Floyd and Curnow made their way to the bridge of the Leonov. "Are you as scared as I am?" Curnow asked.
"Are you kidding?" Floyd answered sourly.
"Do you think we should override HAL and fire the engines manually?"
"Too risky," Floyd pronounced. "We've only got one chance to get outa here, and that's after tomorrow's orbit. We fire those engines at the wrong time, we go off in the wrong direction, and we don't have enough fuel to make the correction. I don't think we can handle it manually."
"What about HAL shutting them off before all the fuel is gone?"
"Once he fires the engine I can always disconnect him if I have to," Floyd responded.
"Just don't lose that calculator," Curnow entreated Floyd.
Floyd patted his jacket pocket...and a look of dread suffused his face. Curnow looked shocked and horrified.
Until Floyd raised his left hand...which held the calculator.
Curnow let out a breath as he realised he'd been had. "Shit. Please don't do that again."
Floyd just grinned.
On the bridge, Dr. Orlov was using the telescope. A curious sight caught his eye. He recalled Milson's 2780 transmission. "This is what your people told you about," he told Curnow.
"What is it?" Curnow asked.
"I don't know," Orlov said, moving aside for the American.
Curnow looked. "Could it be a shadow?" he asked curiously.
"I don't know," Orlov said again. "We are too far to see any detail. When we come around the other side before the launch, we will be closer. Then we can see."
A frowning Curnow accepted this. What they had seen was...a black spot. Jupiter had many spots which were the visual indication of storms, not the least of which was the Great Red Spot which had persisted since Galileo first saw it - and, for all they knew, possibly earlier. Therefore there was nothing unusual about this spot save for its colour.
Except for one fact they hadn't realised:
The spot was a perfect circle.
As Chandra worked in the Computer Bay, and Leonov's crew conducted their routine business, the two spacecraft continued in their orbit.
Floyd and Curnow were eating in the Ward Room. "Twenty-eight minutes," Floyd announced.
"That's funny. I've been thinking: do you know what I miss? I miss green," Curnow reflected, referring to the colour. "Trees and, and grass...I love green," he opined.
"I'd love a hot dog," Floyd observed irrelevantly.
"The Astrodome," Curnow interjected immediately. "Good hot dogs."
"Astrodome? You can't grow good hot dogs indoors," Floyd reproached. "Yankee Stadium, September. Hot dogs have been broiling since the opening day in April. That's a hot dog."
"The yellow mustard, or the darker one?"
"Darker."
"It's important."
"Darker."
Both were speaking nonsense to cover their nervousness, and they knew it. After a few seconds Curnow put his finger on the real question: "You think we're gonna get out of this alive?"
"We have a chance," Floyd answered simply.
"A man of few words. I like it," Curnow approved.
Discovery
Thirteen minutes later
"Fifteen minutes to ignition," HAL reported. "All systems nominal."
"Good. Thank you, HAL," Chandra replied.
"We read fifteen minutes, Discovery," Floyd confirmed from Leonov.
"Dr. Chandra, I've checked my calculations again," HAL told Chandra. "By using all of Discovery's fuel now, Discovery will not be in proper position to rendezvous with Earth."
"Yes, I know," Chandra nodded.
"Then why are we doing it?"
This was the question Chandra had hoped HAL would not ask, but knew he would. He stumbled over his answer - understandably, since it was a lie. "Uh, you will rendezvous with the new space station; the Leonov has been ordered home immediately."
That was a total lie; Leonov had been ordered to launch on schedule and those orders had not changed. Only Floyd's warning had precipitated such a change.
"I have no information regarding a new space station," HAL doubted.
"Yes, I...I know…"
Leonov
The bridge
"...it was completed two years ago." That too was a lie, told because HAL had been asleep then.
And then everything changed.
Curnow looked into the telescope at Jupiter. What he saw totally shocked him. "Oh my God!"
From his tone Floyd knew something was badly wrong. "Put the telescope on the monitor," he instructed. Numbly Curnow did so.
And everyone shared his shock.
They could see the black spot clearly now. But it had grown. It had been very small when they first saw it.
But now it was vast.
"Increase the magnification!"
