Chapter 40 Chapter 40 The Destroyer

The extravehicular blimp has been stripped of all non-essential equipment, leaving only the open racks supporting the thrusters, navigators and life support systems, and even the second pilot's seat, because every kilogram Much of the quality has to be compensated by the time to perform the task. Although this is one of the reasons why Rodrigo insisted on going alone, it is obviously not the most important.Now the lightened airship has one-third the g-force, and the trip from Endeavor to the bomb can be done in four minutes, with six minutes remaining.should be enough. According to the plan, he started from the central axis in the north, then flew over the rotating disk in the north, and flew towards the bomb.Before that, there was the whole of Rama between him and the bomb.Flying over Rama's northern hemisphere, he didn't need to worry because the bomb's cameras couldn't see him yet.This saves some fuel.Once past the curved edge of the world, the rocket shone brighter in the sunlight than its parent star.

Rodrigo had programmed the entire voyage in advance and entered it into the navigation computer.Now that he started it flying on program, the airship immediately adjusted its gyroscopes to drive toward the bomb at full speed. Rama's 50-kilometer cylindrical shell was completely exposed in front of him.It is so smooth and markless that it is difficult to judge its size or see that it is spinning. A hundred seconds later, he was halfway through the journey.The bomb is still far away, and its details cannot be seen, but it looks particularly bright against the black background.The dark filter that protects his eyes prevents him from seeing other planets in the sky.Rodrigo believes he is setting a flight record; no one has ever performed an EVA this close to the sun.Thankfully, it's a period of low solar activity right now.

At 2 minutes and 10 seconds, the indicator light for turning around flashed, and the propulsion acceleration of the airship was already equal to zero, followed by a 180-degree U-turn.The thrusters of the brakes were activated at full force again, and he obtained the same deceleration of three meters per second squared, and the bomb was still twenty-five kilometers away.He'll be there in two minutes. The bomb got bigger and bigger, and he could already see its main antenna, fixed on the invisible Mercury.The image of his airship approaching had been traveling there at the speed of light for three minutes, and would reach Mercury in two minutes.

What would happen to the Mercurians when they saw him?Of course, he was surprised first, maybe the star officer had to report to the senior authority, which would give him more time.But even in the worst case scenario, in which the officer on duty had the right to press the button to ignite the bomb immediately, it would take five minutes for the signal to reach here. Rodrigo didn't gamble—the Cosmic Christians never gamble—he was pretty sure he wouldn't have such an instant reaction.The Mercurians were always a bit hesitant to destroy an airship from Endeavor, and even if they guessed its intentions, they would do so with some sort of announcement—which meant more delays.And there's an even better reason, they wouldn't waste a Colossus bomb for a tiny airship.Oh, he had plenty of time... but he had to expect five minutes at worst.

It's very close now.Rodrigo quickly compared its details with photographs he had studied many times.The bomb was a ten-meter-long, three-meter-diameter cylinder, which coincidentally had almost the same proportions as Rama's.It is attached to the frame of its carrier vehicle, perhaps so as to fit at its center of mass, with their axes at right angles to each other.This makes it look like a sinister hammer.And it really is a hammer capable of smashing a world. There are bundled cables at both ends of the bomb, which are introduced into the flight support along the cylindrical body.So the control and communication equipment is inside.From the bomb itself, there is no antenna or anything like that.All Rodrigo had to do was cut the two bundles of cables, and all that would be left was a harmless piece of freewheeling metal.

Although Rodrigo had expected these, it seemed a little too easy.He looked at his watch, thirty seconds before the Mercury would know he was there.He still has five undisturbed minutes with absolute certainty to work on. After the airship came to a complete stop, Rodrigo buckled it together with the rocket's bracket, making the two firmly form a rigid body.Then he took out his chosen tool and climbed out of his seat towards the rocket. The sharp wire cutters cut the first bundle of cables in one fell swoop.At this momentous moment, Rodrigo did not expect that the hellfire would burn a few centimeters away.If his actions triggered it, he'll never know.

He looked at his watch again. It took less than a minute, and everything went as planned.Now go and cut the return cable, and he'll be able to go home under the helpless glare of the Mercurian. He was about to start cutting the second bundle of cables when he felt a slight jolt in the stand.He looked up at the rocket in surprise. One of a set of altitude-changing control jets that circled the rocket body glowed with the characteristic blue-purple glow of ion thrusters.The bomb is ready to move. The telegram from Mercury was short and domineering, received just two minutes after Rodrigo's airship had disappeared on the edge of Rama.

