“It’s ridiculous for you to blame yourself for the destruction of the Solar System. Who do you think you are? Do you think if you stand on your hands, you’ve lifted the Earth? Even if you hadn’t stopped Wade, the outcome of that war would have been hard to predict.
她对程心说，你认为是自己的错误毁灭了太阳系那是很可笑的，这样想实在是太自命不凡了，就像你在地面上做一个倒立，就认为自己举起了地球一样。即使你当时没有制止维德，那场战争的结局也很难预测。
Halo shut off the curvature engine and coasted at lightspeed.
“星环”号关闭了曲率引擎，以光速滑行。
During the voyage, AA tried to comfort Cheng Xin, even though she knew this was a hopeless task.
航程中，AA一直在试图安慰程心，虽然她知道这已经是一件自己力所不能及的事。
“Could Halo City really have achieved independence? Even Wade couldn’t be certain of that. Could the Federation Government and Fleet really have been scared of a few antimatter bullets? Maybe Halo City could have destroyed a few warships, or even a space city, but ultimately, Halo City would have been exterminated by the Federation Fleet. And in that version of history, there would be no Mercury base, no second chance.
星环城真的能够获得独立吗？这点连维德自己也没有信心。联邦政府和舰队真的会被几粒反物质子弹吓住？也许星环城的守卫者能摧毁几艘战舰，甚至一座太空城，但星环城最后会被联邦舰队消灭，这种情况下可能连以后建设水星基地都不可能了。
“Even if Halo City had managed to achieve independence, continued to research curvature propulsion, discovered the slowing effects of the trails, and finally collaborated with the Federation Government to build more than a thousand lightspeed ships in time, do you think people would have agreed to build the black domain? Remember how confident people were that the Bunker World would survive a dark forest strike — why would they have agreed to isolate themselves in the black domain?”
从另一个方面想，即使星环城独立，继续曲率驱动的研究并发现了尾迹效应，最后与联邦政府合作，有充足的时间造出一千多艘光速飞船，但人类世界真的会为自己建立黑域吗？要知道那时人们已经信心满满，认为掩体世界能够躲过黑暗森林打击并生存下去，他们真的会用黑域把自己与宇宙隔绝吗？
Cheng Xin spent a long time gazing out of the portholes at space. She understood that each time a star leapt out of the blue cluster in front, swept past the ship, and joined the red cluster behind the ship, it meant that Halo had passed it. She counted the stars and watched as they turned from blue to red — the sight was hypnotic. Eventually, she fell asleep.
程心长时间地透过舷窗看着光速视野中的太空，她知道，从前方那发出蓝光的星团中每跳出一颗星星，掠过飞船后飞进后方红色的星团，就意味着“星环”号飞过了一颗恒星。她数着那一颗又一颗跳出的星星，目送着它们掠过，看着它们由蓝变红，这种行为具有很强的催眠效应，她终于睡着了。
AA’s words slid across Cheng Xin’s thoughts like drops of water across a lily pad, leaving no trace. Cheng Xin’s only thought was to find Yun Tianming and tell him everything. In her mind, a journey of 287 light-years would take a long time, but the ship’s AI informed her that the trip would only take fifty-two hours in the ship’s frame of reference. Everything felt unreal to Cheng Xin, as though she had already died and gone to another world.
AA的话就像荷叶上的水滴从程心的思想中滑过，没有留下任何痕迹。程心现在唯一的希望就是见到云天明，向他倾诉这一切。在她的印象中，二百八十七光年是一段极其漫长的航程，但飞船AI告她，在飞船的参照系内，航行时间只有五十二个小时。程心有一种极其不真实的感觉，有时她觉得自己已经死了，正身处另一个世界。
By the time Cheng Xin awakened, Halo was close to its destination. It turned 180 degrees and activated the curvature engine for deceleration — in fact, the ship was pushing against its own trail. As the ship decelerated, the blue and red clusters began to spread out like two clusters of exploding fireworks, and soon evolved into a sea of stars distributed evenly around the ship. The slowing down of the ship also gradually erased the red and blue shifts. Cheng Xin and AA saw that the Milky Way ahead of them still looked about the same, but behind them, none of the stars looked familiar. The Solar System was long gone.
当程心醒来时，“星环”号已经接近目的恒星，它的船身旋转了一百八十度，曲率引擎对着前进方向开始减速。这时，飞船其实是在推着航迹前进。减速开始后，前方的蓝色星团和后方的红色星团都在渐渐散开，像两团绽放的焰火一般，很快扩散成满天的星海。随着速度的降低，多普勒效应产生的蓝色和红色也渐渐消退。程心和AA看到，前方的银河系的形状没有发生肉眼能够觉察到的变化，但向后看，只见到一片陌生的星群，太阳系早已无影无踪。
Cheng Xin sighed. For the Solar System in its current condition, was there a difference between 286 years and 2.86 million years? But she thought of something.
程心轻轻叹息，对现在的太阳系而言，二百八十六年抑或二百八十六万年，有什么区别？但她突然想到一件事。
“So two hundred eighty-six years has already passed back there?” AA asked. She looked as if she had just awakened from a dream.
“也就是说，那里已经过去了二百八十六年？”AA问，一脸如梦初醒的样子。
“We’re now two hundred eighty-six point five light-years from the Solar System,” said the ship’s AI.
“我们现在距太阳系二百八十六点五光年。”飞船AI说。
“Yes, if you are using their frame of reference.”
“以那个参照系而言，是的。”
It was best to not think about it too much.
对这件事，最明智的做法是别再去想它了。
Would the collapse never stop?
跌落永远不会停止吗？！
“When did the collapse into two dimensions stop?”
“在那儿，向二维的跌落什么时候停止？”
The question made AA speechless, as well. Right: When — if ever — did it stop? Was there an instruction within that small, packaged two-dimensional foil that would eventually stop it? Cheng Xin and AA had no theoretical understanding of how three-dimensional space collapsed into two dimensions, but they instinctively thought the idea of an instruction embedded into two-dimensional space to halt its infinite expansion was too magical, the kind of magic that seemed impossible.
这个问题也让AA呆了好一会儿。是啊，什么时候停止？最初那片小小的二维空间中，是否设定了一个在某个时间停止的指令？对于二维空间以及三维向二维的跌落，程心和AA没有任何理论知识，但直觉告诉她们那不太可能，那个嵌入到二维空间中的停止指令或程序真的太玄乎了玄乎到不太可能。
The star called DX3906 was about the Sun’s size. As Halo began decelerating, it still looked like an ordinary star, but by the time the curvature engine shut off, the star appeared as a disk whose light seemed redder than the Sun’s.
DX3906恒星的大小与太阳接近。“星环”号开始减速时，从飞船上看它还是一颗普通的星星，但当曲率引擎停止时，这颗恒星已经能够看出圆盘形状，与太阳相比，它发出的光偏红。
Halo engaged the fusion reactor, and the silence on the ship was broken. The humming of the engine filled the ship, and every surface vibrated slightly. The ship’s AI analyzed the data obtained by the monitoring system and confirmed the basic facts about this solar system: DX3906 had two planets, both of them solid. The one farther from the star was about the size of Mars, but it had no atmosphere and appeared gray in color — so Cheng Xin and AA decided to call it Planet Gray. The other planet, closer to the star, was about the size of the Earth, and its surface resembled the Earth’s: an atmosphere containing oxygen and many signs of life, but without evidence of agriculture or industry. Since it was blue, like the Earth, they decided to call it Planet Blue.
“星环”号关闭曲率引擎后，启动了聚变发动机，飞船上的宁静被打破了，出现了推进器的嗡嗡声和微微的震动。飞船AI对监测系统刚刚得到的数据进行分析，重新确定了这个星系的基本状况：DX3906恒星有两颗行星，都是固态行星，其中距恒星较远的一颗体积与火星相当，但没有大气层，表面十分荒凉，由于它呈灰色，程心和AA把它叫做灰星。轨道半径较小的另一颗行星体积与地球相当，表面特征也与地球十分相似，有含氧大气层，且有明显的生命迹象，但没有发现农业和工业文明存在的痕迹；它像地球一样呈现出蓝色，她们叫它蓝星。
AA was very happy that her research had been confirmed. More than four hundred years ago, she had discovered the star’s planetary system. Before then, people had thought it was a bare star without any planets. Through that work, AA had gotten to know Cheng Xin. Without that coincidence, her life would have turned out completely differently. Fate was such an odd thing: Four centuries ago, when she had gazed at this distant world through the telescope, she could never have imagined that she’d come here one day.
AA很高兴，她的研究成果得到了证实。四百多年前，她的博士学位研究项目就是发现这颗恒星的行星，之前人们认为这是一颗没有行星的裸星。AA也正是由此认识了程心，如果没有这些经历，她的生活将完全是另一个样子。命运真的很奇特，四个世纪前，她从天文望远镜中无数次凝视那个遥远的世界时，做梦也想不到有一天会来到这里。
Halo had taken only fifty-two hours (by the ship’s frame of reference) to traverse the 286 light-years between the Solar System and the planetary system around DX3906, but it took eight full days to cross the sixty AU between the rim of the planetary system and Planet Blue at sub-light speeds. As Halo approached Planet Blue, Cheng Xin and AA discovered that its resemblance to the Earth was only superficial. The blue hue of this planet wasn’t the result of an ocean, but the color of the vegetation covering the continents. Planet Blue’s oceans were light yellow and took up only about a fifth of the planet’s surface. Planet Blue was a cold world; about a third of its continental surface was covered by blue vegetation, with the rest shrouded in snow. Most of the ocean was frozen, and only small patches near the equator were in liquid form.
“星环”号飞越太阳系到DX3906间的二百八十六光年只用了五十二个小时，但以亚光速从这个星系的边缘行驶到那颗类地行星，这仅仅六十个天文单位的路程却用了整整八天时间。在飞船接近蓝星时，程心和AA发现它与地球外观上的相似是虚假的。这颗行星的蓝色并不是海洋的颜色，而是陆地上植被的色彩。蓝星上的海洋呈淡黄色，面积只占星球表面积的五分之一。蓝星是一个寒冷的世界，它的陆地除了约三分之一的蓝色区域，大部分被白雪覆盖，海洋也大部分封冻，只有靠近赤道的小片区域处于融化状态。
“No. They were impossible to see in the visible light range. Maybe those telescopes from the Solar System advance warning system could have seen them, but all I could do was deduce their existence through the data obtained via the solar gravitational lens… I did theorize about the appearance of these two planets, and it looks like I was basically right.”
“不行，在可见光波段看不到，也许后来太阳系预警系统的望远镜能看到，我那时只有通过太阳引力透镜采集的数据来分析……我推测过这两颗行星的样子，和现在看到的差不多。”
“Were you able to see these two planets back then?” Cheng Xin asked.
“当时你能看到这两颗行星吗？”程心问。
“Do you think it’s him?” AA asked.
“是不是他？”AA兴奋地问。
Cheng Xin and AA looked at each other excitedly. “Yes!” Cheng Xin said. “Follow its instructions to land.”
程心和AA激动地对视了一眼，程心说：“接受！按它的指引着陆。”
Halo entered orbit around Planet Blue and began its descent. But the ship’s AI announced a new discovery. “An intelligent radio signal has been detected from the surface. It’s a landing beacon using communication formats dating from the start of the Crisis Era. Would you like me to follow its instructions?”
“星环”号泊入蓝星的轨道，开始逐渐下降，这时，飞船AI突然有了一个重要发现：“接收到一个来自行星表面的智慧电磁信号，是着陆导航信号，威慑纪元初期的格式，接受这个着陆指引吗？”
Cheng Xin shook her head. In her life, moments of happiness were only gaps between mass catastrophes. She was now afraid of happiness.
程心轻轻摇摇头，在她过去的生活中，幸运的时光只是大灾难和大毁灭的间隙，她对幸运有些恐惧了。
Cheng Xin and AA sat in hypergravity seats, and the seats closed around them like giant palms squeezing them tight.
程心和AA坐进加速座椅，座椅像大手掌般合拢，把她们握在中间。
“Hypergravity will approach 4G. Please enter into secured landing positions. Landing sequence will be initiated once you’re secure.”
“将出现4G超重，请进入加速位置，准备好后指令执行。”AI说。
Halo decelerated and descended, entering Planet Blue’s atmosphere after a series of powerful jolts. They could see the blue-and-white continents swinging into view in the images captured by the ship’s monitoring system.
“星环”号开始减速，轨道急剧降低。很快，在一阵剧烈的震动中，飞船进入蓝星的大气层。在监视系统传回的画面中，蓝白相间的大陆充满了整个视野。
Twenty minutes later, Halo landed near the equator. The ship’s AI suggested that Cheng Xin and AA wait ten minutes before getting out of their seats, to give their bodies a chance to adjust to Planet Blue’s gravity, which was similar to the Earth’s. Out of the porthole and on the monitoring system terminals, they could see that the yacht had landed in the middle of a blue grassland. Not too far away, they could see rolling mountains covered by snow — the landing site was near the foot of the mountain range. The sky was a light yellow, like the ocean when viewed from space. A light red sun shone in the sky. It was noon on Planet Blue, but the sky and the sun’s colors made it resemble dusk on the Earth.
二十分钟后，“星环”号在赤道附近的陆地上着陆了。飞船AI吩咐程心和AA十分钟后再从座椅上起身，以适应蓝星与地球基本相同的重力。从舷窗和监视画面中可以看到，飞船着陆的地点是一片蓝色的草原，不远处可以看到被皑皑白雪覆盖的群山，这里已经靠近山脚。天空是淡黄色的，与在太空中见到的海洋的颜色一样，浅红色的太阳正在空中照耀着，这是蓝星的正午，但天空和太阳的色彩看上去像地球的黄昏。
Cheng Xin and AA didn’t examine the environment around them too carefully. Their attention was taken up by another small vehicle parked near Halo. It was a tiny craft, about four to five meters tall, with a dark gray surface. The profile was streamlined, but the tail fins were tiny. It didn’t seem to be an aircraft, but rather a ground-to-space shuttle.
