Chapter 17 Chapter 17 Spring

The first few "nights" in Ramari were not easy sleeping.Silence without noise at all is unnatural.Human sense organs always need some input.If not, the mind creates something of its own to replace it. Therefore, many people who fell asleep complained afterwards that they had heard strange sounds, even human voices, which were obviously hallucinations, because people who were awake did not hear anything.Dr. Ernst prescribes a simple but effective remedy for this, using soft background music to lull you to sleep during the sleeping hours in the tent. That night, Newton felt that the prescription was not suitable.He had been listening nervously into the darkness, and he knew exactly what he was expecting to hear.But there had been no sound that could have been taken as a wind, except that there was indeed a slight breeze brushing his face in the middle.The investigation team did not report any abnormalities.

He finally fell asleep around midnight, ship time.There seemed to be no other security measures necessary, except that there was a man watching the automatic communication station for urgent correspondence. Not even a hurricane could have produced the sound that woke Newton and the entire camp in an instant.It was as if the sky had fallen, or the whole of Rama had been torn to shreds and scattered.It started with a tearing sound, and then a long series of smashing glass sounds, like a million glass greenhouses being destroyed at once.The sound lasted for a few minutes, but it felt like hours had passed.Newton immediately connected to the switchboard.

"Axis Outpost! What's going on?" "Wait a minute, Captain. It's over the sea, and we're shining our searchlights." At the axis of Rama at 8,000 meters, the beams of the searchlights began to sweep across the plain.It stopped when it reached the seashore, and then swept around the interior of this world along the coast, and when it reached a quarter of the columnar sea, it stopped. In that place in the sky—or where the psychic obstinately believes is heaven—something unusual was going on.At first, it seemed that the sea was boiling, and the surface of the sea thousands of meters wide was rolling.It also changes color constantly, with a broad white band running across the ice.

Suddenly a slab about a quarter of a kilometer in length tilted up as if opening a door, and pointed slowly and solemnly toward the sky, flickering in the light of the searchlights.Then it slid back and disappeared under the surface, whipping up foamy billows in all directions. Only now did Newton fully realize what was going on.The ice began to crack.These days, the depths of the sea have been melting, but when the frozen lakes and lakes of the earth melt, they have never been like this. As the sun's heat penetrated the shell of Rama, the sea began to melt from below.When ice turns into water, its volume decreases.The seawater gradually breaks away from the ice layer on the surface, making it lose its support, and the internal stress of the ice is accumulated day after day.Now the ice layer collapsed like a bridge without its piers.Newton remembered that he had planned to go to "New York" with an ice sled, and his blood turned cold.

The uproar caused by the struggle between ice and water quickly subsided into a temporary stalemate.In a matter of hours, the temperature will continue to rise and the water will win.But in the long run, as Rama circles the sun and enters the interstellar night again, ice will still win. Newton recovered from his suffocation and immediately spoke to the unit closest to the sea.Immediately, Rodrigo's answer put him at ease.The waves did not break over the overhanging shore. "Now we understand," he said calmly, "why there is a hanging bank." Newton silently agreed, but he thought this still couldn't explain why the hanging bank on the south side of Hainan was ten times higher than this side.

The searchlights continued to scan the entire world.After waking up, the sea gradually calmed down. After 15 minutes, the whole commotion basically passed. But Rama was no longer silent.It has woken up from its long sleep, and the sound of ice cubes crashing continuously. Spring comes a little later, but winter is over. A stronger breeze than before kept blowing, and Rama had given enough warning.It's time to go. Newton was already halfway up the ladder, with 10,000 steps ahead.This is his second time climbing. Drawing on the experience of the last time, he tried not to make himself climb too fast in low gravity unconsciously, so as to avoid muscle soreness afterwards.He was the last to leave the plain, and the others were 500 meters above him.

He was saddened that the mission had fallen by the wayside, and even now he hoped it was just a temporary retreat.When they reached the hub of the axis, they might be able to wait there until the atmospheric turmoil subsided.Expect it to be as calm as the eye of a typhoon, dead. Once again, he used the logic of the earth to jump to conclusions prematurely.Meteorology throughout the world, even in steady state, contains countless complex factors.After centuries of research, long-term forecasts of Earth's weather are still not infallible.Rama is a completely bizarre system because in just one hour it has warmed by several degrees and the forecasted hurricane has yet to show signs.

They had climbed 5,000 meters, and on the platform 3,000 meters from the axis, they rested for an hour, had a light meal and massaged their leg muscles.This is the end point where they can breathe comfortably and naturally. They left the oxygen supply here, and now they have to take them to continue climbing. An hour later, they had reached the top of the ladder and it was time to start climbing.In front of him was the last vertical 1,000 meters. Fortunately, the gravitational field here was only less than ten percent of that of the earth. After a 30-minute rest and careful inspection of personal oxygen equipment, they began the final climb.

After Newton let all the personnel walk safely in front, they left 25 meters before climbing up the ladder.The best way now is to get rid of all distracting thoughts and keep counting the ladder bars—100, 200, 300, 400... When he had just reached level 1250, something was wrong: right on the vertical surface facing him, the color had changed and it was too shiny. In a second, everything changes. Dawn suddenly shone upon Rama in a shock of silent light.