scenery across the roof of this artificial world should stretch for hundreds of kilometers... His mental arithmetic has always been good, even in his time, it was a rare skill, maybe even fewer people know it now.The formula for calculating the distance to the horizon is simple: multiply your height by 2 times the radius and take the square root. You will never forget this kind of thing, even if you want to...

Let's do the math!We're about 8m or so in height - so the square root of 16 - easy! ——assuming the radius of the outer ring is 40,000—eliminate the last three zeros, so that the units become kilometers—4 times the square root of 40—well—about 25… Well, 25 kilometers is a reasonable distance, and of course no space station on earth is that large.Although he knew what he was going to see, there was something magical about watching ships many times the size of his Discovery, without any external propulsion, quietly lift off.While Poole misses the fire and heat of the countdown days of old, he had to admit it was cleaner, more efficient, and safer.

But the strangest thing is sitting here on the outer ring, in the geosynchronous orbit of the earth - and can feel the weight!Just a few meters away, outside the window of the small observation hall, there are operating robots and a few people in space suits sliding slowly, doing their own work; but in the Goliath, the inertial field Maintained at standard Martian gravity. "Are you sure you don't want to change your mind, Frank?" Captain Chandler asked him jokingly as he left the bridge, "There are still 10 minutes before liftoff." "If I back off, I'll be cast aside, right? No. That's what they used to say in the past—we've got an appointment. Whether I'm ready or not, I'm here."

As he lifted off, Poole felt the need to be alone, and the small crew (only four men and three women) respected his wishes.Maybe they can understand his mood: leaving the earth again, but after 1000 years-and facing an unknown fate again. Jupiter/Taikai is on the other side of the solar system, and Goliath's nearly straight-line orbit will first pass Venus and then reach Jupiter.Poole hopes to see with the naked eye whether Earth's sister planet is, after centuries of modification, really what they say it is. Seen from 1,000 kilometers above, Star City looks like a giant metal belt that circles the Earth's equator, dotted with elevated structures, domes and more mysterious structures.As the Goliath sailed toward the sun, Star City shrunk rapidly, and now Poole could see how incomplete it was: there were many great gaps connected only by spidery scaffolding that might never be fully enclosed.

They had now descended south of the plane of the outer ring, and it was midwinter in the northern hemisphere, so the thin halo of Star City leaned toward the sun at an inclination of more than twenty degrees.Poole could already see the Towers of America and Asia, stretching like shining threads far beyond the blue twilight of the atmosphere. He barely noticed the passage of time as the Goliath sped up faster than any comet sailing from the sun in interstellar space.The almost perfect earth still occupies his field of vision.Now that he could see the full length of the Tower of Africa, he was waving goodbye to his present home, and he couldn't help thinking that he might be leaving forever.

When he reached an altitude of 50,000 kilometers, he could already see the entire Star City, which surrounded the earth like a narrow ellipse.Although it is almost invisible on the far side, only a thin line calls the stars, it is still awe-inspiring to think that humans have put this building in the sky. Then Poole thought of Saturn's rings, infinitely more magnificent, and that aerospace engineering had a long, long way to go before it could match what nature had achieved. Or, before comparing with the achievements of "God".