Chapter 34 second quarter

Nicole was dreaming again.After waking up in the morning, she tried to recall the scene in the dream, but it was all fragmented.She rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock, it was not yet four o'clock.She thought strangely: "I dreamed at this time almost every day this week. What does it mean?" She stood up and walked to the bathroom. A moment later, Nicole was standing in the kitchen in her tracksuit drinking a glass of water when a Lincoln robot walked towards her. "Would you like some coffee, Mrs Walkerfield?" the robot asked, taking her empty cup. "No, Lincoln," she answered, "I'm going out now. If anyone wakes up at home, tell them I'll be back by six."

Nicole passed the study on the right side of the aisle, and saw a new computer designed and assembled by Richard himself on the desk, surrounded by piles of papers.Richard was proud of the computer, though it wasn't a complete replacement for his favorite electronic toy and the standard NASA laptop. Nicole discovers what Richard has written on the paper but cannot read his computer language. "He's been spending a lot of time doing research here lately," Nicole thought, feeling a little guilty. "He's working so hard, knowing it's all useless." At first Richard refused to participate in the work of decoding the programs that control the weather in New Eden.Nicole still had vivid memories of their conversation.

"We're in favor of democracy, and if you and I ignore the laws of democracy, it's going to have a bad effect on other people..." argued Nicole. "It's not a law!" interrupted Richard. "It's just a solution to a problem. You and I both know it's a stupid idea, and both you and Kenji are against it..." "Please, Richard. You can explain your objections to anyone, but we've put in a huge effort and a movement has started. Everyone knows we're closest to the Watanabe family , if you ignore it too..." One drawer of Richard's desk was open, and Nicole was surprised to see Richard's favorite robot inside. "Prince Henry, Falstaff, and, TB, it's been a long time since Richard played with his robot."

Nicole thought back to those long, boring years after waking from her long sleep.Richard's robot is a source of joy for them as they look forward to their meetings with the other occupants.Nicole seemed to hear the innocent laughter of the children, and Richard's smiling face appeared in front of her eyes again. "How simple were those days!" said Nicole to herself. She closed the study door and continued down the hall. Nicole walked down the sidewalk in the light of the street lamps.She stopped at the bike lane and looked at her bike hesitantly.She turned abruptly and walked toward the backyard, quickly across the grass behind the house and onto the path that led to the Olympic Mountains.

Nicole walked lightly, and for a long time she did not pay attention to everything around her.She was lost in thought, thinking a lot, from the problems facing New Eden to her own strange dreams, and thinking of her children.She worries about her children, especially Katie. When we arrived at a fork in the road, an exquisite small road sign read "Cable Station, 80 meters to the left", where you can take the cable car directly to the top of the Olympic Mountain. As soon as Nicole appears at the fork in the road, there is a Garcia robot walking towards her from the direction of the cable car.

"Don't disturb me, I want to go," cried Nicole.The scenery becomes more and more spectacular with the extension of the winding mountain road.She stopped at a scenic spot 3 kilometers away from home and 500 meters above sea level, looking at the new Garden of Eden at her feet.It was a clear night with dry air. "It's not raining today," thought Nicole, with the village of Beauvais at her feet.By the light from the new furniture factory Nicole could make out most of the buildings she was familiar with.On the other side of the mountain is the village of St. Michael to the north.A flickering light came from far away in the Central District, and Nicole knew it was Toshio Nakamura's Vegas.

Seeing Vegas, Nicole's mood immediately turned bad.That wicked place is open all night, sucking up precious energy and doing dirty business. Everything in front of her made Nicole naturally think of her daughter Katie, and she felt extremely heartbroken. "My daughter actually has this kind of virtue." She didn't know if her daughter living there was still living that kind of depressed and corrupt life. "Life wasted." Nicole shook her head. Right now Richard and Nicole are only arguing about two things - Katie and the politics of New Eden.Richard believes that, except for Nicole and Kenji, all other politicians are unprincipled.All action in the Senate, including Nicoll's court, was uninteresting to him.He also refused to participate in discussions related to any topic other than that.

