第七章
Eventually, Rem saw the logic of the REF's arguments [that a Protoculture matrix was essential to ensure certain victory against the Invid Regis]-or at least he gave Lang every impression of being convinced. Just as Zor had once given sway to the Robotech Masters' conviction that knowledge went hand in hand with power and that all real power sprang from the conquest of life itself . . . This tendency to submit, this plasticity, was a character flaw inherited by both clones-Rem and Zor Prime and taken advantage of by yet new generations of masters. "Zor, the reshaped," as Lang himself once thought to describe Rem in his notes. Who else could have enticed Protoculture from the secret places of the Flower but one of equal lability?
Adrian Mizner, Rakes and Rogues: The True Story of the SDF-3 Mission
最 后，雷看出了远征军内部争论（关于史前文化矩阵对打败因维雷吉斯是必需的）的逻辑，或者他至少让朗知道他自己被说服了。就象佐尔曾经让洛波特统治者相信史 前能量不断衍生，而且所有真正的能量来自于对生命的征服……这种愿意屈从和可塑的特质在两个克隆人雷和佐尔•普莱姆的身上得以再现，而且运用到新的统治者 身上。“佐尔，新的佐尔”这是朗自己曾经在他的日记中向用来描述雷的字眼。其他还有谁能够从种植着生命之花的神秘之地发现史前文化，同时又变化无常？
埃诸安•米兹纳(Adrian Mizner)，《浪子与恶棍：关于SDF-3使命的真实故事》
Even with the knowledge they had been able to amass during the voyages of the SDFs-1 and -3 and with what little they had been able to beg, borrow, and steal from the Sentinels, the fortress's chief astrogators still considered themselves among the Quadrant's least experienced travelers. So while the void they had been folded into presented a novel challenge, there was no sure way of ascertaining whether this "newspace"-as it had been termed-was not just some commonplace occurrence among the more well traveled. To this end, interviews with those Sentinels aboard-Kami, Learna, Lron, Crysta, Baldan, Gnea, and others-had thus far proved unenlightening, a not entirely unexpected development given that the original crew of the starship Farrago had never been topnotch spacefarers to begin with.
尽管拥有从SDF-1和SDF-3的那些航程中 积累的知识，以及从哨兵那里获得的各种技能（不管是求来的、借来的还是偷来的技能），太空堡垒的主要成员还是认为自己是星区内最缺乏经验的旅行者。因此， 对他们而言，折叠到了这样的真空领域中完全是一种全新的挑战，没有办法确信这个“新空间”（如同被如此命名一般）是否对那些更有经验的旅行者来说只是某种 平常的事件而已。但是最后，与那些在SDF-3上面的哨兵们（卡米，莱亚娜，勒荣，克里斯托，巴丹，妮雅以及其他的一些人）的面谈却没有任何借鉴，这一种 全新的未知是法拉戈号飞船的原始成员们所始料不及的。
Lang nevertheless had gone about his investigation of the ship's environment with unflagging confidence and textbook determination. The results of Jack Baker's brief extravehicular recon were in. Exterior background temperatures and the velocity of light had been measured and found to be constant; the fortress chronometers were still functioning. Physical laws inside the ship-and within a radius of a half million kilometers from it-were in fact operating much as they should have. It was simply that the stars-indeed, space itself-had disappeared.
在这样的情况下，朗还是依靠他那种不去不饶的信心与教 科书般的决心继续着他对飞船环境的研究。这时候杰克•贝克对宇宙飞船外的初步侦察结果出来了（recon = reconnaissance）。外部温度和光速的测量结果都表明是不变的；堡垒内部的计时器还正常工作。在船体内部，以及50万公里半径以内的地方，所 有的物理法则仍然按照原有的方式运行。只不过所有的星星，实际上是空间自身消失了。
The SDF-3's reflex engines were functioning, but there was still nowhere for the fortress to go.
SDF-3的反射引擎还在工作，但是却没有可以去的目的地。
"I'm inclined to favor the hyperspace hypothesis," Lang was saying, eyes glued to an immense tabletop display screen in his office. Rem stood behind him, just off to one side, the handsome features of his pale face highlighted by the screen's intermittent flashings. "We've somehow become trapped in the fold corridor itself."
“我倾向于赞同超空间假设，”朗盯着自己办公室桌上那幅巨大的显示屏说到。雷站在他身后的一侧，俊朗而苍白的面庞上映射出屏幕中断断续续的闪光。“不知怎么的我们已经被困在了折叠空间里面了。”
Rem grunted noncommittally. "You're dismissing the popular notion, then-the one circulating through the ship?"
雷含糊的咕哝着：“你忽视了一个常识，关于飞船内部的循环过程。”
"What, that we're all actually dead? I certainly am." No one knew just how the rumor got started, but it seemed that the results of a survey taken of some two hundred crew persons had revealed remarkable similarities in their fold, space lace experiences. These included feelings of tranquillity, out-of-body experience, the encountering of a presence or a deceased relative in a dark tunnel, a sudden urge to review one's life, a warm and accepting light at the end of the tunnel, and a brief merging with that light prior to an immediate return to physicality.
“什 么，那么我们真的都已经死了？我确信。”没有人知道这种谣言是怎么开始流传的，但是对200多名乘员的调查显示了他们对于折叠宇宙飞行认识中惊人的相似 性。这些相同点包括对安静的灵魂出壳的体验：就象在黑暗的隧道中遭遇了一个已故的亲人，从而产生了一种突发的回顾自己生命的冲动，接下来在隧道的另一端看 到了一束温暖的光线，然后在突然回到自己肉体之前与那束光线融为一体。
"If we were all dead," Lang continued, "we probably wouldn't have returned at all."
“如果我们都死了，”朗继续着：“我们是不可能再回到目前的状态的。”
"And how to prove it in any case?" Rem said, smiling. "Against what can we measure nonexistence?"
“那么怎样去证明这一点呢？”雷笑着说到：“我们怎样去检验不存在的事物呢？”
Lang turned to regard the Tiresian, pleased that he had finally succeeded in spiriting him away from Minmei, if only for a short while. One would have thought the strangeness of the ship's predicament alone would have been enough to pique Rem's interest, but the Zor-clone had agreed to a conference only after Lang had made mention of the vanished Protoculture.
朗转过身盯着这个泰雷西亚人，暗自为自己终于能够成功的将他的注意力从明美身上转移而庆幸，不管是不是只是短时间内的。局外人可能会认为是飞船目前不可思议的窘境本身足以激起雷的兴趣，但是一旦当朗谈到消失的史前文化的时候，这位佐尔的克隆体同意对此进行一番讨论。
Lang had reminded himself later that he should have known better; Protoculture was the only thing that ever brought Rem around. But Rem did not share Lang's enthusiasm for Protoculture's application to mechamorphosis or astrogation. In fact, the REF had had to coerce him into lending his brilliant talents to the creation of the facsimile matrix by painting lurid scenarios of what was bound to occur throughout the Quadrant should the Invid Regis have her way with Earth. How long, they asked him to consider, before the Queen-Mother would decide to spread her vengeful horde across the stars as her husband had done? How long before her armies would return to the Local Group for what they had been forced to surrender-Optera itself? And what of the Praxians, then, who had made that tortured world their own? And what of Tirol and Spheris and the rest, so recently liberated from the claw hold of that very race?
