Chapter 5 Chapter Four

On the plane plan of the spacecraft, 7/12 of the volume of the spacecraft is designated as the drive system, which is marked as "fuel reserve".In fact, this is not accurate, because the three main engines occupy less than 1/12 of this space, and the real fuel takes up even less space.The fuel used by the driving system of the Heckley spacecraft is composed of three groups of matter. At present, each group of matter is about the size of a Heckley man's head. They are not large in size, but they are very heavy.Each clump weighs approximately 4×1014 grams.Although they are also substances, they are not ordinary baryonic substances.Ordinary baryonic matter is basically made up of up and down quarks, and the fuel for the Hackley spacecraft is what geophysicists call "strange" matter because it's made up of up, down, and strange quarks in equal amounts. , which is the most active substance known so far.What occupies most of the space in the "fuel tank" is nothing more than hydrogen. Their purpose is only to be ignited when the spacecraft is driven by the energy released by the strange matter and travel at a speed close to light, and then ejected through the nozzles of the spacecraft.The remaining space is the volume of the fuel itself.Those basketball-sized fuel blobs needed some support because they were so heavy, they weighed as much as the rest of the spacecraft combined.Also, due to their properties, they cannot be kept in tinplate containers.Strange matter can only be preserved by placing it in an electromagnetic field, and the electromagnetic field itself needs to be supported on the hull of the spaceship.Fortunately for the ship's designers, the weight of the core fuel is zero when the ship is at rest -- all objects in the universe are weightless at rest -- and when the engines are running, the reverse thrust is exactly the same as the driving force propelling the ship flat.Newton's laws of rest and reverse motion also apply here.When the core fuel is activated, the strange quark boils, heats the working gas flow of hydrogen, and propels the spacecraft forward, with all parts in balance.There's enough exotic matter on board for a long, long time.It has provided energy for the spacecraft for 3,000 years, and it can be used for another 10,000 years before it may be exhausted.In fact, it can never run out.The strangest thing about exotic matter is that the more you use up, the more you have left.This has become a difficult problem that has plagued the Hecklers for hundreds of years.

Sandy had never seen the engine on the ship.No one on board had seen those engines except the power technician.These technicians are specially trained, so they can still survive (although not for long) in the environment of radiation leakage in the computer room. If it is replaced by other Hekleys or Earthlings, they will die within a few hours.Sandy never aspired to be a power engineer, he just wanted to be allowed to fly the ship.Such an opportunity naturally does not exist.Even when he and his teammates were finally able to set off, break through the layer of space junk that circled the Earth, and land on the Earth's surface, he wouldn't be allowed to pilot the landing craft.Piloting the landing craft was Polly's job, though someone else might take over the job.Everyone in the squad had been trained in flight simulators, though—ah, that's another story.

The few times Sandy was able to sneak into the flight sim class, it was because the class happened to be right after lunch and the following Hyckley blackout time.Sandy doesn't have this fainting response biologically, so he goes there earlier than everyone else.It also helped that the instructor in charge of the course wasn't the brightest Highkleigh on board.The fact that the Heckley was able to serve as a guide was due to the fact that he had personally participated in the preparations for landing somewhere in the Alpha Centauri galaxy.But that time their plan did not materialize, because there were no stars in that galaxy large enough for the spacecraft to land on.That's it, he can already be regarded as a pilot with landing experience among the Haikeli people.He hadn't been ordered to let Sandy learn to drive, but there was no prohibition from above.Sandy coaxed him with sweet words to him, and sat in the simulated cockpit again.

