2010 Odyssey Two

THE TRIAL Chapter 4: LAGRANGE Chapter 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 magnetic 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.'