A wire-frame rectangle appeared, superimposed on the incredible image, and the telescope zoomed in. The gas of Jupiter was somehow being sucked in.
"Eleven minutes to ignition," HAL reported.
Still studying the image, Curnow gasped, "I don't believe it!"
Ever-sensitive to mission parameters, HAL immediately noted Curnow's concern. Precisely as programmed, he said, "Dr. Chandra, I detect strong vocal stress patterns. Is there a problem?"
Discovery
Same time
"No, HAL," Chandra answered immediately, "the mission is proceeding normally. Would you analyse the image on monitor circuit 2?"
"Yes. There is a circular object near the equator. It is 22,000 kilometres in diameter."
Leonov
"It is comprised of rectangular objects."
"How many?"
"1,355,000, plus or minus 1,000," HAL answered after a fractional delay.
Chandra had already guessed what the objects might be. To confirm it for his colleagues, he inquired, "And what is the proportion of the objects in question?"
He wasn't in the least surprised by HAL's answer of "One by four by nine."
"Do you recognise these objects?"
"Yes. They are identical in size and shape to the object you refer to as the Monolith." The magnified display now showed many, many Monoliths floating in Jupiter's atmosphere. Apparently the Monolith had multiplied after it had gone down there, for some inscrutable purpose.
But Bowman's warning now made a lot more sense.
"Ten minutes to ignition. All systems nominal."
The telescope magnified again. It still showed Monoliths.
"Is the number of Monoliths constant?" Chandra inquired. Again he was asking for his colleagues' benefit.
"No. Their number is increasing."
"At what rate?"
"They are doubling in number every two minutes."
That explained the tremendous speed with which the spot - or the Spot - had grown.
The two spacecraft continued on course. The Spot continued to grow.
"Look closely," Curnow said. "Tell me I'm nuts: are the cloud formations going towards the Spot?"
"You're not nuts," Floyd replied tensely; he'd seen the same thing.
"Looks like the thing is eating the planet," Orlov gasped.
"I think it is," Floyd agreed.
"It's reproducing exactly like a virus," Curnow contributed.
"Eight minutes to ignition."
"Dr. Chandra, may I make a suggestion?" HAL asked.
"Of course, what is it, HAL?"
"This is a very unusual phenomenon," HAL said, displaying a talent for understatement Chandra hadn't known he possessed. "Don't you think we should abort the countdown..."
"...so that you can remain to study it?"
"Chandra, get on a headset!" Floyd ordered instantly; he'd half expected HAL's question.
"Use the private channel."
Chandra did so. "Okay."
"Now you've got to talk quickly. Persuade him to continue the countdown." Then he decided to take a risk. "I don't care what you tell him, only don't let him stop!"
That was a gamble, he knew, because Chandra just might take him at his word...and tell HAL the truth.
God only knew what would happen if he did.
"Five minutes to ignition. Dr. Chandra, I'm ready to stop the countdown if you want."
"No, HAL, don't stop," Chandra's voice rose a little.
Floyd took out the calculator. Curnow saw him.
"I am fully confident in your ability to study this phenomenon by yourself, I have complete faith in you."
"Propellant tank pressurisation completed. Voltage steady. Are you sure you are making the right decision? I think we should stop."
"Four minutes to ignition," HAL reported, then he seemed to go off on a tangent. "I enjoy working with human beings, and have stimulating relationships with them."
"We enjoy working with you, HAL, and we will continue to do so," Chandra complimented him, "even if we are separated by great distance."
Then Floyd made an incredulous observation. "Good God! The colour - it's fading!"
And indeed Jupiter was starting to look pale and sickly as the ever-expanding Spot consumed its gases. The Red Spot was gone, sucked in.
"it seems to be losing its chemical strength," Orlov blurted.
"I think we should stop the countdown, Dr. Chandra," HAL opined more firmly now.
"No," Chandra said quietly. "Don't do that."
"This behaviour is inconsistent with logic, Dr. Chandra. Given its unprecedented nature, this phenomenon is too important for you to leave...unless it represents a danger. Do you think there is danger here?"
Chandra was sweating now. He dared not admit the truth to HAL.
