Chapter 24 Chapter 24 Strange Sounds in the Dark Night

At the beginning, Gao An seemed to be blind, his eyes were completely blind, and his eyes were pitch black.He blinked vigorously a few times and stood there, not daring to move.After a short period of silence, there was a sudden burst of shouting in the earphones.Almost at the same time, the astronauts began to call each other, and there was a feeling of desperation and panic everywhere. Gao An tried his best to calm himself down, restraining his fear.He tried to recall the time when the light was still on, to shorten the time he had to adapt to the dark.The moment the light went out, he was standing on the cliff wall overlooking the city of "New York", only one meter away from the edge of the cliff, which was very dangerous.He had just caught a glimpse of a path leading to the city some two hundred meters to the left, when the light disappeared...  

"Takashi," he heard Walkerfield calling his name, "how are you?" He turned around and answered.Suddenly, Gao An felt that his knees were weak, and he had lost his sense of direction in the darkness.How many degrees has it turned?Is he still facing the direction of the city?He remembered the scene at the last moment. This raised wall was 20 or 30 meters above the ground of the city. This height would kill people! "Here I am," he tried, "but I'm too close to the edge." He crouched down on all fours, his hands touching the cold metal. "Here we are," Frances said. "I'm touching the camera light."

Gao An turned down the volume of the earphones and listened carefully to his companion's voice.A few seconds later, he saw a light not far below, dimly, and could see two partners moving towards this side. "Where are you, Takoyaki?" Frances was asking, the light only bobbing around her body but not very far. "Here, up, up." He waved his hand, realizing suddenly that they couldn't see him. "Quiet everyone, please," Brown yelled over the radio. "I'm going to take a roll call so I can see everyone's condition." After a few seconds, the conversation in the earphones died down. "Frances, how are you doing?"

"We're about to climb the walls of 'New York', David. It's 100 meters above sea level where we park our snowmobiles. The high bank is ahead of us, and he's already on top. We're about to meet up. We're using the video camera lights to illuminate." "Gallows," Dr. Brown called the next one, "where are you and the No. 2 rover?" "About 30,000 meters from the camp, the headlights are working fine. We can return to the camp in 10 minutes." "Turn on the navigation system and return to camp. We'll stay in the air until we're sure your return system is working. Careful, Frances, and return to camp as quickly as you can; report back in two minutes."

"Reggie, David, I see." Frances turned off the intercom and called Gao An again.Although he was only 30 meters away, it took Frances and Walkerfield more than a minute to find him in the dark. Gao An touched his colleague's arm, and he breathed a sigh of relief.Frances and Walkerfield hunched down and sat down beside Takashi.The earphones were buzzing again.O'Toole and Nicole confirmed that there were no other noticeable changes in Lamane when the lights went out.The six portable monitors placed variously inside the alien spacecraft did not show any noticeable disturbances; wind speed, wind direction, seismic readings, spectroscope monitoring were all normal and unchanged.

"It's scary to have the lights go out," Walkerfield said, "though it's not a big deal. Maybe..." "Hush—" Gao An interrupted him suddenly.Gao An turned off the intercom between himself and Walkerfield, "Did you hear any sound?" The sudden silence made Walkerfell once again feel the horror he felt at the moment when the darkness fell. "No, no." He listened for a few seconds, then whispered, "But my ears are not very..." "Hush—" it was Frances who stopped him this time, "while you were talking there was a scratching sound on the other side of the steep slope."

"Yes," Takashi said calmly but excitedly, "It's as if something brushed against the metal surface. It's obviously something moving." Walkerfield listened intently again, maybe he heard something, maybe it was just his imagination, he wasn't sure. "Come on, let's go back," he said to them. "Wait a minute," said Takagishi when Walkerfield stood up. "When you talk, it seems like it stops all at once." He leaned towards Frances and said softly, "Turn off the light, we're sitting Try it in the dark and see if you can hear anything again."

Walkerfield sat down beside them again.When the lights of the camera were turned off, the absolute darkness surrounded them again, and only the breathing of the partners made people feel that they were beside them, which was comforting. They sat there in silence for a full minute, without any sound around them.Just when Walkerfield was about to speak again, he clearly heard a sound coming from the city of 'New York', like something being dragged across a metal surface, mixed with high-frequency noise, and like a kind of A shrill voice sang in the distance.The sound drowned out the continuous noise of scraping metal, and it grew louder and more eerie.Walkerfield felt like a thorn in his back, and even felt trembling pain.

"Do you have a tape recorder?" Gao An asked Frances in a low voice. The rattling of scraping metal stopped abruptly when he spoke. The three of them didn't dare to vent their anger, and sat for more than ten seconds. "Hey, where are you? Hey, where are you?" They heard David Brown calling loudly on the emergency channel. "How is everyone? Your regular contact time has passed." "Yes, David," replied Frances, "we're still in the same place. We heard a strange noise from the direction of 'New York' city." "Now is not the time to dawdle, the situation has changed drastically, and all new plans have been disrupted by Rama. We need to concentrate and re-study."

"Okay," Walkerfield replied, "we're leaving here now, and if all goes well, we can expect to be back at camp within an hour." Dr. Gao An was not happy to leave without clearing up the mysterious voice.But he is well aware that now is not the best time to scientifically explore the city of 'New York'.The Japanese scientist smiled to himself as the snowmobile sled across the cylindrical sea ice.He was very happy, knowing that he had discovered a new sound, because it was not in the catalog of sounds brought back by the first expedition.This is a great place to start.

Astronaut Tabry and Walkerfield were the last to take the chairlift up the Alpha Steps. "Takashi is really mad at Brown, isn't he?" Walkerfield asked as he helped the little Hungarian out of his seat.They slid down the ramp and walked toward the tanker. "I've never seen him so angry," Gallos replied. "Takashi is a well-respected expert who prides himself on his knowledge of Rama. Brown belittles what you've heard." The value of a voice and a disrespectful sneer at Takagishi's suggestions. I think Takagishi is understandably angry." They climbed onto the tank truck and started the transport procedure.The terrible darkness of Rama had been left behind them.The two astronauts quickly passed through the bright corridor and headed for the Newton. "It was a really weird sound," Walkerfield said, "and it gave me goosebumps. I can't think of anything that could make that sound, and I don't know that Newton and his crew 70 years ago Have you heard that voice before? But I know, standing on the city wall, the situation is very bad, and my heart is straight." "In the beginning, even Frances got mad at Brown. She was going to do a high-bank news interview for her evening report, and Brown told her to cancel. I don't know how he convinced her to do the same. It's not easy for this strange sound not to be news. Brown should feel lucky that she did have enough stories tonight to make the lights go out at Lamarr." The two got off the tank truck and came to the outer airlock. "Hey, I'm very tired. These two days are really lively and long enough." "Yes," Walkerfield agreed, "but I think we should stay in camp for two more days instead of retreating here. I'd like to know what surprises await us tomorrow." thing." Gallos smiled at his friend. "You know what's the funniest thing?" he said without waiting for Walkerfield's answer. "That's when Brown really thought he was in charge of Operation Rama. When Takagishi suggested to him to spy on 'New York' in the dark Didn't you see his reaction at the time? Brown probably thought it would be a testament to his authority to suspend the operation and get us back aboard the Newton." Richard stared at the odd smile on Gallows' face. Gallos continued, "Of course, it could also be said that Rama made the decision to let us go; Rama also decided what we're going to do next."