A year before Cheng Xin’s awakening, the advance warning system discovered an unknown flying object sweeping past the edge of the Oort Cloud at a speed close to lightspeed. At its closest approach, the object was only 1.3 light-years from the Sun. The object’s volume was immense, and at its near-lightspeed velocity, the radiation generated by its impact with the scattered dust and atoms in space was intense. The advance warning system also observed the object making a small course change during flight to avoid a patch of interstellar dust, before resuming its previous course. It was most certainly an intelligent spaceship.
在程心苏醒前一年，太阳系预警系统发现了一个不明飞行物以接近光速的速度从奥尔特星云外侧掠过，最近时距太阳仅一点三光年。这个物体体积巨大，光速飞行时与空间稀薄的原子和尘埃碰撞激发的辐射十分强烈。预警系统还观测到，这个物体在飞行中曾进行过一次小角度转向，避开前方的一小片星际尘埃，然后再次转向回到原航线。几乎可以肯定，这是一艘智慧飞船。
Due to lessons learned from the previous three false alarms, the Federation Government did not publicize this discovery. No more than a thousand people in the entire Bunker World knew about it. During the few days when the spaceship had been closest to the Solar System, these individuals lived in extreme anxiety and terror. In the few tens of space observation units comprising the advance warning system, in the advance warning center (a space city in the Jupiter cluster), in the battle center of Federation Fleet Command, and in the office of the president of the Solar System Federation, people held their breaths and watched the spaceship’s course like a trembling school of fish hiding at the bottom of a pond, waiting for the trawler to pass overhead. These individuals’ terror developed to absurd levels later: They refused to use radio communications, walked noiselessly, and spoke only in whispers… In reality, everyone understood that these gestures were meaningless, not the least because what the advance warning system observed had happened a year and four months ago. By now, the spaceship was already gone.
由于前三次误报警的教训，联邦政府一直没有对外公布这一发现，在掩体世界中，知道这事的不超过一千人。在外星飞船最接近太阳系的那段日子里，这些人都处于极度的紧张和恐俱之中。在太空中的几十个预警系统观测单元里，在太阳系预警中心（现在是海王星群落中一座单独的太空城），在联邦舰队总参谋部作战中心，在太阳系联邦总统的办公室里，人们息声屏气地注视着外星来客的动向，像一群躲在水底瑟瑟发抖的鱼，听着水面的捕捞船驶过。这些知情人的恐惧后来发展到荒唐的地步，他们拒绝使用无线通信，甚至走路都放轻脚步，说话都压低声音……其实，谁都知道这毫无意义，因为预警系统现在看到的，是一年零四个月之前的景象，此时这艘外星飞船已经远去。
This was the first time that Solar System humans — as opposed to Galactic humans — had observed another extraterrestrial civilization besides the Trisolarans.
这是太阳系中的人类第一次亲眼见到三体之外的外星文明。
Further analysis of the observation data revealed that the projectile wasn’t aimed precisely at the Sun. According to its current trajectory, it would sweep past the Sun outside the orbit of Mars. If the intended target had been the Sun, this was a relatively gross error. This showed another way that the projectile was different from a photoid: The data gathered from the previous two photoid strikes all showed that after a photoid was launched, it followed a precise, straight trajectory to the target star (taking into account the motion of the star) and did not require any course correction. It could be surmised that a photoid was essentially a rock flying under inertia at lightspeed. Tracking the gravitational wave source showed that the projectile did not make any course corrections, apparently indicating that its target was not the Sun. This provided some comfort for everyone involved.
对观测数据的分析还表明，发射体并没有精确地对准太阳，如果按它目前的轨道运行，它将从火星轨道外侧掠过太阳，如果它的目标是太阳的话，这是相当大的误差。这也从另一个方面表明它与光粒不同：在已有的两次对光粒的观测数据中，光粒发射后，在考虑恒星运行的提前量的前提下，都精确对准目标恒星，不需再进行任何修正，可以认为，光粒就是一块以惯性飞行的光速石头。现在对引力波源的精确跟踪表明，发射体并没有进行过任何轨道修正，似乎表明它的目标不是太阳，这也给人们带来了一点安慰。
After the extraterrestrial spaceship moved farther away, these individuals did not relax. The advance warning system discovered something else that was worrisome. The strange spaceship did not shoot a photoid at the Sun, but did launch something else. This object was also shot at the Sun at lightspeed, but it produced none of the emissions associated with photoids and was completely invisible electromagnetically. The advance warning system only managed to discover it through gravitational waves. The object continuously emitted weak gravitational waves whose strength and frequency remained constant. The waves clearly carried no message, and were probably the result of some physical characteristic of the projectile. When the advance warning system initially discovered these gravitational waves, the source was thought to be the extraterrestrial spaceship. But they soon found that the source was separate from the spaceship, and it was approaching the Solar System at lightspeed.
当外星飞船在观测的视野中渐行渐远时，人们并没能够松一口气，因为预警系统又有了一个更令人担忧的发现：外星飞船没有向太阳发射光粒，但发射了另外一个东西。这个物体也是以光速向太阳发射，但丝毫没有产生光粒的碰撞辐射，在所有电磁波段完全不可见，预警系统是通过引力波发现它的。这个物体不间断地发射出微弱的引力波，这种引力波频率和强度都恒定不变，没有搭载任何信息，可能是发射体固有的某种物理性质所致。预警系统在最初探测到这种引力波并定位其发射源时，以为是外星飞船发出的，但很快探测到引力波的发射源与飞船分离，以接近光速的速度飞向太阳系。
Both ships were equipped with gravitational wave reception systems and could form a positioning network to determine the location of the transmission source with precision at close range. Since the Broadcast Era, more ships had been built that could transmit and receive gravitational waves. But the design concepts used in these ships were very different from earlier antenna ships. One of the main innovations was separating the gravitational wave antenna from the ship itself so that they formed two independent units. The antenna could then be combined with different ships, and could be replaced after it failed due to decay. Revelation and Alaska were only medium-sized ships, but they had about the same total volumes as large ships because the gravitational wave antennas made up a large portion of their structures. The two ships resembled helium-filled airships of the Common Era: They looked immense, but the effective payload was just the small gondola hanging below the gasbags.
这两艘飞船都带有引力波接收系统，可以构成一个定位网络，在近距离上对发射体进行精确定位。广播纪元以来，人类又建造了多艘能够发射和接收引力波的飞船，但在设计理念上有很大差别，主要是把引力波天线与飞船分开，成为两个独立的部分，天线可以与不同的飞船组合，天线在衰变失效后可以更换。“启示”号和“阿拉斯”号只是两艘中型飞船，但体积与大型飞船相当，主要部分就是巨大的引力波天线。这两艘飞船很像公元世纪的氦气飞艇，看上去很庞大，但有效载荷部分只是挂在气囊下的那一小块。
When the projectile was about 150 AU from the Sun, the gravitational waves it emitted began to rapidly decrease in frequency. The advance warning system discovered that this was due to its deceleration. Within a few days, the projectile’s velocity went from lightspeed to one-thousandth of lightspeed, and continued to decrease. Such low speed meant that it wasn’t enough to threaten the Sun, which provided further comfort. In addition, at this speed, human spacecraft could keep up with it. In other words, it was possible to send out ships to intercept it.
在接近距太阳一百五十个天文单位时，发射体的引力波频率开始迅速降低，预警系统很快发现，这是发射体减速造成的。在几天的时间里，它的速度由光速急剧降低到光速的千分之一，而且还在继续降低中。这么低的速度对太阳不会构成威胁，这又是一个安慰，同时，在这个速度上，人类的太空飞行器可以与它并行飞行，就是说，可以出动飞船拦截它了。
Revelation and Alaska departed the Neptune city cluster and flew in formation to investigate the unknown projectile.
“启示”号和“阿拉斯加”号两艘飞船组成编队，从海王星城市群落出发，对不明发射体进行探测。
Alexei Vasilenko had been an observer in the advance warning system during the Broadcast Era. Together with Widnall, he had discovered the trails of the Trisolaran lightspeed ships, which led to the first false alarm. After the incident, Sublieutenant Vasilenko was made one of the scapegoats and was dishonorably discharged. But he thought the punishment unjust and hoped that history would ultimately clear his name, and thus entered hibernation. As time passed, the discovery of the lightspeed trails grew in importance, and the damage from the first false alarm was gradually forgotten. Vasilenko awakened in Year 9 of the Bunker Era, was restored to his former rank, and by now had been promoted to vice admiral of the Solar Federation Space Force. However, he was close to eighty years of age. As he looked at Bai Ice strolling next to him, he thought how unfair life was: This man had been born eighty years before himself and came from the Crisis Era; yet, after hibernation, he was just over forty.
阿历克赛·瓦西里就是广播纪元那位太阳系预警系统的预替观测员。曾经与威纳尔一起发现了三体光速飞船的航迹，并引发了第一次误报警事件。事件之后。瓦西里中尉成为替罪羊之一，遭到开除军籍的处分，但他很不服气，认为历史一定会还自己以公正，就进入了冬眠。果然，随着时间的推移，光速飞船航迹这一发现越来越显示出其重大的息义，而第一次误报普事件的惨重损失也渐渐被淡忘，瓦西里在掩体纪元9年苏醒后恢复军职，现在已经成为联邦太空军中将，不过他也年近八十了。他看着身边的白Ice，心中感觉生活很不公平：此人比自己早出生八十多年，是危机纪元的人。同样是冬眠，现在才四十多岁。
Ten days after the two ships left port, General Vasilenko and Bai Ice, dressed in lightweight space suits and magnetic shoes, took a stroll on the gravitational wave antenna of Revelation. They enjoyed doing this because there was much more space out here compared to the interior of the spaceship, and walking around the antenna made one feel like walking on solid earth. They were the leaders of the first exploratory team: Vasilenko was the commander while Bai Ice was in charge of technical matters.
探侧编队起航十天后，瓦西里和白Ice在引力波天线上穿着轻便宇宙服和磁力鞋散步。他们都喜欢这样，比起飞船内部，这里视野开阔，宽阔的天线表面又给人一种脚蹄实地的感觉。他们是第一探测分队的主要负责人，瓦西里是总指挥，白Ice领导技术方面的工作。
Bai Ice’s original name was Bai Aisi. After awakening, he wanted to appear more integrated and not so behind the times, and chose a more common modern name that mixed English and Chinese elements. He had been a doctoral student under Ding Yi and had gone into hibernation near the end of the Crisis Era, awakening only twenty-two years ago. Usually, such a long leap across the years meant the hibernator would have trouble catching up to the new age, but theoretical physics was a special case. The sophon lock meant that Common Era physicists could still be considered professionally relevant during the Deterrence Era, and the creation of the circumsolar particle accelerator upended all the assumptions of fundamental theoretical physics, as though a deck of cards had been reshuffled.
白Ice原名白艾思，苏醒后为了使自己显得不那么落后于时代，改成了现代常用的中英文混合名。他曾经是丁仪的博士生，在危机纪元末冬眠，二十二年前才苏醒。一般来说，这么长的时间跨度使人很难再跟上时代，但理论物理学自有其特殊性。如果说，智子的封锁使公元世纪的物理学家到威极纪元仍不过时的话，那么，环日加速器的建立到使物理学的基础理论领域处于重新洗牌的状态。
Back during the Common Era, superstring theory had been thought of as advanced theory, the physics of the twenty-second century. The creation of the circumsolar particle accelerator allowed superstring theory to be confirmed via experiments. The result, however, was disastrous. Concepts that had to be rejected far outnumbered predictions that were confirmed. Many results that the Trisolarans had passed on were falsified. Based on the high level of technology the Trisolarans were later able to achieve, it was inconceivable that they had made such mistakes in fundamental theory. The only conclusion was that they had lied to humans even in the areas of basic theory.
早在公元世纪，超弦理论就被认为是十分超前的理论，是22世纪的物理学。环日加速器的建立，使得超弦理论有可能直接由实验验证，结果是一场灾难，被推翻的部分远多于被证实的，包括三体世界曾经专送的东西也被证伪，但按照三体文明后来达到的技术高度。他们的基础理论不可能错成这样。只能说明他们在基础理论方面也对人类进行了欺编。
“Look familiar?” Vasilenko gestured at everything around them.
“似曾相识吧。”瓦西里做了一个囊括一切的手势说。
“Indeed. But the self-confidence and arrogance of humanity are all gone,” said Bai Ice.
“是啊，但人类的自信和傲慢已经荡然无存了。”白Ice说。
Bai Ice had proposed some theoretical models that were among the few confirmed by the circumsolar particle accelerator. By the time he awakened, physics had essentially been called back to the starting line. He quickly distinguished himself and won great honors, and after ten or so years, he was once again at the vanguard of the field.
而白Ice在危机纪元末提出的理论模型是少有的被环日加速器部分证实的东西。当他苏醒时，物理学界已经重新站到同一起跑线上，他则脱颖而出获得很高的声誉，又用了十多年时间，他重新回到物理学的最前沿。
This resonated with Vasilenko. He looked back along the ship’s course. Neptune was only a tiny blue dot and the Sun a faint spot of light, incapable of even casting their shadows against the antenna surface. Where were the two thousand stellar-class warships that had formed a magnificent phalanx all those years ago? Now, there were just these two lonely ships with a complement of no more than a hundred crew. Alaska was about a hundred thousand kilometers away but not visible to them. That ship wasn’t only acting as the other end of the positioning network, but also held another exploratory team organized the same as the team aboard Revelation. Fleet Command called the team aboard Alaska the backup, indicating that the brass had made ample preparations for the risk and danger inherent in this expedition. Here, at the cold, desolate frontier of the Solar System, the antenna under their feet seemed a lonesome island in the universe. Vasilenko wanted to sigh, but thought better of it. He took something out of the pocket of his spacesuit and let it float between the two of them, spinning slowly.
瓦西里深有同感。看看航线的后方，海王星已经变成一个幽蓝色的小点，太阳也只是一个黯淡的小光团，在天线表面连影子都投不出来。当年那由两千艘恒星级战舰组成的壮丽方阵在哪里？现在只有这形单影只的两艘飞船，全体人员不到一百人。“阿拉斯加”号与“启示”号的距离近十万千米，完全看不到。“阿拉斯加”号并不仅仅是作为定位网络的另一端，上面还有一个探测分队，编制与“启示”号上的一样，按总参谋部的说法是后备队，看来上层对此行的险恶做了充分的估计。在太阳系这冷寂的边缘，脚下的天线仿佛是宇宙中唯一的孤岛。瓦西里想仰天长叹。但又觉得没有意思，就从宇宙服的衣袋中掏出一个小东西，让它旋转着悬浮在两人之间。
Vasilenko pointed at the spinning object. “About a hundred hours ago, we detected a patch of floating metallic debris next to the ship’s course. A drone retrieved a few items, and this is one of them: a piece of the cooling system for a nuclear fusion reactor aboard a stellar-class warship from the end of the Crisis Era.”
瓦西里指着旋转的零件说：“一百多个小时前，我们在航线附近探测到一小片金属飘浮物，派出一艘无人太空艇取回来几件，这就是其中一件。我查询过，这是危机纪元末恒星级战舰聚变发动机上的一个零件，冷却控制部分的。”
The object appeared to be a bone from some animal. In fact, it was a metallic machine component; the frigid light of the stars glinted against its smooth surface.
那东西初看像某种动物的一块骨头，实际是一个金属零件，光滑的表面反射着寒冷的星光。
“Check this out.”
“看这是什么？”
“Yes. We also found the armrest from a chair and a bulkhead fragment.”
“应该是，这次找到的还有一只座椅上的金属扶手和一块舱壁碎块。”
They had been passing through the vicinity of the ancient battlefield from nearly two centuries earlier. After the Bunker Project started, people often discovered remnants of ancient warships. Some were placed in museums while others were bought and sold through the black market. Bai Ice held the component and felt a chill pass through the glove of the space suit, straight into his marrow. He let it go, and the component continued to spin slowly, as though moved by some soul embedded within. Bai Ice moved his eyes away and gazed into the distance. All he could see was a bottomless, empty abyss. Two thousand warships and millions of dead bodies had been drifting in this patch of desolate space for nearly two centuries. The sacrificial blood of the dead had long ago sublimated from ice to gas and dissipated.
这一带是近两个世纪前末日战役古战场的轨道范围，掩体工程开始以后，经常发现古战舰的遗物，它们有的出现在掩体世界的博物馆中，有的则在黑市里流通。白Ice握住那个零件，感到一股寒气透过宇宙服的手套直入骨髓。他松手后，零件继续在空中旋转着，仿佛被附于其上的灵魂所驱动。白Ice把目光移开，遥望远方，只看到深不见底的空旷，那两千艘战舰和上百万人的遗骸已经在这片黑暗冷寂的太空中运行了近两个世纪，那些牺牲者流的血早就由冰屑升华成气体消散了。
“It’s from the Doomsday Battle?” asked an awed Bai Ice.
“这是末日战役的遗物？”白Ice敬畏地问。
“The target of our exploration might be more dangerous than even the droplets this time,” Bai Ice said.
“我们这次探测的东西，可能比水滴更险恶。”白Ice说。
“True. Back then, we already had some familiarity with the Trisolarans. But we know nothing about the world that created and sent this… Dr. Bai, do you have any guesses as to what we will encounter?”
“是啊，当时对三体已经算是熟悉，可对发出这东西的世界，我们一无所知……白博士，你猜过我们将遇到什么样的东西吗？”
“Only a massive object can emit gravitational waves, so I guess that object must be large both in mass and volume, perhaps even a spaceship… Well, in this business, the unexpected is to be expected.”
“只有大质量的物体才能发射引力波，那东西质量和体积应该都很大吧，说不定本身就是一艘飞船……不过，这种事，意外就是正常。”
The two ships of the expedition continued on their course for another week until the distance between them and the gravitational wave source was only about a million kilometers. The expedition decelerated until their velocity was zero, and began to accelerate toward the Sun. This way, by the time the projectile caught up to the expedition, they would fly in parallel. Most of the close-range exploration would be conducted by Revelation; Alaska would observe from a distance of about a hundred thousand kilometers.
探测编队继续航行了一个星期，将自己和引力波发射源的距离缩短至一百万千米。在此之前，编队已经减速，现在速度已经降至零并开始向太阳系方向加速，这样，当发射体追上编队时，两者将平行飞行。探测工作主要由“启示”号完成，“阿拉斯加”号退至十万千米之外观察。
The crew of Revelation was close to panicking. Before departure, they had imagined all kinds of scenarios, but the idea of not being able to see their target when they were practically on top of it had never occurred to them. Vasilenko radioed the base at Neptune for instructions, and forty minutes later, received the order to approach the target until they were only 150 kilometers away.
