But now, perhaps, the Halo Group could help her realize her dream.
但现在，星环公司也许能够实现她的理想。
Cheng Xin came to the headquarters of the Halo Group. This was her first time here. She had never participated in its operation because, subconsciously, she never thought of the enormous wealth as truly hers, or Yun Tianming’s. They possessed that star, but the wealth generated by the star belonged to society.
程心来到星环公司的总部，这是她第一次到这鲜，以前她从不参与公司的事务。在潜意识中，她总认为这笔巨大的财富不属于自己，似乎也不属于云天明，他们拥有的是那颗恒星，而恒星带来的财富则属于社会。
The corporate headquarters occupied an entire giant tree. Interestingly, all the buildings on the tree were transparent. Moreover, as the refractive index in the construction material was close to that of the air, all internal structures were visible. One could see employees moving inside as well as countless information windows. The hanging buildings resembled transparent ant farms with colorful ants milling about inside.
公司总部占据了一整棵巨树，最大的特色是所有的建筑都是全透明的，且建筑材料的折射率与空气相近，内部结构全部显现出来，可以看到里面移动的人员和无数信息窗口，那一幢幢悬挂在空中的大楼像五光十色的透明蚁穴。
Inside the large conference room at the tip of the tree, Cheng Xin got to meet most of the high-level executives of the Halo Group. They were all young, smart, and vivacious. Most of them had never met Cheng Xin before, and they did not disguise their awe and adoration.
在树顶的会议室里，程心见到了星环公司的大部分高管。他们都很年轻，思想锐利，活力四射，他们大都是第一次见到程心，毫不掩饰对她的尊敬和爱戴。
After the meeting, when only Cheng Xin and AA remained in the large, empty room, they began to talk about the future of the company. The message from Yun Tianming and the deciphering progress remained secrets from the public. To protect Tianming, Fleet International and the UN planned to release the results gradually to the public and to make them appear as the fruits of research on Earth. Some deliberate false research results would also be mixed in to further conceal the real origin of the information.
直到见面会结束，宽敞的会议室里只剩程心和AA两人时，她们才谈起公司的未来。现在，云天明的情报及其解读结果仍然处于保密状态，为了云天明的安全，舰队国际和联合国计划通过另一种方式向国际社会逐步公布解读结果，试图让它看起来像是人类世界的研究成果。这中间，还需要做一些有意误人歧途的研究来加以掩饰。
Cheng Xin had gotten used to the transparent floor and no longer felt so acrophobic. A few large information windows drifted in the conference room, displaying live video feeds from a few of the Halo Group’s construction projects in Earth orbit, one of which was the giant cross in geosynchronous orbit. After Tianming’s reappearance, the public’s hopes for a miracle gradually faded, and with the initiation of the Bunker Project, the religious fervor dimmed. The church stopped investing in the giant cross, and it was abandoned. Now it was in the process of being dismantled so that only a giant “1” remained — a rather meaningful sight.
程心已经适应了脚下透明的地板，不再有恐高的感觉。会议室里飘浮着几个宽大的信息窗口，显示着星环公司在地球轨道上几处在建项目的实时图像，其中之一就是那个位于同步轨道上的巨型十字架。云天明出现后。公众对奇迹的幻想渐渐消失，随着掩体工程的启动，世界上的宗教氛围很快淡下去，教会的投资中止了，那个十字架成了烂尾工程，现在正在拆除，只剩下一个“一”字，看上去倒是更加意味深长。
“I don’t like ‘black domain,'” said AA. “It would be more appropriate to call it ‘black tomb,’ a tomb we dig for ourselves.”
“我不喜欢黑域。”AA说，“我觉得那应该叫黑墓，自掘坟墓。”
Cheng Xin looked at the city below through the transparent floor. “I don’t think of it that way. During the era I was from, the Earth was completely separated from the rest of the universe. Everyone lived on the surface, and very rarely did they glance up at the stars. People had lived that way for five thousand years, and you can’t just say that wasn’t a good life. Even now, the Solar System is basically separated from the rest of the universe. The only people who are in deep space are the thousand or so people on those two spaceships.”