程心和AA都没有仔细观察蓝星的环境，她们的注意力被停泊在“星环”号附近的一架飞行器吸引了。那是一架小型飞行器，有四五米高，表面是暗灰色，呈流线型，尾翼很小，不像是在大气层中飞行的，像是来往于太空轨道和地面间的穿梭机。
A man stood next to the shuttle, dressed in a white jacket and dark-colored pants. The turbulence of Halo’s landing disturbed his hair.
飞行器旁边站着一个人，一个男人，穿着白色的夹克和深色的裤子“星环”号着陆时的气流吹乱了他的头发。
Cheng Xin shook her head. She knew right away that this wasn’t Yun Tianming.
程心轻轻摇头，远远看一眼，她就知道那人不是云天明。
The man waded through the blue sea of grass toward Halo. He moved slowly, and his posture and movements showed some exhaustion. He didn’t show any signs of surprise or excitement, as if the appearance of Halo was a perfectly normal occurrence. He stopped a few tens of meters away from the yacht and waited patiently in the grass.
那人踏着蓝色的草浪向“星环”号走来，走得不快，步态和身姿都透出些许彼惫、也没有任何惊奇与兴奋、仿佛“星环”号的出现是一件很平常的事。他走到距飞船十几米处停下，站在草地上耐心等待着。
“Is that him?” AA asked.
“是他吗？”AA紧张地问道。
The man looked to be in his forties. He was East Asian in appearance, and he was indeed more handsome than Yun Tianming, with a broad forehead and wise but gentle eyes. His gaze made you believe he was always thinking, as if nothing in the universe, including Halo, could surprise him, but only cause him to think more. He lifted his hands and moved them around his head, indicating a helmet. Then he shook his head and waved one hand, indicating that they didn’t need space suits out there.
这人看上去四十岁左右，东方面孔。长得确实比云天明帅，额头宽阔，有一双睿智而温和的眼睛，那目光让人惑觉他时时刻刻都若有所思，仿佛包括“星环”号在内的任何东西都永远引不起他的惊奇，只会使他思考。他举起双手做一个围住脑袋的姿势，是在表示头盔，然后一只手摆一摆，摇摇头，这显然是在表示出舱时不需要穿太空服。
“He’s good-looking,” said AA.
“他挺帅的。”AA说。
The ship’s AI agreed. “Atmospheric composition: thirty-five percent oxygen, sixty-three percent nitrogen, two percent carbon dioxide, with trace amounts of inert gasses. Breathable. But the atmospheric pressure is only point five three of Earth standard. Do not engage in strenuous exercise.”
“大气成分：氧35%，氮63%，二氧化碳2%，还有微量惰性气体，可以呼吸，但大气压只有0.53个地球标准气压，出舱后不要剧烈活动。”飞船AI说。
“What is that biological entity standing next to the ship?” asked AA.
“站在飞船附近的那个生物是什么？”AA问。
Cheng Xin and AA exited the ship. They hadn’t adjusted to the gravity yet, and stumbled a bit as they walked.
程心和AA起身走出飞船，她们对重力还不太适应，步履有些病姗。
“Standard human being,” the AI replied.
“正常人类。”AI简单地回答。
Outside, they breathed easily, not feeling the thinness of the air. A chill breeze blew at them and brought the fragrance of grass, refreshing them. The wide-open view showed the blue-and-white mountains and earth, the light yellow sky and red sun. The whole thing resembled a false-color photograph of the Earth. Other than the strange colors, everything looked familiar. Even the blades of grass looked just like the grass on the Earth, except for their blue hue. The man came to the foot of the stairs.
走出舱门，呼吸很顺畅，并没有感到空气的稀薄。迎面吹来一阵风，很冷，但并不凛冽，其中还有一种青草的味道，给她们一种清爽的感觉。视野豁然开朗，蓝白相间的大地和山脉，淡黄色的天空和红色的太阳，这一切仿佛是一张伪造的地球彩色照片，除了色彩变换，其他的都一样。比如地面上的草，除了颜色是蓝的，形状与地球上的草差别不大。那个男人已经来到舷梯下面。
“Yes.” She leaned against the man and descended the stairs. She felt her trust for him grow, and put more of her weight on him.
“是的。”程心点点头，在男人的搀扶下小心翼翼地往舷梯下走，她对他的信任感在增强，便把更多的身体重量压在他身上。
“I know. Did anyone else escape?”
“知道，还有人跑出来吗？”
His hand felt warm and strong to Cheng Xin, and his broad body shielded her from the chill wind. She had the impulse to jump into this man’s arms, the first man she had met after traveling more than two hundred light-years from the Solar System.
程心感到他的手温暖而有力，他稳健的身体也为她挡住了寒风。面对这个在距太阳系两百多光年外的远方遇到的第一个男人，她有一种扑到他怀中的愿望。
“Did you come from the Solar System?” the man asked.
“你们是从太阳系来的吗？”男人问。
Cheng Xin was now on the ground. She sank her feet into the soft grass and sat down on the bottom step. “Probably not.”
这时程心已经下到地面，站在柔软的草丛中，她在舷梯最下面一级疲惫地坐下，同时摇摇头，“可能没有了。”
“Oh…” The man nodded and climbed up again to help AA. “My name is Guan Yifan. I’ve been waiting for you here.”
“哦……”男人点点头，走上舷梯去扶AA，“我叫关一帆，在这里还真等到你们了。”
“Wait a minute. The stairs are too steep. I’ll help you down.” He climbed up the stairs easily and helped Cheng Xin down. “You should have rested longer before coming out. There’s no urgency.” Cheng Xin could hear an obvious Deterrence Era accent.
“等一等，梯子太陡，我扶你们下来吧。”男人一边说着，一边步履轻捷地登上舷梯，首先扶着程心向下走，“你们应该多休息一会儿再出来、这儿没有什么要紧的事。”程心听出，他有着明显的威慑纪元的口音。
“There’s no more Solar System,” AA said as she sat down at the top of the stairs.
“太阳系已经没有了。”AA说，她在舷梯顶部坐下。
“In museums.”
“在博物馆。”
“You’re from Blue Space?”
“你是‘蓝色空间’号上的人吗？”
“Ha! If you’d asked those who had just left that question, they’d think you very strange. Blue Space and Gravity are ancient history from more than four centuries ago. But I really am an ancient. I was a civilian astronomer aboard Gravity. I’ve been hibernating for four centuries, and only awakened five years ago.”
“呵呵，如果对刚走的那些人提这个问题，他们肯定很奇怪，‘蓝色空间’号和‘万有引力’号上的人现在已经是四个世纪前的古人了。不过，我还真是个古人，我是‘万有引力’号上的随舰研究员，这四个世纪一直在冬眠，五年前才苏醒。”
“Where are the museums?” AA asked. She put her arm around Yifan’s shoulder so that Yifan was practically carrying her down.
“搏物馆在哪儿？”AA问，她扶着关一帆的肩膀，几乎是被他抱着下来。
“How many worlds are there?”
“一共有几个世界？”
“How did you know we would come?” AA asked, allowing Yifan to hold her hand.
“你知道我们要来？”AA把手伸给关一帆时说。
“We received your gravitational wave transmission.”
“收到了你们的弓}力波信息。”
“On World I and World IV.”
“在一号和四号世界里。”
“Four. And two more are being opened up for settlement.”
“四个，还有两个正在拓荒中。”
“Where are Blue Space and Gravity now?” Cheng Xin struggled to stand, pulling herself up by the railing of the stairs. Yifan continued down with AA.
“‘蓝色空间’号和‘万有引力’号现在在哪儿？”程心扶着舷梯栏杆吃力地站起来，看着正在扶AA下来的关一帆问。
“Where are all these worlds?”
“这些世界都在哪儿？”
Guan Yifan gently deposited AA on the ground and laughed. “A word of advice: In the future, no matter who you meet — human or otherwise — don’t ask for the location of their worlds. That’s a basic bit of manners in the cosmos — like how it’s impolite to ask a lady’s age… Nonetheless, let me ask you, how old are you now?”
这时，关一帆已经把AA扶到地面，他放开她，笑着说：“二位，以后不管遇到谁，人类或别的任何有智慧的东西，不要问他们的世界在哪儿，这是这个宇宙的基本礼节，就像不要问女士的年龄……不过我还是想问，你们都多大了？”
“I had seen pictures in transmissions from Earth. Four centuries ago.”
“从地球收到的图像中见过，那也是四个世纪前的事了。”
“We’re as old as we look,” AA said, and sat down on the grass. “She’s seven hundred and I’m five hundred.”
“你看着像多大就多大吧，她七百岁，我五百岁，就是这样。”AA说，在草地上坐下来。
“How many people are on this planet?” Cheng Xin asked.
“这里有多少人，这颗行星上？”程心问。
“Yes. This is close to the center of the Orion Arm. Two busy shipping lanes flow through here.”
“是的，这一带靠近猎户旋臂的中心，有两条繁忙的航线。”
“You know her?” AA looked up at Guan Yifan.
“你认识她？”AA抬头看着关一帆问。
“Dr. Cheng looks about the same as she did four centuries ago.”
“程心博士与四个世纪前相比几乎没变。”
“Then what are you doing here? Just waiting for us?”
“那你在这里做什么，就为等我们吗？”
“It’s too dangerous. Outsiders come here often.”
“这里很危险，外人常来。”
“You mean the natural environment? Not at all. In some places, the air is barely breathable, even after a century of terraforming. This is one of the best planets we’ve seen for settlement. Although we welcome you here, Dr. Cheng Xin, we do not recognize your claim of title.”
“你是说自然环境吗？当然不是，在那些地方，经过一个世纪的改造后，大气层才勉强能呼吸。这是个好地方，我们见过的最好的地方，只是程心博士，我们欢迎你到这里来，但不能承认你对这里的所有权。”
“I’d given that up a long time ago,” Cheng Xin said. “So why haven’t people settled here?”
“我早就放弃所有权了。”程心说，“那为什么不向这里移民呢？”
“Just the three of us.”
“三个，就我们三个。”
“Outsiders? Extraterrestrials?” AA asked.
“外人？外星人？”AA问。
“That must mean that your worlds are all better than this one,” AA said.
“这么说，你们那几个世界都比这里好？”AA吃惊地问道。
“No. I came with an exploratory expedition. They’ve already left, but I stayed to wait for you.”
“不，我是和一支考察队过来的，他们已经离开了，我留下来等你们。”
About a dozen hours later, the three welcomed night on Planet Blue. There was no moon, but compared to the Earth, the stars here were far brighter. The Milky Way was like a sea of silver fire that cast their shadows on the ground. This place wasn’t much closer to the center of the galaxy than the Solar System. However, the space between here and the Sun was filled with interstellar dust, making the Milky Way appear much dimmer from the Solar System.
十几个小时后，三人迎来了蓝星的夜晚。夜空中没有月亮，但与地球相比，这里的星空要明亮许多，银河系像银色的火海一般，能够在地上映出人影。其实与太阳系相比，这里距银河系的中心并没有近多少，可能是这二百八一f一七光年的空间中有星际尘埃，使太阳系看到的银河黯淡了许多。
In the bright starlight, they could see the grass around them moving. At first, Cheng Xin and AA thought it was an illusion produced by the wind, but then they realized that the grass underfoot was writhing as well, and making a rustling noise. Yifan told them that the blue grass really did move. The roots of the grass were also feet, and as the seasons changed, the grass migrated across the latitudes, mainly at night. As soon as AA heard that, she tossed away the stalks of grass she was playing with in her hands. Yifan explained that the blades of grass really were plants, and relied on photosynthesis, possessing only a basic sense of touch. The other plants in this world were also capable of moving. He pointed to the mountains and they saw the forests moving in the starlight. The trees moved far faster than the grass, and resembled armies marching at night.
在明亮的星光中，可以看到草地的许多部分在移动，程心和AA最初以为是风造成的幻觉，结果发现自己脚下的草丛也在移动，并发出细微的沙沙声。关一帆告诉她们，蓝草确实会动，它们的根须也是脚，每年的不同季节，草丛都会在不同的纬度间迁徙，主要是在夜间行走。AA听到这话，立刻把手中把玩的两片草叶扔了。关一帆说这些草确实是植物，靠光合作用生存，只有简单的触觉。这个世界的其他植物也能行走，他指给她们看远方的山脊，可以看到在星光下移动的树林，那些树木行走的速度比草要快许多，远远看去像夜行的军队一样。
Yifan pointed at a spot in the sky where the stars were slightly less dense. “A few days ago we could see the Sun in that direction, much more clearly than you could see this star from the Earth. Of course, what we saw was the Sun of two hundred eighty-seven years ago. The Sun went out on the day the expedition left me here.”
关一帆指着夜空中一个星星比较稀疏的方向说：“看那里，就在前几天，那里还能看到太阳，比从地球上看我们这里的这颗恒星要清楚，当然，那是二百八十七年前的太阳了。太阳是在考察队离开的那天熄灭的。”
“The Sun is no longer emitting light, but its area is huge. Perhaps you can still see it through telescopes,” AA said.
“太阳只是不发光了，但面积很大，从这里用望远镜也许能看到。”AA说。
“No, you won’t be able to see anything.” Yifan shook his head and pointed at that patch of sky again. “Even if you go back there now, you wouldn’t be able to see anything. That part of space is empty. The two-dimensional Sun and planets you saw were actually just the result of the release of energy when three-dimensional material collapsed into two dimensions. What you saw wasn’t two-dimensional material, only the refraction of electromagnetic radiation at the interface between two-dimensional and three-dimensional space. After the energy was released, nothing would be visible. The two-dimensional Solar Space has no contact with three-dimensional space.”
“不，什么都看不到了。”关一帆摇摇头，又指了指那片空旷的夜空，“即使你们现在回到那里去，也看不到什么了，那里已经是空荡荡的太空，一无所有。你们看到的二维太阳和行星，其实是二维化后三维物质的一种能量释放效应。你们看到的其实不只是二维物质，是它们释放的电磁波在二维和三维空间交界面的折射，能量释放完成后，一切都不可见了，二维太阳系与三维世界永远失去了联系。”
“There’s no way at all?” AA asked.
