Chapter 30 Section VIII

"When I get in, you'll be in charge here," Commander McMillan said to his second in command, a handsome young Russian engineer, Dmitry Ulanov. "Whatever happens, remember that your primary duty is to take care of the passengers." and the safety of the crew. If you hear or notice anything suspicious, immediately drive the 'Pinta' out of Rama." The "Pinta" spacecraft from Earth docked ahead of time at the marked spot on the round top of the huge Rama spacecraft. The "Pinta" began its first reconnaissance mission to Rama. As one of the preparations before departure, Kenji Watanabe briefed the reconnaissance team on the situation of the first two Rama spacecraft.

His friend Max Puckett walked in and asked him, "Do you think the Rama 3 will look like the picture you showed us?" "It's not exactly the same," Kenji replied. "I think there will be some changes. The video shows that Ramari built an earth habitation area. However, because this spaceship is the same as the previous two in appearance, I believe that the interior Not much will change." Max shook his head in confusion and said, "I really don't understand this." After a pause, he asked, "By the way, are you really sure you didn't take part in picking me for this reconnaissance mission?"

"I already told you this afternoon." Kenji replied, "All of us on the 'Pinta' have no right to select reconnaissance personnel. The 16 members of the reconnaissance team are all organized by the International Intelligence Agency and Selected by NASA." "Why am I equipped with all these damn weapons? I have a laser machine gun, self-defense grenades, and a lot of sensitive mines, and now I have more firepower than I did when I was in the Belize peacekeeping force." Kenji smiled: "McMillan, like many other military members of the government committee headquarters, still thinks it's all a trap. You're a soldier on this reconnaissance mission, but I personally don't think any weapons are needed at all. "

The next morning, McMillan put Dmitry Ulanov in charge of the Pinta, and he himself led the reconnaissance team into Rama. Max also complained endlessly. He was wearing a space suit, his body was in a state of weightlessness, and the military equipment on his back made him move very inconveniently. "It's all so funny, I'm a farmer, not some bloody soldier," he muttered. The reconnaissance team went down from the seal on the outside of Rama. After walking for a while, they entered a wide passage and walked into a circular room.There are three passages in the room that lead to Rama's interior, two of which are blocked by multi-layered metal doors.Commander McMillan calls Kenji over for advice.

"We should start with the unblocked passage, shall we?" McMillan asked. "I think so," replied Kenji. "We have no choice but to return to the Pinta." Sixteen scouts in spacesuits plodded along the open passage.Every few minutes they walk, they have to light a flashlight in the dark to light their way forward. When going 500 meters deep into Rama, suddenly two small figures appeared at the other end of the passage. Commander McMillan and four soldiers hastily took out the binoculars. "They're coming toward us," said a soldier nervously. "I'll be shot," said Max Puckett, with a shudder, and then exclaimed, "Abraham Lincoln!"

"There's also a woman, in uniform," said another soldier. "Ready to fire," E. McMillan ordered. The four soldiers rushed to the front of the line and lay down, pointing their guns at the passage.The two strange figures were getting closer and closer, and when they were only 200 meters away, McMillan yelled at the two figures: "Stop!" Abraham Lincoln and Benita Garcia stopped by. "Say, what are you going to do?" the commander shouted to them. "We are here to welcome you." Abraham's voice was low but loud. "We're here to take you to New Eden," added Benita Garcia.

Commander McMillan was simply bewildered and didn't know what to do next.He stood there hesitantly, and the rest of the scouting party began to chatter. "It's Abraham Lincoln, like a ghost." American Terry Snyder said. "The other is Benita García, whose statue I saw in Mexico City." "We leave here, this place is chilling." "What are these ghosts doing in orbit around Mars?" "Please forgive me, Commander." Kenji mustered up his courage and said to McMillan who was at a loss. "What are you going to do now?" The Scot turned his head and looked at the Rama expert from Japan. "It's hard to decide," he said. "Of course, I mean those two guys didn't seem to mean to hurt us, but remember about the Trojan horse...Watanabe, do you have any suggestions?"

"Why don't I go over with a soldier and talk to them so we know..." "You're brave, Watanabe, but it's not necessary. No, we'll proceed carefully together. Leave a few people behind, and if we get killed by infrared guns or something, they can report back." The Commander turned on his walkie-talkie: "Deputy Commander Ulanov, this is McMillan. We have encountered two unknown persons, possibly pretenders. One of them resembles Abraham Lincoln, and the other resembles a famous Mexican Astronauts... what's their name, Dmitry? Yes, you're absolutely right, Lincoln and Garcia. We met Lincoln and Garcia on the Rama Passage, you can report this to others... Now I leave Snyder and Finzi here and the rest of us move on to them."

