Chapter 11 Section Eleven

January 30, 2209 Ramari's peaceful life was completely broken. Two extraordinary dreams opened the prelude to all this.Richard's image came quite clearly in my dream yesterday morning: while Michael, Simone, Katie and I were going about our daily chores, his face would appear in the upper left corner of my field of vision, loudly and constantly calling my name.I can still hear his voice when I wake up. Katie was standing outside the door in her pajamas while I was telling Michael about my dream.She was trembling all over, looking terrified. "What's the matter, honey?" I asked, holding out my arms to her.

Katie came over and hugged me tightly: "It's Dad, he called me in his dream last night." I shuddered, and Michael rose from his sleeping mat in shock.I comforted Katie to calm down.But this coincidence took me by surprise.Did she overhear my conversation with Michael?Impossible, she just got here. Katie went back to the nursery to change and I told Michael that these two dreams were very special. Michael and I used to talk about my sudden inspirations, and though he didn't quite believe them, he had to admit that my dreams foretold something in the future. "I've got to go find Richard up there," I said to Michael after breakfast.He had anticipated my decision and agreed to babysit.Ramari was very dark and we thought it would be best to wait until the evening lights came on.

I took a long nap so that I could refresh myself for a thorough search.I didn't sleep very well and dreamed constantly.In my dreams, I am always in adversity and in trouble.I double-checked my laptop before leaving to make sure that Richard's portrait was stored there without error.In case I meet Ai Yunniao, I can show them this, maybe it can help me. After I kissed the children and said good night to them, I went directly to the Aiyun Bird Cave.To my surprise the sentinels of the guards are gone, am I invited here?What does this have to do with my dream?After passing the water storage room, I went down into the usually guarded passage, my heart pounding with tension.

I heard nothing, and after about a kilometer I saw a tall door on the right.It was dark in the room, and I watched the corners cautiously.Except for the light in the vertical passage, the entire Aiyun Bird Cave was pitch black.I turned on the flashlight and saw that the room was not very deep, only 15 meters at most, but the space was very high.On the wall opposite the door were rows of oval storage boxes stacked high on the roof. I had no idea what this was for, each storage bin was the size of a managua, so I naturally thought it was a place to store food.The box was empty, and with a sudden premonition, I turned my head and walked down the aisle past the storage room.The passage must lead somewhere, perhaps to the Managua storage room.

After walking half a kilometer, the passage widened, and a large circular room appeared in front of my eyes.About twenty recessed small rooms are evenly distributed around the walls of the room, forming a harmonious whole with the circular structure in the middle.The room was dark except for my flashlight. I checked the small rooms around me carefully and found that most of them were empty.In a small room, there are three sentinels who look exactly the same, lined up neatly by the wall.I'm instinctively alert, but don't worry - they're dormant. There is a well-designed small room in the middle of the house that is most interesting.Thick brackets are embedded in the wall; 15 brackets, 3 each, are distributed on the left and right sides and on the wall opposite the door.The brackets on the left and right sides are engraved with neat patterns, and 5 round holes are also dug out on the 5 brackets opposite the door.

The thing filling the round hole is very thin, like ash.Some of the holes also contained a ring or two of cherry red or gold, which I recognized at once to be the same rings we had seen on the necks of the gray-down molluscs. With the help of a flashlight, I saw an extremely intricate pattern engraved on the rectangular door.In the middle of the pattern are four squares or fans.There is an Aiyun bird on the upper left fan, and a Managua on the right square; the lower two fan shapes are unfamiliar, and the left one is engraved with a six-legged running animal with stripes; the lower right A large box is drawn on the grid, which contains a thin spider web.

I hesitated to open the door, and the shrill siren cut through the silence.I was stunned by the sudden sound and stood there motionless.The siren went off for a full minute, and I didn't move to see if anyone took action after the siren. Everything was quiet again.After waiting for a few minutes, I began to examine the inner structure of the circle.In the middle of the round room is a transparent cube with a length, width and height of about 2.5 meters.The surface of the cube was stained with specks that blocked my view of what was inside.I could vaguely see a fine black substance covering the bottom for 10 centimeters.There is an accessible door on one side of the cube. I entered through this door. Those black powdery substances looked like gray but were different from what I saw in the surrounding small rooms.Looking along the light of the flashlight, I saw something seemed to be buried in the dust.I went over to pick it up, shook the dust off, and almost fainted—it was Richard's robot TB.

The TB was unrecognizable: it was charred black, the little control board was melted, and it couldn't move anymore.But I'm sure this is TB, never wrong.I put the TB to my mouth and kissed it lightly, and I saw Richard happily listening to it reciting Shakespeare's sonnets. Obviously TB experienced a baptism of fire, did Richard also fall into this trap? I searched carefully and found no bones.I believe that something has burned to produce the powder ash. What is TB doing here? I was sure that Richard was somewhere in the Aiyun Bird Cave, so I searched up and down the passage for another eight hours, searching all the places, but found no sign of Richard except some rooms with unknown purpose.Not even any sign of life.Ramari's short day is coming to an end again, and the four children are about to get up.I was also sleepy, had no gain, and walked home in frustration.

