Chapter 43 Chapter 43 Alien Psychology

"One more reason, let's not lose hope," said Richard cheerfully to Nicole as soon as she opened her eyes. "I forgot to mention last night." Nicole was always slow to wake up.Since she was a child, she liked to recall the scenes in her dreams before waking up, so as to delay the harsh reality she was about to face.At home, both Papa and Genevieve knew not to discuss anything important with her until she had finished her morning coffee.She blinked and stared sleepily at Richard.He lit the space between them with a small lamp. "This spaceship is headed for Earth," he said. "Even if the Newton leaves, maybe another human spaceship will arrive soon."

"What did you say?" Nicole asked in surprise, sitting up, rubbing her eyes. "Last night was so exciting, I forgot the most important point, when you fell into the well and lost consciousness, Rama made a orbit correction and is now flying to the earth. Because of this reason, we were forced to evacuate. " Richard saw Nicole staring at him as if he were talking crazy. "The craft is still in an elliptical orbit around the sun," he added, "but at the same time it's heading toward the Earth at full speed. In twenty-three days, we'll be there."

"Richard," Nicole said eagerly for a cup of coffee to clear her head, "I don't like early-morning jokes, don't bother making up..." "No, it's not," he cut her off. "I'm serious. It's true, trust me." Nicole took out her thermometer and looked at it, "So tell me, my brilliant engineer, why is the temperature here still rising? If we're flying in the opposite direction from the sun, shouldn't it be Is it right to descend?" "You're wrong, Nicole." Richard shook his head. "The sun's heat has to penetrate Rama's thick shell and slowly transfer from the surface to the inside, because the thermal conductivity is obviously very low. I think, It's going to be at least another two weeks before the temperature reaches its peak."

Nicole remembered the fundamentals of thermodynamics, and she knew he was right.It's morning, and it's too early to see a change in temperature.But Nicole still had a hard time accepting the notion that Rama was heading for Earth.She asked Richard for a drink of water, thinking, "What's going to happen? Why is Rama flying towards our planet?" Richard seemed to read her mind: "You should really listen to those silly discussions about why Rama changed its orbit and why it flew to Earth. People had seven hours of videoconference." He laughs out loud: "There's an ISA employee, I'm guessing a Canadian, and his major is 'biopsychology from outer space.' Can you believe it? This idiot was in a meeting talking about so-called Rama Orbit Amendment motivations and stuff." Richard shook his head vigorously, "All bureaucrats are the same, they drain the lives of those who are really creative, and always go along with the stupid news clamor .”

"What was the conclusion of that video conference?" Nicole asked after a moment of silence. "Most people guessed that Rama would go into an orbit around the earth and observe the earth from a distance. But a few people, I think they were scared out of their wits, thought it was likely that Rama would act hostilely .When we got back on board the Newton, Dr. Brown was behaving strangely, at least I thought so. He claimed that his point was that Rama, seemingly non-hostile to humans, was trying to learn more about Earth, It will lead to people's illusions, which will lead to hostilities."

Richard stood up excitedly: "Have you ever heard such an official statement in your life? Besides, Dr. Brown is just one of a series of such weird talks. Finally, the entire International Space Agency The members of the Advisory Board cast votes. If you think about it, the delegates spoke one by one, and someone said: 'I believe in option A: Rama's coming will lead to devastating results, causing climate change.' Someone said: 'I am inclined to Option C: Approaching Earth with war intent.' My God, every single one of them made a similar statement. "That spiritual master Alexander who asked you a lot of questions after your December medical also showed up and spent 15 minutes blah blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Anyone can go up there and do shit!" Richard sat down again, with his hands on his cheeks, "Everything is incomprehensible."

Nicole's mind was perfectly clear now.She sat up on the sleeping mat and said, "From your obvious annoyance, I guess you don't agree with those statements." Richard nodded. "Almost three-quarters of the participants were convinced that Rama was likely to cause harm to Earth. These included the entire Newton crew, most of the Chief Science Officer, and the executive officers of the International Space Agency. They attention was all focused on the same problem. They argued that because Rama 1 apparently ignored our presence completely while Rama 2 turned around to rendezvous with Earth, it showed that the craft Completely different from how the previous one worked. I certainly agree with that, but I don't understand why everyone is so certain that Rama is necessarily hostile? In my opinion, it's more likely to show that those aliens are very Curious, or even just want to help us in any way!"

The British engineer stopped and thought for a while: "Frances said that this vote showed that most of the ordinary people on the planet, according to her, almost 90% of the people, were frightened by the arrival of Rama, they Shout out and ask the politicians to do something." Richard opened the tent and stood in the dark square.He waved the lights around the top of the octahedron building: "Eighteen hours later, a second meeting was held, and it was announced that the Newton team would no longer enter the interior of Rama. Technically, I did not violate this order, because in the I had left the Newton before the official announcement, and of course the order had apparently been given."

"While the leaders on Earth are figuring out what to do with this alien ship that's rushing toward them like an asteroid," Nicole said, following him out, "you and I have an easier problem to deal with." Solution, that is, we must cross the Sea of ​​Columns." She struggled to force out a pale smile, "Let's look around while we talk, shall we?" Richard shot a beam of light down the well, and the managua was easy to make out, but the messy metal pieces were too dark to see. "These are the parts of the centipede creature?" he asked. Nicole nodded.They knelt side by side at the mouth of the well, and she said, "Even when there is light, the bottom of the well is dark. I wanted to see if that was Takashi's body."

"I really want to see how the centipede creature repairs its own body." Richard stood up, walked towards the wall of the "barn", knocked on the wall and said, "Scientists who study materials must like this Something. Ordinary electromagnetic waves are blocked by it from both inside and outside directions. It is surprising that visible light can penetrate from the outside, that is to say, the inside can see the outside, but the outside cannot see the inside. Why is it transparent from the inside? What about it?" He turned to Nicole and said, "Get out your scalpel and let's see if we can get a slice."

Nicole was wondering if they should go down and bring up the melons alone.This is not difficult if the sutures are strong enough.She took out the scalpel and walked over to Richard. "I don't know if we should do this," she said a little hesitantly before touching the scalpel to the wall, "one, the knife might break and we might need it; The savages of art." "Artwork?" He glanced at Nicole in surprise, "what an amazing idea." He shrugged and turned to the other side of the 'barn', "maybe you're right, or don't put It's good that the scalpel is broken." Richard entered some data into his personal computer to study.Nicole came to his side. "You and Frances are standing here, aren't you?" Nicole gave him an affirmative answer. "Then, you ran back, entered the 'barn,' and looked down the well?" "We've been here before," Nicole replied. "Why are you asking this question again?" "I think Frances saw you fall into the well and deliberately made up a story about you going to the Japanese professor alone. She didn't want anyone to find you." Nicole watched Richard in the dark. "I agree with you," she replied slowly, "but why do you think so?" "This is the only reasonable explanation. Before I re-entered Rama, I had a strange meeting with her. She came to my room, said she was going to interview me, and asked me why I was going back to Rama. When I mentioned When it came time for Falstaff and your spotting pulse, she turned off her video camera abruptly. Then became very jovial and asked many technical questions at length. As she left, she told me that she was sure we were neither Should go into Rama. I think she's begging me not to go back. "I understand, she doesn't want me to find you, because she threw you down the well." Richard paused, and continued, "What I can't understand is why she would do this." "You must still remember that night you explained to me why the automatic protection device of the surgical robot failed." Nicole thought for a while and said, "That night, I asked you and Gallows if they saw General Posov... ..." As they walked back toward the tent in the direction of the square, Nicole spent fifteen minutes telling Richard all the reasoning and hypotheses she had in mind about the treasonous plot.She told him about the media contract, about Frances providing drugs to David and Wilson, and her personal gut impressions of these people.She didn't tell him about the data crystals. The evidence, Richard agrees, is clear enough. "So, you think she threw you down the well to avoid being exposed?" Nicole nodded. Richard hissed and whistled in amazement: "This way, everything is in line. It is clear that when we returned to the Newton, Frances was very conspicuous. It seems that Hellman and Brown actually Everything is at her disposal." He put his arm around Nicole, "I don't want to be this woman's enemy, because it's clear that she has no scruples in what she does anyway."