Katie was another bone of contention.Richard thinks Nicole is being too hard on Katie. "Even he blames me," thought Nicole, staring at the distant light. "He's against me getting involved in politics, because then I'm only half a mother during the most important stages of my children's development." Katie was hardly home.She was given a room at home, but she spent most of her time at Rito's luxury Las Vegas mansion. One night Nicole asked her daughter, "How do you pay the rent," and the mother and daughter began an unpleasant conversation. "What do you think, Mom?" Katie replied unflinchingly. "I work! I have a lot of time, and I only take three courses in college."

"What do you do?" "Housekeeper...you know what? I'll do whatever I need." Katie answered vaguely. Nicole looked away from Vegas and said to herself, "Katie is completely lost, sure, she's lost her puberty. But..." Nicole started walking slowly again, trying to Dispel the depression in the heart. The hillsides between 500 meters and 1,000 meters above sea level are covered with thick trees that are already 5 meters high.Nicole slowly climbed up the highest peak, looked at St. Michael under his feet, shook his head and said, "Here is the proof. St. Michael is our failure in New Eden, where there is only poverty and despair."

Nicole had accurately anticipated the problems they would face as early as his one-year tenure as interim governor.What an irony that St. Michael's standard of living was less than half that of the other three boroughs of New Eden, and this was revealed shortly after the Pinta's arrival!Most of the first batch of residents who arrived chose to live in Southeast Village, which will be Beauvais Village in the future, which brought difficulties for the passengers of the "Nina" to settle down.Due to the adoption of the program of free choice of residence, almost all Orientals choose to live in Hanko Village.Europeans and white Americans and Central Asians chose the western corner of the village of Positalo or Beauvais.Mexicans, African Americans and Africans all migrated to St. Michael's Village.

