第二章
There isn't a man or woman aboard the [Ark Angel] that wasn't thinking about the SDF-1 when Dr. Penn announced our intention to make a trial jump to the moon. But do we have a choice? Doesn't it make more sense to strand the ship a safe distance from Earth rather than strand her in Martian orbit as some have suggested out of sheer superstitious fear of repeated misfortune? All this, of course, presupposes that the fold generators will fail, which I am inclined to believe will not be the case. As for our inadvertently ending up near Pluto or some such celestial locale, I can only pray that doesn't occur. Should it, however, I might as well state now that I have always regretted missing the jump that landed Claudia and the rest at the frozen edge of our home system. Perhaps I'm bound by destiny to follow her now.
General Vincent Grant, ship's log of the Ark Angel
See you on the dark side of the moon.
Late twentieth-century song lyric
当 潘博士宣布向月亮进行跳跃时，大天使号上的每一个人都想到了SDF-1。我们还有其他的选择吗？让飞船停在距离地球更远更安全的地方，难道不比再次进入火 星轨道更有意义吗？要知道那样会引起人们对同样灾祸的迷信式恐慌。当然所有的这些都是建立在折叠引擎出故障的假设之上的，对此我不相信会出现这种情况。至 于我们不小心的折叠到了冥王星或者类似的地方，我只能祈祷那种事情不会发生。然而，如果真的发生，我只能说我非常遗憾那次克劳迪亚和其他人降落在极地边沿 的跳跃。也许我命中注定现在要追随她了。
文森特•格兰特将军，《大天使号的航行日记》
“在月亮的阴面再见。”
二十世纪晚期的歌词
Jean Grant purposely fell out of step with Vince and the two senators so that she might observe Scott without setting him off as she had almost done in the arrival hold. Her sentiments had been sincere if awkwardly expressed. She was not unaware of the meaninglessness of promotions and medals at this stage of things-she had always held that battles were better forgotten than immortalized by ribbons, in any case-but gestures were important for morale, even of the salute and handshake variety favored by armies the Quadrant over. And God knew morale was in short supply just now.
吉音•格兰特故意慢下脚步跟着文斯和两位参议员，这样她就可以在不打扰斯科特的情形下（就像她在到达大厅差点做 到（指惊动了Scott））观注他。不难看出她的感情是真诚的。她并不是不知道晋升和勋章在这时候是没有意义的，她一向认为，战争与其被绶带纪念，不如被 遗忘的好。但是姿态对于鼓舞士气来说是很重要的，哪怕只是选择军队里敬礼和星区内不同军队使用的各种各样的握手。上帝都知道目前大家的士气低落。
She took note of the slight limp in Scott's long-legged stride as Vince led everyone to his personal quarters aft of the Ark Angel's bridge. Up close, when she had felt Scott stiffen in her short-lived embrace, she had seen the scars on his still youthful face and graceful hands. Nineteen now-or twenty-ix in Earth-relative years (a system she readily dismissed because of the havoc it wreaked on her own age)-he was growing to resemble his father more and more. But from beneath the broad forehead and slick black hair peered the dreamy eyes of his mother. He had her prominent ears as well, but the limp and the stoop in his formerly erect carriage were gifts of a war that refused to go away.
文斯带领大家到他自己位于大天使号舰桥后面的宿舍，吉音小心的跟在斯科特后面。当她短暂的拥抱斯科特时，她感觉到斯科特变得坚定了，也 看到了他依然年轻的面庞和优美的双手上的伤痕。已经19岁了，或者按照地球年（由于大破坏使她变得苍老，她刻意的忘记了这种纪年方法。）来算是26岁，他 越来越象他的父亲了。但是在宽大的额头和漂亮的黑发下面那双充满幻想的眼睛却像他的母亲。他还有他母亲那双突出的耳朵，但是战争使他以前笔直的身躯变得弯 曲和软弱。
REF staffers and administrative officers stared openly as they hurried through the ship's corridors, trying no doubt to puzzle out the identity of the stranger who had been admitted into their midst, the undernourished apparition in rust-red knee boots and tattered mauve and purple flightsuit adorned with Mars Division unit patches. The scarred warrior wearing an archaic Badger on his hip.
当经过飞船的走廊时，远征军的所有职员和行政官员 都会公然的瞪着斯科特，对于这么一个穿着带红锈的靴子，破烂的紫色飞行服，戴着火星师标志，消瘦且营养不良的鬼魂般的陌生人来到他们中间感到迷惑不解，还 尽量不去表现出来这种困惑。这位带伤的战士的臀部还穿着一张古老的獾皮毛。
Jean listened closely to Scott's words as everyone settled themselves behind drinks in Vince's quarters. And she heard the strange accent he had acquired during his time on Earth, the bitterness in his breaking voice when he recounted the Mars Division's assault against Invid-occupied Earthflow the ships had literally come apart in space, defeated long before the Regis's Shock Troopers and Pincers had moved in to loose their hyphenstorms, their fiery coup degrace.
吉音靠近斯科特，聆听斯科特的话语，而其他人则在文斯宿舍后部喝酒。她听出斯科特在地球时期 形成的特别口音，当斯科特叙述火星师攻击因维人时飞船在空中炸裂，而他们的震爆机甲和螯击机甲还没大量出击之前整个火星师被雷吉斯部队的热射线瞬间毁灭， 她听出了斯科特言词之间的苦涩。
Scott told them about the long road to Reflex Point, a journey that seemed to have become something of a personal odyssey to despair and disillusionment. Of the rogues, traitors, and cowards who populated that war-torn landscape. Of his encounters with Jonathan Wolff (Scott's template for cynicism, Jean thought), with the geriatric star-struck mechamorphs who had returned with Major Carpenter; and with Sue Graham of the Jupiter Division's 36th. Jean remembered the photojournalist well and the agony, real or imagined, she had put Lisa Hayes Hunter through.
斯科特讲述了前往反射点的长途跋涉，如同一部绝望与幻灭式的奥德 赛班的行程。一路上到处都是恶棍，叛徒和胆小鬼。讲述了与乔纳森•伍尔夫（吉音想这是斯科特式的讽刺）的相遇，与年迈的卡本特上校的遭遇，以及与木星师 36分队苏•格雷姆的相遇。吉音非常熟悉这位摄影记者，以及她带给丽莎•海因斯•亨特的苦恼。
Her ears pricked up when Scott mentioned Reflex Point itself and spoke of some of the things he had described to neurometric analysts planetside. She saw no reason to doubt the veracity of Scott's claims-that he had actually conversed with the Invid hivequeen-but she also sensed that Scott was leaving something unsaid. G2 had tried to put a trace on the freedom fighters Scott claimed had accompanied him inside the complex, but a search had proved impossible among the population displacements and shifting conditions below.
她仔细的听着斯科特描述反射点以及其他一些他曾经向精神分析师说过的那些东西。她看得出没 有必要怀疑斯科特关于他与因维女王进行过真实对话的真实性，但是她同时也感到斯科特隐藏了些东西。G2曾经尝试跟踪伴随斯科特进入反射点的自由战士，但是 由于人口的转移与各种条件的变化，这种尝试没有成功。
In turn, Vince caught Scott up on the incredible events that had transpired on Optera shortly after Mars Division had folded for home space. Scott was attentive, but it was apparent that he had already-heard most of it from REF mecha pilots. Nevertheless, he had questions about Dana Sterling's nearly miraculous appearance and the so-called Nichols drive that powered the Shadow fighters and retrofitted Ark Angel.
同时，文斯告诉斯科特，当火星师折叠回地球后，奥普特拉上发生的难以置 信的蒸发事件（指SDF-3的消失）。斯科特留意的听着，但是显然他已经从远征军机甲飞行员知道了事情的大概。尽管如此，他还是询问了关于戴纳•斯特林不 可思议的出现，为暗影战机提供动力的所谓“尼克斯驱动”，以及对大天使号的改装。
Jean waited for a lull in the shop talk before attempting to return the conversation to personal concerns. She had risen from her chair to gaze out the viewport, mesmerized by the scintillating dance of Earth's orbiting debris. Of late, every viewport in the ship seemed to be a window into her private torment. She could not regard Earth or stars without recalling the phoenix vision she had beheld when the Tokugawa had met its terrible end above Optera or the real-time manifestation of that phoenix as it had scorched its way through the expeditionary fleet.