“用什么办法都看不到吗？”AA问。
“True. I personally got to see three-dimensional space from four-dimensional space, but it’s not possible to see the two-dimensional world from three dimensions. This is because three-dimensional space has thickness, meaning that there is a dimension that could stop and scatter the light from four-dimensional space, making it visible from four dimensions. But two-dimensional space has no thickness, so light from three-dimensional space passes through it without hindrance. The two-dimensional world is completely transparent and cannot be seen.”
“是的，我就从四维看过三维，但三维看不到二维，因为三维是有厚度的，有一个维度可以阻挡和散射来自四维的光线，所以能够从四维看到；但二维没有厚度，三维世界的光线能够完全穿过，所以二维世界是全透明的，不可能看到。”
“How can that be?” Cheng Xin asked. “It’s possible to see the three-dimensional world from four-dimensional space.”
“怎么会呢？在四维空间是可以看到三维世界的。”程心说。
“No. In theory, nothing allows it.”
“看不到，从理论上讲也不可能看到。”
But Guan Yifan did bring them a bit of comfort. “There’s only one way to detect the presence of the two-dimensional Solar System from three-dimensional space: gravity. The gravity of the Solar System still has an effect, so, in that empty space ought to be detectable as an invisible source of gravity.”
但关一帆随即给了她们一个小小的安慰：“从三维世界可以凭一样东西检测到二维太阳系的存在。仅此一样引力。二维太阳系的万有引力仍作用于三维世界，所以，那片空荡荡的太空中应该存在着一个完全看不见的引力源。”
Cheng Xin and AA were silent for a while. The Solar System had disappeared completely. The only hope they had held out for the mother world was gone.
程心和AA沉默许久。太阳系完全消失了，她们对母亲世界仅有的一点寄托原来也不存在。
Cheng Xin and AA looked at each other thoughtfully.
程心和AA若有所思地对视着。
“You know Yun Tianming?” AA asked.
“你知道云天明吗？”AA问。
“No.”
“不知道。”
“What about the Trisolaran Fleet?” Cheng Xin asked.
“三体舰队呢？”程心问。
“Sounds like dark matter, doesn’t it?” Yifan laughed. Then he changed the subject. “Why don’t we talk about the date you came for?”
“有些熟悉，是不是？1”关一帆笑着问，他随即转移了话题，“还是谈谈这让人想到暗物质。你们来赴的约会吧。”
“We don’t know much. The First and Second Trisolaran Fleets never joined together. More than sixty years ago, there was a large-scale space battle near Taurus. It was brutal, and the resulting wreckage formed a new interstellar dust cloud. We know that one of the sides in the battle was the Second Trisolaran Fleet, but we don’t know who they were fighting against. We also don’t know how the battle ended.”
“也知道得不多。三体第一舰队和第二舰队可能从来就没有会合。六十多年前，金牛座附近爆发了一场大规模战役，很惨烈，残骸形成了一片新的尘埃云。我们可以肯定其中的一方就是三体第二舰队，不知道另一方是谁，战役的结果也不清楚。”
“What happened to the First Trisolaran Fleet?” Cheng Xin asked. Her eyes flickered in the starlight.
“第一舰队呢？”程心关切地问，她的双眸在星光中闪亮。
“I agree!” AA said. Then she held Cheng Xin by the arm. “Let’s go with him. Even if you wait here for the rest of your life, you most likely won’t hear anything. Life shouldn’t be a lifetime of waiting.”
“我同意！”AA人说，然后挽住程心的胳膊，“我们跟他走吧，你就是在这里等一辈子，最大的可能也是什么都等不到，生活总不能全是等待吧？”
“We haven’t received any information about them… In any event, you shouldn’t stay here too long. This is not a safe place. Why don’t you come with me to our world? The terraforming there is over, and life is getting better.”
“不知道，没有任何消息……你们不能在这里待太长时间，这不是个安全的地方。跟我走，去我们的世界吧，那里拓荒时代已经结束，生活开始好起来了。”
They decided to wait one more day on Planet Blue before departing.
他们决定在蓝星再待一天就起航离开。
Guan Yifan had a small spaceship waiting in synchronous orbit. The ship was tiny and didn’t have a name, only a number. But Yifan called it Hunter, and explained that the name was to honor the memory of a friend who’d lived on Gravity more than four hundred years ago. Hunter was not equipped with an ecological cycling system, and for long voyages passengers had to enter hibernation. Although Hunter was only a few percent of Halo’s volume, it was also a lightspeed ship equipped with a curvature engine. They decided to have Yifan ride on Halo as well and control Hunter as a drone. Cheng Xin and AA didn’t ask about the course they would take, and Yifan even refused to answer questions about the duration of the anticipated voyage. He was extremely cautious when it came to information about the location of human worlds.
关一帆有一艘小型飞船停泊在蓝星的同步轨道上。飞船很小，没有名字，只有一个序列编号，但关一帆把它叫“亨特”号，说是为了纪念四百多年前“万有引力”号上的一个朋友。“亨特”号上没有生态循环系统，如果长期航行，乘员只能冬眠。“亨特”号的体积虽然只有“星环”号的几十分之一，却也是一艘曲率驱动的光速飞船。他们决定离开时，关一帆也乘“星环”号，让“亨特”号无人航行即可。程心和AA没有问航线的情况，甚至关于航行时间的问题，关一帆也都避而不答，可见对于人类世界的位置，他是极其谨慎的。
Cheng Xin nodded silently. She knew that she was chasing a dream.
程心默默地点点头，她知道自己追逐的是一个梦。
For the day, the three took short hikes in the vicinity of Halo. This was a day of many firsts for Cheng Xin, AA, and all the Solar System humans who had disappeared along with the home world: the first trip to an extrasolar planetary system; the first steps on the surface of an exoplanet; the first voyage to a world with life outside the Solar System.
这一天，三个人在“星环”号附近作短途旅行。对于程心、AA和已经消失的太阳系人类来说，这意味着许多个第一次：第一次航行到太阳系外的恒星系，第一次踏上太阳系外的行星，第一次进入一个太阳系之外的有生命的世界。
Guan Yifan was filled with admiration for Halo’s design. He said that for Galactic humans, people who had made their home in the Milky Way, there was one quality about Solar System humans that they did not inherit and could not learn: enjoyment of life. He spent much time in the lovely courtyards, and indulged himself with holographic projections of grand sights from ancient Earth. He still looked as thoughtful as ever, but his eyes were moist.
关一帆进入“星环”号，对这艘精致的恒星际飞船发出由衷的赞叹，他说，对于他们银河系人类来说，太阳系人类的一样东西是继承不了也学不会的，那就是生活的品位。他在那几个幽美的小庭院中流连许久，沉迷于地球全息影像的宏伟景观中，这时他仍是那种若有所思的样子，眼睛却有些湿润。
Compared with the Earth, the ecology of Planet Blue was relatively simple. Other than the mobile blue vegetation, there was not much life to be found, except for a few species of fish in the ocean. There were no complex animals on land, only simple insects. The world resembled a simplified Earth. It was possible for Earth plants to survive here, so humans could live here even without advanced technology.
与地球相比，蓝星上的生态系统十分简单，除了蓝色的可迁移的植物外，海洋中还有种类不多的鱼类，陆地上没有高等动物，只有简单的小昆虫，很像简化版的地球。这个世界可以生长地球的植物，所以，即使不借助任何技术，地球人类也能在这个世界生存下来。
During this time, 艾 AA cast Yifan frequent amorous glances. The relationship between them gradually changed as the day went on. AA thought up all kinds of excuses to be close to Yifan, and listened intently while he spoke, nodding from time to time and smiling. She had never behaved like this in front of any other man. During the centuries Cheng Xin had known her, AA had countless lovers, often dating two or more at the same time, but Cheng Xin knew that AA had never really been in love. However, she was clearly smitten with this cosmologist from the Deterrence Era. Cheng Xin was happy to see this. AA deserved a happy new life in this new world.
在这段时间里，艾AA总是在一旁含情脉脉地看着关一帆。这一天，他们之间的关系有了微妙的进展。在旅行中，AA总是设法与关一帆接近，当后者说话时，她总是全神贯注地倾听，还不时地微笑点头。以前，她从未在任何男人面前有过这种表现。在与程心结识后的这几个世纪，AA有过无数的情人，而且经常同时有两个以上——这是新时代正常的生活状态，但程心知道，AA从来没有真正爱过一个男性。现在，她显然爱上了这个来自威慑纪元的宇宙学家。对此程心感到很欣慰，到了新世界后，艾AA应该有一个美好的新生活了。
Night fell again. They decided to sleep aboard Halo and leave in the morning.
蓝星的夜又降临了，他们决定第二天天亮时起航。
As for Cheng Xin, she knew that she was spiritually dead. The only hope that had sustained her was finding Tianming, and now this hope seemed like an impossible dream. Truthfully, she had always known that a date made for four centuries later and 286 light-years away was an impossible dream. She would continue to keep her body alive, but it was just a matter of fulfilling her duty of preventing the death of half of the population to survive the destruction of Earth civilization.
对于自己，程心知道自己在精神上已经死了，能让她的精神继续活下去的唯一希望是云天明，现在这个希望成了泡影。其实，在二百八十六光年之外、四个世纪之后的一个约会本来就是泡影。在肉体上她当然会活下去，但那仅仅是尽责任，避免残存的地球文明的人口数量减半的责任。
At midnight, Guan Yifan was awakened by his wrist communicator. It was a call from Hunter in synchronous orbit. Hunter passed on the information gathered by the three small monitoring satellites left by the expedition — two of which orbited around Planet Blue and the last around Planet Gray. The alert had come from the one around Planet Gray.
午夜，在‘星环’号上熟睡的关一帆被左腕上通信器的鸣叫声惊醒，那是来自同步轨道上‘亨特’号的呼叫。‘亨特’号转发了监视卫星的信息；考察队留下了三颗小型监视卫星，其中一号和二号卫星布设在蓝星轨道上，三号则围绕本星系的另一颗行星——灰星运行，这条信息就来自三号卫星。
Thirty-five minutes ago, five unidentified spacecraft had landed on Planet Gray. Twelve minutes later, the spacecraft had lifted off and disappeared without even entering planetary orbit. There was strong interference with the satellite, and the images it transmitted were blurry.
三十五分钟前，有来历不明的宇宙飞行器在灰星表面降落，这是一支飞行器编队，共有五架。仅仅十二分钟后，这些飞行器就同时从灰星表面起飞，很快消失了，甚至没有观察到它们进入行星轨道。卫星也许受到了强烈干扰，只传回了模糊不清的图像。
Yifan’s expedition was responsible for seeking out and studying traces left in this planetary system by other civilizations. After receiving the alert from the satellite, he immediately decided to take the shuttle up to Hunter to investigate. Cheng Xin insisted on coming with him. Yifan initially refused, but agreed after AA spoke to him.
关一帆所在的这支考察队的任务，就是寻找并研究外星文明在这个星系留下的踪迹。收到监视卫星的信息后，他立刻决定乘”亨特“’号前往灰星探察。程心强烈要求同他一起去，关一帆开始坚决拒绝，但听到AA的一句话后同意了：
“Let her come with you. She wants to know whether this has anything to do with Yun Tianming.”
“让她去吧，她肯定想知道这是不是与云天明有关。”
Before departure, Yifan reminded AA to not communicate with Hunter unless it was an emergency. No one knew what other extraterrestrial monitoring equipment might be lurking in this system, and any communication could expose them to danger.
临行前，关一帆反复叮嘱AA，除非出现紧急情况，不要与“亨特”号通信联系，因为谁也不知道还有什么外来的东西藏在这个星系中，通信会暴露行踪。
In this lonely world of only three people, even a brief separation was an occasion for anxiety. AA hugged Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan and wished them a safe journey. Before stepping onto the shuttle, Cheng Xin looked back and saw AA waving at them, lit by the watery starlight. Blue grass surged around her, and the cold wind lifted her short hair and made ripples in the grass.
在这仅有三个人的孤寂世界中，即使短暂的分别也是一件让人激动的事，AA与程心和关一帆拥抱道别，祝他们平安。在登上穿梭机前，程心回头看，AA站在如水的星光中向他们挥手，大片的蓝草从她周围涌过，寒风吹起她的短发，也在移动的草地上激起道道波纹。
Like Halo, Hunter was equipped with both a curvature engine and a fusion engine. When traveling between planets within the same system, only the fusion engine was used, because the curvature engine would have caused the ship to overshoot the target with no time for deceleration. Hunter left orbit and headed for Planet Gray, which appeared as a small spot of light. Out of consideration for Cheng Xin, Guan Yifan initially limited the acceleration to 1.5G, but Cheng Xin told him not to worry about her and just make the trip faster. He increased the acceleration, the blue flame emitted by the nozzles doubled in length, and the hypergravity increased to 3G. At this point, all they could do was to sit in the embrace of the acceleration seats. They were not able to move much, so Yifan switched the ship to surround-holographic display mode, and the ship’s hull disappeared. Suspended in space, they watched Planet Blue recede. Cheng Xin imagined the 3G gravity as coming from Planet Blue so that space separated into up and down, and they were flying up toward the galaxy.
与“星环”号一样，“亨特”号也是曲率驱动和聚变发动机的双动力配置，在行星际航行时只能使用聚变发动机，因为曲率引擎刚启动就会使飞船越过目标行星，根本来不及减速。聚变发动机启动后，“亨特”号脱离蓝星轨道，飞向灰星，后者现在还只是一个亮点。为了照顾程心，关一帆最初只把加速过载限制在1.5G左右，但程心劝他不要顾虑她，尽可能快一些，于是他就提高了加速。推进器的蓝色火焰加长了一倍，过载达到3G：在这样的超重下，他们只能深陷在加速座椅中动弹不得。关一帆切换到全景显示，飞船从他们周围完全隐去了，他们悬浮在太空中，看着蓝星渐渐远离。这时，程心感到3G的重力是来自蓝星的，这重力使太空有了上下的方向感，他们正朝上方的银河飞去。
The shuttle took off. In the view from the monitoring system, Cheng Xin saw the grass lit up by the flame from the thruster, and the blue grass scattering in every direction. As the shuttle rose up, the bright patch on the ground quickly dimmed, and soon, the ground sank back into starlight.