程心透过地板，看着下面的城市说：“我不这样想，在我的那个时代地球与宇宙就是隔绝的，人们都在地上生活，一生都很少向星空看几眼；再向前的时代更是那样，之前的人们已经这样过了五千年的日子，你不能说就不是生活。其实现在太阳系基本也是与宇宙隔绝的，真正在外太空的，也就那两艘飞船上的一千多人。”
“But I feel that if we separate ourselves from the stars, dreams will die.”
“可我感觉，与星空隔开，梦就没有了。”
“Not at all. In ancient times there was happiness and joy as well, and they had no fewer dreams than we. Also, even inside a black domain, we would still see the stars, only… who knows what that would look like… Personally, I don’t like ‘black domain’ either.”
“怎么会呢？古代也有幸福和快乐，那时的梦也不比现在少。再说，在黑域中星空还是能看见的，只不过，唉，谁知是什么样子……，其实，从个人来说，我也不喜欢黑域。”
“I know you don’t.”
“我知道你不喜欢。”
“I like lightspeed ships.”
“我喜欢光速飞船。”
“You think I’m just a capitalist? Well, you’re not wrong. I am, and so are the members of the board of directors. We want to maximize profits. But that doesn’t conflict with lightspeed spaceships. Politically, the government will devote the most resources into the Bunker Project and the black domain, but lightspeed ships will be left to entrepreneurs… We should put our efforts into the Bunker Project, and then use some of the profits to research lightspeed ships.”
“你以为我只是个商人，不错，我是，董事会也是，我们都追求利益最大化，但这与光速飞船不矛盾。从政治上考虑，政府肯定会把主要力量投入到掩体工程和黑域上，光速飞船是留给企业的机会……我们努力参与掩体工程，用其利润的一部分研究光速飞船。”
“We all like lightspeed ships. The Halo Group should build lightspeed ships!”
“我们都喜欢光速飞船，星环公司应该造光速飞船！”
“I thought you weren’t going to agree,” Cheng Xin said. “This requires heavy investment in basic research.”
“我以为你不同意的，这要进行大量的基础研究。”
“All right. We should start a Halo Group Academy of Sciences, too, and recruit scientists. Many of them have dreamed about lightspeed spaceflight, but they can’t find such opportunities in national or international projects –“
“对，从现在开始，我们应该着手建立星环科学院了。应该开始招募科学家，他们中间迷恋光速飞船的人很多，但在国家和国际项目中找不到太多的机会……”
“Here’s my thinking, AA: Curvature propulsion and the black domain probably share some fundamental theories. We can wait for the government and the World Academy of Sciences to complete that part of the research, then develop it toward curvature propulsion.”
“AA，我是这样想：关于基础研究，曲率驱动与黑域在基础理论部分可能是重合的，我们等着政府和世界科学院做完这一部分，然后自己再向曲率驱动方向发展。”
“A warning! An attack!” she shouted.
“不好啦！打击警报！”秘书喊道。
A new window came to the forefront showing AA’s secretary. She stared at AA and Cheng Xin, her face full of terror and shock.
一个新出现的窗口稳定在最前方，画面中出现的是AA的秘书，她从窗口中盯着程心和AA，一脸惊恐。
“Any specifics?” AA asked.
“具体怎么回事？”AA问。
AA was interrupted by a sudden surge of new information windows. Windows of all sizes appeared in every direction like a colorful avalanche, quickly burying the few original information windows showing feeds from the Halo Group’s projects. A “window avalanche” like this usually indicated the sudden occurrence of some important event, but the flood of information often caused people to be overwhelmed, unable to find out what actually happened. Such was the case with AA and Cheng Xin. They saw that most of the windows were filled with complex text and animated figures, and only those windows that showed pure images could be taken in at a glance. In one of the windows, Cheng Xin saw a few faces looking upwards, then the lens zoomed in until a frightened pair of eyes filled the frame, accompanied by a cacophony of screams…
AA的话被突然涌出的大量信息窗口打断了，各种尺寸的窗口从所有方向涌现。像彩色的雪崩，很快埋住了原有的几个显示太空工程实时画面的大窗口。人们把这这种现象称为“窗口雪崩”，它的出现意味着突发的重大事件。但这种突发的信息洪水往往使人在震惊中很长时间不知所措，反而搞不清到底发生了什么——程心和AA现在就处于这种状态，她们看到那些窗口中大多充满了复杂的文字和动态图像，能够很快看清内容的只有那些纯图像窗口。程心在一个窗口中看到了几张仰望的面孔，然后镜头飞快拉近，直到一双惊惧的大眼睛充满画面，她还听到一片嘈杂的尖叫声……
“In what direction? How far?”
