Chapter 21 Chapter 21 Pandora's Crystal

Once at the door Nicole saw David Brown sitting behind his desk; Frances leaned against him, tracing with her hands the large chart on the desk.Nicole tapped lightly on the door a few times. "Hello, Nicole," Frances greeted her, "what can we do for you?" "I've come to see Dr. Brown," Nicole replied, "to talk about my mission." "Come in," Brown said. Nicole sat down slowly in the chair opposite the desk.Frances sat down in the other chair as well. Nicole looked at the office wall, which had completely changed.Photos of General Posov's wife and children, along with his favorite painting - a goshawk soaring over the Neva in Petersburg - that hung next to it, had been taken.In their place were large operational charts, each bearing a different name: First Assault, Second Assault, and so on.

In the past, Posov's office was filled with a warm and personalized atmosphere; now it is different, making people feel serious and uneasy.On the wall behind the desk hang some of Dr. Brown's most prestigious scientific awards.Brown also raised his chair high so that he could look down on the guests in the room. "I want to talk to you about something personal," said Nicole.She was expecting Dr. Brown to ask Frances to step aside, but he said nothing.At last Nicole cast a glance at Frances that was all too clear. "She's helping me with things," Brown explains. "I find that her feminine instincts often make up for what I don't have."

Nicole was silent for a while.She had already thought about what to say to Brown, but she hadn't expected to speak to him in such a situation. "Maybe I should get out of here," Nicole thought quickly.Frances's presence surprised and displeased her. "I read the mission book for the first assault operation," Nicole finally said with a serious expression, "I have a request. According to the mission book, I have very few missions. Elena Tugeye Eva is in the same situation as I am. I propose to give her these non-medical tasks and leave me on the ship with Admiral Hellman and General O'Toole. I can follow the progress of the operation If there is any medical problem, I can respond quickly. In addition, with Galos inside, I can fully meet the technical needs of life sciences that arise on the spot."

The room fell silent again.Both Dr. Brown and Frances stared at Nicole. "Why are you staying on the Newton? I thought you couldn't wait to go into Rama!" said Frances at last. "As I said, these are purely personal reasons," Nicole replied vaguely, "I've been too tired since the Posov tragedy; besides, I still have a lot of written reports that I haven't finished yet." .The mission of the first assault was easy, and I want to rest and get ready for the second assault mission." "It's a difficult request," Brown said, "but as it stands, I think we can do it." He glanced at Frances, "but we would also like to ask you to Going to Lama, then would you like to work shifts with O'Toole to ensure communication. In this way, Hellman can enter Lama..."

"Of course." Before Brown could finish speaking, Nicole quickly replied. "Well, I think we all agree with your request, we will change the roster and let you stay on the ship." After Brown had finished speaking, Nicole remained seated. "Is there anything else you want?" he asked impatiently. "According to regulations, before each operation, the life science officer must prepare a certificate of physical condition for each astronaut. Should I send a copy of the memorandum to General Hellman?" "Give me all these documents." Dr. Brown interrupted her, "Admiral Hellman does not need these personal information." The new report on the operation, I have read your papers to General Posov, and that is enough."

Unfazed by Brown's piercing gaze, Nicole thought, "So, you already know what I wrote about you and Wilson. You think I'd be disturbed? No, I wouldn't! I don't have any opinion." Change, even though you are now the nominal leader here." In the evening, Nicole started investigating again.Careful analysis of Bosov's body data revealed that before his death, he had particularly high levels of a chemical in his system that Nicole could not explain where they came from.Did he take the medicine without telling her?Could it be this substance that caused the excruciating pain in his body?According to Nicol's Medical Encyclopedia, the chemical was used as a drug in pain tolerance experiments.Could it be the allergic reaction in Posov's body?

Also, what the hell happened to Gallos?Why can't he recall ever touching the main control box with his hands?Why did Posov adopt a silent and evasive attitude after his death? It was late at night, and Nicole stared at the ceiling with wide eyes in her small room: "It's past midnight now, and from today onwards the team will enter Rama, and I will stay. I will be in their Continue my analysis work after leaving." However, she couldn't wait any longer.She couldn't calm down the rambling thoughts and the multitude of questions that were swirling in her head: Could Gallos have something to do with the chemicals in Posov's body?Perhaps, Posov's death was not entirely an accident?

Nicole couldn't lie down anymore, she rolled over and took out her suitcase from the cupboard.She opened it hastily, and the contents inside floated out.She grabbed the photos floating on the bed and gathered the other things one by one, putting them back in the box.In her hand, she held the data crystal that King Henry gave her in Davos. She hesitated, finally took a deep breath, inserted the data crystal into the reader, and 18 menu items were displayed on the screen immediately.She can choose to read 12 player files or 6 compiled player statistics items at will. Nicole reads Gallows' personal file.Below his personal experience, there are 3 subdirectories: personal data, chronological resume, and psychological evaluation.From the size of the file, she could tell that the chronological resume was very detailed.Nicole chooses to read the personal data first, to familiarize herself with the format of the file.

