Chapter 35 The Eye of Japetus

When Bowman had first seen Japetus, the curious bright oval area had been partly in shadow. Now, as the moon moved slowly along its seventy-nine day orbit, it was coming into the full light of day.

As he watched it grow, Bowman began to have a worrying feeling. He never mentioned it to Mission Control because he did not want them to think he was going mad. Perhaps he was; he had almost made himself believe that the bright oval was an enormous empty eye, staring at him as he approached. But it was not completely empty. When the ship was eighty thousand kilometres out, and Japetus was twice as large as the Earth's familiar Moon, he noticed a tiny black spot at the exact centre of the oval. However there was no time, then, for any detailed examination. The meeting-point was getting close.

For the last time, Discovery's main engines started up. David Bowman felt a sense of pride, and of sadness. These engines had brought the ship here from Earth with total efficiency. Soon there would be no more fuel, and then Discovery would be as dead as an asteroid, a helpless prisoner of gravity. Even when the rescue ship finally arrived a few years into the future, it would not be economical to refuel her. She would continue to orbit, empty and alone.

The whistle of the main jets died away. Only the side jets continued to move Discovery gently into orbit. Then even they shut down. The ship was now circling Japetus at a height of eighty kilometres.

Discovery had become a satellite of a satellite.

Chapter 36 Big Brother

' I'm coming round to the daylight side again, and it's just as I reported on the last orbit. This place seems to have only two kinds of surface material. The black stuff looks burnt - very like burnt toast.

' I still can't make any sense of the white area. It has a very sharp edge, and there are no surface details at all. Picture a sea of frozen milk - though sometimes I feel that it's moving slowly.

'... I'm over the white area again, on my third orbit. This time I hope to pass closer to that mark I noticed at its centre, on my way in. If my calculations are correct, I'll go within eighty kilometres of it — whatever it is.

'...Yes, there's something ahead, just where I calculated. It's coming over the horizon — and so is Saturn. I'll move to the telescope ...

' Hello! - it looks like some kind of building - completely black. No windows or other features. Just a big object standing ... at least a kilometre high. It reminds me - of course! It's just like the thing you found on the Moon !This isTMA-1's big brother!'

Chapter37 Experiment.

Call it the Star Gate.

For three million years it had circled Saturn, waiting for a meeting that might never come. When it was created, a moon was destroyed, and the broken pieces still orbited the planet.

Now the long wait was ending. On another world, intelligence had been born and was escaping from its home. An ancient experiment was almost at an end.

The creatures who had begun that experiment, so long ago, had not been human. But they were flesh and blood. And as soon as they were able to, they flew to the stars.

In their explorations, they met with life in many forms. And when they found it had some intelligence, they encouraged its growth.When the explorers came to Earth, they made changes to many types of animal. They would not know, for at least a million years, which of their experiments would succeed. But there was no need for them to wait and watch. The servants they had left behind would do that for them.

As time passed, those first explorers of Earth went through many changes themselves. As soon as they could build machines that were better than their bodies, they left their bodies and became machines. In time, they learned to store knowledge in the structure of space itself. Then they freed themselves from the machines and turned into creatures of pure energy.

Now they were lords of the Galaxy, and beyond the reach of time. They could move as they wanted among the stars. But despite their godlike powers, they had not completely forgotten their beginning.

And they still watched the experiments that had been started so long ago.