吉音等着这所有的对话结束后才开始询问私人情况。她从椅子上站起来，出神的看着地球轨道上漂浮的那些残骸。她看着地球以及其它的星球，又想起了德川号在奥普特拉上空遭遇因维凤凰而毁灭的景象，以及再次目睹了因维凤凰离开地球时焚毁了远征军舰队的悲剧。
Nor could she help thinking of Gardner and Ackerman and Gunther Rheinhardt, all dead. And Rolf Emerson-dear Rolf, who had died in Bowie's arms. The news of his death had seemed unreal on Tirol, but now, so close ...
吉音又不得不想起了嘉德纳，阿克门和冈瑟•莱因哈特的牺牲，以及死在鲍伊怀中的罗尔夫•爱默森。在泰洛，他死亡的消息还有些虚幻，但是现在，却如此真实……
"We were so sorry to hear about Marlene, Scott," she said at last.
“我们为玛琳的事情深感难过，斯科特，”她终于说。
By sheer reflex, Scott's hand went to his breast to feel for the heart-shaped holo-locket he wore under his flightsuit. "Her parents are onboard," Jean added.
此时斯科特条件反射班的将手伸向胸前摸到飞行服下面的心型挂坠。“她的父母也在这里。”吉音补充道。
Scott nodded grimly. "And I'm sorry to hear about Bowie," he said, meeting her eyes.
斯科特冷冷的点点头。“我很难过听到鲍伊的事情。”他看着吉音说。
Jean saw concern and hatred in those eyes-hatred for Musica, the Tiresian clone Bowie was in love with. Jean saw little purpose in going into it now that Scott was exhibiting signs of outright xenophobia. She wondered whether Dana, too, would fall prey to his distrust. Dana, who had remained with her parents on Haydon IV.
吉音从他的眼中看到了忧虑和仇恨，一种对缪西卡这个鲍伊喜欢的特雷西亚克隆人的仇恨。既然斯科特有很直露的排外情绪，吉音也不便于过多谈论此事。她想知道戴纳是否也同样失去了她的信任。现在戴纳一家都在海顿4号上面。
"We'll find them," Scott said suddenly, watching as meaningful glances were exchanged. Then: "All right, what aren't you people telling me? You said you received transmissions from Tirol."
“我们要找到他们，”斯科特突然说到，同时意味深长的看着周围的人，接着说道：“好吧，你们为什么不告诉我？你们提到从泰洛收到过信息。”
"From Cabell," Vince answered, setting aside his drink. "But it's only what we've told you, Scott. The SDF-3 executed its fold shortly after Rheinhardt's Neptune and Saturn groups were away. Rheinhardt's final communique with Admiral Hunter-"
“信息来自于坎贝尔，”文斯把他的酒杯放到一边，然后回答道，“但是这是我们已经告诉过你了，斯科特。莱茵哈特的海王星和土星团队离开后不久，SDF-3就执行了折叠。莱茵哈特与亨特上将的最后通讯……”
"Rick," Jean thought to point out.
“瑞克，”吉音认为应该指明。
"-involved decisions on deployment of the Cyclones and Shadow fighters." Vince paused. "And the use of the neutron `S' missiles if all else failed."
“涉及到使用旋风战车和暗影战机，”文斯稍作停顿后继续说道，“以及在其他方法都失败的情形下使用中子S导弹。”
Scott's eyes widened. Then the rumors were true: Rheinhardt had been prepared to render the planet uninhabitable rather than surrender it to the Invid. "Madness, " he said through clenched teeth.
斯科特的眼睛张得大大的。看来传言是真实的：莱茵哈特已经做好了即便是毁灭整个星球也不向因维人屈服的准备。“真是疯了！”从他的牙缝中蹦出了这几个字。
Vince looked to his wife and let out a long breath.
文斯看着妻子，长呼了一口气。
"It wasn't an easy decision to arrive at, Colonel," Senator Huxley said. "There was a high probability that most of the Southern hemisphere would survive the saturation."
“这是个非常困难的决定，上校，”赫胥黎参议员说，“南半球的大部分在很大程度上是能够幸存下来的。”
Scott stared at her, then ran his hands down his face. "So where the hell's the ship if they completed their fold? It's been three months now!"
斯科特瞪着她，然后将他的手从脸上放下来。“该死的，SDF-3折叠后究竟到哪儿去了？已经3个月过去了！”
"Easy, Scott," Vince said, straightening in his chair. "We're doing all we can."
“别紧张，斯科特，”文斯说着并整理好他的椅子。“我们正全力而为。”
Scott glared at him. "By sitting here? No, I don't think so. Hasn't anybody thought of returning to Tirol? There has to be some trace of them."
斯科特怒视着他，“就这么坐在这儿？我并不这么认为。有没有人想过回到泰洛吗？那儿一定还有一些蛛丝马迹的。”
Dr. Penn cleared his throat. "The truth is, son, we're not sure we can return. We are, however, planning to execute a trial jump to lay all doubts to rest."
潘博士清了清喉咙说：“孩子，真实情况是我们不能确认我们是否有能力回去。尽管如此，我们仍然计划执行一次尝试性的跳跃，而不管任何质疑。”
Scott nodded in comprehension. "The Protoculture. The one thing that's plaguing most of the mecha downside. The reason I had to ride a damn chemical shuttle up here. Nothing's working, is that it?"
斯科特领悟着点点头。“史前文化。没有这东西使所有的机甲都不能起飞。没有这东西我必须乘坐该死的化学燃料穿梭机到这儿。没有这玩艺儿，所有的东西都没用了，不是吗？”
"Yes and no," Penn said quickly. "Some of the Veritechs are functional and fully capable of mechamorphosis. Others have limited capacity for flight or combat maneuvering. Now it this last is something I find disturbing."
“可以说是，也可以说不是，”潘很快回答道：“还有一些变形战机是有用的，而且能够完全变为机甲型态。其它的具有有限的飞行能力，或者进行战斗机动。现在我发现只有一小部分完全失效。”
Scott glanced at Vince before responding; if the general was willing to let Penn's comment slide; so would he. "I heard some talk: there's something different about the Flowers you harvested from Optera-"
斯科特看了文斯一眼，并不着急反驳，如果将军希望潘继续说下去，那就让他说下去吧。“我听说，你从奥普特拉带回来进行种植的生命之花有些异样……”
"New Praxis," Justine Huxley amended.
“新普拉西斯。”贾斯汀•赫胥黎纠正道。
"New Praxis, then. But why would the older models suddenly shut down now?"
“好，新普拉西斯。但为什么老型号现在都不工作了呢？”
At the viewport, Jean folded her arms. "We were hoping you might be able to tell us, Scott."
吉音环抱着双手站在窗边。“我们希望你能够告诉我们答案，斯科特。”
Scott touched his fingertips to his chest. "Me? What could I-" Then it occurred to him. "The Regis," he snorted. "We've read your debriefing reports, Colonel," Huxley said. "You claim you were inside the central hive just before the end, that you actually spoke with the Regis."
斯科特用指尖指着自己的胸口。“我？我能告诉你们什么？”他突然意识到。“雷吉斯，”他哼着鼻子说。“我们已经看过你的报告了，上校。”赫胥黎说，“你说在战斗结束前你在蜂房内部而且与雷吉斯交谈过。”
Scott swallowed and found his voice. "Yeah, it's true, but come on, it's not like she explained herself to me."
斯科特咽了咽口水：“是，没错，但请注意，这并不是指她在向我介绍自己。”
"Then what did she say?" Jean asked.
“那么她到底说了些什么呢？”吉音问道。
Scott smoothed back an undisciplined comma of hair. "What did she say?" He laughed nervously. "I'm still not sure what I heard and what I imagined. But I think we were, well, arguing."
斯科特向后捋了捋自己没有打理的头发。“她说了些什么？”他神经质的笑着，“我不确信自己到底听到了什么，自己又到底想象了什么。但是我觉得我们当时在争论。”
"Arguing?" Huxley said dubiously.
“争论”赫胥黎怀疑道。
"Yeah. About ... ethics. About whether the Invid had a right to Earth after what the Masters had done to Optera." Scott searched the faces appraising him. "It sounds crazy, I know, but she was just raving about what warlike beings we are, about how the universe would be better off without us." No one said anything for a moment.
“是。关于…伦理和道德。关于因维人是否有权利对地球做出洛波特统治者曾经对奥普特拉做的事情。”斯科特扫视着对他进行鉴定的那一张张脸。“我知道这听起来很疯狂，但是她一直在狂乱的斥责我们是好战的种族，而且说如果没有我们这个宇宙会更好。”其他人一时间都没有作声。
"Anyway, I still don't see what all this has to do with the SDF-3. The Invid are history, aren't they?"
