Chapter 9 Chapter 9 Reconnaissance

"We have now fired five long time-lapse flares from the axis of the cylinder, enough to photograph the entire length, and all major objects have been mapped, and the few recognizable ones we have named. "The interior of the entire cavity is 50 kilometers long and 16 kilometers wide. The ends are bowls of rather complex geometry. We call this the northern hemisphere, and we will build our first base on the axis. From the central axis Out from the hub and spoke, there are three nearly 1,000-meter-long climbing ladders at intervals of 120 degrees. Their ends all land on a platform, or on a circular walkway along the edge of the entire bowl. From here, Then there are 3 huge steps, extending to the plain. If you imagine an umbrella with only 3 equal ribs, you will have a clearer idea of ​​this side of Rama.

"Each umbrella rib is a ladder. It is very steep near the axis, and then gradually leads to the plain below. These stairs, we call them Alpha, Beta, and Gamma, they do not go straight down, but are separated by five The circular platform is divided into sections. We estimate that there are about twenty thousand to thirty thousand steps. These steps are probably only used for contingencies, since it is impossible to imagine that these Ramas - or whatever they are called - do not have a A better way to reach their world axis. "The southern hemisphere is completely different. For example, there are no steps, and no flat central hub. Instead, a cone protruding from the center is a few kilometers long along the axis, and there are six smaller cones around it. Columns. The whole device seems so bizarre that we can't imagine what purpose they serve.

"The entire 50-kilometer-long cylindrical part between the two bowls, we call it the central plain. Maybe it is not appropriate to use a plain to describe a curved surface, but we think it is appropriate here. When we walk on it , it looks flat—just like an ant crawling in a bottle would say that the bottle is flat. In the middle of the most prominent part of this central plain there is a 10-kilometer-wide strip around the entire horizon. It looks like ice, so we named it Cylindrical Sea. There is a long oval island in its center, about 10 kilometers long and 3 kilometers wide, and there are many tall buildings on the island. Because these buildings remind us of old Manhattan, we call it New York. However, I don't think of it as a city, it's more like a huge factory.

"But there are six more cities—or at least towns. If it were built by humans, each could hold 50,000 inhabitants. We named them Rome, Beijing, Paris, Moscow, London, and Tokyo, and between them There are systems like roads or railways to connect them. "The remains of this frozen world appear to be rich enough for us to study for centuries. We have 4,000 square kilometers to explore, but we have only worked here for a few Week. Two mysterious questions have haunted me since I came in: Who are they and what happened?" The tape stopped here.On Earth and the moon, the members of the Rama Council relaxed for a moment before gazing at the maps and facsimile photographs spread out in front of them.Though they had been studying for hours, Captain Newton's voice added something these pictures couldn't convey.He was really there, watching with his own eyes this magical reverse world, for a moment when it was illuminated by flares after a long night.He is the one who will lead the expedition to explore it.

"Dr. Perilla, I believe you have an opinion to make?" Ambassador Bossy originally thought that the first speaking seat should be given to Professor Davidson, who is a senior senior scientist and the only astronomer.But the old cosmologist doesn't seem to have recovered from his shock, and it's clear that the event is far from what he believes.Throughout his career he has considered the universe to be an impersonal arena of gravity, magnetism, and radiation; On Earth, Mars, or Jupiter, that's just an accidental distortion. However, life has now been proven not only in the solar system, but to a much higher level than humanity could have expected to achieve in a few centuries.What's more, Lamarr's findings challenge another belief Davidson has held for years.Usually, when he was pressed, he grudgingly admitted the possibility of life in other galaxies, but he had to declare right away that it would be foolish to imagine that it could pass across interstellar distances.

If Captain Newton was right in believing that their world was a tomb, then the Rama had indeed failed.But at least their pioneering work itself shows to some extent that they have a high degree of confidence in their results.If this kind of thing happened once, it must happen many times in the whole galaxy with hundreds of billions of suns, and there will be success in the middle.This is the very popular theory that Dr. Calisso Perilla has been preaching for years without being able to prove.He is now a very happy man, though a little sad.Rama had confirmed his point, but he couldn't step in or see with his own eyes.At this time, if the devil suddenly gave him the clone technique, he would immediately and unconditionally sign a contract with the devil.

