Chapter 36 Chapter 36 Rush to Earth

Frances was also taken aback when Rama's lights began to flicker.Her first instinct was to rush into the "barn", thinking it would be safer to hide in the house. "What's going to happen?" she thought.Dazzling flickers of light from neighboring buildings forced her to close her eyes. When she heard Nicole's cry for help, Frances rushed to help her partner, tripped on a spherical object and fell on her knees with a thump.When she got up, in the light and shadow, Frances saw Nicole hanging in the air. Frances stopped. She stood still, waiting.Her mind was spinning rapidly, thinking nervously.The image of the deep well appeared in her mind, and she estimated the depth of the well. "If she falls, she will be injured and may even die." Frances stared at the smooth side of the well. "She will not be able to climb out again."

The flickering and refracting lights made everything grotesque and terrible, and Frances still stood watching.She saw Nicole's body jump up and her hands were about to grab the mouth of the well, but when the light came on again, Nicole's feet changed direction and disappeared in a flash. Frances pricked up her ears, but she didn't hear Nicole's scream. It took her a lot of effort to control herself, and she didn't step forward to see what happened.She stood still among the little spheres and said to herself, "No, I can't look. If she's still awake, she'll see me, and then I won't have a choice."

From earlier exchanges between her and Nicole, Frances had concluded that Nicole intended to do her best to prove that Posov's pain on the day of his death was caused by drugs, and that Nicole might even The particular compound has been identified.The drug was uncommon, and she was eventually able to track down Frances by tracing the source.It sounds unbelievable, but it absolutely is. Frances was allowed to buy the drug at a hospital pharmacy in Copenhagen two years ago because of special needs.She was told that taking the drug in small doses could relieve stress and produce a sense of euphoria.But she read an article in an obscure Swedish mental health publication that said the drug, taken in high doses, could produce abdominal pain as severe as appendicitis.As Frances quickly left the "barn" and sprinted north, her mind also began to think and analyze various possible situations rapidly.As she often does, it's a high-risk, high-reward gamble.First, she had to face how she could explain to people that she had left Nicole alone in the deep well.To tell people the truth.Why did you leave her there alone?Someone will ask.Why don't you radio us that she's fallen, and stay there until backup arrives? “Because of the flickering of the lights, I was terrified and flustered, and Richard was so stern about us leaving immediately, I think we could talk things through in the helicopter.” Does that sound believable?Not very credible, but not easily debunked. "Besides, this is still partially true." She thought this way when she passed the octahedron in the central square.At this time, she realized that she had gone too far to the east, so she checked the guidance instrument and adjusted the direction of advancement.Rama's light was still flickering.

"Are there any other options for me? We were just outside the 'barn' when Walkerfield spoke to us, and he knows we're there, and searchers will find her soon. Unless..." Frances weighed the options again. One possibility, thinking about Nicole's last hint about General Posov's drug use.There is no doubt that any scandal will lead to tiresome investigations and possible prosecution.Regardless of the final outcome, Frances' reputation will be discredited, and her career and future as a journalist will face serious damage. If Nicole were dead, it would be virtually impossible for anyone to know that she, Frances, had drugged Posov.Of course, one person knew, and that was David Brown, but he was complicit.If things come to light, he will lose more than her.

"So the question," she thought, "is to see if I can make up a story so that Nicole can't be found, and if found, doesn't implicate me. It's a very difficult task!" She was already approaching the Sea of ​​Columns, and her guide device told her that she was only 600 meters away. "Damn it!" Frances said sternly to herself, after careful weighing, "there is no safe option, and whatever I do, there are obvious risks." Frances stopped walking north, pacing back and forth between two skyscrapers.Walking, walking, the ground under her feet began to tremble, and everything around her was shaking.She knelt down, maintaining her balance.

From the earphones, Gallows' weak voice came: "How is everyone? Take it easy. It seems that Lamar has made another track adjustment. This may be the most warning of all...By the way, Nicole, Where are you and Frances? Yamanaka and Richard are about to take off." "I'm near the Sea of ​​the Columns, perhaps two minutes away," replied Frances. "Nicole has gone back to see what's going on." "Call back, please," Gallos called. "Are you there, Nicole? Did you hear that? Astronaut de Jardin?" There was silence on the radio. "You know, Gallows," Frances put in, "the radio doesn't work at all here. Nicole knows where to meet the helicopter, and she'll be here soon, I'm sure." She paused for a moment, " Where are the others? Are they all okay?"