后来朗已经提醒自己：自己应该知道得更多；史前文化是雷存在的唯一目的。但是雷没有朗那种对于史 前文化在机甲形成和宇宙航行学的应用的狂热。事实上，远征军一直在强迫雷利用自己杰出的才能，通过描绘整个星区必定会发生的那些可怕的场景（就如同雷吉斯 对地球所作的一切）来创造复制矩阵。他们问雷认为因维女王需要多长时间来决定将她的复仇种族蔓延到所有的星球，如同她的丈夫曾经所作的那些事情？她的武装 力量需要多久才能够返回到他们曾经被迫投向的奥普特拉当地的武装？需要多久会抵达普拉西斯人将那个遭受磨难的世界建设成为自己世界的普拉西斯星？又需要多 久会到达泰洛星、史菲利思星和其他刚刚从因维人的利爪下解放的星球？
Rem could be infuriating at times, but how Lang enjoyed the few discourses they had shared! How thrilling it was to converse with an intellect as powerful as his own. What they might be able to achieve together, he often thought, were it not for Rem's preoccupation with the biotransmutational aspects of Protoculture or his inexplicable attachment to Lynn Minmei.
雷时不时会被此激怒，但是朗却十分享受他们之间不多的交谈！与一个跟自己同样具有强有力的智力的人交流是多么令人激动！他常常在想他们到底能够在那个方面一起取得成功呢，这当然不是雷对史前文化形体变化的先天的感知能力，也不是他那种对林明美令人费解的依恋。
Lang swung back to the tablescreen. "Oh, I'll admit there's something to this afterlife speculation that's worth pursuing," he said abruptly, "but for the present there are more tangible enigmas to grapple with." He motioned to the displays. "These are the latest readouts."
朗转过身对着桌上的屏幕。“噢，我需要承认对这种来世的推测有些事情值得推敲，”他突然说：“但是目前而言还有更多具体的谜题需要我们来解决。”他指着屏幕。“这些是最后的信息。”
Rem leaned over the table.
雷靠在桌边。
"Either this void has yet to decide which set of physical laws it plans to subscribe to, or our scanners are in over their, artificial heads." The Terran scientist's voice was a mixture of apprehension and excitement. "I haven't seen anything like it since my supercollider days thirty years ago. But at least I knew then that our accelerators were manufacturing all those weakly interacting massive particles. Here, there's no rhyme or reason to it. One could almost believe we've entered a kind of dark-matter universe."
“在这个真空中不知道什么样的物理定律能够适用，我们现有的 扫描仪的人工探头也不能用来探测。”地球人科学家的声音里夹杂着恐惧和激动。“自从三十年前我的超对撞机问世以来，我从来没有看到过这样的情形。但是我至 少知道我们的加速装置仍然在制造那些大量的微互动力粒子。在这里，不存在什么和谐或者原因。人们会相信我们已经进入了某种黑色物质的宇宙。”
"I doubt we could exist in such a place, Lang."
“我怀疑我们就处在那样的一个地方，朗”
"Precisely my point. The findings are more consistent with fold anomalies than anything else."
“正如我所指出的。所有的发现都仅仅与折叠的异常相一致。”
Rem nodded. "Then the real question we should be asking ourselves is whether the ship is still on its way to somewhere or whether it has in fact arrived."
雷点点头：“那么我们需要扪心自问的实际问题在于飞船是否仍在飞往某处的途中，还是已经到达了。”
Lang threw him a skeptical look. "I don't see how we can possibly be on our way to something without the fold drives." Rem made a dismissive motion with his hand. "The Protoculture is only essential for initiating a fold, Lang; it has little to do with destination."
朗怀疑的看了他一眼：“没有了折叠引擎，我不知道我们能到哪里去。”雷不感兴趣的摇了摇手说：“对于启动折叠来说史前文化是唯一的必要元素，朗；这与目的地没有什么关系。”
"But how are we to emerge, then?"
“但是我们又如何重新出现呢？”
Rem's gaze grew unfocused. "You fail to see the potential, Doctor."
雷的注视开始分散开来：“你没有注意到潜在的可能性，博士。”
"Perhaps I do, Rem, but-"
“也许我注意到了，雷，但是……”
"When all you need do is think back to your experiences inside the ship you called SDF-1-when it crash-landed on Earth."
“你所需要做的是回忆一下当SDF-1坠落在地球后你在那艘飞船内部的经历。”
Lang's face went blank.
朗的脸色变得茫然了。
"Your own notes state that you were at a loss to explain the time displacement you and your team experienced inside the ship."
“你自己的日记纪录说明你无法解释你和你的小组在飞船内部经历的时间转移。”
"Yes..."
“是的……”
"And so you postulated that some 'quantum'-your word, Doctor-some quantum of hyperspace had adhered to the ship."
“所以你假设飞船内部有一些超空间的分量（你的用语）”
"And the team was actually walking through a kind of hyperspace dimension," Lang finished in a rush. "Yes, of course, I remember now."
“而小组当时正是穿越了某种超空间的次元，”朗匆忙的总结道：“是，当然了，我记起来了。”
Rem laughed. "Ah, what tricks the overmind plays with us!" He offered Lang a tight-lipped smile. "Listen to your words, Doctor: `I remember now.' That's what the SDF-3 is doing. Zor's ship captured a quantum of hyperspace and conveyed it into the world of time. Our ship has captured a quantum of time and carried it into hyperspace. "
雷笑起来：“哈， 看来过渡专注也会捉弄人！”他抿嘴对朗笑着，“看看你自己说了些什么，博士：‘我想起来了。’那正是SDF-3正在发生的事情。佐尔的飞船从超空间中获取 了分量并将其带到了现实的时空之中。而我们的飞船则从现实的时空之中获取了时间的分量并带到了超空间。”
Lang glanced at the mathematical constructs assembling themselves on the tablescreen as if to confirm something.
朗瞥了下屏幕上的数学计算结构正不断组合，似乎在确认某种结论。
"I don't know why the Protoculture chose this particular moment to abandon us," Rem resumed, "or just what Shapings are to be inferred from it. But I do know that the SDF-3 is remembering now-now, Lang." He gestured toward the exterior bulkheads. "And what I think we're seeing out there is a universe in the making."
“我不知道为什么史前文化选择在这么特别的时候离开我们，”雷接着说，“也许只是塑造者要从中推论出什么东西。但是我我确信SDF-3现在正在回忆，博士，是现在。”他指着隔壁的外面：“我想我们现在看到的是一个正在形成的宇宙。”
"Remember when he was just learning to walk?" Rick asked, regarding his five-year-old raven-haired son from the transparent side of the nursery's one-way mirror. "It was like he wanted to start off running. Always in a hurry to get somewhere."
“记得当他学着走路的那段时间吗？”瑞克隔着托儿所那面可单向观察的镜子看着他那有着一头乌黑的头发的五岁儿子，问道，
Lisa's eyes narrowed somewhat. "No thanks to you. Walking must have seemed awfully tame after all the aerial acrobatics you put him through."
丽莎的眼睛变得狭窄了。“那与你无关。当你让他从事各种各样的空中杂耍后，走路对于他来说变得非常困难了。”
Rick laughed. "Guilty as charged. But I didn't have anything to do with turning him into a whiz kid. That's gotta be your doing."
瑞克笑起来了：“我有罪。但是我没有让他变成一个风风火火的孩子。那都是拜你所赐。”
Lisa patted the bun of gray-streaked hair at the back of her head and laughed with him.
丽莎拍着自己脑后的灰色发髻，也笑出声来。
In meeting at the nursery, the two proud parents had agreed to call a moratorium on discussing the fortress's present circumstance, at least until Lang and Rem could sort out whether they had punched themselves into some misty uncharted corner of hyperspace or were simply on line in limbo, waiting for judgment. Morale was low in all sections, and so Lisa had ordered most of the ship to secure from battle stations.
