Chapter 9 Chapter 8 Intuitions about Space Time

Karen called at one hundred fourteen. "Mr. Drake?" Rick couldn't help feeling a pain in his heart. Her indifferent and distant voice made him painful, but he replied with the same tone: "Yes, are you Miss Hood?" "You're still an employee of our company, aren't you?" she asked coldly. "Yes, until eighteen one hundred today." "Then, there is still a job for you to do. Mr. Vickers wants you to go to Burroughs IV to replace the FM diamond on the anti-gravity device. A prison official will pick you up in half an hour, and you go to the airport to wait." .Now please come to my office to pick up the work order." She hung up.

The Burroughs IV star is one of the Burroughs group of stars, and it is used as the base of the high-level space guard all the year round.The managed government prison is on Burroughs IV. The diameter of the Burroughs 4 star is about a kilometer, and the periphery has been wrapped in a layer of artificial air.The place where they landed was illuminated by orange lights, but the cold gun barrels and prison bars around them made people feel chills. They got off the spaceship and took the elevator down to the anti-gravity device room.Rick asked the lieutenant prison officer: "Which device is faulty?"

"The devices are all good." The young man gave him a friendly smile, "You have to change all the diamonds. This is the order of the warden, and it is a safety measure." This is so weird.FM diamonds sometimes burn out due to overload, but they never wear out, and new ones are no safer than old ones.However, Rick replaced all three diamonds and tuned each unit carefully.When he was done, he packed up the tools and put them in his bag, then nodded to the prison officer. "Is everything all right?" The lieutenant asked happily, "Would you like to visit the prison? I'm going to report to the warden about my work. If you come with me, it will save a lot of time."

"Whatever you want." Rick didn't want to visit any prison, but he agreed anyway.He showed the lieutenant the pouch containing the replaced diamonds, "But I'm responsible for these things." "It'll be fine." The lieutenant assured, "We're only going to see the complex where the political prisoners are held." They entered a wide corridor through a small double-secured door.The corridor was shrouded in a bleak blue light.The small window of the prison cell door was opened very high, and many pale faces looked out through the railing. The eyes of those people made Rick feel extremely uncomfortable, and he couldn't help but quicken his pace.

"Go slowly!" his guide whispered, "or you'll be shot." Rick got himself under control and slowed down as much as he could.He suddenly saw the black muzzle of the automatic gun mounted on the ceiling.At this moment, the lieutenant saw that he was nervous and said to him: "It's nothing to be afraid of. This is a model block of our prison. It's all political prisoners. They're not forced to work and the food is pretty good. We give them as much freedom as possible, they can leave their cells to eat, They still have books and newspapers to read. They also have two hours of collective exercise every day." The lieutenant's low voice carried a professional pride, "This is modern prison management. Here, we never punish criminals , just to help them reform themselves."

"I—I see." Rick forced a smile. "Drake!" A scream made Rick stop abruptly, and he turned to see a haggard ghostly face pressed against the small window of the cell door. "Drake—have you seen my Mary?" "Go ahead." Lieutenant Lara Rick's arm. "If you want to talk to him, you need special permission." "I don't know that man." Rick turned around, trying not to think of the pain in the scream. "I've never met him." "Wait a minute, Drake, damn it!" said the shrill voice behind him. "My Mary—is, is she dead?"

Rick strode forward, but the voice kept on chasing him. "Don't you know me, Jim?" the man complained. "Aren't they going to let you talk?" Rick stumbled forward, but suddenly it all came together.Jim Drake was now a grey-haired, wizened old man, but the prisoner must have remembered him as a young man, when he and Rick were very much alike. "You won't know him," echoed the lieutenant. "He's been here fifteen years, serving a life sentence for treason. He's a member of the Free Space Party." The hoarse voice cursed desperately behind them.

"That man is as naive as a child," said the lieutenant. "He believes that Jim Drake is using something he calls a chassis to make a CT weapon to arm the Free Space Party and bring down the Trusteeship." Rick followed the lieutenant, the cold blue light and the shrill cry made him feel bad, and he couldn't help asking himself why this last job assigned to him by the Star Corporation would take him through the political prison, The only possible answer is... Rick returned to the StarCorporate office building exactly at seventeen one hundred.He returned the used diamonds to the supply room, wrote a work report and sent it to Karen's office.Karen looked at him questioningly as he entered, her face pale and thin.

"Here." Rick angrily threw the work report on Karen's desk, "Thank you for arranging this trip to the prison. I now know what happened to those rock rats who didn't want to join forces with the Star Corporation. We I guess you think I'm going to renew your contract?" "Would you, Rick?" Karen looked at him wearily. "I think Paul has changed his mind. He's not going to let you investigate the explosion, but we still need a CT specialist here. Austin Uncle says we must persuade you to stay." Rick thought of the situation in the prison and couldn't help shivering. "I don't like your method of persuasion."

"Interstellar Corporation will pay a high salary." Karen raised her voice slightly. "You can also come up with your own budget for research. Uncle Austin said he will ensure that your expense account will not be checked. He told me I can assure you that if you develop a CT missile for us before anyone else does, you will be paid a million dollars." "If your Uncle Austin is wise, he should take the shackles off science and development, let people use CT energy to transform those asteroids, and let asteroids have political equality, in the high committee A seat in the Council. This will make the Trusteeship truly a coalition for interstellar peace."

"Sounds like the manifesto of the Free Space Party." Karen stood up angrily, her face flushed. "You'd better remember what you saw on Burroughs IV." She paused, Shaking his head sadly at him, "I'm glad to know what you're thinking, but please be careful what you say. Rick, you're in trouble, real trouble." Rick went back downstairs to his office sullenly.As he packed his personal belongings in his desk, a strange soldier kept watching him suspiciously.He had eaten at the CT Restaurant and went back to the hotel to pack his bags. He didn't have any girls to kiss goodbye, and he was already waiting in the waiting room of the airport before 21:10 that night.He looked at his watch, waiting for the impossible to happen. And it happened.Suddenly someone announced on the loudspeaker: "The spaceship 'Goodbye Jane' has arrived from Albania. Please go to berth eighty-one." Rick jumped up and followed a port inspector to berth number eighty-one.He waited outside the fence, and it was indeed the dilapidated "Jane" spaceship. Four inspectors, instead of the usual two, boarded the ship for inspection.They seem to want to find something forbidden.However, they finally stepped off the spaceship without a word, lowering the yellow ropes blocking the passage.Rick found them confused, and slightly disappointed. Robb Mackey followed them down the passage.He was still wearing the same green spacesuit Rick was familiar with.His shoulders sagged as if he had run into some trouble.When he saw Rick, a smile broke across his face. "Captain Robo, nice to meet you." Rick put down the backpack in his hand, held Mackey's hand and said, "I received your call this morning. Now I'm here, and the luggage has already been packed. If you know where to find chassis models..." Rick didn't finish his sentence because he saw the confusion in Mackey's red eyes. "My phone?" Mackey asked puzzled. "Rick, I never called you. I don't want to break the bad news and I don't have the money to call you." Rick's heart beat wildly. "What's the matter?" he asked in a low voice, hoarsely, "my father—" "It's not too bad," Mackey replied hastily. "He was alone on the Liberty Star during the last big bang, but Ann called him later and said he wasn't hurt." "So, what's the bad news?" Mackey hesitated before finally stammering, "First of all, I was worried about Jim. He couldn't sleep all the way back. I think those wounds still hurt him, though he never moaned. He became very depressed, very blue. When we landed on the Liberty Star, he was convinced that his new reactor would never work because we didn't have a CT chassis." "He should have figured this out a long time ago," Rick grinned. "But it shouldn't frustrate him too much. He's failed before." "He's a lot older than he used to be," Mackey said, "and he's about to give up and let me tell you you'd better stay with Interstellar. He means if they let you keep working on the CT chassis." , and you stay." Rick glanced down at Shorty Mackey, who was tapping restlessly on the pavement with the heels of his shoes.Rick straightened his back, looked up at the dark blue sky, and a determined smile slowly appeared on his face. "No, I have nothing to do with Interstellar." Rick said firmly, "Captain Robo, I'm going with you—to find the CT chassis model you mentioned. It's not in the Is the fragment waiting for us?" "Rick, it's good to see you so confident." Mackey smiled, still looking confused, "But I really haven't called you. And I don't know what's waiting for our chassis model .” "Are you joking?" "Of course not, Rick." Mackey shook his head, his eyes wide. "I like math problems, but I never crack jokes like everyone else." "Didn't you see that explosion?" "I saw it." Mackey nodded uneasily. "It's the CT asteroid we changed orbit last year. I was on the way here from Albania when I saw it come out like a nova that suddenly intensified. A strong light. It burned for fifty-seven seconds, and then went out like a light bulb turned off." He stared at Rick, his body shivered involuntarily in the bulky spacesuit. "I saw it," he repeated, "and I haven't felt right since then." "what do you mean--" "It's like this..." Mackey hesitated, and began to tap the sidewalk again. "I just... I just had a feeling, and it was a feeling." "I know." Rick nodded. "People call you a robot." "But please don't think I'm a robot." His low voice was suddenly filled with pain. "I know I'm different. I'm no smarter than the average person, and in many ways I'm even dumber. I'm just different, and This difference makes me very lonely." He coughed and turned his head away, "Please stop remembering my nickname." "I'm sorry," Rick told him gently, "I didn't know you were mistaken, but your instinct for things in space seems to me something to be proud of." His voice began to grow hopeful. Feel like I didn't tell you something about the planet that exploded?" "It just makes me uneasy." He shuddered. "Before, when I looked at the planets that were about to explode, I knew how big they were and when they would collide. What direction the fragments of the explosion would go. But this explosion is...something wrong!" He winks at Rick, pain in his eyes. "Nothing hit the CT planet at all. The largest fragment after the explosion was several times larger than the planet itself, and it was flying away from the sun for no reason at all." "I also know it's still cold," Rick interjected, also frowning, "that fire is so hot, it's forty million kilometers away, and it's still almost blistering on the back of my neck. Yet , it failed to heat up that fragment, and kept its temperature at absolute zero." "I don't know about the temperature." Mackey put his hands in his coat pockets and shrugged. "When I look at the planet, I can't even tell the time." His deep voice trembled.Without that special intuition, he was very lost and sad. "I don't understand how that explosion came about, and I don't understand that phone call." Rick frowned. "You seemed pretty sure there was a CT chassis model on that piece of debris. I was totally confused. But I think I should still go there and have a look.” Suddenly Mackey opened his squinting eyes wide. "Who's your soldier friend, Rick?" he asked gently. "He's coming toward us." Rick turned his head and saw Colonel Anders walking towards them, followed by the inspector who inspected the Mackey spaceship just now. "Hello, Drake." Anders greeted confidently and casually, his aristocratic air was evident.A friendly smile appeared on his face, and he looked at Mackey expectantly. "This is Captain Rob Mackey." Rick introduced them awkwardly.He was a little jealous of Anders' unbreakable self-confidence. "This is Colonel Paul Anders." "Hello, Mackey." Anders called Mackey by his first name. "I listened to the recording of your phone call to Drake. You talked about the CT chassis." "But I didn't—" Rick froze, the cryptic news was hard to explain, despite Mackey's vehement denials. "Surprised to see you here, Mackey," Anders continued. "Our listening station reported that you made a call near the site of the explosion, which was 40 million kilometers away. How did you get here so soon?" Robb Mackey froze. "I didn't call today." Rick appreciated his sudden calm.Anders had a sense of authority, and the short asteroid man seemed to have the patient, calm quality of the asteroids he knew so well, "and we're not even close to that CT planet." "Maybe our report is wrong." Anders sarcastically said that Mackey is a liar, "but I——is the mysterious Colonel 'Ann' you mentioned." Anders turned his head again Say to Rick, "Do you think you've got the CT chassis? It's a dream!" McKie stood silent, but Rick couldn't help but explode: "Dream? Just wait for a miracle." He smiled slightly at Anders. "Even if you get there first, you won't succeed. Remember, the earliest will be the latest." Anders smiled at him too. "Are you sure of that?" Rick shook his head involuntarily, feeling a little sorry for his lack of self-confidence. "Then come with me—if you can keep up." Anders lighted a cigar leisurely, but Rick heard the threat in his voice, "but you know civilians are forbidden to enter CT objects Within a hundred kilometers. I'll use the Space Gun to enforce that law if need be. Think about it." It's not that Rick didn't think about it, but he smiled calmly at Mackey.A year after surrendering to StarCorp, he was somehow delighted to be openly confronting it, and the possibility of a CT chassis still tempted him. "I think we'll follow," he said intentionally. "If there's a CT chassis on that fragment, that just means it's not all CT material. So I guess the 100-kilometre limit won't have any effect. " "I'm afraid you need to think more." Anders nodded to the inspector who had been standing silently behind him, then turned to Mackey and said, "The FM diamond on the main drive of your spaceship has many spots. It has been ordered confiscated by the airport security office." His voice was warm and friendly, as if he genuinely regretted the incident. "There's nothing wrong with my FM diamond," Mackey said angrily. "It's a near-perfect natural diamond. It's pretty safe. You can't denigrate it. It's been driving my spaceship for twenty years." "The inspectors say it's dappled and dangerous," said Anders flatly. "Any sudden excess load will burn it up. Anyway, it's confiscated. I'm afraid you can't leave Barrah." Si Hong Kong."