“无论如何，我看不出这些与SDF-3有什么关系。因维人已经是过去的事了，对吗？”
Jean turned to the viewport and thought of the phoenix once more, the transubstantiation of an entire race. "Maybe the ship went where she went," she suggested softly. Vince sent her a questioning look as she swung around. "The Regis, I mean."
吉音转向窗口，又想起了整个因维人族群变作的凤凰。“飞船也许去了她去的地方。”她轻声地说道。她转过身发现文斯疑惑的看着她，又说道：“我是指雷吉斯。”
Penn made a knowing sound. "It's a pity there are no Invid left to quiz as to just where she might have gone."
潘大声说道：“很遗憾我们没有一个因维人能够询问雷吉斯到底去哪儿了。”
Scott put a hand over his mouth as though to bite back his words. Somewhere below, in one of the burgeoning cities of the Southlands or wandering the waste of the Northlands, were two of the three children the Regis had conjugated in human form. Sera and Marlene-clone-close in appearance to the Marlene lost to him over a year ago.
斯科特用手掩着嘴，企图收回刚才的话。在下面地球的某个地方，也许是南大陆的某个新兴的城市，也许是北方大陆的某处荒野，雷吉斯3个人类形态孩子中的两个还在那里。希拉和玛琳，也就是一年前死去的玛琳的外形克隆人。
Could he face them again? he asked himself. Could he enlist the enemy's help in finding his friends?
他能再次面对她们吗？斯科特扪心自问。他能利用“敌人”的帮助找到自己的朋友吗？
"What is it, Scott?" Jean said, watching him.
“怎么啦，斯科特？”吉音看着他。
Scott clamped his jaws shut, then relented. "Not all the Invid have left," he told them at last.
斯科特紧咬着自己的下巴，然后放松。最后他说道：“并不是所有的因维人都离开了。”
Above them rose crystal palaces and translucent spires, mansions of white-frost gingerbread and platforms of smoky blue glass, elfin halls and minarets, stately columns, onion domes, and ethereal towers.
在他们的上面升起的是水晶宫殿和透明塔尖，白雾环绕的大厦和烟雾弥漫的蓝色玻璃高坛，灵异的大厅和尖塔，堂皇的圆柱，洋葱状的圆顶，还有空中的堡垒。
Above them were alloy plains three hundred miles wide and burnished smooth as a looking glass, idyllic landscapes dotted with sea-green lakes, and skies of gold filled with conediers, hovercraft, and outsize magical carpets. A dreamy world of perfect days and tranquil nights, of exotic biota and Eliding beings in high-collared robes whose silent speech was a gentle thought carried on the wind.
在他们的上面是300英里宽的、打磨得如同镜子般光滑的合金形成的 平原，点缀着海蓝色湖泊的田园山水，金色的天空中到处都是圆锥形物体（conediers），气垫船，以及特大号的魔毯。这是个梦幻般的世界，这里有完美 的白天和宁静的黑夜，有外来的生物区域，有穿高领长袍通过气味无声的传递信息的艾莱丁（Eliding）生物。
And below them . ._ . below them was that which had given shape to the illusion above: the ultratech complexities of a planet-sized artifact, birthed in the mind of an alien genius who had left his mark on half the far-flung worlds of the Fourth Quadrant. A genius met in lore and legend or encountered in towering shrines that masked the being himself.
而在他们的下面，他们的下面是创造上面这一切的是一个星球般大小拥有超级复杂技能的人造物体，它是由一位来自第四星区以外却在第四星区半数以上的地方留下过足迹的天才创造的。这位天才获得的知识以及与圣坛的邂逅帮他掩饰了自己。
He had perhaps imparted his name to the artifact or left that for others to do, but that his very essence was there erected-in those spires and domes and artificial lakes-was not to be denied.
他也许用自己的名字命名了这个人造物体，也许是别人所为，但是不容置疑的是：他的精髓一直矗立在那里，在那些塔尖，圆顶和人造湖泊中。
And suspended between-in the boundless chamber that confined them-was this place of instrumentality nodes and info-networks, the material interface with the Awareness-Haydon had set in place to mind his clever works. So this place was neither one nor the other but a middle ground from which to know creator and created, sacrosanct, then, truly suspended. For from, where else could one take the proper measure of things?
在它们之间悬浮的是这个容纳了这所有一切的无限大的房间，是联系先知爱威尼斯-海顿的物理界面是各种各样的机构节点和信息网络，用 来照顾他的精心的劳动成果。所以这里不是别的任何一样东西，而是一个去认识创造者和创造物的平台，神圣而真实的浮在空中。其他什么地方还能够适当的测量物 体？（？？？）
Exedore ceased his mystical musings even before he sensed the soft intrusion of Veidt's sendings. This was what mingling with humans and Garudans had wrought, he told himself, a penchant for the metaphysical. Questions commencing with why.
艾克西多停下了自己的冥想，发觉维特发送的信息轻轻的来到。他自言自语道：这是人类和嘎鲁达人精巧的混合，纯哲学的兴趣。他开始问为什么了。
How far he had come from the directed, purposeful nature of the Imperative! he would catch himself thinking. Feeling as remote from that now as his recontoured physical self was from the genetic vats that had conceived him. Normalized in both size and aspect and drained of the conquering urge, the compulsion to obey without question. Given to metaphysical ponderings. How un-Zentraedi, indeed! And how Great Breetai would have mocked him!
与原来直接的、以遵从命令为目标的本性相比，现在自己的变化使多大啊！他忍不住这么想。从原来巨大身躯改变到目前正常的体态，同时完全改变了征服的欲望与义无反顾执行命令的本性，这是多么的不象是天顶星人啊！这也是伟大的布里泰嘲笑他的话！
"A moment more and the requested correlations will be available," Veidt sent from the data column.
“再过一会儿，请求的联系就会有了。”维特从数据列中发送过这样的信息。
Exedore swiveled in his chair to regard the limbless Haydonite-his partner these past years. A response formed on the tip of his tongue, though there was little need of it. An old habit, difficult to break. "I, um . . ."
艾克西多转动椅子，注视着这位没有肢体的海顿人，这个过去几年来他的同伴。虽然没有什么必要，他还是回答说：“我，嗯……”，这实在是一个难以改变的老习惯。
Veidt hovered through a quarter turn to face him with what nearly approximated a smile.
维特转过四分之一圈，带着一种类似微笑的表情看着他。
"I am well aware that my workings please you, Lord Exedore. Your words are an echo, you understand-an unnecessary redundancy."
“我很清楚我的工作令您满意，艾克西多大人。您的话只是重复，您知道，没有必要的重复。”
Exedore favored him with a genuine grin, as difficult to suppress as the habit itself. This was as close as they came to jesting or arguing, he still was not sure which. Veidt's face had already resumed its normal configuration, which was to say, blank. As featureless as an unfinished mannequin's, a tech aboard the SDF-3 had once commented in Exedore's presence.
艾克西多赞许的给了他一个诚挚的微笑，虽然不能改变他的习惯。这更像是打趣或者争论，他也不能确认是哪一种。维特的脸色恢复了常态，即空白状。SDF-3上的一名技师曾经对艾克西多的出现评论道：如同没有完工的人体模特般毫无特点。
"Featureless, yes," Veidt sent, "but hardly unfinished, Exedore:"
“确实毫无特色，”维特继续着，“但是就快完成了，艾克西多。”
Early on Exedore had found it somewhat unnerving to have his thoughts scanned on a moment-to-moment basis, but he was long past concern or misgiving. It was logical, in fact, that he open his mind to Veidt, if only to expedite the unraveling of the cosmic puzzles someone had seen fit to send their way.
很早以前艾克西多就发现断续性的思考令人身心疲惫，一直以来他就忧虑不安。事实上，他对维特敞开心扉是正确的，即便只是为了去尽快揭开别人留下的关于宇宙的种种难题。
And "baffling" only began to describe them.
只能用“困惑”加以形容。
The SDF-3 was missing, not merely disappeared into hyperspace but vanished from the Quadrant. The ship had not emerged from fold anywhere in known space, nor was it trapped in the netherscape of the hyperdomain. Haydon IV's Awareness had told them that much already. But what the artificial sentience could not tell them was where the ship was or whether it existed at all. The SDF-3 had simply ceased to be, and yet there were no indications that it had met with any of the thousand ills matter was heir to.