当这两位自豪的父母在托儿所碰到后，他们同意延长时间来讨论堡垒目前的状况，至少在朗和雷能够判别出究竟现在是在他们所指的什么超空间的某个角落，还是只是在地域的边缘等待审判。各个部门的士气都很低落，所以丽莎命令飞船的大部分地方进行戒严。
She returned her eyes to Roy and to the transformable puzzle block one of the ship's child-care specialists had handed him. Silently, as she watched Roy rotate the alloy block in his tiny hand, she applauded his analytical powers: the way, he seemed to size it up before making a move, the way the expression on his sweet face mirrored his intense concentration. At the same time she marveled at the dexterity he demonstrated as he began to expose one after another of the block's hidden forms, nimble fingers prying open doors, separating sections, twisting others, extending telescoping parts. And just as silently she worried.
她转身看着罗伊和一位托儿所老师交给他的那个可变化的谜题方块。她静静的看着罗伊在手中旋转着金属方块，并为他的分析能力鼓掌： 他会按照尺寸进行排列然后再移动，他甜甜的脸庞上挂着专注的神情。同时她也惊讶于他在揭穿方块各种隐藏形态时所展示出的机敏，灵巧的手指撬起开着门，分开 不同的区域，旋转各种部件，延展望远镜的各个部分。她也默默的焦虑着。
Up until a few months ago Roy had seemed just an ordinary child to her, perhaps too ordinary, if anything. For all her efforts at keeping him as far from the SDF-3 as she could manage, at seeking to raise him as someone other than the son of two career officers, Roy had been going through the same action/adventure stages as his peers aboard the fortress. One could take the child away from Earth, but one apparently could not take Earth away from the child. Airplanes, action figures, toy guns ... even an invisible friend who still showed up every so often.
仅仅几个月之前罗伊还是一个非常非 常听话的孩子。她竭尽全力不让罗伊与SDF-3产生任何联系，希望能够将他作为一个正常的，而非两名职业军官的小孩成长，罗伊如同他在堡垒上的同辈一样经 历了同样的战斗和冒险。我们可以将孩子从地球带走，但是却无法把地球从孩子的心里面抹去。飞机，动作玩偶，玩具枪……甚至一位隐身的朋友还不是出现。
But things had changed once she and Rick had completed their transfer to the SDF-3. Suddenly it was puzzles that fascinated him, both manual and computer-generated. And then there was the look he would give her sometimes, as if to say: I know exactly what you're thinking. To hear Kazianna tell it, her son Drannin and some of the other Zentraedi children were behaving likewise, and there had been occasions when Lisa had had to drag Roy screaming from his oversize "play mates." She still didn't know whether to feel comforted by all the youthful bonding or even more worried than she already was. More than anything she wished Miriya were there to tell her what it was like to nurture a genius, what the Praxians sometimes called a Wyrdling.
但是情况随着她和瑞克转战到SDF-3以后就变 化了。突然间他对谜题着迷了，无论是人们想出来的还是计算机设计的。接下来是她时不时观察到的罗伊的神色，似乎在说：我知道你在想什么。就象卡希安娜所说 的，她的儿子丹林（Drannin）和其他的天顶星小孩也存在类似的情况，而且有时候丽莎还发现罗伊会对着那些大块头的玩伴惊叫。她仍然不知道是该对这所 有的年轻人的团结感到欣慰还是更加忧虑。她真希望米利亚能够在旁边来告诉她该去怎样教育一个天才，如同普拉西亚人有时候称作的维德林 （Wyrdling）。
And how much of it, Lisa wondered, could be traced to the ship itself?
丽莎想：这又有多少归咎于飞船本身呢？
She felt Rick's arm go around her shoulder, and she rested her head against his.
她感到瑞克的手臂环抱着自己的肩膀，就放松的靠了过去。
"We've had some good days, haven't we?" Rick said softly. "Especially these past few years."
“我们有过不错的日子，对吗？”瑞克轻柔的说：“特别是过去的几年。”
She knew what he meant: how good it had been to absent themselves from the endless tasks they had overseen during Reconstruction and again after the destruction of New Macross.
她知道他是指什么：能够置身于无休止的任务之外是多么美好啊，特别是他们督建的新的太空堡垒毁坏之后。
Rick turned to face her. "I've been missing them lately. Really feeling at a loss."
瑞克转过来面向她说：“我真怀恋他们。还感到有些失落。”
Lisa recalled her postfold malaise and shot him a look. "You, too, Rick? Like you've lost something important?"
丽莎会想起了折叠后的不舒服，瞪着他说：“你瑞克也会吗？好像你总是会遗忘某些重要的东西？”
He nodded. "First I thought it was just leaving Tirol, but it's more than that. Lately I've been thinking about Pop's air circus, Macross Island, even the Mockingbird."
他摇摇头：“首先我认为只是离开了泰洛，但是事实上远远不只是那样。后来我一直在想老爹的飞行马戏团，麦克罗斯岛，甚至是仿生鸟号。”
"But it's pervasive, isn't it?" Lisa said. "Like you can't pin it down."
“但是这已经散布开来了，不是吗？”丽莎说道：“你没办法阻止。”
Rick bit his lower lip. "I think I know what it is now," he began with a nervous laugh. "I'm willing to lay odds it's the Proto-"
瑞克咬着下嘴唇：“我想我知道现在怎么了，”他开始紧张的笑。“我宁愿让步，这是史前……”
"Begging your pardon, sirs," Rick's adjutant interrupted, stepping through the observation room hatch. "Tactical Center requests the admiral's immediate presence."
“长官请回答，”瑞克的副官突然走进观察舱。“战术中心需要上将马上回到那里。”
"What is it?" Lisa asked, hurrying to the room's intercom.
“发生了什么？”丽莎问道，冲向房间的对讲机。
"We've got a screenful of bogies, sir." "Signatures?" Rick said.
“我们捕捉到满屏幕的可怕的东西，长官。”“签名？”瑞克说。
"Not yet, sir. Radar's silent. The ship's bio-sensors made the call."
“不是，长官。雷达没有动静。是飞船的生物传感器发出的。”
Rick and Lisa traded looks. "Bio-sensors?"
瑞克和丽莎彼此看了看：“生物传感器？”
"TIC patched the system into IFF, sir, but couldn't raise a signature or profile."
“战术情报中心把这个系统补充进了敌我识别系统，长官，但是不会有签名或者描述。”
"Invid?" Lisa said, cocking her head to one side. "Some self-mutated form?"
“因维人？”丽莎说着把头测向一边，“某种自我变异形态？”
Rick met his adjutant at the hatch. "Maybe someone's shown up to lead us home," he suggested, and was gone.
瑞克在舱里遇到他的副官。“可能有人要带我们回家。”他暗示着离开了。
Belowdecks in one of the fortress's mecha bays, Captain Jack Baker gave a downward tug to his flight jacket as he paced back and forth in front of his small audience of veteran pilots and mechamorph aces.
底层甲板的一个堡垒机甲驻留湾内，杰克•贝克上尉在一小群飞行老手和机甲操作能手面前来回地走着，同时将自己的飞行夹克扯了下来。
And not one of them had soared where he had now. "You may think the background stuff's unimportant, Captain Phillips," Jack was continuing after a bothersome interruption, "but what I'm trying to do is give you a sense of the experience."
并非每一个人都很投入地跟着他的进度。“你或许认为后台的材料并不重要，菲利普上尉，”一次不礼貌的打断之后，杰克继续说道：“但是我想要做的是让你有一点儿这种经验的感觉。”
Sean Phillips threw an imploring look to the high ceiling. "No offense, Baker, but I think we've all heard about what happened when you piloted the VT down to Haydon IV. I just don't see the relevance."