The 14 explorers of the "Pinta" approached step by step, and two figures stood there motionless.Soldiers are at the front of the line, ready to pull the trigger if they see any danger. "Welcome to Rama." Abraham Lincoln said when the first scout was only 200 meters away from them. "We are here to escort you to your new home." Commander McMillan did not answer immediately, but it was Max Puckett who broke the deadlock. "Are you a ghost?" he cried, "I mean are you really Abraham Lincoln?" "Of course not." The man who looked like Lincoln replied matter-of-factly, "Benetta Garcia and I are humanoid robots. In New Eden you will see five humanoid robots, each with special skills, To help people get rid of tedious and monotonous affairs. My professional scope is writing, law, accounting, bookkeeping, housing management, housekeeping, office management and other organizational work.”

Max was so stunned that he didn't even hear the commander ordering him to "come back".He walked forward again, only a few centimeters away from Lincoln. "What terrible robot is this!" he muttered to himself, forgetting the possible danger, and stretched out his hand to stroke Lincoln's face.He touched his nose first, and then his long black beard. "Unbelievable! It's simply unbelievable," he exclaimed. "Every detail of us is carefully crafted," Lincoln said. "Our skin is chemically similar to yours. Our eyes work on the same optical principles as yours. But we are not as dynamic as you, constantly changing." To replenish, to keep alive, our subsystems have to be maintained frequently, and sometimes technicians have to replace parts for us.”

