Chapter 13 Section Thirteen

June 30, 2213 Everyone was too excited to sleep last night.God, if only Ben could understand what we're saying.After Simone explained it to him so many times, told him our home was on a giant cylindrical alien ship, and showed him different angles of Rama on a black screen, Ben still had a hard time getting it. Richard, Michael and I looked at each other last night when the whistling sounded.It's been a long time since I've heard this sound, and we immediately got excited talking about it.The children also asked questions curiously, and even little Ellie was infected by our excitement and kept asking questions.The seven of us immediately set off and walked up.Richard and Katie rushed down to the beach without waiting for us; Simone and Ben walked together; Michael took Patrick;

Katie ran over excitedly, grabbed Simone's hand and said excitedly: "Come on, come on, you really should see it, it's amazing, those colors are so beautiful." Indeed!With a whistling sound, a rainbow-shaped arc flash appeared in the night sky of Rama. Ben stared south with his mouth open, and for a moment he turned to Simone, smiling, and said slowly, "Foo-boo-beautiful." He said the word proudly. "Yes, Ben, indeed," replied Simone. "F-non-very-pretty-pretty-pretty," repeated Ben, turning back to look at the flash. We didn't say a word while watching the flash, and talked non-stop for hours when we got back to the cave.The children didn't quite understand what the flash meant, and although Simone had been born in the final stages of Rama's last acceleration and had the same experience, she was only a little girl at the time.Thus, it was primarily Richard who was explaining.Whoops and flashes encouraged him.After returning to us, he found his original self for the first time.He reveled in telling the kids about the whoops, the flashes, and the speeding of Rama we'd all been through.

"Do you think Octopus is going back to New York?" Katie asked anxiously. "Not sure, but likely," said Richard. Next, Katie told everyone for a quarter of an hour repeatedly about how she and I encountered an octopus four years ago.As usual, she exaggerates and embellishes some details, especially her solo actions before meeting me at the museum. Patrick loved hearing Katie's stories, and he asked his sister to tell them over and over again.Katie said vividly: "Just like this, I lay down and looked at the huge round hole. The hole was so deep that I couldn't see the bottom. There were some silver spikes sticking out around it, shining in the faint light. Glow. 'Hey, is there anyone down there?'”

"I heard something scraping against the metal, and there was a wheezing sound. There was a big black thing crawling up from below. It had a round head and eight black and gold stripes. The tentacles. Those tentacles wrapped around the nails and slowly crawled towards me..." "Eight-claw-spider-spider-" said Ben. Katie finally finished her story, and Richard told the children that it might be four days before the floor began to vibrate.He repeatedly emphasized that everything must be firmly anchored to the floor and that everyone should be ready to enter the crate.Michael added that we also needed a couple of boxes for toys and stuff.We've added quite a few things over the past few years.Gathering these things will be our daunting task for the next few days.

When Richard and I were together, we held hands and talked for over an hour.I told him to hope this impending acceleration heralds the end of our journey in Lamari. "Hope to give humanity eternal life. God bless all humanity," said Richard, sitting up, his eyes gleaming in the darkness. "You're better, honey," I said, shaking his arm. Richard frowned: "Everything seems to be clear now. But I don't know when the confusion will come again, and when it will definitely be. I still can't remember what happened in the three years I left." Richard lay down again, and I asked him, "What do you think is going to happen?"

"Estimate that we will have an acceleration, and I hope it will be a big acceleration. We are approaching the constellation Sirius rapidly. If our target is the constellation Sirius, we should slow down." Richard shook my hand and said: " For you, and even more for the children, I hope this Howl is not a false warning." July 8, 2213 As I expected, as soon as the third and final flash was over, Rama picked up speed.We neither saw nor heard a cloud bird or an octospider. Four years, it's been four years we haven't seen them.Katie is disappointed, she wants to see all the octospiders back in New York.

Two robot mantises came to our cave yesterday, and they went straight to the box with a large container.Inside the container are five new mesh beds (of course Simone needs a new one now) and helmets.We watched from afar as they installed all the hammocks and checked the box system.The children were even more puzzled.Mantis' short visit further confirms that we are about to enter accelerated change. Richard's theory about the propulsion system and Rama's thermal control was correct, because approaching a new light source, the thermal system inside Rama started to shut down.The temperature above us gradually began to drop.In preparation for the acceleration, we hurriedly begged the Rama people through the keyboard, asking them to provide the children with warm clothes.

Endless vibrations completely disrupt our lives.At the beginning, the children felt fresh and curious, but now they are also complaining.I hope we're getting closer to our ultimate goal, Michael kept praying, "God, you can do it all." September 1, 2213 Something new has emerged.Ten days ago, as soon as the acceleration ended, we approached a light source about thirty cosmic units from the planet Sirius.Richard deftly adjusted the sensor and the black screen so that this single source of light remained stationary on the screen no matter what angle it was viewed from. Two days ago we started to see something more definite in this object.We suspect that this may be an inhabited planet.Richard was busy calculating the heat generated by the light from Sirius reaching that planet, and told us in conclusion that although Sirius is bigger, brighter and hotter than the sun, if that light source is really our destination, Our new home will be very cold.The distance from Sirius to there is equivalent to the distance from the sun to Neptune.

Last night we saw our target more clearly: a long cigar-shaped shape (Richard said that it is because of this structure that it cannot be a planet, this non-spherical structure can only be artificial); There are two rows of lights at the top and bottom.We don't know exactly how far away it is from us, nor can we be sure of its size.Richard calculated that the cigar-shaped planet was about 150 kilometers long and 50 kilometers wide. The whole family sat in the large room staring at the monitors.What surprised us this morning was when Katie pointed to the screen to draw our attention - two other objects appeared near our target.Richard had only shown Katie last week how to use the Rama sensor to make the data appear on the screen.While we were talking, she found the long-range radar sensor we had used thirteen years ago.The cigar-shaped object appeared at the edge of the radar field of view, with two other objects indistinctly ahead and to the right.If our final destination is indeed that cigar-shaped object, then we may have company.