穿梭机起飞了，在监视画面中，程心看到大片草地被推进器的火焰照亮，火光中的蓝草四散惊逃。随着穿梭机的上升，地面被照亮的区域很快暗下去，随后，已经远离的大地也再次沉浸在星光中。
An hour later, the shuttle docked with Hunter in synchronous orbit. Hunter was tetrahedral in shape, like a tiny pyramid. The inside was very cramped and bare, and most of the space was taken up by the hibernation chamber, which had a maximum capacity for four.
一个小时后，穿梭机在同步轨道上与“亨特”号对接，飞船的外形是四面体，像一座小金字塔，内部很狭窄，没有任何装饰物，供四人使用的冬眠舱占去了大部分空间。
It was possible to speak under 3G without too much trouble, so they began to converse. Cheng Xin asked Yifan why he had hibernated for so long. He told her that he had no duties during the long voyage searching for habitable worlds. After the two ships discovered the habitable World I, much of life consisted of opening up the world for settlement and constructing the basics. The first settlement resembled a small town from agrarian times, and the rough conditions did not permit any kind of scientific research. The new world’s government passed a resolution to let all scientists enter or remain in hibernation, to be awakened only when conditions permitted basic research. He was the only basic scientist aboard Gravity, although Blue Space had seven more. He was the last to be awakened of all the hibernators. Two centuries had passed since the day the two ships arrived at World I.
3G的超重对说话影响不大，他们很自然地聊了起来。程心问关一帆为什么冬眠了这么长时间，他告诉程心，在寻找可定居世界的航行中，他不用执勤，一直冬眠。在两舰发现了可定居的一号世界后，主要的生活就是拓荒和建设，定居点就像一个农业时代的小村镇。这时；没有开展科学研究的环境和条件，新世界政府通过一个决议，让所有的基础科学家冬眠，直到有条件开展基础研究时再苏醒。“万有引力”号上的基础科学家只有他一人，但“蓝色空间”号上有七名学者。在这些冬眠者中，他是最晚苏醒的，这时距两舰到达一号世界已经近两个世纪了。
Cheng Xin was mesmerized by Yifan’s account of the new human worlds. But she noticed that while he discussed Worlds I, II, and IV, nothing was said about III.
关一帆为程心介绍人类世界的情况，程心听得很入迷，但她往意到，关，帆谈到了一号、二号和四号世界，却从未提起过三号世界。
“It’s a reduced-lightspeed black hole produced by the trails of lightspeed ships. Something happened on World III that caused them to think that their coordinates had been exposed. They had no choice but to turn their world into such a black hole.”
“由光速飞船的尾迹产生的低光速黑洞，三号世界就是这样的一个黑洞。发生了一些事件，使他们认为自己世界的坐标已经暴露，所以只能这么做。”
“Ah, good name. As a matter of fact, the people of World III initially called it a light curtain, but outsiders referred to it as a light tomb.”
“嗯，这名字更贴切一些。其实，三号世界的人把它叫光幕，帷幕的幕，后来是外面的人把它叫光墓了，他们把它看做坟墓。”
“Like a shroud?”
“像裹尸布？”
“I’ve never been there. No one else has, either. Well, it’s more accurate to say that anyone who goes there cannot return. That world is sealed inside a light tomb.”
“我没有去过三号世界，没人去过，或者说去过的人不可能从那里回来，那个世界在光墓中。”
“A light tomb?”
“光墓？”
“We call such a place a black domain.”
“我们叫黑域。”
Cheng Xin asked Yifan when the new world first produced lightspeed ships, and was told it was a century ago. Judging by this, her interpretation of Tianming’s secret message had allowed Solar System humans to achieve this stage about two centuries ahead of Galactic humans. Even taking into account the time it took to open up the worlds for settlement, Tianming had accelerated progress by at least a century.
程心问关一帆新世界是什么时候制造出光速飞船的，得到的回答是一个世纪前。如此看来。云天明的情报使太阳系人类对银河系人类取得了近两个世纪的优势，即使考虑到新世界的拓荒时间，也至少提前了一个世纪。
“That’s right. Different people see things differently. The inhabitants of World III said it was a happy paradise — though I don’t know if they still think that way. After the light tomb was completed, it was impossible for any message from that world to reach the outside. But I think people there are pretty happy. For some people, safety is the sine qua non for happiness.”
“不过人各有志，对三号世界的人来说那里是安乐的天堂。不知道他们现在是不是还这么看。光墓建成后，那个世界就无法再传出任何信息，但我想那里的人应该过得很好，因为对某一部分人来说，安全是幸福生活的基础。”
But the civilization of the Solar System hadn’t been able to seize this opportunity. Thirty-five precious years had been lost, probably due to her. Her heart no longer felt pain as she thought of this; all she felt was the numbness that indicated a dead heart.
可是太阳系文明没有抓住这个机会，三十五年，生死枚关的三十五年，被耽误了，可能正是被她耽误了。现在想到这些，她的心已经感觉不到疼痛，只有死后的麻木。
“He’s a great man,” Yifan said after hearing Cheng Xin’s account.
“他是个伟大的人。”在程心谈到云天明时，关一帆说。
“Yes. Things like the fate and goal of the universe used to be only ethereal concerns of philosophers, but now every ordinary person must consider them.”
“是的，比如宇宙的终结、宇宙的目的，这些以前很哲学很空灵的东西，现在每一个俗人都不得不考虑了。”
“I can see that. The moment I entered lightspeed, I felt myself change. I realized that I could, in my lifetime, leap across space-time and reach the edge of the cosmos and the end of the universe. Things that used to seem only philosophical suddenly became concrete and practical.”
“是啊，进入光速的那一刻，我也变了。想到自己可以在有生之年跨越时空，在空间上到达宇宙的边缘，在时间上到达宇宙的末日，以前那些只停留在哲学层面上的东西突然变得很现实很具体了。”
Yifan said, “Lightspeed spaceflight was a tremendous milestone for humankind. It was like another Enlightenment, another Renaissance. Lightspeed flight fundamentally transformed human thinking and changed civilization and culture.”
关一帆说：“对人类来说，光速航行是个里程碑，这可以看成第三次启蒙运动，第三次文艺复兴，因为光速航行使人的思想发生了根本的改变，也就改变了文明和文化。”
“Has anyone in the new world thought of going to the end of the universe?”
“在你们那里，有人想过到宇宙末日去吗？”程心问。
“Ultimate spaceships?”
“终极飞船？”
“Of course. Five ultimate spaceships have already been launched.”
“当然有，现在，新世界已经发出了五艘终极飞船。”
“Some call them doomsday ships. These lightspeed ships have no destination at all. They turn their curvature engines to maximum and accelerate like crazy, infinitely approaching the speed of light. Their goal is to leap across time using relativity until they reach the heat death of the universe. By their calculations, ten years within their frame of reference would equal fifty billion years in ours. As a matter of fact, you don’t even need to plan for it. If some malfunction occurs after a ship has accelerated to lightspeed, preventing the ship from decelerating, then you’d also reach the end of the universe within your lifetime.”
“也有人叫它末日飞船。那些光速飞船没有目的地，只是把曲率引擎开到最大功率疯狂加速，无限接近光速，目的就是用相对论效应跨越时间，直达宇宙末日。据他们计算，十年内就可以跨越五百亿年，那他们现在已经到了，哦，当然是以他们的参照系。其实，并不需要有意识地做这事，比如在飞船加速到光速后，曲率引擎出现无法修复的故障，使飞船不能减速，你也可能在有生之年到达宇宙末日。”
Yifan lifted his head to gaze at Cheng Xin. Under 3G, this was a very strenuous exercise. But he persisted for some time.
关一帆从超重座椅上抬起头看着程心在3G超重下，这是一个很吃力的动作，但他坚持了好一会儿。
“I pity Solar System humans,” said Cheng Xin. “Even at the very end, most of them lived lives confined to a tiny portion of space-time, like those old men and women who never left their home villages during the Common Era. The universe remained a mystery to them until the end.”
“太阳系人类很可怜，直到最后，大多数人也只是在那一小块时空中生活过，就像公元世纪那些一辈子都没有走出过山村的老人，宇宙对他们仍然是个谜。”程心说。
“You don’t need to pity them. Really, let me tell you: don’t. The reality of the universe is not something to envy.”
“没什么遗憾，我告诉你，真没什么遗憾。宇宙的真相，还是不知道的好。”
“Why?”
“为什么？”
Yifan lifted a hand and pointed at the stars of the galaxy. Then he let the 3G force pull his arm back to this chest.
关一帆抬起手指指银河系的星海，然后任手臂以3G的重量砰地砸到身上。
“Darkness. Only darkness.”
“这一切，暗无天日。”
“Have you?”
“你们见过吗？”
“We’ve caught a few glimpses. But most things we know are just guesses… Do you really want to know? The more you possess of this kind of knowledge, the less light remains in your heart.”
“见过一点，更多的也只是猜测……你真的想知道吗？这种事情，知道得多一点，你心里的光明就少一点。”
And so, more than six centuries after Luo Ji had fallen through ice into that lake, another dark veil hiding the truth about the universe was lifted before the gaze of one of the only survivors of Earth civilization.
于是，在罗辑掉入寒夜中的冰湖六个多世纪后，在地球文明仅存的人类面前，宇宙黑暗的面纱又被揭开一层。
Guan Yifan shook his head, a gesture that appeared to be a struggle in hypergravity. “For us, the dark forest state is all-important, but it’s just a detail of the cosmos. If you think of the cosmos as a great battlefield, dark forest strikes are nothing more than snipers shooting at the careless — messengers, mess men, etc. In the grand scheme of the battle, they are nothing. You have not seen what a true interstellar war is like.”
关一帆摇摇头，在超重下像是在挣扎一样，“黑暗森林状态对于我们是生存的全部，对于宇宙却只是一件小事。如果宇宙是一个大战场——事实上它就是——在阵地间，狙击手们射杀对方不慎暴露的人，比如通信兵，或伙头军什么的，这就是黑暗森林状态；对于战争来说它是一件小事，而真正的星际战争，你们还没见过。”
“You mean the dark forest state?”
“你是指黑暗森林状态吗？”
“My heart is already completely dark. I want to know.”
“我心里已经没有光明了，我想知道。”
Cheng Xin pondered for a while and then struggled to shake her head. “I don’t know.”
程心想了一会儿，挣扎似地摇摇头，“我不知道。”
“The universal laws of physics,” Cheng Xin said.
“宇宙规律。”程心说。
Yifan asked, “Why don’t you tell me what the most powerful weapon for a civilization possessing almost infinite technological prowess is? Don’t think of this as a technical question. Think philosophy.”
关一帆问道：“你猜一下，对于一个在技术上拥有几乎无限能力的文明，最有威力的武器是什么？不要从技术角度想，从哲学高度想。”
What had she experienced? She had seen how a cruel attacker could lower the dimensions of space by one and destroy a solar system. What are dimensions?
她经历过什么？她刚刚看到，为了毁灭一个恒星系。残忍的攻击者把那里的空间维度降低了一维。空间维度，空间维度是什么？
“Your experiences should give you a hint.”
“你经历过的事情可以给你一些提示。”
“That’s right. The universal laws of physics are the most terrifying weapons, and also the most effective defenses. Whether it’s by the Milky Way or the Andromeda Galaxy, at the scale of the local galactic group or the Virgo Supercluster, those warring civilizations possessing godlike technology will not hesitate to use the universal laws of physics as weapons. There are many laws that can be manipulated into weapons, but most commonly, the focus is on spatial dimensions and the speed of light. Typically, lowering spatial dimensions is a technique for attack, and lowering the speed of light is a technique for defense. Thus, the dimensional strike on the Solar System was an advanced attack method. A dimensional strike is a sign of respect. In this universe, respect is not easy to earn. I guess you could consider it an honor for Earth civilization.”
“你很聪明，正是宇宙规律。宇宙规律是最可怕的武器，当然也是最有效的防御手段。无论在银河系还是仙女座星云，无论在本星系群还超星系群，在真正的星际战争中，那些拥有神一般技术力址的参战文明，都毫不犹豫地把宇宙规律作为战争武器。能够作为武器的规律有很多，最常用的是空间维度和光速，一般是把降低维度用来攻击，降低光速用于防御。所以，太阳系受到的维度打击是顶级攻击方式。怎么说呢，这也算地球文明的荣誉吧，动用维度攻击是看得起你们。在这个宇宙中，让人看得起已经很不容易了。”
“It will never cease.”
“永远不会停止。”
“I thought of something I wanted to ask you. When will the collapse of space in the vicinity of the Solar System into two dimensions cease?”
“我想起来一件事要问你：太阳系空间向二维的跌落什么时候停止？”
“You are scared? Do you think that in this galaxy, in this universe, only the Solar System is collapsing into two dimensions? Haha…”
“这就让你害怕了？你以为银河系和整个宇宙中只有太阳系在向二维跌落？呵呵……”
Cheng Xin shuddered.
程心打了个寒战。
Guan Yifan’s bitter laughter caused Cheng Xin’s heart to seize up. She said, “What you’re saying makes no sense. At least, it doesn’t make sense to lower spatial dimensions as a weapon. In the long run, that’s the sort of attack that would kill the attacker as well as the target. Eventually, the side that initiated attack would also see their own space fall into the two-dimensional abyss they created.”
关一帆的冷笑又让程心的心抽动了一下，她说：“要是这样，你说的就不成立了，至少把降低空间维度作为武器这项不成立。从长远看，这是同归于尽的攻击，如果这样卞去，发起维度攻击的一方所在的空间迟早也要跌落到二维！”
“You’re too… kind-hearted,” Guan Yifan said softly. “I don’t understand –“
“你太善良了。”关一帆轻轻地说。“我不明白……”
Nothing but silence. After a long while, Cheng Xin called out, “Dr. Guan?”
长时间的沉默，直到程心唤了一声：“关博士？”
“There’s a way for the attacker to avoid death. Think about it.”
“有一个选择可以使维度攻击者避免同归于尽，你想想看。”
Cheng Xin pondered and then said, “I can’t figure it out.”