SDF-3消失了，不仅仅是消失在了超空间中，而且是从星区中彻底不见了。 飞船没有从任何已知空间通过折叠出现，也没有被限制在超空间的临界处。海顿4号的先知爱威尼斯已经把这些告诉他们了。但是人造感知没有说的是飞船究竟在哪 儿，或者飞船是否还存在。SDF-3就这么简单的消失了，而且没有任何线索表明她碰到了后来那许许多多的问题。
That the dematerialization had coincided with a reawakening of a myriad slumbering computer components, Exedore initially read as a sign that the artifact planet had been in some sense, responsible for the event. Subsequent investigation, however, had led him to the conclusion that the Awareness had not been responding to the SDF-3's plight, after all, but to a concurrent phenomenon that had taken place clear across the Quadrant:
最初看到非物质化与无数计算机部件从沉睡状态中苏醒这两件事情同时发生的时候，艾克西多认为这个人造的星球在其中起了某些作用。然而在随后的调查中，他最终意识到先知爱威尼斯与SDF-3的消失时没有关系的，但是爱威尼斯应该是引起整个星区中一系列并发事件的原因所在。
Along a spacetime curve that led to Earth.
这些事件组成的时空关系曲线指向了地球。
Something originating there had sent an energy pulse through the fabric of the continuum, whose destination seemed to be the distant collapsed giant the Tiresians knew as Ranaath's Star.
源自这里的某样东西发出了一道能量脉冲，穿过连续的空间结构，最后指向泰雷西亚人认为是拉纳斯星的坍塌的白矮星。
Haydon-he has returned to our world! Veidt had sent at the time, and-novice astrophysicist that he was-Exedore had taken him literally. But literalness was not something the Haydonites practiced with regularity, and the expression-for that was what it was-was best translated by the Terran self condemning phrase Well, I'll be damned!
海顿自己已经回来了！维特写道，虽然他是个初级的天体物理学者，艾克西多还是按照字面来理解他的意思。但是字面并不是代表海顿人的实际表述，所以这句话最好的翻译成地球人的说法是：嘿，我完了！
The very one Exedore had used sometime later when he bad learned of the Invid's departure-months ago, Earthrelative, after a series of mostly interrupted exchanges between Earth and Tirol and between Tirol and Haydon IV. Since then, the Awareness had been spewing out a steady stream of mathematical calculations and puzzling data readers, conversing with itself on an information level the likes of which Exedore had never encountered. Veidt had been successful in eavesdropping on the Awareness's inner dialog and enticing it to display some of its findings-in holographics, projecbeam, and the occasional verbalization, remarkably enough, issued forth in fluent Tiresian (linga franca). But little of it made any sense to Exedore, on whose shoulders the search for the missing flagship had fallen. The Zentraedi could almost smile, recalling Zor's original fortress, the SDF-1. He had been successful in tracing that one, but that hardly qualified him as an expert in the field.
当后来泰洛与地球，以及海顿4号与泰洛之间发生的断断续续的 相关事件，因维人离开了地球，，艾克西多也这么说到。从那之后，爱威尼斯就不断的向外发送经过数学计算的数据流来迷惑接受者，而与他自己在一种艾克西多从 未遇到过的信息水平上进行交流。维特成功的窃听了爱威尼斯内部的对话，并试图将其中的一些发现，如全息信息，投射波，以及偶尔的一些言语，用流畅的泰雷西 亚语演示出来。但是这些对艾克西多而言，对寻找SDF-3而言都没有什么意义。当联想到佐尔的SDF-1，天顶星人忍不住要笑了。他能够非常成功的跟踪 SDF-1，但却不能使自己成为这方面的专家。
Cabell had promised to tear himself away from Tiresia to join in plying the Awareness with questions, but Exedore thought the coded outpourings might outdistance even the master himself.
卡贝尔承诺要从泰雷西亚独立出来并加入到询问爱威尼斯的队伍中来，但是艾克西多认为经过加密的信息会使所有的人迷惑不解，即便是加密者自己。
They needed Emil Lang or the Zor-clone, Rem, who had contributed so much to the facsimile matrix fashioned by the REF to empower its fleet. They needed the combined intellect of the SDF-3's Robotechnicians.
他们需要艾米尔•郎或者是佐尔的克隆体，雷，来帮忙；而正是雷大量的协助了远征军用复制矩阵为整个舰队提供了动力。他们也需要来自于SDF-3上面各种各样的洛波特技术。
Better still, they needed Haydon. "My thought exactly, Lord Exedore."
最好还需要海顿。“这就是我的想法，艾克西多大人。”
Exedore chuckled to himself. "Yes, Veidt. The Earthers have a saying, I believe. `Great minds think-'"
艾克西多轻声笑着：“是的，维特。地球人有一句话，叫做‘英雄所见……’”
The chamber had begun to vibrate. That in itself was nothing unusual. In fact, during the five years Exedore had been on-world he had known instances where the vibrations were strong enough to rattle the alloy walls and rumble data discs out of their holders. But the sudden tremor was more intense than any he had experienced.
房间开始振动，虽然自身并没有什么异常。事实上，自从艾克西多来到这里以后的五年中，这种振动都足以使合金的墙面咯咯作响。但是这次突然颤动的力度却是前所未有的。
"Another atmospheric cleansing?" the Zentraedi asked in a quavering voice. "A seasonal change? An internal overhaul, the upwelling of a new lake or the damming of a stream-send something, will you!"
“有一次的大气净化？”天顶星人颤抖着问，“季节的变化？内部检修，一个新的湖泊的喷流，或者某种物体的流动？你觉得呢？”
Veidt had glided back to his station by the central data pillar, his high-collared cape a screen for projecbeam schematics, a dizzying light show of flashing alphanumeric analogues and equational abstracts.
维特迅速回到自己位于中央数据计算机旁的座位，他的高领斗篷映射在出现图表的银幕上面，更多的是炫目的光束照射出来的天文数字和方程式的梗概。
"An intruder, perhaps," Exedore continued, his stubby hands spread atop leaping sheets of hard copy like some Ouija board reader. "An unannounced ship-"
“可能是一次入侵。”艾克西多继续道，他那双粗而短的手放在那些不断变化的数据报表上面，就像一个占卜家一样，“一艘没有说明的飞船……”
"I heard you," Veidt sent with a sting. "It is none of those things. Something novel, unprecedented."
“我听到了，”维特写出一行信息，“这些都不是，而是某种新奇的，前所未有的东西。”
Exedore ceased his futile efforts to steady his work and with some difficulty swiveled to regard the strobing databanks of the Awareness, data scrolls and cards tattooing to the floor at his feet. The information traffic displayed was enough to render the Invid leave-taking a minor itch.
艾克西多停下手中无用的努力，然后艰难的转向考虑爱威尼斯发出的那些数据。这些信息足以提供因维人离开的一些踪迹。
"What is it, Veidt?" Exedore pressed, a note of alarm in his voice. A deep-space view of Haydon IV advanced through the 3-D field of a projecbeam, a variegated ball in time-lapse motion. "Veidt," he repeated.
“那是什么，维特？”艾克西多略带一丝恐慌地问道。一幅海顿4号纵深的图从3维投影中显现出来，形成一个随着时间而变化的球体。“维特，”他重复道。
"Primary activation sequences have commenced," the Haydonite sent with curious detachment. "Atmospheric integrity is constant for the moment. Surface damage is projected to be well within accepted parameters. Casualties among offworlders are not expected to exceed a thousand."
“初期激活序列已经开始了，”海顿人维特陆续写道，“现在大气的完整性还是得以保持的。表面的损坏预估是控制在可接受的范围内的。外来人员的伤亡不会超过一千人。”
"Casualties?" Exedore said; up on shaky legs, bulging eyes darting between Veidt and the projecbeam field.
“伤亡？”艾克西多颤动着，凸起的眼睛看着维特和投影区。
Veidt rotated to face him, a lavender brightness pulsating from the center of his smooth forehead. "The crossing is achieved. The Event is occurred. Praise Haydon."
维特转过身朝着艾克西多，他那光滑的前额中央跳动着紫色的光亮。“跨越已经完成。大事正在发生。歌颂海顿。”
Careful not to be too literal, Exedore reminded himself. Praise Haydon could mean almost anything. "The Event?" he asked cautiously.
注意不要太按字面理解。“歌颂海顿”可能是指其他的任何事情。“大事？”他小心地问道。
Veidt nodded. "Haydon IV is leaving orbit. Shortly, we will depart the Briz'dziki system entirely."
