Chapter 57 Chapter Fifty-Seven: Three People Walking Together

The three astronauts talked eagerly for over an hour, and they had a lot to say to each other.O'Toole shook his head sadly when Nicole told of her horror at seeing the dead Takashi in the eight-legged spider's burrow. He looked up at the high sky of Rama, and asked gently: "There are so many unanswerable questions here, do you really have malicious intentions?" Richard and Nicole applaud the general for his bravery in refusing to enter the code for the blast.They were horrified by the COG's order to destroy Rama. Nicole said: "Nuclearing this ship is an absolutely unforgivable crime. I'm sure it's basically innocuous. And I believe that Rama is approaching Earth because of special information to convey to us."

Richard whispered to Nicole that she was more emotionally inferred than factually proven. "Perhaps," she argued, "but the decision to destroy is utterly illogical. We now have sufficient evidence that the ship communicated with 'Rama 1', which leaves no doubt," Rama 1' must be somewhere not far away, and it is probably flying towards us. If the Rama fleet is really hostile, the earth will not escape. Even if we can destroy this spaceship, but It will certainly alert the next ship. Their technology is so advanced that we cannot escape their combined attack."

General O'Toole looked at Nicole admiringly and said, "That's a very brilliant insight. It's a shame that no one in the ISA discussions thought of it..." "Why don't we go back to the Newton and talk again?" said Richard suddenly, "According to my watch, it will be dark in half an hour. Before dark, we will not be able to get to the top. Unless there are special circumstances, I don't want to take the chair lift for a long time in the dark." All three astronauts were convinced that this was their last farewell to Rama.As the lights dimmed, everyone gazed one last time at the majestic alien ship in a farewell mood; they cast their gazes into the depths of Rama.

Nicole was filled with joy and excitement.But she was cautious by nature, and even when she was sitting on the chairlift, she still restrained her excitement, and couldn't believe that she could hold her daughter in her arms again.The idyllic beauty of Beauvais kept flashing through her mind, and she imagined the joy of meeting father and daughter. "That'll only take a week or ten days!" said Nicole to herself.She had a hard time restraining herself from cheering loudly when she reached the hub. As General O'Toole ascended, Rama's night finally came.The moment the lights went out, the general's thoughts were interrupted.He had been planning in his mind to get in touch with ISA immediately, and Nicole and Richard would tell the people what had happened to them, and they would offer new insights.O'Toole believes the order to activate the bomb will be reversed.

Before reaching the top of the chairlift, the general turned on his lamp.After the chair lift came to a complete stop, he stood up slowly in a weightless environment and came to Nicole's side.After Richard came up, the three of them walked along the slope to the tank car corridor 100 meters away.The three of them boarded the tank car, ready to cross the thick shell of Rama and head towards the Newton. Richard's beam of light hit a large metal object standing on the side of the passage, and he asked, "Is this a nuclear bomb?" The appearance of this nuclear bomb is indeed very similar to a large-sized bullet. "It's so weird." A chill ran through Nicole's heart, and she couldn't help but shudder, "I don't think this thing can be made in any way, I don't understand why the designer subconsciously chose such a special one. shape……"

"Does the top look weird to you?" Richard asked O'Toole. The general frowned, staring at the never-before-seen device above, and said, "I don't understand either, I've never seen that before." He got out of the car. Nicole and Richard followed him. General O'Toole walked over slowly, carefully examining the object attached to the number key.It was a disk, slightly larger than a keyboard, held to the bomb's case by some pointy joints.On the underside of the disc, there are at least 10 small prongs, most likely retractable contacts.At least that's how O'Toole sees it.

Sure enough, two seconds later, his opinion was confirmed. One of the small contacts stretched out and hit the number "5" on the keyboard, then "7" and 8 other numbers, and then the green light turned on.The first group of 10 digits is entered correctly. After a while, another group also lost.The green light comes on again. O'Toole's blood froze with shock. "Oh my god, that's my password! How did they know..." But he calmed down immediately.After the third set of numbers was entered, the red light was on, obviously an error occurred in the input. A moment later, in response to Richard's query, he said, "Obviously they made a hasty decision to try my combination after I left. They only got two sets of numbers right. Wait, I'm afraid..." O'Toole stopped, a strange feeling gripping him.

"They must think you're not going back," said Nicole flatly. "Maybe Hellman and Hiroshi Yamanaka did it," O'Toole replied. "Of course we can't rule out that alien visitors...or even biological robots put those retractable keystrokes there." "It's absolutely impossible." Richard expressed his opinion, "These craftsmanship are too rough." "Whoever it is." O'Toole said as he opened the backpack, took out some tools and began to disassemble it, "I can't take the risk." On the other side of the tunnel, near the Newton, O'Toole, Richard and Nicole found a second bomb, also equipped with the same device.