It was a brief list of situations that Nicole already knew well. Galos, 45, single; before joining the International Space Agency, lived alone in a Budapest apartment four blocks from his twice-divorced mother; in 2183 he received an engineering degree from a Hungarian university ; In addition, the table lists his current height, weight and test scores: IE (intelligence test) and SC (social coefficient), his two scores are +3.37 and 64 respectively. Nicole returned to the main menu, reloaded the electronic dictionary, and found the definitions of IE and SC. The score of IE indicates the comprehensive intelligence level of the individual.This is the method used to measure the intelligence of all students in the world.Generally, students are assessed through a series of tests at certain specific times between the ages of 12 and 20.Fractions are in decimal.A score of zero indicates the average intelligence level of the people; +1.00 indicates that the person's intelligence level is above 90% of the population; +2.00 indicates that the intelligence level of the person is higher than 99% of the population; above 99.9% of the population, the score is +3.00, etc.Negative numbers indicate below average intelligence.

Gallos scored +3.37, which is a very high score for intelligence. SC's scoring rules are simpler and clearer, and it is also assessed by a series of examinations that students pass between the ages of 12 and 20.The high score is 100 points.If a person's score is close to 100 points, it means that almost everyone likes him and respects him.At the same time, he said that he is suitable for all combinations of people, and he almost never quarrels with others. He is emotionally stable and reliable.However, in a footnote, it is noted that the SC rating is imprecise and that it should be used with great caution when making a determination of a person's character.