Nicole, who was the governor at the time, tried to solve this problem by distributing the proportions of the races of the four residential districts to reflect that the residential districts were a united whole.In the beginning, her advice was acceptable, especially when people first came to see her as a "goddess".A year later, things took a sudden turn.Free industry has created a divide between the rich and the poor, different values ​​have emerged among the residents, and gaps have emerged among the crowd.Even Nicole's admirers thought her notion of living was unrealistic. After Nicole's term as governor expired, the Senate passed Kenji's proposal to appoint Nicole as one of New Eden's five permanent judges.Nicole's efforts to defend her mixed-housing scheme were widely publicized, and her efforts were in vain, attracting criticism and seriously damaging her public image.Nicole believes that people should break down racial, cultural differences and discrimination, and live together in a complete environment. Her opponents think her views are "incurably naive". Before going down the hill, Nicole took another look at the little lights from St. Michael's village.She turned and started walking in the direction of the village of Beauvais where her home was located.Suddenly, she recalled the twinkling lights of the Swiss town of Davos on Earth.That was Nicole's last ski vacation.She and her daughter, Genevieve, are having dinner on the hill in Davos, admiring the twinkling lights beneath their feet.Thinking of her daughter whom she had not seen for many years, Nicole burst into tears. "Thank you again, Kenji," she murmured, remembering the precious photos Kenji had brought her from Earth, "Thank you for telling me about your interview with Genevieve." Nicole thought about life in New Eden as she walked. "What we need most now is courage," she said to herself, "courage, values, and vision." But she was terrified in her heart, fearing that bad luck still awaited the occupants. "What a tragedy!" she thought sadly. "Richard, me and the children were left out, and despite everything we tried, we couldn't change anything." Richard checked his three Einstein robots again to see if they had correctly copied the program he had set up on the study computer. Nicole and Richard kiss goodbye before leaving. "You are a wonderful man, Richard Walkerfield," she said. "Only you think so," he replied, with a forced smile. "Only I know that," said Nicole.After a pause, he continued: "I mean it, honey. I'm so grateful for everything you've done. I know..." "I can't go too late," interrupted Richard. "There are only two ways to try. If we don't succeed today, we'll give up." Richard hurried to Beauvais station and caught a train bound for Passitalo.Three Einstein robots followed closely behind him.They got off at Passitalo station and walked through the village in the southwest corner of the settlement. There, a man with two Garcia robots checked their identities and then gave them permission to exit through the residential area and into the martial law zone of New Eden. They underwent another electronic inspection before passing through the only entrance and exit on the wall of the living area. The door opened, and Richard took the robot into Rama, outside their residential area. A year and a half ago, when the Senate had voted to start testing Rama outside human habitation, Richard felt it was inappropriate.Richard, who was on the committee, reviewed the different design procedures there and was concerned that the outside environment of the settlements was a threat to humans and that the integrity of the human settlements could not be guaranteed.People spent a lot of effort and money to maintain the territorial integrity and sealing of New Eden. After the test, it was found that the environment of Rama was not much different from the internal environment of New Eden, which greatly reduced Richard's reputation and credibility in the residential area.The test found that the outside of New Eden was pitch black, and the composition and pressure of the air had slight and periodic changes.In general, the environment in Rama is very similar to the environment in human settlements, and no one who detects there will need to wear a space suit. Outside of New Eden, there is another square with exactly the same structure in the south of Rama.Richard and Nicole think that's the habitat of a second type of life.That huge area is also completely enclosed by tall gray metal walls.There are approximately two kilometers of open land on the east and west sides of New Eden and the second sprawling residential area. There is a huge cylindrical structure on each of the four corners of the living area.Richard and other technical personnel in the settlement believe that these airtight cylinders contain fluids and mechanical pumps, which are essential for maintaining the normal environment in the settlement.On the central plain between the two living quarters there is a single structure—a large metal roundhouse.This is the control center of New Eden, about two kilometers from the southern wall of the residential area. After leaving New Eden, Richard headed straight for the control center with the three Einstein robots.They've been working there for two weeks, trying to figure out the weather system that controls the interior of New Eden.Despite Kenji Watanabe's strenuous opposition, the Senate allocated funds to allow the best engineers in the settlement to do their best to change this alien weather situation. But the efforts of the engineers were in vain, and they failed to master the procedures for controlling the weather.In view of the failure of the engineers and Nicole's begging, Richard agreed to accept the task, but insisted on acting alone, only with the assistance of the Einstein robot. This was Richard's last attempt to decipher the mystery of the New Eden weather system.He and the robot stopped one kilometer away from the residential area, and with the help of lights, they saw a group of architects and engineers studying something around a long table. "It won't be too difficult to build a pipeline, the soil is soft." "How to deal with the sewage, dig a cesspool? Or transport the waste back to New Eden for treatment?" "The new residential area we are going to build requires a lot of energy, not only because of the need for light in the dark, but also for all the equipment. In addition, we are far enough from New Eden that unnecessary losses must be reduced ...Superthermally conductive materials can come in handy here..." Hearing this conversation, Richard was angry and resentful.These architects and engineers are working on building a shelter for RV-41 carriers.The project, called Avalon, was the result of eclectic politics by the Watanabe administration and its opponents.Kenji agreed to set up this research project to show his open mind in dealing with the RV-41 virus. Richard and the three Einstein robots continued to head south. In the north of the control center, they encountered a group of engineers and robots carrying large equipment and heading towards the detection point of the second residential area. "Hi, Richard," Marilyn Branstone greeted him.She got her engineering degree from Cambridge University in 2232 and is a pretty capable woman. "How's the work going?" Richard asked. "If you have time, you can come and have a look." Marilyn suggested. Richard had the three droids waiting for him, and he, Marilyn and her team crossed the central plain to the edge of the second settlement. As he walked, Richard thought about the conversation he had with Kenji and Dmitry Ulanov in the governor's office one afternoon before the formal approval of the detection plan: "I want people to understand," said Richard, "that I'm firmly against anything that offends the dignity of another neighbourhood. Nicole and I are pretty sure that's another life's neighbourhood." "Suppose it's empty," said Dmitry. "Suppose that settlement belongs to us, and imagine that we can use it wisely." "Dmitry!" Richard almost growled, "haven't you heard what Nicole and I have been telling you these past few months? You still stubbornly insist on the so-called 'man is the center of the universe' theory , This is an absurd argument. Because we humans are the masters of the earth, you think we are superhuman, super life? We are not! There must be hundreds of kinds of life in the universe..." "Richard," Kenji interrupted him calmly, "We know what you think about this project, but the residents of New Eden disagree with you. They've never seen the Hawkman, the Octopus, and the other things you're talking about." Wonderful creatures of the past, they just want to know if there's room for us to expand..." "Kenji was scared at the time." Richard thought, and walked to the second residential area with the detection team, "I was still afraid that Commander McMillan would defeat Ulanov in the election and lose control of the residential area." In the hands of Toshio Nakamura. Once at the detection point, the two Einstein robots immediately went to work.They carefully fit the laser drill into the hole already cut in the wall.Five minutes later, the drill slowly drilled into the metal wall. "How far have you drilled?" Richard asked. "About thirty-five centimeters," Marilyn replied. "We drilled very slowly. If the wall was as thick as ours, we could go through it in another three or four weeks. . . . The composition of the wall was analyzed and it turned out that the same material was used." "Have you chiseled into it?" Marilyn smiled: "Don't worry, Richard. We followed exactly the procedure you suggested. Started chiseling the other eye, and we left it at least two weeks for observation. We'll give them a chance to respond— If they do live in it." There was obvious distrust in her tone. "Don't you believe me, Marilyn?" Richard asked. "What's the matter with you? You all think me and Nicole and the kids make up those stories, don't you?" "A miracle needs evidence of a miracle," she replied. Richard shook his head, arguing with Marilyn, but immediately realized he had more important things to do.He chatted politely with them about some engineering issues, then returned to the control center.His robot was still there waiting for him. Working with the Einstein robot enabled Richard to successfully try many methods.Whenever he has a new idea, Richard will tell it to the robots, so that they can help analyze the practicality of this method.The Einstein robots never raised any objections, and their amazing memory helped Richard a lot, often reminding him that a new method is similar to a method that has failed in the past, so as to avoid unnecessary work. All the engineers in the settlement were trying to figure out how the supercomputer that controlled the weather system worked, and that was their fatal mistake.Richard is different from them. He pays more attention to analyzing the signal output from the processor, and draws a program function diagram in a short time.There is no direct electronic link between the control center and the living quarters, which is sufficient to suggest that there is some sort of electromagnetic communication between the two.But what kind?Richard carefully studied the wavelengths emitted by the communication, and found many potential signals in it. Analyzing and deciphering these signals is like looking for a needle in a haystack.With the help of the Einstein robot, Richard finally discovered that the most frequent transmissions occurred in the microwave band.He and the Einstein robot spent a week analyzing this microwave signal, reviewing the weather before and after New Eden, and looking at the signals from the portable microwave transmitter that he and the robot built.Richard's purpose is to simulate a command from outside the control center as if it were sent from the inside of the control center. Unfortunately, Richard failed this experiment, and he thought it might be that the transmission time was not accurate enough.In order to send out more accurate signals, the Richard and Einstein robot modified the program.In this way, the control center can receive instructions in a very short time. Richard sent a signal to the cylindrical control center, and a high-pitched siren immediately sounded inside the center.A ghostly Hawkman appears above Richard and the robot. "Humans," said the Hawkman, "should be extremely careful. A great deal of knowledge has gone into the design of your settlements to achieve a precise state of balance. Unless there is a real crisis, do not alter these major systems." Stunned, but quick to react, Richard ordered the Einstein robot to record what they had witnessed. Hawkman repeated his warning and disappeared without a trace.However, the entire process has been stored in the robot's camera system.