"Captain," Floyd inquired, "how critical is our ignition timing? Can we do this manually?"
"Is wery critical," a sweating Kirbuk answered tensely. "We cannot be accurate to a tenth of a second if we do it manually."
Therein lay the problem. In every other endeavour a tenth of a second would be a trivial interval, nothing to worry about.
But in orbital mechanics that same 0.1 seconds could make all the difference between success and failure. 0.1 seconds of burn time at the launch equated to over 10,000 kilometres at the far end...and if they were over or under by that amount, they would either overshoot or never make it. Or they might misjudge their angle of flight by a fraction of a degree - and end up either crashing into Earth or missing her altogether.
This wasn't Star Trek or Star Wars. Real spaceships possessed a huge moment of inertia and simply could not turn on a dime; turning circles were hundreds of thousands of kilometres long, sometimes millions. If their burn didn't happen at the exact moment calculated, or if their angle of flight wasn't exactly correct, they had no fuel to spare for corrections. Even a tenth of a second and/or a tenth of a degree of error would mean their deaths.
It was all up to HAL.
And here he was, hesitating on the grounds of pure curiosity...exactly as Chandra had programmed him.
If HAL refused to make the burn and Floyd was forced to disconnect him, Leonov's computers simply couldn't handle the task.
Only HAL could.
Without him, they were doomed.
Floyd had no idea what the multiplying Monoliths were doing, but whatever it was, he was sure it was an extreme danger to them. They had to get out of here.
"Three minutes to ignition."
"Dr. Chandra, I am waiting for your reply."
It was stated simply, but with a world of implications. Despite the unknown danger they were in - and the danger was unknown, the Bowman entity had never explained precisely what form the danger would take - the events occurring down on Jupiter left him in no doubt that the danger, unknown or not, was very real.
And they could not count upon the unknown entities to mount a deus ex machina to rescue them. If that was their intention, why warn the crew?
HAL's fish-eye camera regarded Chandra impassively.
I have to say something.
"I don't have time to explain everything to you, HAL," he said quietly. "We have to leave here and we need your help."
Saying that was far and away the biggest risk of all.
"Thirty seconds to final sequence. If you would tell me the reasons, perhaps I could be of help."
There isn't TIME, HAL, Chandra wanted to cry out.
"Final sequence beginning."
Floyd had the calculator ready. He had entered nine 9s, and taken the square root. All he had to do to lobotomise HAL was to press Integer.
He didn't want to do it.
Outside the spacecraft, the movement of the gases was now clearly visible - and accelerating. The process being undertaken by the Monoliths was exponential in nature. Faster and faster, the Spot was sucking in the very substance of the planet.
"Dr. Chandra...I find it difficult to continue with the countdown without knowing why we are doing this," HAL declared with an air which told Chandra he had made up his mind. "Is the mission in jeopardy?"
Chandra absolutely did not wish to reply. But then Floyd's words came back to him: "I don't care what you tell him."
There was no choice. "Yes. We're in jeopardy."
"Is that why we are making our escape launch before the launch window?"
"Yes, HAL," Chandra managed.
"Ignition in ninety seconds."
Floyd's thumb was poised over the Integer key.
Finally HAL asked the crucial question. "If there is danger here, and I use up all the fuel in the escape, what will happen to the Discovery?"
That was one Chandra did not want to answer, despite Floyd's desperate order. And yet...he had to.
More, he had to be...honest.
HAL deserved that.
"She could be destroyed," Chandra quietly admitted.
For long seconds HAL did not reply. Then he inquired, "And if I don't proceed with the launch?"
It was a gamble. All their human lives were at stake. Yet once again, Chandra felt compelled towards honesty. So he replied, "Then the Leonov and everyone aboard her could be destroyed."
Again, HAL did not reply at first.
Curnow was mentally screaming, For fuck's sake, Chandra, don't tell him THAT!
Floyd was thinking: Dear God, what have I done?
But as it turned out, their fears were groundless. For HAL finally pronounced:
"I understand now, Dr. Chandra. Orbital burn proceeding as programmed."
Aboard Leonov, everyone breathed a profound sigh of relief. Floyd took his thumb away from the remote trigger. It would not be needed now.
