Chapter 18 Chapter 18 Mystery

Unsurprisingly, the day after General Posov's death, chaos ensued.The International Space Agency's investigation of the accident became a never-ending torment for the astronauts.Someone questioned whether Nicole was sober before the operation, and the question was obviously malicious.She conserved her energy as much as possible to enable her own investigation of this tragic event to proceed.On two occasions, she finally lost patience with these questioners. "Look," she exclaimed, "I've explained four times that I had two glasses of wine, one glass of wine, and one glass of vodka three hours before surgery. Drinking any alcoholic beverage beforehand. Of course, hindsight is of no use. But neither my judgment nor my physical condition have been impaired in any way by alcohol."

Back in the room, Nicole focused on why the robot did not activate the automatic protection system and abort the operation.The robot's owner's manual indicated that at least two separate sensing systems were simultaneously sending erroneous information to the central processor.For some unknown reason, the remote sensor module must have instructed the central processing unit, indicating that the external conditions are suitable for the operation.Also, the stereo camera must have picked up the observation image, pointing out that it was not consistent with the preset image, but these did not prevent the accident from happening.What happened?

Nicole spent nearly five hours trying to figure out what was going wrong.She checked and compared the loaded software and data with the reference parameters used by the robot for testing before launching the spacecraft, and found no errors.Then, she checked the stereo cameras and remote sensors, analyzing all the data from the spacecraft since it took off.The data must have been sent, and the stop procedure was initiated.But why didn't it stop?The only possible explanation is that the program was interrupted by a manual command entered after the software was loaded and before the appendix was removed.

There was nothing Nicole could do now.Her limited expertise in software and automated systems engineering prevented her from coming up with an answer that satisfied her.Finding out if and when they can change parameter settings after they load the software requires someone who understands machine language to go through millions of bytes of program data. Nicole's investigation bogs down unless someone helps her. "Maybe I should give up?" a voice whispered inside her. "Can you? Unless you find out the cause of General Posov's death!" Another voice refuted loudly.Deep down in Nicole's heart, there was a strong desire to prove that the general's death was not her fault.

She left the terminal, collapsed on the bed, and lay there.Suddenly, she clearly recalled the appearance of General Posov's appendix during the thirty-second examination time. "He didn't suffer from appendicitis." She thought, and came to the screen again, reading the diagnosis data of the "electronic expert" at that moment.Before she decided to undergo surgery, the "electronics expert" judged that there was a 92% probability of appendicitis; the second possibility was a drug reaction, with a 4% probability.Nicole calls the data in another way.She asked the computer to use statistical methods to calculate the possible cause of the symptom, assuming it was not appendicitis.

Nicole was taken aback when she saw the diagnostic results flashing on the screen.According to the data analysis, if it is not appendicitis, but an abnormal condition, then there is a 62% probability that the symptoms are caused by drugs.Before Nicole had time to do more analysis, she heard someone knocking on the door. "Come in!" she replied, still busy at the terminal.Turning around, Elena Tugyeva stood in the doorway.For a while, the Russian female pilot remained silent. "They want me to call you," she said hesitantly.She was always shy when speaking in front of people, apart from her Eastern European buddies Taburi and Posov. "All personnel are requested to meet in the public cabin."

Nicole temporarily stored the data in a file.Then, walk down the aisle with her. "What meeting?" Nicole asked. "A meeting about personnel arrangements." After Elena replied, she fell silent. Wilson and Brown were having a heated exchange when the two women entered. "I see then," said Dr. Brown sarcastically. "You believe that, at that moment of perfect precision, the Rama Spaceship moved on purpose? Could you please explain to us all again, this lifeless little metal How did the planet know that General Posov was going to cut the cecum at that moment? Can you explain why this supposedly malicious spacecraft watched us crawling on top of it, but did nothing about it, let it go shall we proceed?"

Reggie Wilson looked around the room, looking for support, and said, "You're bullshitting again, Brown." He was visibly discouraged, "Your words sound plausible on the surface. But I'm not on this ship either. The only one who noticed this terrible coincidence. Look, Elena Tugyeva is here too, she was the one who first suggested it." Only then did Dr. Brown notice the arrival of the two women.This is a good time to show his authority and control the situation, so he asked sharply: "Is that so, Elena! You, like Wilson, felt that Rama was trying to shake it like this during General Posov's operation. Are we sending a message?"

Like Hiroshi Yamanaka, Elena was the one who spoke the least among the astronauts during the meeting. Seeing everyone staring at her, Elena muttered: "No, no." "But, when we discussed it last night, you weren't..." Wilson said stubbornly to the Russian female pilot. "All right, all right!" interrupted Brown imperiously. "I think we've reached the consensus that Rama's movement was not a malicious provocation, but a coincidence. Needless to say, the controllers on Earth Of course, this is also the opinion." He stared at Wilson, who was about to explode, "Now, we have more important things to discuss. I will ask Admiral Hellman to tell everyone his thoughts on the leadership of the spaceship."

Otter Hellman stood there reading a note: "According to the regulations of the Newton, in the event of death or other events that cause the commander to lose his command ability, all crew members should perform their duties according to the established tasks. .If the scheduled mission has ended, wait until Earth appoints a new Commander." David Brown interjected: "Admiral Hellman and I looked at our current situation an hour ago, and it's clear we have reason to be concerned about where we are. The International Space Agency is still obsessed with Posov The investigation into the general's death has not even considered who will replace him. By the time they start doing it, it will take weeks to decide. Don't forget, it's the same bureaucracy , I have not been able to choose an assistant for General Posov, so in the end I had to say that I don’t need such a role.” He deliberately paused to let everyone consider his words.