“启示”号上的人们陷人惶恐之中，起航前曾设想过各种情况，唯独没有想到与目标近在咫尺，视野中却一无所有。瓦西里请示预警中心，在四十多分钟的延时后收到中心指令，继续缩短与目标的距离，直到近至一百五十千米！
Finally, the visible light detection systems noticed something: a small white dot at the gravitational wave source, visible even with a common telescope from the ship. Revelation sent out a drone to investigate. The drone flew at the target, the distance between them shrinking rapidly: five hundred kilometers, fifty kilometers, five hundred meters… Finally, the drone stopped five meters from the target. The clear holographic video it transmitted allowed the crew of both ships to see this extraterrestrial object that had been shot at the Sun.
这时，可见光观测系统有所发现，在引力波发射位置有一个小白点，从飞船上用普通望远镜也能看到那个白点。于是，“启示”号派出一艘无人太空艇前往探测。太空艇向目标飞去，距离迅速缩短，五百千米，五十千米，五百米……最后，太空艇在距目标五米处悬停，它发回的高清晰全息图像，让两艘飞船上的人们看到了这个从外太空射向太阳系的东西。
The distance continued to shrink; the projectile was now only about ten thousand kilometers from Revelation. The gravitational wave emissions were very clear and could be used for precise positioning. But even from this distance, radar returned no echo and nothing could be seen in the visible light range. By the time the distance shrank to one thousand kilometers, they still couldn’t see anything at the location of the gravitational wave source.
距离继续缩短，发射体距“启示”号仅一万千米左右，这时，它发出的引力波信号已经十分清晰，可以进行精确定位，但在那个位置上，雷达探测没有任何回波，可见光观测也空空如也。接着，距离缩短至一千千米，引力波发射源的位置仍然看不到任何东西。
Faced with this paper slip — that was what they all called it — everyone heaved a sigh of relief. Rationally, they were still guarded. The object could certainly be a weapon that possessed enough power to destroy both spaceships. But it was impossible to believe that it could threaten the entire Solar System. By appearance, it was delicate, harmless, like a white feather floating in night air. People had long ceased to write letters on paper, but they were familiar with the concept from period films about the ancient world, and so the paper slip seemed almost romantic in their eyes.
看着这张来自外太空的纸条（后来他们就这么称呼它），他们都长长地出了一口气，把悬了许久的心放了下来。在理智上他们并没有放松警惕，这东西也可能是武器，可能具有毁灭两艘飞船的力量，但要说它能够摧毁整个星系，那确实太难以置信了。在外观上，它是那么纤细无害，像夜空中飘着的一根白羽毛。纸写的信早已消失，但人们从描写古代世界的电影中看到过那东西，所以纸条在他们眼中又多了一分浪漫。
There was really no better description. Formally, the object was called a rectangular membrane-like object: length: 8.5 cm; width: 5.2 cm; slightly bigger than a credit card. It was so thin that its thickness could not be measured. The surface was pure white, looking exactly like a slip of paper.
只能这么形容它，它的正式名称是长方形膜状物，长八点五厘米，宽五点二厘米，比一张信用卡略大一些，极薄，看不出任何厚度，表面呈纯白色，看上去就是一张纸条。
A slip of paper.
一张小纸条。
The members of the exploratory team were among the best officers and professionals in the world, and all had cool, rational minds. But instinct was more powerful. They had been prepared for giant, invasive objects. Some had guessed they would find a spaceship the size of Europa — a not unlikely possibility, given the strength of its gravitational wave emissions.
探测小组的成员都是最优秀的专业人员和指挥官，都有着冷静的思维，但直觉的力量还是压倒了一切。他们曾准备着遭遇巨大的入侵物，甚至有人猜测是一艘如同木卫二般大小的飞船，从它所发射的引力波强度看这是完全可能的。
This was another scene that seemed familiar.
这一幕也似曾相识。
Since the drone had no appropriate collection tools, another drone with a mechanical arm and a sealable scoop had to be dispatched to capture the slip. As the open scoop extended toward the slip at the end of the mechanical arm, the hearts of everyone on the two ships hung in their throats.
由于无人太空艇上没有合适的抓取工具，只好又派出一艘太空艇，艇上带有一只机械臂，试图用一个密封的小抓斗抓取纸条。当机械臂把张开的抓斗伸向纸条时，两艘飞船上人们的心又悬了起来。
Maybe it really was a letter?
也许这真的是一封信？
Further investigation showed that the paper slip did not reflect electromagnetic radiation at any wavelength. The slip’s white color wasn’t reflected light, but light emitted by the object itself. All electromagnetic radiation, including visible light, simply passed through the slip, which was thus completely transparent. Images taken at close range showed the stars behind the slip, but due to interference from the white light it emitted and the dark background of space, it appeared as an opaque white from a distance. At least superficially, the object seemed harmless.
检测表明，纸条对任何频段的电磁波都不反射，它呈现的白色不是反射外界的光线，而是自身发出的淡淡的白光，没有检测到任何其他辐射。由于包括可见光在内的任何电磁波都能穿透纸条，纸条实际是透明的，在近距离拍摄的图像上，能够透过它看到背后的星星。但由于它自身发出的白光的干扰，太空背景又很暗，因此，它从远处看呈现不透明的白色。至少从外表上看纸条是无害的。
The scoop closed around the slip and the arm pulled back. But the slip remained where it was.
抓斗合拢把纸条扣在其中、机械臂回缩时，纸条从密封的抓斗中漏了出来，仍在原位不动。
By now, the expedition members understood that the paper slip was no ordinary object. It was like an illusion that did not interact with anything in the physical world. It was also like a tiny cosmic reference plane that maintained its position, unmovable. No contact was capable of shifting its position — or, more accurately, its set trajectory.
这时，人们知道纸条不是寻常之物，它像一个幻影，与现实世界中的任何物体都不发生作用。它也像一个小小的宇宙基准面，精确地保持原位不动。任何接触都不可能改变它的位置或者运行轨道丝毫。
The attempt was repeated several more times with the same result. The drone operators aboard Revelation tried to maneuver the mechanical arm to touch the slip. The arm passed right through the slip, and neither appeared damaged. The arm felt no resistance, and the slip didn’t change its position. Finally, the operator directed the drone to approach the paper slowly, in an attempt to push it. As the hull of the drone came into contact with the slip, the slip disappeared inside the drone, and as the drone continued to move forward, the slip emerged from the stern, unchanged. During the process when the slip was inside the drone, its internal systems detected no anomalies.
反复试了几次，结果都一样。“启示”号上的控制者控制机械臂去接触纸条，臂杆从纸条中穿过，两者都完好无损，机械臂没有感觉到任何阻力，纸条的位置也没有丝毫移动。最后，控制者操纵太空艇缓缓移向纸条，试图推动它。当艇身与纸条接触后，后者没入艇身内，随着太空艇的前移，又从艇尾出现，保持原状。在纸条穿过艇身的过程中，太空艇内部系统没有检测到任何异常。
The two headed for the paper slip in a pinnace. As Revelation and its immense gravitational wave antenna shrank in the distance, Bai Ice thought he was leaving the only support in the universe, and his heart became fearful.
两人乘坐太空艇向纸条驶去，看着“启示”号和庞大的引力波天线渐渐退远，白Ice感觉自己正在离开唯一的依靠，心中变得空虚起来。
Bai Ice decided to go investigate in person. Vasilenko insisted on coming with him. Having both leaders of the first exploratory team go together was a controversial proposition, and they had to wait forty minutes to receive approval from the base at Neptune. Their request was reluctantly granted, as Vasilenko would not back down, and there was also a backup team.
自Ice决定亲自去近距离观察，瓦西里坚持要同他一起去。第一探测分队的两个领导人同时前往引起了争议，向预警中心请示需四十多分钟才能得到回答。由于瓦西里的坚持，也考虑到后备队的存在，大家勉强同意了。
“Your advisor, Dr. Ding, must have felt the same way years ago,” Vasilenko said. He appeared perfectly calm.
“当年你的导师也像我们这样吧？”瓦西里说，他看上去倒是显得很平静。
“Don’t worry. This time, we can trust our intuition.” Vasilenko patted Bai Ice on the shoulder, but Bai Ice did not feel much comfort.
“不要担心，这次我们应该相信直觉了。”瓦西里拍拍白Ice的肩膀说，但他的安慰对后者没起什么作用。
Bai Ice agreed with the sentiment in silence. He did feel spiritually connected to the Ding Yi of two centuries ago. Both of them headed for a great unknown, toward equally unknown fates.
白Ice默认了这话。此时他感觉自己在心灵上确实与两个世纪前的丁仪相通了，他们都在驶向一个巨大的未知，驶向同样未知的命运。
“What are you doing?” Bai Ice asked severely. His eyes said the rest. Think about what happened to my teacher.
“你干什么？！”白Ice厉声问道。他透出面罩的目光说出了剩下的话，“想想我的导师吧！”
They lifted themselves up in the pinnace until their eyes were lined up with the edge of the plane. Just like the camera had shown, the paper had no thickness. From the side, it completely disappeared. Vasilenko extended a hand toward the paper, but Bai Ice caught him.