维特点点头：“海顿4号正在离开自己的轨道。很快我们就会完全离开布里兹止奇系统了。”
Exedore's mouth fell open. "Haydon," he muttered. "He has returned to our world."
艾克西多的嘴长得大大的。“海顿，”他喃喃自语，“他终于回来了。”
《沙丘》六部曲合集
《波西杰克逊》系列合集
《猎魔人》合集
General Vincent Grant, ship's log of the Ark Angel
See you on the dark side of the moon.
Late twentieth-century song lyric
当 潘博士宣布向月亮进行跳跃时，大天使号上的每一个人都想到了SDF-1。我们还有其他的选择吗？让飞船停在距离地球更远更安全的地方，难道不比再次进入火 星轨道更有意义吗？要知道那样会引起人们对同样灾祸的迷信式恐慌。当然所有的这些都是建立在折叠引擎出故障的假设之上的，对此我不相信会出现这种情况。至 于我们不小心的折叠到了冥王星或者类似的地方，我只能祈祷那种事情不会发生。然而，如果真的发生，我只能说我非常遗憾那次克劳迪亚和其他人降落在极地边沿 的跳跃。也许我命中注定现在要追随她了。
文森特•格兰特将军，《大天使号的航行日记》
“在月亮的阴面再见。”
二十世纪晚期的歌词
Jean Grant purposely fell out of step with Vince and the two senators so that she might observe Scott without setting him off as she had almost done in the arrival hold. Her sentiments had been sincere if awkwardly expressed. She was not unaware of the meaninglessness of promotions and medals at this stage of things-she had always held that battles were better forgotten than immortalized by ribbons, in any case-but gestures were important for morale, even of the salute and handshake variety favored by armies the Quadrant over. And God knew morale was in short supply just now.
吉音•格兰特故意慢下脚步跟着文斯和两位参议员，这样她就可以在不打扰斯科特的情形下（就像她在到达大厅差点做 到（指惊动了Scott））观注他。不难看出她的感情是真诚的。她并不是不知道晋升和勋章在这时候是没有意义的，她一向认为，战争与其被绶带纪念，不如被 遗忘的好。但是姿态对于鼓舞士气来说是很重要的，哪怕只是选择军队里敬礼和星区内不同军队使用的各种各样的握手。上帝都知道目前大家的士气低落。
She took note of the slight limp in Scott's long-legged stride as Vince led everyone to his personal quarters aft of the Ark Angel's bridge. Up close, when she had felt Scott stiffen in her short-lived embrace, she had seen the scars on his still youthful face and graceful hands. Nineteen now-or twenty-ix in Earth-relative years (a system she readily dismissed because of the havoc it wreaked on her own age)-he was growing to resemble his father more and more. But from beneath the broad forehead and slick black hair peered the dreamy eyes of his mother. He had her prominent ears as well, but the limp and the stoop in his formerly erect carriage were gifts of a war that refused to go away.
文斯带领大家到他自己位于大天使号舰桥后面的宿舍，吉音小心的跟在斯科特后面。当她短暂的拥抱斯科特时，她感觉到斯科特变得坚定了，也 看到了他依然年轻的面庞和优美的双手上的伤痕。已经19岁了，或者按照地球年（由于大破坏使她变得苍老，她刻意的忘记了这种纪年方法。）来算是26岁，他 越来越象他的父亲了。但是在宽大的额头和漂亮的黑发下面那双充满幻想的眼睛却像他的母亲。他还有他母亲那双突出的耳朵，但是战争使他以前笔直的身躯变得弯 曲和软弱。
REF staffers and administrative officers stared openly as they hurried through the ship's corridors, trying no doubt to puzzle out the identity of the stranger who had been admitted into their midst, the undernourished apparition in rust-red knee boots and tattered mauve and purple flightsuit adorned with Mars Division unit patches. The scarred warrior wearing an archaic Badger on his hip.
当经过飞船的走廊时，远征军的所有职员和行政官员 都会公然的瞪着斯科特，对于这么一个穿着带红锈的靴子，破烂的紫色飞行服，戴着火星师标志，消瘦且营养不良的鬼魂般的陌生人来到他们中间感到迷惑不解，还 尽量不去表现出来这种困惑。这位带伤的战士的臀部还穿着一张古老的獾皮毛。
Jean listened closely to Scott's words as everyone settled themselves behind drinks in Vince's quarters. And she heard the strange accent he had acquired during his time on Earth, the bitterness in his breaking voice when he recounted the Mars Division's assault against Invid-occupied Earthflow the ships had literally come apart in space, defeated long before the Regis's Shock Troopers and Pincers had moved in to loose their hyphenstorms, their fiery coup degrace.
吉音靠近斯科特，聆听斯科特的话语，而其他人则在文斯宿舍后部喝酒。她听出斯科特在地球时期 形成的特别口音，当斯科特叙述火星师攻击因维人时飞船在空中炸裂，而他们的震爆机甲和螯击机甲还没大量出击之前整个火星师被雷吉斯部队的热射线瞬间毁灭， 她听出了斯科特言词之间的苦涩。
Scott told them about the long road to Reflex Point, a journey that seemed to have become something of a personal odyssey to despair and disillusionment. Of the rogues, traitors, and cowards who populated that war-torn landscape. Of his encounters with Jonathan Wolff (Scott's template for cynicism, Jean thought), with the geriatric star-struck mechamorphs who had returned with Major Carpenter; and with Sue Graham of the Jupiter Division's 36th. Jean remembered the photojournalist well and the agony, real or imagined, she had put Lisa Hayes Hunter through.
斯科特讲述了前往反射点的长途跋涉，如同一部绝望与幻灭式的奥德 赛班的行程。一路上到处都是恶棍，叛徒和胆小鬼。讲述了与乔纳森•伍尔夫（吉音想这是斯科特式的讽刺）的相遇，与年迈的卡本特上校的遭遇，以及与木星师 36分队苏•格雷姆的相遇。吉音非常熟悉这位摄影记者，以及她带给丽莎•海因斯•亨特的苦恼。
Her ears pricked up when Scott mentioned Reflex Point itself and spoke of some of the things he had described to neurometric analysts planetside. She saw no reason to doubt the veracity of Scott's claims-that he had actually conversed with the Invid hivequeen-but she also sensed that Scott was leaving something unsaid. G2 had tried to put a trace on the freedom fighters Scott claimed had accompanied him inside the complex, but a search had proved impossible among the population displacements and shifting conditions below.
她仔细的听着斯科特描述反射点以及其他一些他曾经向精神分析师说过的那些东西。她看得出没 有必要怀疑斯科特关于他与因维女王进行过真实对话的真实性，但是她同时也感到斯科特隐藏了些东西。G2曾经尝试跟踪伴随斯科特进入反射点的自由战士，但是 由于人口的转移与各种条件的变化，这种尝试没有成功。
In turn, Vince caught Scott up on the incredible events that had transpired on Optera shortly after Mars Division had folded for home space. Scott was attentive, but it was apparent that he had already-heard most of it from REF mecha pilots. Nevertheless, he had questions about Dana Sterling's nearly miraculous appearance and the so-called Nichols drive that powered the Shadow fighters and retrofitted Ark Angel.
同时，文斯告诉斯科特，当火星师折叠回地球后，奥普特拉上发生的难以置 信的蒸发事件（指SDF-3的消失）。斯科特留意的听着，但是显然他已经从远征军机甲飞行员知道了事情的大概。尽管如此，他还是询问了关于戴纳•斯特林不 可思议的出现，为暗影战机提供动力的所谓“尼克斯驱动”，以及对大天使号的改装。
Jean waited for a lull in the shop talk before attempting to return the conversation to personal concerns. She had risen from her chair to gaze out the viewport, mesmerized by the scintillating dance of Earth's orbiting debris. Of late, every viewport in the ship seemed to be a window into her private torment. She could not regard Earth or stars without recalling the phoenix vision she had beheld when the Tokugawa had met its terrible end above Optera or the real-time manifestation of that phoenix as it had scorched its way through the expeditionary fleet.
吉音等着这所有的对话结束后才开始询问私人情况。她从椅子上站起来，出神的看着地球轨道上漂浮的那些残骸。她看着地球以及其它的星球，又想起了德川号在奥普特拉上空遭遇因维凤凰而毁灭的景象，以及再次目睹了因维凤凰离开地球时焚毁了远征军舰队的悲剧。
Nor could she help thinking of Gardner and Ackerman and Gunther Rheinhardt, all dead. And Rolf Emerson-dear Rolf, who had died in Bowie's arms. The news of his death had seemed unreal on Tirol, but now, so close ...
