Chapter 49 Chapter 49 Communication

"We're almost out of food," said Nicole apprehensively.They packed the remaining managua into Richard's backpack. "I know," he replied, "I've already thought up a plan for you to get another one." "Me?" asked Nicole. "Why me?" "Look, first of all it only takes one person. That's an idea that came to me while I was drawing these pictures on this Rama's computer. Second, I can't waste time. I feel like on this system, I'm going to get Crucial breakthrough. There are about 200 instructions here, and if I go to another higher level of instruction structure, I can figure out what these instructions mean."

Over dinner, Richard explained to Nicole how he had figured out how to use the Lamar computer.He can now access data on it, perform mathematical calculations, draw pictures, and even design a new computer language. "But I'm far from exhausting its potential. Tonight and tomorrow, I must discover more of its secrets. We are racing against time." His plan to get melons is actually very simple, although a little unreliable.After the long night in Rama, Nicole came to the central square.Based on the analysis, Richard identified the three most likely locations and sent Nicole to find the control panel that would open the crypt's lid.He was so confident that he didn't even think about the possibility that the switch might not be found.

He was right, Nicole had no trouble finding the control panel.She opened the cave's floor and yelled down.There was no response from the well. She used the lamp to shine toward the dark well below, and the "tank" whistle was still guarding the entrance of the horizontal passage leading to the water room.Nicole called out again.Unless it was absolutely necessary, she didn't want to go down again, not even to the next step, she didn't want to be locked down by the Ai Yunniao again. She seemed to hear the sound of flapping wings below?Yes, Nicole sure.She took a coin she found in the white room and threw it down the horizontal passage below the well.The coin fell obliquely, and after a while, near the second horizontal main corridor, it touched the edge of a platform, making a crisp sound.

This time, the sound of flapping wings was clearer, and an iyun bird flew into the beam of Nichol's light, its huge wings covering the "tank" whistle.Just then, the manhole cover began to close, and Nicole had to back away. Nicole and Richard had expected this to happen before.After waiting for a while, Nicole pressed the switch again and opened the manhole cover.When she called out to Shenjing again, there was an immediate response from below.This time, her blackbird friend flew up and chatted to her 5 meters away from her.It can be seen that it wants her to leave.Just as it was about to turn and fly away, Nicole took out the computer, activated the program, and two drawings of managuas appeared on the screen.As Ai Yunniao watched, the Managua gradually turned colorful, and a flat cut appeared in one of them, which was divided into two halves, revealing the brightly colored flesh inside.

The big black bird flew up to get a closer look.Then, it lowered its head and barked a few times into the dark well.After a while, another old friend, the husband of the big black bird, flew up and landed on the edge of the first-level platform.Nicole demonstrates the drawing on the screen again.The two Aiyun birds exchanged a few words, then both flew down the well and disappeared into the darkness. A few minutes later, Nicole heard the intermittent flapping of wings deep in the shaft.Later, her two friends reappeared, each with a tiny managua in its claws.After a while, they landed near the entrance of the cave.

Nicole walked towards them, but the iyun birds did not put down the managua immediately, but stood there talking.They were making speeches, Nicole supposed.The two aiyun birds watched Nicole with their eyes and slapped their talons on the Managua; now one bird spoke alone, now both spoke together.The speech lasted for a full 15 minutes, and then most of them felt that they had said enough, so they flew up, soared and circled over the square, and then disappeared into the deep well. Nicole walked back towards the East Square, thinking, "They're telling me that there aren't many melons in supply." The melons are heavy, and Nicole emptied two backpacks when he came, and brought them just for melons. "Perhaps we won't be able to bother them anymore. It looks like we won't be welcome anymore," she said to herself.

She imagined how pleased Richard would be when she returned to the white room.He was really happy, but not because of her and those melons.He was all smiles, one hand behind his back, and said, "Wait, I'll show you something." Nicole removed the backpack.Richard put his hands in front of Nicole and spread them out. In the palm of his hand was a hard black ball about 10 centimeters in size. "Now, I'm pretty much on the verge of figuring out how it all works, and I'll be able to get information from here very quickly," Richard said. "And I already know a way to 'receive' something with this computer."

"What did you say?" Nicole asked.She still didn't understand why Richard was so excited about the little black ball. "Lama made this for me!" He sent the little black ball to Nicole again, "Do you understand? Here, they have a factory that can make things for us." "You mean 'they'? No matter who the 'they' are, can 'they' make food for us?" Nicole said dissatisfied.She was a little annoyed that Richard had neither congratulated her nor thanked her for her return. "Those iyunniao probably won't give us melons anymore," she said. "Don't worry," said Richard, "if we figured out all the procedures, we might be able to order fillets, steaks, potatoes, and anything else."

Nicole looked at her friend lovingly.His appearance is really disgusting, with disheveled hair, long beard, red and swollen eyes, and a grin, just like a patient who just escaped from the madhouse. She said, "Slow down, Richard. Even if you find the Holy Grail, can you tell me from the beginning?" "Look at this screen." He drew a circle on it with the keyboard, then erased it and drew a rectangle.In less than a minute, he had carefully outlined a three-dimensional cube on it.Then he clicked the key eight times, made a preset, and finally pressed a small rectangular key.A string of strange symbols appeared on a black screen. "Don't worry," Richard said, "you don't need to understand those details. It's just asking for the dimensions of the cube."

Immediately afterwards, Richard tapped the letters and numbers for a while, and turned to Nicole and said, "Now, if my input is correct, within 10 minutes, we will have a cube, and its The material is the same as the balls just now." While waiting, they cut up a freshly acquired managua and ate it.The taste of the new melons is no different from the original ones.Nicole thought, "If only there were steak and potatoes." At this moment, the wall suddenly rose by half a meter, and a black cube appeared in the gap. "Wait, don't touch it just yet." Richard said as Nicole walked over to look. .It must lead all the way to a very advanced factory, which is beyond our comprehension and recognition. Think about it! It can make anything you want.” Nicole began to understand at this time, Richard De why so excited. "In a way, we can control our own destiny. If I can decipher its secret soon, we can get food and maybe build a boat."

"Hope it doesn't have too much motor noise," Nicole sneered. "No motor." Richard finished eating the melon, turned around and fiddled with the keyboard again. Nicole began to worry.Another Rama day passed and Richard had just one new breakthrough. The result of 38 hours of hard work is just a new material.Now he can create a dark material like light wood, or something dense like oak and pine.He was worn out by his work, and Nicole was of no help. "Perhaps his first discovery was just a stroke of luck." Nicole said to himself as he walked in the morning, "maybe this 'factory' can't make anything but these two things." ?” She was worried that this was just a waste of time.There are only 16 days left before Rama reaches the earth, and the rescuers have not even seen a trace.She secretly felt that she and Richard had been abandoned long ago. She had tried to talk to Richard about their next steps yesterday afternoon, but he was exhausted.When Nicole mentioned her concerns, he hadn't responded at all.While Nicole described their possible options and asked his opinion, he was already in dreamland.When Nicole woke up, she saw that Richard was already working on the keyboard again.He also refused breakfast and any distraction from conversation.Nicole stumbled over the mess of black items all over the floor, so she had to come out to do morning exercises. Nicole felt very lonely.For the past fifty hours, she had been alone, and the time had passed unnaturally slowly, and her only pastime and pleasure had been reading.There are 5 books stored in her computer, one is her medical encyclopedia, and the other 4 are all recreational books. She sat on the walls of "New York," looking out at the Sea of ​​Columns, and thinking, "I bet his memory is full of Shakespeare." In her computer, there are two novels by her father.When she thought of her father, she suddenly felt a strong feeling of missing her family.She seemed to see her father and daughter sitting in the living room reading a book, and she also saw her daughter riding a bicycle on the way to school. "It's been two weeks and they haven't heard from me. You don't despair, my dear daughter?" she murmured.In an instant, she suddenly realized that the two of them couldn't communicate with each other because they were millions of kilometers apart. This reality made it hard for her to accept.She stood up and walked towards the white room, and for a moment she became dazed, as if she thought she could talk to her daughter there. After a few seconds, her mind cleared.She was amazed at how she had become so confused all of a sudden.She shook her head, turned around and sat on the city wall again, looking at the distance of the Sea of ​​Columns.Two hours passed, and she let her thoughts wander aimlessly.Finally, she thought of the White Room, and of Richard. She said silently: "My dear friend, I have tried to trust you. You were the one who opened my heart for the first time since Henry. I am still alive, and you with me are even less willing to believe other people." When she walked down those steps and turned to the second horizontal corridor, she felt an inexplicable sadness in her heart.But when she entered the white room, surprise replaced sadness. Richard jumped up from his little black chair and hugged her tightly.His face was clean-shaven, his hair combed neatly, even his nails were clean.On a small table in the center of the room, there are sliced ​​managuas on two black plates.There are two chairs facing each other on either side of the table. Richard pulled out the chair and let Nicole sit down; he went around the table and sat down, took Nicole's hand, and said emotionally: "I want to apologize to you for my rudeness. , In the past few days, my performance has been very bad." "During the few hours I've been waiting for you, I feel like I have a thousand words to tell you." He continued hesitantly, with an unnatural expression on his face, "but now why most of them can't remember Wake up...I want to tell you how much 'Prince Henry' means to me, and so does 'Falstaff'. They are my closest friends...their death means so much to me. It's a hard reality to accept, and I'm very sad..." Richard took a sip of water and swallowed: "But the most important thing is that I haven't told you what a special person you are. You are smart, charming, and witty-these are the ideals for a woman of my dreams." All the qualities that I have. I've been afraid to tell you the words that are on my mind, despite the difficult times we've been in, and I think I've been terribly afraid of rejection." Tears welled up in Richard's eyes and ran down his cheeks.He trembled slightly.Nicole knew how much courage it must have taken him to say those words. She took his hand, put it gently on her cheek, and said softly: "I think you are also a very special person."