肖恩•菲利普恳求的看着天花板。“恕我冒犯，贝克。但是我想我们全都听说了你驾驶变形战机抵达海顿4号后发生的事情。我只是不知道其中的关联是什么。”
Jack's innocent face reddened. With so many heavy hitters to choose from, he still could not figure out why the admiral had singled him out for the void recon. He hoped, of course, that Hunter's finger had simply gone right to the top of the list, but then, he supposed that list could have been alphabetical. Jack nevertheless was determined to make the most of the distinction while it lasted.
杰克天真的脸庞变红了。他仍然不明白为什么将军会放着那么多的重量级侦察员不用而单单派自己去执行那次的真空侦查。当然，他希望亨特的手指只是简单的指了一下名单的前面，同时也假设名单是按字母排序的。虽然如此，只要还存在军衔，杰克还是必须遵守其等级的差异的。
"I'm talking about the unknown, Captain," he told Sean. "The importance of state of mind."
“我讲的是未知，上尉，”他告诉肖恩。“思维状态的重要性。”
"Like going against the Robotech Masters was a given?" Sean asked.
“就象背叛洛波特统治者是必需的？”肖恩问道。
Jack grew flustered. "I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that what Haydon IV threw at us was totally unlike anything we'd faced."
杰克变得激动了：“我不是说那个。我只是说海顿4号给我们带来的完全是我们从没面对过的东西。”
"Did we ever tell you about the spade fortress that put down just outside of Monument City?" Sergeant Angelo Dante asked in a conversational tone, the only one of the group who had refused to accept a commission. He swung around to face everyone, elbows flared, large hands on wide spread knees. "The Fifteenth ATAC was ordered to recon the ship, see. So we tank out there and-"
“我们有没有告诉过你关于纪念城外的铲型堡垒？”作为小组中唯一一个拒绝接受任务的士兵， 安吉洛•丹特军士用对话式的口吻问到。他转过来面向着每一个人，张开手臂，将自己那双巨大的手掌放在张开的膝盖上面。“第15阿尔法战术装甲小队被命令去 侦察那艘飞船，知道吗。所以我们开着战车到达那里，并且……”
"Now who's being irrelevant?" Jack cut in. "I mean, why don't we just invite some of the Karbarrans in here to entertain us with their war stories? Or how 'bout getting Gnea in here to talk about hand-to-hand."
“现在谁还没有来参加我们的讨论？”杰克插嘴道：“我是说，我们为什么不邀请一些卡巴拉人来这里与我们一起分享他们的战争经历？或者，请基娜来讲讲战斗中的肉搏？”
"Yeah, I'll bet you'd-enjoy that, Jack," Marie Crystal laughed, affectionately nudging Karen Penn with an elbow. Black Lion leader during the Second Robotech War, she was just another officer here. Sean, who had been her fiance three times over the past year, was being his usual arrogant self, and while she rarely approved of his teasing sarcasm, Baker was so easy to put off balance. "What d' you think, Karen? Shall we call the Praxians in?" she contributed.
“是啊，我打赌你很享受那种事情，杰克，” 玛丽•克里斯托笑出声来，并亲密的用手肘推了推凯伦•潘。作为曾经在第二次洛波特战争中黑狮小队的长官，她是这里的另外一个唯一的军官。肖恩，这个在过去 一年中三次成为她未婚夫的人，保持着自己傲慢的本性，而她很少认可他那种嘲弄和讽刺，而贝克则能很轻易的维持彼此之间的平衡。“你怎么想，凯伦？我们去把 普拉西斯人叫过来吧？”他继续说。
Karen smiled and regarded Jack from her seat. Lithesome and honey-blond, she appeared to be every bit Marie's opposite, but in fact the two had grown to be close friends. "That's up to Captain Baker," she said. "It's his show."
凯伦笑了笑，坐在自己的座位上关注着杰克。她长相甜美白皙，曾经一度成为了令玛丽痛苦的对手，但是现在两人却成为了一对密友。“那得看贝克上尉了，”她说道：“这是他的演出。”
"Jeez," Jack muttered, brushing back a recently styled silver-tinted pompadour, "et too?" He spread his hands in a conciliatory gesture. "All right, for cryin' out loud, I'll get on with it."
“上帝”杰克喃喃自语，将自己刚刚染成时尚银色的头发捋到后面，“你也这样？”他摆了一个安抚的手势。“好吧，大声说出来吧，我去处理。”
The pilots applauded wildly as Jack called up memories of his brief EVA.
"It's like flying through a cloud," he began on a serious note. "Only there's no vapor around you, no droplets streaking your canopy. Other times it's like moving toward a cloud you can't seem to reach. I had a hard time looking forward, because everything started to go solid on me. But watching your displays doesn't help, because there's absolutely nothing happening on-screen. I kept feeling like I was close to punching through it, but it just went on and on. And it never changed, no matter which heading I took. The SDF-3 is your whole world, the only game in town."
当杰克慢慢回忆他那次太空任务的时候，飞行员们都热烈的鼓掌。“那就象在云里面飞行一般，”他认真的讲述道：“只是周围没有水蒸气， 舱盖上也看不到水滴。更多的时候，就如同飞向一片似乎不可能到达的云。我很难看清楚前面的情况，因为所有的东西似乎都在我面前开始变成固体了。显示仪帮不 上一点儿忙，因为屏幕上面什么都没有。我不停的感到就要冲出去了，但是仍然看不到尽头。无论我开往什么方向，情况一点儿变化都没有。SDF-3是你们全部 的天地，也是唯一的生存方式。”
He blew out his breath and shook his head. "I don't know what more to tell you, really. The VT performed well, no glitches in any of the systems. I thought it through a couple of reconfigurations, and there were no problems. Weapons systems seemed to be fully operational, but I was under orders not to enable. Dr. Lang's thinking is that missile propulsion isn't affected."
他舒了一口气，又摇了摇头。“我不知道还能说些什么，真的。变形战机表现良好，所有的系统都没有一丁点儿故障。我想它进行了一系列的变形，这过程中也没有什么问题。武器系统工作正常，但是我的命令中禁止我使用武器。朗博士认为导弹推进力也没有受到影响。”
"When do we get a crack at it?" Sean said, rising to his feet for added effect.
“那么裂痕是什么时候产生的呢？”肖恩踮起自己的脚问道。
As soon as Admiral Hunter figures you're ready, Jack was about to tell him, when hooters drowned out the thought. The ship was returning to full-alert status. A female voice, boomed from the flight bay's overhead speakers:
杰克刚想告诉他：当亨特将军认为你们已经准备好了的时候。这时候警笛打断了他的思路。飞船进入了全体戒备的状态。一个女性的声音从飞行驻留湾上边的扬声器中迅速传了出来：
"We have uncorrelated targets closing on the fortress in all sectors. Captains Baker, Phillips, Penn, and Crystal report with your teams to assigned launch bays immediately. Substations November, Romeo, Tango, Zebra, prepare for. . . "
“我们已经划分了堡垒所有防区的任务。贝克，菲利普，潘和克里斯托上尉请立即带领你们各自的小组到指定的发射湾报到。十一月，罗密欧，探戈，和斑马分岗，请准备……”
Jack let the rest of it pass right through him. Phillips and his 15th cohorts were already up and hurrying toward their VTs, pale-faced but eager wingmen-combat virgins the lot of them-falling in behind.
杰克没有仔细听余下的部分。菲利普和他的第15分队已经准备就绪奔向他们的变形战机，脸色苍白但是热心的僚机人员（大多数没有战斗经验）则落在了后面。
Jack-stepped down from the missile pallet that had been his temporary stage, Karen was waiting for him, a grin forming.
杰克从刚才作为临时讲演舞台的导弹托盘上跳了下来，而凯伦则露齿而笑地等着他。
"Cheer up, flyboy," she said, linking arms with him as he approached. "For what it's worth, you'll still go on file as being the first out."