Sandy had brought cushions with him and tucked them around his body so he could secure himself in the squat driver's seat, which wasn't designed for Earth's size.Within 1/34 of 1/12—no, he corrected himself, within about 20 minutes according to the time on the watch he just received—he was able to complete all the steps of the simulated landing.During the simulated landing process, the landing ship first "launched" from the groove on the side of the huge interstellar spacecraft with the help of electromagnetic repulsion, and adjusted its course to make the landing ship descend obliquely until it reached the polar region of the earth, and then avoided The wreckage fragments of the space junk layer overcome the airflow vibration after entering the earth's atmosphere, and the last step is to achieve a successful, at least not bring any catastrophe, landing.The landing site is on a snow-capped plain surrounded by high mountains.The simulated landing system almost designed the whole process realistically.As the "lander" wobbles away from the mother ship--at the same time, the piston creates a realistic jolt--the screen shows the blackness of space and the green earth below, and the mother ship quickly becomes more and more blurred. smaller.When he "turned" the hull, those pistons made his ship spin in a circle, giving people an immersive feeling, and at the same time, the scene of objects whizzing by around the landing ship appeared on the screen.When simulating entry into the Earth's atmosphere, the pistons and screen create the sensation and image of violent sloshing.

There are parts of this simulated landing routine that are not only as good as, but actually far better than, the video games played by young people on Earth.But its design isn't perfect.As soon as Polly came, Sandy had to climb out of the simulation cabin and give way to her resentfully.She's the real number one trainee on the squad. "I don't understand why I can't drive the landing boat!" Sandy complained to her.He was so unwise, and Polly gave him a pinch when she heard that. "That's because you're so small and clumsy and stupid!" she told Sandy. "Get out of my way, I need to check the equipment!"

Sandy glared after Polly as she climbed into the cabin.Obiye stroked his lower back sympathetically. "If I have the final say, I will let you drive." He said.Sandy shrugged morosely.In fact, they both knew that with the end of Aubier's brief estrus, he could no longer influence the rest of the team.Aubie asked again kindly: "So, do you want to do something else? I'll be the last one. Before that, we still have at least one and a half 1/12 days to spare." "What are you doing?" Sandy asked. "Let's watch a movie about Earth," Aubier suggested. "There's a movie called Star Odyssey, and I want to see it again. I like those funny spaceships."

"No." Sandy replied without thinking.The terrestrial fantasies about non-existent spaceships did not interest him at all.If there was a movie to watch in his free time, he'd rather watch ones with pretty scantily clad girls.either... He thought of something and looked around.The other four members of the team who are waiting for the simulated landing class have already started a "question-and-answer" game-according to geographical location, from west to east, from Guam to Puerto Rico, name the 53 states of the United States in turn. State name - obviously, they left Sandy and Aubie aside on purpose.No one is using the communication screen at this time. "Well," he said slowly, "there's a movie I'd like to watch again. But it's not an Earth movie, it's made by the Heckleys."

It was with great difficulty that Aubie found the old film Lasander wanted to see.However, as soon as the video was played on the screen, the other players stopped the game and surrounded them.Sandy didn't like the situation very much.The film he is watching involves his personal privacy.He had seen it many times before, mostly in private, because he didn't want anyone to disturb the attachment he felt while watching it. This film records the discovery of a lost Earth spacecraft by the Heckley spacecraft half a century ago.In the first shot, the Heckley interstellar spacecraft detected a man-made object in orbit around Mars, so it moved closer to investigate, and the shape of the object became larger and larger as the distance got closer.

Since there was no need to send a landing ship to detect, the Haikeli only sent an unmanned probe there.The detector is equipped with a camera, and through it, we can see that the Earth spacecraft is getting bigger and bigger, gradually filling the entire screen.The probe carefully orbited the object of reconnaissance, and its appearance was clear at a glance: it was a torpedo-shaped spaceship, with a large chemical fuel nozzle at one end and a transparent conical cabin at the other end.In this transparent cabin... Two people in space suits can be clearly seen.They didn't move.Their half-silver helmets were empty.

