Chapter 18 Chapter Seventeen

There aren't many mountains on the island of Manhattan in the center of New York, but there were many there a long time ago.The English settlers, the Dutch settlers before them, and the driest native Indians—they all used to speak of hills, valleys, ridges, broad streams, and puddles big enough to row a boat, of which only remains I found it.When New Yorkers started building concrete buildings all over the island, they didn't want any slopes on the island that were too steep for a horse pulling a cart of bricks to climb up, or the later 18, which carried 20 tons of steel girders. The wheel tractor cannot be driven.So they cut away all the hills, filled in all the ravines, and piped all the streams into underground sewers.They didn't consider what would happen to the razed island after carbon dioxide warmed the climate.As it happened, their descendants attempted to dam the island to hold back the rising sea.However, when the storm was a little bigger, it rushed over these dams... In the era of climate warming, the storm is naturally very big.

Sandy came out from behind a screen on the roof, wearing only a pair of bright green shorts, and Margelia sighed, "I should have brought your bathing suit." She eyed him absently.Her demeanor was still unaccountably cold, almost serious—thought Sandy resentfully, and she had promised him that thing just now. "I think you look all right, but no one's here to see. Here, put these on," she said. He took the inflatable rubber jacket she handed him and squeezed his head through the hole in the top; he fastened the pull tabs around the waist as she ordered.They were standing on the roof of a low building at this time, and the water surface was a few meters down.Margerie stripped off her baggy trousers, and Sandy couldn't help being ecstatic again.She had already put on her bikini swimsuit under other clothes, and it seemed that she was ready.

Sandy wasn't prepared for anything - for anything.The set of equipment on his body was completely unfamiliar to him, and he didn't know what to do with it.In addition to wearing this inflatable rubber thing, he also needs to strap an oxygen cylinder on his back, learn to breathe through a mask, and hang some weights on his belt. For "balanced buoyancy".Sandy frowned. "Can't we let the gas out a little?" "No, I don't want to drown you." She said briefly, "Let's go into the water. It's better not to be exposed to the sun in such a southerly place."

She sat down on the edge of the roof, let go of her hands and jumped; she was floating on the water. "How?" she called, waiting for Sandy. Sandy took a deep breath, followed her example and went down. However, he didn't jump into the water like she did.He first firmly grasped the low wall at the edge of the roof, and lowered his body down bit by bit.No sooner had his legs touched the water than he gasped in panic. The water was so cold.Gathering his mind, he found that the water wasn't really cold, nor was it really uncomfortable, but it just surprised him at first.But, after all, his legs were in the water, not in the air, and the water could suck the heat out of his body faster than any other gas.

If Margerie could take it, so could he.Sandy slowly submerged the rest of her body in the unfamiliar medium.He hardened his heart, and let go of his fingers gripping the edge of the low wall. So he floated in the water. It was a strange feeling; or rather, a dozen different strange feelings, none of which he had experienced before.He swiped his arm through the water, and immediately his body moved in the opposite direction—like the main engine of the spaceship.Action and reaction forces exist here too!His skin slowly adjusted to the fluid around him, and the initial coldness disappeared.He actually feels great now.He tried to bury his face in the water, and immediately got some water in his mouth, which was salty, but not uncomfortable at all.

He yelled at Marge which was floating a meter away: "I like this!" "Let me adjust your weights," she said. It didn't take much time.Margery guessed well, she only needed to add two small weights to equalize the buoyancy of the life jacket.In this way, his weight, life jacket, oxygen tank, weight, all add up to just balance the density of water. Then he has to learn to breathe out through his nose and inhale through a rubber tube held in his mouth.Sandy choked several times before finally getting the hang of breathing. He looked under the water, which was not as clear as the water in the city center, maybe because the water was deeper. "What's down there?" he asked.

"You'll find out in a minute. Nothing to worry about. There's nothing around here to hurt you, except for the occasional shark." "Shark?" Sandy exclaimed. "They're not going to bother us," she reassured him. "Just watch out for the little fish. If you can see them, there won't be any sharks around." Sandy wanted to believe her, he tried to believe it, but he couldn't help poking his head into the water to see if there was a big, evil gray thing down there. She stopped him. "Don't go down yet," she said after thinking for a while, "I guess you're ready. Is that hearing aid of yours waterproof?"

Sandy thought about it. "Not waterproof." "Give it to me then," she ordered, "take it off, can you hear me?" "No," he said dejectedly. "So, I'm signaling to you that you spit on your visor like this..." She demonstrated. "...and follow me down." She carefully stuffed Sandy's hearing aid into a pocket on her wetsuit.After sealing the bag, she forced a smile at him.He knew she was talking, he could only see her lips moving, but he couldn't hear her voice. "What did you say?" he said loudly. She frowned, shrugged, and pointed to the mask.Following her example, he spit into the mask and put it on.She seemed to be sighing, but she just waved to him and jumped back into the water.

