Chapter 25 Chapter 25 Friendship of Friends

He had a dream in which he was lying on a mattress in a seventeenth-century Japanese inn.The room in the dream was huge, with 9 tatami mats.The door on the left is open, and you can see the exquisite small garden in the courtyard.The garden features manicured trees and a miniature artificial stream.He is waiting for a young woman. "Gao An-jun, are you awake?" He moved his body and reached for the phone. "Hello, who is this?" His voice was sleepy. "I'm Nicole. I'm sorry to wake you up so early. I want to see you. It's urgent." "Give me three minutes, please," Gao An replied.

At exactly three minutes there was a knock on the door. Nicole greeted and stepped through the hatch, holding a data crystal in her hand. "Can I use it?" she asked, pointing to the computer. Gao An nodded. "Yesterday, a series of things happened." Nicole pointed at the screen with a serious expression, "Including two major heartbeat abnormalities in your heart. I have never seen such a big problem with your heart." She looked Looking at him, "Are you sure you and your doctor have given me all your medical records?" Gao An nodded. "I have reason to be concerned, then," she went on. "Yesterday's abnormalities suggest that your habitual dilation of the heart muscle has worsened. Perhaps you have a leaky heart valve; perhaps prolonged weightlessness..."

"Maybe," Takagishi interrupted with a smile, "I got too excited, and the adrenaline made the symptoms worse." Nicole fixed his eyes on the Japanese scientist: "It's possible. Dr. Takagishi, the first time it happened was after the lights went out, I think it was when you heard the 'strange noise' you called." "The other time, then, must have been during the altercation with Dr. Brown in the camp. If so, it confirms my suspicions." Nicole tapped on the keyboard, called up a subroutine, and put two sets of data on the screen at the same time, one left and one right, to study carefully. "Yes, it appears so. The second cardiac anomaly occurred twenty minutes before we left Rama, towards the end of the meeting."

"I really can't rule out other abnormal reasons, but I can only think that it is caused by your excitement." She walked away from the monitor. They stared at each other for a while. "Doctor, what do you want to say?" Finally, Gao An said softly, "Are you planning to restrict me and let me stay on the Newton at a critical juncture in my career?" "I'm thinking about it," Nicole replied bluntly. "Your health is far more important to me than your career. I've already lost one teammate. If I lose another , I certainly cannot forgive myself."

She looked at her colleague's pleading expression and said, "I know how important it is for you to enter Rama. I am also trying to find a reasonable explanation for your symptoms." Nicole sat down, looked at the head of the bed, and then moved away, "But, as a doctor, not just an astronaut on the Newton, all this is really difficult." She heard him approaching and felt his hand lightly on her shoulder. "I understand how difficult it is for you these days," he said, "but it's not your fault. We all know that General Posov's death was inevitable."

Nicole saw concern and friendship in Gao An's eyes, and she gave him a grateful look. "I am very grateful for everything you did for me before I left," he continued. "Now, if you feel the need to restrict my movements, I will not object." "It's terrible!" Nicole said, standing up quickly, "it's not that simple. I've spent an hour analyzing your body data from last night in detail. Look at this, the last 10 The hourly charts are completely normal, and your heart has been fine for the past few weeks, until yesterday. What's the matter with your heart, Takagishi-kun? Is your heart really sick, or is it something weird?"

Gao An smiled: "My wife once said that I have a strange heart. But I think she was talking about something else." Nicole turned on her scanner. "Let's take a look again." She shook her head, "The image shows that this is a very healthy heart. No cardiologist in the world can deny my opinion." After finishing speaking, she walked towards the door . "So, what's your conclusion, doctor?" Takashi asked. "I haven't made my final judgment yet," she replied. "Perhaps you can help me. If you do this again in the next few hours, perhaps I can find out why." She waved her hand goodbye. "See you at breakfast .”

Richard Walkerfield was stepping out of his hatch when Nicole left Tallbank's room and turned back to the public cabin.She decided right then and there to talk to him about the surgical robotics program. "Good morning, princess." He walked by and greeted her, "Why are you up so early? I guess there must be something exciting!" "Actually, I was just coming to talk to you!" She joked with him, "Can I take you two or three minutes?" He stopped and said, "You? Needless to say! My doctor's wife." He replied with an exaggerated smile, "I have two minutes, but no more. Remember, I'm already hungry .If I don't fill my stomach with something fast, I'll turn into a horrible ogre."