"Which one is your mother?" Aubie asked in a sympathetic tone. "Well, how do I know?" Sandy exclaimed angrily.In fact, however, he thought he knew.The one on the right of the two is thinner than the one on the left, and the space suit on the right has a golden sunburst on the chest.Sandy knew that women on Earth were more particular about their personal attire than men. On the screen, a red flame suddenly spewed out from the Heckley probe and shot at the spaceship from the earth. There was a small explosion on the shell of the spaceship, emitting white and golden lights.Even though he knew that the probe was not launching an attack, Sandy flinched involuntarily. This is a precautionary measure taken according to the usual practice. First, a laser was used to blast a crater on the shell of the Earth spacecraft so that the Heckley who were on a surveillance mission Its composition can be analyzed, and then it can be pulled closer to the Heckley ship.The bright light from the explosion was dimmed in an instant, leaving only a small crater on the metal shell of the earth spacecraft.

Then, the probe began to circle the Earth spacecraft cautiously again, in a circle from bow to stern.Its camera lens rotates with it, and sometimes a few stars flash by in front of the lens. They belong to the rust-colored, disc-shaped cluster of Martian stars far below, and sometimes the lens even captures a flash of sunlight, It was reflected from the Heckley starship hovering in the distance.Sandy watched as the probe ejected a magnetic grappling hook attached to the hull of the derelict Earth ship, with twisting and wriggling cables behind it. Then, the screen went dark. "It's over?" Tanya said in a contemptuous tone, "We haven't seen what's inside the Earth spacecraft yet." "It's not in this tape," said Aubier, "but there is one. If you want to see it, Sandy, I'll get it for you." Sandy shook her head. "Don't bother," he said.He didn't want to watch it, not because he was afraid of troublesome Obier, but because he wanted to take pictures of how the Earth spacecraft was carefully inspected by the special Heckley people, and then disassembled into pieces. The eyes of the others watched the passage with him.In that movie, the Heckley treat the two earthlings in spacesuits—his parents—as if they were two ticking time bombs.He doesn't like it.Yes, there isn't any footage of the people in the space suits, just the Heckleys carefully transporting them to the genetics lab.In the lab, the Heckley studied his parents while they were in quarantine.But as soon as the laboratory door closed, the film was over.Sandy didn't want to have a bunch of people watching with him, and the lander simulator was now parked and the hatch was open. "Polly training is over," Sandy announced. "Who's next?" Polly was in a terrible mood when she stepped out of the hatch, and the instructor did not comfort her. "You're too slow to eject from the magnetic grappling hook, not fast enough," he told Polly. "It's a waste of energy. You should do better than worse." "I'm fast enough," Polly muttered. "If you think I'm not good enough, let someone else try it. Aubie! Next you come, let the instructor see the real thing." What a bad pilot looks like." Unlucky for Aubie, he did almost as badly as Polly had predicted.He stepped out of the flight simulator, tail trailing limply behind him. "Too bad, that sucks," the instructor announced. "You crashed the ship. You don't do your squad any credit." Bolton was next, squeezing into the still-warm pilot's seat, Buckle up your seat belt.And Aubier is still silently accepting a long series of criticisms - the equipment for clearing space junk is not activated, the angle is deviated when approaching the Earth's polar regions, and the deceleration is too fast when landing. When it was finally over, he immediately muttered to Sandy indignantly, "Let's get out of here." Sandy has no objection to the proposal. "where to?" "Anywhere," Aubier said gloomily, "Listen, haven't we already left our cabin?" "Oh, of course." "Then why don't we take advantage of this opportunity? As long as we're outside, we can look around." "Where should I go to see it?" Sandy asked eagerly, already tempted. "Anywhere we haven't been recently will do," Aubier said, meaning anywhere they weren't allowed to go. "I don't think we can just walk around," Sandy said thoughtfully.He's not disagreeing, he's just putting the obvious on the table.Aubie also understood.He didn't answer, but took the lead out of the flight simulator cabin.They stood for a while in the