Chapter 10 Chapter Ten Descending into the Darkness

Newton wanted to go down by himself, but as the captain, he had to be responsible for his spaceship first.In case of accident during the initial reconnaissance, he must remain on board at all times. Therefore, his second in command, Major Messer, was bound to be elected.Newton also readily admitted that he was better suited for such a task. Messer is an authority on astronaut life support systems.He has written several standard textbooks on the subject and has personally tested countless devices in a variety of hazardous situations, and is famous for his biofeedback controls.When necessary, he could instantly reduce his pulse rate to fifty percent and hold his breath almost completely for ten minutes, useful techniques that have saved his life more than once.

But for all his learning and ability, he was almost entirely devoid of imagination.For him, the most dangerous experiments or tasks are just things that must be done.He never took unnecessary risks, and he saw no use in what is commonly called daring. Two maxims on his desk sum up his philosophy of life.One was: "Have you forgotten something?" The other was: "Don't pretend to be brave." The only thing that pissed him off was that he was widely regarded as the bravest man in the fleet. Now he naturally chooses his inseparable friend Captain Joe Cafu as one of his companions.It was hard to see anything in common between them.The thinner, ever-nervous navigator is 10 years younger than his stocky, calm friend, and Messer certainly doesn't appreciate his penchant for primitive film art.

For several years, Messer and Cafu have established a stable cooperative relationship.This is a normal thing.Much more unusually, they shared a wife on Earth, who bore them each a child.Newton hoped to meet her one day, she must be a very unusual woman.This triangle has been going on for five years, and it still appears to be an equilateral relationship. Two people can't form a scouting team yet.It has long been found that three people are the best combination.Because if one dies, two survivors are better than one.After thinking about it, Newton selected Willa Myron, a talented mechanic, as a technical officer.He can fix anything, or design a better one.Myron is ideal for identifying completely unfamiliar devices.He was originally an associate professor at the Institute of Astronomical Technology, and he was taking his degree. He refused the invitation to lead a ground station on the grounds that he did not want to hinder the advancement of talented people.No one took his excuses seriously, everyone thought Willa's ambitions were too small.He'd make a good cosmic sergeant, but never a full professor.Like all staff sergeants, he has the right understanding of the relationship between power and responsibility.

They passed through the last air chamber and floated into the weightless axis of Rama.Cafu finds himself, as he often does, in flashbacks to past films.Sometimes he wondered if he should get over his habit, but he couldn't see any harm in it.It can at least make even the dullest of tasks seem more interesting.And who can tell?Maybe one day it would save his life.He will remember what he would have done in a similar situation. This time, he imagined he was on a mission in a war in the early twentieth century.Messer is a sergeant, leading a three-man patrol to attack an uninhabited area at night.It's not hard to imagine them at the bottom of a massive crater, albeit one that has been carefully groomed with a series of rising platforms.Three widely spaced plasma arc lamps illuminated the entire bottom of the crater, forming an almost shadowless, luminous interior.But beyond that, there's darkness and mystery.

And Cafu knew in his heart what was there.The first is a circular platform with a diameter of 1,000 meters.The platform was divided into three equal sections, each with a rail-like ladder, the bars of which were set back below the plane so as not to be an obstacle to anything sliding over it. The choice of Alpha air chamber is only for convenience.Since it's the closest one, and because of the perfect symmetry of the whole layout, it doesn't seem to matter which one you pick. The bars on the ladder are widely spaced, but that's not a problem.Even at the edge of the hub 500 meters away from the axis, the gravity is only one-thirtieth that of the earth.So although they all carry nearly 100 kilograms of equipment and life support equipment, it will be very easy to climb with one hand.

Captain Newton and the backup team accompanied them to the Alpha airtight chamber, where the guide rope stretched to the first ring platform.Beyond the reach of the floodlights, ahead of them was the darkness of Rama.What the jumping beam of the helmet light can see is only the first few hundred meters of the climbing ladder, gathering in the distance. Messer said to himself, now I have to make my first decision, do I go up this ladder, or do I go down? This is not an insignificant question.They were actually still in the zero-gravity zone, where the reference factor could be chosen arbitrarily, and Messer could convince himself that he was looking forward on flat ground, or facing a vertically rising wall, or facing the canyon under the cliff.Many astronauts have the experience that when starting a complex mission, choosing the wrong coordinates can cause serious psychological problems.