“高兴点儿，飞行男孩，”她说道，同时在他靠近的时候挽起他的手臂。“无论值不值得，你终究是第一个被记录在案（进行那次侦查）的。”
Jack snorted sullenly. "Fame's a damned fleeting thing these days."
杰克不高兴的哼唧着：“这些日子里，名声总是该死的短暂。”
《沙丘》六部曲合集
《波西杰克逊》系列合集
《猎魔人》合集
Adrian Mizner, Rakes and Rogues: The True Story of the SDF-3 Mission
最 后，雷看出了远征军内部争论（关于史前文化矩阵对打败因维雷吉斯是必需的）的逻辑，或者他至少让朗知道他自己被说服了。就象佐尔曾经让洛波特统治者相信史 前能量不断衍生，而且所有真正的能量来自于对生命的征服……这种愿意屈从和可塑的特质在两个克隆人雷和佐尔•普莱姆的身上得以再现，而且运用到新的统治者 身上。“佐尔，新的佐尔”这是朗自己曾经在他的日记中向用来描述雷的字眼。其他还有谁能够从种植着生命之花的神秘之地发现史前文化，同时又变化无常？
埃诸安•米兹纳(Adrian Mizner)，《浪子与恶棍：关于SDF-3使命的真实故事》
Even with the knowledge they had been able to amass during the voyages of the SDFs-1 and -3 and with what little they had been able to beg, borrow, and steal from the Sentinels, the fortress's chief astrogators still considered themselves among the Quadrant's least experienced travelers. So while the void they had been folded into presented a novel challenge, there was no sure way of ascertaining whether this "newspace"-as it had been termed-was not just some commonplace occurrence among the more well traveled. To this end, interviews with those Sentinels aboard-Kami, Learna, Lron, Crysta, Baldan, Gnea, and others-had thus far proved unenlightening, a not entirely unexpected development given that the original crew of the starship Farrago had never been topnotch spacefarers to begin with.
尽管拥有从SDF-1和SDF-3的那些航程中 积累的知识，以及从哨兵那里获得的各种技能（不管是求来的、借来的还是偷来的技能），太空堡垒的主要成员还是认为自己是星区内最缺乏经验的旅行者。因此， 对他们而言，折叠到了这样的真空领域中完全是一种全新的挑战，没有办法确信这个“新空间”（如同被如此命名一般）是否对那些更有经验的旅行者来说只是某种 平常的事件而已。但是最后，与那些在SDF-3上面的哨兵们（卡米，莱亚娜，勒荣，克里斯托，巴丹，妮雅以及其他的一些人）的面谈却没有任何借鉴，这一种 全新的未知是法拉戈号飞船的原始成员们所始料不及的。
Lang nevertheless had gone about his investigation of the ship's environment with unflagging confidence and textbook determination. The results of Jack Baker's brief extravehicular recon were in. Exterior background temperatures and the velocity of light had been measured and found to be constant; the fortress chronometers were still functioning. Physical laws inside the ship-and within a radius of a half million kilometers from it-were in fact operating much as they should have. It was simply that the stars-indeed, space itself-had disappeared.
在这样的情况下，朗还是依靠他那种不去不饶的信心与教 科书般的决心继续着他对飞船环境的研究。这时候杰克•贝克对宇宙飞船外的初步侦察结果出来了（recon = reconnaissance）。外部温度和光速的测量结果都表明是不变的；堡垒内部的计时器还正常工作。在船体内部，以及50万公里半径以内的地方，所 有的物理法则仍然按照原有的方式运行。只不过所有的星星，实际上是空间自身消失了。
The SDF-3's reflex engines were functioning, but there was still nowhere for the fortress to go.
SDF-3的反射引擎还在工作，但是却没有可以去的目的地。
"I'm inclined to favor the hyperspace hypothesis," Lang was saying, eyes glued to an immense tabletop display screen in his office. Rem stood behind him, just off to one side, the handsome features of his pale face highlighted by the screen's intermittent flashings. "We've somehow become trapped in the fold corridor itself."
“我倾向于赞同超空间假设，”朗盯着自己办公室桌上那幅巨大的显示屏说到。雷站在他身后的一侧，俊朗而苍白的面庞上映射出屏幕中断断续续的闪光。“不知怎么的我们已经被困在了折叠空间里面了。”
Rem grunted noncommittally. "You're dismissing the popular notion, then-the one circulating through the ship?"
雷含糊的咕哝着：“你忽视了一个常识，关于飞船内部的循环过程。”
"What, that we're all actually dead? I certainly am." No one knew just how the rumor got started, but it seemed that the results of a survey taken of some two hundred crew persons had revealed remarkable similarities in their fold, space lace experiences. These included feelings of tranquillity, out-of-body experience, the encountering of a presence or a deceased relative in a dark tunnel, a sudden urge to review one's life, a warm and accepting light at the end of the tunnel, and a brief merging with that light prior to an immediate return to physicality.
“什 么，那么我们真的都已经死了？我确信。”没有人知道这种谣言是怎么开始流传的，但是对200多名乘员的调查显示了他们对于折叠宇宙飞行认识中惊人的相似 性。这些相同点包括对安静的灵魂出壳的体验：就象在黑暗的隧道中遭遇了一个已故的亲人，从而产生了一种突发的回顾自己生命的冲动，接下来在隧道的另一端看 到了一束温暖的光线，然后在突然回到自己肉体之前与那束光线融为一体。
"If we were all dead," Lang continued, "we probably wouldn't have returned at all."
“如果我们都死了，”朗继续着：“我们是不可能再回到目前的状态的。”
"And how to prove it in any case?" Rem said, smiling. "Against what can we measure nonexistence?"
“那么怎样去证明这一点呢？”雷笑着说到：“我们怎样去检验不存在的事物呢？”
Lang turned to regard the Tiresian, pleased that he had finally succeeded in spiriting him away from Minmei, if only for a short while. One would have thought the strangeness of the ship's predicament alone would have been enough to pique Rem's interest, but the Zor-clone had agreed to a conference only after Lang had made mention of the vanished Protoculture.
朗转过身盯着这个泰雷西亚人，暗自为自己终于能够成功的将他的注意力从明美身上转移而庆幸，不管是不是只是短时间内的。局外人可能会认为是飞船目前不可思议的窘境本身足以激起雷的兴趣，但是一旦当朗谈到消失的史前文化的时候，这位佐尔的克隆体同意对此进行一番讨论。
Lang had reminded himself later that he should have known better; Protoculture was the only thing that ever brought Rem around. But Rem did not share Lang's enthusiasm for Protoculture's application to mechamorphosis or astrogation. In fact, the REF had had to coerce him into lending his brilliant talents to the creation of the facsimile matrix by painting lurid scenarios of what was bound to occur throughout the Quadrant should the Invid Regis have her way with Earth. How long, they asked him to consider, before the Queen-Mother would decide to spread her vengeful horde across the stars as her husband had done? How long before her armies would return to the Local Group for what they had been forced to surrender-Optera itself? And what of the Praxians, then, who had made that tortured world their own? And what of Tirol and Spheris and the rest, so recently liberated from the claw hold of that very race?
后来朗已经提醒自己：自己应该知道得更多；史前文化是雷存在的唯一目的。但是雷没有朗那种对于史 前文化在机甲形成和宇宙航行学的应用的狂热。事实上，远征军一直在强迫雷利用自己杰出的才能，通过描绘整个星区必定会发生的那些可怕的场景（就如同雷吉斯 对地球所作的一切）来创造复制矩阵。他们问雷认为因维女王需要多长时间来决定将她的复仇种族蔓延到所有的星球，如同她的丈夫曾经所作的那些事情？她的武装 力量需要多久才能够返回到他们曾经被迫投向的奥普特拉当地的武装？需要多久会抵达普拉西斯人将那个遭受磨难的世界建设成为自己世界的普拉西斯星？又需要多 久会到达泰洛星、史菲利思星和其他刚刚从因维人的利爪下解放的星球？
Rem could be infuriating at times, but how Lang enjoyed the few discourses they had shared! How thrilling it was to converse with an intellect as powerful as his own. What they might be able to achieve together, he often thought, were it not for Rem's preoccupation with the biotransmutational aspects of Protoculture or his inexplicable attachment to Lynn Minmei.