corridor, looking around. Sandy suggested: "We can go and see the things they made for us and brought to Earth." "No, wait a minute!" Obier yelled, "Listen, we'll look at this later. The people in the genetic laboratory may have created some new monsters! Let's go and see!" The idea did not occur to Sandy.The genetic laboratory was a stuffy, crowded, smelly place, and he generally didn't like to go there unless it was on business.He tried to explain this to Aubie, but they were already on their way there.Obina was puzzled by his words. "Again, Sandy, what don't you like?" "As I said, my mother was there." "Oh, Sandy," Aubier sighed, shaking his thumb disapprovingly. "You know, that's not really your mother." Actually Sandy understood.What the Heckley collected from his mother's body after her death were little more than microbes and cell specimens that survived in culture, but that was only relevant for science. But Sandy didn't think so.In his view, they are not cultured microorganisms and cells, they are his mother—not a living person, but it cannot be said to be completely dead. "Really, Sandy. The specimens they're keeping in the lab aren't your mother, they're just cultures, and the rest of her body was fed Tichthick long ago." Sandy flinched.He didn't want to think that part of his mother's body was preserved in the laboratory, let alone that her body was eaten.The Hakley customs of dealing with the dead did not particularly disturb him.All the while he realized that every life on the spaceship ended up being thrown into that kind of animal called Tichthik—they looked like starfish without limbs when compared with creatures on Earth— — in the bad circle of the Tikisik; the meat will soon be eaten by the Tichsik, leaving only the bones; the Tissik is then slaughtered as a high-protein feed to the carnivorous Husik; the bones Well, ground up, used as fertilizer for plants, and as a calcium supplement for Husik – nothing goes to waste.But it's different if you're talking about your own mother.Especially when you clearly know that there are several bottle-shaped containers in the genetic laboratory containing cell samples collected from her maternal body, which are kept on hand for gene splicing experiments. They were walking on the spiral ramp leading to the genetic laboratory floor when Aubie stopped. "Do you really think so?" he asked. "Yes, I really think so." "But it's so stupid! You know, there are quite a few of my ancestors preserved there, too." "Impossible, otherwise where did you come from." Sandy pointed out with a gloomy face. "Oh, I mean, the ones hatched from the same batch of eggs in the freezer. And, there must be some of my next generation kept there, not counting the ones born with the seniors." Finally, he casually brought A smug tone. "It's different." "Of course it's the same," said Aubier, a little annoyed. "Are you coming or not?" Sandy shrugged and reluctantly followed him.However, in the end, this incident actually made him escape.At the gate of the genetic laboratory, they were stopped by an "elder", who told them seriously, first of all, the genetic laboratory has not produced any new organisms at present - don't they know that there will be a large number of new organisms from the earth Influx for their research and to replenish the gene pool, so the whole genetic lab is preparing for it?At such a time, where would they have the time to cultivate more interesting-looking, or more economical plants, or Husik and Tichcik?Second, he pointed out, they wouldn't be doing anything here, would they? They both left quickly. "Ah, well," Aubier sighed, "you don't want to come anyway. I know that! Let's go see what they have prepared for our trip to Earth!" The lab rooms were hot, not only because they were located in the part of the spacecraft that wasn't cooled as it passed the sun, but also because of human factors.Furnaces and ovens in the lab also raised the temperature quite a bit. Everything in the laboratory fascinated Sandy.In the first room, two elderly Heckleys are working on a plastic compound from which they can extrude fabrics of various colors and textures. "These will make stockings for you," said their owner proudly. "These will make underwear. And here, a 'tie.' But if you want to see something really interesting, go next door." The adjoining room was as interesting as he had promised, and much hotter than the fabric room.Part of the heat wave came from a furnace.An elderly "elder" supervises two technicians carefully heating a cauldron.Then they poured the crucible into a