September 8, 2213 Words cannot describe the amazing sights we have witnessed and experienced in the past five days. Even Michael thinks that the vision of heaven will be much less than what we have seen. Right now, our family is riding in an unmanned airship about the size of an Earth bus.The airship flew us from the space station to another unknown destination at high speed.Through the round rear window inside the boat, we can vaguely see the huge cigar-shaped space station.The Rama cylindrical spaceship we've lived in for thirteen years is heading in the opposite direction to our right.After we separated from Rama 200 kilometers, it left the space station shining like a Christmas tree.

Four days and eleven hours ago, our spaceship Rama docked near this well-equipped space station.There was a loud whistling sound above Rama, and then another flash appeared in the south corner.This flash was nothing like anything we've seen before: a massive halo moving north along the Rama Central Bracket.Richard estimated the ring to be at least one kilometer in diameter and forty meters thick. Rama's night was instantly illuminated by these halos, and the eight halos appeared three times in sequence of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, brown, pink, and purple.We stared dumbfounded at the spectacle.As soon as the last halo disappeared, an even more bizarre phenomenon appeared: all the lights in Ramana turned on.For thirteen years, we have known the day and night changes in Rama like the back of our hands, and everything we are familiar with has been completely changed in an instant.Lights and silver bells of music came from everywhere. We stood motionless for a long time.Richard carefully observed the objects flying towards us, and suddenly he jumped, pointed to the sky, and shouted: "It's the Aiyun bird! I remembered, I have been to them in the north when I was adventuring alone. new residence." We couldn't believe Richard's words at first.As they flew closer and closer, about fifty or sixty small dots gradually became larger, and they were indeed the Ai Yunniao we knew.The iyunbirds headed straight for New York, half of them flying in the air three hundred meters from their cave, and the other half rushed to the ground. "Dad, come on, let's go!" Katie yelled. Before I recovered what happened, the father and daughter ran away.I watched Katie run carefully: she ran so fast.I seem to see my mother running fast on the lawn of the park.Katie was one of her father's favorite daughters, but it was clear that she had inherited some traits from my family. Simone and Ben also started to walk back, and Patrick, still thinking about the Aiyun bird, asked, "Will they hurt Daddy and Katie?" I smiled at my handsome five-year-old son, "No, honey, they won't." Michael, Patrick, Ellie and I went back to our cave. "Pack up," said Richard breathlessly on his return, "we've got to go, we've got to go." While Richard was speaking, Katie was saying excitedly to Simone: "You should have seen them, huge, ugly, flying into the cave..." Richard interrupted her: "Ai Yunniao went back to get something special, maybe something of commemorative value. Everything is fine, we have to get out of here." As I ran around picking up groceries, I complained that I should have figured out what was going on.Packing things up is a pretty daunting task.We've lived in six houses for thirteen years, asking for an average of five things a day through our keyboards.Even if many things have been thrown away long ago, but...we don't know where we are going, so how do we know what to pack? "Know what's going on?" I asked Richard. My husband was preoccupied with taking his mainframe computer. "Our history, science, and all our knowledge are here," he said anxiously, pointing to the computer, "losing it is an irreparable loss, what should we do?" The computer weighs eight kilograms, and I told Richard to help him after he packed his clothes, personal items, food and water. "Do you know where we're going?" I asked again. Richard shrugged and replied, "No idea. But I bet we're going somewhere pretty magical." Katie walked into our room with a small bag, her eyes were full of energy, and she said excitedly: "I've finished packing, can I go up and wait for you?" Seeing her father nodding, Katie hurried out.I shook my head and gave Richard a disappointed look.I went down the hall to join Simone in packing up the other children's things. Packing up is a serious test for boys.Ben simply didn't know what to do, and Patrick seemed irritable.We forced the boys to take a nap before Simone and I helped them pack up.At this moment Richard and Katie came back from above. "Our airship is here." Richard suppressed his excitement and said calmly. Katie added, taking off her coat and gloves, "On the ice." "How do you know it's ours?" asked Michael, who had just entered the room. "There are eight seats in total, and there is room for luggage." The ten-year-old daughter replied, "Who else could it be for?" "Who is it for?" I repeated mechanically, trying to make sense of this latest development. "Did you see the octospider?" Patrick asked. "Eight-claw-spider," repeated Ben cautiously. "No," answered Katie, "but we saw four big planes with broad, flat wings coming from the South Point, and flying over us. Were there octospiders in those planes, Papa?" " Richard nodded. I took a deep breath and said, "Okay, okay, hurry up everyone. Let's go, get the bags first, Richard, Michael and I have to pack the computer." An hour later we climbed the cave stairs one last time to the airship.Richard pressed the red flashing button and our Rama helicopter took off immediately. The first five minutes of vertical flight are slow.As you approach Rama's axis of rotation, gravity disappears and the air becomes very thin.The airship stayed for two or three minutes changing its shape, and we took one last look at Rama.Rama's final appearance was a little daunting for us: a massive cylinder surrounded by a sea of ​​cylinders, our island home reduced to a grayish-brown nub in the sea several kilometers below; we finally got a good view of its southern corner .Its massive structure is supported by many gigantic cornices, each larger than a village on Earth, all pointing north. I had mixed feelings when the airship started moving.Thirteen years, Rama has been our home for thirteen years after all.There I have had five children and matured into the great woman I hope to be. Our airship flew north on its axis and left Rama in less than an hour.I know we won't be coming back.The airship carried us out of the space station and into the vast space.I wiped away my tears.