程心沉默许久后说：“我想不出来。”
“I know you can’t. Because you’re too kind. It’s very simple. The attacker must first transform themselves into life forms that can survive in a low-dimensional universe. For instance, a four-dimensional species can transform itself into three-dimensional creatures, or a three-dimensional species can transform itself into two-dimensional life. After the entire civilization has entered a lower dimension, they can initiate a dimensional strike against the enemy without concern for the consequences.”
“我知道你想不出来，因为你太善良了。很简单：攻击者首先改造自己，把自己改造成低维生命，比如由四维生命改造成三维生命，当然也可以由三维改造成二维，当整个文明进入低维后，就向敌人发起维度打击，肆无忌惮，在超大规模上疯狂攻击，不需要任何顾忌。”
Did you build this four-dimensional fragment?
这片四维空间是你们建造的吗？
Are you saying that for you, or at least for your creators, this four-dimensional space is like the sea for us?
这么说，这片四维空间对于你或者说对于你的建造者，是类似于海洋的东西吗？
Cheng Xin was silent again.
程心又陷入长时间的沉默中。
You told me that you came from the sea. Did you build the sea?
你们说自己从海里来，海是你们建造的吗？
“Are you reminded of anything?” Yifan asked.
“你是不是想起了什么？”关一帆问。
The fish responsible for drying the sea are not here.
把海弄干的鱼不在。
We’re sorry. What you said is really hard to understand.
对不起，这话很费解。
More like a puddle. The sea has gone dry.
是水洼。海干了。
Why are so many ships, or tombs, gathered in such a small space?
为什么这么小的空间里聚集了这么多的飞船，或者说墓地？
When the sea is drying, the fish have to gather into a puddle. The puddle is also drying, and all the fish are going to disappear.
海干了鱼就要聚集在水洼里，水洼也在干涸，鱼都将消失。
Are all the fish here?
所有的鱼都在这里吗？
The fish that dried out the sea went onto land before they did this. They moved from one dark forest to another dark forest.
把海弄干的鱼在海干前上了陆地，从一片黑暗森林奔向另一片黑暗森林。
Cheng Xin was thinking of more than four hundred years ago, when Blue Space and Gravity had stumbled into the four-dimensional fragment. Yifan had been a member of the small expedition that conversed with the Ring.
程心确实在回忆。她想起了四百多年前，“蓝色空间”号和“万有引力”号误人四维空间碎块时，探险队与“魔戒”的对话，当时，关一帆就是探险队的一员。
“Is it worth it to pay such a price for victory in war?” Cheng Xin asked. She could not imagine how it was possible to live in a world of one fewer dimension. In two-dimensional space, the visible world consisted of a few line segments of different lengths. Could anyone who was born in three-dimensional space willingly live in a thin sheet of paper with no thickness? Living in three dimensions must be equally confining and unimaginable for those born to a four-dimensional world.
“为了战争的胜利，竟要付出这样的代价吗？”程心说，她很难想象在降低一个维度的空间中生活是什么样子，在二维空间中，世界万物看上去只是几根长短不一的线段，在三维世界生活过的人，真的可能使自己生活在一张没有厚度的薄纸里吗？当然，三维空间的生活对四维世界的人来说也同样无法想象。
While Cheng Xin was still recovering from the shock, Yifan continued, “The speed of light is also frequently used as a weapon. I’m not talking about building light tombs — or, as you call them, black domains. Those are just defensive mechanisms employed by weak worms like us. The gods do not stoop so low. In war, it’s possible to make reduced-lightspeed black holes to seal the enemy inside. But more commonly, the technique is used to construct the equivalents of pits and city walls. Some reduced-lightspeed belts are large enough to traverse an entire arm of a galaxy. In places where the stars are dense, many reduced-lightspeed black holes can be connected together into chains that stretch for tens of millions of light-years. That’s a Great Wall at the scale of the universe. Even the most powerful fleets, once trapped, would not be able to escape. Those barriers are very difficult to cross.”
不顾程心的震惊，关一帆接着说下去：“光速也是被频繁使用的规律武器，但为自己建造光墓或你说的黑域不在此列，那只是我们这些弱小的虫子保命的举动，神们不屑如此。在战争中，可以制造低光速黑洞把敌人封死在里面；但更多还是用来防御，作为城墙和陷阱。有的低光速带规模之大，横穿整个星系旋臂，在恒星密集处，大量的低光速黑洞融为一体。连绵千万光年，那是星际长城，无论多么强大的舰队一且陷进去就永远出不来，这是很难愈越的障碍。”
“Dimensional strikes will eventually cause more and more of the universe to become two-dimensional, until one day the entire universe is two-dimensional. Similarly, the construction of fortifications will eventually cause all the reduced-lightspeed areas to connect, until the different lowered lightspeeds all average out: This new average will be the new c for the universe.
“维度攻击的结果，宇宙中二维空间的比例渐渐增加，终将超过三维空间，总有一天，第三个宏观维度会完全消失，宇宙变成二维的。至于光速攻击和防御，会使低光速区不断增加，这些区域最后会在扩散中连为一体，它们中不同的慢光速会平衡为同一个值，这个值就是宇宙新的C值。”
“What is the ultimate result of all this manipulation of space-time?”
“这样下去会怎么样？”程心问。
“It’s better than death,” said Yifan.
“总比死了强。”关一帆说。
“Of course, I’ve only brought up two examples. Other universal laws of physics have been used as weapons as well, though we don’t know all of them. It’s very possible that every law of physics has been weaponized. It’s possible that in some parts of the universe, even… Forget it, I don’t even believe that.”
“当然，这只是举出两个例子，还有其他的宇宙规律被用做武器，但目前为止我们还不知道都有哪些，很可能，所有的规律都能被武器化了，在宇宙的某一部分，被用做武器的规律甚至可能包括……当然这只是瞎猜，太玄乎，我也不相信。”
Cheng Xin tried to imagine it, but it was simply impossible. “That’s… madness.” Then she asked, “Will the universe turn into a war ruin? Or, maybe it’s more accurate to ask: Will the laws of physics turn into war ruins?”
程心穷尽自己的想象，但仍然无法把握这不可思议的图景，连抓住其一角都难，“这也……太疯狂了！宇宙会变成一座战争废墟吗？”程心问道，很快想到了一个更准确的表达，或者说，自然规律会成为战争废墟吗？“
“At that time, any scientist from a baby civilization — like us — would think that the speed of light through vacuum is barely a dozen kilometers per second, and this is an ironclad universal constant, just like we now think the same of three hundred thousand kilometers per second.
“那时，像我们这样处于婴儿时代的科学就会认为，每秒十几千米的真空光速是一个铁一般的宇宙常数，就像我们现在的每秒三十万千米一样。”
“What were you going to say?”
“包括什么？”
“The foundation of mathematics.”
“数学规律。”
“Maybe they already are… The physicists and cosmologists of the new world are focused on trying to recover the original appearance of the universe before the wars more than ten billion years ago. They’ve already constructed a fairly clear theoretical model describing the pre-war universe. That was a really lovely time, when the universe itself was a Garden of Eden. Of course, the beauty could only be described mathematically. We can’t picture it: Our brains don’t have enough dimensions.”
“可能已经是了……现在，新世界中的物理学和宇宙学只是在干一件事：试图恢复战争前自然规律的原貌。已经有了一个比较清晰的理论模型，描述那个没有被战争改变的宇宙。那真是一个美丽的田园，那个时代，距今有一百多亿年吧，被称为宇宙的田园时代。当然，那种美只能用数学来描述，我们不可能想象出那时的宇宙，我们大脑的维度不够。”
Cheng Xin thought back to the conversation with the Ring again. “Did you build this four-dimensional fragment? You told me that you came from the sea. Did you build the sea?”
程心又想起了那几句对话：这片四维空间是你们建造的吗？你们说自己从海里来，海是你们建造的吗？
“You are saying that the universe of the Edenic Age was four-dimensional, and that the speed of light was much higher?”
“你是说，田园时代的宇宙是四维的，那时的真空光速也比现在高许多？”
“No, not at all. The universe of the Edenic Age was ten-dimensional. The speed of light back then wasn’t only much higher — rather, it was close to infinity. Light back then was capable of action at a distance, and could go from one end of the cosmos to the other within a Planck time… If you had been to four-dimensional space, you would have some vague hint of how beautiful that ten-dimensional Garden must have been.”
“当然不是。田园时代的宇宙不是四维的，是十维。那时的真空光速也不是比现在高许多，而是接近无限大，那时的光是超距作用，可以在一个普朗克时间内从宇宙的一端传到另一端……如果你到过四维空间，就会知道那个十维的宇宙田园是个多么美好的地方。”
“You’re saying –“
“天啊，你是说……”
“I’m not saying anything.” Yifan seemed to have awakened from a dream. “We’ve only seen small hints; everything else is just guessing. You should treat it as a guess, just a dark myth we’ve made up.”
“我什么也没说。”关一帆说，像是突然醒来一样，“我们只看到了一点点实情，剩下的都是猜测，你也只把它当成猜测好了，一部我们编出来的暗黑神话。”
But Cheng Xin continued to follow the course of the discussion taken so far. “– that during the wars after the Edenic Age, one dimension after another was imprisoned from the macroscopic into the microscopic, and the speed of light was reduced again and again…”
但程心不为所动，径直沿着他刚才的思路说下去：“在田园时代以后的战争时代，一个又一个维度被从宏观禁锢到微观，光速也一级一级地慢下来……”
“As I said, I’m not saying anything, just guessing.” Yifan’s voice grew softer. “But no one knows if the truth is even darker than our guesses… We are certain of only one thing: The universe is dying.”
“我说过我什么也没说，都是猜测。”关一帆的声音渐渐低下去，“但谁也不知道，真相是不是比猜测更黑暗……有一点是肯定的：宇宙正在死去。”
The ship stopped accelerating, and weightlessness returned. Before Cheng Xin’s eyes, space and the stars appeared more and more hallucinatory, more and more like a nightmare. Only the 3G hypergravity had brought some sense of solidity. She had welcomed the powerful embrace of those arms, an embrace that had provided some protection against the terror and frigidity of the dark myths of the universe. But now the hypergravity was gone, and only nightmare remained. The Milky Way appeared as a patch of ice hiding bloody remains, and DX3906 nearby appeared as a cremator burning over an abyss.
飞船的加速停止了，一切处于失重中。这之前，程心眼中的太空和星海越来越虚化，越来越像噩梦，只有这3G的超重才带来一些实在感，她像被一双有力的臂膀抱着，这种拥抱使她多少能够抵御宇宙的暗黑神话带来的寒冷和恐惧；现在超重消失了，只剩下噩梦。银河系像一大片掩盖血迹的冰渍，近处的DX3906恒星则像深渊上燃烧的焚尸炉。
“Can you turn off the holographic display?” Cheng Xin asked.
“把全景显示关了好吗？”程心轻声说。
Yifan turned it off, and Cheng Xin returned from the vastness of space to the cramped eggshell interior of the cabin. Here, she recovered a trace of the security she craved.
关一帆关闭了显示，程心在瞬间由广囊的太空回到蛋壳般狭小的船舱中，在这里，她找回了一丝安全感。
“I would have found out sooner or later,” Cheng Xin said.
“我迟早要知道的。”程心说，声音仍然很轻。
“Let me repeat: They are just guesses. There’s no real scientific proof. Don’t think about it too much. Focus on what’s before your eyes; focus on the life you must live.” Yifan put a hand over hers. “Even if what I told you is true, those events are measured at the scale of hundreds of millions of years. Come with me to our world, which is now also your world. Live out your life and stop skipping across the surface of time. As long as you live your life within a hundred thousand years and a thousand light-years, none of those things need concern you. That ought to be enough for anyone.”
“再说一遍，那都是猜测，没有真正的科学证明。不要想那么多，关注眼前的生活好了。”关一帆把手放到程心的手上，“我说的那些事。就算是真的。也都是以亿年为时间单位的。你到我们的世界去。那也是你的世界、在那里过你自己的生活。别再大幅度地跨越时间了，只要你把自己的人生限制在十万年内，把生活的范围限制在一千光年内，那些事就与你无关。十万年，一千光年，够了吧？”
“I shouldn’t have told you all that,” Yifan said. His sorrow was sincere.
“我不该对你说那些的。”关一帆说，他语气中的自责听起来很真诚。
Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan spent the rest of the journey in the forced slumber of the sleep-aid machine. The trip lasted four days. By the time they awakened in the hypergravity of deceleration, Planet Gray took up most of their field of view.
以后的航程，程心和关一帆都是在睡眠器的强制睡眠中度过的。航行持续了四天，他们在减速的超重中醒来时，灰星在视野中已经占据了大半个太空。
“Yes, it is enough, thank you.” Cheng Xin held Yifan’s hand.
“够了，谢谢你。”程心握住了关一帆的手。
He was referring to five black lines. One end of each line was connected to the surface of the planet, and the other end extended into space, like five black hairs growing out of Planet Gray. Each line stretched higher than Hunter’s orbit.
关一帆所说的死线是五根黑线，它们一端连着灰星的表面，另一端伸向太空。根据目测，每根线的长度大约在一百千米左右，已经高出了飞船的轨道，像灰星长出的五根黑色头发。
“What is that?” Cheng Xin cried out.
“那是什么？”程心指着灰星表面惊叫道。
“Death lines.” Yifan recognized them right away. “Don’t get too close,” he said to the AI.
“死线。”关一帆说，他立刻认出了程心看到的东西，“注意不要太接近它！”他对AI说。
Planet Gray was a small planet. It visually resembled the moon, a barren rock, but instead of craters, much of Planet Gray’s surface was taken up by desolate plains. Hunter entered orbit around Planet Gray. Due to the lack of an atmosphere, the orbit was very low. The ship approached the coordinates provided by the monitoring satellite, where the five unidentified spacecraft had landed and then taken off. Yifan had planned to land the shuttle there and investigate the traces left by the spacecraft, but he and Cheng Xin had not anticipated that the mysterious visitors would leave behind such large signs that they were visible from space.
