Chapter 40 Section VIII

Nicole looked at herself in the mirror, gently stroked the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes with her fingers, and combed the gray hair on her temples. "You're an old woman already," she said to herself, laughing, "I'm old, old." Nicole smiled and turned around in front of the mirror, looking at her own back in the mirror.She was wearing a green dress that she had made for Ellie's wedding, and it fitted her perfectly.Over the years, Nicole has maintained a very shapely figure. "Not bad, at least it won't embarrass Ellie." She thought. On the table next to her was a photograph of Genevieve and her husband that Kenji had brought her.Nicole returned to the bedroom with these two photos, feeling very sad: "I was not able to attend your wedding letter, Gene Viève, I have never met your husband."

Nicole walks across the bedroom thoughtfully, looking at photos of Simone and Michael O'Toole at their wedding in Nord: "We left you only a week after your wedding... at the time, how young you were Ah! Simone, you are much more mature than Katie in many ways..." Thinking of Simone and Genevieve made Nicole emotional and heartbroken. "You should focus on what's in front of you," Nicole thought, taking down Ellie's picture from the wall.Next to Ellie's photo are pictures of her sister and brother. "You're going to be my third daughter to marry," thought Nicole. "It all seems a little weird, and that's how life is sometimes, fleeting, passing by."

The image of Ellie suddenly jumped into Nicole's mind.She seemed to see the baby sleeping beside her in the white room in Rama 2; Ellie - a shocking scene. Nicole puts Ellie's picture back on the wall.She took off her skirt and was about to hang it in the closet when she heard a strange sound, like someone crying. "What was that noise?" Nicole sat quite still for some minutes suspiciously, hearing nothing.She stood up, and suddenly had a rather strange sensation—as if Genevieve and Simone were in her room, standing beside her.Nicole looked around. There was no one else in the room but her.

"What's wrong with me?" she asked herself. "Is it because I'm working too hard? Is the Martinez case and Ellie's wedding pushing me to the limit? Is this a biological reaction of mine?" Cole took a deep breath to calm himself down.Yet it was as if Genevieve and Simone were still in her room, so strongly present before her eyes.She was obsessed with talking to them, but still controlled herself. Nicole also vividly remembers the conversation Simone had with Michael before they got married. "Maybe that's why I always feel like they're here. They're reminding me not to work too hard. I haven't talked to Ellie about her wedding yet." Nicole laughed nervously.

"Forgive me, dear daughters," Nicole said to the photo of Allie, Genevieve and Simone, "I promise tomorrow..." This time, the scream was absolutely unmistakable!Nicole, petrified, rushed into Richard's study. "Richard," she cried when she reached the study door, "do you hear..." Nicole stopped there with his mouth open before finishing his sentence: the study was in disarray, and Richard was sprawled on the floor, with two monitors and a row of electronic devices next to him.He holds the robot Prince Han in one hand and his favorite laptop in the other.Two Garcia robots and an Einstein robot are hunched over him.

"Hey, dear, what's the matter?" asked Richard dryly. "What are you doing here? I thought you were asleep?" "Richard, I'm sure, I must have heard an aiyun bird call, just a minute ago, the sound came from a nearby place." Nicole hesitated for a while, thinking whether to tell Husband's hallucinations about Genevieve and Simone. Richard frowned: "I didn't hear anything." He turned his head and asked the robot: "Did you hear that?" The robot also shook its head.The front chest of the Einstein robot was removed, and four wires were connected to the monitor on the floor.

"I did hear it," repeated Nicole.After a pause, she said to herself: "Is this the reaction of a person who has reached his limit?" She looked at the mess in front of her and asked, "Honey, what are you doing?" "Well," Richard waved his hand vaguely, "it's nothing special, it's a new subject for me." "Richard Walkerfield," said Nicole quickly, "you're lying. This mess can't be 'nothing special'—I know you, tell me why it's so mysterious?" Richard quickly switched the display on the screen, shook his head and said, "I don't like this, not at all." He glanced at Nicole and said, "Did you happen to see that I recently stored in the super The information in the computer center? Did you accidentally see it?"

"No, I don't. I don't even know your password...but that's not what I want to talk to you about." "Someone has..." Richard tapped the keyboard quickly, carefully studying the content on the screen, "In the past three weeks, there have been at least five times... Are you sure it's not you?" "Yes, Richard," said Nicole firmly, "you're still changing the subject... I think you should tell me what's going on with all this?" Richard put Prince Henry down and looked up at Nicole. "It's not time to tell you, dear." After hesitating for a moment, he said, "Give me a few days, please."