They dived down into the murky underwater world of Wall Street, which is lined with buildings. She grabbed one of Marge's ankles and let her drag her forward.He stared at Huizhou with wide eyes, and almost forgot the correct way of breathing. As a result, he coughed and choked, and finally recovered his normal breathing.But it's worth it too! Abandoned cars are everywhere on the street, swept up and down by the tide.It was dim here, with the daylight fading as the sun went down, but Sandy could still make out a few things: a fire truck, a twisted bicycle, a brightly painted cart with the words "Pretzels Fresh Juice" on it. Tofu" is still legible.

Marge Li patted him on the shoulder, and pointed to a huge entrance.There used to be a revolving door, but the leaves had fallen off, and she swam in, dragging Sandy. The place they entered seems to have turned out to be what humans call a "bank".Diving here is both easier and more difficult.It was easier because there were lots of railings and counters to draw on, so that Sandy didn't have to swim like a three-legged cat; it was more difficult because there was no sunlight in the hall, only the diffuse and gray sky from outside. light. Margeley didn't care about that.She fiddled with something on the headband, and a beam of light shot out.She swam forward, motioned for Sandy to follow her, entered a vault, and went through the doors.Sandy's eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness, and he saw small rooms in the vault with broken doors, crumbling and empty.At the end of the vault is a spiral staircase that twists and turns like a spider web.Margerie went up the stairs, followed by Sandy, to the top of the stairs...