vat, and saw many small shiny things emitting orange light falling into the vat drop by drop.The roots of the tank were so deep that Sandy couldn't see inside, but heard a sudden and violent crackling sound. The "elder" reached in—Sandy blinked in surprise, but the water in the vat was still cool after quenching the drops—and pulled out some irregularly shaped Yellow metal block.Once the objects were in his hands, they were so hot that he tossed them back and forth, gasping for air with a ridiculous hiss.Then he handed Sandy a piece. "Gold," he said proudly in English, "these four (are) for you, to buy things for you." "Yes, you can buy things." Sandy nodded eagerly.How many lessons they've had on "shopping," "shopping," and "paying"!The tiny nugget almost scorched the palm of Sandy's hand, but he held it respectfully, for it was something unique to Earth. "I think it's silly to buy things," Aubier interjected, fiddled with a small piece of metal among them curiously.He looked up, and suddenly a teardrop of surprise burst out of his eye. "Theseus!" he cried, "didn't expect you to be here!" Apparently the young Hekri hadn't expected to meet them either.Sandy had been trained with Sandy throughout his childhood and adolescence of thirty or forty young Hyaklis, and when six were finally selected for the Earth Journey, the others were abruptly removed, and Theseus was one of them. one of. It was also evident that the alchemist hadn't expected them to run into each other, and was not happy about the situation.He found an excuse and walked away, leaning over a communication screen.Here, Theseus said suspiciously: "You two shouldn't be here." "why?" "Because the order above says so, that's why!" "That's not a reason," Aubier said stubbornly, sticking to their story. "We were ordered to stay in our quarters, that's all. Now we're ordered to—go to a place where no one said we couldn't look around. What are you doing here?" "I'll get something," said the Heckley who was not chosen. "If they catch you here, you'll be in trouble." "Why? Is there any big secret?" "We can't talk about this." Theseus said firmly, and he and Obier approached each other step by step, nose to nose, glaring. It wasn't much fun to have Lysander caught between two ready-to-be-bad Heckleys, but those two were his friends--Obie was his friend, of course, there was no doubt about it, And Theseus had at least been his comrade, before they parted.He opened his mouth to persuade. There is no need for this anymore.A voice from the communicator suddenly exploded among them. "John William Washington! Hochesk Tikori-Kak!" was Marsala's voice, and from her calling them by their proper names she knew what trouble they had made.Sandy shot an angry look at the alchemist who had denounced them, but there was no time for argument. "The 'elder' told me Si (when), I still didn't believe it, but Si (is) like this," Masala continued, "You two went where you shouldn't be! La San (Sand) De, go back to your own cabin and wait for me! And you, Obiye, go back to the flight simulator cabin where you should stay!" Marsala arrived at the team's cabin a little later than Sandy did because she was walking more than usual.She found him in his workshop, looking at a picture of his mother.For him, it wasn't all a cover-up.Whenever he was in trouble, he always found it comforting to look at the only memento of the woman who gave him life.But it wasn't entirely a cover-up, for he had discovered early on that if he could arouse Marsala's sympathy, no matter what his faults, her anger would be appeased. "Lasan Sander, these fours are useless!" She said seriously, "You did a bad four (today)!" "I know I was wrong, Marsala," he said contritely.But still added, "Marsala? Why do I only have one picture of her?" She shushed him reproachfully, but he could tell she was hooked. "Hakleys don't have the habit of keeping (photos) of the dead," she reminded him. "But I'm not from Heckley!" "You're not," she agreed, her tone gradually tinged with sympathy. "Well, that's about all we can do. We found this picture in your father's 'purse', you look a lot like your mother herself." "Do you know what she looks like?" he asked eagerly. "Of course," Marsala said, adding empathetically, "she's beautiful. I four (mean) fingers, and for an Earthling, I think you look like her. ' Sandy frowned suspiciously at her. "What are you talking about? She's so slim and I'm so fat!" "Lasan (Sand) you are not fat, those four (s) are muscles." "Look at the difference between me and her!" "Of course there will be a