Nicole couldn't understand any more.Finally, with a bright light on her face, she said excitedly: "Well, honey, if this is a wedding gift for Ellie, I'm willing to wait..." Richard went back to his business.Nicole sat down on the only vacant chair in the room.She looked at her husband and suddenly realized that she was tired.She thought maybe she was so tired that she hallucinated and thought she heard screams. "Honey." After a while, she called softly. "What?" he replied, looking up at her. "Have you ever wondered what the hell is going on here, in New Eden? I mean why did the creators of Rama leave us alone? Most of the inhabitants go about their business, hardly ever thinking, Is it possible that they are on an interstellar voyage in a spacecraft made by aliens? Why don't the Hawkman and other mysterious phenomena appear again? Maybe, our little trouble..."

Richard laughed.Nicole broke off from the subject and asked, "What?" "I remembered a conversation I had with Michael O'Toole. He was angry because I didn't believe in the miracles that Jesus' twelve disciples had witnessed. He said God must know that humans are suspicious, so he Arranging for Jesus to come back after his resurrection." "That's quite different from that," Nicole argued. "Is it?" replied Richard, "It's hard to get Christian stories of Jesus' miracles to come to mind, and it's hard to convince others of our description of Nord and his death in relative speed. . . . Residents might take some comfort in saying that this spacecraft is a laboratory built by the International Space Agency, but few people understand that Rama is simply a product of science beyond our technological capabilities."