"Brown and Hellman are talking to Earth. The International Space Agency is freaking out, and they've asked us to evacuate Rama before Rama adjusts its orbit this time." "We're in the helicopter," said Richard Walkerfield. "We'll be there in a few minutes." "Okay, I've made a decision." When Richard finished speaking, Frances was unexpectedly excited.She immediately began to recite her "story": "As we walked into a large octahedron building next to the central square, Nicole discovered a narrow path that we hadn't noticed before. It was very narrow, she said. The blocks inside are areas where radio waves may not penetrate. We walked so fast, I'm tired. She told me to come over and meet the helicopter..."

"You never saw her again?" Richard interrupted, and Frances shook her head.Richard stood beside her on the ice. Rama's orbit adjustment continued for a long time, and the ice trembled under his feet.After the track adjustment started, Rama's lights returned to normal and stopped flickering. Pilot Hiroshi Yamanaka sits in the cockpit of the helicopter. Richard looked at his watch. "It's been five minutes since we landed here. Something must have happened to her." He looked around. "Maybe she came out of somewhere else." Richard and Frances boarded the helicopter, and Hiroshi immediately took off.They flew up and down the shore of the island, left and right, and circled, and twice flew over the snowmobile that was moored alone on the shore.

"Fly slowly into the city, maybe we can see her." Walkerfield ordered. From a helicopter, it is virtually impossible to see the city ground at all.Helicopters had to fly high above those skyscrapers, and the streets below were very narrow, and the mottled light and shadow made the eyes unable to distinguish things.Once, Richard thought he saw something moving between two buildings, and upon closer inspection, it turned out to be an illusion of the eyes. "Come back, Nicole, please! Where the hell are you?" "Walkerfield..." David Brown's voice sounded from the helicopter, "...I want the three of you to return to Camp Beta immediately, we need a meeting."

Richard was surprised to hear that it was Dr. Brown who was speaking. It was Gallows who had been in contact with them at Camp Beta just now. "Why the rush, boss?" Walkerfield said. "We haven't joined Nicole yet. She could be coming out of 'New York' any minute." "I'll give you the details when you get back. We have to make some very difficult decisions. Nicole will certainly be in touch with us when we get to shore." In a few moments they flew over the frozen sea of ​​cylinders.Arriving near the Beta camp, Hiroshi Yamanaka parked the helicopter on the ground of Rama, which was still shaking.The three astronauts disembarked from the helicopter, where the other four from Camp Beta were already waiting for them.