Nicole just laughed. "What is on your mind?" he added briskly. "Can we go to your cabin?" she asked. "I know, I know." As he said, he took a dance step and slid towards his hatch, "A miracle finally happened, just as I dreamed, a smart, beautiful woman will tell her forever unchanging love..." Nicole couldn't help giggling. "Walkerfield," she interrupted him with a smile, "I really can't help you, can't you be more serious? I want to talk to you about something serious." "Oh, it's terrible!" Walkerfield's voice was full of drama, "'Business'? In this case, we have to strictly follow the time I just set, and we will only talk for two minutes. As soon as I heard 'Business', my stomach Hungry and angry."

Richard opened the door to let Nicole in and asked her to sit in the chair in front of the computer; he sat himself on the bed behind Nicole.Nicole turned her chair to face him. On the bookshelf above his bed, there were a dozen or so small robots, similar to the ones Nicole had seen at the dinner party with Posov in Tabry's room. "Please allow me to introduce my subordinates to you." Walkerfield noticed her curious gaze and said, "You have already met Bolton, Nord, Lady Macbeth and Parker. Tybalt and Merchucchio in And Juliet, next to Iago and Othello, the wonderful Mrs. Quickley, and Prince Henry, Falstaff, the last one on the right is my best Friend 'TB'."

While Nicole was watching carefully, Walkerfield turned on a switch on the head of the bed, and TB climbed down a ladder from the bookshelf to the bed. The 20-centimeter-tall robot stepped cautiously over the crease of the sheet and greeted Nicole. "What's your name? Beautiful lady." TB asked. "I am Nicole de Jardin," she replied. "Sounds like a Frenchman," said the little robot immediately, "but you don't look French, at least not a Valois." The little robot seemed to be staring at her, and said, "You look a lot like Orsay." Lo and Desdemona's child." Nicole was astonished; "How did you make it like this?" she asked Walkerfield. "I'll explain it to you later." Walkerfield waved his hand, "You can recite one of Shakespeare's sonnets! TB will recite it after you." "On a bright morning..." Nicole read aloud. "...I have seen it," added the little robot, "His majestic eye looks upon the hills and peaks, The golden face kisses the green grass, Illuminated the flashing river with wonderful illusion..." The little robot shook its head, waved its arms, and recited Shakespeare's sonnets expressively. Nicole was once again deeply moved by Walkerfield's creation.These verses reminded her of those days in college, and she couldn't help but chant along with TB in a low voice: "Oh, my sun, you make the morning full of sunshine, You sprinkled your triumphant splendor on my brow; Yet, alas, he came near me, but only half an hour, The white clouds move secretly, everything is lonely and finally boring..." The little robot finished reading the last verse. Listening to these unfamiliar words, Nicole was moved and couldn't help applauding loudly. "Can he recite all of Shakespeare's sonnets?" she asked in surprise. Walkerfield nodded: "There are many, many poetic and dramatic lines to be added. But this is not its best job. Memorizing these Shakespeare works just requires more memory space. TB is a clever The robot, talking to him is a bit more..." Richard stopped suddenly: "I'm sorry, Nicole, I can't talk on my own. Didn't you say you have business to discuss?" "But you've already taken up my time." She said with a mischievous smile, "If I take more than five minutes of your time, are you sure you won't starve to death?" Nicole quickly outlined her ongoing investigation into the surgical robot's software system, and her conclusion: a human command must have disabled the automatic protection system.She wanted him to help find out why, because she felt powerless to investigate alone.She did not talk about her suspicions. "It's not difficult." He said with a smile, "I just need to find these commands in the memory. Of course it will take a little time, depending on how big the registers are. These memories are often some logic units. But I don't understand Why do you bother, just ask Gallos and others?" "That's exactly the problem," Nicol replied. "Nobody remembers entering any other commands after it was last read and calibrated. As the ship rocked, I seemed to see Gallus's finger on the control box. He got bumped on the head, can't recall what happened. I'm not entirely sure either." Richard's brow furrowed. "It seems unlikely that Gallows entered this command by accident. This kind of command is not commonly used, and it is not easy to enter; or it means that the whole design is stupid." He thought for a while, "Okay , don't guess here, you have aroused my curiosity now, I will see what the problem is as soon as possible..." "It's dawn! It's dawn!..." They heard Otto Heilman shouting through the intercom, "Everyone please go to the science control center for a meeting immediately. Now there is a new situation, and the light of Lama is on again .” Richard opened the door and followed Nicole into the corridor. "Thank you for your help," Nicole said. "I appreciate you very much." "You'll thank me when I do something." Richard grinned, "I'm the kind of person who hates promises... Now that the lights in Lamar are on again, what do you think it's all about?" What kind of trick?"