"Yes, Mr. Ambassador, I have some interesting information. What we have now encountered is undoubtedly a 'cosmic ark.' It is an ancient concept in the history of astronomy. I can trace it back to the British physicist J.D. Bono, who proposed the method of interstellar migration in a book he published in 1929 - yes, two hundred years ago! Another Russian pioneer - Tsiolkovsky, even earlier, Similar ideas have also been proposed. "If you're going from one galaxy to another, you have a few alternatives. Assuming the speed of light is the absolute limit - that's not yet conclusive, though you'll hear objections, (a bit of scoffing but Not a formal disapproval from Davidson) - you can take a fast small ship or use a larger ship for a slower journey.

"There seems to be no technical reason why a spaceship cannot reach a speed of 90 percent of the speed of light or higher. This means that the travel time between two neighboring galaxies is 5 to 10 years, although it is long, But it's not unrealistic, especially for creatures whose lifespans are measured in centuries. It's conceivable that such a voyage can be done even if it's not much larger than our current spaceship. "But, or this speed is not possible, then you can take a little longer - 10,000 years or 100,000 years. "The idea of ​​Bo Nuo and others is to use a transportation tool several kilometers long to carry thousands of passengers, and it can maintain the lives of several generations during the journey. Of course, such a system needs to be absolutely closed, with regenerative plants inside. and other regenerative consumption systems, the planet itself does this - on a larger scale.

"Some writers have suggested that such cosmic arks be built as concentric circles, and others have imagined them as hollow rotating cylinders, in which centrifugal force acts as an artificial gravitational force—just as we found Rama..." Davidson couldn't help it, and said: "There is no centrifugal force at all. That's what the engineers imagined. There is only inertia." "You're absolutely right," Perilla admitted, "but it's hard to convince someone who's been lucky enough to be thrown off a merry-go-round. Mathematical rigor doesn't seem to be required here—"

"Gentlemen, gentlemen," interrupted Bossie, "we all understand what you mean, or rather, we think we do. But please don't interrupt our train of thought." "Very well, I just want to point out that the concept of Rama is not mysterious, although it is amazingly large. Humans have imagined such things two hundred years ago." Bossy then asked: "Now I want to ask another question. How much time has this Rama traveled in the universe?" Perilla continued: "We have precisely calculated its orbit and velocity. Assuming its course hasn't changed, we can trace it back to where it was a million years ago. We used to think it came from the direction of a nearby star, but it didn't." It's not like this.

"It has been more than two hundred thousand years since Rama passed any star in close proximity, and that one is the most inhospitable galaxy. Its brightness variation is 1:50; any planet within a few years are baked and frozen over and over again.” "A hypothesis," interjected Dr. Blaise, "may explain everything. It might have been a normal sun and then become unstable. That's why Rama is looking for a new sun." Perilla admired the old archaeologist, so she didn't refute her.But he wondered what she would say if he pointed out that this was clearly her own professional problem. "We have thought about it," he said politely, "but if our current understanding of the interstellar is correct, then this star can never be stable, and it cannot be life-bearing. So, at least Rama It has been traveling through space for 200,000 years, maybe even more than a million years. "Right now it appears to be cold and dark and dead. The Rama may have had no other choice - or they escaped some catastrophe - but they miscalculated. "No ecology of closed environments is 100 percent effective; there is always wear and tear—degradation of certain environments and accumulation of pollution. There is also a doomsday for a planet after billions of years of poisoning The oceans will dry up; the atmosphere will leak. "Rama is huge by our standards—but it's still a tiny planet. According to my calculations, its lifespan is about several Thousands of years. At most, I count it ten thousand years. "At Rama's travel rate, that's long enough to travel among the denser neighboring stars in the central region of the Milky Way. But not far out in the sparser spiral arms of this region. Rama is a A ship that ran out of fuel before reaching its destination. It's an outcast wandering the stars. "There is only one serious flaw in this theory, which I will bring up before anyone doubts it. Rama's orbit is so precisely pointed at the solar system that any chance can be ruled out. In fact, I might even say it is now It is already too close to the sun. To avoid overheating, Endeavor will have to leave it before reaching perihelion. "I don't want to pretend to know any of this. Maybe generations after the death of its builder some guide was still at work, still steering Rama's course to the nearest suitable star. "And they're dead, and I'd bet my reputation on it. The samples we've taken from inside it were all non-living. We didn't find any traces of organic matter. If you've ever heard of suspended life, Don't believe it. There is an underlying theory to the idea that hibernation cannot last more than a few centuries—and we're dealing with something thousands of times longer than that. "Therefore the Pandora theorist and his disciples need not worry. As for myself, I regret it. It would have been a pleasure to meet other rational beings. "But at least we have an answer to an age-old question. We are not alone. The stars will never be the same for us."