Margerie stopped swimming and walked up the stairs.The water reaches the ceiling of the vault, and at the exit of the stairs is a dark, unflooded room. Sandy sticks his head out of the water and follows, and sees that Margery has taken off her breathing mask.Thinking in his mind, he also took off his mask, and saw that there were many sofas and chairs in the room, all of which were dilapidated and smelled of damp and musty. Margeley walked around, groping for things in the house, the headlights swept across the walls, ceiling and interior fixtures, and suddenly a floor lamp came on.The air in this room was just squeezed here by the flood, creating an air chamber.As soon as the light came on, he saw Margery turning her head to talk to him, but he couldn't hear anything. "I-listen-no-see," he said. She stopped, opened her waist pocket, took out the button-sized hearing aid, dried it on a cloth on the table, and handed it to him.As soon as he put it in his ear, she asked, "Do you like this place?" He looked around. "Where is this?" "This is where people used to keep their valuables. These are safes," she said, waving her hand toward the walls, which were lined with rows of small doors, most of them open. “It’s where they keep their money, their jewelry, their wills, their divorce papers, or anything they don’t want to lose. They can come in here and cut their coupons or do whatever in those little rooms.” "What is 'cutting their coupon'?" She laughed. "Oh, that's a long story. These people have 'stocks' and 'bonds' - they're rich, and rich people need this kind of place - if they're rich, these 'stocks' and 'bonds' to make more money for them. Every once in a while, they need to cut out a 'bond' certificate and send it, and then they can get the money." She said, taking it down from a shelf A couple of towels, toss one to Sandy and use the other to dry his hair.The towel was moldy, but drier than his body.Sandy found herself shaking, and Margery noticed it too. "Ah, wait a minute," she said, and she pressed a button, and a circle of orange light lit up on a round metal reflector on the floor. "It's always humid here," she said, "but I still like it. The electric heater dries us out a bit. Every once in a while I have to recharge the battery. It's still going on for hours now .” "Why do you use a 'battery'?" "Because there is no other electrical energy available, it is completely isolated from the outside world." Sandy sat down on the leather sofa, trying first to see if it could bear his weight.The sofa creaked, but it was a solid piece of furniture.He surveyed the room curiously. "What are you doing here?" She hesitated. "Oh," she said slowly, "this is mostly my hideout." She looked at him for a moment, then said, "This is probably the only place in the world where I can be sure no one is watching or listening to me. Put you Pass me your oxygen bottle, will you?" He untied it and handed it over, and she opened the valve on her oxygen bottle a little, and the gas hissed out. "We need a little extra oxygen from time to time," she said. "Aside from what I just said, this is a real home other than home. Don't you think?" Sandy didn't answer.He wished his understanding of human expressions and tone of voice had improved a bit.Margerie looked a little different—speaking a bit awkwardly and moving very quickly. "I didn't know you were in this city a lot," he said, looking at her. "'Guoan' is headquartered in Hudson," she said. "I just wanted a little piece of my own private turf." She looked restless, Sandy thought, almost as he had felt before her. Is it possible that there is not much difference between the Earth woman and the Hekri?Was she responding to the growing desire in him? There is only one way to find out.It was a risky approach, but at this moment, Sandy's desire to know outweighed his fear of being rejected by her again.He sat down on the sofa beside her and put his arms around her.Her body immediately became stiff. "Wait a minute, Sandy. Do you think I brought you here for some romance?" He kisses her ear. "Thought? No," he said, pondering the right word, "it should be 'hope.'" She moves away. "Stop it! You're as childish as the Heckleys." He was offended. "The Heckleys are not childish," he protested. "Oh, how do you say it? It's like the Boys' Barracks, or...!" She paused. "You know, we used to have what was called the Army." "Of course, I've heard of the military," Sandy said, trying to get closer to her again. "You've heard, maybe more than I do. But my grandfather was in the army. They behaved in the army much like you guys on the Heckley ship, it seems to me. In the army Here, people get up when they hear the wake-up call, go to work, then disband and have breakfast, and do everything like this throughout the day, they follow orders. My grandpa calls it a mechanical behavior, I don’t know, is that just It's like treating all soldiers like children. Because they are treated like children, they behave like children. You know what I mean?" "No," Sandy said, putting his arms around her again. "The Hekri have no army." "But they act alike, don't they?" "You're right," he said, kissing her lips. She moved away almost immediately—almost. "Really..." she began, and he kissed her again. This time she kissed him back and suddenly hugged him again.She was strong enough for an Earthling, and he was surprised to feel the strength of her embrace. "Oh, hell!" she whispered against his neck. "Why not?" It's not at all like mating as he's known; there's more action, as Sandy's original footage of the blanket going up and down on TV suggests. It doesn't quite feel like masturbation either, much better than that.Sandy felt so good, he couldn't help yelping like a slaughtered Husik during orgasm; Margelia murmured too.When it was all over, they collapsed on the sofa exhausted.The battered sofa was damp and moldy, but it seemed to Sandy as beautiful as it was strewn with rose petals. Joy and peace filled Sandy's mind as he turned his gaze to the woman with whom he had just successfully made love.He studied her face carefully. He had never looked at a woman's face immediately after intercourse, and didn't know how to read her expression.Her face wasn't as sweaty as he'd imagined it to be (unlike his), and there was a red spot on her cheek where it wasn't there before. He searched for the right words in his mind, which knew so little about such situations. "Are you okay?" he asked anxiously. Her reaction surprised him.She gave him a sharp look at first, as if wondering if he was joking.When she was sure he wasn't joking, she laughed out loud. "Honey," she said lovingly, "if I moo like a cow, it's like saying, 'Yes, sir, that's wonderful.' Just not so hard next time." Hold me tightly," she added finally, tilting her head to inspect her shoulder for any scars. Sandy was so excited at the time that he didn't realize that he was much stronger than the average earthling.He took a quick look, and there were indeed scars.It's his fault! "I'm sorry," he said. "Don't say such things again, okay?" She stood up, her body curled up slightly, and she reached for a towel to wrap around her body. "Pass me that oxygen tank," she ordered. Sandy picked up the oxygen cylinder and found that it was no longer hissing.Marge Li took it from his hand, glanced at the capacity meter, shook it, showing annoyed expression.She rummaged around until she found another oxygen cylinder, still deflated. She closed it, grinning. "I think it was wise to leave them on," she said. "We probably used up a lot of oxygen. Anyway, I can hold my breath long enough to get out." "Hold your breath?" Sandy was shocked. "I've done it before," she said.Then she sat down and looked at Sandy. "What happened just now, while it feels good, wasn't why I brought you here. I was going to talk to you." He stared at her.The red spots on her cheeks became redder and bigger in the dim, uncertain light. "Don't we talk all the time these days?" She shook her head. "We've been talking," she said seriously, "but every word we said was recorded by the 'Guoan', no matter where we were or what we were doing. I want to talk to you alone, without letting anyone Hear, because there are things I haven't been allowed to mention to you." He was very surprised, and just about to speak, she pressed her finger on his lips. "Because I told you about our spying on the Heckley ship, and I've been reprimanded. But I haven't told you everything yet." He looked at her without blinking.Her face was blushing, but her expression was very firm, and she continued: "As soon as the person who first discovered the gamma rays of the Heckley engine reported it, everyone began to search for old astronomical photos, and we tracked until we found '300 angstroms'— — I don’t understand either, that’s what they call it. They knew right away it must be a ship. They started analyzing the spectrum of your ship’s emissions. We know what fuel your engines are using, they call it ‘ Rare matter'. We also know its density, volume, and all. We'll be ready to meet you when your landing craft head for Earth. If it weren't for that hurricane, we'd be there in 20 minutes. Come on, it won't take 10 hours." Sandy's enthusiasm after making love faded away little by little. "You didn't tell us." "Yes, no. We decided to monitor you. Since you arrived at the dairy farm, you have been under surveillance and videotape all the time." "I always thought you liked me." Sandy cried. "Damn it, Sandy, can't you see that I like you? Would I have sex with someone I don't? I'm not Mata Hari." [①Mata Hari (1876-1917): Dutch dancer and courtesan, in 1917, was arrested for acting as a German spy and sentenced to death by the French military court. 】 "Marta..." "Oh, don't ask that," she said impatiently. "Let's be serious. I'm going to ask you something. Did you tell Polly what I told you?" "Do you mean why I can't remember about Alpha Centauri?" He looked confused and disgusted, and it took him a long time to reply, "Yes, I told Polly. She said she and Qing Taiqi Luo talked about it, but I didn't." "Ah," Marge Li was very happy, "Why don't you talk to Qing Taiqi Luo?" The good feeling in Sandy's heart completely disappeared, and she began to want to talk back to her. "Do I have to have a reason not to? Didn't talk to him anyway, that's all." She nodded with satisfaction. "I hope you don't, Sandy." He said logically, "If you don't want me to tell them, why don't you tell me that?" "I want to see if you can do this yourself, because..." She paused, shifting positions uncomfortably, and then said reluctantly, "Because I have something else I want to talk to you about." He looked at her with concern.All he knew about human sex told him she should be relaxed and happy, but she looked restless and uncomfortable. "Are you all right?" he asked. "Of course I'm fine! Why would it be? It's just..." She grinned, "Maybe it's because you're a little too strong and I'm not used to it. Do you know what I mean?" Sandy thought it was a compliment, and couldn't help being a little proud.But this feeling didn't last long, he said aggrievedly: "Actually, you don't have to monitor us, just ask us." "We asked, Sandy. We're still asking. I'm asking you now. But what if there's something the Highkri don't want to answer?" Sandy shrugged.She went on in a coaxing tone, almost begging for forgiveness. "So we're just taking the normal precautions. Bug your rooms wherever you go. Everything you say is recorded. We also tap the radios from the landing craft to the ship. ..." Sandy looked at her in shock. "I didn't know you could do that too." "Actually, it's almost impossible. The radio waves sent by the Haikeli are very dense, and they cannot be received more than one kilometer away from the landing ship, but we have our own ground station there. And, just to be sure, we sent a High-altitude aircraft were circling overhead to eavesdrop on the outgoing signals." "But they speak Heckley!" "Yes, it's Heckley," she said gravely, "which makes things tricky, we recorded some of your speech and got a whole bunch of linguists to analyze and make connections. We can't read all of it , but that is enough for us to worry." She glanced at him, "We have no choice, do you understand? Haven't the Haikeli people done similar things?" It occurred to Sandy that there were hundreds of Hykleites on the ship who had done nothing else for decades, specializing in every sliver of Earth-wave data, trying to get down to every crypt of human activity. "Oh, maybe," he said reluctantly, "that's all right, you won't find anything bad anyway." "Can't you find it?" Margery said sadly. Her tone touched him, and he froze suddenly. "What do you want to explain?" he asked. She said gloomily, "Start with your mother. That picture Hamilton Boyle borrowed from you." "What's wrong?" "Well..." She hesitated, "You don't remember your mother at all?" "No, I told you she died when I was born." "But you have a picture of her. Ham put it on TV to see if anyone could recognize it. Lots of people do. But Sandy, it's not an astronaut in the picture, it's a man from the last century." A movie star of mine, her name was Marilyn Monroe." "This is impossible!" "It's true, Sandy. There's more to it. You said she and your father were American astronauts who were stranded in space because of the war." "Yes, I said it. It's true!" She sighed, "Sandy, that's not the case. 'National Security' searched the records very carefully, and there are records of every spaceship's voyage, even in that war. We are sure that there were no Any U.S. manned spacecraft stays in space." "But," said Sandy plausibly, "there must be. The Highkleys found my parents there." She shook her head. "The records show that there was actually one ship in space at the time, just one. It was a Mars orbiter. They put a probe on the surface of Mars, and they just sat there and waited for it to sample and come back. But that wasn't the U.S. The spaceship is Russian." He stared at her dumbfounded. "Russian? Oh no, there must be a mistake. The Hekri told me my parents were American. The elders wouldn't make that mistake. By the time the Hekli ship got there, they'd been monitoring Earth's They've been on the airwaves for 50 years and they know the difference between the Americans and the Russians." "Not bad." Marge Li agreed. "Then my parents can't be Russian!" "Oh," she said sadly, "I'd love to agree with you. Only that Russian ship was in space at the time, and there were only two people in it. I don't think they would be your parents, though, because 'National Security' After double-checking the records, the two astronauts were both men."