“在什么方向什么距离？”
“They activated the first observation unit in the Solar System advance warning system and found a photoid right away!”
“太阳系预警系统的第一个观测单元不是刚启动吗？马上就发现了光粒！”
“Is this an official warning?” Cheng Xin asked calmly.
“是官方的警报吗？”程心冷静地问。
“I don’t think so. But it’s in all the media. I’m sure it’s real! Let’s get to the spaceport and run for our lives!” The secretary disappeared from the window.
“哦，好像不是，但所有媒体都在疯传，肯定是真的！我们还是去发射港逃命吧！”秘书说完，就从窗口中消失了。
Cheng Xin and AA passed through the dense congeries of information windows and arrived at the transparent wall of the conference room. They saw that panic had already seized the city below them. A massive increase in the number of flying cars outside resulted in chaos, and every vehicle tried to force itself through the jam at high speed. One of the cars struck a giant tree building and erupted into a fireball. Soon, fire and columns of smoke appeared in two other locations in the city…
程心和AA穿过密密麻麻的信息窗口来到会议厅的透明墙边，看到下方的城市中乱象已经出现。空中的飞行车突然增多，交通变得混乱，所有车辆都在拥挤中高速抢行。有一辆飞车撞到巨树建筑上，腾起一团火球、接着，城市中又有两处出现火焰和烟柱……
“I don’t know. I don’t know anything. All I know –“
“我不知道，我什么都不知道，我只知道……”
AA picked out a few information windows and perused them carefully. Cheng Xin, on the other hand, tried to get in touch with the members of the IDC. Most of their phones were busy, and Cheng Xin managed to talk to only two committee members. One of them, like AA and Cheng Xin, knew nothing. The other, a PDC official, told Cheng Xin that he could confirm that Observation Unit #1 in the Solar System advance warning system had noticed some significant anomaly, but he didn’t know the specifics. He also confirmed that Fleet International and the UN had not issued a formal dark forest strike alarm, but he wasn’t optimistic.
AA挑出几个信息窗口仔细察看，程心则联系IDC的委员，他们的电话大多占线。程心只联系上了两个委员，其中一位与他们一样不知情，另一位PDC的官员则告诉程心，可以确认太阳系预警系统的一号观测单元确实观测到了重大异常情况，但具体内容他也不知道。他还确认舰队国际和联合国都没有发出正式的黑暗森林打击警报，但他并不乐观。
“There are two possibilities for why no alarm has been issued: One, nothing has happened. Two, the photoid is too close and an alarm would be useless.”
“官方没发警报有两种可能，一是真的没事，二是光粒已经太近，没必要再发了。”这位PDC官员说。
“We should go to Halo,” AA said.
“我们去’星环，号。”AA说。
“Is there enough time?”
“还来得及吗？”
Halo was a corporate spaceship that belonged to the Halo Group. Right now, it was parked at the company’s geosynchronous base. If the alarm was real, their only hope now was to ride the ship to Jupiter and hide out behind the gas giant before the photoid struck. As Jupiter was in opposition, and therefore as close to the Earth as it could be, it would take twenty-five to thirty days for the ship to fly from the Earth to Jupiter, which was just under the upper end of the range of estimates for when the photoid would strike. But this estimate seemed highly unreliable: The advance warning system was still being constructed, and couldn’t have given such an early alert.
“星环”号是星环公司的一艘商务飞船，现在停泊在地球同步轨道的公司太空基地。如果警报为真，目前唯一的逃生希望是乘飞船飞向木星，当光粒击中大阳时在木星的背阳面躲过大爆发。现在正值四百天一遇的木星冲日，以行星际飞船的速度，从地球飞到木星约需二十五至三十天，正好是AA刚看到的对剩余时间最长的一种预估，但这个信息极不可靠，因为刚开始建设的太阳系预警系统不可能提供那么长的预警时间。
AA was only able to obtain one piece of specific information from her reading: The photoid was coming along the ecliptic plane. There were conflicting reports concerning its exact direction and distance from the Sun, and estimates of when the photoid would strike the sun diverged wildly: Some claimed that the world had another month; others said only a few hours.
AA从信息窗口中只得到一条确定信息：光粒沿黄道面以光速袭来，至于方向和目前与太阳的距离说法各异，对击中太阳时间的说法更是差异极大，有的说还有一个月的时间，有的说只剩几个小时了。
“Why are you bringing this?” Cheng Xin asked.
“你拿这个干什么？”程心问。
“We have to do something instead of waiting here to die!” AA said. She dragged Cheng Xin out of the conference room and onto the parking lot at the top of the tree. They ducked into a flying car, but AA seemed to remember something and got out again. A few minutes later, she returned with an oblong object that resembled a violin case. She opened the case, took out what was inside, and carried it with her into the car, leaving the case behind.
“那总得做点什么，不能在这里等死！”从说着，拉起程心跑出了会议大厅。外面就是树顶的停车场，她们钻进了一辆飞行车。AA想起什么又下了车，几分钟后她回来了，拎着一个琴盒似的长条箱，她把箱子中的东西取出来，把箱子扔在车外。
Cheng Xin looked at what was in AA’s hand and recognized the implement: a rifle, though adapted to shoot laser bolts instead of bullets.
程心认识那东西，虽然它现在发射的是激光而不是子弹，那是尸支步枪。
Every city had a spaceport to service various small space vessels — rather like ancient airports.
现在每座城市都有一个太空发射港，主要作为太空穿梭机的起飞场，就像古代的机场一样。
“The spaceport is sure to be filled with people — who knows what’s going to happen?” AA tossed the rifle onto the backseat and started the flying car.
“发射港一定挤破了头，谁知道会发生什么。”AA说着，把步枪扔到后座上，发动了飞行车。
The flying car merged into a mighty aerial stream of traffic. All the countless cars in the stream, like a swarm of locusts, were headed for the spaceport. They cast a flowing shadow along the ground, as though the city’s blood was seeping out.
飞行车向着发射港方向飞去，汇入一条浩浩荡荡的空中车流。这飞蝗群一般的车辆都是飞向发射港的，车流在地而投下了一条流动的影子，仿佛是城市流淌而出的血液。
On an information window inside the car, Cheng Xin saw a live video feed taken from near-Earth orbit. Countless rising white lines appeared against the tan background of the continent and extended upward. They grew more numerous, denser, as though the Earth was growing white hair. The fireballs at the ends of the white lines were like fireflies drifting into space. This was the greatest collective escape into space in human history.
程心从车内的信息窗口中看到一幅实时画面‘，是从太空中的近地轨道拍摄的。她看到无数条上升的白线在揭色的大陆上出现，不断延长，不断增多加密，仿地球正长出白发，白线头部的小火团像一大片浮向太空的萤火虫——这是人类从地球最大规模的一次集体逃离。
Ahead, a dozen or so white lines rose into the blue sky, trails left by spaceships. They rose straight up and then turned east and disappeared in the depths of the firmament. New white lines continuously shot up from the ground and extended into air, each line headed by a fireball that was brighter even than the sun: the flame from the fusion drives of the ships.
在前方目的地的方向，出现了十几根直插蓝天的白线，那是太空穿梭机的尾迹，它们升上高空，然后都折向东方，消失在天空深处。新的白线还在不断从地面升起，向空中延长，每条自线的头部都有一个火团，光度看上去比太阳还亮，那是穿梭机聚变发动的光焰。
Their car arrived above the spaceport. About a hundred spacecraft were arrayed below, and more were being moved out of the giant hangar in the distance. Space planes had long since fallen out of use, and modern shuttles all took off vertically. Unlike the oddly shaped spacecraft Cheng Xin had seen at the port in the space elevator terminal station, these shuttles all had streamlined profiles, with three or four tail fins. They were now erected helter-skelter in the parking lot of the spaceport, like a forest of steel.
到达发射港上空时，可以看到下面排列着一大片太空穿梭机，大约有一百多架，在远处的巨型机库中仍不断地有穿梭机被移出来。空天飞机早已淘汰，现在的太空穿梭机都是垂直起飞。与程心在太空电梯的终端站港口看到的形状各异的太空艇不同，穿梭机都是规则的流线型，带有三至四片尾翼，它们现在零乱地竖立在发射港的停泊区，像一片钢铁植物的丛林。
A loud rumbling came from the launch area, strangely reminding Cheng Xin of the noise made by the Moskstraumen. The ground quaked and her legs felt numb. A great bright glow appeared in the launch area, and a shuttle rose into the air on a ball of flame, adding yet another column of smoke to the sky. A great billowing cloud of white fog flowed toward them, bringing with it a strange burning smell. The fog wasn’t generated by the engine of the shuttle, but by the boiled water from the coolant pool below the launch pad. As the launch area and the ships disappeared in the sweltering, muggy steam, people became even more agitated and anxious.
