Chapter 25 Chapter 24 Reconnaissance and Survey

Discovery left Earth with three small space capsules that astronauts could easily carry out extravehicular operations.One of them was lost in the accident that killed Frank Poole - if that was an accident.The other carried David Bowman on the final leg of the voyage to meet Big Brother and share his doomed fate.The third is still in the "garage" of the spacecraft - the separation module. This space capsule is missing one important component - the hatch cover.When Hal refused to open the door to the separation module, Commander Bowman had to risk his way through the vacuum, climb into the spacecraft from the emergency transition module, and blow the hatch open.Before Bowman, who was busy with other more important things, could remotely control it, it was blasted hundreds of kilometers by a blast of air.Not surprisingly, he never bothered about needing to replace the missing hatch.

Now capsule three (which Max had painted the name "Nina" without explanation) was getting ready for another EVA.It still lacked a hatch, but that didn't matter, no one would be sitting in it. Bowman's devotion to duty brought them unexpected good fortune, and it would be foolish not to take advantage of it.Using "Nina" as an automatic detector, "Big Brother" can be observed at close range without risking casualties.In theory at least, no one can rule out the possibility of a recoil force engulfing the spacecraft.After all, measured by the scale of the vast universe, the distance of fifty kilometers is less than the width of a hair.

Due to years of neglect, "Nina" looks quite worn out.Dust, which had been suspended in weightlessness, covered the exterior, and the once pristine shell had turned a rubber-raft gray.As it slowly accelerated away from the ship, the outer manipulators were deftly tucked away, and the oval viewport staring skyward like a giant dead fish's eye. "Nina" did not look like a great envoy from humanity, but that was a distinct plus.A humble envoy is easy to come by, its small size and slow speed underscoring the peacefulness of its mission.It was suggested that it greet Big Brother with open arms, but the idea was quickly dismissed as almost everyone agreed that they would immediately hug their heads if they saw Nina flying towards them with her mechanical claws outstretched escape.

After two hours of easy flight, "Nina" stopped a hundred meters away from the corner of the huge rectangular slab.Because it is too close to feel its true shape, the image returned by the TV camera is like looking down from the top of a black tetrahedron of unknown size.The on-board instruments showed no radiation or magnetic fields of any kind, nothing on Big Brother's surface save for the little sunlight it condescended to reflect back. After staying for five minutes "Nina" - which is her greeting, like saying "Hello, here I come!" - began to move diagonally to the smaller side, then the larger side, Finally traverse the largest side.The distance between it and "big brother" is always about 50 meters, but occasionally there is only a difference of 5 meters.Regardless of the varying distances, Big Brother looked exactly the same—smooth and featureless.Long before the mission is complete, "Big Brother" has become a nuisance, and spectators on both ships have gone about their business, only glancing at the monitors now and then.

"That's it," Walter Kono finally grumbled when "Nina" returned to the starting point, "we could spend the rest of our lives on this and not find anything. I should take 'Nina' What to do—take her home?" "No," interrupted Vasily, who was on board the Leonov, over the intercom, "I have a suggestion. Take her to the very center of that great surface. Let her stay in the—well, for a while." A hundred meters away. Stop there and adjust the radar to maximum accuracy." "No problem—as long as it doesn't run into some sort of unstable residual current. But why?"

"I just remembered an exercise I did in a college astronomy class - the gravitational attraction of an infinite flat disk. I never thought I'd have the opportunity to put it into practice, and after a few hours of studying 'Nina's motion, At least I can calculate the mass of 'Rangodak'. That is, if it has mass. I'm starting to think there's really nothing there." "There's an easier way to solve the problem, and in the end we're going to have to. 'Nina' has to get close and touch that thing." "She's already done that."

"What do you mean?" Kono was a little annoyed, "I never got her within five meters." "I'm not picking on your piloting skills - although the first time it was close in that corner, wasn't it? But as long as you use 'Nina's small thrusters near its surface, it will be light Push 'Rangodak' lightly." "That's like fleas off an elephant!" "Perhaps. We really don't know. We'd better assume, though, that it's somehow aware of our presence, and will tolerate us as long as we don't annoy it." He didn't bring up an unresolved question.How does one disturb a two-kilometer black rectangular slab?And in what form will it express its dissatisfaction?