Chapter 9 Chapter 2 A date on the way

A few minutes later he opened his eyes for the first time and saw Space Station One, only a few miles away.The disc three hundred yards in diameter.Slowly turning the smooth metal surface to reflect the dazzling sunlight.A swept-wing Titov-V spacecraft floated not far away in the same orbit, and very close to it was an almost spherical Aries-IB-workhorse of space, which was on the moon. The shock absorbers used when going up and down are like four short legs stretched to one side. The Orion III spacecraft descended from a higher orbit, from which it is particularly spectacular to see the earth behind the space station.Floyd was 20,000 miles from Earth at this time, and he could see a considerable part of Africa and the Atlantic Ocean.Although the clouds were thick, he could still make out the blue-green rim of the Gold Coast.

The central axis of the space station extended its docking arms and was now slowly swimming towards them.The central axis itself is not rotating - or, it can be said that it is rotating at the same speed and in the opposite direction of the space station's rotation.As a result, alien spacecraft could dock with it and transfer passengers or cargo without risking being flipped over. The docking of the spacecraft and the space station only has a very slight collision.There was the noise of metal scraping outside, followed by a brief hiss of adjusting the air pressure.A few seconds later, the airlock door opens.A man walks to the cockpit.He was wearing light-fitting trousers and a short-sleeved shirt, which almost became the uniform of space personnel.

"Nice to meet you, Dr. Floyd. I'm Nick Miller, Space Station Guard; I'm in charge of your safety until you return on your original ship." After they shook hands, Floyd smiled at the stewardess and said, "Please give my regards to Captain Tynes and thank him for the safe journey. Maybe we will see you on the way back." He was very careful—it had been more than a year since he was weightless last time, and there was still a process to get used to walking in space—hands alternately buttressed, passed through the airlock, and entered the large round room of the space station at the central axis.The room was heavily upholstered all around, and the walls were covered with recessed handles; Floyd clung to one handle tightly as the whole room began to turn, gradually synchronizing with the space station.

As the room turned faster, gravity began to grip him vaguely like fingers, and he floated slowly to the round wall.Now he stood still, his body rocking gently back and forth like a piece of seaweed in a rising tide, his feet on the spherical floor that had magically appeared.The centrifugal force of the station's rotation gripped him; small now because it was so close to the axis, it increased as he moved outward. He followed Miller down a winding staircase from the transition room in the middle.At the beginning, he was very light and had to hold on to the handrail, almost forcing himself to go down.It wasn't until he reached the passenger lounge on the outside of the large rotating disc that he regained enough weight to be able to move about normally.

Since his previous visit, the lounge had been rearranged and several new facilities had been added.In addition to the usual soft chairs, coffee tables, dining room and postal agency, there are now hairdressers, pharmacies that also sell groceries, movie theaters and shops selling souvenirs.The latter sells photographs and slides of lunar and planetary landscapes, guaranteed to be genuine from Lunar satellites such as Ranger and Discovery, in delicate plastic frames, and extremely expensive. "Would you like something to eat while we wait?" Miller asked. "We'll be on board in about thirty minutes."

"I can have a cup of coffee, no milk, two candies—and I want to make a phone call to Earth."