Nicole reminded himself that he could check the IE and SC scores of the team members.She accesses Gallows' chronological biography, and Nicole is taken aback by what he's like.For an hour, Nicole was continually stunned by what she found, her eyes widening.As a life science officer, she had of course studied the personal files of each team member, and if the information King Henry gave her was correct, there were many terrible omissions in the ISA files. Nicole knew before that Galos had won the honorary title of outstanding student of the Hungarian University twice, but she did not know that he was also the president of the Budapest Gay Association and served for two years; she knew that he entered the Aerospace Academy in 2192 , and graduated early in only three years, because he had previously worked in an important Russian engineering project, but she didn't know that he had applied for the Academy of Astronautics twice and failed twice.Although he scored high in the written test, he failed the interview twice.What is even more surprising is that the head of the examiner committee for the two interviews was General Posov.Until 2190, Garlov was active in various gay organizations.After that, he gave up such activities and never appeared in these organizations again.These situations are not mentioned in the documents of the International Space Agency. Nicole felt dizzy.Of course it wasn't that Gallos had been gay that disturbed her, she was not prejudiced against sexual misfits.What made her unacceptable was the possibility that official documents had been tampered with, including Gallos's homosexuality and his entanglements with General Posov. The last part of Gallos's chronicled resume surprised Nicole even more.In late December, just before launch, Gallos appears to have signed an agreement with the German publishing group Schmidt-Hagenlist for the assignment of "Brown-Sabati" aboard the Newton, according to the archives. Nigerian Project", which provides a variety of unspecified "consulting" and "support" services.Gallos received an initial payment of 300,000 marks.Three days later, his mother was admitted to the Bavarian Hospital in Munich for a brain transplant.Her mother had been waiting for this operation for a year because of a lesion in her brain. When she finished reading Dr. David Brown's file, her eyes were bloodshot with fatigue.She created a subdirectory and put all the relevant material in it.Before going to bed, she read the materials in this subdirectory again. Summer 2161: Brown, age 11, is enrolled by his father at "Longhorn Summer Camp" over his mother's objections.It's a typical mountaineering summer camp for Texas upperclassmen, with a variety of sports: shooting, crafting, hiking, and more.The boys lived in tents in groups of 10.Brown quickly became a dislike.On day 15, the roommates waited for him to come out of the shower, held him down and painted his butt black.Brown lay in bed for days, refusing to get up until his mother arrived, more than two hundred miles away, to bring him home.After that, his dad apparently stopped paying him any attention. September 2166: After graduating from a private high school, Brown enters Princeton University to study physics, but he is only there for eight months, completing his undergraduate courses at home. June 2173: Brown receives a Ph.D. in physics and astronomy from Harvard, described by his thesis advisor as an ambitious and hard-working student. June 2175: Brown completes postdoctoral research at Cambridge with Brian Murchison on "Celestial Evolution". April 2180: Marries Janet Hudson of California.Ms. Hudson is a graduate student in the Department of Astronomy at Stanford University.They have a daughter named Angela, born in December 2184. November 2181: Removed from office by a two-person committee after they determined that Brown had falsified scientific data in several of his own scholarly publications.This problem has never been resolved. January 2184: Appointed to the Advisory Board of the International Space Agency, tasked with preparing a series of new plans for important astronomical observations on the far side of the Moon. May 2187: Brown is nominated to chair the astronomy and physics department at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. February 2188: Public brawl with Professor Wendell Thomas of Princeton University at the AAAS conference in Chicago.Thomas accused Brown of plagiarism and pre-empted the arguments Thomas had articulated during their discussions together. April 2190: Published a breakthrough supernova evolution theory and predicted that there would be a supernova explosion in mid-March 2191, which shocked the scientific community.This was done in collaboration with Southern Methodist University doctoral student Eileen Bernstein.According to Eileen's classmates, this new theory was actually her idea, but Brown's bold and correct predictions earned him a great reputation. June 2190: Brown divorces his wife.He had actually been separated from her for a year and a half before that.They separated three months after Eileen Bernstein started her research course. November 2190: Marries Ms. Bernstein in Dallas. March 2191: As predicted by Dr. David Brown and others, the supernova "2191-A" appeared radiantly in the night sky. June 2191: Brown signs a two-year science reporting contract with CBS; In 2194, it signed a contract with UBC; in 2197, it signed a contract with INN. December 2193: Awarded by the International Space Agency for his outstanding contribution to science. November 2199: Signed a multi-million-mark long-term contract with the Scott Group to "exploit" all possible business opportunities of Operation Newton, such as book publishing, television programs, teaching materials, etc.; and, with Frances Sabatini, Hellman Astronauts and Tabry Consultants join forces. A reward of two million marks had been deposited into a secret Italian account. Nicole had just slept for two hours when the alarm clock rang.She got up slowly, finished washing on the retractable washstand, then walked slowly into the aisle and walked towards the public cabin. The four astronauts gathered around Brown, reviewing the details of the first operation. "Okay," said Richard Walkerfield, "start with the light chair lifts on the left and right steps and the heavy freighter from the hub to the central plain. Then we set up the temporary control center on the edge of the plain and assemble the , Test three rovers. Tonight’s temporary campsite is also the first-selected Beta camp site, next to the Cylindrical Sea. Tomorrow, we will install two helicopters; the day after tomorrow, we will install the motor boat and snowmobile.” "Well said, clear and to the point," Brown praised, "Frances will accompany the four of you this morning as you install the pedestal. After the light lift is up and running, Admiral Hellman, Dr. Takashi , Mr. Wilson and I will join you in your operation. We will all spend the night in Lamarie tonight." "How many delayed flares do you have?" Gallos asked Elena. "Twelve coins," she replied, "should be enough for today." "Tonight, when we sleep in it, we will find a night we have never seen before." Dr. Gao An said, "There is no moon, no stars, no reflections from the ground, only the boundless darkness surrounding us." "What's the temperature?" Richard asked. "Not completely sure," the Japanese scientist replied, "the detection robot launched earlier only had a camera. But the temperature at the end of the entrance tunnel is the same as that of "Lama 1". If that place accurately reflects the situation inside Rama , the temperature at the campsite should be minus 10 degrees." Gao An paused for a while, and then said, "But the temperature is rising, we are now on the inner side of the orbit of Venus, and in eight or nine days, Rama's light source is expected to start. , the cylindrical sea will also slowly melt from the bottom." "Hey! Come on." Brown sneered, "Look at your smug look, as if you scored a goal. After a while, we'll know what you said, and you'll just make a fuss." "All the data show that this ship is the same as the one seventy years ago," Takagi replied, "so, perhaps, it can be assumed that they have changed in the same way. So far, if we ignore its There is no difference between the two spacecraft in the forced orbit correction action." Nicole came over. "Drink! Look, who's here." Gallows grinned as usual, "Our fifth classmate is here." He noticed her red and swollen eyes, "Our new commander is right , it seems that you really need to take a good rest." "But there is one thing I am disappointed with. My assistant who installed the rover was replaced by Hiroshi Yamanaka. Our life science officer can at least talk. Now, I have to rely on reciting Shakespeare's poems alone to prevent dozing off." He bitterly With a straight face, he jokingly glanced at Hiroshi Yamanaka.The Japanese pilot seemed to be about to laugh. "I wish you all the best of luck and success," said Nicole. "I think Dr. Brown has told you that I think I'm too tired to go with you. Second action." "Okay." Frances said impatiently when the camera finished taking shots of the room and close-ups of everyone before they left. "Are you all finally ready?" "Let's go," Walkerfield said.They headed for the airlock forward of the Newton.