Max's rash behavior suddenly eased the tense atmosphere.The whole team, including Commander McMillan, stepped forward to touch and observe the two robots carefully.Lincoln and Garcia patiently answered questions about designing and making them.Suddenly, Kenji found that Max had left the team and was sitting by the wall alone. Kenji walked towards his friend: "What's the matter, Max?" Max shook his head; "What kind of genius produced such a robot? It's terrible." He was silent for a moment, and then said, "Maybe I'm making a fuss too much, but these two robots are bigger than the giant Lama. Spaceships scare me even more." Lincoln, Garcia and the scouts walked towards the end of the passage together.After a while, a door in the wall opened. The two robots beckoned them in, and told Commander McMillan that they would take a "transporter" to the outskirts of Earth's habitation zone. McMillan communicated the conversation with the robot to Dmitry Ulanov, the deputy commander on board the Pinta, and told his Russian deputy to take immediate action if he did not hear from them within forty-eight hours. Act away. Bullet-shaped transport vehicles shuttle on a fully enclosed track.Through the thick transparent plastic inside the car, Kenji and the others saw the huge corridor network project outside, but they couldn't see what the Rama expedition team had told them. Their view was blocked by a tall wall of thick gray metal to the south. Five minutes later, the transport vehicle parked them in a fully enclosed circular room.Here they can see the whole picture of the earth's habitation area. The scouts of the "Pinta" got off the transport vehicle and were surprised to find that the weightlessness that had been there since leaving the earth suddenly disappeared.Normal gravity is back! "The air in this tunnel and New Eden is the same as yours on Earth," said the Lincoln robot. "On our right, beyond the protective walls of your settlements, is another matter." The light around New Eden is dim.A door opened, and bright sunlight shot out from inside, as if welcoming the arrival of humans.Everyone walked into their new world dumbfounded, and walked towards a nearby train station with their space suits and helmets in their hands.The buildings on both sides of the road were empty, small buildings that might have been shops or housing, and there was a larger building opposite the train station, which Garcia told them was an elementary school. A train was waiting for them at the station.The seats in the car are soft and comfortable, and there is also an electronic display in the car.The train carried people quickly to the heart of New Eden.The Lincoln Robot tells everyone there that they will hear a briefing.The train runs along a beautiful clear lake, which Garcia tells everyone is Shakespeare's Lake.The train turned left, and a towering mountain appeared in front of their eyes. During the entire visit and discussion, the members of the "Pinta" were surprisingly quiet.In fact, they were stunned.Kenji Watanabe gave full play to his imagination, and he witnessed everything he could think of.Everything here is far more magnificent than they imagined and described. Canterlot was the last shocking place they saw, where the designers of New Eden had put the main buildings.The scouts stood there silently, staring blankly at the magnificent buildings.The empty buildings cast a veil of mystery over everything here.Kenji and Max finally walked into the building, where the general introduction will take place. Kenji asked Max: "What are you thinking?" The two stood on the steps of the administrative building, looking at everything around them in surprise. "I can't think," Max replied, with some awe. I'm not in a dream." "On the screen in front of you," said the Lincoln Robot, "is an overhead view of New Eden. Each of you will be given a map pack with descriptions of all the buildings and streets. Now we are here, Central City. This building is the new The administrative center of the Garden of Eden. At the four rectangular corners that enclose the outer walls, we built residential areas, shops, small office buildings, and residential schools. The naming of the four villages is left to the people who live there Completed, so today we tentatively call them the Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest Villages. To complete all the construction work, we follow the custom of the early Rama explorers and call the place where your spaceship stops is the North... "The southeast, north, and west of New Eden have different geographical functions. The freshwater lake in the south, as I told you just now, is called Shakespeare Lake, and the fish or aquatic organisms you carry can be placed there. Some of the aquatic organisms will be placed in the eastern Olympic Of the two rivers on the mountain, these two rivers finally flow into Shakespeare Lake. To the west of the residential area is the Lion Dragon Forest... "Currently, the green belts of the Olympic Mountains, Shilong Forest and Village Park are covered with gas exchangers. These small instruments only serve one important function - converting carbon dioxide into oxygen. In a real sense, these are mechanical plants , they will be replaced by the real plants you brought from the earth... "Farmland has been reserved in the middle of the village on the north side of the residential area, and the farm buildings have been built, next to a road connecting the two villages and towns to the north. You can grow food in this area. The food in the granary 100 meters away can feed at least 2,000 people for a year. If the waste is minimized, it may last for a year and a half. After that, you need to be self-reliant. I don’t need to say more, you know that in the new Farming and fishing in the Garden of Eden will be an important part of your life..." The Lincoln robot babbled on for an hour and a half.Its answers to people's questions are either "this is out of my library" or "see Guide to New Eden". The introductions were finally over, and people came to a side room, drinking a Coke-flavored drink. "Ouch," Terry Snyder stretched his brows, "am I the only one who can't bear it?" "Bullshit, Snyder," Max replied with a grin. "Are you saying you've had enough of that goddamn robot? It's not tired at all, I bet it could talk all day." "It can be talked about for at least a week." Kenji Watanabe said sarcastically, "I wonder how often these robots have to be repaired? My father's company makes robots, and some products are quite complicated, but never Like this. Lincoln's information capacity must be an astronomical figure..." "I will continue the introduction in five minutes," Lincoln Robot announced to everyone, "please hurry up." In the introduction of the second part, Lincoln introduced the situation of various robots in New Eden.There was a lot of buzz about the five humanoid robots mentioned. Lincoln told people: "Our designers decided to limit the physical shape of the human robot, so as not to confuse the real person with the robot. My basic functions have been introduced to you, and other robots have other functions." "How do we tell your Lincoln robots apart?" People stare blankly as three other Lincoln robots walk into the room. "We all have an ID number on our shoulders and hips. Other types of intelligent robots can also be distinguished by this method. For example, my name is Lincoln 004. The ones who came in just now were No. 009, No. 024 and No. 071." After the four Lincoln droids left, five Benita Garcia droids came in.One of them told us about its scope of expertise—police, fire protection, farming, sanitation, transportation, mail delivery.After answering some questions from people, they also left. Next up is the Einstein robot.When four shaggy-haired robots modeled after Albert Einstein, the genius scientist of the 20th century, appeared, the crowd roared with laughter.The Einstein robots introduced to everyone that they are engineers and scientists in the residential area, and their important task is to "ensure the smooth operation of the infrastructure in the residential area, including the formation of robot troops." Another group of tall, dark-haired female robots introduced them as Tiaso robots, responsible for health care, acting as doctors, nurses, health officials, and also providing babysitting services for families where parents are away.As soon as Tiaso's introduction was over, a lanky, dark-eyed robot entered the room.It held a harp and an electronic drawing board, introduced itself as Kawabata Yasunari, and played a beautiful melody for everyone with the harp. "We Kawabata robots are all artists," it said briefly, "we are musicians, actors, painters, sculptors, writers, and sometimes photographers, videographers. We are limited in number, but how does the quality of life in New Eden keep up with that?" We have a close relationship." All the official official introductions were finally over, and the scouts came to the lobby for dinner. The dinner served to the humans was excellent, and the two dozen robots who did not eat or drink were with them.The synthetic roast duck tastes good enough to pass the real thing, and the wines pass the taste of some of the most knowledgeable sommeliers on the planet. At this moment, a female figure appeared at the open door.People didn't notice her at first, but when Kenji Watanabe jumped up from his seat and held out his hand to the newcomer, the whole room fell silent. "I think you are Dr. de Jardin." Kenji said with a smile.