他们又起身从艇中升起一些，使纸条的平面与自己的视线平齐，正如传回的图像显示的那样——纸条没有厚度，从这个方向看，它完全消失了。瓦西里向纸条伸出手去，立刻被白Ice抓住了。
Vasilenko touched the paper with his gloved hand. His hand passed through the paper and was not damaged. Vasilenko received no mental message, either. He again moved his hand through the paper and stopped, allowing the small white plane to divide his hand into two parts. Still, he felt nothing. The paper showed an outline of the cross section of the hand where the hand penetrated it: clearly, the sheet hadn’t been broken, but passed through the hand unharmed. Vasilenko pulled his hand back, and the slip hung still as before — or, more accurately, continued to move toward the Solar System at the rate of two hundred kilometers per second.
瓦西里用戴着宇宙服手套的手接触纸条，手从纸条中穿过，手套表面完好无损；瓦西里也没有收到任何心灵传输的信息。他再次把手穿过纸条，并且停在那里，让那个小小的白色平面把手掌分成两个部分，仍然没有任何感觉，纸条与手掌接触的部分呈现出手掌断面的轮廓线，它显然没有被切断或弄破，而是完好无损地穿过了手掌。瓦西里把手抽回来，纸片又以原状悬浮在原位，或者说以每秒两百千米的速度与太空艇一起飞向太阳系。
The pinnace was now next to the paper slip. After checking their space suits, they opened the pinnace’s hatch so that they were exposed to space. They fine-tuned the pinnace’s position until the paper slip hung half a meter above their heads. The tiny white plane was perfectly smooth, and through it they saw the stars behind, confirming that it really was a glowing, transparent object. The white light it emitted made the stars behind it appear a bit blurred.
太空艇很快驶到了纸条旁边。两人检查了宇宙服后，打开太空艇的舱盖，暴露在太空中，并微调太空艇的位置，使纸条悬浮在他们头顶上方不到半米的地方。他们仔细地打量着那块方寸大小的洁白平面，透过这洁白他们也看到了后面的星星，证实纸条是一块发光的透明体，只是自身的光线淹没了后面透出的星光，使透过它看到的星星有些模糊。
“If it really is a letter, perhaps the message won’t be released until an intelligent body makes direct contact with it.” Vasilenko brushed off Bai Ice’s hand.
“如果它真是一封信，也许需要我们这些智慧生命的本体直接接触才能释放出信息。”瓦西里说着，用另一只手把白Ice的手拿开。
Bai Ice also tried to touch the slip, then pulled his hand back. “It’s like a projection from another universe that has nothing to do with ours.”
白Ice。也试着用手接触了一下纸条，又很快抽回来，“它好像是另一个宇宙的投影，与我们的世界全无关系。”
Vasilenko had more practical concerns. “If nothing can affect it, then we have no way to bring it to the ship for further analysis.”
瓦西里则关心更为现实的问题，“如果什么东西都不能对它产生作用，我们就没办法把它带到飞船中进一步研究了。”
Bai Ice laughed. “That’s a simple problem to solve. Have you forgotten the story told by Francis Bacon? ‘If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain.'”
白Ice笑了起来，“再简单不过的事，你忘记《古兰经》中的故事了？如果大山不会走向穆罕默德，穆罕默德可以走向大山。”
And so, Revelation slowly sailed toward the paper slip, made contact, and then allowed it to enter the ship. Even more slowly, it adjusted its position until the slip hung in the middle of the laboratory cabin. The only way to move the slip during study was to move the ship itself. This odd way to manipulate the research subject posed some challenges near the beginning, but luckily, Revelation was originally designed to investigate small space objects in the Kuiper Belt and possessed excellent maneuverability. The gravitational wave antenna was equipped with twelve high-precision thrusters. After the ship’s AI grew used to the necessary adjustments, the manipulation became quick and precise. If the world could not affect the slip in any way, the only solution was to let the world surround the slip and move about it.
于是，“启示”号缓缓驶向纸条，与它接触后使它进人飞船内部，然后慢慢调整位置，使纸条悬浮在飞船的实验舱中，如果在研究中需要移动纸条，则只能通过移动飞船本身来做到。这种奇特的操纵开始有些困难，好在“启示”号原是一艘勘探柯伊伯带小天体的飞船，具有优良的位置控制能力，引力波天线也加装了多达十二台微调发动机，在飞船的A.I。熟悉后，操纵就变得快捷而精确了。如果这个世界对纸条无法施加任何作用，那就只能让世界围着它运动了。
Inside the spaceship, due to the stronger background light, the transparency of the slip became more obvious. It now no longer resembled a slip of paper, but some transparent film that only indicated its presence by the faint light it emitted. People continued to refer to it as a paper slip, however. When the ambient light was very strong, it was sometimes possible to lose sight of it, so the researchers had to dim the lights in the laboratory to see the slip better.
进入飞船后，由于背景光的增强，纸条透明的性质更明显了，透过它可以清晰地看到后面的景物。它此时不再像纸条，而像一小张透明膜，仅以其自身发出的弱光显示其存在，但人们仍把它称为纸条。当背景光很强时，甚至会在视觉上失去它，研究者们只得把实验舱的照明调到很暗，这样纸条才能醒日些。
The first thing the researchers tried to do was to ascertain the slip’s mass. The only applicable method was to measure the gravity it generated. However, even at the highest precision level, the gravity meter showed nothing, suggesting that the slip’s mass was extremely small, perhaps even zero. Based on the latter possibility, some guessed that the object might be a photon or neutrino in macro form, but its geometric shape suggested that it was artificial.
研究者们首先测定纸条的质量，在这种情况下只能通过测定它产生的引力来进行，但在引力测定仪的最高精度上没有任何显示，所以纸条的质量可能极小，甚至为零。对于后一种情况，有人猜测它是不是一个宏观化的光子或中微子，但从其规则的形状看，显然是人工制造物。
Thus, an odd sight came to be: The slip was located in the center of Revelation, but the ship had no dynamical connection to the slip. The two simply happened to occupy the same space as both moved toward the Solar System at the same velocity.
这是一个奇特的场景，纸条位于“启示”号的内部中心，但在动力学上与飞船没有任何关系，两者只是重叠着以相同的速度向太阳系运动。
As they became more used to the slip, the crew on Revelation became less guarded and were no longer so careful about keeping a respectful distance from it. They knew that the object did not interact with the real world and emitted no harmful radiation. They touched it casually, allowing it to pass through their bodies. Someone even let the plane pass through his eyes and brain, asking a friend to take a picture of the sight.
随着研究的进行，飞船上的人们对纸条的戒心渐渐消失，不再小心翼翼地与它保持距离。知道它与现实世界不发生任何作用，也不发出有害辐射，便开始随意触摸它，让它穿过自己的身体，甚至还有人让纸条从自己的双眼处穿进大脑，让别人拍照。
Twenty hours later, the exploratory team still knew next to nothing about the slip. They were able to observe one thing, however: The intensity of the light and gravitational waves emitted by the slip was decreasing. This suggested that the light and gravitational waves it emitted were probably a form of evaporation. Since these two were the only indication of the existence of the slip, their disappearance would be the same as the disappearance of the slip itself.
二十多个小时过去了，探测小组对纸条仍然接近一无所知，只观察到一个现象：纸条发出的光和引力波在渐渐减弱，这意味着它发出的光和引力波可能是一种蒸发现象。由于这两者是纸条存在仅有的依据，如果它们最后消失，纸条也就消失了。
The base informed the exploratory team that Tomorrow, a large science vessel, had left the Neptune city cluster and would meet the expedition in seven days’ time. Tomorrow possessed more advanced investigative instruments, and could study the slip in more depth.
探测编队接到了预警中心的信息，大型科考飞船“明日”号已经从海王星群落起航，七天后与探测编队会合，“明日”号上有更完善的探测研究装备，可对纸条进行更深入的研究。
No progress could be made on analysis of the slip because electromagnetic waves of all wavelengths passed through it without diffraction. Magnetic fields, no matter how strong, seemed to have no effect on it. The object appeared to have no internal structure.
对纸条的分析没有进一步的成果，因为所有频段的电磁波穿透它后。都观察不到任何衍射现象，各强度的磁场对它也没有任何影响，这东西似乎没有内部结构。
Bai Ice turned off the light in his cabin and tried to go to sleep. But in the darkness he felt uneasy; he imagined the paper slip would float into his cabin, glowing white, at any moment. So he turned on the light and drifted in the gentle light and memories.
一进门，白Ice就把照明关上，想睡觉。但在黑暗中他突然有一种不安，感觉纸条随时会从某个方向发着白光飘进来，于是又把照明打开，他就悬浮在这柔和的亮光中，陷入了回忆。
Bai Ice was enraged when he saw this. “Stop it! This is not some joke,” he screamed. Having worked nonstop in the lab for more than twenty hours, he left the laboratory and returned to his own cabin.
白Ice看到后突然发起火来：“别这样！这一点儿都不好玩儿！”他大喊道，然后离开工作了二十多个小时的实验舱回到自己的舱室中。
One hundred and ninety-two years had passed since he said good-bye to his teacher for the last time.