吉音又不得不想起了嘉德纳，阿克门和冈瑟•莱因哈特的牺牲，以及死在鲍伊怀中的罗尔夫•爱默森。在泰洛，他死亡的消息还有些虚幻，但是现在，却如此真实……
"We were so sorry to hear about Marlene, Scott," she said at last.
“我们为玛琳的事情深感难过，斯科特，”她终于说。
By sheer reflex, Scott's hand went to his breast to feel for the heart-shaped holo-locket he wore under his flightsuit. "Her parents are onboard," Jean added.
此时斯科特条件反射班的将手伸向胸前摸到飞行服下面的心型挂坠。“她的父母也在这里。”吉音补充道。
Scott nodded grimly. "And I'm sorry to hear about Bowie," he said, meeting her eyes.
斯科特冷冷的点点头。“我很难过听到鲍伊的事情。”他看着吉音说。
Jean saw concern and hatred in those eyes-hatred for Musica, the Tiresian clone Bowie was in love with. Jean saw little purpose in going into it now that Scott was exhibiting signs of outright xenophobia. She wondered whether Dana, too, would fall prey to his distrust. Dana, who had remained with her parents on Haydon IV.
吉音从他的眼中看到了忧虑和仇恨，一种对缪西卡这个鲍伊喜欢的特雷西亚克隆人的仇恨。既然斯科特有很直露的排外情绪，吉音也不便于过多谈论此事。她想知道戴纳是否也同样失去了她的信任。现在戴纳一家都在海顿4号上面。
"We'll find them," Scott said suddenly, watching as meaningful glances were exchanged. Then: "All right, what aren't you people telling me? You said you received transmissions from Tirol."
“我们要找到他们，”斯科特突然说到，同时意味深长的看着周围的人，接着说道：“好吧，你们为什么不告诉我？你们提到从泰洛收到过信息。”
"From Cabell," Vince answered, setting aside his drink. "But it's only what we've told you, Scott. The SDF-3 executed its fold shortly after Rheinhardt's Neptune and Saturn groups were away. Rheinhardt's final communique with Admiral Hunter-"
“信息来自于坎贝尔，”文斯把他的酒杯放到一边，然后回答道，“但是这是我们已经告诉过你了，斯科特。莱茵哈特的海王星和土星团队离开后不久，SDF-3就执行了折叠。莱茵哈特与亨特上将的最后通讯……”
"Rick," Jean thought to point out.
“瑞克，”吉音认为应该指明。
"-involved decisions on deployment of the Cyclones and Shadow fighters." Vince paused. "And the use of the neutron `S' missiles if all else failed."
“涉及到使用旋风战车和暗影战机，”文斯稍作停顿后继续说道，“以及在其他方法都失败的情形下使用中子S导弹。”
Scott's eyes widened. Then the rumors were true: Rheinhardt had been prepared to render the planet uninhabitable rather than surrender it to the Invid. "Madness, " he said through clenched teeth.
斯科特的眼睛张得大大的。看来传言是真实的：莱茵哈特已经做好了即便是毁灭整个星球也不向因维人屈服的准备。“真是疯了！”从他的牙缝中蹦出了这几个字。
Vince looked to his wife and let out a long breath.
文斯看着妻子，长呼了一口气。
"It wasn't an easy decision to arrive at, Colonel," Senator Huxley said. "There was a high probability that most of the Southern hemisphere would survive the saturation."
“这是个非常困难的决定，上校，”赫胥黎参议员说，“南半球的大部分在很大程度上是能够幸存下来的。”
Scott stared at her, then ran his hands down his face. "So where the hell's the ship if they completed their fold? It's been three months now!"
斯科特瞪着她，然后将他的手从脸上放下来。“该死的，SDF-3折叠后究竟到哪儿去了？已经3个月过去了！”
"Easy, Scott," Vince said, straightening in his chair. "We're doing all we can."
“别紧张，斯科特，”文斯说着并整理好他的椅子。“我们正全力而为。”
Scott glared at him. "By sitting here? No, I don't think so. Hasn't anybody thought of returning to Tirol? There has to be some trace of them."
斯科特怒视着他，“就这么坐在这儿？我并不这么认为。有没有人想过回到泰洛吗？那儿一定还有一些蛛丝马迹的。”
Dr. Penn cleared his throat. "The truth is, son, we're not sure we can return. We are, however, planning to execute a trial jump to lay all doubts to rest."
潘博士清了清喉咙说：“孩子，真实情况是我们不能确认我们是否有能力回去。尽管如此，我们仍然计划执行一次尝试性的跳跃，而不管任何质疑。”
Scott nodded in comprehension. "The Protoculture. The one thing that's plaguing most of the mecha downside. The reason I had to ride a damn chemical shuttle up here. Nothing's working, is that it?"
斯科特领悟着点点头。“史前文化。没有这东西使所有的机甲都不能起飞。没有这东西我必须乘坐该死的化学燃料穿梭机到这儿。没有这玩艺儿，所有的东西都没用了，不是吗？”
"Yes and no," Penn said quickly. "Some of the Veritechs are functional and fully capable of mechamorphosis. Others have limited capacity for flight or combat maneuvering. Now it this last is something I find disturbing."
“可以说是，也可以说不是，”潘很快回答道：“还有一些变形战机是有用的，而且能够完全变为机甲型态。其它的具有有限的飞行能力，或者进行战斗机动。现在我发现只有一小部分完全失效。”
Scott glanced at Vince before responding; if the general was willing to let Penn's comment slide; so would he. "I heard some talk: there's something different about the Flowers you harvested from Optera-"
斯科特看了文斯一眼，并不着急反驳，如果将军希望潘继续说下去，那就让他说下去吧。“我听说，你从奥普特拉带回来进行种植的生命之花有些异样……”
"New Praxis," Justine Huxley amended.
“新普拉西斯。”贾斯汀•赫胥黎纠正道。
"New Praxis, then. But why would the older models suddenly shut down now?"
“好，新普拉西斯。但为什么老型号现在都不工作了呢？”
At the viewport, Jean folded her arms. "We were hoping you might be able to tell us, Scott."
吉音环抱着双手站在窗边。“我们希望你能够告诉我们答案，斯科特。”
Scott touched his fingertips to his chest. "Me? What could I-" Then it occurred to him. "The Regis," he snorted. "We've read your debriefing reports, Colonel," Huxley said. "You claim you were inside the central hive just before the end, that you actually spoke with the Regis."
斯科特用指尖指着自己的胸口。“我？我能告诉你们什么？”他突然意识到。“雷吉斯，”他哼着鼻子说。“我们已经看过你的报告了，上校。”赫胥黎说，“你说在战斗结束前你在蜂房内部而且与雷吉斯交谈过。”
Scott swallowed and found his voice. "Yeah, it's true, but come on, it's not like she explained herself to me."
斯科特咽了咽口水：“是，没错，但请注意，这并不是指她在向我介绍自己。”
"Then what did she say?" Jean asked.
“那么她到底说了些什么呢？”吉音问道。
Scott smoothed back an undisciplined comma of hair. "What did she say?" He laughed nervously. "I'm still not sure what I heard and what I imagined. But I think we were, well, arguing."
斯科特向后捋了捋自己没有打理的头发。“她说了些什么？”他神经质的笑着，“我不确信自己到底听到了什么，自己又到底想象了什么。但是我觉得我们当时在争论。”
"Arguing?" Huxley said dubiously.
“争论”赫胥黎怀疑道。
"Yeah. About ... ethics. About whether the Invid had a right to Earth after what the Masters had done to Optera." Scott searched the faces appraising him. "It sounds crazy, I know, but she was just raving about what warlike beings we are, about how the universe would be better off without us." No one said anything for a moment.
“是。关于…伦理和道德。关于因维人是否有权利对地球做出洛波特统治者曾经对奥普特拉做的事情。”斯科特扫视着对他进行鉴定的那一张张脸。“我知道这听起来很疯狂，但是她一直在狂乱的斥责我们是好战的种族，而且说如果没有我们这个宇宙会更好。”其他人一时间都没有作声。
"Anyway, I still don't see what all this has to do with the SDF-3. The Invid are history, aren't they?"
“无论如何，我看不出这些与SDF-3有什么关系。因维人已经是过去的事了，对吗？”
Jean turned to the viewport and thought of the phoenix once more, the transubstantiation of an entire race. "Maybe the ship went where she went," she suggested softly. Vince sent her a questioning look as she swung around. "The Regis, I mean."