灰星是一颗小的行星，表面外观与月球差不多，像一颗光秃秃的大石球。但灰星的表面没有环形山，大部分是荒凉的平原。“亨特”号泊入灰星的轨道，由于没有大气，飞船的运行轨道可以压到很低。飞船前往监视卫星提供的坐标位置，那是五架不明飞行器降落和起飞的地方。关一帆原本计划乘穿梭机在那里着陆，然后考察飞行器留下的痕迹，但他和程心都没有想到，神秘来访者留下的东西如此巨大，从太空中就能看到。
“What are they?”
“那是什么？”
On the next orbit, Guan Yifan and Cheng Xin entered the shuttle and descended toward the surface. Due to the low orbit and the lack of an atmosphere, the descent was smooth and fast. The shuttle landed about three kilometers from the death lines.
在飞船运行的下一圈，关一帆和程心进入穿梭机，脱离飞船向灰星表面降落。由于轨道低且不需穿过大气层，下降过程迅速而平稳。穿梭机降落在灰星大地上，距死线约三千米。
“These are probably the darkest things in the universe,” Cheng Xin said. The death lines showed no details except an exceptional blackness showing the boundaries of the zero-lightspeed region, with no real surface. Looking up, the lines showed up clearly even against the dark backdrop of space.
“这可能是宇宙中最黑的东西了。”程心说。除了极深的黑色，死线没有显示出任何细节，它标志着零光速区的范围，应该没有表面。向上看，即使在漆黑的太空背景上；更黑的死线也仍然清晰可见。
They leapt across the surface under 0.2G. A thin layer of dust covered the surface of Planet Gray, along with gravel of various sizes. Due to the lack of atmospheric scattering of sunlight, shadows and lit areas were sharply delineated. When they were about a hundred meters from the death lines, Yifan waved Cheng Xin to a stop. Each death line was about twenty or thirty meters in diameter, and from here, they resembled death columns.
他们在0.2G的重力下向死线跳跃着走去。灰星的平原上覆盖着一层薄薄的粉尘，分布着大小不一的砾石，由于没有大气的散射，阳光下的阴影和亮区黑白分明。他们很快走到了距死线一百多米的地方，关一帆挥手示意程心停下。死线的直径达二三十米，从这里看它们更应被称为死柱。
“Trails left by curvature propulsion. Those lines are the result of extreme curvature manipulation. The speed of light within the trails is zero.”
“曲率驱动的航迹，那是超大功率的驱动，航迹内的光速为零。”
“These are the deadest things in the universe as well,” said Guan Yifan. “Zero-lightspeed means absolute, one hundred percent death. Inside it, every fundamental particle, every quark is dead. There is no vibration. Even without a source of gravity inside, each death line is a black hole. A zero-gravity black hole. Anything that falls in cannot reemerge.”
“也是宇宙中最死的东西了。”关一帆说，“零光速是真正意义上的死亡，绝对的死，百分之百的死。在那里面，每个基本粒子，每个夸克，都死了，没有丝毫振动。即使死线的内部没有引力源，，它也是一个黑洞，零引力的黑洞，任何东西进去后都不可能出来。”
“Can your lightspeed ships produce death lines?” Cheng Xin asked.
“你们的光速飞船能产生死线吗？”移合问。
Yifan picked up a rock and tossed it toward one of the death lines. The rock disappeared inside the absolute darkness.
关一帆拾起一块石头向一根死线扔过去，石头消失在死线的绝对黑色中。
“Far from it.”
“远远不能。”
“So you’ve seen these before, then?”
“你们以前见过这个？”
In the sky, Cheng Xin could see the end of the columns. She pointed in that direction. “So the ships entered lightspeed at the end?”
天空中，程心能够看到死线的尽头，她指着那个方向问：“飞船到那里就进入光速了？”
“That’s right. These are only about a hundred kilometers high. We’ve seen columns even shorter than these, presumably left by ships that entered lightspeed almost instantaneously.”
“是的，就上百千米的样子，我们以前见过的比这还短，进入光速就是一瞬间的事。”
“Yes, but only rarely.”
“见过，见得不多。”
Cheng Xin gazed up at the giant black columns reaching into space. They lifted up the domed sky and seemed to turn the universe into a Palace of Death. Is this the ultimate end for everything?
程心仰望着这些伸向天空的黑色巨柱，它们顶起星空，仿佛把宇宙变成了死神的宫殿。这就是万物的归宿吗？她想。
“They’re also called Resetters. Maybe they’re a group of intelligent individuals, or a civilization, or a group of civilizations. We don’t know exactly who they are, but we’ve confirmed their existence. The Zero-Homers want to reset the universe and return it to the Garden of Eden.”
“也叫重启者，可能是一群智慧个体，也可能是一个文明，或者几个文明，我们不知道，但已经确认它们的存在。归零者想重新启动宇宙，回到田园时代。”
“Maybe. But this is a rarely seen technique. Death lines are usually the products of Zero-Homers.”
“也许吧，但这种做法很少见，死线一般都是归零者弄出来的。”
“Are these the most advanced lightspeed ships?”
“这就是最先进的光速飞船了？”
“Zero-Homers?”
“归零者？”
“Zero dimensions! Have you seen such a thing done?”
“零维？！你们见过把空间零维化？！”
“How?”
“怎么做呢？”
“By moving the hour hand of the clock past twelve. Take spatial dimensions as an example. It’s practically impossible to drag a universe in lower dimensions back into higher dimensions, so maybe it’s better to work forward in the other direction. If the universe can be lowered into zero dimensions and then beyond, the clock might be reset and everything returned to the beginning. The universe might possess ten macroscopic dimensions again.”
“把时针拨过十二点。比如说空间维度，把一个已经跌入低维度的宇宙重新拉回高维，几乎不可能；但从另一个方向努力，把宇宙降到零维，然后继续降维。就可能从零的方向回到最初，使宇宙的宏观维度重新回到十维。”
“No. We’ve only witnessed two-dimensionalization. We’ve never even seen one-dimensionalization. But somewhere, some Zero-Homers must be trying. No one knows if they’ve ever succeeded. Comparatively, it’s easier to lower the speed of light to zero, so we’ve seen more evidence of such attempts to lower the speed of light past zero and return it to infinity.”
“没有。只见过二维化，连一维化都没见过，但在什么地方肯定有归零者在做。谁也不知道是不是成功过。相对来说，把光速降到零容易一些，它们做得也比较多，试图把光速拨过零，重现无限光速。”
“Is that even theoretically possible?”
“这可能吗，从理论上说？”
“We don’t know. Maybe the Zero-Homers have theories that say yes, but I don’t think so. Zero-lightspeed is an impassable wall. Zero-lightspeed is absolute death for all existence, the cessation of all motion. Under such conditions, the subjective cannot influence the objective in any way, so how can the ‘hour hand’ be shifted past it? I think the Zero-Homers are practicing a kind of religion, a kind of performance art.”
“现在还不知道，也许归零者的理论认为可能。不过在我看来不可能，比如零光速，这是一道过不去的墙，零光速就是一切存在的绝对死亡，就意味着不可能再有任何运动。在这种状态下，主观不可能对客观产生任何作用，怎么可能把‘时针’继续向前拨呢？归零者做的事，更像是一种宗教，一种行为艺术。”
Cheng Xin stared at the death lines, her terror mixed with awe. “If these are trails, why don’t they spread?”
程心看着死线，恐惧中多了敬畏，“如果它是航迹，为什么不扩散呢？”
Guan Yifan clutched Cheng Xin’s arm. “I was just getting to that. We’ve got to get out of here. Leave not just Planet Gray, but the entire system. This is a very dangerous place. Death lines are not like regular trails. Without disturbance, they’ll stay like this, with a diameter equal to the effective surface of the curvature engine. But if they’re disturbed, they’ll spread very rapidly. A death line of this size can expand to cover a region the size of a solar system. Scientists call this phenomenon a death line rupture.”
关一帆紧张地抓住程心的胳膊，“这正是我想说的。我们得赶块离开，不是说离开灰星，是离开这个星系，这里很危险。死线的状态与一般的曲率航迹不同，如果没有扰动它就会保持这个样子，也就是保持曲率引擎作用面的直径，但扰动出现它就会扩散，迅速扩散；像这样规模的死线，能扩散到一个恒星系大小，学者们把这个叫死线破裂。”
“Does a rupture make the speed of light zero in the entire region?”
“扩散到的区域都是零光速？”
Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan turned toward the shuttle and began to run and leap.
程心和关一帆转身向穿梭机跳跃而去。“你说的扰动是什么？”
“No, no. After rupture, it turns into a regular trail. The speed of light inside goes up as the trail dissipates over a wider region, but it will never be much more than a dozen meters per second. After these death lines expand, this entire system might turn into a reduced-lightspeed black hole, or a black domain… Let’s go.”
“不不，死线扩散后就像普通的曲率航迹，内部不再是零光速，扩散越广内部的光速就越高，但仍然是每秒十几千米的低光速，所以说，这些死线扩散后，有可能把这个星系变成低光速黑洞，就是你们说的黑域……我们走吧。”
“What kind of disturbance makes them spread?” Cheng Xin asked. She turned to give the death lines another glance. Behind them, the five death lines cast long shadows that stretched across the plain to the horizon.
程心问，又回头看了一眼，在他们身后的平原上，五根死线的影子一直延伸到地平线处。
“We’re not sure. Some theories suggest that the appearance of other curvature trails nearby would cause disturbance. We’ve confirmed that curvature trails within a short distance can influence each other.”
“现在还不太清楚，有理论认为是附近出现的其他曲率航迹，已经证明一定距离内的曲率航迹间有某种感应。”
“So, if Halo accelerates –“
“那，‘星环’号加速时会不会···”
“That’s why we must get farther away using only the fusion engine before engaging the curvature engine. We’ve got to move… using your units of measurement… at least forty astronomical units away.”
“所以，我们要用聚变推进远离后再启动曲率驱动，至少要离开——用你们的量度——四十个天文单位。”
After the shuttle took off, Cheng Xin continued to stare at the receding death lines. She said, “The Zero-Homers give me a bit of hope.”
穿梭机起飞后，程心仍从监视画面中目不转睛地看着正在远去的死线，她说“归零者，让我看到一些亮色。”
“It’s just like the world of humans.”
“就像人类世界一样。”
“At least the Zero-Homers’ task will ultimately be completed by the cosmos itself.”
“不过，对于归零者来说，它们的事业最终将由宇宙本身来完成。”
“You mean the end of the universe?”
“你是说宇宙的终结吗？”
Yifan said, “The universe contains multitudes. You can find any kind of ‘people’ and world. There are idealists like the Zero-Homers, pacifists, philanthropists, and even civilizations dedicated only to art and beauty. But they’re not the mainstream; they cannot change the direction of the universe.”
关一帆说：“宇宙是丰富多彩的，什么样的‘人’或世界都有。有归零者这样的理想主义者，有和平主义者，有慈善家，还有只专注于艺术和美的文明，但它们不是主流，不可能主导宇宙的走向。”
“But based on what I know, the universe will continue to expand, and become sparser and colder forever.”
“可据我知道的，宇宙将永远膨胀下去，越来越稀疏寒冷。”
“That’s the old cosmology you know, but we’ve disproved it. The amount of dark matter had been underestimated. The universe will stop expanding and then collapse under gravity, finally forming a singularity and initiating another big bang. Everything will return to zero, or home. And so Nature remains the final victor.”
“那是你们的宇宙学，但我们推翻了这个结论。暗物质的量被低估了，宇宙将停止膨胀，然后在自身的引力下坍缩，最后成为一个奇点并再次大爆炸，把一切归零。所以你看，最终的胜利者还是大自然。”
“That’s right.”
“是的。”
“Yun Tianming is here!”
“出大事了！云天明来了！”
The trip back to Planet Blue was as uneventful as the trip to Planet Gray. Most of the time, Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan remained asleep under the sleep-aid machines. By the time they were awakened, Hunter was in orbit around Planet Blue. Looking down at the blue-and-white world, Cheng Xin almost thought she was home.
返回蓝星的航行与来时一样顺利，在大部分的时间里，程心和关一帆都在强制睡眠中度过。当他们被唤醒时，飞船已经进入了蓝星的轨道。看着下面这蓝白相间的世界，程心竟有一种回家的感觉。
AA’s voice was agitated. “I’ve called you multiple times, and the ship’s AI refused to wake you!”
AA的声音很急：“我呼叫了你好几次，都只有飞船回答，我怎么说它都不愿唤醒你们！”
“He’s still young, as young as you!”
“他还是那么年轻，像你一样年轻！”
“What?” Cheng Xin said softly.
“你在说什么？”程心轻声说。
“Will the new universe have ten dimensions?”
“新的宇宙是十维的吗？”
“Oh,” Cheng Xin answered mechanically.
“哦——”程心机械地回应一声。
“I told you we have to maintain radio silence. What happened?”
“不是说过不要随便通信吗？出什么事了？”
“Who knows? There are infinite possibilities. That’s a brand-new universe, and a brand-new life.”
“不可能知道，有无穷的可能性，那是全新的宇宙。全新的生活。”
Cheng Xin was thunderstruck. The last traces of sleep left her, and even Yifan’s jaw hung open.
最后一句话像一声闪雷，把程心从残留的睡意中震醒，连关一帆也目瞪口呆地僵住了。
AA hailed them, and Yifan replied. “Hunter here. What’s wrong?”
这时，通信信道中传来了艾AA的呼叫声，关一帆做了回应。“这里是‘亨特’号，出什么事了？”
“Yun Tianming is here! His ship landed three hours ago.”
“云天明来了！他的飞船三个多小时前就降落了！”
“Really?” Cheng Xin’s voice seemed to come from far away, even to herself.
“是吗？”程心感觉自己的声音像是从很远的地方传来的。
Even if it was just a dream, Cheng Xin wanted to be dreaming for longer. She turned on the holographic display, and the starry sky no longer seemed so dark and cold — in fact, it seemed filled with a clear beauty like the sky after a fresh rain. Even the starlight seemed to exude the fragrance of spring buds. It was the feeling of being reborn.
即使是梦，程心也想多流连一会儿。她启动了全景显示，星空看上去不再那么黑暗和寒冷，竟像雨后初晴搬充满了清澈的美丽，连星光都带着春天嫩芽的芳香，这是重生的感觉。
“He brought a gift for you.”