Messer decided to keep his head facing forward, other postures would look weirder, and at least it would be easier to see what was in front of him.Therefore, in the first few hundred meters, he will imagine that he is climbing up, until the center of gravity increases to the point where he can no longer maintain such a concept, and then turn the direction of his mind a hundred and eighty degrees. He grabbed the first rung and pulled himself slowly up the ladder.It was so easy, it was easy to be tempted to go too fast, but Messer was too experienced to rush into completely unfamiliar surroundings.

He could hear the even breathing of the two companions in the earphones.He didn't need any other proof that they were in good shape, let alone waste time talking.Though he wanted to look back, he decided not to risk it until he reached the landing at the end of the ladder. The distance between every two horizontal bars of the ladder is half a meter. In the first section, Messer holds the bars alternately.When he counted carefully to the 200th bar, he felt heavy for the first time.The effect of Rama's rotation began to show. At level 400, he feels his perceived weight is 5 kg.There was nothing wrong with that, but it made it hard for him to imagine himself climbing, and felt like he was being pulled upwards.

At level 500, it seems like a good place to stop.The muscles began to respond to this unaccustomed movement. Although all the work was done by Rama, he was only guiding for himself. "All is well, Captain," he reported. "We're halfway there. Joe, is there a problem?" "I'm fine, what are you stopping for?" Cafu replied. "Me too," Myron added, "but mind you, it's starting to take shape." Messer has also noticed.When he releases his grip on the bar, there is a clear tendency to move to the right.Although it is known that this is just the effect of Rama's rotation, it looks like a mysterious force trying to push you away from the ladder.

Maybe start walking with your feet forward, because going down now makes physical sense.He would rather take the risk of losing the directionality of the coordinates for this moment. "Attention—I'm turning around now." He gripped the ladder bars tightly and turned himself a hundred and eighty degrees with his arms, feeling dazzled by the lights of his companions' helmets.Far up--and now it was up--he could see the fading glow of the cliff's edge.Those vague figures - Newton and the reserve team, are watching him.They seem far and small.He waved his hand to reassure them.