difference, because you four (are) here, growing up on the spaceship. The gravity on earth is only 8/12 of the normal gravity of the spaceship. If your mother came to the ship, there were four (yes) Baby, she'll grow a lot bigger too." "Yes," Sandy was persuaded, "I see, but..." Marsala's patience was exhausted. "Three (Sand) Dee! Don't think I don't know what you're up to." "What did you say?" he asked, pretending to be innocent. She wrinkled her nose sadly, looking tired and disappointed. "Oh, Lasan (Sand)!" she said, trembling with sorrow. "How can you do this?" "It's not Lasander, it's Lasander." He wanted to make her angry. "I'm sorry," she said, angrily forcing herself to unsnap her tongue. "Dear Lysander, I'm tired and disappointed. Can I tell you a story—a story?" "I don't think I can stop you from telling it," he said. She looks at him sadly, but begins her story anyway. "A long time ago, when I was a young man with a tail half as long, a hawk-bee queen escaped once. She flew into a gap between the walls and (laid) her eggs..." She started talking again She bit her tongue, but Sandy wasn't in the mood to correct her right now. "A whole nest of eagle bees was born there, but no one knew about it. Later, she miserably laid queen eggs, and after the new queen bees hatched, they all flew away. On the fourth day, there appeared Many new hives (nests), all in the dark. No one knows. People just keep complaining, where did so many eagle bees come from? What do they feed on )? After all, there are not many bugs on the spaceship.” "Later," she paused, her face gloomy. "Then one time, the pilot wanted to adjust the course, and he input the command (su) into the central control system, but there was no response! The spaceship didn't change the course!" "My God!" Sandy exclaimed. His nanny sticks out her tongue gravely. "It's really scary," she said. "Of course, the backup system was activated later, and the task of changing the course was (successful). But when they checked the main engine, they found that there were beehives (nests) in it! They made the main engine's The relay shorted out! Oh San(Sand) Dee, you won't believe how hard we worked searching every pipe, vent and aisle for dozens of days after that! Extra work every day for everyone A long time, until the troughs (nests) are cleared, until the last wild hawk is killed. Do you understand the meaning of this story?" "Of course," Sandy replied quickly, "oh no, I don't quite understand. What is it?" She licked his arm with the tip of her tongue before she said: "Meaning four (yes), good four (things) will cause great harm if done secretly. Now do you understand what I mean?" "Of course I understand," said Lasander, sure she would explain. "Of course you understand," she agreed. "The implication of this story four (story) is that you should never keep any secrets from your superiors." Sandy thought for a moment. "It was they who kept a secret from me," he retorted, "and they didn't tell us why Theseus and the others were forbidden to see us again." "It's different, isn't it? You don't need to know those four things, at least you don't need to know now. Wait for the four seasons when you need to know Someone will tell you. But Si(yes), the 'elders' need to know everything because they are the ones who make the decisions. You don't Si(yes), do you?" "Yeah," Sandy said thoughtfully, "I'm not the one to make the decisions." Still, he wished he could at least make decisions once in a while. "So," she said, "when I'm not here, I hope you'll remember what I've taught you." "Of course I will remember." He said, suddenly reacting to something.He frowned at her, a little angry and suddenly frightened, and asked, "What do you mean you're not here anymore?" She shook her chin like a shrug. "The report from the freezer said that most of my last batch of eggs () were not fertilized. So I was ordered to undergo () a final medical examination," she said. Lysander was petrified. "Marsala!" he exclaimed, "they can't do that!" "Lazan (sand)der, of course they can," she said firmly, "and, dear, I don't think I'll make it through. So, wait for me for sure four (is) Tichthick's stables .” They might indeed have sent Masala to the Tichthick stables.As Lysande huddled with his teammates to sleep that night, his drowsy mind was not filled with returning to Earth, or even the scantily clad women of Earth, but with sad thoughts.Masala has been a part of his life since his life.He didn't want to think that it was over for her. The upcoming adventure no longer entertained him very much.