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发信人: by (春天的小懒虫), 信区: SFworld
标  题: 2010 (22)
发信站: 哈工大紫丁香 (Wed Oct  6 14:46:48 1999), 转信

                          PART IV
                        LAGRANGE

                            22
                      Big Brother

'... What  delightful  news  about the baby dolphin! I can just
imagine   how   excited   Chris   was  when  the  proud  parents
brought  it  into  the  house.  You  should  have  heard the ohs
and  ahs  of  my  shipmates  when  they  saw  the videos of them
swimming   together,   and   Chris  riding  on  its  back.  They
suggest  we  call  it  Sputnik,  which  means  companion as well
as satellite.
  `Sorry  it's  been  quite  a  while since my last message, but
the  newscasts  will  have  given  you  an  idea of the huge job
we've   had   to   do.   Even   Captain  Tanya's  given  up  all
pretence  of  a  regular  schedule; each problem has to be fixed
as  it  comes  along,  by  whoever is on the spot. We sleep when
we can't stay awake any longer.
  `I  think  we  can  all  be  proud  of  what  we've done. Both
ships  are  operational  and  we've  nearly  finished  our first
round  of  tests  on  Hal.  In a couple of days we'll know if we
can  trust  him  to  fly  Discovery  when  we leave here to make
our final rendezvous with Big Brother.
  `I  don't  know  who  first  gave it that name - the Russians,
understandably,  aren't  keen  on  it.  And  they've waxed quite
sarcastic   about   our   official  designation  TMA-2,  pointing
out to me - several times - that it's the best part of a billion
kilometres  from  Tycho.  Also  that  Bowman  reported  no  mag-
netic   anomaly,   and   that  the  only  resemblance  to  TMA-1
is  the  shape.  When  I  asked  them  what name they preferred,
they   came   up   with   Zagadka,   which  means  enigma.  It's
certainly  an  excellent  name;  but  everyone smiles when I try
to pronounce it, so I'll stick to Big Brother.
  `Whatever you call the thing, it's only ten thousand
kilometres away now, and the trip won't take more than a
few hours. But that last lap has us all nervous, I don't mind
telling you.
  `We'd hoped that we might find some new information
aboard Discovery. That's been our only disappointment,
though we should have expected it. Hal, of course, was
disconnected long before the encounter, and so has no
memories of what happened; Bowman has taken all his
secrets with him. There's nothing in the ship's log and
automatic recording systems that we didn't already know.
  `The only new item we discovered was purely personal -
a message that Bowman had left for his mother. I wonder
why he never sent it; obviously, he did expect-or hope - to
return to the ship after that last EVA. Of course, we've had
it forwarded to Mrs Bowman - she's in a nursing home,
somewhere in Florida, and her mental condition is poor, so
it may not mean anything to her.
  `Well, that's all the news this time. I can't tell you how
much I miss you... and the blue skies and green seas of
Earth. All the colours here are reds and oranges and yellows
- often as beautiful as the most fantastic sunset, but after a
while one grows sick for the cool, pure rays at the other end
of the spectrum.
  `My love to you both - I'll call again just as soon as I can.'

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:-) Helix@163.NET                                                    85958F57
:-( Helix@KALI.COM.CN                                                208CE12C
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