Captain of the Commitment Endeavor, Mercury Space Control Center.You have one hour to leave the vicinity of Rama after you receive this message.It is recommended that you drive along the axis of rotation at high speed.Let me know when you receive it.The communication is over. Newton read it in disbelief, and then he was furious.He really wanted to call back and say that his members were all inside Rama and that it was impossible to get them all out in an hour, but that didn't help either. Besides, why are they preparing to act several days before perihelion?He wondered if it was because of the increasing pressure of public opinion that they decided to give other humans a fait accompli.But that explanation doesn't seem like it, since they don't have such sensitive personalities.

Because Rodrigo is in the shadow of Rama's microwave communication at the moment, he can't be contacted temporarily, only after his mission is completed or fails. He would rather wait.There is still time, a full 50 minutes.He decided to ignore the telegram and wait to see what the Mercury people did next. At the moment when the rocket started to move, Rodrigo was not afraid, but had a more urgent feeling.He firmly believes that the universe operates according to strict laws, even God has to obey, let alone Mercury.No information can travel faster than light.He had a five-minute lead over Mercury's action.

It could only be a random coincidence, a signal to control the rocket just as he was leaving Endeavor, it could not be anything else.In the time he flew 50 kilometers, the signal traveled 80 million kilometers. Or it's just an automatic adjustment to keep one side of the rocket from overheating, since the sun-facing shell has reached 1,500 degrees Celsius.He had to always be careful in the shadows. The second thruster fires again, and no, it won't be just for temperature adjustments.The bomb had its bearings on Rama. Stop wondering why these things happened, time is precious.To his advantage, the rocket was a low-acceleration device, with a maximum of one-tenth of the gravitational acceleration.He can stay for the time being.

First he checked the buckles of the airship and his own seat belt.A calm anger welling up in his heart strengthened his determination even more.Doesn't this mean that the Mercury people didn't give Endeavor a chance to escape, and didn't warn that the bomb would be detonated?It's unbelievable, not only brutish but downright stupid!The entire solar system will be against them.Besides, what made them disregard the solemn promise of their own ambassador? Ten minutes later, Mercury sent an identical telegram.They extended the last bound.Newton still has an hour.It looks like they're waiting for a call back from Endeavor. Now there is another factor.They must have seen Rodrigo for several minutes before that.Their instructions for the bomb were probably on their way, arriving every second. He had to be ready to go, for Rama could catch fire at any moment, creating a momentary blaze that would eclipse the sun. When the bomb's main thrusters fired, Rodrigo was firmly on the hook.After only 20 seconds the thrust stopped again.He did a quick mental calculation, and the relative speed was only 15 kilometers per hour.It took over an hour for the bomb to reach Rama; maybe it was just moved closer to react faster.It was a clever preselection step, but the Mercury moved too late. He checked his watch again, and now the Mercury man was seeing him driving purposefully toward the bomb, with only the last 2,000 meters to go.They no longer had any doubts about his intentions, they were just wondering if he had done what he wanted to do. The second bundle of cables was cut as easily as the first.The bomb was now disarmed, or to be more precise, could no longer be detonated by remote command. However, there is another possibility that he should not ignore.Although the external trigger is gone, there may be a built-in detonator that can ignite under impact.Now the Mercury was still able to control the movement of the carrier and still be able to slam it into Rama.Rodrigo's mission is not complete yet. Five minutes later, in a control room on Mercury, he could be seen crawling atop a rocket, using a pair of pliers to render ineffective the most powerful bomb ever built by man.He had an impulse to wave at the camera, but finally felt that it was not very polite.After all, he is making history, and his current footage will be seen by millions of people in many years.Of course, unless the Mercurians destroyed all of these videos in a fit of rage, it's hard to blame them. He climbed again to the big disc of the long-distance antenna sticking out.With his faithful pair of scissors, he cut off all the feed lines of the antenna and the waveguide fiber tube of the laser.As he cut the last strip, the antenna began to spin slowly.The unexpected movement startled him until he realized he had clipped the antenna's automatic lock pointing towards Mercury.After five minutes, the Mercurians will lose all contact with their servants.It's not just incapable now, it's deaf and dumb. Rodrigo climbed back into the blimp, unhooked it, turned around, and pressed the front bar of the blimp firmly against the rocket's center of mass.Then, with the full force of the airship's thrusters, it was thrust for 20 seconds.Rodrigo turned the thrust back to zero, then carefully removed a bomb present. This will make the rocket deviate from Rama by a large distance, and its position in space can be accurately calculated at any time in the future.It is, after all, a valuable device. Rodrigo is a man of morbid honesty.He didn't want the Mercurians to falsely accuse him of losing their property. ----------------------------- Notes: