Chapter 4 third chapter

The Hyckley spaceship is bigger than any spaceship man has dreamed of, and not much smaller than a 20th-century offshore supertanker here on Earth.Its shape is a short and thick cylinder, 340 meters long and 140 meters wide, with a volume of about 50 million cubic meters, 2/3 of which is occupied by fuel reserves and engines that drive the spacecraft across interstellar space.The average density of a spaceship is slightly less than water, mainly because hydrogen takes up most of the space in the fuel storage.If the spacecraft landed lightly and steadily on the surface of the ocean somewhere on the earth, it would just be able to float.The crew of the spaceship, the 22,000 Heckleys and Sandy Washington, occupy less than 30 cubic meters of space per person, which includes not only their living quarters (of course most of which are shared), but also all their living quarters. All the space you need for rest and work.This is indeed a bit narrow.Things got worse a while ago when the massive craft traversed space near the sun to alter its orbit.At that time, they kept most of the "spare" bays heated to ensure that a large number of coolers were used to cool the rest of the spacecraft.Now the Heckleys are happy to return to their formerly closed bays.Still, they're pretty cramped, at least by earthly standards.But that didn't bother them too much, because none of them had experienced what the Earth standard was like.

Of course, the team did not have to do the work of the next morning, and being able to listen to the teachings of the elders was more important than any other ordinary duties.The fly in the ointment is that Qing Taiqi Luo asked them to spend a whole 1/12 day for questioning and rehearsal before going, because it would be unimaginable for anyone to say or do something wrong. It was still hot in the common room, and everyone was a little restless as they tried to adjust to the awkward Earth time at Qingtaiqi Luo's insistence.Aubier was also a distraction, and even Sandy could smell him approaching heat.Qing Taiqi Luo reprimanded the one or two female players who were distracted by Obiye more than once. "Listen carefully, all of you!" he ordered, "especially you, Lysander!"

When Qing Taiqi Luo pronounced the sound with S, his voice was as high-pitched as the other Hekri in the team.He's the best expert on Earth's languages ​​and customs on board, which is why he's their instructor.But he is not always impartial. "I'm listening!" said Lysander indignantly. "I don't want to be scolded." "I hope so," Qingtaiqi Luo said impatiently, "now pay attention." He played a partial map of the earth on the screen, pointing to a piece of land. "This is the place where you will land. It is located in the northern part of the earth. After the landing ship enters the sky over the North Pole, it is relatively easy to pass through here..."

"This place is called 'Alaska'." Tanya interjected showing herself. "We know it's called Alaska," said the instructor irritably. "Because of its geography, Alaska is a cold place on this planet covered with solid water they call 'snow,' so you all need proper Clothes. Then, Lasander, after the landing ship has landed, you will disembark alone and mix with your Earth kind, with a radio. Your mission is to keep up with the latest situation on Earth, because we can't receive it now. So many earth broadcasts before. You will report to the squad that stays on the ship, they will tell you what to do, when you talk on the radio, you can only speak Heckley, no English. Lasander, know why this is Do it?"

"Yes, of course. We should be careful when dealing with humans, because..." He hesitated, and then finished sullenly, "because some of them behave extremely badly." "Not just a few, Lasander, but many, many. I'm sure there are good ones among them, but by and large they're destroyers. You know what they've done to their planet, and that's yours too. Homeland, Lysander! What would the ship be like if we allowed the uncontrolled release of noxious pollutants on board?" "That would be dreadful!" snapped Polly, pompously. "That's right, Hippolyta," Qingtaiqi Luo said, "but I'm asking Lasander. Lasander, do you know why people on Earth need our help?"

"Know with certainty and with no certainty," said Sandy.He spoke English words, but the way of speaking was in the Hackley habit of repeating words and sentences, which showed his personality.However, it's not worth showing your personality in front of the 'elders', so he hastened to get down to business. "Because of what humans have done, the temperature of the earth's atmosphere has risen, compounds that can produce acidic substances have been released into the air, low orbit space is full of debris, and rivers, lakes, and seas are full of waste and organic matter. ; they also released radioactive nuclei with long half-lives into the surrounding environment, allowing deforestation and soil erosion.”

"Algae pollution, too," Demi interjected impatiently. "You forgot to mention the algae pollution of the lake." "I didn't forget, that's included in what I said about waste and organic pollution, isn't it, Ching Tai Chi Lo? Definitely." "Yes," the instructor agreed. "But you forget about the problems that are worse than the above. Your countrymen are still aggressive, they have weapons, they fight each other, and they even kill innocent people indiscriminately." "I saw it on TV," Sandy said curtly. "You have seen it, so you know that we must approach them with caution. If it is confirmed that the Earthlings and the Hekleys can meet amicably, then we will appear again. But first we must make sure that this is your task. We You can't put the whole ship at risk."

"Praise the spaceship!" Obiye shouted, and all the female team members immediately echoed. "Yes, praise the spaceship!" Qing Taiqi Luo echoed, "Now, what is your story, Lasander?" "First of all," Lassander retorted, "my name is not Lassander, not now, nor after landing on Earth." "Well said," said the instructor approvingly, "go on." "My name is John William Washington. I am 22 years old and I live in Miami Beach, Florida. My parents, Peter and Alice, died in a car accident. I was a college student, and when my parents died, I got depressed and dropped out of school. I was away for a while. I thought Alaska was an interesting place, so I went there and dug for gold by myself. Now, I was going back to Miami Beach, but I got lost."

"That's right, that's it," Qing Taiqi Luo agreed, pausing for a moment, looking at them thoughtfully, and then asked, "Any more questions?" Tanya raised her hand like a person on Earth and asked: "Qing Taiqi Luo, why can't we receive as many TV programs as before? We are tired of watching those old movies." "I don't know, Titania ...we've been getting some electromagnetic signals and sure enough the Earthlings have overcome all odds and saved their lives. At least to some extent. But the signals we've intercepted don't seem to carry any information. Don't know what they are. Anyone else have any questions?"

Obiye asked aloud: "Why can't we meet with our friends who were trained together?" A few days ago, these people were transferred to other parts of the spacecraft. "The elders have decided to isolate you," Ching Tai Chi Luo explained.Indeed, that one reason would be enough for any Highkleite.He added kindly: "After all, you are special six, no, seven, and of course Lasander. You are the first people to go to earth." "There used to be a lot of attractive women in that big group, but now we only have these three left here." Aubier complained.Helen, Polly and Tanya all hissed angrily.But the instructor ignored them. "That's enough, Aubie. Now we're going to the cabins of the elders to wait for instructions. One more thing, everyone has to start making some preparations. From now on, you can only speak and talk to each other in English. Of course, Except talking to the elders."

The elders weren't ready to meet them, and Sandy and the others had to wait in the plenum until the hour and 52 minutes ticked off their new watches.Meeting the elders is a solemn and grand event, and everyone was in awe at first.Sandy rubbed her ears in frustration.Despite trying to lessen the damage to his ears from the high voltage, he still felt pain. The silence didn't last long, after all, the incident was too exciting.Aubie and Helen were fighting as usual, and Polly had to force them to be quiet.Actually, this is also normal, entering the main part of the spaceship is often an adventure for them.At least when not working, it wasn't an interesting experience when they took turns to work in the main cabin.But there is nothing interesting in the hyperbaric room, just a room with some benches for squatting.There are screens for entertainment, but very little of what is shown is actually entertainment.Of course, every other 12th, the crew can watch a selection from the thousands of Earth movies on file.These films are also very fresh and interesting to Sandy and the others, because the dialogues in the movies are dubbed in Haikli by several English-speaking Haiklei scholars, for example, hearing a young female voice say the earth The lines of a dogged and unyielding infantry sergeant in World War II always make people laugh.The rest of the time the screens are locked firmly to the ship's normal closed-circuit systems.All the channels were showing surveillance footage of the engines, the farm, the cockpit, the various management links, and every now and then, maybe a shot of the sun they were flying around, and it was pretty boring indeed.Or maybe it's the footage of their voyage--Earth, which is kind of interesting, but Sandy's team has its own dedicated screen, and the things shown are much better.They have ripped feature films and documentaries, and all the material they've collected over half a century of eavesdropping on Earth's radio broadcasts and TV shows.Even though they've spent 3/12 of every day since they were born looking at these recorded materials, these old films are exciting.The reason is simple, because they come from the earth. There was nothing exciting in that reception room.The room was not big, and the faint smell from Obiye's body made several female team members uneasy.Fortunately, Tanya found a channel that was broadcasting a sports show, showing a wrestling championship on the spaceship.In one of the rest cabins of the spaceship, two burly Heckleys were in the quarterfinals.The team members immediately chose their support side and cheered for their favorite players.If any other Earthlings other than Sandy were there, they would probably join in, because this sport is actually an Earthling invention.It is modeled after Japanese sumo wrestling, in which two Goliath-like giants fight each other. [① Goliath: The Philistine giant recorded in the Christian "Bible Old Testament" "1 Samuel", killed by David. 】 It's certainly exciting.Obier said enthusiastically to Sandy: "It would be good enough if you earthlings only brought us this one thing." Polly disagreed with him, and Tanya disagreed with Polly's point of view.As a result, the game on the screen was not over yet, and another fight broke out among the players. Finally, the elders agreed to summon Sandy's team after discussion.At this time, the fight had already been stopped.A wound under Obiye's eye was still bleeding a little, and Demi tore a strip from his underwear to wrap him up—it was useful to wear human clothes after all.In this way, the players looked generally passable when they lined up in front of the six huge senators, but the senators were always good-natured, and if they noticed, they probably wouldn't say anything. "How are our little Earthlings today?" asked the Quadrangle, speaking in Heckley of course, and Sandy noticed that she even shed a kindly tear of welcome. The Senator addressed them all, but everyone knew the question was really for Sandy. "We are well fed and excreted, my lord," he replied respectfully in Hekri.In the following words, when there was no corresponding word in Heckley, he used English. "We are learning 'car' driving, 'credit cards' and popular music at the end of the 20th century. We played 'basketball' twice yesterday." Knowing that he can no longer speak Haikeli, he likes to speak this language.It annoyed him that his teammates spoke English better than he did in Hickley.Their pronunciation organs have undergone some adjustments through surgery in infancy, or through genetic changes before birth, and they can easily pronounce all the sounds in English.Sandy's voice would become hoarse if he spoke Hickley for too long, because there were too many plosives and glottal locks in Hickley. "Very good, very good," the fourth elder said kindly and softly, "this grand elder will speak to you, right now, not later." The grand elders often lectured them, but the team members still listened respectfully and dared not show their air.Whatever the great elder says, he always goes back to the source and covers everything.This time, his lecture was directed at Sandy. "Earthling Lassander Washington," he said, staring blankly at the ceiling of the meeting room, "your father and mother were abandoned on board the ship during a war the Earthlings were fighting. , particle and photon rays, combined with the kinetic impact of solid objects and chemical explosions, atomic explosions caused massive damage. We rescued them, but they are still in critical condition, very badly. Their lives are really difficult To save you, however, you were already a rapidly maturing embryo at that time, and we managed to keep you alive, providing you with the necessities of life and partners, and at the same time, we..." "My lord," Sandy said tentatively, "I already know this." In fact, he knew that the grand senator would not stop at all, and he would not even move his eyelids.Nothing really happened, except Polly, who sneaked past Aubier and gave Sandy a quick, hard pinch from behind.The four elders raised their heads, watching Polly with thoughtfulness and interest as she returned to squat down next to Aubie who was almost swollen all over. "...detected several nearby stars, including Alpha Centauri," the grand senator's deep voice rumbled, "that planet is useless and meaningless. We have now returned to the galaxy where your planet is located. You are now an adult and educated. Prove that everything I told you is true and correct." "It's true, my lord," said Sandy, rubbing her bottom, and Polly's two thumbs pinched like hell.He noticed that all the female players were moving towards Obiye. "We have been observing your planet since our first approach to this galaxy, and several things have been of interest. First, we were first attracted to this planet by some electromagnetic During the course of the galaxies, the energy and number of these signals have grown to the nth power, but now they are sparse, and we cannot receive clear, complete and up-to-date TV or radio information. Perhaps the war has reduced the population of the earth, or It's technology that's lagging behind. Or, there could be some other reason." The grand senator paused for a moment, then thoughtfully folded his six-fingered hands on his stomach.No one spoke.The four-member elder absent-mindedly stepped down from the high seat, staggered towards the team members, and stared at Obiye. "Another interesting thing," continued the Grand Senator, "is that we have found no trace of powered vehicles anywhere in the solar system. It follows from this that since you Earthlings have locked themselves down, they have lost access to space." capacity, which continues to this day and has not yet returned to normal." Hearing this, the team members let out a hum. "Oh, damn it!" Demi whispered, and Bolton kicked him.None of the elders was listening.Except for the Grand Elder, everyone else stared intently at the Fourth Elder with interest. She was sniffing Obina's back, and her buttocks were visibly swollen. "However," said the Grand Senator, "we can take advantage of the population at the poles of the Earth and land a scout plane there, since most space debris is floating in the plane above the Earth's equator, and there is a surprising amount of debris along other Orbital rotation. Our analysts have confirmed that there are periods of time available for landing. The fuel consumption will be high, because the earth's rotation speed cannot be used, and the entire descent process will use its own kinetic energy, and the return flight will consume the same amount. Energy. Either way, the landing is doable." Polly boldly interposed between Aubie and the four elders.The senator half propped himself up on his legs and glared at Polly, who had to walk away resentfully. The fourth elder greeted her peers. "We're leaving first, please don't disturb." She said gracefully, then pinched the back of Obiye's neck and took him away. "Of course." The Grand Elder turned to her back, and continued, "Well, that's all I want to say. Lasander, you have to remember that although you are from Earth, you are also from Heckley. We are the ones who gave you life. We just want to help the people on Earth correct their stupid mistakes. We must be careful in this trip, so we ask you to complete your mission exactly, only success is not allowed. Failure is not allowed. Can you do it, Lysander?" "I can." Sandy said, hoping that the meeting would end quickly. But not so lucky, the elder Eryuan moved. "You must be tactful, honest, and loyal, Lasander," she said harshly. "You Earthlings are vain, lazy, careless, and deceitful. They are saboteurs, ruining their own planet. You must behave like us on Earth, not like them." "Yes," Sandy answered loudly, moving his feet back and forth. The grand senator shed a tear of consolation. "What these people have done on their planet is their crime, not yours, Lysander," he said generously, "you needn't worry about it, now you can go." There was no more rough-and-tumble games in the waiting room this time, only waiting—waiting for Aubie to finish mating with the four elders and return among them.This kind of waiting was not pleasant at all, and the three female players were all furious. Aubie finally came back, looking happy and contented.They were furious now. "Aubie, you Husik bastard!" Polly snarled.Helen and Tanya also blamed him together. "How could you do this!" Helen wailed, and Tan Ya complained, "It's still with an older veteran!" Obiye didn't feel any guilt at all. "You all saw what was going on, didn't you? Why didn't any of you squeeze in?" "Against a senator for what?" Aubie shrugged. "There will be more opportunities in the future!" he said generously. "Wow, she is so big. I have never mated with a senator before. It took me a lot of effort to stick to it." "Are there many eggs?" Bolton asked jealously. "What do you think? Of course she is, how big she is. When I came out, she was just about to lay eggs. Hey, listen, someone has to send the eggs to be frozen and tagged. You can't wait for her to do it herself matter." In fact, there was no particular reason why one of them, rather than someone else, should be responsible for the task.But, as Aubie said, someone has to do it.All the female team members are jealous of the four veterans, while the two male team members are also jealous of Obiye. Obiye himself is so complacent that he doesn't bother to do this.After all, only Sandy is going to take this tricky baton.All he did was catch the mass of eggs one by one as they emerged from the quaternary's swollen ovipositor. He'd never done anything like this before, and it was kind of fun.The eggs looked like what is called "caviar" on earth, and had a salty and sour taste that made him uneasy. According to the rules, he wrapped them in transparent plastic, and then sent them to the sorting department through halls one by one. All the Haikeli people he encountered along the way dispersed quickly to make way for Sandy, who was on important tasks.He stayed for a while, watching the sorters gently and carefully moved the eggs into warm water trays one by one, weighed, sniffed, and checked each one, and then pasted them with the words Aubie and The label of the four elder code names.He watched them being put into trays and frozen before leaving. Sandy couldn't understand why the whole process fascinated him so much.All he knew was how he felt.All the time he was concentrating, and on the way back to the cabin, he felt a commotion in his groin, a rush of warmth through his body.Oh, he couldn't wait for the day when he was on Earth, and for the untold millions of unmarried women on Earth.