Three people observed its keystroke contact action. Like the first one, it also made a mistake when entering the third group of numbers.In the same way, they also removed it. Going further, they opened the airlock and left Rama. They were not greeted when they entered the Newton.O'Toole thought that Hellman and Hiroshi Yamanaka must be sleeping, so he came to the cabin. He wanted to have a private talk with Hellman first, but neither of them was there.I searched all over the small living and working areas, but there was still no one there. Searching in the cargo hold at the back of the spaceship was still fruitless.However, the three astronauts discovered that a lifeboat was missing.This made them a little puzzled. Where could Hellman and Hiroshi Yamanaka go in the lifeboat?And why would they violate the highest level of prohibition that "at least one person must stay on the ship"?

The three astronauts returned to the central control room full of doubts, discussing their whereabouts.O'Toole was the first to suggest that perhaps some kind of ghost had slipped aboard the ship. "For example, eight-legged spiders, or some kind of biological robots. In short, if they want to come in, they won't have much difficulty unless the spaceship's protection system is activated." He guessed. None of the three wanted to think about it any further.If their two colleagues were tied up or killed on the ship, the same danger must be lurking around them... "Why don't you talk to Earth and tell them we're alive?" Richard broke the silence.

General O'Toole smiled and said, "Good idea." He came to the console and activated the instrument.A standard status display appears on the large screen. "Strange," said the general. "According to this, we now have no direct connection with Earth, but only transmit some low-level telemetry data. Why have the system settings been changed?" He typed some commands to establish an advanced communication link with Earth.Immediately, a series of messages indicating an error appeared on the screen. "What's going on?" Richard complained suspiciously, "It seems that the machine is dead." He turned to O'Toole, "This is your specialty, General, how did you do it?" General O'Toole was serious: "I don't want to see it like this, Richard. I've only seen an error message like this one time before—some idiot forgot to install comm software early in a simulation exercise. We There must have been a serious software issue." Richard suggested that O'Toole do a self-test of the communication software.The self-test was less than one percent, and the machine's self-test diagnostic program reported that there was an error in the calculation. "It seems that it is indeed a software problem." Richard said while analyzing the data, and entered some commands, "It will take a while to troubleshoot." "Wait a minute," put in Nicole, "why don't we take a moment to make sense of these new circumstances before we get to work?" The two men stopped what they were doing and waited for her to continue. "Heilman, Hiroshi Yamanaka, and a lifeboat disappeared from the spaceship, and someone wants to automatically activate the two nuclear bombs placed in the passage." She walked slowly in the control room, "At this time, one hundred Communications software that has been working fine for days suddenly malfunctions. Can you link this together for an explanation?" Everyone was silent. "Maybe General O'Toole's hostile invasion was good," Richard said. "Hellman and Hiroshi Yamanaka probably ran for their lives, and those alien guests intentionally damaged the software." Nicole finds this argument unconvincing: "I don't see any extraterrestrial guests visiting the Newton, unless I see evidence..." "Maybe Hellman and Hiroshi Yamanaka tried to break the general's code," Richard thought, "and they were afraid..." "Stop, stop." Nicole suddenly called out, "What is the screen showing?" The two men turned around just in time to see Admiral Otter Heilmann's face appear on the screen. "Hello, General O'Toole." Heilman said smiling on the big screen. "This video is triggered and played automatically when you enter the airlock of the Newton. This is Hiroshi Yamanaka and I leaving Newton in a lifeboat." No. It was recorded 3 hours ago. After you entered Rama, we were ordered to evacuate within an hour. We had to wait until you reached the last time limit before we had to be ordered to evacuate. "The order given to you is simple and clear: enter your password into the nuclear bomb in the tank car corridor and the other 3 nuclear bombs in the cargo hold. You should leave in a lifeboat within 8 hours after that. Ignore the corridor The electronics on the two bombs were placed there by order of the COG headquarters as a means of obfuscation. You'll find that they can be easily disabled with a pair of pliers. "In addition, the emergency power system has been installed in the lifeboat, and it will automatically transport you to a safe location, where there will be a spacecraft dispatched by the International Space Agency to pick you up. All you have to do is enter the exact time of your departure. I want It is emphasized that the navigation calculation is only valid within 6 days after you leave the Newton. After that time, the navigation data will be invalid, and you will lose the chance of escape.” The image stopped for a moment, and then Heilman's voice became urgent and anxious: "Don't waste any time, Michael. Activate the bomb, and go straight to the lifeboat. We've packed all the supplies you'll need... Wish you Good luck on the return voyage. See you on Earth."