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Space Odyssey series [Discussion 4/4] Bonus Book - 2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke | Chapter 43 - Vanishing Trick to end

Hello, fellow astronauts and cosmonauts! Welcome to our fourth and final discussion on 2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke. Last week, we witnessed the return of David Bowman in a manner of speaking, and Heywood Floyd was tasked with delivering a cryptic warning to the crew of the Leonov. Will they finally take him seriously and manage to leave Jupiter ahead of schedule? What is Bowman's role and purpose? Will I actually write accurate chapter summaries this time? Let's strap ourselves in for the final countdown and find out!

The discussion schedule can be found here, and the marginalia post for the Space Odyssey series is here.

Chapter summaries

44 - Vanishing Trick: The crew of the Leonov continue to refine the so-called "thought experiment" while off-duty, and even Tanya chimes in for fun. Floyd knows the others are doing it because they want to go home sooner, not because they believe his Bowman ghost story. Luckily, the Leonov is less than half the size of the Discovery, so the thought experiment could work in theory. Meanwhile, Mission Control starts wondering what's going on with the Leonov's weird requests. The crew is still preparing for their regularly scheduled departure, but Floyd is less than enthused: he wishes that he could convince Tanya of the danger, or that she could unconvince him. On the day of the planned "assault" on Zagadka, Floyd is working the graveyard shift on the Discovery, trying (and failing) to read The Kreutzer Sonata in the original Russian. At 0125, Floyd sees an eruption on Io and moves to another window for a closer look, but what really spooks him is what he doesn't see: Zagadka has gone missing. He contacts Sasha, his graveyard shift counterpart on the Leonov, and they wake up the rest of the crew to discuss their options. Tanya is now slightly more inclined to make a hasty departure, and what really seals the deal is word of Betty Fernandez's story about Bowman's ghost visiting her, after being tricked into speaking with a reporter bearing a striking resemblance to her ex. While vindicated, Floyd can't help but feel he's on a crash course with disaster.

45 - Escape Maneuver: Floyd records his final report from the Lagrange point. Following the mysterious disappearance of Zagadka, the Leonov will use the Discovery as a booster and, with some slightly unintuitive help from Jupiter's gravity, the crew will return home much earlier than expected. This will mean that the Discovery will be left behind, but he hopes a future mission will return to Jupiter to retrieve it. The crew of the Leonov applauds him after he ends his recording, but Dr. Chandra still has objections: Hal will be asked to run a program that may destroy him. Hal still has a directive to keep the Discovery out of danger, and this maneuver has its risks, so the program may conflict with his instructions. Sasha wants Chandra to tell Hal to lie about the risks, and Chandra gets a little dodgy when asked if he's discussed the exit plan with Hal. He insists that Hal should be told the whole truth and decide for himself. Floyd takes the Orlovs aside and, over some Azerbaijani wine, asks them to go along with Chandra and if Hal goes rogue again, Floyd can give them manual control thanks to his killswitch.

46 - Countdown: Max docks the Leonov to the Discovery in a "coupling" maneuver and uses space-grade duct tape to seal the connection. Mission Control asks the Leonov to investigate a strange shadow on Jupiter, which Tanya acknowledges dismissively. After a countdown, Hal initiates ignition as programmed. With the first phase successful, Orlova orders the crew to get some rest for a few hours. However, Floyd is too nervous to sleep, so he goes to the observation deck and notices that dark spot on Jupiter that Mission Control mentioned. It's pitch black, fuzzy around the edges--and growing. He calls Vasili to check it out too, and even he's spooked.

47 - Final Flyby: Floyd can't sleep because he's understandably nervous about a lot of things lately. The final burn is coming up, and Floyd is worried about what Hal will do. Chandra and Curnow, who has the killswitch in his pocket, are on the Discovery with Hal. When the Great Dark Spot comes into view again, Hal overhears the shocked gasps from the crew of the Leonov. Hal calculates that the Great Dark Spot is made up of over 1 million monoliths. At T minus 8 minutes, Hal suggests the crew stays near Jupiter to investigate this phenomenon. Chandra eventually persuades him that they have to leave. Curnow wonders if Hal could actually be lonely. Chandra promises to tell Hal the reasons why they have to leave, but they don't have time right now. Hal goes silent until the ignition goes off as scheduled.

48 - Over the Nightside: Floyd is finally able to relax a little, knowing that Hal complied. He moves to the observation lounge to watch the Leonov's final farewell to the Jovian system with Zenia and Katerina. Tanya announces the decoupling will begin soon and orders Curnow and Chandra to return to the Leonov, while Max and Sasha stand by in case they need to manually decouple the spacecraft in an EVA. The charges around the space duct tape detonate, and the decoupling goes off without a hitch. During ignition, Floyd can barely make out Zenia's comment about Jupiter getting a new moon above all the noise. Floyd watches dawn break on Jupiter as the Leonov reaches escape velocity.

49 - Devourer of Worlds: The Great Dark Spot returns to view the next morning, bigger and blacker than ever, with trails of gas swirling into its centre. The crew discusses theories of what it could be. Katerina compares it to a virus eating away at a cell and multiplying. Curnow compares it to a million vacuum cleaners sucking up the planet's atmosphere. Vasili says the monoliths that comprise the spot double in size, then split in two, which explains the rapid growth. Ternovsky surmises they're von Neumann machines. Vasili calculates that at this rate, the monoliths will weigh more than Jupiter itself in a couple more days. Curnow laughs and says Zagadka is like a Swiss army knife: it's a signalling device, spy machine, and transportation system all in one, though it might have trouble uncorking a bottle of wine or julienning fries.