"It's unbelievable how long this orbit adjustment took." Seeing the others, Richard smiled and said, "I hope the Rama people know what they're doing." "They probably know." Dr. Brown said darkly. "At least the people on Earth know what they're doing." He looked at his watch carefully. "According to the calculations of the Operation Control Center Navigation Department, this orbit adjustment will Continued for about 19 more minutes." "How do they know?" Walkerfield asked. "Could it be that the Rama landed on Earth while we were investigating here and informed them of the flight plan?" No one laughed. "If the spaceship maintains its current flight attitude and acceleration rate," Gallos said with a serious expression on his face, "then, in another 19 minutes, they will enter the orbit of colliding with the earth." "Bump what?" Frances asked. Richard, Walkerfield was doing mental calculations quickly. "Crash into the earth?" he asked incredulously. Gallos nodded. "My God!" cried Frances. "That's right," Brown said. "This operation has a stake in the safety of Earth. The COG Executive Committee is meeting now to study all possible scenarios and countermeasures. After the fix is ​​complete, leave Rama as soon as possible. Leave everything but the crab creature and personal belongings behind. We..." "What about Gao An? And De Jardin?" Walkerfield asked. "We'll leave the snowmobiles where they are and the rover at Camp Beta so they can use it. We'll continue to radio them aboard the Newton." Dr. Brown looked directly at Richard. "If this The spaceship actually went into orbit," he said in a dramatic tone, "and our individual lives would no longer matter. The entire course of history for all of humanity would be changed immediately." "But what if the navigation technicians were wrong? What if Rama just adjusted his orbit by accident and happened to intersect the orbit towards Earth? Wouldn't it be..." "No way. Do you remember the orbit adjustment that caused Posov's death? They changed the direction of Rama's flight so that they could enter the orbit that hit the earth at the right time and place. Thirty-six hours ago, the Earth's The technicians have already spotted it. At daybreak today they wired General O'Toole to prepare for this orbital adjustment. People were searching for Takashi, I didn't tell you." "No wonder everyone couldn't wait for us to get out of here," Gallos said. "Not only that," Dr. Brown continued, "it is obvious that people on Earth have different opinions and opinions about Rama and the Rama people flying to Earth. Most of the leaders of the International Space Agency headquarters and the COG headquarters Rama has been determined to have malicious intent." He paused, considered his words again, and expressed his attitude: "I personally think that they are too emotional, but I can't persuade them to change their views. I don't see any evidence of hostility, it's just indifference to savage low-level creatures and ignore it. However, the TV broadcasted the footage of Wilson's death, terrified the people, and damaged the entire operation. It's a pity that the general public on Earth can't understand us. They don't see this magnificent spaceship. They only have instincts. fear of..." "If you don't think the Rama people are hostile," interrupted Frances, "how do you explain this change in orbit? It can't be accidental. For some reason they decided to fly to Earth instead, no wonder The hearts of the people down below are so hurt. Remember, when Rama came for the first time, he didn't care at all about the people who went in to visit. This dramatic response and change shows that the people of Rama want to tell people that they know ..." "Calm down, calm down!" Richard said. "I think we're jumping to conclusions too soon. We've got 12 minutes before we hit the panic button." "Okay, Walkerfield Astronaut," said Frances, and then she remembered her reporter's duties, and her video camera was still on! "You talk to people on camera, what do you think this orbital adjustment of Rama means? Why is it heading straight for Earth?" When Walkerfield finally spoke, he became very serious. "My fellow Earthlings," he said with passion in his voice, "even if Rama were to visit our planet, it would not need an act of malice. I need not repeat myself, we have all seen it, and there is no instance shows that the beings who built the ship wanted some of us to be harmed. Of course, we were surprised by the death of Astronaut Wilson, but that may have been an isolated incident of a group of bio-robots with special functions doing us harm. Actions that respond to the consequences, rather than being part of a sinister plan. "I saw that this magnificent spaceship was like a machine, indeed a machine with complex organs. It had a very high intelligence and was programmed to suit the long-term needs of life. It is neither friendly nor hostile. It can be seen from its appearance that it is like an artificial satellite, which is easy to identify, easy to calculate and track. Rama's flight trajectory Pointing to the vicinity of Earth might just be its standard response to another species capable of going into space, and nothing else. It might just want to learn more about us." "Excellent." Gallos smiled approvingly. "This is really a philosophical speech." Walkerfield also smiled, with a nervous and shy expression on his face. "Cosmonaut Tugyeva," Frances said, turning the camera in the other direction, "do you agree with your colleagues? You publicly expressed your disapproval of the possible existence of 'Mysterious power' concerns, meaning that the Ramas had a hand in his death. What do you think now?" The usually taciturn Russian pilot, staring into the camera with her sad eyes, said: "Well, I guess Walkerfield is a very clever engineer, but he doesn't answer the difficult question: Why did Rama Adjusting orbit while Posov is undergoing surgery? Why are those crabs cutting Wilson into pieces? Where is Professor Takagishi?" Elena Tugyeva paused to contain her excitement: "We haven't found Nicole de Jardin. Rama may be a machine, but we astronauts have seen it, How dangerous it is. If it were headed toward Earth, I would worry about my family, my friends, and all fellow human beings. There is no way of knowing what it might do, and we have no power to stop it." A few minutes later, Frances took her automatic camera equipment to the frozen column beach to capture the final shot.Before starting the camera, she checked the time carefully, and she had to start filming exactly 15 seconds before the end of the scheduled track correction. "You can see that the image is bouncing up and down," she said in the beautiful voice of a female reporter, "this is because the ground in Lama has been shaking continuously since the Lama track adjustment started 47 minutes ago. According to the navigation technology The personnel's calculations, if Rama were to head toward Earth, would stop this orbital adjustment in a few seconds. Of course, their calculations presupposed, first of all, that Rama was attempting to..." Frances stopped abruptly before she finished speaking, and she took a deep breath: "The ground is no longer shaking, and the orbit adjustment is over. Now, Rama is on the orbit towards the earth."