Chapter 10 Chapter nine

The warming of the Earth's atmosphere by carbon dioxide was real and visible for most of the mid-20th century, but the real ramp-up did not begin until the 21st century.At that time, the global average annual temperature was 7°C higher than normal over the past 10,000 or 15,000 years.Humans have done many other unwise things to the earth's atmosphere. The chlorofluorocarbons they emitted have destroyed the ozone layer and filled the atmosphere with acidic substances. However, the most interesting result has been global warming.The equatorial region has not changed much in terms of temperature, but the polar region has changed greatly.The ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland have melted, and the meltwater has formed streams as abundant as the Nile.Oddly, temperate regions of the northern hemisphere haven't warmed much, either warming just a little, as in North America, or getting colder, as in Europe.Europe suffers greatly from the adverse effects of changes in ocean currents.The flooding of freshwater, which is less dense than seawater, prevents warm surface water from the tropics from being transported to Europe, where winters are cooled by warm ocean currents.In contrast, the Pacific Ocean, which is on the other side of the ocean current cycle, is no longer cooled by sea water.This means nothing to the land in the Pacific Ocean, but it has a great impact on Europe. For example, the temperature in Madrid and Monte Carlo in the south of Europe is now similar to the temperature in Chicago.

The "swoon time" was over, and Aubier was the first to appear at the door of the landing ship.He yawned, scratched, and waved to Sandy.Then he turned around, and a stubby tail appeared in front of people. He grabbed the escalator rod with his hard thumb and second finger, slid down, and landed heavily on the ground.Obiye turned around and laughed out loud. "Oh, Sandy," he exclaimed ecstatically, "such light gravity is amazing! I feel like I can jump a kilometer in one jump." "Come on," Sandy ordered, smiling apologetically at his new Earth friend.He introduced Obiye and Tanya, who came out later, to these new arrivals on Earth, stammering their names—Maria Zuckerman, Dashiel Ali, Hamilton Boyle .Margerie Dapp's name came to him without difficulty.He watched her carefully, trying to guess what she was thinking from her expression.From her face, Sandy couldn't see anything, she nodded with a smile, and said a few polite words like "Welcome to Earth".He was still a little embarrassed, it was obvious that they chose their words carefully, not to allow themselves to come up with any insulting words.However, it goes without saying that people on earth are shocked when they encounter another civilization race from extraterrestrials.Seeing his companions from a human perspective—these 1.2-meter-tall, kangaroo-like, English-speaking aliens—Sandy can understand why they attract so much attention, especially as Obier, They always like to jump high in the air happily. "Your friend," Margeline Dap said to Sandy, pointing at Aubie, "is a good high jumper, isn't he?"

"This kind of temptation is too great on Earth." Sandy told her, in fact, he is also desperately resisting the temptation, not to show the strength created by his 1.4 gravity. "Then he shouldn't make a fool of himself like this." Standing behind Tanya said, she waved to Obier commandingly.Obiye jumped over and looked at them questioningly, she said sternly: "Obiye, your behavior is so stupid, this earth woman is very disappointed." Aubie showed a look of shame, and Marguerite Dapp hurriedly said: "Oh, no, Mr. Aubie, that's not the case! I think you dance very well. I just want to suggest, um, why don't you Wear a hat? The ozone layer is very thin this far north."

Aubie glared at her. "Ozone layer? Hat?" Hamilton Boyle picked up the conversation tactfully: "Lieutenant Dap is referring to the ultraviolet rays in the sun's rays, Mr Aubier. Because of the thinning of the ozone layer, ultraviolet rays are causing us a lot of trouble, like skin cancer, crop failures And all kinds of injuries. Are you afraid of sunburn yourself, you know?" Aubie looked at Sandy questioningly, and Sandy replied, "He doesn't know, and neither do we. We've never seen sunshine before." "Then you should all wear your hats," said Margerie Dapp decisively, "and probably need something to cover your... um... arms."

"Or better yet," Boyle laughed, "keep y'all indoors. Please accept our invitation and come to the city. There's plenty of space for VTOL." "To the city?" Aubie asked sharply. "I've got to ask Polly," Tanya said, turning and crawling back to the landing craft. Boyle shouted to her back: "Please tell her that this is an official invitation from the government of the Yucan Republic, and we all welcome you to Earth!" He then said to Sandy and Obier: "I guarantee you will like it!" Yes. Dawson is a real city, and we'll make sure you're comfortable there."