一阵轰鸣声从远处的发射区传来，很奇怪，竟让程心想起默斯肯大旋涡的声音。地面颤动起来，让她感到小腿发麻，一团强光自发射区亮起，一架尾部拖着光焰的穿梭机腾空而起，很快消失在高空，于是那伸向高空的尾迹又增加了一条。大团的白雾涌了过来，带着奇怪的焦味，这些雾气并非来自穿梭机的发动机，而是发射台下的冷却池中蒸发的冷却水。一切都笼罩在潮湿闷热的蒸汽中，让人更加焦躁不安。
AA had called ahead to the hangar to move one of the Halo Group’s shuttles onto the lot. She quickly picked out the shuttle from the air and landed their car next to it.
AA在车上已经通知机库，把星环公司的一架穿梭机移到停泊区。她很快从空中找到了那架穿梭机，驾驶飞行车降落到它旁边。
Cheng Xin looked at the shuttles around her. They were of different sizes: The smaller ones were only about a few meters tall, looking like giant versions of artillery shells. It was hard to imagine that such tiny crafts could escape the Earth’s gravity well. There were also larger vessels, some as big as ancient airliners. The Halo Group’s shuttle was medium-small in size, about ten meters tall, covered with a reflective metallic surface reminiscent of the droplets. The shuttle was parked on a wheeled launch frame so that it could be dragged to the launch point at a moment’s notice. They would ride this shuttle to reach Halo in orbit.
程心看到周围停满了大小不一的穿梭机，小的只有几米高，看上去像一枚放大的炮弹，很难想象这样小的飞行器竟然能够飞出地球的引力深井进人太空。也有许多大型穿梭机，有的像古代大型民航客机那样大。星环公司的这架穿梭机属于中小型，高有十米左右，通体被金属镜面覆盖，让人想到水滴。穿梭机用带轮的起落架着地，可随时被勤务车拖向发射点。他们将乘坐这架穿梭机到达轨道上的光环。
“Can we wait a bit?” Cheng Xin asked.
“能稍等等吗？”程心问。
AA looked over at the children and understood what Cheng Xin wanted. “All right. Go. We have to wait for our turn to get to the launch pad. It will be a while.”
AA看了看那群孩子，知道程心要干什么，“你去吧，我们要等发射位，队排得长着呢。”
The teacher saw Cheng Xin walking over, and came up and grabbed her. “This shuttle is yours, isn’t it? Please, please save the children.” Her bangs stuck to her forehead, and tears and condensed fog wetted her face. She stared at Cheng Xin intently, as if hoping to seize her with her gaze. The children came over as well, and looked expectantly at Cheng Xin. “They’re here for space camp, and they were scheduled to go up in orbit. But after the alert was issued, they refused to take us and sent others up in our place.”
女教师看到程心走过去，没等她发问，就扑过来抓住她，“这架穿梭机是你们的吧？求求你救救孩子们吧！”她湿漉漉的刘海儿紧贴在前额上，眼泪和雾水一起在脸上流淌，她盯着程心，像要用眼神把她死死抓住似的。孩子们也围了过来，期盼的目光都汇聚到程心身上，“我们是太空夏令营的，本来就是要上同步轨道的，可是警报来了以后，他们不让我们登机了，让别人上去了！”
AA and Cheng Xin climbed up a slender set of stairs to board the shuttle. As the fog dissipated, Cheng Xin saw a crowd of children gathered not too far away. They appeared to be elementary school students under the age of ten, dressed in their school uniforms. A young teacher stood with them. Her long hair was buffeted by gusts of wind and she looked around helplessly.
在AA和程心即将沿着一架细长的舷梯登上穿梭机之际，程心在渐渐消散的气雾中看到了一群孩子。他们就聚在不远处，看上去都是十岁以下的小学生，全穿着整洁漂亮的校服，有一位年轻女教师领着他们，她的长发被气浪吹起，正站在那里四下张望，一副茫然无助的样子。
In principle, shuttles could take off from any flat part of the ground. However, to prevent ground damage from the ultrahigh-temperature plasma generated by the fusion drive, the shuttles used a launch pad. The launch pad was equipped with a coolant pool and diversion channels to safely redirect the plasma.
原则上太空穿梭机可以在任何平坦的场地起飞，但为了防止聚变发动机喷出的超高温等离子体对周围造成危险，都在发射台上起飞，发射台下有冷却池，还有导流槽，可以把等离子体导向安全的方向。
The teacher let go of AA and stared at her, even more terrified than before. “How am I supposed to pick? How…” She looked around, not daring to meet the eyes of the children. She looked to be in utter pain, as if the gazes of the children burned her.
女教师放开了AA，呆呆地看着她，仿佛陷人了比刚才更探的恐惧中，“让我选？！天啊，我怎么能……”她惶恐地四下张望着，不敢看身边的孩子们。她看上去很痛苦，好像孩子们的目光正把她烧焦似的。
“Let’s bring them,” Cheng Xin said to AA.
“带他们一起走吧。”程心对AA说。
Cheng Xin’s gaze did not waver. AA shook her head. “We can only bring three more.”
最后，她在程心依然坚定的目光中，AA摇摇头说：“只能带三个。”
AA looked at Cheng Xin for a few seconds. There are billions of people on the Earth. Do you think you can save them all?
AA盯着程心看了几秒钟，那目光的含意很明确：地球上的人多了去了，你救得过来吗？
The answer surprised Cheng Xin. The deep-sea acceleration fluid was only necessary for stellar spaceships. But she had always thought Halo was a planetary ship and wasn’t capable of voyaging beyond the Solar System.
这个回答让程心很意外，深海液只在具有超大加速功率的恒星际飞船中才使用，而她一直以为“星环”号是一艘行星际飞船。
“Where’s your ship?” AA asked as she walked over.
“那架穿梭机呢？”一同走来的AA问。
“It’s gone. Please, please!”
“已经起飞了，求求你们……”
“All right. Then bring three!” The teacher let go of Cheng Xin and grabbed on to AA, terrified of losing this one chance.
“好的好的，那就带三个吧！”教师放开程心转而抓住AA，生怕失去这个机会。
“But our shuttle’s capacity is eighteen!”
“可这架穿梭机能坐十八个人的！”
“You pick three, then,” said AA.
“你选三个吧。”AA指指孩子们说。
“Halo can only seat five under maximum acceleration because it’s equipped with only five deep-sea-state capsules. Anyone not in a deep-sea state is going to be crushed into a meat pie.”
“但’星环‘号在最大加速状态下只能乘五个人，只有五个深海液舱位1，多出来的人会被压成肉饼的。”
“A thousand!”
“一千次！”
AA shook her head. “Wrong.”
AA摇摇头。“不对。”
“Fine. I’ll pick,” AA said. She turned to the children and smiled. “Everyone, listen up. I’m going to ask three questions. Whoever gives the right answers first gets to come with us.” She ignored the stunned looks from the teacher and Cheng Xin, and held up a finger. “First question: Say we have a light which is off. After one minute, it blinks. Half a minute later, it blinks again. Fifteen seconds later, it blinks a third time. It keeps on going like this, blinking at intervals that are half of the immediately preceding interval. I want to know how many times it will have blinked by the two-minute mark.”
“好吧，我来选。”AA说，然后转向孩子们，脸上露出笑容，“同学们听着。我出三道题，先答对我们就带谁走。”她不理会程心和女教师吃惊的目光。竖起一根手指。“第一题：有一盏灯，关着，一分钟时闪亮了一下，再过半分钟又闪亮一下，再过十五秒再闪亮一下，以后就这样每过前面间隔时间的一半就闪亮一下，请问到两分钟时灯闪亮了多少次？”
“No. Think carefully.”
“不对，好好想想。”
“Come here,” AA said, pointing at the little girl. When she walked over, AA guided her to stand behind herself. “Second question: Say we have a rope whose thickness is uneven. To burn it from one end to the other takes an hour. How do you use this rope to track the passage of fifteen minutes? Remember, the thickness is uneven!”
“你，过来。”AA指着那个女孩儿说，待她走过来后把她揽到身后，“第二道题：一根粗细不均匀的绳子，从一头点燃后烧完要用一个小时，如何用它来做15分钟的计时？注意，不均匀！”
“A hundred!” one of the children blurted out.
“一百次！”有孩子脱口而出。
After a long pause, a timid voice spoke up. The speaker was a gentle and quiet little girl and it was hard to hear her with all the noise. “An infinite number of times.”
一阵沉默后，响起了一个怯生生的声音，来自一个文静的小女孩儿，在嘈杂的噪声中几乎听不清：“无数次。”
Cheng Xin followed them to the stairs for boarding the shuttle. She looked back. The remaining children and their teacher looked at her as if at a sun that would never rise again. Tears blurred the scene in front of her, and as she climbed up, she could still feel the gazes of despair behind her, like ten thousand arrows piercing her heart. She had felt like this before, during the last moments of her brief career as the Swordholder, and also in Australia when Sophon had announced the plan for exterminating the human race. It was a pain worse than death.
程心跟着他们走到舷梯下，回头看了一眼，只见剩下的孩子们围在他们老师的身边看着她，像看着正在最后一次落下永远不再升起的太阳。这景象在泪水中模糊了，攀上舷梯时，她仍能感受到背后孩子们那绝望的目光，如万箭穿心。这种感觉她在作为执剑人的最后时刻曾有过，在澳大刊亚听到智子宣布人类灭绝计划时也曾有过，这是比死亡更痛苦的剧痛。
“Ten!” a girl shouted.
“10！”一个女孩儿喊道。
AA gave her a thumb up. “Well done. Come over.” Then she nodded at Cheng Xin, took the three children, and headed for the shuttle.
AA冲她竖起大拇指，“好孩子，过来吧。”然后，她对程心示意了一下，带着三个孩子头也不回地走向穿梭机。
This time, no child spoke up in a hurry, and they all fell into deep thought. Soon, a boy raised his hand. “Fold the rope end to end, and then burn it from both ends at the same time.”
这次没有孩子急着说，他们都在思索，但很快有一个男孩儿举起了手，“绳子对折后从两头烧！”
AA nodded. “Come over.” She pulled the boy behind her to stand with the girl. “Third question: eighty-two, fifty, twenty-six. What’s the next number?”
AA点点头，“你过来吧。”她把这个男孩儿也拉到身后，与先前答对题的那个女孩站站在一起，“第三题：82,50,26，下一个数是什么？”
She couldn’t see any control surfaces inside the shuttle, and only a few information windows drifted by. The shuttle’s AI seemed to recognize AA. As soon as she entered, the windows gathered around her. They moved with her while she went around securing the children’s and Cheng Xin’s seat belts.
穿梭机舱内她儿乎看不到驾驶设备，只有几个信息窗口飘浮着。穿梭机的A.l。似乎认识AA，她一进来，那儿个窗口就围拢到她身边，当她帮助孩子们和程心系安全带时，那些窗口一直跟着她。
The cabin inside the shuttle was spacious; eighteen seats were arranged in two columns. Since the cabin was vertical, like a well, everyone had to climb a ladder to get to the seats. Cheng Xin experienced the same feeling she had when inside the spherical spacecraft she took to meet Tianming — the shuttle seemed to be a shell only, and she couldn’t see where there was space for the engine and the control systems. She thought back to the chemical rockets of the Common Era, each as big as a skyscraper, but the effective payload was only a tiny capsule near the top.
穿梭机内部很宽敞，有两排十八个座位，但机舱是竖立的，像井一样，需要沿阶梯爬到座位上。同在太空艇内的感觉一样，程心觉得这架飞行器简直就是一个空壳，她不知道哪儿还有空间安装发动机和控制系统。她想到公元世纪的化学动力火箭，如摩天大楼般高高耸立着，却只有顶端那一点点有效荷载。
“Auntie, are they going to die on the surface?” the boy asked.
“阿姨，他们在下面会死吗？”那过绍孩子问。
“Don’t look at me like that. I gave them a chance. Competition is necessary for survival,” AA whispered to Cheng Xin.