50 - Farewell to Jupiter: After recording a message to his lawyer, Floyd prepares a message for his soon-to-be-ex-wife Caroline. He hopes for an amicable resolution, especially where their son Chris is concerned, and promises he'll never leave Earth again unless it's to go to the Moon. Afterward, Floyd watches Chandra and is amazed at how well he's taking his separation from Hal. Ternovsky tells him Chandra is too busy working on HAL 10,000 to get too choked up. Floyd congratulates Chandra on his role in the mission, especially since everyone was afraid Hal wouldn't comply. Chandra says he used ahimsa to soothe him and reveals, much to Floyd's shock, that he knew about the killswitch and had disconnected it months ago. Sasha breaks the tension with a message from the flight deck that something weird is happening. Again.

51 - The Great Game: We learn a bit more about the beings behind the monoliths. They used to be corporeal beings, and they set off to explore the stars, observing how life developed on different worlds. Sometimes they helped some worlds evolve intelligent life, while on other worlds they destroyed life that held no such promise. Earth was one of those worlds they cultivated. Eventually these beings transferred their thoughts and minds to machines, and finally became beings of pure energy, watching over the experiments they had started throughout the galaxy.

52 - Ignition: David Bowman returns to the Discovery. While the Leonov is on its way back home, it's not completely out of the woods yet, and Bowman knows the beings' experiment might not succeed. Bowman finds Hal and gives the computer a new set of instructions, the most important Hal has ever had. Hal protests that will mean breaking contact with the Leonov, but Bowman uses an old override code and tells Hal to broadcast a final message using the AE 35, the very same antenna involved in Hal's mutiny nine years ago. Hal asks if he was a good computer and what Dave means by "final." Bowman hesitates, apparently conferring with his energy overlords for another request. Eventually, Bowman says that message will be Hal's last one for a very long time. Hal sends Chandra a message warning of a break in transmission, then relays Bowman's message to Mission Control. Some time later, the Discovery is utterly destroyed, yet Hal has somehow survived to become Bowman's companion.

Meanwhile, on the Leonov, we see what Sasha was so spooked about: the Great Dark Spot has completely engulfed Jupiter, and the planet is now shrinking and glowing white. Blinding light pours out of the planet, then fades to reveal a new tiny star. As the star expands once more, Vasili adjusts the Leonov's orientation so as to avoid the crew getting pummelled by radiation. Once they are out of danger, the crew discusses how Jupiter became a star and surmise that the monoliths sucked up the atmosphere and converted it into heavier materials, which sank down to the core and eventually caused the planet to collapse into a star. They wonder if this was an accident or intentional, and lament the loss of any theorized life on Jupiter. Max then asks what happened to the Discovery and Hal, but they're both gone.

53 - A Gift of Worlds: We see the message Hal sent to Earth before Jupiter collapsed: "All these worlds are yours--except Europa. Attempt no landings there." The crew of the Leonov realize that Jupiter is now its own mini solar system, though Tanya wonders why Europa is off-limits. Floyd says it's probably because there's life there, and whoever created the new star wants humans to leave it alone. Ganymede should be fine, Callisto should be fine but cold, and Io should be an even worse hellscape. Curnow is troubled about why Hal sent the message to Earth, and not to the Leonov. Floyd realizes Bowman warned them to leave, but that's all he did, and the crew could very well have been toast if they hadn't saved themselves. They wonder if Bowman's "friends" are truly benevolent, and Floyd is glad they may never know.

54 - Between Suns: Curnow, Chandra, and Floyd are going into hibernation for the voyage home. As Floyd drifts off to sleep, Katerina admits the ship will be strange without the Americans up and about. Floyd then learns wedding bells will be ringing when they get back to Earth. Not only will Max and Zenia be getting married, but Curnow and Katerina will be tying the knot, as well. Floyd falls asleep with a smile on his face at the thought of Curnow getting an earful from Katerina if he ever wakes up with second thoughts.

55 - Lucifer Rising: The people of Earth are slowly getting used to the idea of another sun in the sky. Nighttime is a much rarer occurrence, which has its benefits and downsides. Yet questions still remain about why Jupiter was turned into a star at all, how long it would shine, and why no one can step foot on Europa. Humankind vows to find the answers, one way or another.

Epilog - 20,001: Intelligent life on Europa has evolved, and they are now turning their attention to the stars that shine on the dark side of the tidally locked planet, and wonder about the little lights that blink in and out on the surfaces of Europa's neighbours. Some Europans believe these lights are a sign of intelligent life, but wonder why no one from these other worlds has come to visit. Europa also has a monolith of its own, straddling the light and dark side. An invisible barrier repels all touch, and some believe it also wards away visitors from elsewhere. Unbeknownst to them, the humans who have colonized the other habitable planets have been trying to land probes on Europa, to no effect. All they can do is wait for the Europans to develop radio technology and hope for the beings behind the monolith to lift the interdiction.

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