We came back with the cave cover and iron bars open.I'm sure I shut them all up before I left, but I can't remember what happened after I got out of the cave.Maybe I was too excited and forgot to turn it off.I was about to climb down when I heard Michael call me "Nicole, Nicole." I turned around and Michael was walking quickly towards me with Patrick in his arms.His pace is quick and hasty, which is not often for him. "You're here, I'm so worried..." he gasped to me. He stopped talking suddenly, stared at me for a while and then looked around.Then anxiously: "Where's Katie?"

"Where's Katie? What do you mean?" His expression gave me an ominous look. "Isn't she with you?" I shook my head and said I didn't see her.At this moment, Michael suddenly cried, and Patrick also cried in fright.I rushed over to reassure Patrick. "Oh, Nicole, I'm so, so sorry. Patrick wasn't well last night and I brought him up to my room. Then Ben got a stomachache and Simone and I stayed with him for two hours. We Asleep, Katie was alone in the nursery. We woke up two hours ago and she was gone." I've never seen Michael so bewildered before.I tried to reassure him that Katie was probably playing around (I figured I'd blame her hard when I found her and she'd remember it for the rest of her life), but Michael said, "No, she's not around. Patrick and I have Been looking for an hour."

The three of us went back together to see Simone and Ben.Simone said that Katie was very disappointed after I left, how she wished you could take her to find her father. I asked eight-year-old Simone, "Why didn't you tell me this last night?" "It doesn't matter," said Simone, "and, besides, I never thought Katie would go find Papa herself." Michael and I were exhausted, but someone had to go to Katie, and I still seemed like the best candidate.I washed up a bit, ordered breakfast for everyone from the Rama people, and quickly told everyone about everything I saw in Aiyun Bird Cave.Simone and Michael stroked the scorched TB lightly with their hands, and they could see that they worried that Richard had suffered a similar misfortune. Before going out again, Simone said to me: "Katie said Dad went to find octospiders, and she said the world there is more exciting." I searched wearily around the octospider hole.The lights went out, and another Rama night fell.In the dark, I whispered to myself: "My God, what could be harder than finding a lost child in the dark." The octospider's cave cover and iron fence were also open, and I was so nervous that I had never seen an octospider's cave with the fence open before.I thought Kitty must have gone down into the hole, and though I was so scared I made up my mind to go down and find her.I got down on my knees and called "Katie" twice towards the bottom of the black hole.I listened carefully and heard nothing but my own echo.I guess it's not too bad, at least I haven't heard the swishing sound yet. I headed down a passage leading through the Octopus Museum.I still clearly remember that I saw Dr. Gao An being hung up in this museum nine years ago. It was a horrible scene. I couldn't help but want to go to the museum, although it had nothing to do with Katie.If the octospider killed Richard as he did to Dr. Takagishi, or if Richard died of a heart attack and the octospider found his body, they would both likely put him in this museum.I'm worried about whether my husband has been attacked by aliens who specialize in taxidermy, but that doesn't quite express how nervous I am right now.I wondered more about Richard, especially after I dreamed about him. When I reached the entrance of the museum, I took a deep breath and turned slowly to the left. The moment I crossed the threshold, all the lights were on.Fortunately Dr. Takagishi was not directly in front of my field of vision, apparently he had been moved.The entire museum has been refurbished over the past few years.Richard and I had seen the biological replicas that took up most of the museum removed.The materials of Ai Yunniao and Ren are stored in the two exhibition halls. The Aiyunniao exhibition hall is next to the gate.Three aiyun birds with outstretched wings were suspended from the roof, one of which was gray with two cherry red collars, the one Richard and I had seen before he died.Ai Yunniao exhibition hall also exhibited some other objects and photos.I scanned the room, my eyes resting on the exhibits surrounding Dr. Takagishi.I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized Richard wasn't here.The missing boat that Richard, Michael, and I used to sail across the Sea of ​​Cylindrical Sea was also here, on the floor next to Dr. Takashi. There is also material from our picnics and events in New York, but the centerpiece of the exhibition is the framed photographs that hang on the walls. At first I couldn't tell what the photos were about.I took a closer look, holding my breath, and it turned out that these photos framed in rectangular frames were photos of our life in Rama Cave, photos of everyone including every child, and photos of us eating, sleeping and even going to bed. Photo of the toilet.We are being watched all the time, even in our own homes!I was chilled all over. The photos displayed on the next wall made me blush with embarrassment.These photos show me in various poses with Richard.There is a photo of me and Michael sleeping together, maybe the bedroom was very dark at the time, so the photo is not very clear. Underneath these photos are posted photos of the birth of the child.Every birth of mine is documented here, including Patrick's birth.These photos show that we are being watched all the time, and the juxtaposition of the photos of our married life and the birth of our children clearly shows that the octospider (perhaps the Rama) has complete control over our reproductive process. These photos aroused my curiosity, and I looked there for a full quarter of an hour.Suddenly my concentration was interrupted by the sound of friction on metal surfaces coming from the direction of the entrance. I was petrified and stood there motionless, looking around frantically. There was