Chapter 22 Chapter XXII Sailing on the Cylindrical Sea

When they reached the foot of the steps, they received another fright.The entire camp seemed to have been raided by something, all the instruments were overturned, and smaller objects were scattered all over the place.After a brief inspection, their vigilance was replaced by a shameful annoyance. The culprit turned out to be nothing but the wind.Although they tied down all loose items securely before leaving, the wind was unexpectedly strong and snapped some of the ropes.It will take several days to collect the scattered belongings. Other than that, nothing much has changed, and even silence has returned to Rama again.The brief early spring storm is over.At the valley end of the plain was a calm sea, waiting for the first sailing ship in a million years.

"Shouldn't we have a bottle of champagne when we christen a new rowboat?" "Even if we have stock on our spaceship, I can't allow this criminal waste. Besides, it's too late, the boat has already launched. Go back to Earth and make up your bottle again, Jimmy." "This boat needs a name. Any suggestions?" The subject of this frank discourse was a small boat, floating with the waves beside the steps jutting into the Sea of ​​Cylindrical Sea.It is a floating raft made of six storage tubes welded with light metal.It had been built in Alpha, put on movable wheels, and brought across ten kilometers of plain.This took everyone's energy for several days.

It was worth it, the city of New York—or whatever it was called—was undoubtedly the center of the world.If they couldn't do anything else, at least they had to go to New York. "Captain, we haven't named the boat yet! What should we call it?" Newton laughed, and then said seriously: "I will give it a name, called Resolution." "why?" "That's the name of a ship in Cook's fleet. It's a good name, hopefully it deserves it." After a brooding silence, the boat's chief design officer, Sergeant Barnes, solicited three volunteer test pilots.All present raised their hands.

"Sorry, we only have four life jackets. Boris, Jimmy, Pat—you've all sailed. Let's try." No one had a problem with the sergeant calling the shots.Because among all the members of Endeavor, only she has a sailing license.She has participated in sailing races across the Pacific in a rowing boat on Earth.Of course, the calm water surface of several kilometers was nothing to her. Ever since she first saw the sea, she had decided to take a voyage.For thousands of years men have dealt with the waters of their world, and never before has a sailor faced a sea so remote.In the past few days, a ridiculous nursery rhyme has been echoing in her mind, and she can't get rid of it: "Sail on the Sea of ​​Columns..." Well, that's exactly what she wants to do.

After her three crew members were seated, Rube Barnes turned on the 20-kilowatt motor, and the Resolve set sail to the cheers of the audience. Rube hoped that with such a load, the speed of the boat could reach 15 kilometers per hour; but then again, as long as it can exceed 10 kilometers, it will do.On the 500-meter test route along the coast, they spent five and a half minutes, which fully met the average speed of 12 hours she designed.It made her very happy. With three powerful rowers and her skilful piloting, a quarter of that speed can be achieved without power.Therefore, even if the motor fails, it can return to this shore within two hours.Those powerful fuel cells were enough to go around the world, but just to be on the safe side, she brought two spares.Now that the fog had completely receded, even a careful navigator like Loube was ready to sail without a compass.

She returned to the shore, saluted Newton proudly and reported, "The Determination has successfully completed its maiden voyage. Now I am waiting for your instructions." "Excellent...Admiral. When can we sail?" "Wait until the loading is completed and approved by the Harbor Superintendent." "Then leave at dawn." "!" 5,000 meters of water is nothing on the map.But after they sailed for 10 minutes, the 50-meter-high embankment on the north bank seemed far away, but the mysterious New York did not feel much closer. This is a whole new experience.Newton thought that every time he thought he was getting used to Rama, there would be a new miracle immediately.The water on both sides bends upwards, and the small boat is like the bottom of the valley between huge waves. The millions of tons of water seem to pour down from the sky at any time.But this is just imagination, there is no real danger, unless something surprising happens in the sea.

As Messer had guessed, the sea was alive now.There are thousands of spherical single-celled microbes in every tablespoon of seawater, much like the plankton that lived in early Earth's oceans. There are, however, puzzling differences.They don't have a nucleus and lack some of the things essential to primitive life forms on Earth.Although Laura - who is now a scientific researcher - has verified that they can produce oxygen, but the number is too small to fill the entire atmosphere of Rama, they should be billions, not just thousands . Laura also discovered that they were splitting very rapidly, and must have been much faster during the dawning hours of Rama; like a microcosm of the origin history of early life on Earth, only shortened billions of times on the time scale.These free microbes are nothing more than decomposed matter, released back into the ocean in chemical storage.

"If you have to swim," Dr. Ernst warned the sailors, "keep your mouth shut. A few drops won't matter—if you can spit it out in time, but those weird organometallic salts add up, It's a poison." This danger, fortunately, seems unlikely.Even with two buoys perforated, Resolve still has enough buoyancy. (When Cafu was told this, he murmured, "Remember.") Even when submerged, there were high-efficiency life jackets to keep their heads above the water.Dr. Ernst grudgingly said that she didn't think a few hours in this kind of seawater would be fatal, but she never advocated it.

After 20 minutes of sailing, New York is no longer a distant island.The "city" with its striking facade, high-rises, is three equal parts like everything else on Rama.It consists of three parts, also composed of various tall buildings or buildings, standing on an oval island seat.Each part is divided into three parts.This makes the survey easier, because it only needs to find out one-ninth of the whole island.However, there are still various buildings and machines of no less than one square kilometer to be surveyed, some of which tower into the sky as high as hundreds of meters. The Rama people seem to have developed the art of triple repetition to a high level.This has been shown in the airtight air chamber system, the steps of the hub and the "artificial" artificial sun, etc., and it has been pushed a step further in key places.New York appears to be a case of three times and three times.

Rube steered the boat against the middle part.On the cliffs of the embankment around the island there is a ladder like the one on the other side rising from the water, and there are even bollard-like things.These can't help but make Lubei very excited.Now, she couldn't wait to find the Rama's boat that sailed this strange sea. Newton was the first to land.He said to his companions: "Before I climbed to the top of the embankment, you wait in the boat. When I waved, Boris and Pat came up again. Lube, you stay on the boat, and you can set off at any time if necessary. What happens to me, report to Carl and follow his instructions. Use your judgment, but don't be heroic. Got it?"

"Yes, Captain, good luck!" Newton never entered an unfamiliar situation until he had analyzed all relevant factors and had a reliable retreat.But Rama forced him to break his own rules once again.Almost all elements are unknown here, just as the Pacific Ocean and the Great Barrier Reef were unknown to their heroes three and a half centuries ago.So now he is willing to use all the luck at hand. The ladder was like a replica of the one on the other side of the sea, where his friends were no doubt looking straight at him with binoculars.The word "straight" can now be used correctly.In this direction, parallel to the axis of Rama, the sea becomes perfectly flat.It may also be the only truly flat surface of water in the entire universe, since every lake and sea in all other worlds follows a spherical surface with equal curvature in all directions. "Near the top," he reported, for the record, and to hear his second in command watching him on the other side, 5,000 meters away, "still perfectly calm. Radiation normal. I hold the instrument above my head in case If there is any hostile attack on the embankment, it can be hit first." Of course he was joking, but why not try to be more careful? When he finished the last level, he found that under his feet was the top of a 10-meter-wide embankment.The ground of the city is 20 meters below the embankment.So he was standing from a good vantage point looking out over New York. The scene in front of him was complicated and confusing.His first move was to slowly scan a panoramic image with the camera, then waved to his companions below, and called to the opposite bank: "No signs of activity, all is quiet. Come on up, we're starting to investigate." ----------------------------- Notes: