"Forward, Robert L - Rocheworld 02 - Return to Rocheworld - with Julie Forward Fuller 5.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Forward Robert L)

#Let me see this new pet of the humans,# demanded Sour#Sapphire#Coo. The others made room for the large flouwen. The unusual amount of nearby activity had roused the ancient flouwen from his internal search for the fifth cardinal infinity. Lately it had been difficult to concentrate on that research problem. The dark blue elder had been disturbed not long ago in order to advise the pod on the mystery of the humans. Now, unbidden thoughts and questions about these strange beings had crowded out the computations. Sour#Sapphire#Coo had finally decided that perhaps it would be better to work on this new puzzle before going back to a peaceful rocky state and the comfort of pure mathematical theory.
Sour#Sapphire#Coo took the videoboard and chirped at the crawler. #I am Sour#Sapphire#Coo. You will show me how to use this thing.#
Working through the crawler's computer, James took over. Soon he had all the flouwen conversant in the use of the touchscreen and the capabilities and limitations of the laser communications link. Now that contact with the flouwen pod had been reestablished, the preparations of the landing party intensified.
"The flouwen are most happy about our coming down," Caroline reported to Jinjur. "I think we are the most exciting thing to happen to them in eons."
"Of course we are," the general laughed. "Just think how excited we would have been if any of the UFOs that had been reported over the years had bothered to land and prove they had intelligent beings on board. So, are they willing to teach us humans some of their "basic" math?"
"More than that," John said. "They are clamoring to come back with us to visit the _Prometheus_."
"Don't be ridiculous! How can we get something as awkward and bulky as a flouwen into a space suit?"
"Actually," George offered. "A spacesuit is only a bag to hold air. We can get one to hold water just as easily. Maybe we can design one to hold at least a portion of a flouwen."
"They don't breath, so we wouldn't need to add air tanks," said John. "And anything watertight would keep them safe from the vacuum and us safe from their ammonia."
"We have those large rescue bags that are designed for vacuum transport of an injured person," Shirley reminded them. "They're made out of the same tough flexible glassy-foil material used in our spacesuits, and are big enough to hold a person in a basket stretcher. Those would hold a large portion of a flouwen."
Designs for flouwen spacesuits began building themselves in her head. "Their sonar-vision wouldn't work in vacuum at all, and would be pretty poor in air, so we would need to build lenses for them right into the suit so they could look at things with their light sense." She looked at John. "We'll need to get the Christmas Branch to cast us some plastic helmets with built-in lenses and figure out how to attach the helmets to the rescue bag."
"We can weld the glassy-foil bags to a spare helmet neckring from our suit repair stocks, and design the base of the custom helmets to fit the neckring," said John. "We pour the flouwen into the bag through the zipper opening, and lock on the helmet for the vacuum seal."
"How are they going to move around?" asked George. "Are you going to sew arms and legs for them?"
"They don't have bones, so arms and legs would be worthless," John replied. "But they live and swim in low gee so I'm sure they could get around just fine in free-fall."
"They do form pseudopods to manipulate things," Caroline reminded them. "We really ought to put in some sleeves anchored to portholes in the neckring so they can have arms. Legs would be worthless, but Nels seems to get around fine without them. Still, don't see how they will move in gravity, even the ten percent gravity of Rocheworld. The higher levels of gravity we expect on the moons of Gargantua will be impossible for them."
"They could be very useful on those moons which have oceans," said George, thinking about the possibilities. "We could explore the land, and they could explore the oceans. The same undulating motion they use normally for swimming should work equally well when they are in a spacesuit. But, as for moving about on land, I'm afraid that's out. We'll have to roll them down to the water's edge like a beached whale."
"The flouwen seem to be pretty adaptable," John cautioned. "I've seen a lot of different techniques used for winning a sack race. Maybe the flouwen will work out some way to move about on land."
"We'll see," Jinjur interjected. "I'll make sure we test them out on land in their new 'drysuits'. After we see their performance on the islands of Eau, we can decide if they would be worth hauling up to _Prometheus_ and out to the moons of Gargantua."
"One other problem..." George added. "How are we going to talk to them when they are in their suits?"
"Simple," said Caroline. "The rescue bags come with a standard communications pack so the people inside can make laser link calls for help and talk to their rescuers out in vacuum. All I'll need to do is insert a translation program into the communicator memory. It can take the sonar chirps from the flouwen and convert them into human language laser link signals, and vice versa. When the flouwen are in their drysuits on board one of our vehicles, your imp can pick up the chirps coming through the air, James or one of the vehicle computers can translate, and the imp can give you the translated sentence."
Caroline turned and looked at John and Shirley. "If you two will get started on the helmet and suit, I'll get started on the communicator." The three of them headed down the corridor leaving George and Jinjur looking after them, bemused.
"So I guess that I am going to have to make room for some passengers on the trip back up?" Jinjur joked.
"And I will have to see about preparing space for them when they arrive. I wonder how Nels will feel about flooding one of his hydroponic tanks with ammonia-water?"
Nels did not feel any too happy about it, but at least it meant that he would have his chance to study the fascinating alien creatures up close. By the time he managed to find the time to ask the General about his going to the surface, Jinjur had all ready picked the landing team. She had tried to soften his disappointment by letting him know that if any of those chosen had to be scrubbed, he would be the replacement, but Nels knew how unlikely that was. Still, at least Jinjur now knew how seriously he meant to be a complete part of the crew. In the meantime, he would need to decide which tanks could be converted into a flouwen apartment without upsetting his carefully balanced ecosystem.
Having Cinnamon so busy with her training and preparing for the surface, Nels had to do much of the scut work himself. It had been a long time since he had personally scrubbed out the tanks and Nels made a mental note to thank Cinnamon next time he had her do the dirty work. The lab had seemed so quiet lately without her; it made him edgy.
While the rest of the crew concerned themselves with the preparing of the landing craft, Nels studiously worked in his lab. He knew that the Christmas Bush was using most of its capacity in the construction of the flouwen spacesuits and the loading of the SLAM II so he set about doing all the preparing for the flouwen by himself. It gave him perverse pleasure to work hard at a task that took so little of his usually busy mind, but soon his intellect rebelled. Left with nothing to stimulate his thoughts, Nels began to remember tiny things that he had hardly paid attention to at the time. Songs that Cinnamon used to sing crept out of his memory only to dance unattainable on the tip of his tongue. Finally, in desperation he called out to his imp. "James? I know that you're busy. But can you please hook me into Cinnamon's music program?"
"Certainly Nels," the computer answered. "Cinnamon is currently singing this selection."
"Patch me through to her." Then, coming through his imp, Nels could hear Cinnamon's clear tenor voice singing softly.
"I'm leaving on a jet plane ... Don't know when I'll be back again..."
Slowly the SLAM II was loaded with all their equipment, rations, and personal belongings for a three month stay on the surface. That would be enough time to go through two of Rocheworld's forty day "years", and be close at hand to observe two of the spectacular interplanetary waterfall cycles -- this time at a safe distance instead of surfing it. All of the equipment had to go through the airlock that connected the SLAM II to the ceiling of the hydroponics deck of _Prometheus_.
"This is going to be a close fit," said Shirley as she hoisted the automatic tracking telescope for the flouwen communications link toward the ceiling of the hydroponics deck.
"I've got it, but go slowly," warned Caroline from the airlock above. She guided the long tube through the two doors of the airlock where Richard grabbed it and pulled it through onto the bridge of the rocket lander.
"Need any help, Superman?" asked Thomas from the pilot harness. He and Tony were taking the SLAM II through checkout.
"Not from any Jamaican beach bum," replied Richard. "Besides, this is the easy part, next we've got to haul it up the passway to the storage lockers on the engineering deck. The passway is even narrower than the airlock doors."
"Tony found a stuck lens cap on a scanner. I've got to go up to the engineering deck anyway to suit up for an outside inspection," Thomas said. "You stay down here and lift the telescope, and I'll climb on up ahead and guide it so it doesn't get dinged. It'll be a great partnership, your brawn and my brains."
"I'll brain you..." started Richard, reaching out to give Thomas a knuckle on the skull with his spare hand.
They were interrupted by a strange, yet somewhat familiar sounding computer voice. It was Jupiter, the persona for the main computer of the SLAM II. Jupiter had a voice pattern that was distinctly different from the voice used by James, the persona for the main computer on _Prometheus_. The different voices helped the humans instantly identify which computer was talking to them. Jupiter's voice came from a Christmas Branch, a one-sixth version of the Christmas Bush assigned to the lander during its mission. The Christmas Bush had clambered down the rungs of the passway that led to the other decks and was waiting there, three hands holding onto the passway rungs, and three hands ready to grab the end of the bulky telescope tube.
"The passway only provides eighteen millimeters clearance for the telescope envelope," said Jupiter. "And that assumes a precise angular orientation. I recommend that the Christmas Branch be allowed to provide guidance through the passway."
Richard laughed. "You've been replaced, Thomas. I've finally got a partner with brains to match my brawn."
"There is also no need for you to go outside, Thomas," continued Jupiter. "I can have a section of the Christmas Branch remove the lens cap."
"George taught me in flight school to always check out my plane before I fly," said Thomas. He got out of his harness and quickly pulled himself up the passway, the Christmas Branch neatly dodging his movements.
"Don't forget that _Prometheus_ is under acceleration," yelled Shirley from down below. "Make sure you use your safety lines!" She disappeared from view for a moment, then came back with another bulky package.
"Ready for the power supply?" she called up to Caroline.
When Thomas reached the engineering deck, David and Cinnamon were there. David was stripping down to his shorts prior to getting into his spacesuit.
"Where are you going?" asked Thomas.
"Cinnamon and I are going into the flyer to check it out," said David. "Shirley insists that the first person to cycle through the airlock into the flyer through must wear a full suit, even though the life support systems inside the plane indicate that the air pressure and composition are perfectly normal there."
"No need for you to do that," said Thomas. "I have to suit up to go outside, so I'll check out the airlock for you." He started to undress while Cinnamon busied herself getting his spacesuit ready. While Cinnamon was checking him out, Richard and the Christmas Branch arrived with the telescope and packed it carefully away in a rack in the equipment storage bay.
In his full spacesuit, Thomas went through the first door of the airlock that would take them to the cockpit entrance of the _Dragonfly_ airplane. The door closed and David and Cinnamon listened to him talking to Jupiter through their imps.
"Boarding port pressurized, Jupiter?" asked Thomas through his laser communicator suit link.
"Indicators all green," reported the computer.