吉音转向窗口，又想起了整个因维人族群变作的凤凰。“飞船也许去了她去的地方。”她轻声地说道。她转过身发现文斯疑惑的看着她，又说道：“我是指雷吉斯。”
Penn made a knowing sound. "It's a pity there are no Invid left to quiz as to just where she might have gone."
潘大声说道：“很遗憾我们没有一个因维人能够询问雷吉斯到底去哪儿了。”
Scott put a hand over his mouth as though to bite back his words. Somewhere below, in one of the burgeoning cities of the Southlands or wandering the waste of the Northlands, were two of the three children the Regis had conjugated in human form. Sera and Marlene-clone-close in appearance to the Marlene lost to him over a year ago.
斯科特用手掩着嘴，企图收回刚才的话。在下面地球的某个地方，也许是南大陆的某个新兴的城市，也许是北方大陆的某处荒野，雷吉斯3个人类形态孩子中的两个还在那里。希拉和玛琳，也就是一年前死去的玛琳的外形克隆人。
Could he face them again? he asked himself. Could he enlist the enemy's help in finding his friends?
他能再次面对她们吗？斯科特扪心自问。他能利用“敌人”的帮助找到自己的朋友吗？
"What is it, Scott?" Jean said, watching him.
“怎么啦，斯科特？”吉音看着他。
Scott clamped his jaws shut, then relented. "Not all the Invid have left," he told them at last.
斯科特紧咬着自己的下巴，然后放松。最后他说道：“并不是所有的因维人都离开了。”
Above them rose crystal palaces and translucent spires, mansions of white-frost gingerbread and platforms of smoky blue glass, elfin halls and minarets, stately columns, onion domes, and ethereal towers.
在他们的上面升起的是水晶宫殿和透明塔尖，白雾环绕的大厦和烟雾弥漫的蓝色玻璃高坛，灵异的大厅和尖塔，堂皇的圆柱，洋葱状的圆顶，还有空中的堡垒。
Above them were alloy plains three hundred miles wide and burnished smooth as a looking glass, idyllic landscapes dotted with sea-green lakes, and skies of gold filled with conediers, hovercraft, and outsize magical carpets. A dreamy world of perfect days and tranquil nights, of exotic biota and Eliding beings in high-collared robes whose silent speech was a gentle thought carried on the wind.
在他们的上面是300英里宽的、打磨得如同镜子般光滑的合金形成的 平原，点缀着海蓝色湖泊的田园山水，金色的天空中到处都是圆锥形物体（conediers），气垫船，以及特大号的魔毯。这是个梦幻般的世界，这里有完美 的白天和宁静的黑夜，有外来的生物区域，有穿高领长袍通过气味无声的传递信息的艾莱丁（Eliding）生物。
And below them . ._ . below them was that which had given shape to the illusion above: the ultratech complexities of a planet-sized artifact, birthed in the mind of an alien genius who had left his mark on half the far-flung worlds of the Fourth Quadrant. A genius met in lore and legend or encountered in towering shrines that masked the being himself.
而在他们的下面，他们的下面是创造上面这一切的是一个星球般大小拥有超级复杂技能的人造物体，它是由一位来自第四星区以外却在第四星区半数以上的地方留下过足迹的天才创造的。这位天才获得的知识以及与圣坛的邂逅帮他掩饰了自己。
He had perhaps imparted his name to the artifact or left that for others to do, but that his very essence was there erected-in those spires and domes and artificial lakes-was not to be denied.
他也许用自己的名字命名了这个人造物体，也许是别人所为，但是不容置疑的是：他的精髓一直矗立在那里，在那些塔尖，圆顶和人造湖泊中。
And suspended between-in the boundless chamber that confined them-was this place of instrumentality nodes and info-networks, the material interface with the Awareness-Haydon had set in place to mind his clever works. So this place was neither one nor the other but a middle ground from which to know creator and created, sacrosanct, then, truly suspended. For from, where else could one take the proper measure of things?
在它们之间悬浮的是这个容纳了这所有一切的无限大的房间，是联系先知爱威尼斯-海顿的物理界面是各种各样的机构节点和信息网络，用 来照顾他的精心的劳动成果。所以这里不是别的任何一样东西，而是一个去认识创造者和创造物的平台，神圣而真实的浮在空中。其他什么地方还能够适当的测量物 体？（？？？）
Exedore ceased his mystical musings even before he sensed the soft intrusion of Veidt's sendings. This was what mingling with humans and Garudans had wrought, he told himself, a penchant for the metaphysical. Questions commencing with why.
艾克西多停下了自己的冥想，发觉维特发送的信息轻轻的来到。他自言自语道：这是人类和嘎鲁达人精巧的混合，纯哲学的兴趣。他开始问为什么了。
How far he had come from the directed, purposeful nature of the Imperative! he would catch himself thinking. Feeling as remote from that now as his recontoured physical self was from the genetic vats that had conceived him. Normalized in both size and aspect and drained of the conquering urge, the compulsion to obey without question. Given to metaphysical ponderings. How un-Zentraedi, indeed! And how Great Breetai would have mocked him!
与原来直接的、以遵从命令为目标的本性相比，现在自己的变化使多大啊！他忍不住这么想。从原来巨大身躯改变到目前正常的体态，同时完全改变了征服的欲望与义无反顾执行命令的本性，这是多么的不象是天顶星人啊！这也是伟大的布里泰嘲笑他的话！
"A moment more and the requested correlations will be available," Veidt sent from the data column.
“再过一会儿，请求的联系就会有了。”维特从数据列中发送过这样的信息。
Exedore swiveled in his chair to regard the limbless Haydonite-his partner these past years. A response formed on the tip of his tongue, though there was little need of it. An old habit, difficult to break. "I, um . . ."
艾克西多转动椅子，注视着这位没有肢体的海顿人，这个过去几年来他的同伴。虽然没有什么必要，他还是回答说：“我，嗯……”，这实在是一个难以改变的老习惯。
Veidt hovered through a quarter turn to face him with what nearly approximated a smile.
维特转过四分之一圈，带着一种类似微笑的表情看着他。
"I am well aware that my workings please you, Lord Exedore. Your words are an echo, you understand-an unnecessary redundancy."
“我很清楚我的工作令您满意，艾克西多大人。您的话只是重复，您知道，没有必要的重复。”
Exedore favored him with a genuine grin, as difficult to suppress as the habit itself. This was as close as they came to jesting or arguing, he still was not sure which. Veidt's face had already resumed its normal configuration, which was to say, blank. As featureless as an unfinished mannequin's, a tech aboard the SDF-3 had once commented in Exedore's presence.
艾克西多赞许的给了他一个诚挚的微笑，虽然不能改变他的习惯。这更像是打趣或者争论，他也不能确认是哪一种。维特的脸色恢复了常态，即空白状。SDF-3上的一名技师曾经对艾克西多的出现评论道：如同没有完工的人体模特般毫无特点。
"Featureless, yes," Veidt sent, "but hardly unfinished, Exedore:"
“确实毫无特色，”维特继续着，“但是就快完成了，艾克西多。”
Early on Exedore had found it somewhat unnerving to have his thoughts scanned on a moment-to-moment basis, but he was long past concern or misgiving. It was logical, in fact, that he open his mind to Veidt, if only to expedite the unraveling of the cosmic puzzles someone had seen fit to send their way.
很早以前艾克西多就发现断续性的思考令人身心疲惫，一直以来他就忧虑不安。事实上，他对维特敞开心扉是正确的，即便只是为了去尽快揭开别人留下的关于宇宙的种种难题。
And "baffling" only began to describe them.
只能用“困惑”加以形容。
The SDF-3 was missing, not merely disappeared into hyperspace but vanished from the Quadrant. The ship had not emerged from fold anywhere in known space, nor was it trapped in the netherscape of the hyperdomain. Haydon IV's Awareness had told them that much already. But what the artificial sentience could not tell them was where the ship was or whether it existed at all. The SDF-3 had simply ceased to be, and yet there were no indications that it had met with any of the thousand ills matter was heir to.
