Chapter 62 Chapter 52: On the Examination Table

Vandenberg wished at this point that he had studied some psychology so that he could look closely at the factors that bewildered little Chris; but now, apart from that topic, little Chris seemed perfectly sane, While any seat seemed perfectly comfortable in one-sixth of the field of gravity, little Chris had his chair fully reclined, clasping his hands behind his head.It occurred to Vandenberg that this was the position in which patients had previously been (and still are not quite gone) for psychoanalysis. He was more than happy to let little Chris speak first, partly out of curiosity, but mainly because he wanted little Chris to get rid of those crazy thoughts quickly so that he could get back to normal, or at least be harmless.But he is not too optimistic, he knows there must be some serious and deep-rooted problems in the first place to make him have such severe hallucinations.

Quite unexpectedly, little Chris agreed with him completely and was ready to present his own diagnosis. He said: "My mental state is rated as A, which means they even let me go through my own file, which only about one in ten people can do. So, I am as confused as you are, But I did see Grandpa and he talked to me. I never believed in ghosts, does it mean that Grandpa is dead, I wish I knew more about Grandpa, I have been looking forward to our Meeting... At least I still have some memories of him now..." Vandenberg quickly asked, "Tell me, what the hell did he say?" Little Chris said with a slightly melancholy smile: "I can never remember a thing verbatim, and the whole thing is so surprising to me, I really can't repeat every word of him completely." He After a pause, a focused expression appeared on his face.

"Very strange, in retrospect, I don't remember us having any words." Worse, Vandenberg thought, telepathy plus postmortem, but he just replied, "Okay! Give us some gist of this informal meeting. Don't forget, I never heard you say anything matter." "Yeah, he seemed to say 'I want to see you again, I'm very happy. I'm sure everything will be fine, and the Cosmos will be picking you up shortly.'" That, Vandenberg thought, was a typical kind of gentle soul message, which never had anything useful or surprising about it, but simply reflected the hopes and fears of the listener, and there was no reflex message from the subconscious either... .

"continue!" "Then I asked him where all the people had gone and why this place was so deserted. He laughed and gave me an answer I still don't understand, something like: 'I know you mean no harm. , when we saw you coming, we barely had time to call the police. All the... 'He used a noun, even if I remembered, I couldn't pronounce it.' All went into the water, and if necessary, they could Move fast! They won't come out until you're gone and the wind blows the gas away.' What does he mean by that? The exhaust from our space shuttle is as good as their atmosphere Very clean gas!"

Well, Vandenberg thought.I just assume that there is no law that stipulates that illusions (at most more real than dreams) must be logical. Maybe the concept of "poison gas" means that although little Chris has high psychoanalysis scores, there are still some in his heart. A fear he couldn't face.Whatever the fear, I don't think it's any of my business.Gas, really?The propellant fuel of the Billy was clean, distilled water brought up from Gurneymede. Wait a minute, how hot is the Billety fuel as it burns and exits?I seem to have read somewhere... "Little Chris," Vandenberg said cautiously, "when the water passes through the reactor, will it completely turn into steam?"

"What else can it turn into? If it's hot enough, about 10 to 15 percent will split into hydrogen and oxygen." oxygen!Even with the comfortable temperature inside the space shuttle, Vandenberg felt a sudden chill.Little Chris was unlikely to understand what he was implying, because it was beyond his professional knowledge. "Little Chris, do you know that oxygen is a deadly poison to produce life tissue on Earth and to create life in an environment like Europa?" "You're kidding!" "No kidding. Under high pressure, it's toxic to us too."

"I know that, I've learned it in driving lessons." "Your grandpa makes a lot of sense. We seem to have spread poison gas over the city. Fortunately, the situation is not so bad. It dissipates very quickly." "So you trust me now!" "I never said I didn't believe it!" "If you believe it, you're crazy!" This sentence broke the tense atmosphere, and they laughed together again. "You haven't told me what he's wearing," Vandenberg asked. "He's wearing an old-fashioned long sleeve that I remember seeing as a kid. It looks very comfortable."

"What else is special?" "Now that you're getting to the point, he looks younger than the last time I saw him, and he has more hair, so I can't picture him... what can I say... it's true. In fact, it's kind of like It's a computer-generated image, or it's like a synthetic ray photography." "It's the emperor stone magnetic board!" "Yeah! That's exactly what I was thinking. Do you remember how David Bowman showed up to Grandpa on the Riono tuba? Maybe it's Grandpa this time, but why? ?He didn't give me any warning, not even any special message, he just wanted to say goodbye and some words of blessing..."

While talking, little Chris couldn't help feeling sad, and then he controlled his emotions again, and smiled at Vandenberg. "I've said enough, now it's up to you to explain what a million tons of diamonds are for in a world that's pretty much ice and brimstone. Better be good." "Yes, it is," Vandenberg said.