雷时不时会被此激怒，但是朗却十分享受他们之间不多的交谈！与一个跟自己同样具有强有力的智力的人交流是多么令人激动！他常常在想他们到底能够在那个方面一起取得成功呢，这当然不是雷对史前文化形体变化的先天的感知能力，也不是他那种对林明美令人费解的依恋。
Lang swung back to the tablescreen. "Oh, I'll admit there's something to this afterlife speculation that's worth pursuing," he said abruptly, "but for the present there are more tangible enigmas to grapple with." He motioned to the displays. "These are the latest readouts."
朗转过身对着桌上的屏幕。“噢，我需要承认对这种来世的推测有些事情值得推敲，”他突然说：“但是目前而言还有更多具体的谜题需要我们来解决。”他指着屏幕。“这些是最后的信息。”
Rem leaned over the table.
雷靠在桌边。
"Either this void has yet to decide which set of physical laws it plans to subscribe to, or our scanners are in over their, artificial heads." The Terran scientist's voice was a mixture of apprehension and excitement. "I haven't seen anything like it since my supercollider days thirty years ago. But at least I knew then that our accelerators were manufacturing all those weakly interacting massive particles. Here, there's no rhyme or reason to it. One could almost believe we've entered a kind of dark-matter universe."
“在这个真空中不知道什么样的物理定律能够适用，我们现有的 扫描仪的人工探头也不能用来探测。”地球人科学家的声音里夹杂着恐惧和激动。“自从三十年前我的超对撞机问世以来，我从来没有看到过这样的情形。但是我至 少知道我们的加速装置仍然在制造那些大量的微互动力粒子。在这里，不存在什么和谐或者原因。人们会相信我们已经进入了某种黑色物质的宇宙。”
"I doubt we could exist in such a place, Lang."
“我怀疑我们就处在那样的一个地方，朗”
"Precisely my point. The findings are more consistent with fold anomalies than anything else."
“正如我所指出的。所有的发现都仅仅与折叠的异常相一致。”
Rem nodded. "Then the real question we should be asking ourselves is whether the ship is still on its way to somewhere or whether it has in fact arrived."
雷点点头：“那么我们需要扪心自问的实际问题在于飞船是否仍在飞往某处的途中，还是已经到达了。”
Lang threw him a skeptical look. "I don't see how we can possibly be on our way to something without the fold drives." Rem made a dismissive motion with his hand. "The Protoculture is only essential for initiating a fold, Lang; it has little to do with destination."
朗怀疑的看了他一眼：“没有了折叠引擎，我不知道我们能到哪里去。”雷不感兴趣的摇了摇手说：“对于启动折叠来说史前文化是唯一的必要元素，朗；这与目的地没有什么关系。”
"But how are we to emerge, then?"
“但是我们又如何重新出现呢？”
Rem's gaze grew unfocused. "You fail to see the potential, Doctor."
雷的注视开始分散开来：“你没有注意到潜在的可能性，博士。”
"Perhaps I do, Rem, but-"
“也许我注意到了，雷，但是……”
"When all you need do is think back to your experiences inside the ship you called SDF-1-when it crash-landed on Earth."
“你所需要做的是回忆一下当SDF-1坠落在地球后你在那艘飞船内部的经历。”
Lang's face went blank.
朗的脸色变得茫然了。
"Your own notes state that you were at a loss to explain the time displacement you and your team experienced inside the ship."
“你自己的日记纪录说明你无法解释你和你的小组在飞船内部经历的时间转移。”
"Yes..."
“是的……”
"And so you postulated that some 'quantum'-your word, Doctor-some quantum of hyperspace had adhered to the ship."
“所以你假设飞船内部有一些超空间的分量（你的用语）”
"And the team was actually walking through a kind of hyperspace dimension," Lang finished in a rush. "Yes, of course, I remember now."
“而小组当时正是穿越了某种超空间的次元，”朗匆忙的总结道：“是，当然了，我记起来了。”
Rem laughed. "Ah, what tricks the overmind plays with us!" He offered Lang a tight-lipped smile. "Listen to your words, Doctor: `I remember now.' That's what the SDF-3 is doing. Zor's ship captured a quantum of hyperspace and conveyed it into the world of time. Our ship has captured a quantum of time and carried it into hyperspace. "
雷笑起来：“哈， 看来过渡专注也会捉弄人！”他抿嘴对朗笑着，“看看你自己说了些什么，博士：‘我想起来了。’那正是SDF-3正在发生的事情。佐尔的飞船从超空间中获取 了分量并将其带到了现实的时空之中。而我们的飞船则从现实的时空之中获取了时间的分量并带到了超空间。”
Lang glanced at the mathematical constructs assembling themselves on the tablescreen as if to confirm something.
朗瞥了下屏幕上的数学计算结构正不断组合，似乎在确认某种结论。
"I don't know why the Protoculture chose this particular moment to abandon us," Rem resumed, "or just what Shapings are to be inferred from it. But I do know that the SDF-3 is remembering now-now, Lang." He gestured toward the exterior bulkheads. "And what I think we're seeing out there is a universe in the making."
“我不知道为什么史前文化选择在这么特别的时候离开我们，”雷接着说，“也许只是塑造者要从中推论出什么东西。但是我我确信SDF-3现在正在回忆，博士，是现在。”他指着隔壁的外面：“我想我们现在看到的是一个正在形成的宇宙。”
"Remember when he was just learning to walk?" Rick asked, regarding his five-year-old raven-haired son from the transparent side of the nursery's one-way mirror. "It was like he wanted to start off running. Always in a hurry to get somewhere."
“记得当他学着走路的那段时间吗？”瑞克隔着托儿所那面可单向观察的镜子看着他那有着一头乌黑的头发的五岁儿子，问道，
Lisa's eyes narrowed somewhat. "No thanks to you. Walking must have seemed awfully tame after all the aerial acrobatics you put him through."
丽莎的眼睛变得狭窄了。“那与你无关。当你让他从事各种各样的空中杂耍后，走路对于他来说变得非常困难了。”
Rick laughed. "Guilty as charged. But I didn't have anything to do with turning him into a whiz kid. That's gotta be your doing."
瑞克笑起来了：“我有罪。但是我没有让他变成一个风风火火的孩子。那都是拜你所赐。”
Lisa patted the bun of gray-streaked hair at the back of her head and laughed with him.
丽莎拍着自己脑后的灰色发髻，也笑出声来。
In meeting at the nursery, the two proud parents had agreed to call a moratorium on discussing the fortress's present circumstance, at least until Lang and Rem could sort out whether they had punched themselves into some misty uncharted corner of hyperspace or were simply on line in limbo, waiting for judgment. Morale was low in all sections, and so Lisa had ordered most of the ship to secure from battle stations.
当这两位自豪的父母在托儿所碰到后，他们同意延长时间来讨论堡垒目前的状况，至少在朗和雷能够判别出究竟现在是在他们所指的什么超空间的某个角落，还是只是在地域的边缘等待审判。各个部门的士气都很低落，所以丽莎命令飞船的大部分地方进行戒严。
She returned her eyes to Roy and to the transformable puzzle block one of the ship's child-care specialists had handed him. Silently, as she watched Roy rotate the alloy block in his tiny hand, she applauded his analytical powers: the way, he seemed to size it up before making a move, the way the expression on his sweet face mirrored his intense concentration. At the same time she marveled at the dexterity he demonstrated as he began to expose one after another of the block's hidden forms, nimble fingers prying open doors, separating sections, twisting others, extending telescoping parts. And just as silently she worried.