与导师的最后分别是一百九十二年前的事了，现在仍历历在目。
The weather that day was good. There was no wind and no sandstorms, and the early spring air smelled fresh. The two of them, teacher and student, lay against a dune. The desert of Northern China was bathed in the light of the setting sun. Normally, Bai Aisi thought of these rolling dunes as a woman’s body — possibly a comparison that had originated with Ding Yi himself — but now he thought of them as an exposed brain. In the golden dusk, the brain revealed its profusion of grooves and folds. He looked up at the sky. Today, the dusty air managed to let through a bit of long-missed blue, like a mind about to be enlightened.
那天的天气很好，没有风沙，初春的空气中有一种清新的味道。师生二人躺在一道沙坡上，华北沙漠笼罩在夕阳中。往日，白艾思觉得这些连绵起伏的沙丘很像女人的胴体（这好像也是经导师点拨悟出的），但现在感觉它们像一个裸露的大脑，这大脑在夕阳的余晖中呈现出迷离的沟回。再看天空，今天居然在灰蒙蒙中显出点久违的蓝色，像即将顿悟的思想。
It was dusk, and he and Ding Yi and he had come to the surface from the underground city and taken a car into the desert. Ding Yi liked to stroll and think in the desert, and even to hold his lectures there sometimes. His students hated the experience, but he explained his eccentric habit this way: “I like desolate places. Life is a distraction for physics.”
那是一个黄昏，他们两人从地下城来到地面，开车进人沙漠。丁仪喜欢这样，他喜欢在沙漠中散步思考，甚至喜欢在沙漠中讲课，这有时让他的学生苦不堪言。他曾这样解释这种怪癖：“我喜欢荒凉的地方，生命对物理学是一种干扰。”
“Professor Ding, why not wait until you’re back to tell me?”
“丁老师，那你可以等回来后再对我说。”
“Answer a question first, please.” Ding Yi ignored Bai Aisi’s question and pointed at the desert lit by the westering sun. “Forget about the uncertainty principle for a minute and suppose everything is determinable. If you know the initial conditions, you can calculate and derive the conditions at any later point in time. Suppose an extraterrestrial scientist were given all data about the Earth several billion years ago. Do you think it could predict the existence of this desert solely through calculation?”
“首先回答我一个问题。”丁仪没有理会白艾思的话，指指夕阳中的沙漠说，“不考虑量子不确定性，假设一切都是决定论的，知道初始条件就可以计算出以后任何时间断面的状态，假如有一个外星科学家，给它地球在几十亿年前的所有初始数据，它能通过计算预测出今天这片沙漠的存在吗？”
Ding Yi said, “Aisi, I want to tell you a few things that you should not repeat to others. Even if I don’t return, don’t tell others. There’s no special reason. I just don’t want to be laughed at.”
丁仪说：“艾思啊，我今天要对你说的这些话，你最好不要对别人说，如果我回不来你也不要对别人说，倒没什么特别的原因，只是不想让人家笑话。”
Bai Aisi wasn’t trying to comfort Ding Yi. He was sincere. He was still drunk with the ecstasy and vision of humanity’s imminent great victory over the Trisolaran fleet, and he did not think Ding Yi’s trip to the droplet would involve much danger.
白艾思并不是在安慰丁仪，他说的是真心话，这时他仍沉浸在胜利的幻想和狂喜中，认为丁仪此行并没有什么太大的危险。
Ding Yi’s words surprised Bai Aisi. The man had never revealed such thoughts in the past.
丁仪的话让白艾思有些吃惊，他以前从未表露过类似的思想。
“Very good. Then why do we and our colleagues all want to try to explain the conditions of today’s cosmos, and to predict its future, solely through deductions based on the laws of physics?”
“很好，那为什么我们和我们的同行，都想仅仅通过对物理规律的推演，来解释今天宇宙的状态，并预言宁宙的未来呢？”
Bai Aisi pondered this. “No. This desert wasn’t the result of the Earth’s natural evolution, but the result of man-made forces. The behavior of civilizations can’t be grasped through the laws of physics.”
白艾思想了想说：“当然不能，因为这沙漠的存在不是地球自然演化的结果，沙漠化是人类文明造成的，文明的行为很难用物理规律把握吧。”
“Heh heh heh heh.” Ding Yi’s laugh was not joyous at all. As he recalled it later, Bai Aisi thought it was the most sinister laughter he had ever heard. There was a hint of masochistic pleasure, an excitement at seeing everything falling into the abyss, an attempt to use joy as a cover for terror, until terror itself became an indulgence. “Your last sentence! I’ve often comforted myself this way. I’ve always forced myself to believe that there’s at least one table at this banquet filled with dishes that remain fucking untouched… I tell myself that again and again. And I’m going to say it one more time before I die.”
“嘿嘿嘿嘿嘿嘿……”丁仪突然怪笑起来，后来回想起来，那是白艾思听到过的最邪恶的笑。其中有自虐的快感，有看着一切坠入深渊时的兴奋，用喜悦来掩盖恐惧，最后迷恋恐惧本身，“你的最后一句话！我也常常这样安慰自己，我总是让自己相信。在这场伟大的盛宴中。永远他妈的有一桌没人动过的菜……我就这样一遍遍安慰自己，在死前我还会再念叨一迫的。”
Bai Aisi said, “I think that’s beyond physics. The goal of physics is to discover the fundamental laws of nature. Although the man-made desertification of the Earth could not be calculated directly from physics, it still follows laws. Universal laws are constant.”
白艾思说：“我感觉这已经是物理学之外的事了，物理学的目标是发现宇宙的基本规律，比如人类使地球沙漠化，虽不可能直接从物理学计算出来，但也是通过规律进行的，宇宙规律是永恒不变的。”
“Perhaps I would have gone with her.”
“那我可能和她一起死。”
Ding Yi continued, “At the beginning of the crisis, when the sophons were interfering with the particle accelerators, a few people committed suicide. At the time, I thought what they did made no sense. Theoreticians should be excited by such experimental data! But now I understand. Those people knew more than I did. Take Yang Dong, for instance. She knew much more than I did, and thought further. She probably knew things we don’t even know now. Do you think only sophons create illusions? Do you think the only illusions exist in the particle accelerator terminals? Do you think the rest of the universe is as pure as a virgin, waiting for us to explore? Too bad that she left with everything she knew.”
丁仪接着说：“在危机初期，当智子首次扰乱加速器时，有几个人自杀。我当时觉得他们不可理喻，对于搞理论的，看到那样的实验数据应该兴奋才对。但现在我明白了，这些人知道的比我多，比如杨冬，她知道的肯定比我多，想得也比我远，她可能知道一些我们现在都不知道的事。难道制造假象的只有智子？难道假象只存在于加速器末端？难道宇宙的其他部分都像处女一样纯真，等着我们去探索？可惜，她把她知道的都带走了。”
Bai Aisi thought Ding Yi’s mind was elsewhere and that he talked as if he were dreaming. He didn’t know what to say.
白艾思感觉丁仪走得更远了，如梦吃一般，他不知该说什么。
“If she had talked with you more back then, perhaps she wouldn’t have chosen to go.”
“如果她那时和您多交流一些，也许就不会走那条路。”
Ding Yi dug a pit in the sand and watched as the sand on the rim flowed back in like a waterfall. “If I don’t come back, everything in my room is yours. I know that you’ve always liked those Common Era things I brought.”
丁仪把身边的沙挖了一个坑，看着上面的沙像水一样流下来，“如果我回不来，我屋里那些东西都归你了，我知道，你对我从公元世纪带来的那些玩意儿很眼馋。”
“I hope you’re right. I also have some money –“
“但愿如此吧，我还有一笔钱……”
“Please, Professor!”
“老师，钱的话……”
“I want you to use it to pay for hibernation. The longer the better — of course, that’s assuming you want to. I have two goals in mind: One, I want you to go look at the endgame for me — the endgame for physics. Two… how do I say this? I don’t want you to waste your life. After others have decided that physics actually exists, there will still be plenty of time for you to go do physics.”
“我是想让你用它去冬眠，时间越长越好，当然，这得你自愿。我有两个目的：一是想让你替我看看结局，物理学的大结局；二是……怎么说呢，不想让你浪费生命，等人们确定物理学是存在的，你再去做物理也不迟嘛。”
“That… seems like something Yang Dong would say.”
“这好像是……杨冬的话。”
Bai Aisi noticed that the pit Ding Yi had dug in the desert was rapidly expanding. They stood up and backed away as the pit continued to grow, getting deeper as well as wider. Soon, the bottom disappeared in shadows. Sand flooded into the pit in torrents, and soon, the diameter of the pit was close to a hundred meters, and a nearby dune was swallowed up. Bai Aisi ran toward the car and got into the driver’s seat; Ding Yi followed into the passenger seat. Bai Aisi noticed that the car was moving slowly toward the pit, dragged along by the sand underneath. He turned on the engine and the wheels began to turn, but the car continued to slide backwards.
这时，白艾思注意到了丁仪刚才在沙坡上挖出的小坑，那个坑在迅速扩大。他们赶紧站起来退到一旁，看着沙坑扩张，坑在扩大的同时也在加深，转瞬间，底部就没入黑影中看不到了，沙流从坑的边沿汹涌地流人，很快，坑的直径已经扩大到上百米，附近的一个沙丘被坑吞没了。白艾思向车跑去，坐到驾驶位上，丁仪也跟着坐上来。这时，白艾思发现车随着周围的沙一起缓缓向坑的方向移动，他立刻发动了引擎，车轮转动起来，但车仍继续向后移动。
“That’s true, especially those tobacco pipes… But I don’t think I’ll get them.”