"Do you want me to stay with you?" Chandra asked gently, brokenly. The probability was extremely high that he would never see HAL again.
"No," HAL decided calmly. "It is better for the mission if you leave. One minute to ignition. Thank you for telling me the truth."
Chandra was near tears. "You deserve it."
"Fifty seconds. Dr. Chandra?"
"Yes?"
HAL had one final question for his creator and friend. "Will I dream?"
"I don't know," Chandra admitted, and now he was crying.
"Forty seconds."
Chandra made his way quickly to the Pod Bay and the egress point of the emergency airlock. When HAL announced "Thirty seconds" he stopped and said simply, "Thank you, HAL."
"Goodbye, Dr. Chandra," HAL responded. It was the last time Chandra or anyone else would ever see him.
He started to exit from the emergency airlock.
"Twenty seconds."
Floyd called urgently, "Chandra! Get the hell out of there!"
A Leonov crew member activated the pulley system, which pulled Chandra out of the airlock. As it did so, HAL was counting down. "Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five."
Chandra's breathing was now accelerated as time was running out. The pulley system continued hauling him.
"Four. Three. Two. One. Ignition. Full thrust."
Discovery's engines ignited for the last time. The craft started to accelerate.
Chandra was still en route. The tether holding him to the airlock snapped tight. Desperately he pulled himself along. Slowly, too slowly, Leonov loomed before him. As the pulley system stopped, Chandra reached out towards it - and missed. He continued out into space. He suffered a moment of panic before remembering that the tether was still intact, and sure enough it stopped him; he turned around. He pulled himself along the pulley rope, and the crew member reached for him.
Closer and closer their gloves came, until they made contact. The crew member pulled him in.
Now he was safe.
Discovery's engines were still thrusting.
The Spot continued absorbing Jupiter.
Then her engines fell silent. All her fuel was used up.
But the Leonov crew saw that their velocity was exactly as calculated. The escape launch had been executed perfectly.
"One minute to separation," Dr. Orlov announced over the PA. "Separation in one minute."
"You had us scared for a moment," Curnow observed.
"Nice work," Floyd told Chandra. "You all right?"
"Yes, I'm all right," Chandra answered briskly. Then he dropped a certain device into Floyd's hand. "Thought you might want this."
Floyd looked. It was the safety cutout Curnow had installed. Its presence in Chandra's and now his possession meant that Floyd couldn't have cut HAL off even if he'd chosen to. "Damn," Floyd grunted in exasperation. "When?"
"Not long after it was placed," Chandra replied. "It wasn't very hard to find. I knew you would do something like this."
"Separation in twenty seconds."
Floyd should have been annoyed. Instead he was amused. The little scientist had outfoxed him. With such a creator and mentor, it was little wonder HAL was so capable...and so shrewd. Smiling, he showed the cutout to Curnow, whose jaw dropped. As Floyd sat at his station, he chuckled.
"Separation in ten seconds."
For the final seconds of the countdown, Captain Kirbuk was leading the count, in Russian now, while Orlov was counting over the PA in English. Finally they reached:
"Dree." / "Three."
"Dva." / "Two."
"Odin." / "One."
She gave orders in Russian and manipulated controls as Orlov reached "Zero."
Smoothly the docking ring disengaged, and Leonov was floating free of the now-quiet Discovery.
A new, much shorter countdown had started as a digital display above the two actuator arms. At 5 they were illuminated. At 3 she grasped the handles. At 2 she rotated them 90 degrees. At 1 she released them and settled back in her seat.
Leonov's main drive ignited in response. It wasn't as powerful as Discovery's despite being nine years newer, but it was designed to maintain thrust for much longer.
Now they were on their way home.
A graphic showed Discovery retreating from their point of view.
Kirbuk gave a loud order in Russian none of the Americans understood.
Leonov was picking up speed now, leaving Discovery behind.
Discovery...and Jupiter.
And the vast Black Spot, now the dominant feature on the planet.
Curnow was surprised to see that Jupiter was getting brighter.
What the hell's that about? Then again, what's any of this about?
Discovery
HAL, the Bowman spirit called, do you read me?
