2001_ A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke [46]
Through years of practice, Bowman could switch at a moment’s notice to this jargon — which someone had once christened “Technish”— and back again to normal speech, without clashing his mental gears. Now there was nothing to do but to wait for the confirmation, which would take at least two hours as the signals made the round trip past the orbits of Jupiter and Mars.
It came while Bowman was trying, without much success, to beat Hal at one of the geometrical pattern games stored in his memory.
“X-ray-Delta-One, this is Mission Control, acknowledging your two-one-zero-three. We are reviewing telemetric information on our mission simulator and will advise.
“Roger your plan to go EVA and replace Alpha-Echo three-five unit prior to possible failure. We are working on test procedures for you to apply to faulty unit.”
The serious business having been completed, the Mission Controller reverted to normal English.
“Sorry you fellows are having a bit of trouble, and we don’t want to add to your woes. But if it’s convenient to you prior to EVA, we have a request from Public Information. Could you do a brief recording for general release, outlining the situation and explaining just what the AE-35 does. Make it as reassuring as you can. We could do it, of course — but it will be much more convincing in your words. Hope this won’t interfere too badly with your social life. X-ray-Delta-One, this is Mission Control, two-one-five-five, transmission concluded.”
Bowman could not help smiling at the request. There were times when Earth showed a curious insensitivity and lack of tact. “Make it reassuring,” indeed!
When Poole joined him at the end of his sleep period, they spent ten minutes composing and polishing the reply. In the early stages of the mission, there had been countless requests from all the news media for interviews, discussions — almost anything that they cared to say. But as the weeks drifted uneventfully past, and the time lag increased from a few minutes to over an hour, interest had gradually slackened. Since the excitement of the Jupiter fly-by, over a month ago, they had made only three or four tapes for general release.
“Mission Control, this is X-ray-Delta-One. Here is your press statement.
“Earlier today, a minor technical problem occurred. Our HAL-9000 computer predicted the failure of the AE-35 unit.
“This is a small but vital component of the communication system. It keeps our main antenna aimed at Earth to within a few thousandths of a degree. This accuracy is required, since at our present distance of more than seven hundred million miles, Earth is only a rather faint star, and our very narrow radio beam could easily miss it.
“The antenna is kept constantly tracking Earth by motors controlled from the central computer. But those motors get their instructions via the AE-35 unit. You might compare it to a nerve center in the body, which translates the brain’s instructions to the muscles of a limb. If the nerve fails to pass on the correct signals, the limb becomes useless. In our case, a breakdown of the AE-35 unit could mean that the antenna will start pointing at random. This was a common trouble with the deep-space probes of the last century. They often reached other planets, then failed to send back any information because their antenna couldn’t locate Earth.
“We don’t know the nature of the fault yet, but the situation is not at all serious, and there is no need for alarm. We have two back-up AE-35s, each of which has an operational life expectancy of twenty years, so the chance that a second will fail during the course of this mission is’ negligible. Also, if we can diagnose the present trouble, we may be able to repair the number one unit.
“Frank Poole, who is specially qualified for this type