“那是，特别是那一套烟斗……不过，我想我得不到那些东西的。”
“Maybe it’s not nonsense.”
“可能并非妄言。”
Ding Yi laughed that sinister laugh again. “Heh heh heh heh…”
丁仪说着，又发出那邪恶的笑：“嘿嘿嘿嘿嘿嘿嘿……”
Bai Aisi turned the electric motor to the highest setting and the wheels spun madly, throwing up sand everywhere. But the car still moved toward the pit like a plate pulled along on a tablecloth.
白艾思把电动引擎的功率加到最大，车轮疯狂地旋转着，搅起片片沙浪，但车体却不可遏止地随着周围的沙子向坑移动，像放在一张被拉动的桌布上的盘子。
“Niagara Falls! Heh heh heh heh…”
“尼亚加拉瀑布！尼亚加拉瀑布！嘿嘿嘿嘿……”丁仪喊道。
Bai Aisi looked back and saw a sight that made his blood curdle: The pit now took up his entire field of vision. The whole desert was swallowed up by it, and the world was like a giant pit whose bottom was an abyss. At the rim, flowing sand poured in and formed a spectacular yellow sandfall. Ding Yi wasn’t exactly right in his description: The Niagara Falls were minuscule compared to this sandfall of terror. The sandfall extended from the near edge of the pit all the way to the far edge on the horizon, forming an immense sandfall ring. The sand torrents rumbled as if the world itself were coming apart. The car continued to slide toward the pit, faster and faster. Bai Aisi floored the accelerator and leaned his weight into it, but there was no effect.
白艾思回头一看，见到了使他血液凝固的景象：沙坑已经扩大到目力可及的范围，整个沙漠都被它吞没，一眼望去，世界就是一个大坑，下面深不见底，一片黑暗；在坑沿上，流沙气势磅礴地倾泻而下，形成黄色的大瀑布。丁仪说得并不准确，尼亚加拉瀑布只相当于这恐怖沙瀑微不足道的一小段，沙瀑从附近的坑沿一直延伸至远在天边的坑的另一侧，形成一个漫长的沙瀑大环，滚滚下落的沙流发出轰隆隆的巨响，仿佛世界在解体一般！车继续向坑沿滑去，且速度越来越快，白艾斯拼命踩住功率控制板，但无济于事。
“You fool. Do you really think we can escape?” Ding Yi said while still laughing sinisterly. “Escape velocity! Why don’t you calculate the escape velocity? Are you thinking with your butt? Heh heh heh heh…”
“傻瓜，你以为我们能逃脱？”丁仪怪笑着说，“逃逸速度，你怎么不算算逃逸速度？你是用屁股读的书吗？嘿嘿嘿嘿·……”
The car tumbled over the rim and dropped in the sandfall. The sand raining down around them seemed to stop as everything plunged into the abyss. Bai Aisi screamed with utter terror, but he couldn’t hear himself. All he heard was Ding Yi’s wild laughter.
车越过了坑沿，在沙瀑中落下去，周围一起下落的沙流几乎静止了，一切都在向深不见底的黑暗中下坠！白艾思在极度惊恐中尖叫起来，但他听不到自己的声音，只听到丁仪的狂笑。
Bai Ice woke from his nightmare and found himself covered in cold sweat. Around him, more droplets of sweat hung suspended in air. He floated for a while, his body stiff, and then dashed out of his cabin and headed for Vasilenko’s cabin. It took a while before the door opened, as Vasilenko was also sleeping.
白Ice从噩梦中醒来，发现自己已是满身冷汗，周围也悬浮着许多汗滴。他浮在半空僵了一会儿后，冲出去，来到另一间高级舱室，费了好大劲儿才叫开门，瓦西里也正在睡觉。
“Hahahahaha… There’s no table untouched at the dinner party, and there’s no virgin untouched in the universe… waheeheeheehee… wahahahaha…”
“哈哈哈哈哈哈……没有没被动过的宴席，没有没被动过的处女。哇嘻嘻嘻嘻嘻嘻……哇哈哈哈哈哈……”
“General! Do not keep that thing, that thing they call a slip of paper, in the spaceship! No, I mean, don’t allow Revelation to hover around it. We should leave immediately, and get as far away as possible!”
“将军，不要把那个东西，那个他们叫纸条的东西放在飞船里；或者说不要让‘启示’号停在那东西上，立刻离开它，越远越好！”
“What have you discovered?”
“你发现什么了吗？”
“Nothing. It’s my intuition.”
“没有，只是直觉。”
“You don’t look so good. Exhaustion? I think you’re worrying too much. That thing… I don’t think it’s anything. There’s nothing inside. It should be harmless.”
“你脸色很不好，是累了吧？我觉得你过虑了，那东西好像……好像什么都不是，里面什么都没有，应该是无害的。”
Revelation left the slip. It passed through the ship’s hull and was reexposed to space. Since the background was dark again, it once again appeared to be an opaque white slip of paper. Revelation pulled away from the slip until the two were about two thousand kilometers apart, then continued to sail in parallel, waiting for the arrival of Tomorrow. A pinnace with a crew of two stayed about ten meters from the slip to monitor it continuously.
“启示”号离开了纸条。纸条穿过飞船重新暴露在太空中，由于背景光变暗，它又呈现不太透明的白色，再次恢复白纸条的样子。“启示”号与纸条渐渐拉开距离，直到双方相距两千千米左右才固定位置，等待着“明日”号飞船的到来。同时，一艘太空艇留在距纸条十米处对它进行不间断的监视，艇上有两名探测小组的成员值班。
“What?”
“什么？”
“Don’t be arrogant. Weakness and ignorance are not barriers to survival, but arrogance is. Remember the droplet!”
“我说别傲慢，弱小和无知不是生存的障碍，傲慢才是，想想水滴吧！”
Bai Ice’s last sentence had an effect. Vasilenko stared at him in silence for a few seconds, then nodded slowly. “All right, Dr. Bai, I’ll listen to you. Revelation will depart from the slip and back off one thousand kilometers. We’ll leave just a pinnace to monitor it… Maybe two thousand kilometers?”
好像白Ice的最后一句话起了作用，瓦西里沉默地盯着他看了几秒钟，缓缓点头，“好吧，博士，听你的。‘启示’号离开纸条，与它拉开一千千米的距离，只在它附近留下一艘太空艇监视……要不，两千千米？”
Bai Ice let Vasilenko go and wiped his forehead. “You decide. I suggest, the farther the better. I will write a formal report as soon as possible and let Command know of my theories.” Stumbling, he drifted away.
白Ice松开抓着瓦西里的手，擦擦额头说：“你看着办吧，反正远些好，我会尽快写一个正式报告，把我的推测上报总部。”说完，他跌跌撞撞地飘走了。
Bai Ice grabbed Vasilenko by the shoulders and gazed into his eyes. “Don’t be arrogant!”
白Ice抓住瓦西里的双肩，直视着他的眼睛说：“别傲慢！”
Fifty hours after the separation from Revelation, the gravitational wave emitted from the paper slip disappeared completely. The white light from it blinked twice and also went out. The slip of paper was gone.
与‘启示“号分离五十个小时左右后，纸条发出的引力波完全消失了，它发出的白光闪烁了两下也熄灭了，这就意味着纸条的消失。
On Revelation, Bai Ice shut himself in the laboratory. Around him, he set up more than a dozen information windows, all connected to the ship’s quantum computer, which was carrying out massive computations. The windows were packed with equations, curves, and matrices. Surrounded by the windows, Bai Ice was anxious and irritable, like a trapped animal.
在“启示”号上，白Ice把自己关在实验舱中，在身边打开了十几个信息窗口，都与飞船的量子主机相连，开始进行大量的计算。窗口中显示着密密麻麻的方程、矩阵和曲线，他被这些窗口围在中间，焦躁不安，像掉进陷阱的困兽。
After another hour during which no signs of the slip could be detected, Vasilenko ordered the pinnace to return to Revelation. But the two crew members on duty in the pinnace didn’t acknowledge the order; the radio only transmitted a hurried conversation between them.
又过了一个小时，所有的监测都没有发现纸条的丝毫踪迹，瓦西里命令两千千米外留下监视的太空艇返回“启示”号，但太空艇中两名值班的监视人员并没有回答返回的指令，只听到他们急促的对话：
The gravitational waves emitted by the paper slip continued to diminish, and its light gradually dimmed.
在太空中，纸条发出的引力波强度继续减弱，它本身也渐渐暗下来。
“Has it evaporated?” Vasilenko asked.
“它完全蒸发了吗？”瓦西里问。
“I don’t think so. But we can’t see it anymore.” Bai Ice shook his head wearily and closed the information windows around him one by one.
“应该不会，只是看不到了。”白Ice疲惫地摇摇头，把自己周围的信息窗口一个接一个地关闭。
“It’s rising!”
“它在升起来！”
“Look out below! What’s going on?”
“看下面，怎么回事？！”
“Don’t touch it! Get out!!”
“别接触它！快出去！”
“My leg! Ahhh –“
“我的腿！啊——”
After the scream, the monitoring terminal on Revelation showed one of the crew members leaving the pinnace and activating the thrusters on his space suit in an attempt to escape. They saw a bright light; the source was the bottom of the pinnace, which was melting! The pinnace looked like a scoop of ice cream dropped onto a scalding sheet of glass: The bottom was melting and spreading in every direction. The “glass” was invisible, and the plane’s existence was indicated only by the spreading pool of melted pinnace material. The pool spread into an extremely thin sheet and emitted bewitching, colorful lights, like fireworks scattered through a sheet of glass.