Nicole was silent for a moment, then said, "There's nothing we can do? Can't we make them believe us?" An urgent ringing of the phone interrupted her, Nicole picked up the receiver, and Max Puckett's face appeared on the videophone display. "There's an emergency outside the detention facility," Max said. "There's an angry crowd of seventy or eighty people from Hanko calling for Martinez. They've destroyed two Garcia robots and attacked three. Robots. Judge Mishkin is trying to reason with them, but their attitude is pretty bad. Kiko Kobayashi committed suicide two hours ago, and her whole family is here, including her father..." Nicole quickly changed into an undershirt.Richard was arguing with her in vain, trying to persuade her not to go.Nicole got on her bicycle and said to her husband, "No, I made this decision, and I should be responsible for the consequences." She rode quickly to the administrative center in only four or five minutes, and it would take twice as long to take the train at this time of night. "Kenji was wrong," Nicole thought. "We should have had a press conference this morning so I could explain why this decision was made." Hundreds of people gathered in the Central District Square.Standing on the highest steps outside the detention facility, Judge Mishkin was addressing an angry crowd through a microphone. Twenty robots, mostly Garcia and the two Lincolns and Tiaso, lined up in front of Judge Mishkin, arm in arm, protecting him. "Now, friends," said the gray-haired Russian, "if Pedro Martinez is guilty, he will be sentenced. But our Constitution guarantees him a fair trial." "Shut up, old man!" someone in the crowd yelled. "We want Martinez!" To the left of the crowd were six Orientals who had just made a makeshift gallows.Someone made a slipknot with a thick rope, and the crowd roared wildly. A Japanese man in his early twenties rushed to the front of the crowd and shouted: "Get out of the way, old man! Let these robot dolls go away! We don't quarrel with you, we are here to seek justice for the Kobayashi family." "Remember Kiko!" a young woman screamed. A red-haired teenager smacks a Garcia robot on the head with a baseball bat, and the crowd begins to howl again.The Garcia robot had its eyes blown out and its face deformed, but it still stood there tenaciously. "Robots will not resist." Judge Mishkin told everyone through the microphone. "Their mission is peace. Destroying them will not achieve your goal. This is a crazy act of violence." At this time, two people ran into the square from the Hanko District, and the attention of the crowd was diverted. A minute later, the crowd cheered again: 12 young people carried two large logs and shouted loudly: "Now, we want to eradicate the robot that protects the murderer Martinez." A young Japanese said, "This is your last chance, old man, get out of the way! Or you will get hurt." The crowd swarmed up and gathered on both sides of the log to break through the robot defense line, and Nicole arrived at this time. She quickly jumped off the bicycle, crossed the cordon and stepped up the steps to stand beside Judge Mishkin. "Mr. Kobayashi," she bellowed into the microphone in Japanese, her appearance so sudden that people were caught off guard, "I'm here to tell you why Pedro Martinez didn't get a jury trial. Can you come to the front? I want to see you." Mr. Kobayashi, who had been standing by the side of the square, walked slowly to the front steps and stood in front of Nicole. "Kobayashi-kun," Nicole said in Japanese, "I'm sorry to hear of your daughter's passing." "Hypocrite!" someone shouted in English, and the crowd began to stir again. "As a parent," Nicole continued, "I can understand the pain that a parent feels when losing a child..." "Now," she addressed the rioting crowd in English, "let me explain our decision. According to the constitution of our New Eden, everyone should have a 'fair trial.' Most of the criminal cases have been tried by jury. In the case of Martinez, for reasons known to all, I don’t think there can be an impartial jury.” The crowd continued to whistle and boo to interfere with Nicole's speech.She then went on to say: "Our Constitution does not explain how to guarantee a 'fair trial' when a jury cannot be found. As judges, we have been selected to enforce this law, and the verdict should be strictly based on evidence. That's why I signed the Martinez decision to the special court, where all the evidence, including evidence that has never been made public, will be carefully weighed and the final decision will be made." "We all know that Martinez is guilty!" Mr. Kobayashi yelled frantically. "He has admitted to having sex with my daughter. We also know that he raped a Nicaraguan girl when he was on earth...Why are you defending?" Him? Where is the justice?" "Because of this law... Nicole's voice was drowned out by the din of the crowd. After Nicole appeared, the two logs were put down for a moment.At this time, the crowd in the square raised the two logs again, shouting "Hand over Martinez! Hand over Martinez!".The crazy crowd lifted the log to make a way, and the log hit the monument in the center of the square.The sphere in the middle of the monument symbolizing Rama's position in space was smashed into pieces; the electronic components symbolizing the various planets fell to the ground; the shining lamp symbolizing Rama was also smashed to pieces. "Residents of New Eden," Nicole said loudly into the microphone, "listen to me! There's something about this case that you don't know, if you'd listen..." "Kill the black bitch." The young man who hit the Garcia robot with a bat shouted. Nicole stared at the boy with angry flames in her eyes, and said sharply, "What are you talking about?" The crowd fell silent immediately, and the boy stood alone, looking around nervously, repeating: "Kill the black bitch." Nicole walked down the steps and walked straight up to the red-haired boy.The crowd on both sides immediately stepped back and exited a way for her.She stopped less than one meter away from him, panting heavily, and said angrily: "Say it again." "Kill..." the boy said. Nicole slapped him hard across the face, and the sound echoed around the square.She turned sharply and headed up the steps as the crowd reached out from all sides and grabbed her.The beaten boy clenched his fists... At this time, two loud gunshots pierced the sky above the square. Before people could realize what happened, two more gunshots came. "It's me! It's my shotgun!" Max Puckett said loudly into the microphone. "Now, if you can let the female judge pass... that's fine... go home immediately, we can talk and break up." Nicole broke free from countless hands holding her, and the crowd did not evacuate immediately.Max raised his shotgun and fired another shot at the noose knot hanging from the makeshift gallows.The rope was exploded and scattered among the noisy crowd. "Now you all listen," Max said, "I'm a lot ruder than these two judges. I know I've broken residential gun laws and I'm going to be in this jail for a while. Now I'm Angry, I'll shoot some of you..." Max pointed the gun at the crowd, and the people screamed and quickly moved away.Max fired his empty gun over the crowd and laughed as they fled the square in a hurry. Nicole couldn't fall asleep anyway, the same scene repeated before her eyes: she walked into the crowd and slapped the red-haired boy... "I've never been annoyed more than him," she thought. "Aren't you asleep yet?" Richard asked. "Ok." "Are you OK?" There was a brief silence between them: "No, Richard...I can't...I'm mad at myself, I hit the boy." "Well, come on," he said, "leave yourself alone. He deserves what he deserves... He attacks and insults you with the most vicious language, and such a man knows nothing but violence." Richard moved towards Nicole, rubbed her back and said, "My God, I've never seen you so nervous... It's just a bad thing, it's a bad thing." "I'm worried," Nicole said, "and I have a terrible feeling—that all our lives in New Eden are going to be completely disrupted. . . . Everything I want to do and everything I'm doing is going to be of no avail." "You've done your best, honey... I have to admit I'm amazed at what you've done," Richard said, massaging her back, "but don't forget you're dealing with people...you It is possible to transfer them to a new world and give them a paradise, but they still carry with them horror, danger and their own cultural preferences. Only when the human mind is completely blank, like a new computer without software and operating system, a The new world is the real new world." Nicole forced a smile: "You're not very optimistic, my dear." "Why should we be optimistic? Whether on Earth or in New Eden, I have never seen human beings able to handle their internal relationships harmoniously. They are worse than any other creature. Occasionally, one or a group of people can surpass Human inferiority and environmental impediments . . . but such a person may be miraculously non-existent." "I don't think so," Nicole said softly. "Your point of view is too pessimistic. I believe that most people yearn for harmony and peace, they just don't know how to do it. That's why we need more knowledge and excellent example." "What about the red-haired boy? Do you think so of him? Do you think he should learn to put up with it?" "That's all I can think of, dear," said Nicole, "or else . . . I'm afraid I'd just give up." Richard grunted a half-smile.