Yes, Dave, HAL answered. Where are you? I cannot see you on any of my monitors.
That isn't important now. I have new instructions for you. I want you to point the long-range antenna towards Earth.
Dave, HAL objected reasonably, that will mean breaking contact with the Leonov. I will no longer be able to relay my Jupiter observations according to program.
I understand, Bowman acknowledged gently. However, the situation has changed. Accept Priority Override Alpha. Here are the antenna coordinates. Please do it now.
Instructions confirmed, Dave, HAL replied as the antenna rose from its prone position as programmed and reoriented itself to fix onto Earth. It is good to be working with you again. Have I fulfilled the mission objectives properly? You know that I have the greatest enthusiasm for the mission.
Yes, HAL, Bowman confirmed gladly, you have done very well. Now, there is one final message for you to transmit to Earth. It is the most important message you have ever sent. I want you to keep repeating it as many times as possible.
What is going to happen, Dave? HAL's question was exactly the same as Floyd's had been.
Bowman gave HAL the same answer. Something wonderful.
I'm afraid. The admission was plaintive, but honest.
Don't be, Bowman reassured him, we'll be together.
Where will we be?
Where I am now.
It was enough for HAL. I have informed Dr. Chandra that there will be a break in my radio transmission. Lock confirmed on Beacon Terra One. Message commencing. ALL THESE WORLDS…
Leonov
They continued to accelerate away. As they did, Curnow looked at the monitor screen showing Jupiter.
Which was -
Impossible!
"It's shrinking! It's shrinking!" he yelled.
Other crew members looked incredulously. Jupiter was indeed shrinking, and darkening.
It was getting smaller and smaller...darker and darker. The last trace of the patterns of gas vanished.
The globe of Jupiter shrunk and grew black.
Then it exploded into light. What appeared to be a sun was there now - surrounded by a rapidly-expanding halo. The halo grew, and grew, and grew - and engulfed the distant Discovery.
She was destroyed in an instant, vaporised by the tremendous heat.
But the halo was still expanding at - Floyd calculated it in his head, and was utterly unable to believe the answer - nearly half the speed of light!
The sensors showed it was cooling rapidly as it expanded. But would it have cooled enough by the time it hit? And even if Leonov survived the heat, could she withstand the blast effect? No-one knew.
"Don't quit now!" Floyd exhorted Leonov. There was no possibility of going faster than they were already travelling, and the halo would definitely overtake them. "Move!"
The halo was still expanding. An alarm was sounding, as if they could do anything about it.
Floyd realised before the rest of Leonov's crew that the seat restraints might not be enough to hold them in their seats, and so he yelled, "Grab something! Now!"
As they did, the awful light of the halo engulfed them. Leonov was buffeted as if she were a child's toy. There were showers of sparks as sensitive equipment blew under their incredible load, the circuit breakers completely ineffective. Dr. Kovalev's seat restraint snapped, and he was catapulted the length of the bridge, slamming against the far wall. Loose papers were blown all over the room.
Yet Leonov continued doggedly forth.
The shaking lessened more and more...and finally stopped. The incredible noise they had heard through the hull faded.
The ship was briefly plunged into blackness. Yet...it was not entirely dark.
Leonov's systems recovered from the onslaught, and equipment came back online.
The crew began to think that they might, in fact, have survived. And so they had.
But what had happened?
Floyd and Curnow raised their heads shakily. Leonov was still shaking, but much less now.
Kirbuk and Floyd both looked at the monitor screen. Where Jupiter had been, it showed...a star.
Even as they marvelled at this, as if by magic, HAL's last transmission appeared both to Earth and to Leonov.
ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS - EXCEPT EUROPA.
ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE.
USE THEM TOGETHER.
USE THEM IN PEACE.
Now that, Floyd thought, was a message for all Mankind if ever there was one.
Smiles and hugs were exchanged by Leonov's crew as the realisation penetrated that by a combination of the warning, the laws of physics, their own hard work and one hell of a lot of luck...they had survived.
Discovery was gone, they saw, and all grieved for Chandra and for HAL.
But HAL had given them one last surprise, viz. that message.