SDF-3消失了，不仅仅是消失在了超空间中，而且是从星区中彻底不见了。 飞船没有从任何已知空间通过折叠出现，也没有被限制在超空间的临界处。海顿4号的先知爱威尼斯已经把这些告诉他们了。但是人造感知没有说的是飞船究竟在哪 儿，或者飞船是否还存在。SDF-3就这么简单的消失了，而且没有任何线索表明她碰到了后来那许许多多的问题。
That the dematerialization had coincided with a reawakening of a myriad slumbering computer components, Exedore initially read as a sign that the artifact planet had been in some sense, responsible for the event. Subsequent investigation, however, had led him to the conclusion that the Awareness had not been responding to the SDF-3's plight, after all, but to a concurrent phenomenon that had taken place clear across the Quadrant:
最初看到非物质化与无数计算机部件从沉睡状态中苏醒这两件事情同时发生的时候，艾克西多认为这个人造的星球在其中起了某些作用。然而在随后的调查中，他最终意识到先知爱威尼斯与SDF-3的消失时没有关系的，但是爱威尼斯应该是引起整个星区中一系列并发事件的原因所在。
Along a spacetime curve that led to Earth.
这些事件组成的时空关系曲线指向了地球。
Something originating there had sent an energy pulse through the fabric of the continuum, whose destination seemed to be the distant collapsed giant the Tiresians knew as Ranaath's Star.
源自这里的某样东西发出了一道能量脉冲，穿过连续的空间结构，最后指向泰雷西亚人认为是拉纳斯星的坍塌的白矮星。
Haydon-he has returned to our world! Veidt had sent at the time, and-novice astrophysicist that he was-Exedore had taken him literally. But literalness was not something the Haydonites practiced with regularity, and the expression-for that was what it was-was best translated by the Terran self condemning phrase Well, I'll be damned!
海顿自己已经回来了！维特写道，虽然他是个初级的天体物理学者，艾克西多还是按照字面来理解他的意思。但是字面并不是代表海顿人的实际表述，所以这句话最好的翻译成地球人的说法是：嘿，我完了！
The very one Exedore had used sometime later when he bad learned of the Invid's departure-months ago, Earthrelative, after a series of mostly interrupted exchanges between Earth and Tirol and between Tirol and Haydon IV. Since then, the Awareness had been spewing out a steady stream of mathematical calculations and puzzling data readers, conversing with itself on an information level the likes of which Exedore had never encountered. Veidt had been successful in eavesdropping on the Awareness's inner dialog and enticing it to display some of its findings-in holographics, projecbeam, and the occasional verbalization, remarkably enough, issued forth in fluent Tiresian (linga franca). But little of it made any sense to Exedore, on whose shoulders the search for the missing flagship had fallen. The Zentraedi could almost smile, recalling Zor's original fortress, the SDF-1. He had been successful in tracing that one, but that hardly qualified him as an expert in the field.
当后来泰洛与地球，以及海顿4号与泰洛之间发生的断断续续的 相关事件，因维人离开了地球，，艾克西多也这么说到。从那之后，爱威尼斯就不断的向外发送经过数学计算的数据流来迷惑接受者，而与他自己在一种艾克西多从 未遇到过的信息水平上进行交流。维特成功的窃听了爱威尼斯内部的对话，并试图将其中的一些发现，如全息信息，投射波，以及偶尔的一些言语，用流畅的泰雷西 亚语演示出来。但是这些对艾克西多而言，对寻找SDF-3而言都没有什么意义。当联想到佐尔的SDF-1，天顶星人忍不住要笑了。他能够非常成功的跟踪 SDF-1，但却不能使自己成为这方面的专家。
Cabell had promised to tear himself away from Tiresia to join in plying the Awareness with questions, but Exedore thought the coded outpourings might outdistance even the master himself.
卡贝尔承诺要从泰雷西亚独立出来并加入到询问爱威尼斯的队伍中来，但是艾克西多认为经过加密的信息会使所有的人迷惑不解，即便是加密者自己。
They needed Emil Lang or the Zor-clone, Rem, who had contributed so much to the facsimile matrix fashioned by the REF to empower its fleet. They needed the combined intellect of the SDF-3's Robotechnicians.
他们需要艾米尔•郎或者是佐尔的克隆体，雷，来帮忙；而正是雷大量的协助了远征军用复制矩阵为整个舰队提供了动力。他们也需要来自于SDF-3上面各种各样的洛波特技术。
Better still, they needed Haydon. "My thought exactly, Lord Exedore."
最好还需要海顿。“这就是我的想法，艾克西多大人。”
Exedore chuckled to himself. "Yes, Veidt. The Earthers have a saying, I believe. `Great minds think-'"
艾克西多轻声笑着：“是的，维特。地球人有一句话，叫做‘英雄所见……’”
The chamber had begun to vibrate. That in itself was nothing unusual. In fact, during the five years Exedore had been on-world he had known instances where the vibrations were strong enough to rattle the alloy walls and rumble data discs out of their holders. But the sudden tremor was more intense than any he had experienced.
房间开始振动，虽然自身并没有什么异常。事实上，自从艾克西多来到这里以后的五年中，这种振动都足以使合金的墙面咯咯作响。但是这次突然颤动的力度却是前所未有的。
"Another atmospheric cleansing?" the Zentraedi asked in a quavering voice. "A seasonal change? An internal overhaul, the upwelling of a new lake or the damming of a stream-send something, will you!"
“有一次的大气净化？”天顶星人颤抖着问，“季节的变化？内部检修，一个新的湖泊的喷流，或者某种物体的流动？你觉得呢？”
Veidt had glided back to his station by the central data pillar, his high-collared cape a screen for projecbeam schematics, a dizzying light show of flashing alphanumeric analogues and equational abstracts.
维特迅速回到自己位于中央数据计算机旁的座位，他的高领斗篷映射在出现图表的银幕上面，更多的是炫目的光束照射出来的天文数字和方程式的梗概。
"An intruder, perhaps," Exedore continued, his stubby hands spread atop leaping sheets of hard copy like some Ouija board reader. "An unannounced ship-"
“可能是一次入侵。”艾克西多继续道，他那双粗而短的手放在那些不断变化的数据报表上面，就像一个占卜家一样，“一艘没有说明的飞船……”
"I heard you," Veidt sent with a sting. "It is none of those things. Something novel, unprecedented."
“我听到了，”维特写出一行信息，“这些都不是，而是某种新奇的，前所未有的东西。”
Exedore ceased his futile efforts to steady his work and with some difficulty swiveled to regard the strobing databanks of the Awareness, data scrolls and cards tattooing to the floor at his feet. The information traffic displayed was enough to render the Invid leave-taking a minor itch.
艾克西多停下手中无用的努力，然后艰难的转向考虑爱威尼斯发出的那些数据。这些信息足以提供因维人离开的一些踪迹。
"What is it, Veidt?" Exedore pressed, a note of alarm in his voice. A deep-space view of Haydon IV advanced through the 3-D field of a projecbeam, a variegated ball in time-lapse motion. "Veidt," he repeated.
“那是什么，维特？”艾克西多略带一丝恐慌地问道。一幅海顿4号纵深的图从3维投影中显现出来，形成一个随着时间而变化的球体。“维特，”他重复道。
"Primary activation sequences have commenced," the Haydonite sent with curious detachment. "Atmospheric integrity is constant for the moment. Surface damage is projected to be well within accepted parameters. Casualties among offworlders are not expected to exceed a thousand."
“初期激活序列已经开始了，”海顿人维特陆续写道，“现在大气的完整性还是得以保持的。表面的损坏预估是控制在可接受的范围内的。外来人员的伤亡不会超过一千人。”
"Casualties?" Exedore said; up on shaky legs, bulging eyes darting between Veidt and the projecbeam field.
“伤亡？”艾克西多颤动着，凸起的眼睛看着维特和投影区。
Veidt rotated to face him, a lavender brightness pulsating from the center of his smooth forehead. "The crossing is achieved. The Event is occurred. Praise Haydon."
维特转过身朝着艾克西多，他那光滑的前额中央跳动着紫色的光亮。“跨越已经完成。大事正在发生。歌颂海顿。”
Careful not to be too literal, Exedore reminded himself. Praise Haydon could mean almost anything. "The Event?" he asked cautiously.
注意不要太按字面理解。“歌颂海顿”可能是指其他的任何事情。“大事？”他小心地问道。
Veidt nodded. "Haydon IV is leaving orbit. Shortly, we will depart the Briz'dziki system entirely."
维特点点头：“海顿4号正在离开自己的轨道。很快我们就会完全离开布里兹止奇系统了。”
Exedore's mouth fell open. "Haydon," he muttered. "He has returned to our world."
艾克西多的嘴长得大大的。“海顿，”他喃喃自语，“他终于回来了。”