Chapter 28 Chapter 8 Revealing the Secret

Heywood Floyd looked like he hadn't slept well and looked sad.But no matter how he felt, his tone was firm and reassuring; he tried to inspire confidence in the lonely man on the other side of the solar system. "First, Dr. Bowman," he began, "we congratulate you on the handling of this extremely difficult situation. You have taken exactly the right steps in dealing with this unprecedented and unpredictable emergency. "We took great pains to keep the real purpose of your mission secret from the outside world, but now we must explain it to you. "Two years ago we found the first evidence of higher animals beyond Earth.

In the crater Taijo we found buried a plate of black hard matter ten feet high.This is. "'Bowman saw TMA-1 at a glance, surrounded by a group of people in spacesuits, and he couldn't help but leaned forward in amazement, staring at the screen intently. In this exciting discovery-he was like everything in space. Like any researcher, he has been looking forward to this discovery more or less all his life-he has almost forgotten his hopeless situation. "The most astonishing thing about this object is its age. Geological data have proved beyond doubt that it is three million years old. Therefore, it was placed in the The moon is over.

"After such a long time, it is natural to assume that it has ceased to be active. But shortly after sunrise on the Moon it emitted extremely intense radio energy. We think this energy is simply a side effect of some unknown radioactive energy— In fact, it was the backwave of some unknown radioactive energy, because at the same time, several of our detectors in space were detecting an extraordinary disturbance throughout the entire solar system. We traced its source quite accurately. It was precisely Aligned with Saturn. "After this, we put the pieces together and concluded that the plate was clearly some sort of solar powered, or at least a solar powered, signaling device. It was exposed to broad daylight for the first time in three million years, at It is unlikely to be a coincidence that the pulse is emitted immediately after sunrise.

"However, the object was deliberately buried - there is no doubt about it. A pit thirty feet deep was dug, the slabs were placed in the bottom of the pit, and the pit was carefully filled in. "You're probably wondering how we found it in the first place. Well, the object was easy to find, almost suspiciously easy. It had a strong magnetic field, and when we started doing low-altitude surveys along orbit, it It was exposed. "But why bury a solar-powered device thirty feet underground? We have analyzed dozens of theories, although we also know that it is likely absolutely impossible to understand the intentions of beings three million years older than us.

"The theory that is easiest to accept is also the simplest and most logical. It is also the most disturbing theory. "You keep a solar installation in the dark - only because you want to know when it will come out. In other words, this plate could be some kind of siren. And we've activated it... "Whether the civilized animals that housed it still exist, we don't know. We can only assume that since these beings were able to build machines that would still function three million years later, they could also build societies that are equally old. We must also assume that, unless we get On the contrary, they are hostile to us. It is often said that advanced cultures must be kind, but we cannot take risks.

"Moreover, as our own past history has repeatedly shown, primitive races often struggle to survive contact with higher cultures. Anthropologists have spoken of 'civilization shock'; we may have to make all of humanity Prepare for such an onslaught. But we don't know much about the creatures that visited the moon - and presumably the Earth - three million years ago, so it's hard to even begin to prepare imagine. "So, your mission is much more than just an expedition. It's reconnaissance—a search in unknown, potentially hostile territory. Dr. Kaminsky's team is specially trained for this; now you Must be done alone...

"Finally, a word about your specific goals. It seems unbelievable that any advanced life form could exist on Saturn, or evolve on any of its moons. We had planned a survey of the entire Saturn system, and we still hope that you A simplified scheme can be completed. But for now we may have to concentrate on the eighth moon, Iapetus. When we start the approach, we will decide whether you should be with this wonderful star. Rendezvous. Iapetus is so small—about eight hundred miles in diameter—that it can only be seen in outline, even from a lunar telescope. But there appears to be a brilliant, curiously symmetrical spot on one side of it, And that might have something to do with TMA-1. I sometimes think Iapetus has been beaming at us like a cosmic beacon for three hundred years, and we've been too stupid to understand its message...

"Right now, we don't know whether to be hopeful or fearful. We don't know if you're going to be lucky or unlucky on Saturn's moon—or just see ruins a thousand times older than Troy."