Chapter 47 Chapter 46 Countdown

When Max Bryrowski slowly moved the two spacecraft into an orbit from a distance of half a kilometer, he thought, without my photo, no one would believe this.Everything in front of me had a somewhat comical obscenity, as if—the Leon Lev was raping the Discovery.As soon as he thought of this, he felt that compared with the slender and slender American spaceship, the stout and strong Russian spaceship really looked like a man.But most spaceship dockings conjure up sexual innuendos, and he recalls an early Soviet cosmonaut — he can’t remember the name — who was sympathetic to the phenomenon during the — er, critical moment of a space mission. Excessive exaggeration was reprimanded.

According to his careful observation, everything was normal.The work of locating the two ships and securing them was taking longer than expected.It is impossible to complete the task if the opportunity that should be grasped is not seized.The Leonov foresightedly carried kilometers of carbon ribbons.Although it is as thick as a girl's headband, it can withstand a considerable amount of tension.It was originally intended to be used to wrap around Big Brother should all means prove ineffective.Now it softly surrounds Leonev and Discovery - strong enough, so hoped, to prevent any bumps and jolts at maximum thrust, accelerations up to one-tenth of a G.

"Is there anything else I need to check before I go home?" Max asked. "No," Tanya replied. "It looks like everything is going well, and we have no more time to waste." Indeed, if that cryptic warning was to be taken seriously--and all were taking it seriously now--they should have evacuated within the remaining twenty-four hours. "That's right—I was taking Nina to the stables. Sorry, old girl." "You never told us Nina was a horse." "I don't want to admit it right now. I'm sick of dropping her in space just for that miserable little extra acceleration."

"We'll probably thank them extra in a few hours, Max. Someday, anyway, the latecomers will have a chance to take her again." I doubt it very much, Max thought.Still, it makes sense to keep this tiny capsule as a memento of the first human visit to the kingdom of Jupiter. He manipulated Nina tenderly and carefully, leading her around the big orb, Discovery's main life support system.His companions could almost see him through the curved portholes as he floated across the bridge.The separation module gaped open in front of him, and he landed Nina gracefully on the outstretched recovery rack.

"Pull me in," he said as soon as the door was locked. "I'd call it a well-planned EVA. There's a whole kilo of fuel left to take Nina out one last time." In general, ignitions in deep space are as non-dramatic as they are when blasting from the surface of a planet.If something goes wrong, or the engine fails to reach maximum thrust - that's okay, the error can usually be corrected by a longer start, or you can wait until you're in the right place in the orbit and try again. But this time, as the countdown draws to a close, heart-pounding tension permeates both ships.Everyone knows that Hal's tameness is facing the first test. Only Floyd, Kono and the Olovs know that there is a backup system.Still, even they can't fully guarantee that the system will work.

"Good luck, Leonov," the mission center messaged five minutes before the ignition, "Hope everything goes well. If it's not too much trouble, please take some close-up shots of the equator at longitude 115 while orbiting Jupiter .There's a strange black spot there - probably some kind of upwelling, very round in shape, almost a thousand kilometers in diameter. Looks like a projection of a satellite, actually impossible." Tanya confirmed it with a simple answer—minus the number of words, and it was clear she had no interest in Jupiter meteorology at this point.Quest hubs are sometimes too stupid to know how to choose their timing.

"All systems are working fine," Hal said. "Two minutes to fire." Strange, Freud thought, why does a term persist long after the technology that produced it has declined?Only chemical rockets can ignite, and the hydrogen and oxygen in an atomic or plasma engine, when they come into contact, are much hotter than they can ignite.At such temperatures, any compound would break down into its basic elements. He scoured for examples in his mind.People—especially older ones—still talk about putting film in a camera or filling a car with gasoline.Even the term "cut tape" is still sometimes heard in recording studios—though that's a technology that was outdated two generations ago.

"One more minute to light the fire." His mind returned to the here and now.This minute is so clear and countable, almost a hundred years long, on the spacecraft and in the command center, this is the longest 60 seconds ever experienced.There have been many times when the countdown ended in disaster, but people only remember the joy of success.Is it bad or good for us this time? His hand couldn't help reaching out to the pocket containing the circuit breaker switch, although he knew that there was a lot of time to remedy it.If Hal didn't carry out the programming, it would be quite troublesome-but not catastrophic.What really matters is the duration of the orbit around Jupiter.

"Six...five...four...three...two...one...fire!" At first, the thrust is almost imperceptible, and after about a minute, the thrust will increase to the maximum, reaching one-tenth of 1G.Immediately, however, everyone started clapping and celebrating until Tanya motioned for silence.There was still a lot of checking to be done, and even with Hal's best efforts -- which he seemed to be doing -- a lot would go wrong. Discovery's antenna pedestals—now bearing most of the pull of Leonov's inertia—were never designed to be subject to such abuse.Its chief designer — summoned from retirement — swears there are adequate safety guarantees, but he can be wrong, and materials are known to become brittle after years in space.