He let go of his hand, allowing Rama's still weak gravity to work.It takes more than two seconds for him to "fall" from one ladder bar to the next, and in the same time on earth, a person will fall 30 meters. The rate of this free fall is painfully slow.Pushing with his hands, he lowered himself about a rung at a time, trying to keep from falling too fast with his feet. When he descended to the 700th step, he paused momentarily to look down by the light of his helmet.As he had calculated, the starting point of the grand staircase was only fifty meters below him. A few minutes later, they reached the second platform.After months of living in space, it was a strange feeling - being able to stand upright on a solid body and feel the pressure under your feet.At this time their weight is still less than ten kilograms, but this is enough to give people a sense of stability.Mercer closed his eyes, once again believing that there was a real world beneath his feet. The platform was about ten meters wide, and the sides curved slightly upwards, extending into the invisible darkness.Messer knew that this was a complete circle, and if he walked five kilometers along it, he would return to his original starting point. Fractional gravity does exist here, but it is impossible to actually walk, only with giant steps, but it is dangerous to do so.The ladder was easy to walk down, and it descended into darkness beyond the reach of their helmet lights.But it is still necessary to hold on to the high handrail next to the ladder, because a too big step will throw the reckless walker down hundreds of meters at once. Although the impact is very slight, the rotation of Rama will throw him to the left of the ladder, Let him slide along the smooth curved surface to the curved plain almost seven kilometers below. That would be a scary sled, Messer thought, with a terminal velocity of hundreds of kilometers per hour even in the gravity here.However, if enough friction can be applied to control this straight-through descent, it is the most convenient way to reach the inner surface of Rama.Of course, some very careful experimentation had to be done before that. "Captain," Messer reported, "it seems that there is no problem going down this ladder. If you agree, I am going to descend to the next platform. I want to measure our descending speed along the ladder." "Go ahead." Newton replied without hesitation.He didn't add the superfluous "proceed with care". Messer soon discovered that it was impossible to walk down the stairs with a normal posture in this place where the gravity was only one-twentieth.There is an unbearable boredom when you move, like slow motion in a dream.The only practical way is to simply ignore the ladder and slide down the handrail. Cafu came to the same conclusion. "The stairs are set up for going up, not down!" he exclaimed. "These steps are fine for going up against gravity, but going down is a pain. It doesn't look very elegant, but I Figured the best way would be to slide down the rail." "That's ridiculous," Myron objected. "I don't believe the Ramas did it." "I doubt they ever used the steps, apparently they're for emergency use. They have some sort of mechanized transport system to get up here. That explains the purpose of those long slots in the hub passage." "I always thought they were for drainage or both. I wonder if there's such a thing as rain here?" "Maybe," Messer said, "but Joe's right, to hell with Wenya! Let's slide!" The handrail, which seems to have been designed for something like a hand, is a smooth metal strip, supported by some pillars, about a meter high.Messer straddled it, carefully using his hand as a brake, and slid down. Gradually increasing speed, he descended into the darkness.The helmet lights moved, and after he slid to 50 meters, he signaled his two companions to follow him. Although neither of them would like to admit it, they both felt like they were kids again, riding the slide.After two minutes, they had descended 1,000 meters comfortably.When they feel too fast, they hold on to the handrails a little. "Have fun," Newton called when they reached the next platform. "It won't be so easy to climb back." "This is exactly what I want to experiment with." Messer replied, walking back and forth a few times, trying to feel the increased gravity, "It already exists here. You can clearly feel the difference from just now." He walked—or rather jumped—to the edge of the platform, shining his helmet light down.Where the beam reaches, it appears to be exactly the same as in the previous paragraph - although comparing the photographs, it can be seen that the distance between each stage gradually decreases with the increase of gravity.This design equalizes the work done by each step when climbing up. Messer looked up at Rama's hub, two kilometers above his head.The dim light and the few tiny figures there looked eerily distant.For the first time he rejoiced that he could not see the entire great staircase in full view.Though his nerves have always been strong and his imagination unimaginative, he still wasn't sure how he would react if he could see himself as an insect on a vertical plate more than 16 kilometers in diameter Crawling, with most of the saucer still hanging above its head.He had hated the darkness, and now he almost welcomed it. He reported to Newton: "There is no change in temperature here, still sub-zero. The air pressure has increased--about three hundred, and although the oxygen content is very low, it is almost breathable; further descents will be no problem at all. This will make the whole exploration easier. Quite a lot. How nice this is - the first world outside of Earth where we don't have to wear a breathing mask! Now I'm going to take a breath." On the hub, Newton was a little uneasy.But of all people, Messer was the most aware of his actions.It appears Messer has done enough testing and got satisfactory data.After equalizing the pressure, Messer slightly lifted his helmet, revealing a slit.He inhaled lightly, then took a deep breath. The air in Rama was dead and muddy, like in an ancient tomb.Even Messerna's nose, which had been trained to be very sensitive after years of life support system experiments, couldn't smell any strange smells.They had a slightly metallic smell that reminded him suddenly of the smell of gunpowder described in the reports of the first men on the moon. He resealed the helmet and blew the foreign air out of his lungs.In fact, he didn't absorb much nutrients, because the air here is so thin that even climbers who have adapted to Mount Everest can easily die.But below a few kilometers, it's another story. What else could he do?He couldn't think of anything else but to enjoy this gentle, rare gravity.But there's no advantage in getting used to this gravity, because they're immediately back on the weightless hub. "We're ready to come back, Captain," Messer reported. "There seems to be no reason to go any further, unless we're ready to go all the way down." "I agree. We time you, but take your time." Start with upward lifts, three or four steps at a time.Messer felt that Cafu was absolutely right that the stairs were built to go up.As long as you don't look back and don't care about the steep ascent, climbing like this is a quick exercise.But after climbing about two hundred levels, he felt a slight tingle in his calf muscles and decided to slow down.He looked back, and his companions were probably the same, and they had fallen quite a distance. Climbing up has no surprises other than an infinite number of steps.They reached the highest platform.The ladder starts here.Slightly dizzy, they stopped to rest for 10 minutes before climbing the upright 1,000-meter ladder. Jumping, grabbing a bar, jumping, grabbing, jumping, grabbing, and . . . is easy, but tediously repetitive.Danger often occurs when carelessness.Halfway up the ladder, they rested for another 5 minutes.This time their arms and thighs were really hurting.Messer was once again delighted that they could only see a small portion of the vertical they were climbing.It wasn't hard to pretend that the stairs ended just a few meters outside their halo. Jump, grab a bar, jump, grab, jump, and finally the ladder is really over.They return to the weightless world at the axis, to their anxious friends.The journey took less than an hour, and they felt the grandeur of their mission accomplished. But it's too early for them to be happy.Because this effort only took them less than one-eighth of the giant ladder. ----------------------------- Notes: