Chapter 22 Section IX

According to the calendar, their departure time is January 13, 2215.This time means nothing to children who have never lived on Earth.Richard estimated that the time on Earth may be two or three years later, that is, 2217 or 2218.Since the long-distance space travel in Lama, they have not recorded the relative time change speed, so now Richard can't accurately calculate the date on the earth, he can only estimate and convert their time in Lama into Earth time. "The date on the earth is meaningless to us now." Richard said to Nicole after learning the departure time, "It is clear that we will return to the solar system at an extremely fast speed, which means That means we still have a time lag before we go into Mars orbit to meet other people."

Nicole had never figured out what relativity was, it was completely counterintuitive to her.She also didn't want to waste the last time she spent parting with Simone and Michael trying to figure out what the theory of relativity was.She will devote all her energy and time to the last difficult parting. "Eagle said he would pick us up at eleven." Nicole said to Richard as he changed his clothes. "I hope we can sit together in the living room after breakfast. Give the children some time to express their feelings." idea." Breakfast was light and pleasant, but as the family sat around the living room thinking the Eagles would pick them up in two hours, everyone's hearts grew heavy.

Newly married Simone and Michael sat in a loveseat facing Richard, Nicole and their four other children.Katie couldn't sit still as usual, babbling on and on, all of which had nothing to do with the impending separation. When she was talking about a long and messy dream she had last night, two voices speaking outside the door interrupted her. The first voice said, "This is our last chance to say goodbye to them, will you come with me to say goodbye to them?" "My prince, parting hurts my heart deeply, and I can't drive away my pain. You said that the appearance of that girl is an angel descending from the earth. How can I bear to be separated from her?"

"Well, I'll go alone," said Prince Henry.Richard's little robot Prince Henry walked into the drawing room, followed by the robot Falstaff staggeringly, stopping every four or five steps to drink from the flagon. The robot Prince Henry walked up to Simone, got down on his knees and said: "Dearest lady, I cannot put into words how much I will miss your smiling face." As the two 20cm tiny robots amuse the family, Ben stands up and walks over to Simone and Michael, fighting back tears and saying, "S-Simone, I will--will miss you very much." Pause For a moment he looked from Simone to his father, and went on: "I hope you and Pa—Papa are happy—happy."

Simone stood up and hugged her trembling brother and said, "Thank you, Ben. I will miss you too. Your spirit will always be with me." Simone hugged Ben tightly, and the boy was sobbing in pain, shaking all over.His soft, mournful sobs infected everyone present, and everyone had tears in their eyes. Moments later, Patrick, with eyes swollen from crying, climbed onto his father's lap and buried his head deep in his father's chest. "D-Dad, D-Dad," he cried over and over again. This moment is the most sincere expression of human emotion, and no choreographer can choreograph a more touching parting scene.Simone's eyes were full of tears, but still so peaceful and radiant.She waltzes up and down the house saying goodbye to everyone in the family.Michael, O'Toole was still sitting in that loveseat with Patrick on his lap and Ben next to him.The family members who were about to part with him came to him one by one, hugged and bid farewell to him for the last time.There were tears in Michael's eyes.

Nicole looked around and said to herself: "I will always remember this moment, here is our love." Michael hugged little Ellie who was walking towards him.Simone is telling her sister Katie that she will miss their time together very much.Even Katie was eerily quiet as Simone walked back to her husband, in the agony of parting. Michael gently lifted Patrick from his lap and took the hand that Simone had extended to him.They both turned to everyone else and knelt at the same time with their hands folded over their chests in prayer: "Dear Heavenly Father." Michael's voice was loud and powerful.At this time, the rest of the family, including Richard, knelt beside them.

"Thank you for letting us enjoy the love and joy of this great family and for showing us the wonders of the universe. We ask you to take care of each of us as we take different paths. You made us share among friends Our friendship, which is beyond ourselves. Wherever we go, Lord, be with us. Let us meet again in this life and the next, Amen." A few seconds later, the doorbell rang.Hawkman has arrived.Nicole left the house, which had been designed after her Beauvais villa, and walked down the narrow alley towards the platform, passing many empty black houses on the way.She imagined these houses full of people.

"My life is like a dream," she said to herself. "Nobody else has had the variety and twists and turns of my experiences." A simulated sun hangs from the high ceiling overhead, casting shadows of houses across the alley. "Another wonderful world." Nicole pondered, observing the village in the southeast corner of New Eden. "The Hawkman said that this residential area is no different from that on Earth. This is absolutely true." Nicole was full of thoughts, thinking of the blue ocean world nine light-years away—the earth, as if he saw himself standing on the ground of Garros Tabry after the launch of the "Newton" spaceship fifteen years ago. beside.Gallos pointed to a dot on the shiny globe on the viewing screen and said, "That's Budapest."

By then Nicole had settled in Beauvais. "My home is here," she said to Gallus. "Maybe my father and daughter are looking in our direction." "Gene Viève, my daughter, you should be a woman of 30 by now." Nicole walked near her new home in the Rama Earth settlement, thinking about her first daughter. Thinking of Genevieve, she recalls a conversation she had with Hawkman when she was making a video in Nord: "Will I be able to see my daughter Genevieve as we approach Earth?" Nicole asked. "I don't know." Hawkman hesitated for a moment and said, "It all depends on how your human friends react to your message. But in any case, you will stay in La Mali. Maybe your daughter will become a child from Earth. , one of the two thousand humans who inhabit New Eden, as has happened to other spacefarers before..."

"What about Simone?" asked Nicole. "Will I see her again?" "This involves many factors, and it's even more difficult to answer." Looking at the disappointment on his human friend's face, Hawkman continued, "I'm sorry, Mrs. Walkerfield." "One daughter stayed on Earth, the other stayed on an alien world 100,000,000,000 kilometers away, and I'm going to an unknown place. God knows where I'm going?" Thinking of this, Nicole felt very lonely.She stopped and looked at everything around her.She was standing by the walls of the village park, a rocky wall with sand and jungle and a merry-go-round and slide, the favorite paradise amusement park for children on earth.The gas exchangers at the foot are criss-crossed everywhere in the park where the earth grass grows.

Nicole bent down and inspected each gas exchanger.They are tightly squeezed circular bodies with a diameter of only two centimeters, and there may be thousands of them placed in all directions of the park. "Electronic plants," thought Nicole, "convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and provide us with the necessary conditions for survival." Nicole seemed to see parks full of grass and trees and little ponds full of lilies.The scene was exactly the same as the panorama of the park displayed in the Nord conference room.Although Nicole clearly knows that the purpose of Rama's return to the solar system is to "capture humans and let humans enrich this technological paradise", it is still difficult to imagine what a park crowded with children looks like. "For 15 years, almost 15 years, I haven't seen any human beings except my own people." Nicole left the park and walked on.The narrow alleys are lined with rows of small shops, of course, these shops are still empty, including the large square supermarket directly opposite the platform. She went through the gate and boarded the waiting train, ahead of her sat a robot manipulating the console. "It's too dark in here!" cried Nicole. "Please wait another eight minutes." The robot replied. "How long does it take to go to the hypnosis center?" Nicole asked. "Ten minutes to Central Station." The train left Southeast Station."You have to walk for two minutes after getting out of the car," the robot said. Nicole already knew the answer to the question, but all she really needed was to hear another voice.It was her second day alone, and talking to a robot was better than talking to herself anyway. The train took her from the southeast corner of the residential area to the center.Along the way, Nicole browsed Shakespeare Lake on the left and the Olympic Mountains on the right.The electronic information monitors installed in the carriages are displaying relevant information, dates and distances of the areas the trains pass through. "You and Hawkman have designed the systems of this car quite well," Nicole said to herself, thinking that her husband was sleeping with the rest of the family, "I'll be back in your round house soon. " The hypnosis center is 200 meters away from the central train terminal, which is actually an annex building of the central hospital.Nicole got out of the car, passed the library, crossed the hospital, and entered the hallway to the hypnosis center.The rest of her family were sleeping in a large round room on the second floor, each in a weird coffin-like fully sealed bed with a small window at the head of each bed, the only window through which their faces could be seen .Nicole checked the physical condition data of her husband, two daughters and two sons displayed on all the monitors according to the steps that the Eagles used to train her, and everything was normal. Nicole gazed long and hard at her beloved family.This will be the last time she observes them.According to the procedure, everyone's vital parameters must be within certain limits.Now that everything is in order, it's time for Nicole herself.It will be many years before she sees her family again. "Ben, dear Ben," Nicole called out softly, looking carefully at his defective son lying there, "this pause in life is the hardest for you of all. Katie, Patrick, and Ellie all It’s quick to make up for lost sleep, their minds are quick and sharp, but you miss out on important years of independent growth.” The enclosed bed protrudes from the circular wall, supported by a metal structure that resembles iron.Nicole's empty bed is in the middle, with the head of the bed facing Richard and Katie and the foot of the bed facing Ben and Ellie. Nicole's eyes rested on Richard's bedside, the last one to go to bed two days ago.As he had requested, his androids, Prince Henry and Falstaff, were also in the enclosure, lying on his chest. "Honey, my love, those last three days have been wonderful," said Nicole to herself, looking at her husband's expressionless face, "I won't ask for more." In the past few days, they have enjoyed themselves: paddling on Shakespeare Lake, climbing Olympic Mountain, swimming...they lie close to each other at night.They both check on each child in their sleep every day, but most of the time they both spend their time exploring knowledge in the library. Nicole's heart was racing with Richard's words before he fell asleep, saying: "You are a wonderful woman and I love you very much." Now it was Nicole's turn, and she couldn't delay any longer.She climbed into her bed (they had practiced this move over and over the first week in New Eden) and flipped all but one button.The foam that was created around her body made her so comfortable that the bed cover was closed, leaving only the button - the switch that produced the hypnotic gas. Nicole took a deep breath, remembering the Sleeping Beauty dream she had had during Nord's final test.The memory brought her back to her childhood, those happy weekends when she and her parents watched the Sleeping Beauty show at the Castle of Usse. "That's a good idea," she said to herself.The hypnotic gas entered her tank and she felt drowsy.She fantasizes about a handsome prince coming to wake her up!