在一声惨叫后，从“启示”号上的监视器中可以看到两名监视员中的一名从太空艇中飞出，开动太空服上的推进器试图逃离。与此同时，一片强光亮起，光是从太空艇的底部发出的，那里在熔化！太空艇仿佛是放在。滚烫的玻璃上的一块冰激凌，底部熔成一摊，向各个方向扩散。那块“玻璃”是看不到的，只有太空艇熔化后摊开的部分才能显示出那个无形平面的存在。熔化物在平面上成极薄的一层，发出妖艳的彩光，像撒在平面上的焰火。
The escaped crewman flew some distance but seemed to be pulled by gravity toward that plane marked by the melted pinnace. His feet touched the plane and immediately melted into a shiny puddle. The rest of his body also began to spread out on the plane, and he had time only for a scream that was abruptly cut off.
那名监视员飞出了一段，却又像被某种引力拉向那个熔化物标示出的平面，很快他的脚接触到平面，立刻也熔化成光灿灿的一片，他身体的其余部分也在向平面铺去，只发出一声戛然而止的惊叫。
“All hands to hypergravitation seats! Full Ahead!”
“所有人员进入过载位，现有发动机姿态，前进四！”
As soon as he saw the escaping crewman’s feet touch the invisible plane, Vasilenko gave the order. Revelation wasn’t a stellar ship, so when it engaged in Full Ahead acceleration, the crew did not need to enter into the protective deep-sea state. But the hypergravity was enough to sink everyone deep into their seats. Since the order was given in such a hurry, a few couldn’t get to their seats in time and fell to the stern of the ship with injuries. Revelation’s exhaust nozzles emitted a plasma stream several kilometers long that pierced the dark night of space. Far in the distance, where the pinnace was still melting, they could see the phosphorescent glow like will-o’-the-wisps in the wilderness.
在从信息窗口中看到监视员的脚接触无形平面的一刹那，瓦西里越过’启示“号船长，果断地发出了这个指令，让”启示“号迅速离开。”启示“号不是恒星级飞船，它在前进四推进时内部人员不需要深海液的保护，但加速的超重还是把每个人死死压在座位上。由于指令发出太快，有些人没来得及进人座位，跌落到船尾受了伤。”启示‘，号的推进器喷出长达几千米的等离子体火流，刺破黑暗的太空，但在远方太空艇熔化的地方，仍能看到那片幽幽的光亮，像荒野中的磷火。
From the zoomed-in view on the monitoring terminal, they could see that only the very top part of the pinnace was left, and that too soon disappeared into the brilliant plane. The body of the dead crewman was also diffused into the plane, showing up as a gigantic, man-shaped glow. His body had been transformed into a slice on the plane without thickness. Though large in area, it had no volume.
从监视器的放大画面中可以看到，太空艇只剩下顶部的一小部分。但很快也完全消失在那块绚丽的平面中。监视员的身体完全摊在平面上，显示出一个巨大的发光人形，不过，他的身体在平面上已成为没有厚度的，一片，虽然大，却只有而积没有体积了。
“What are you babbling about?” Vasilenko wanted to shout, but the hypergravity turned it into a whisper.
“你在胡说什么？”瓦西里想大吼，但超重中也只能低声说出。
“There is acceleration,” said Bai Ice weakly. “But the space in this region is flowing in the opposite direction, thus canceling out our motion.”
“其实有加速，只是这一区域的空间在反方向流动，把加速抵消了。”白Ice无力地说。
“We’re not moving,” the pilot of Revelation said. He had trouble talking through the hypergravity. “The ship isn’t accelerating.”
“我们没有动，飞船没有加速。”‘启示’号的领航员说。在超重中他说话很吃力。
It really did seem as if the pilot should have been wrong. Everyone on the ship was pressed against their seat by hypergravity, which indicated that the ship was in the process of extreme acceleration. It was visually impossible for a passenger to tell whether the ship was moving in space because all celestial bodies that could act as reference points were too far away, so they couldn’t see parallax in a short time frame. However, the ship’s navigation system could detect even tiny amounts of motion and acceleration; it couldn’t be wrong.
从常识上看，领航员确实在胡说，飞船上的每个人都被加速过载死死压住。这证明“启示”号在大功率加速中。在太空中凭视觉判断所在飞行器的运动状态是不可能的，因为可参照天体的距离都很遥远，视行差在短时间根本看不出来，但飞船的导航系统可以观测到飞船很小的加速和运动，这种判断是不会错的。
Revelation was under hypergravity, but had no acceleration. Some force had nailed it to this point in space.
“启示”号有过载却无加速，像被某种力量钉死在太空中。
Bai Ice couldn’t lift his hand, which was now too heavy. But everyone knew where he meant. Revelation sank into a deathlike silence. Normally, hypergravity made people feel safe, as though they were escaping from danger under the embrace of some protective power. But now it seemed as oppressive and suffocating as a tomb.
超重中白Ice无力举手去指，但人们都知道他说的方向，“启示”号陷入死寂中。本来，超重使人们有一种安全感，像是在某种保护力量的怀抱中逃离危险，但现在，它变成了坟墓一般的压迫，令人窒息。
“There, of course.”
“当然是那里。”
“Channel open.”
“已经打开了。”
“Open a channel to Command,” Bai Ice said. “There’s no time, so we’ll treat this as our formal report.”
“请把与总部的通信信道打开，没有时间了，就当是我们的正式汇报吧。”白Ice说。
“The space is flowing? Where to?”
“空间流动？向哪儿流？”
“Hadn’t it evaporated?”
“它没有蒸发吗？”
“General, you once said, ‘I don’t think it’s anything. There’s nothing inside.’ You were right. That slip really wasn’t anything, and contained nothing. It’s only space, just like the space around us, which isn’t anything and contains nothing. But there’s a difference: It’s two-dimensional. It’s not a block, but a slice. A slice without thickness.”
“将军，你曾说过那东西’什么都不是，里面什么都没有‘，其实你是对的，它真的什么都不是，里面什么都没有，它只是一片空间，与我们周围什么都不是、什么都没有的空间是一样的，唯一的区别是：它是二维的，它不是一块，而是一片，没有厚度的一片。”
“The protective field around it evaporated. The force field acted like packaging that separated the two-dimensional space from the three-dimensional space. But now the two are in direct contact. Do you remember what Blue Space and Gravity saw?”
“蒸发的是它的封装力场，这种封装力场把那片二维空间与周围的三维空间隔开了，现在两者全接触了。你们还记得’蓝色空间‘号和’万有引力‘号看到的吗？”
“Just as four-dimensional space collapses into three dimensions, three-dimensional space can collapse into two dimensions, with one dimension folding and curling into the quantum realm. The area of that slice of two-dimensional space — it only has area — will rapidly expand, causing more space to collapse… We’re now in space that is falling toward two dimensions, and ultimately, the entire Solar System will follow. In other words, the Solar System will turn into a painting with no thickness.”
“同四维跌落到三维一样，三维空间也会向二维空间跌落，由（有）一个维度蜷缩到微观中。那一小片二维空间的面积——它只有面积——会迅速扩大，这又引发了更大规模的跌落……我们现在就处在向二维跌落的空间中，最终，整个太阳系将跌落到二维，也就是说，太阳系将变成一副厚度为零的画。”
No one answered, but they all remembered: the four-dimensional space falling into three dimensions, like a waterfall off a cliff.
没有人回答，但他们当然记得，四维空间向三维跌落，像瀑布流下悬崖。
“Can we escape it?”
“可以逃离吗？”
“What is the escape velocity?”
“逃逸速度是多少？”
“Escaping this is like rowing a boat above a waterfall. Unless we exceed a certain escape velocity, we’ll tumble over the cliff. It’s like tossing a pebble up from the ground: No matter how high you throw the rock, it will eventually fall back down. The entire Solar System is within the zone of collapse, and anyone trying to escape must reach escape velocity.”
“现在逃离，就像在瀑布顶端附近的河面上划船，除非超过一个逃逸速度，否则不论怎样划，迟一早都会坠入瀑布，就像在地面向上扔石头扔多高总会落回来。整个太阳系都在跌落区，从中逃离必须达到逃逸速度。”
“I’ve computed it four separate times. Pretty sure I got it right.”
“我反复计算过四遍，应该没错。”
“What is it?!”
“逸速度是多少？！”
Everyone aboard Revelation and Alaska held their breaths and listened to this final calculation as representatives of humanity.