“他还给你带来了一件礼物！”
Yifan and Cheng Xin stared at each other, and then laughed.
说完，他切断了通信。关一帆和程心对视着，最后都笑了起来。
“That’s nothing. Let me tell you, this is an awesome gift, and much bigger… He’s outside right now. Let me get him.”
“那算不了什么，我告诉你吧，这件礼物更好更棒，也更大……他现在出去了，我去找他来跟你说话！”
“He already gave me a gift. We’re inside his gift now.”
“他已经给过我礼物了，我们就在他的礼物中。”
Yifan interrupted. “No. We’re coming down right now. So much radio transmission is dangerous. I’m cutting it off.”
关一帆插话进来说：“不用了，我们马上就下去了，这样通信有危险，我断了。”
“Are we really awake?” Cheng Xin asked.
“我们真的醒了吗？”程心说。
“Let’s get into the shuttle and land,” Yifan said.
“进穿梭机，我们尽快着陆。”关一帆说。
Hunter initiated the shuttle separation sequence. Inside the cramped cabin, Yifan used an interface window to perform the final check prior to atmospheric reentry.
他们进入了穿梭机，飞船开始执行穿梭机的脱离程序。在狭窄的舱内，关一帆在一个界面窗口中作再入大气层前的最后检查和测试。
“How did he get here so fast?” Cheng Xin muttered, as if still dreaming.
“他怎么来得这么快？”程心用梦吃般的声音说。
“What kind of gift is bigger than a sun and its planetary system?” Yifan asked, smiling.
“什么礼物能比一个恒星系还大？”关一帆笑看着程心问道。
An excited Cheng Xin shook her head.
激动中的程心只是摇摇头。
Yifan was now completely calm. “This confirms our guess. The First Trisolaran Fleet founded a colony nearby, within a hundred light-years of here. They must have received the gravitational wave signal from Halo.”
关一帆这时已经完全冷静下来，“这证实了我们的猜测：三体第一舰队在附近建立了殖民地，就在距这里一百光年的范围内。他们一定是收到了‘星环’号发出的引力波信号。”
The shuttle separated from Hunter. They could see the tiny pyramid of Hunter recede on the monitoring system.
穿梭飞船脱离，在监视画面上可以看到“亨特”号金字塔形的船体正渐渐远去。
The shuttle’s fusion reactor activated, and the cooling ring outside began to glow red. The thrusters were preheating, and the control interface window showed that deceleration would begin in thirty seconds. The shuttle was about to descend rapidly as it entered Planet Blue’s atmosphere.
穿梭机的聚变发动机开始启动，外面的散热环发出红光，推进器在预热中，控制画面显示三十秒后减速开始，穿梭机的轨道将急剧降低，直到进人蓝星的大气层。
Cheng Xin heard an abrupt noise, as though something had sliced across the shuttle from bow to stern. Sharp jolts followed. And then, she experienced an eerie moment — eerie, because she couldn’t be sure it was just a moment. The moment seemed to be infinitely short but also infinitely long. She had a strange feeling of stepping across time but being situated outside of time.
突然，程心听到了一阵尖厉的怪声，仿佛是穿梭机被一把利刃从头到尾划开，接着是剧烈的震动，然后，她便经过了怪异的一瞬间：怪异之处在于她不敢肯定这是一瞬问，这一刻既无限短，又无限长，她此时有一种跨越感，感觉自己在时间之外。
At the same time, she felt herself collapse, as though she was going to turn into a singularity. Meanwhile, the mass of her, Guan Yifan, and the shuttle approached infinity.
与此同时，她感觉自己在坍缩，似乎要变成一个奇点，这一刻，她、关一帆和穿梭机的质量变成无限大，然后，一切陷人黑暗。
Later, Yifan would explain to her that she had experienced a “time vacuum.” The length of that moment could not be measured in time because, during that moment, time did not exist.
后来关一帆告诉她，她经历了一段“时间真空”，那一刻的长短不可能用时间来计量，因为那一刻时间不存在。
Yifan felt around in the darkness until he grabbed Cheng Xin’s head. She felt her own face touching his. She did not resist; she only felt comfort. Then she understood that Yifan was only trying to talk to her. The communications system inside the space suits had shut down, and the only way they could talk to each other was to press the visors of their helmets together so that their voices could be transmitted across.
关一帆在黑暗中摸索着，抱住了程心的头，她感觉自己的脸与他的脸紧紧贴在一起，她没有抗拒，只感到莫大的安慰。但她很快发现，关一帆这么做只是为了和她说话，因为太空服的通信系统关闭了，只有把两人头盔的面罩紧贴在一起，才能把声音传给对方。
And then everything plunged into darkness. At first, Cheng Xin thought something was wrong with her eyes. She couldn’t believe the inside of the shuttle could be so dark, so dark that she couldn’t see her fingers waving before her eyes. Cheng Xin called for Guan Yifan, but there was only silence in the space suit’s earpiece.
程心最初以为是自己的眼睛出了向题，她无法相信太空飞行器内部能变得这样黑，伸手不见五指。程心喊关一帆，但太空服的耳机中一片死寂。
“Don’t be scared. Don’t panic. Listen to me and don’t move!” Cheng Xin heard Yifan’s voice from the visor. She could tell from the vibrations that he was shouting, but what she heard was very faint, like a whisper. She felt his hand moving around in the dark until the inside of the cabin lit up. The light came from something held in his hand, a strip about the size of a cigarette. Cheng Xin knew it was some kind of chemical light source. Halo was equipped with similar emergency supplies. Bending it caused it to emit a cold light.
“不要怕，不要慌，一切听我的！现在不要动！”程心听到关一帆的声音从面罩里传来，凭接触的感觉她知道他肯定在大声喊，但她听到的声音很小，像是耳语。她感觉到他的另一只手在摸索着什么，很快舱内亮了起来。亮光来自关一帆手中一根香烟长短的条状物，程心知道那可能是一种化学发光体，“星环”号的应急装备中也有类似的东西。把它弯折后就能发出冷光。
“Don’t move. The space suits are no longer providing oxygen. Slow down your breathing. I’ll repressurize the cabin now. It won’t take long!” Yifan handed the glow stick to Cheng Xin, pulled open a storage unit next to his seat, and took out a metal bottle that resembled a small fire extinguisher. He twisted the bottle’s opening, and a white gas rushed out of the bottle in raging torrents.”
“不要动，太空服已经不供氧了，减缓呼吸，我这就给舱内加压！不要怕，很快的！”关一帆说着，把发光条递给程心，自己则拉开座椅侧边的一个存储柜，从中拿出一个金属瓶，像一支小型灭火器，他在瓶口拧了一下，瓶中立刻喷出一股汹涌的白色气体。”
Cheng Xin’s breath quickened. All she had left was the air remaining in her helmet, and the harder she inhaled, the more suffocated she felt. Her hand reached instinctively for the visor of her helmet, but Yifan stopped her in time. He embraced her again, this time to calm her down. She imagined that he was trying to rescue her from drowning. In the cold light, she saw his eyes, which seemed to be telling her that they were almost at the surface. Cheng Xin could feel the air pressure in the cabin rising, and just when she was about to pass out from lack of air, Yifan snapped her visor open, as well as his own. The two gulped air.
程心开始感到呼吸困难，她知道太空服的控制系统停止工作了，供氧也随即停止，她现在呼吸的只是头盔中的一点儿残氧。她的呼吸急促起来，越猛烈地吸气，窒息感来得越快。她本能地抬手想打开面罩，关一帆抓住她的手制止了她，又一把将她抱住，这一次是为了安慰她。她感觉他像是在抱着自己从深水向上浮，在发光条的冷光中，她看到了他的眼睛，那目光仿佛在告诉她就要到水面了。程心在太空服中也感觉到了外面上升的气压，就在她即将完全窒息时，关一帆猛地打开了她的面罩，然后把自己的也打开了，两人大口地呼吸着。
They could now see their breaths. Cheng Xin took off her original space suit and felt the bone-chilling cold inside the cabin. The heavy space suit was difficult to put on, and Yifan had to help her. She felt like a child dependent on this man, a feeling that she had not experienced in a long time. Before Cheng Xin put on the helmet, Yifan explained the suit’s features to her in detail — the oxygen dial, the pressurization toggle, the knob for temperature adjustment, the switches for communications and illumination, and so on. The space suit had no automatic systems, and everything required manual operation.
他们的呼吸中出现了白色的水汽，程心脱下原来的太空服后，感到舱内寒冷刺骨。笨重的太空服穿起来十分吃力，关一帆帮着程心穿，她感觉自己就像个孩子，在这个男人面前，她有一种久违的依赖感。在戴上头盔前，关一帆仔细地给程心讲解这种太空服的用法，告诉她供氧开关、加压开关、温度调节旋钮、通信开关、照明开关等等分别都在什么位置。这种太空服没有任何自动装置，它的一切功能都需要手动。
Yifan said, “The oxygen from that won’t last long, and the cabin is going to get very cold very fast. We need to change space suits.” He pushed off from his seat and dragged out two metal boxes from the back of the cabin. He opened one and showed Cheng Xin the space suit inside.
关一帆说：“这些氧气也维持不了多长时间，这里很快还会冷起来，我们得赶快换太空服。”他起身飘离座椅，从舱的后部拉出了两只金属箱，他打开一只，程心看到了里面的太空服。
After she caught her breath, Cheng Xin examined the metal bottle. She noticed the pressure gauge near the neck of the bottle, an ancient analog dial with a swinging needle that was now pointing into the green zone.
呼吸稍微舒缓一些后，程心注意到了那个金属瓶，她特别注意到瓶颈处的一个小仪表，那是气压表，程心发现那竟是一个古老的指针式气压表，现在指针已经滑到了绿区。
Modern space suits — in the Solar System and here — were very lightweight. If one kept the suit unpressurized, left off the small life-support pack, and took off the helmet, a modern space suit was virtually indistinguishable from ordinary clothes. However, the space suits in the boxes were heavy and clumsy, resembling Common Era space suits.
不管是在太阳系还是在这里，现在的太空服都已经十分轻便，如果不戴头盔且内部不加压，再除去那个不大的生命维持箱，看上去与普通服装没有太大区别，但现在程心看到的这两套太空月却十分笨重，很像公元世纪的航天服。
“What happened?” Cheng Xin asked.
“发生了什么？”程心问。
“Why?”
“为什么？”
Yifan helped Cheng Xin put on her helmet. Her body was almost frozen. He turned on the oxygen and the heater in her suit, and she felt herself thawing out. Yifan now turned to put on his own suit. He worked fast, but it took some work between when he put on his helmet and the two suits could be connected for communications. Neither was able to speak until their chilled bodies had recovered.
关一帆为程心戴上头盔，这时，她的身体儿乎冻僵。关一帆为她打开了供氧开关，同时将电热系统也打开了，程心感觉太太空服中渐渐暖和起来。这时，关一帆自己才开始换太空服，他穿得很快，戴上头盔后，费了一番周折才把两套太空服上的通信系统接通，但他们一时都冻得说不出话来，只能默默地等着自己的身体暖和过来。
“The speed of light right now is less than twenty kilometers per second.”
“因为现在的光速，可能只有每秒十几千米。”
The suits were so heavy and clumsy that Cheng Xin could imagine how difficult it would be to move around in them under 1G. Her suit wasn’t so much a suit as a house, the only place where she could find refuge. The light-emitting strip drifting in the cabin was dimming, so Yifan turned on the lamp on his own suit. Inside the cramped space, Cheng Xin thought they were like ancient miners trapped underground.
如果在1G的重力下，穿着这套笨重的太空服将很难移动，程心感觉它更像是一个小房子，是她现在唯一的栖息之处。飘浮在舱内的发光条已经暗了下来，关一帆打开了自己太空服上的照明灯。在狭窄的舱内，程心感觉他们像古代被困在井下的矿工。
“There are no computer chips inside this suit at all. Right now, none of our computers — electronic or quantum — work anymore.”
“这里面没有电脑芯片，现在，一切电脑，不管是电子的还是量子的，都不能启动了。”关一帆解释说。
Yifan floated up from his seat and struggled until he managed to open the screen over one of the portholes — the automatic controls for the porthole screens were also nonfunctional. He drifted to the other side of the cabin and repeated the operation with another porthole.
关一帆从座椅上浮起来，在舱壁上吃力地拉动着什么，一个透明舷窗出现了——以前舷窗的内部挡板是自动开启的，人力拉开很费劲。接着，他在另一侧的舱壁上也拉开一个舷窗。
Cheng Xin looked at the transformed universe outside.
程心向外看去，发现宇宙已经完全变了。
She saw two star clusters at the two ends of space: The cluster in front glowed blue and the cluster behind glowed red. Cheng Xin had seen a similar sight earlier when Halo was flying at lightspeed, but the two star clusters she saw now were not stable. Their shapes shifted abruptly like two balls of flame in fierce wind. Instead of stars leaping from the blue cluster into the red cluster from time to time, two light belts connected the two ends of the universe, only one of which was visible on each side of the ship.
她首先看到处于太空两端的两个星团，前方星团发出蓝光，后方星团发出红光。在之前“星环”号的光速飞行中她见过这样的景象，但现在出现的两个星团不再是稳定的，它们的形状疯狂变幻，像两团狂风中的火焰。没有星星从前方的蓝色星团中蹦出，划过太空落进后方的红色星团，连接这宇宙两极的是两条光带，它们位于太空的两侧，从一个舷窗中只能看到一条。
The wider belt took up half the space on one side. Its two ends were not connected to the blue and red star clusters; instead, the belt ended in two round tips. Cheng Xin could tell that this “belt” was actually an extremely flattened oval — or perhaps a circle that had been stretched out. Colored patches of various sizes flitted across the wide belt: blue, white, and light yellow. Instinctively, Cheng Xin understood that she was looking at Planet Blue.
其中较宽的那条光带占据了近侧太空的一半，它的两端并没有与蓝红星团直接接触，而是在一段距离外形成两个尖圆的头部。程心能够看出这条宽光带其实是一个很扁的椭圆，或者说是被极端拉长的圆形。
The shuttle had been moving far faster, but as the speed of light was an absolute speed limit, the shuttle’s velocity had been cut down to that.