她转身看着罗伊和一位托儿所老师交给他的那个可变化的谜题方块。她静静的看着罗伊在手中旋转着金属方块，并为他的分析能力鼓掌： 他会按照尺寸进行排列然后再移动，他甜甜的脸庞上挂着专注的神情。同时她也惊讶于他在揭穿方块各种隐藏形态时所展示出的机敏，灵巧的手指撬起开着门，分开 不同的区域，旋转各种部件，延展望远镜的各个部分。她也默默的焦虑着。
Up until a few months ago Roy had seemed just an ordinary child to her, perhaps too ordinary, if anything. For all her efforts at keeping him as far from the SDF-3 as she could manage, at seeking to raise him as someone other than the son of two career officers, Roy had been going through the same action/adventure stages as his peers aboard the fortress. One could take the child away from Earth, but one apparently could not take Earth away from the child. Airplanes, action figures, toy guns ... even an invisible friend who still showed up every so often.
仅仅几个月之前罗伊还是一个非常非 常听话的孩子。她竭尽全力不让罗伊与SDF-3产生任何联系，希望能够将他作为一个正常的，而非两名职业军官的小孩成长，罗伊如同他在堡垒上的同辈一样经 历了同样的战斗和冒险。我们可以将孩子从地球带走，但是却无法把地球从孩子的心里面抹去。飞机，动作玩偶，玩具枪……甚至一位隐身的朋友还不是出现。
But things had changed once she and Rick had completed their transfer to the SDF-3. Suddenly it was puzzles that fascinated him, both manual and computer-generated. And then there was the look he would give her sometimes, as if to say: I know exactly what you're thinking. To hear Kazianna tell it, her son Drannin and some of the other Zentraedi children were behaving likewise, and there had been occasions when Lisa had had to drag Roy screaming from his oversize "play mates." She still didn't know whether to feel comforted by all the youthful bonding or even more worried than she already was. More than anything she wished Miriya were there to tell her what it was like to nurture a genius, what the Praxians sometimes called a Wyrdling.
但是情况随着她和瑞克转战到SDF-3以后就变 化了。突然间他对谜题着迷了，无论是人们想出来的还是计算机设计的。接下来是她时不时观察到的罗伊的神色，似乎在说：我知道你在想什么。就象卡希安娜所说 的，她的儿子丹林（Drannin）和其他的天顶星小孩也存在类似的情况，而且有时候丽莎还发现罗伊会对着那些大块头的玩伴惊叫。她仍然不知道是该对这所 有的年轻人的团结感到欣慰还是更加忧虑。她真希望米利亚能够在旁边来告诉她该去怎样教育一个天才，如同普拉西亚人有时候称作的维德林 （Wyrdling）。
And how much of it, Lisa wondered, could be traced to the ship itself?
丽莎想：这又有多少归咎于飞船本身呢？
She felt Rick's arm go around her shoulder, and she rested her head against his.
她感到瑞克的手臂环抱着自己的肩膀，就放松的靠了过去。
"We've had some good days, haven't we?" Rick said softly. "Especially these past few years."
“我们有过不错的日子，对吗？”瑞克轻柔的说：“特别是过去的几年。”
She knew what he meant: how good it had been to absent themselves from the endless tasks they had overseen during Reconstruction and again after the destruction of New Macross.
她知道他是指什么：能够置身于无休止的任务之外是多么美好啊，特别是他们督建的新的太空堡垒毁坏之后。
Rick turned to face her. "I've been missing them lately. Really feeling at a loss."
瑞克转过来面向她说：“我真怀恋他们。还感到有些失落。”
Lisa recalled her postfold malaise and shot him a look. "You, too, Rick? Like you've lost something important?"
丽莎会想起了折叠后的不舒服，瞪着他说：“你瑞克也会吗？好像你总是会遗忘某些重要的东西？”
He nodded. "First I thought it was just leaving Tirol, but it's more than that. Lately I've been thinking about Pop's air circus, Macross Island, even the Mockingbird."
他摇摇头：“首先我认为只是离开了泰洛，但是事实上远远不只是那样。后来我一直在想老爹的飞行马戏团，麦克罗斯岛，甚至是仿生鸟号。”
"But it's pervasive, isn't it?" Lisa said. "Like you can't pin it down."
“但是这已经散布开来了，不是吗？”丽莎说道：“你没办法阻止。”
Rick bit his lower lip. "I think I know what it is now," he began with a nervous laugh. "I'm willing to lay odds it's the Proto-"
瑞克咬着下嘴唇：“我想我知道现在怎么了，”他开始紧张的笑。“我宁愿让步，这是史前……”
"Begging your pardon, sirs," Rick's adjutant interrupted, stepping through the observation room hatch. "Tactical Center requests the admiral's immediate presence."
“长官请回答，”瑞克的副官突然走进观察舱。“战术中心需要上将马上回到那里。”
"What is it?" Lisa asked, hurrying to the room's intercom.
“发生了什么？”丽莎问道，冲向房间的对讲机。
"We've got a screenful of bogies, sir." "Signatures?" Rick said.
“我们捕捉到满屏幕的可怕的东西，长官。”“签名？”瑞克说。
"Not yet, sir. Radar's silent. The ship's bio-sensors made the call."
“不是，长官。雷达没有动静。是飞船的生物传感器发出的。”
Rick and Lisa traded looks. "Bio-sensors?"
瑞克和丽莎彼此看了看：“生物传感器？”
"TIC patched the system into IFF, sir, but couldn't raise a signature or profile."
“战术情报中心把这个系统补充进了敌我识别系统，长官，但是不会有签名或者描述。”
"Invid?" Lisa said, cocking her head to one side. "Some self-mutated form?"
“因维人？”丽莎说着把头测向一边，“某种自我变异形态？”
Rick met his adjutant at the hatch. "Maybe someone's shown up to lead us home," he suggested, and was gone.
瑞克在舱里遇到他的副官。“可能有人要带我们回家。”他暗示着离开了。
Belowdecks in one of the fortress's mecha bays, Captain Jack Baker gave a downward tug to his flight jacket as he paced back and forth in front of his small audience of veteran pilots and mechamorph aces.
底层甲板的一个堡垒机甲驻留湾内，杰克•贝克上尉在一小群飞行老手和机甲操作能手面前来回地走着，同时将自己的飞行夹克扯了下来。
And not one of them had soared where he had now. "You may think the background stuff's unimportant, Captain Phillips," Jack was continuing after a bothersome interruption, "but what I'm trying to do is give you a sense of the experience."
并非每一个人都很投入地跟着他的进度。“你或许认为后台的材料并不重要，菲利普上尉，”一次不礼貌的打断之后，杰克继续说道：“但是我想要做的是让你有一点儿这种经验的感觉。”
Sean Phillips threw an imploring look to the high ceiling. "No offense, Baker, but I think we've all heard about what happened when you piloted the VT down to Haydon IV. I just don't see the relevance."
肖恩•菲利普恳求的看着天花板。“恕我冒犯，贝克。但是我想我们全都听说了你驾驶变形战机抵达海顿4号后发生的事情。我只是不知道其中的关联是什么。”
Jack's innocent face reddened. With so many heavy hitters to choose from, he still could not figure out why the admiral had singled him out for the void recon. He hoped, of course, that Hunter's finger had simply gone right to the top of the list, but then, he supposed that list could have been alphabetical. Jack nevertheless was determined to make the most of the distinction while it lasted.