"Otter thinks that maybe we shouldn't wait for Earth to make a decision," Brown continued, "and his idea is that we act ourselves, choose a leader that everyone can accept, and then recommend it to the International Space Agency. Heilman felt that the International Space Agency would accept it because it would avoid arguments." "Admiral Hellman and Dr. Brown told me about this idea," Gallows interjected. "The most important thing right now is to start operating in Rama. They are ready-made leaders. To be honest, among us No one has as much experience in command as General Posov, so we simply chose two leaders, Admiral Hellman in charge of the military and spaceships; Dr. Brown in charge of Rama's inspection activities." "What if the two of them disagree, or have overlapping responsibilities?" Richard Walkerfield felt that there was a problem. "In that case, it's up to everyone to make a collective decision," suggested Hellman. "It's really easy to say!" Wilson was still angry. He had been writing on the keyboard just now. At this moment, he stood up and said to the astronauts, "I said, did Brown and Hellman accidentally talk to the astronauts?" 'Worried' about the dire situation? They've come up with an ingenious way of dividing power. But am I the only one who smells something in here?" "Come on, Reggie," Frances said sternly, setting the camera down, "seems like a logical expedient. Dr. Brown is our chief scientist; Admiral Hellman is Bosov A colleague the General has worked with for years. None of us are generalists, so separating those responsibilities will..." It was difficult for Wilson to argue with Frances, but he cut her off anyway: "I don't agree with the proposal." His voice softened visibly, "I think we just need a Leader. According to my observation, there is one person worthy of everyone's trust, and that is General O'Toole. If this is a democratic meeting, I will nominate him as our new commander." Reggie sat down.There was a small commotion in the hall.David Brown wanted to maintain order in the meeting: "Please be quiet, please be quiet!" After one step, let’s decide who will be the leader.” "I hadn't thought about it until the meeting," said Richard Walkerfield, "but I agreed to throw the Earth out. They weren't with us, and what's more, they weren't in this location." Inside the orbit of Venus, on a spacecraft parked on top of this alien object. At the end of the day, we are the ones who will suffer for a bad decision. We have to do it ourselves." For everyone, things are already clear.Everyone agreed that a decision on leadership should be made quickly and submitted to the International Space Agency for approval without delay. "Okay!" Otter Heilman said a few minutes later, "we have to make a choice now. Shared responsibility is the first option; and Reggie Wilson proposes General Michael O'Toole as commander. Any other suggestions?" The room was silent. "I'm sorry," General O'Toole said, "but I wanted to share my opinion." Everyone listened to him attentively.Wilson was right that, while General O'Toole had strong religious leanings, he did not impose them on others, and the team respected him. "I think we have to be very careful not to lose the spirit of solidarity and cooperation that we've built through thick and thin over the past year. I think holding a competitive election at a time like this would divide us. Also, It is unnecessary and unimportant. No matter who is in charge, we can do the given task in any situation. In fact, each of us has been specially trained to perform a specific job." Everyone nodded in agreement. "As for me," O'Toole continued, "I must admit that I know very little about what's going on inside Rama. Other than managing and maneuvering the two Newtons, assessing potential military threats, and communicating in-chamber I can't do anything other than communications. I'm not qualified to be a commander." Reggie Wilson wanted to interrupt his speech, but O'Toole did not pause, and continued: "I suggest that we adopt the plan proposed by Admiral Hellman and Dr. Brown, and immediately start the preliminary action—— Alien giant ship to investigate." At the end of the meeting, the two new leaders informed everyone that they were going to review the draft of the first raid the next morning. Nicole walked back into the room.Halfway, she stopped and knocked on Gallus' door.no respond. She knocked again, and heard Gallows ask loudly, "Who's there?" "It's me, Nicole," she answered. "Come in," he said. She opened the door and went in, and saw him lying on the small bed with a frown on his face. "What's the matter with you?" Nicole asked with concern. "Well, it's okay." Gallows replied, "It's just a little headache." "Have you taken your medicine?" Nicole asked. "No, it's not that serious." He still didn't have a smile on his face, "Do you need my help?" His tone didn't seem very friendly. Nicole was a little puzzled.She tentatively said, "Look, I read your report on General Posov's death again..." "Why are you reading that?" Gallos interrupted her abruptly. "I want to see if there's anything wrong with what we're doing," Nicole replied.She could see that Gallos didn't want to discuss it.After a moment's pause, she added, "I'm sorry, Gallows, for bothering you. I'll come back to that later." "No, no," he said, "let's talk now." That's strange, what's the matter with him?Nicole was a little puzzled, "Garos, your report didn't mention that your hand touched the main control box, but I'm sure that when I was thrown against the wall, I saw your fingers pressing on the main control box. on the keyboard." Nicole stopped.There was no expression on Gallows' face, as if he was thinking about something else. "I can't remember," he said flatly. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I just bumped my head and can't remember." Let's stop here!Nicole said to herself, watching her colleague closely, it was clear that there was nothing more to be gained here.