“启示”号和“阿拉斯加”号上的人们屏息凝神，替全人类倾听末日判决。
On the plane two thousand kilometers away, the light emitted by the two-dimensionalized pinnace and crewmen had already gone out. Compared to collapsing from four dimensions to three, the fall from three dimensions to two gave off much less energy. Two two-dimensional structures were revealed clearly by the starlight. On the two-dimensionalized pinnace, it was possible to see the details of three-dimensional structures unfolded in two dimensions — the crew cabin, the fusion reactor, and so on — as well as the curled-up figure of the crewman in the cabin. In the figure of the other crewman, the bones and blood vessels could be clearly discerned, as well as all the body parts. During the process of falling into two dimensions, every point on a three-dimensional object was projected onto the plane in accordance with precise geometric principles, and so these two figures turned out to be the most complete and precise images of the original three-dimensional pinnace and people. All the internal structures were now laid out side by side in two dimensions with nothing hidden. The projection process, however, was very different from that used in engineering drawings, and so it was difficult to visually reimagine the shapes’ original three-dimensional structure. The greatest difference from engineering drawings lay in the fact that the two-dimensional unfolding occurred at every scale: All the original three-dimensional structures and details were laid out in parallel in two dimensions, and the result replicated, in some measure, the effect of viewing the three-dimensional world from four-dimensional space. This closely resembled drawings of fractals: No matter how much you zoomed in on a part of the image, it would get no less complex. However, fractals were theoretical concepts — actual representations were inevitably limited by the resolution, and after zooming in a number of times, the images lost their fractal nature. The complexity of the two-dimensionalized three-dimensional objects, on the other hand, was real: The resolution was at the level of fundamental particles. On the monitoring terminal of Revelation, the eye could only see a limited resolution, but the complexity and number of details already made the viewers dizzy. This was the universe’s most complicated image; staring at it for too long would drive one mad.
在两千千米外的二维平面上，二维化的太空艇和监视员的人体发出的光已经熄灭，与从四维向三维跌落相比，三维跌落到二维释放的能量要小许多。两个二维体的结构在星光下清晰地显现出来：在二维化的太空艇上，可以看到二维展开后的三维构造，可以分辨出座舱和聚变发动机等部分，还有座舱中那个卷曲的人体。在另一个二维化的人体上，可以清楚地分辨出骨骼和脉络，也可以认出身体的各个部位。在二维化的过程中，三维物体上的每个点都按照精确的几何规则投射到二维平面上，以至于这个二维体成为原三维太空艇和三维人体的两张最完整最精确的图纸，其所有的内部结构都在平面上排列出来，没有任何隐藏，但其映射规程与工程制图完全不同，从视觉上很难凭想象复制原来的三维形状。与工程图纸最大的不同是，二维展开是在各个尺度层面上进行的，曾经隐藏在三维构型中的所有结构和细节都在二维平面排列出来，于是也呈现了从四维空间看三维世界时的无限细节。这很像几何学中的分形图案，把图中的任何部分放大，仍然具有同样的复杂度，但分形图案只是一个理论概念，实际的图案受分辨率限制，放大到一定程度后就失去了分形性质；而二维化后的三维物体的无限复杂度却是真实的，它的分辨率直达基本粒子尺度。在飞船的监视器上，肉眼只能看到有限的尺度层次，但其复杂和精细已经令人目眩；这是宇宙中最复杂的图形，盯着看久了会让人发疯的。
Bai Ice calmly announced his judgment. “Lightspeed.”
白Ice把这判决平静地说出来：“光速。”
The navigation system showed that Revelation was now moving in the opposite direction from its heading. It started by moving slowly toward the two-dimensional space, but gradually accelerated. The ship’s drive was still powering Full Ahead. This would at least slow down the rate of the ship’s fall and delay the inevitable.
导航系统显示，“启示”号已经出现了与推进方向相反的负加速，开始向二维平面所在的方向移动，速度很慢，但渐渐加快。发动机仍在全功率开动，这样可以减缓飞船跌落的速度，推迟最后结局的到来。
Of course, the pinnace and the crewmen no longer possessed any thickness.
但现在，太空艇和监视员的厚度都为零。
“Stop accelerating,” said Vasilenko. “What difference does a few minutes make? Let’s at least breathe easier at the end.”
“停止加速吧。”瓦西里说，“不在乎这点时间了，最后至少让我们轻松呼吸一会儿。”
Revelation slid faster toward the plane, toward that abyss whose thickness was zero.
“启示”号加速滑向二维平面，滑向那厚度为零的深渊。
“You know what I’m thinking of? Needle-Eye’s pictures from Yun Tianming’s fairy tales,” Bai Ice said.
“各位，知道我想到了什么？云天明的童话故事，针眼画师的画。”白Ice说。
It was unclear how large the plane had spread by now; only those two images indicated its presence.
不知道现在二维平面已经扩展到多大的面积，只有那两片图形显示出它的存在。
“Everyone, don’t be sad. No one will be able to escape from the Solar System, not even a bacteria or virus. All of us will become a part of this grand picture.” Bai Ice now looked calm and stoic.
“各位，不要沮丧，太阳系内没有人能逃脱，甚至一个细菌一个病毒都不能幸存，都将成为这张巨画的一部分。”白Ice说，他现在看起来从容淡定。
Revelation’s engine shut off. The plasma column at the stern of the ship disappeared, and the ship drifted, powerless, in space. In reality, the ship was still accelerating toward the two-dimensional patch of space, but since the ship moved along with the surrounding space, those inside could not feel any gravity from acceleration. They enjoyed the weightlessness and took deep breaths.
“启示”号的发动机关闭了，飞船尾部的等离子体火柱消失，飞船飘浮在寂静的太空中。其实，飞船现在仍在向二维平面方向加速，但由于是随周围的空间一起运动，飞船里的人门感觉不到加速产生的过载，他们都处于失重中，惬意地呼吸着。
It was true that both dark forest strikes humans had witnessed involved photoids, but they ignored a salient fact: Those two target planetary systems were structured differently from the Solar System. The star known as 187J3X1 had three giant Jupiter-like planets, but they all orbited extremely close to their sun. Their average distance from the sun was but 3 percent of the distance from Jupiter to the Sun, even closer than Mercury’s orbit. Since they almost brushed up against their sun, the solar explosion destroyed them completely, and they could not have been used as barriers. The Trisolaran system, on the other hand, had only one planet, Trisolaris.
人类已经观测到的两次黑暗森林打击确实都来自光粒，但人们忽略了一个事实：这两个星系与太阳系有着不同的结构，187J3X1有四颗类木巨行星，但它们的运行轨道半径极小（以公元世纪的观测技术也只能发现这样的太阳系外行星），平均仅为木星与太阳距离的百分之三，比水星与太阳的距离还近，几乎紧贴恒星，在恒星爆发时将被完全摧毁，不能用作掩体；而三体星系，只有一颗行星。
He probably thought that with the knowledge of Blue Space and Gravity’s discoveries, humanity would understand the metaphor. Unfortunately, he had overestimated their ability to comprehend.
但他还是高估了人们的理解力。他可能认为，有了“蓝色空间”号和“万有引力”号的发现，人们能够解读这个隐喻。
Only a few people aboard Revelation knew about Yun Tianming’s secret message. Now, in a flash, they all understood the meaning of this detail in the stories. It was a simple metaphor, and there were no bearing coordinates because it was so direct. Yun must have thought he was taking a great risk to put such an obvious metaphor into his stories, yet he had to try because the message was so important.
“启示”号上只有一小部分人知道云天明情报的事，现在，仅仅一瞬间，这些人都明白了这个情节的真实含义。这是一个单独的隐喻，没有任何含义坐标，因为它太简单太直接了。很可能云天明认为自己把如此明显的隐喻放入故事是一个大冒险，但他冒了这个险，因为这个情报极其重要。
The inability to decipher this key piece of information led humanity to place all their hopes in the Bunker Project.
这一关键情报的缺失，使人类把希望寄托于掩体工程。
The structure of the planetary system around a star was a characteristic observable from a distance. For a sufficiently advanced civilization, a quick glance was sufficient.
恒星的行星结构是一个能够在宇宙中远程观测到的星系特征，这种观测对于高技术文明而言可能膘一眼就行了。
If humans could figure out the plan to use the gas giants as barriers, couldn’t observers from such advanced civilizations do so, as well?
如果人类能想出利用这些气态巨行星作为屏障的计划，那么来自如此先进文明的观测者就不能也这么做吗？
Weakness and ignorance are not barriers to survival, but arrogance is.
弱小和无知不是生存的障碍，傲慢才是。
“Thank you, everyone, for doing your duty. Although we haven’t been together long, we worked together well,” Vasilenko said.
“谢谢各位的尽职尽责，我们虽在一起时间不长，但合作得很愉快。”
“I also thank every member of the human race,” said Bai Ice. “Once, we lived together in the Solar System.”
瓦西里说。“也谢谢所有的人，我们曾一同生活在太阳系。”白Ice说。
Revelation fell into the two-dimensional space. In a few seconds, it was flattened. Light akin to fireworks once again lit up the darkness of space. This was a vast two-dimensional image that could be clearly seen from Alaska, a hundred thousand kilometers away. It was possible to distinguish every individual on Revelation: They were laid out side by side, holding hands, every single cell in their body exposed to space in two dimensions. They were the first to be painted into this grand painting of annihilation.
“启示”号坠人二维空间，它被二维化的速度很快，只有几秒钟，焰火般的光芒再一次照亮了黑暗的太空。这是一幅面积广阔的二维图画，从十万千米外的“阿拉斯加”号上可以清晰地观察到。在这幅图画上，可以清楚地分辨出“启示”号上的每一个人，他们手拉手拥聚在一起，驱体中的每一个细胞都以二维状态袒露在太空中，成为毁灭巨画中最先被画入的人。
Revelation was now no more than a thousand kilometers from the plane; it fell faster and faster.
“启示”号距二维平面已经不到一千千米了，它坠落的速度越来越快。
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