Those straps that hold the two ships together may not be positioned correctly, and they may stretch — or slip off.Discovery may not be able to correct the centrifugal mass distribution, and now it can carry thousands of tons on its back.Freud could imagine a dozen reasons for going wrong, and he was even more fidgety when he remembered that usually the problem always came up in the thirteenth (meaning unexpected reasons.--re-reader's note). But the minutes passed peacefully, and the only evidence that Discovery's engines were running was the slight gravitational pull of the thrust, and a very slight shiver through the walls of the ship.Io and Jupiter still hang in their same positions for weeks, on opposite sides of the sky.

"Shut down within ten seconds, nine-eight-seven-six-five-four-three-two-start!" "Thank you, Hal. Press the button!" That's another long-outdated phrase, the touchpad has almost completely replaced buttons for at least a generation, but it doesn't work in every situation, and when it matters, it's better to have a tap mechanism that produces a good feel. "I have confirmed," Vasily said, "that the spacecraft does not require any adjustments until the next stage." “Say goodbye to exotic and charming Io — a real estate agent’s dreamland —,” Curnow said. “We will remember you with joy.” It sounded more like the old Walter, Floyd told himself.In recent weeks, he had somehow become soft and quiet, as if something was on his mind. (And who doesn't?) He seemed to spend most of his poor spare time in quiet discussions with Katrina—Floyd hoped there was nothing wrong with him.They had been lucky enough since their departure that the last thing they should have had was a sudden illness in which the Chief Medical Commander was useful. "You're so heartless, Walter," Brerowski said. "I'm growing to like this place. It might be fun to paddle in one of those lava lakes." “How about Volcanic Grill?” "Or a real sulfur steam bath?" Everyone was elated, even dancing for the chance to leave.Although it is far from the time to relax, the most critical part of the entire escape plan is still ahead, and what has just been safely taken is the first step of the long journey home, but that is enough reason to celebrate a little. The festivities didn't last long, and soon Tanya was ordering everyone who wasn't on important responsibilities to rest—sleep if possible—to prepare for a nine-hour orbit around Jupiter.When those people lingered, Sasha yelled and began to clear the field: "Disobedient dogs, you will be hanged!" Just two nights ago, as a rare relaxation, they enjoyed the fourth edition of " Mutiny on the Ship, film historians agree that the portrayal of Captain Bligh in this film is the most successful since the mythical Charles Laughton.Some of these depictions of emotion on board the ship should not have been seen by Tanya, lest some unwanted thoughts arise. After a restless dozen or so hours in his cabin, Floyd gave up trying to sleep and wandered over to the lookout.As Jupiter grew larger and eroded into a crescent, the spacecraft was racing toward its closest approach to the dark side.It appeared to be a brilliant, raised disk, in infinite detail--bands of cloud, flecked with spots of color from blinding white to brick-red, dark currents of unknown depths,' The Great Red Spot's cyclone ellipse -- dazzling.A round black shadow of a satellite—possibly Europa, Floyd guessed—passed through the culmination.This was the last time he would witness the spectacle, and even if he had to be at his peak efficiency six hours from now, it would be inexcusable to waste precious time going to sleep now. Where is the point that the mission center wants them to observe?It should have come into view, but Floyd wasn't sure if it would be visible to the naked eye.Vasily must be too busy with work to think about it, maybe he can do some amateur astronomical observations to help.After all, as recently as thirty years ago, when he was a professional astronomer, he spent most of his time observing. He turned the adjuster of the fifty-centimetre main telescope—with the nearby Discovery, by coincidence, not blocking the view—and searched along the equator at moderate magnification.There it was, just emerging from the edge of the disk. Freud was compelled to become one of the ten most experienced experts on Jupiter in the solar system, and the other nine were either working or sleeping around him.He immediately found something very strange about this point.It appeared pitch black, like a black hole poked out of a cloud.From his perspective it was an oblique ellipse, and Freud guessed it would be a perfect circle if viewed from directly above. He snapped a few images, then turned the magnification to maximum.Jupiter's rapid rotation had brought it closer and the image became sharper, and the longer Floyd stared at it, the more confused he became. "Vassily," he called over the intercom. "If you can spare a minute - look at the fifty centimeter monitor." "What did you observe? Is it important? I'm checking the orbit." "Of course, you go ahead. But I found the point reported by the mission center, and it looks mysterious." "Damn it! I've long since forgotten about it, and we're going to have a whole bunch of watchers if all those Earth folks come and tell us where to look. Give me five more minutes—it ain't going away." True, Freud thought, it will actually become clearer.And there's no shame in missing what Earth -- or the Moon -- astronomers observe.Jupiter was big, they were busy, and the telescopes on the moon and Earth orbit were a hundred times more powerful than the ones he was using. But the situation became more and more bizarre, and for the first time Freud felt uneasy.Only then did he realize that this point could never be a natural phenomenon—some kind of complicated meteorological phenomenon on Jupiter.Now, he was starting to worry. It was dark as night, very well-proportioned, and when it became clear it was clearly a perfect circle.But its borders are not very clear, and there is some strange blurring on the edges, as if it is a little out of focus. Is it his imagination?Or was it growing just as he was observing?He made a quick estimate that it was now about two thousand kilometers in diameter.It was only slightly smaller than the still-visible projection of Europa, but much darker, so the two would not be confused at all. "Let's see," Vasily said condescendingly. "What do you think you found? Oh..." He was speechless for a moment. This is it, Freud thought to himself, suddenly and relentlessly persuaded.Whatever it is - probably...