no other way out of the room. Suddenly, Katie rushed in!When she saw me, she yelled "Mom, Mom", and ran over in a panic, almost bumping into Dr. Gao An.My daughter threw herself into my arms, hugged me tightly, kissed my face and said, "Oh Mom, I knew you would come." I closed my eyes and hugged my lost and found daughter with all my strength.Tears were streaming down my cheeks as I rocked her from side to side and reassured her, "It's okay, it's okay, honey." I wiped away my tears, opened my eyes, and suddenly saw an octospider standing in front of the museum.It didn't move for a moment, as if it was watching the reunion of our mother and daughter.I stood there numb, the joy of having lost my daughter gone.I am afraid. Katie sensed my fear. "Don't worry, Mom," she turned to look at the octospider, "it won't hurt you, it just wanted to see. It's been close to me many times." My nerves were high and the octospider was standing there.Its round head is black and big, its whole body is almost touching the floor, eight black and gold claws grow on its body, and there are two grooves in the middle of the head that can move along an invisible axis, In the middle of the groove, about one meter above the ground, there is a pair of strange square eyes like a see-through mirror.Each side of the eye is about ten centimeters long, and there is some gelatinous mixture and palisade-like black and white flowing substances inside.When the octospider stared at us, there was an expression in the pair of crystalline substances.I haven't had time to carefully study other organs on its body. At this moment, the octopod spider came towards us.Even though Katie was convinced it wouldn't hurt us, I was terrified.When they moved, their tentacles rubbed against the ground and made a whirring sound, and a small hole on the lower right side of their head made a high-frequency humming sound. Fear keeps me from thinking.The creature was getting closer and closer, and I instinctively thought of running away.Unfortunately, at this moment we have no escape. The octospider stopped five meters away from us.I pushed Katie back against the wall and stood between her and the octospider.I held up my hand to it, and a fright flickered across its enigmatic crystalline eyes.At this time, I suddenly had an idea and quickly took out the computer from the flight suit.At this moment, the octospider has raised a pair of tentacles.In retrospect, it thought I had picked up some kind of weapon.I tapped the computer with trembling fingers, and Richard's image appeared on the screen.I pushed the computer screen towards the octospider. After I stopped moving.The creature slowly lowered its tentacles back to the ground and stared at the computer screen for a full minute.To our surprise, a bright purple light erupted from the edge of its groove, followed by a rainbow of red, blue, and green lights, each with a different amplitude, but coming from the same groove issued in .The light waves circled its head, turned 360 degrees, and then retracted into two parallel grooves. Katie and I stared dumbfounded as the octospider raised one of its tentacles to the screen and emitted another purple light, and then another rainbow wave of light. "It's talking to us, Mother," said Katie softly. "I think you're right, but I don't know what it's saying." After a while, the octospider retreated towards the entrance, beckoning us to follow it with its extended tentacles, and the colored light wave disappeared.Katie and I followed it carefully, hand in hand. Katie looked around and noticed the pictures on the wall for the first time: "Look, Mom, they have pictures of our family!" I motioned Katie to be quiet and to keep an eye on the octospider. The octospider walked into the vertical aisle, which was exactly what we expected—I picked up Katie, let her hold me tight, and sprinted down the aisle, back in New York. Michael was happy to see Katie and I back safe and sound.We feel restless with cameras hidden in our living spaces watching our movements at all times. I didn't blame Katie for going out without permission, I was so relieved to find her. Katie told Simone she had taken an "unexpected trip" and said the octospider was "awesome". This is the world of children. February 4, 2209 Joy!joy!We finally found Richard!he is alive! Richard was faint and unconscious with a high fever, but it was true that he was still alive. Katie and Simone found Richard lying in the open this morning, not fifty meters from our cave.Originally, I planned to take them to play ball in this open space, but Michael told me that I had something to do, so I went back to the cave and asked the two girls to wait for me near the entrance of the cave.A few minutes later I heard both of them screaming and thought something terrible had happened.I rushed up quickly and saw Richard lying unconscious on the ground at a glance. At first I was terrified to see Richard dead, so I checked him to see if he was still alive, then checked him. The two girls walked back and forth nervously around me, especially Katie asking me repeatedly: "Is Daddy still alive? Oh Mom, please make Daddy better." I was sure Richard was in shock and Michael and Simone helped me lift him down.I filled Richard with various test tubes and watched his reactions closely. I undressed him and examined him thoroughly.He had bruises and bumps that he hadn't seen before, but that was inevitable after being out for such a long time.Richard had a high fever of 40°C, but to my surprise, his blood cells were close to normal. After a careful inspection of his clothing, we were surprised to find the robot Prince Henry and Falstaff in his jacket pocket.Nine years ago, the two robots disappeared in a magical world - possibly the cave of the octospider.Apparently the octospider gave Richard's playmate back to him. I stayed with Richard for seven hours.Other members of the family accompanied us in the morning.I looked at his face and stroked his body.Touching Richard sparked memories and I couldn't hold back the tears anymore. Oh Richard, welcome home! Welcome back to your wife! Welcome back home!