穿梭机的速度曾经高于这时的光速，但由于光速不可能超越，它的速度跌到了低光速。
“Was it due to the disturbance from Tianming’s ship?”
“是不是因为云天明飞船的扰动？”
“We’re orbiting Planet Blue at lightspeed,” said Guan Yifan. “Except the speed of light is now very slow.”
“我们正以光速绕蓝星轨道运行，当然，是低光速。”关一帆说。
“Yes. They spread out to cover the entire solar system. We’re trapped here.”
“是的，扩散到了整个恒星系，我们陷在这里了。”
“Perhaps. He didn’t know the death lines were here.”
“不知道，有可能吧，他不知道这个星系中有死线。”
“The death lines ruptured?”
“死线扩散了？”
Cheng Xin didn’t want to ask what their next step was, knowing that nothing more could be done. No computer could operate when the speed of light was below twenty kilometers per second. The shuttle’s AI and control systems were all dead. Under such conditions, not even a light inside the spacecraft could be turned on — it was just a metal can with no electricity or power. Hunter was the same, also dead. Before falling into reduced lightspeed, the shuttle had not yet began decelerating, and so the small spaceship should be nearby — but it might as well be on the other side of the planet. Without the control systems, neither the shuttle nor Hunter could open their doors.
程心没有继续问下去，她不想问下一步怎么办，她知道很可能没什么可做的了。没有计算机能够在每秒十几千米的光速下运行，穿梭机的AI和各层控制系统全死了，在这种情况下，这架太空飞行器甚至连内部的一盏小灯都点不亮，它只是一个没有电和动力的金属罐子。“亨特”号飞船也一样成为了一艘死船。跌入低光速前，穿梭机还没有启动减速推进，飞船应该就在不远处，但就是紧靠着它也进不去，因为没有控制系统，穿梭机和飞船的舱门都打不开。
The light belt on the other side of the ship was thinner but brighter, and its surface showed no details. Unlike Planet Blue, this belt’s length cycled rapidly between a bright line that connected the red and blue clusters, and a bright circle. The belt’s periodic circular state told Cheng Xin that she was looking at the star DX3906.
有大小形状不一的色块飞快地从宽带上移过，那些色块主要有三种颜色：蓝、白和淡黄——直觉告诉程心，这条光带就是蓝星。另一条光带更细更亮，它的表面上除了强光看不到细节，与蓝星不同，这条光带的长短在周期性地急剧变化，最长时成为一条连接蓝红两极的亮线，短时缩成一个明亮的圆球，后一形态暴露了它在正常时空中的原形，它就是DX3906恒星。
Cheng Xin thought about Yun Tianming and 艾 AA. They were both on the ground, and should be safe. But now there was no way for the two sides to communicate. She never even got to say hello to him.
程心想到了云天明和艾AA，他们在地面上，应该是安全的，但现在双方已经无法联系，她甚至都没能和他说上一句话。
Something light gently struck the visor of her helmet: the metal bottle. Cheng Xin looked at the ancient pressure gauge on it again, and touched her own space suit. Hope, once extinguished, lit up again like a firefly.
这时，一个飘浮的物体轻轻撞在她的面罩上，是那个金属瓶，程心再次看到了上面的指针式气压表。她再摸摸自己的太空服，本来已经熄灭的希望之光又像萤火虫一般微微闪亮了。
“You’ve been preparing for situations like this?” she asked.
“对这种情况有准备？”程心轻声问道。
“Neural computers. Computers that can operate under reduced lightspeed. The shuttle and Hunter both have two control systems, one of which is based on neural computers.”
“神经元计算机，能够在低光速下运行的计算机。穿梭机和飞船都有两套控制系统，其中一套就是神经元模式的。”
“Yes.” Yifan’s voice sounded distorted in Cheng Xin’s earpiece due to the use of ancient analog signals. “Not for ruptured death lines, of course, but we were prepared for accidentally drifting into the trails of lightspeed ships. The situations are similar: The reduced lightspeed stops everything… Next, we need to start the neurons.”
“是的，有准备。”关一帆的声音从程心太空服的耳机中传出来，这是古老的模拟信号通信，声音有些畸变，“当然不是为死线扩散准备的，主要是考虑误入曲率驱动航迹的情况，那种情形和现在一样，低光速，什么都停了……下一步，咱们该启动神经元了。”
“What?”
“什么？”
Cheng Xin was amazed that such machines existed.
程心很惊奇，竟然有能够在这样低的光速下运行的计算机。
“The key isn’t the speed of light, but the system design. The transmission of chemical signals in the brain is even slower, only two or three meters per second — not much faster than us walking. Neural computers can still work because they imitate the highly parallel processing found in the brains of higher animals. All the chips are designed specifically to function under reduced-lightspeed conditions.”
“关键不是光速，而是体系模式，人脑中的化学信号传递更慢，只有每秒两三米，和人走路的速度差不多。神经元计算机就是模拟高等动物大脑的全并行处理，所用的芯片都是为低光速专门设计的。”
Yifan opened a metal bulkhead decorated with many dots connected in a complex web like the tentacles of an octopus. Inside was a small control panel with a flat display, as well as several switches and indicator lights. The whole assembly was built from components deemed obsolete by the end of the Crisis Era. He toggled a red switch and the screen lit up: text scrolling by. Cheng Xin could tell it was the boot sequence of some operating system.
关一帆打开一处金属面板，上面有一个标志，是许多点状物的复杂互联，每个点都像一只小章鱼一样伸出许多触手。一个小控制台露出来，上面有一台平面显示器，还有几个开关和指示灯，这些都是在危机纪元末就消失了的东西。关一帆按动一个红色开关，屏幕亮起来，没有显示图形界面，只有一堆文字提示，程心大概看出是一个操作系统的启动进程。
“The parallel neural mode hasn’t been started yet, so we have to load the operating system serially. You’ll probably have a hard time believing how slow serial data transmission is under reduced lightspeed: look, the data rate is a few hundred bytes per second. Not even a kilobyte.”
“现在神经元并行模式还没有建立起来，只能用串行方式载入操作系统。你真的没法想象低光速下的串行数据通信有多慢，看，只有每秒几百个字节，连1K都不到。
“Its systems will detect the reduced-lightspeed condition and automatically boot the neural computer. But it will take about as long to complete.”
“飞船上有慢光速检测装置，可以自动启动神经元计算机，现在应该已经开始启动了，但完成的时间和这里差不多。”
“Then the boot sequence will take a long time.”
“那启动是需要很长时间的。”
Remaining load time for boot module: 68 hours 43 minutes [flickering] seconds. Total remaining system load time: 297 hours 52 minutes [flickering] seconds.
引导部分剩余时间68小时43分（跳动的秒数），总体剩余时间297小时52分（跳动的秒数笼）。
“Twelve days!” Cheng Xin exclaimed. “What about Hunter?”
“十二天！”程心吃惊地说，“那飞船呢？”
“That’s right. But as the parallel mode gradually builds up, the loading will speed up. Still, it really will take a long time to complete the sequence.” Yifan pointed to the progress indicator, a line of text on the bottom of the screen.
“是啊，不过随着并行模式的逐渐建立，载入速度会不断加快，但真的要很长时间才能完成启动。”关一帆说着，指了指屏幕下方的一行提示。
Twelve days. They could only get to the survival resources in the shuttle and on Hunter after twelve days. Until then, they had to rely on their primitive space suits. If the space suits were powered by nuclear batteries, the electricity should last long enough, but they didn’t have enough oxygen.
十二天，只有十二天后才能利用穿梭机和飞船中的生存资源，这期间只能靠这两件原始的太空服活着。如果太空服中的电源是核电池，应该能维持这么长时间，但氧气肯定不够。
“Do we have the equipment for hibernation on the shuttle?” As soon as she asked the question, Cheng Xin realized her error. Even if the shuttle had such equipment, it would be controlled by the computer, which was out of commission right now.
“穿梭机上有冬眠设备吗？”程心刚问出口就知道没有意义，冬眠设备也是电脑智能控制的，即使有，现在也不能用。
“We have to hibernate,” said Yifan.
“我们得冬眠。”关一帆说。
Cheng Xin opened her visor and swallowed one of the pills. She watched as Yifan also took one. Then she looked outside the portholes.
程心打开面罩，吃下了一粒冬眠胶囊。看着关一帆也吃了一粒后，她又向舷窗外看去。
Yifan opened the storage unit from which he had taken the oxygen bottle earlier and took out a small box. He opened it to show Cheng Xin a few capsules. “These are drugs for short-term hibernation. Unlike regular hibernation, you won’t need an external life-support system. Once you are in hibernation, your respiration will slow down to the point where you consume very little oxygen. One capsule is enough for fifteen days of hibernation.”
关一帆又从刚才拿出金属氧气瓶的存储柜中，取出了一个小盒，他开小盒让程心看放在里面的胶囊。“这是短期冬眠药物，与以前的不同。不需要体外循环维持装置。冬眠后呼吸会降到极慢，耗氧很少。一粒可以冬眠十五天左右。”
Patches of color now moved so fast over Planet Blue — the broad belt that connected the blue and red ends of the lightspeed universe on one side of the ship — that they turned into a blur.
蓝星，那条连接着光速宇宙蓝红两极的宽带，它的表面流动得更快了。已经分辨不出那些色块。
“Can you see the patterns on the belt repeating periodically?” Yifan wasn’t looking outside at all. His eyes were half-closed as he strapped himself into the hypergravity seat.
“你能看出上面的图形有周期吗？”关一帆问，他哪里也没看，半闭着双眼把自己束缚在超重座椅上。
“They’re moving too fast.”
“太快了，看不出来。”
“Try to follow the motion with your eyes.”
“目光随着它移动。”
Cheng Xin tried to match her moving gaze with the patterns flowing across the belt. For a moment, she could see the blue, white, and yellow patches, but they blurred almost immediately. “I can’t,” she said.
程心照他说的做了，用目光快速跟着流动的宽带，那些蓝白黄的色块能瞬间看清一下，但很快又模糊了。“还是看不出来。”她说。
She understood that every time the pattern repeated on the broad belt, it meant that the shuttle had completed another orbit around Planet Blue at lightspeed. Even at reduced lightspeed, the demonic rules of the theory of special relativity still held. In the planet’s frame of reference, time was passing tens of millions of times faster than in here, like blood seeping out of her heart.
她知道，宽带上流动着的图形的每一个周期，都意味着穿梭机以光速围绕蓝星运行一圈。低光速下，狭义相对论魔鬼般的律法仍然有效，在那个参照系中，时间正以千万倍的速度闪电般地流逝，像从程心的心里流出的血。
Cheng Xin turned away from the porthole and strapped herself into the seat as well. Light flickered through the porthole on the other side. Outside, the sun of this world was alternately a bright line that connected the two ends of the universe, and a ball of light. It was dancing the mad dance of death.
程心默默地从舷窗外收回目光，也把自己固定在座椅上。另一侧的舷窗中照进周期变幻的光线，外面，这个世界的太阳拉成一条连接宇宙两极的亮线，再缩成一颗光球，再拉长成亮线，像在疯狂地跳着死亡之舞。
A moment here; eons there.
这一刻，沧海桑田。
“That’s all right. They’re moving too fast. The pattern could be repeating several hundred times per second.” Yifan sighed. Cheng Xin noticed his sorrow, despite his effort to hide it. And she knew why.
“是啊，太快了，可能每秒重复几百次。”关一帆说完，默默地叹息，尽管他极力不让程心注意到自己的悲哀，她还是看出来了，她知道他悲哀的原因。
“Cheng Xin.” Yifan called for her softly. “It’s possible that when we wake up, we’ll find the screen telling us that an error has occurred.”
“程心，”关一帆轻轻地唤了一声，“也许我们醒来时，看到那屏幕上显示着一条错误提示。”
Cheng Xin turned and smiled at him through the visor. “I’m not afraid.”
程心转过头，透过面罩对他微微一笑，“我不怕的。”
“Thank you,” Cheng Xin said.
“谢谢”程心轻轻地说。
“I know you’re not afraid. I just want to tell you something in case we don’t… I know about your experience as the Swordholder. I want to let you know that you didn’t do anything wrong. Humanity chose you, which meant they chose to treat life and everything else with love, even if they had to pay a great price. You fulfilled the wish of the world, carried out their values, and executed their choice. You really didn’t do anything wrong.”
“我当然知道你不怕，我只是想跟你说说话。我知道你作为执剑人的经历，只是想说，你没有错。人类世界选择了你，就是选择了用爱来对待生命和一切，尽管要付出巨大的代价。你实现了那个世界的愿望，实现了那里的价值观，你实现了他们的选择，你真的没有错。”
“Thank you,” Cheng Xin said. Her eyes felt hot and wet.
“谢谢。”程心又说，热泪涌上眼眶。
“I don’t know what happened to you after that, but you still didn’t do anything wrong. Love isn’t wrong. A single individual cannot destroy a world. If that world was doomed, then it was the result of the efforts of everyone, including those living and those who had already died.”
“你后来的经历我不知道，但我相信你也没错。爱是没错的，一个人不可能毁灭一个世界，如果这个世界毁灭了，那是所有人，包括活着的和逝去的，共同努力的结果。”
“As for what will happen next, I’m not afraid either. When I was on Gravity, all those stars in the emptiness made me afraid and tired, and I wanted to stop thinking about the universe. But it was like a drug, and I couldn’t stop. Well, now I can stop.”
“至于下面发生什么，我同样也不怕。早在’万有引力‘号上的时候星空就让我感到恐惧，感到累，我就想停下对宇宙的思考，但却像吸毒一样，停不下来。现在，可以停止了。”
“That’s good. You know something? The only thing I’m scared of is that you’ll be afraid.”
’那很好，知道吗？我唯一怕的就是你会怕。“
“I’m the same.”
“我也是。”
They held hands, and as the sun continued its mad dance, they gradually lost consciousness and stopped breathing.
他们的手拉在一起，在太阳的疯狂舞蹈中渐渐失去了意识和呼吸。
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