Margeley nodded approvingly. "Oh, I'd love to," said Sandy. Aubier said sadly, "Polly won't let us go." Unexpectedly, after Polly disembarked from the landing ship--she disembarked in a much more graceful posture than Aubie--she shed kind tears and said, "Of course we accept the invitation to visit your Dawson City. Our instructor Ching Tai Chi Luo asked us to thank you. Sadly, we can't all go." "But VTOL can accommodate all of us," said Margerie Dapp. "It's not a question of what can fit in the plane, but what is necessary. We must have a few people on the landing ship, just in case. If we all go, some earthlings will go in, maybe Injured myself. Besides, the spaceship suffered a lot of damage during the flight, and there is still a lot to do to repair it, such as those protective screens against tiny meteorites that must be replaced, and you can see how damaged they are."

"Aren't you planning to leave right away?" Boyle asked, frowning. "It's not a matter of whether we intend or not," Polly said to him. "Our orders are given by the senators and must be carried out. However, the landing ship will not leave immediately. We will have some people with you, of course. You have to bring something to eat." "There's plenty of food in Dawson City," said Margerie Dapp. Polly shook her head. "I'm afraid there is only earth food. Lasander and I will go with you, and bring..." She glanced around and sighed: "Obiye, I think he is the most willing to go. The others stay on the boat .”

They traveled to Dawson in Margerie Dapp's VTOL, a flight almost as bumpy as a trip from a starship to Earth, and even Obier got airsick.They finally reached the place called Dawson, and this was the first time Sandy saw a human city. "It's so big here!" he shouted, staring at the tall buildings, some almost 30 meters high! "Oh, it's not very big," said Margery, "it's just Dawson, the capital of the Yucan Republic. There are about 25,000 people in the Yucan Republic, most of whom don't live in Dawson, but live in the countryside. on the farm."

Once again, Sandy found herself with so many questions, but only one to ask first. "Yucan Republic?" he repeated suspiciously. "That's the name of the region," she explained. "We don't have any big countries anymore, like the United States, you know? Only republics. There are about 10,000 of them in the world. The largest republic in North America It is the Republic of York on the east coast, and it only has a population of about 250,000. The place where you land belongs to the Inuit Republic, here is the Yucan Republic, and to the south is the Athabasca Republic, where the farms are really big. To the west is..."

Sandy interrupts her "geography lesson". "Can we go into town?" he asked. Obiye also couldn't wait to ask: "Can I eat something more? Can I have a real milkshake?" "Of course we can," Marge Li smiled, "Come on, the car is waiting for us." The vehicle she spoke of was a "van," a square shape with four wheels and ample seating for two Highkleighs crammed together.The car drove quickly to the city.The three guests stared intently at everything passing by the roadside, Aubier chattered excitedly, Polly showed a disdainful expression, and Sandy's eyes rolled when he faced the wonderful scene in this real human city. fell out.He couldn't help being secretly happy, and Marge Li couldn't help but smile when she saw it.The two Haikeli were salivating.

As part of the human world, it doesn't look like the Heckley videotape, not at all.Of course there are cars.There are many human cars that the Heckley people have seen in old movies, and they are always chasing and chasing on the "highway" endlessly.They know what cars look like, but the cars here are different. There are three-wheeled and four-wheeled ones;Dawson's buildings are rarely skyscraper-style, although there are quite a few floors, for example, the hotel that Margery took them to has 25 floors, but most of them are located underground. "There's no sunlight here in winter," she explained, "so you can't see anything above ground, and besides, you can get shelter from the wind if you live underground." "The wind here may not be very strong." Aubier rushed to say, wanting to show off his different opinions. The storm they encountered when they landed was much more severe. "It's not very windy today," said Margery. "This is an inland area, and there aren't many hurricanes. You encountered a hurricane when you landed in the Inuit Republic. There is also a Chinook wind there." The storm, if it blows, can blow your hair from the top of your head, oh, of course I don’t mean your hair, Aubie. Come on, you settle down first.” [①Chinook wind: refers to the warm southwest wind blowing from the sea to the northwestern coast of the United States and the southwestern coast of Canada in winter and spring, and the dry warm west wind or north wind blowing down the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. 】 To "settle down" means to "check in" at a "hotel".There were crowds of people watching as they registered.always like this.People gather around them, eyes wide open, the TV cameras on either side until they are in their rooms. There are three of them in one room. They couldn't help being taken aback.Has anyone ever heard of sleeping alone?Aubie and Polly decided to share the floor in one corner of one of the rooms, and they were not going to try to sleep in the "bed" just yet.Sandy decides to do as the Romans do. "So only Polly will sleep with me," cried Aubier, "and I'll be cold." Polly said impatiently, "Let the Earthman do what he likes. You'll have to be there when I check the radio, though, and we need to make sure everything's okay on board the landing ship." everything is normal.The first signal was sent by Tanya, and she reported that everything was normal, except for a few people on Earth who wanted to take a look on the ship. "Of course not," Polly ordered angrily, "unless Ching-Tec Law allows it. Have you made contact with the ship?" "Yes," said Tanya, "the elders are thinking about that. Also, they want to issue a 'broadcast' to Earth themselves. I have spoken to Ching Tai Chi Luo and he will tell us how to establish A set of broadcast equipment." Polly swallowed nervously. "Are the senators . . . happy?" she asked. "They didn't say they were unhappy," Tan Ya reported. That way you'll be fine.Polly breathed a sigh of relief and shed tears of relief. Margeley knocked on the door outside. "Sandy?" she asked. "If you want to go shopping, now is the time." "Great," Sandy replied eagerly. "I've always wanted to see what a supermarket looks like on Earth." "Oh," she shook her head, "of course you can, but next time. Now I think we can go to the clothing store first. Your friend Heckley needs a hat, and you, if you change out of this funny dress, Might be more comfortable." Sandy's first steps into actually stepping into the human world and becoming one of them is wonderful.This step is also timid, sometimes a little defensive, but generally beautiful.The unexpected happened one after another.The deepest impression is the space of the earth.There’s so much space here, filled with all kinds of things—lakes, farms, buildings, people.The most wonderful and the most annoying were the smells, which he got used to slowly, because none of them resembled the smell of the spaceship.On the first farm Sandy had been to, the smell of the manure heap behind the cowshed had struck him as odd and amusing, and the city of Dawson smelled even more strange.There are things that disgust him, such as car exhaust; there are things that make him feel fresh and curious, such as the smell of cooking food and human sweat; there are sweet smells, such as the scent of flowers and plants.There were also very specific smells from women, and when Sandy asked Margery about them, she helped him identify them with a giggle.Perfume, soap, hairspray, and a faint, sensual body odor make up the smell of an Earth woman.They made Sandy's belly twitch with surprise and surprise. The women of Earth never left his mind for a moment, especially now that he had a great representative of them by his side. It felt odd that Sandy had to look up when he was talking to him, but he didn't think there was anything wrong with it.She is 1.8 meters tall, and her physique is too strong for an earth woman, but in Sandy's eyes, she is still weak.Her hair was red, pulled back in two long braids, her eyes were green, and her nose was straight and aquiline. For more than 20 years, Sandy had never imagined that a perfect earth beauty would be composed of red braids, green eyes and hooked nose, which surprised him. He didn't think about it any further, because he was also excited by many other colorful things, such as shopping.They arrived at a shopping place, and the sign on the door read: bernie boutique Several other signs read: Casual trousers sportswear jogging shoes casual wear Sandy was fascinated by these signboards, they were flashing with colorful lights, changing on and off in front of his eyes, what attracted him most was the indescribable content contained in those attractive human words on them, which made Sandy's heart flutter, And feel mysterious, such as: Give Double Gift Certificates on Thursday The flickering and blurred sign only attracted three alien visitors to stop and watch, while the others, whether they were shop assistants or customers, all stared at Aubie and Polly. Aubie made a fool of himself again.Spotting a gigantic shoe—a display in a window, obviously not intended for human wear—he gestured back and forth on his foot, to much laughter.Sandy was so embarrassed that he stole a glance at Margerie Dap and saw that she was smiling too, so Aubeye hadn't caused any real trouble. This shopping is an exciting experience, unlike their original shopping simulation exercise on the spaceship, but actually exchanging "money" for "clothes" with a "clerk". "Actually," Margerie Dapp explained, "you don't really need money right now." "unnecessary?" "Yes, you are our guests, and 'Guoan' will pay for your hotel, car, and all other necessary expenses. However, if you want to pay for your personal items..." "I'd love to pay for it myself," Sandy told her, "but where does the 'money' come from?" It was simple enough, Margery took his few gold nuggets and came back with her thumb in her hand. Such a thick stack of paper with patterns printed in squares. "That's enough for a while," she said. "What do you think?" "There is plenty of gold." He said boldly, reassuring her.He touched the clothes in the store with his hands, and immediately found that the clothes that Heckley's tailor made for him were completely different from the "real".The material of the trousers is not smooth and non-porous, but a soft fabric, slightly wrinkled, lined with some softer fabric.Also, the trousers have a "zipper" on the front so they can be unzipped if needed (ah, that's what happened!).Rather than simply being a strip of cloth, the tie is sewn into a tube with a stiff lining to give it a straight appearance.Shoes are not molded from a single plastic, the upper is made of one material, the sole is harder, and the heel is made of a material that is both hard and elastic.There are also pockets inside the jacket.The belts are not just decorations, they go through the little loops on the trousers, which ties them together.The hat is not used to keep warm, but to protect the scalp from the sun.Socks, underwear, shirts - oh, everything is different, everything is so much better! The problem is, none of these great clothes fit Sandy Washington. His broad body can barely fit into the largest clothes, but a sweater of this size becomes a calf-length robe on him, the sleeves cover the fingertips, and the trousers have to be rolled up almost one foot.Margelie said that these problems could all be fixed for a few hundred "dollars" more, since the store had several people in charge of tailoring the garments to the specific requirements of different body shapes. "You just pick what you like," she said, "we'll fix them." She glanced worriedly towards the front of the store, where the bustling Aubier and Polly were telling Earthlings "feet" , "head" and other relatively hidden parts of the body in Haikeli. "I'd better go see what's going on there," she said, "excuse me for a moment." Sandy walked around alone.He was amazed to find so many different clothes for various parts of the body.So many fibers, so many fabrics, so many colors, and so many kinds of buttons, lace, zippers, cuffs, pockets, patches, tassels, ruffs, everything imaginable, whether necessary for clothing, Or for decoration, there are some here, and some of them are downright ridiculous to Sandy (for example, what is a panty without a crotch for? Maybe it's for that drape on a male body Why is it placed where it's labeled "Women's Underwear"?). He saw staring at him from a young woman who had just emerged from an alcove marked "Fitting Room" in a bikini.Realizing that he shouldn't be in this place, he turned quickly and turned hurriedly to the men's outerwear section.It is crowded with rows of 20-meter-long clothes hangers, all of which are "sportswear", "casual clothes", "suits" or "tie clothes". He continued to browse, and suddenly found himself in a shoe area.He admired the glossy smoothness of the shoes, the polished uppers almost reflecting his face.Even twist it out of shape.And look at the color of the shoes!Lavender uppers studded with pale green diamonds; peach and pale blue; and iridescent purples, oranges, yellows...why does Margeri keep making him buy shoes in such dull blacks and browns?Also, why she advised him to buy shoes with flat heels, when there were racks and racks of colorful and beautiful shoes with high heels that would easily add three inches to his height. He smiled understandingly.No doubt, she liked the feeling of being taller than him.That's okay, now he's found a shoe he likes.Holding a shoe in one hand, he strode to a table and said to the stunned woman sitting behind the table, "Excuse me, do these shoes have my size?" Margeley solves the mystery for him.It turns out that shoes should be differentiated by gender, and men generally don't wear such high heels.Everything went well except for the shoe hiccup.Not only is shopping for clothes considered a normal thing, but the shop assistants and tailors are happy to serve this guest from an alien spaceship.Other things stopped temporarily, and everyone in the store was busy with Sandy's order.The other customers didn't mind at all, they all surrounded Sandy, and even when he went into the dressing room, a few people peeped openly through the curtains.Sandy knew that they meant no harm, that there was a lot of curiosity, and he felt more like they were welcoming.welcome! He came home. The only thing that worried him was that with so many people around him, especially so many women (though none of them were as tall and radiant as Margerie Dapp, they all had all the characteristics of a woman), he The lust can't help but just around the corner. A female shop assistant was measuring the length of his trousers when suddenly her cheeks flushed and she turned her head away with a smile on her lips.Several bystanders also giggled.Only then did Sandy realize that her erection was showing through her pants.How can this be good? For the people of Haikeli, this is something to be happy about.Any nearby women will be more than happy to cooperate.Yet he was not among the Hekri. Sandy has seen so many earth movies, no matter how hard he researched and searched for clues, none of them exactly told him how to develop with the earth woman to the last critical step.It's not that there isn't a definite formula for this on Earth. In fact, marriage ceremonies are an important theme in most films, especially those in which young men and women often sing love songs to the music of an invisible orchestra. Up and down the stage.Sandy thinks she can easily play the part of Fred Astaire - Fred casually sees Ginger Rogers for the first time and decides that she is the only woman in the world that belongs to him, but she Rejecting him flatly with obvious distaste; so Fred sang to the waltz or tango in her ear, held her up and danced briskly, and finally melted her cold heart, and finally he and her Tap-dancing away together, perhaps onto a bed.Sandy had never heard the invisible orchestra, though, and he couldn't dance. There are movies about a man in a "war" who rescues a woman from an "enemy" or from a "gangster" or "terrorist" and then sleeps with her naturally.Where can he find war?Other movies are more straightforward, where a man and a woman will go into a "singles bar" (whatever that is), the woman will sit down with a glass, and the other will come forward, and they will talk to each other. Password, password is easy to decipher, but it is not easy to repeat it with others.Everything they said had a double meaning, something Sandy found difficult to achieve with his language skills.But this is still the most direct way, because once they receive the correct identification signal from the other party, their next sentence is: "Go to your place or go to my place?" One thing Sandy found to his advantage was that he had a place of his own, a hotel room, but where was he going to find a singles bar to match signs?And when do these things?He had only a few clothes to wear (the rest would be finished tomorrow), and Margery took him away. "Where's Polly and Aubie?" he asked, looking back, they were still talking to other Earthlings. "They have their own escorts," she told him. "Naturally the people of Earth are particularly interested in you, so we arranged a television interview just for you. It's only a block away." Under her leadership, they soon came to a distinctive building.The building is arguably unique in Dawson, with a full 10 floors above ground.Margerie took him to the top. "This is the studio," she told him, looking Sandy up and down. "You look gorgeous." "Really?" he asked gratefully, taking a quick look in a mirror to admire his new clothes—tan cotton track shorts, a short-sleeved shirt that exposed his chest in the front, sandals with a red stripe at the top knee-high white socks. "I think so too," he agreed with satisfaction. "What shall we do now?" "Let's go in," said Margery, leading him into a large room surrounded by eight or nine earthlings. As soon as he entered, the TV camera (or some kind of camera) was pointed at him. . A man in a blue turtleneck came forward and held out his hand. "My name is Wilfred Morgenston!" he said.Sandy remembered not to shake hands too hard this time, and the man flinched only a little. "I interviewed you exclusively. You start at the beginning and tell us your story, okay?" Sandy looked around blankly, and Margery nodded encouragingly. "Well," he said, "a long time ago, when the 'war' was being fought on Earth, the Heckley spacecraft came to the solar system for investigation..." At the end of the interview, which lasted a long time, Margelie asked sympathetically, "Would you like to have something to eat before I take you back to the hotel? I think today is long enough for you." Sandy also felt the same about this, and hurriedly nodded and said yes: not only because so many things happened on this day, but also, the 24-hour day on the earth is much longer than that of the Heckley people.He pointed to the window strangely, "It's still light outside," he said. "The days here are longer in summer," Margeley explained, "it's normal to go to bed before dark." He didn't pay attention to what she said, but looked out of the window more carefully, and couldn't help holding his breath.The sun was almost down, and the western sky was filled with colors, creamy clouds that were no longer white but tinted in shades of pink, purple, and orange. "How beautiful!" he exclaimed. "It's just some clouds, they may come from the storm you encountered in the Republic of Inuit." Margery said that she was used to it, and then asked curiously: "Have you never seen clouds before?" ?" "There are no clouds on the Haikeli spaceship, and the Haikeli language does not even have this word. If you use their words to express it, it is 'Itahekhenahnotaha', which means, let me think about it, it is 'suspended in liquid particles in a gas'." "That's interesting," said Margery. "Can you teach me some other Hackley words?" "Very happy," he said, yawning so suddenly that it startled even himself.He is really sleepy. "Can I see you tomorrow?" he asked tentatively. "Of course. I'm your personal escort, Sandy. You'll see me for a long time." He smiled gratefully. "Then I'm going back to the hotel to eat biscuit milk with Polly and Aubie." He was thinking about another thing to do, and at this moment, a poem had slowly formed in his mind.