杰克天真的脸庞变红了。他仍然不明白为什么将军会放着那么多的重量级侦察员不用而单单派自己去执行那次的真空侦查。当然，他希望亨特的手指只是简单的指了一下名单的前面，同时也假设名单是按字母排序的。虽然如此，只要还存在军衔，杰克还是必须遵守其等级的差异的。
"I'm talking about the unknown, Captain," he told Sean. "The importance of state of mind."
“我讲的是未知，上尉，”他告诉肖恩。“思维状态的重要性。”
"Like going against the Robotech Masters was a given?" Sean asked.
“就象背叛洛波特统治者是必需的？”肖恩问道。
Jack grew flustered. "I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that what Haydon IV threw at us was totally unlike anything we'd faced."
杰克变得激动了：“我不是说那个。我只是说海顿4号给我们带来的完全是我们从没面对过的东西。”
"Did we ever tell you about the spade fortress that put down just outside of Monument City?" Sergeant Angelo Dante asked in a conversational tone, the only one of the group who had refused to accept a commission. He swung around to face everyone, elbows flared, large hands on wide spread knees. "The Fifteenth ATAC was ordered to recon the ship, see. So we tank out there and-"
“我们有没有告诉过你关于纪念城外的铲型堡垒？”作为小组中唯一一个拒绝接受任务的士兵， 安吉洛•丹特军士用对话式的口吻问到。他转过来面向着每一个人，张开手臂，将自己那双巨大的手掌放在张开的膝盖上面。“第15阿尔法战术装甲小队被命令去 侦察那艘飞船，知道吗。所以我们开着战车到达那里，并且……”
"Now who's being irrelevant?" Jack cut in. "I mean, why don't we just invite some of the Karbarrans in here to entertain us with their war stories? Or how 'bout getting Gnea in here to talk about hand-to-hand."
“现在谁还没有来参加我们的讨论？”杰克插嘴道：“我是说，我们为什么不邀请一些卡巴拉人来这里与我们一起分享他们的战争经历？或者，请基娜来讲讲战斗中的肉搏？”
"Yeah, I'll bet you'd-enjoy that, Jack," Marie Crystal laughed, affectionately nudging Karen Penn with an elbow. Black Lion leader during the Second Robotech War, she was just another officer here. Sean, who had been her fiance three times over the past year, was being his usual arrogant self, and while she rarely approved of his teasing sarcasm, Baker was so easy to put off balance. "What d' you think, Karen? Shall we call the Praxians in?" she contributed.
“是啊，我打赌你很享受那种事情，杰克，” 玛丽•克里斯托笑出声来，并亲密的用手肘推了推凯伦•潘。作为曾经在第二次洛波特战争中黑狮小队的长官，她是这里的另外一个唯一的军官。肖恩，这个在过去 一年中三次成为她未婚夫的人，保持着自己傲慢的本性，而她很少认可他那种嘲弄和讽刺，而贝克则能很轻易的维持彼此之间的平衡。“你怎么想，凯伦？我们去把 普拉西斯人叫过来吧？”他继续说。
Karen smiled and regarded Jack from her seat. Lithesome and honey-blond, she appeared to be every bit Marie's opposite, but in fact the two had grown to be close friends. "That's up to Captain Baker," she said. "It's his show."
凯伦笑了笑，坐在自己的座位上关注着杰克。她长相甜美白皙，曾经一度成为了令玛丽痛苦的对手，但是现在两人却成为了一对密友。“那得看贝克上尉了，”她说道：“这是他的演出。”
"Jeez," Jack muttered, brushing back a recently styled silver-tinted pompadour, "et too?" He spread his hands in a conciliatory gesture. "All right, for cryin' out loud, I'll get on with it."
“上帝”杰克喃喃自语，将自己刚刚染成时尚银色的头发捋到后面，“你也这样？”他摆了一个安抚的手势。“好吧，大声说出来吧，我去处理。”
The pilots applauded wildly as Jack called up memories of his brief EVA.
"It's like flying through a cloud," he began on a serious note. "Only there's no vapor around you, no droplets streaking your canopy. Other times it's like moving toward a cloud you can't seem to reach. I had a hard time looking forward, because everything started to go solid on me. But watching your displays doesn't help, because there's absolutely nothing happening on-screen. I kept feeling like I was close to punching through it, but it just went on and on. And it never changed, no matter which heading I took. The SDF-3 is your whole world, the only game in town."
当杰克慢慢回忆他那次太空任务的时候，飞行员们都热烈的鼓掌。“那就象在云里面飞行一般，”他认真的讲述道：“只是周围没有水蒸气， 舱盖上也看不到水滴。更多的时候，就如同飞向一片似乎不可能到达的云。我很难看清楚前面的情况，因为所有的东西似乎都在我面前开始变成固体了。显示仪帮不 上一点儿忙，因为屏幕上面什么都没有。我不停的感到就要冲出去了，但是仍然看不到尽头。无论我开往什么方向，情况一点儿变化都没有。SDF-3是你们全部 的天地，也是唯一的生存方式。”
He blew out his breath and shook his head. "I don't know what more to tell you, really. The VT performed well, no glitches in any of the systems. I thought it through a couple of reconfigurations, and there were no problems. Weapons systems seemed to be fully operational, but I was under orders not to enable. Dr. Lang's thinking is that missile propulsion isn't affected."
他舒了一口气，又摇了摇头。“我不知道还能说些什么，真的。变形战机表现良好，所有的系统都没有一丁点儿故障。我想它进行了一系列的变形，这过程中也没有什么问题。武器系统工作正常，但是我的命令中禁止我使用武器。朗博士认为导弹推进力也没有受到影响。”
"When do we get a crack at it?" Sean said, rising to his feet for added effect.
“那么裂痕是什么时候产生的呢？”肖恩踮起自己的脚问道。
As soon as Admiral Hunter figures you're ready, Jack was about to tell him, when hooters drowned out the thought. The ship was returning to full-alert status. A female voice, boomed from the flight bay's overhead speakers:
杰克刚想告诉他：当亨特将军认为你们已经准备好了的时候。这时候警笛打断了他的思路。飞船进入了全体戒备的状态。一个女性的声音从飞行驻留湾上边的扬声器中迅速传了出来：
"We have uncorrelated targets closing on the fortress in all sectors. Captains Baker, Phillips, Penn, and Crystal report with your teams to assigned launch bays immediately. Substations November, Romeo, Tango, Zebra, prepare for. . . "
“我们已经划分了堡垒所有防区的任务。贝克，菲利普，潘和克里斯托上尉请立即带领你们各自的小组到指定的发射湾报到。十一月，罗密欧，探戈，和斑马分岗，请准备……”
Jack let the rest of it pass right through him. Phillips and his 15th cohorts were already up and hurrying toward their VTs, pale-faced but eager wingmen-combat virgins the lot of them-falling in behind.
杰克没有仔细听余下的部分。菲利普和他的第15分队已经准备就绪奔向他们的变形战机，脸色苍白但是热心的僚机人员（大多数没有战斗经验）则落在了后面。
Jack-stepped down from the missile pallet that had been his temporary stage, Karen was waiting for him, a grin forming.
杰克从刚才作为临时讲演舞台的导弹托盘上跳了下来，而凯伦则露齿而笑地等着他。
"Cheer up, flyboy," she said, linking arms with him as he approached. "For what it's worth, you'll still go on file as being the first out."
“高兴点儿，飞行男孩，”她说道，同时在他靠近的时候挽起他的手臂。“无论值不值得，你终究是第一个被记录在案（进行那次侦查）的。”
Jack snorted sullenly. "Fame's a damned fleeting thing these days."
杰克不高兴的哼唧着：“这些日子里，名声总是该死的短暂。”