“别这样看我，我给了他们机会，要生存就得竞争。”AA低声对程心说。
The wait shouldn’t have mattered much to their survival. The flight to Jupiter would take a month. If the dark forest strike happened before they arrived, it really made no difference if they were on the ground or in space. However, the problem now was that any delay might cause them to not be able to take off at all.
仅从逃生角度肴，等待的这段I讨问并不太重要，因为飞到木星需要一个月，如果这之前打击降临，无沦是在太空穿梭机还是在地球上，结局都一样。但现在的问题是：稍有耽搁，可能就永远也无法起飞了。
Society had already descended into pandemonium. Driven by the instinct for survival, the more than ten million inhabitants of the city swarmed toward the spaceport. The shuttles, like passenger aircraft during ancient times, could only carry away a small number of people in a short period of time. Possessing a private space vessel was like owning a private airplane, an unattainable dream for most of the population. Even with the space elevator, no more than one percent of the population could reach near-Earth orbit within a week. Those who could finally make the voyage to Jupiter would be one-tenth of that one percent.
这时，社会己处于混乱中，在求生本能的驱使下，城市中一千多万人都在拥向发射港。这个时代的太空穿梭机相当于公元世纪的飞机，在短时间内只能运载一小部分人；而拥有穿梭机就如同古代拥有飞船一样，对人部分人来说是可望而不可即的。现在就算加上太空电梯的运力，在一个星期内只能把不到百分之一的地球人日送入近地轨道，能最后踏上木星航程的人还不到千分之一。
“Everyone is going to die. It’s just a matter of when.” AA sat down next to Cheng Xin. She didn’t buckle her seat belt, but continued to examine the information windows. “Damn it. There are still twenty-nine launches ahead of us.”
“我们每个人一生下来都注定要死的，只是早晚而已。”AA说着，坐到程心旁边的座位上，她没系安全带，只是察看着那些窗口，“见鬼，我们的发射位前还排着二十九个！”
The spaceport had a total of eight launch pads. After each launch, the pad had to cool for ten minutes before the next use because the coolant pools needed to be replenished with fresh water.
发射港共有八个发射台，每次发射后，发射台都需要冷却十分钟才能再次使用，这期问还需向冷却池中加注冷却水。
The plasma emitted by the nuclear fusion drive was tens of times hotter than the emissions of ancient chemical rockets. When launched from a flat surface, the plasma would melt the crust instantaneously and spill out in every direction. No one could survive within a thirty-meter radius. The video feed in the window showed many black dots scattering from the fireball. One of the dots struck a nearby shuttle and left a black mark: a burnt-up body. Several other shuttles around the one that took off toppled, probably because their launch frames had been melted.
核聚变发动机喷出的等离子体的温度，是古代化学发动机喷出物温度的几十倍，如果在平坦的地面发射，高温等离子体能瞬间熔化地表，并向四周迸射，半径三十米内无人能存活。从画面中可以看到，许多黑点从烈焰出现的地方飞出，其中一个碰到附近一架穿梭机的顶部，在那里留下了一道黑印，那是一块烧焦的人体。火团周围的几架穿梭机倒下了，可能是起落架被烧熔了。
Cheng Xin minimized the information window and turned around to comfort the three children seated behind her. AA screamed. Cheng Xin turned around and saw a window that had been maximized to fill the entire cabin. In the window, a blinding fireball had appeared in the forest of shuttles.
程心缩小了这个信息窗口，转身去安慰后座上的三个孩子。就在这时。AA惊叫了一声：“天啊！”程心回头看时，见那个画面被放到了最大，几乎占据了舱内的全部视野，画而上，一团耀眼的火球出现在穿梭机的丛林中。
There were no portholes on the shuttle, but a few information windows showed the scene outside. They saw dark masses flooding into the parking area. Crowds surrounded every vessel, screaming with their fists raised, hoping to squeeze onto one of them. At the same time, outside the spaceport, some flying cars that had landed took off again. The cars were all empty, and their owners piloted them by remote control in an attempt to stop any more space launches. More and more flying cars gathered in the air, forming a dark, hovering barrier above the launch pads. Very soon, no one would be able to leave.
穿梭机上没有舷窗，但有几个信息窗口从各个角度播放着外面的图像，可以看到黑压压的人群正在涌进停泊区。人们在每一架太空穿梭机周围，挥着拳头声嘶力竭地叫喊着，希望能够挤上其中一架。与此同时，在发射港的外围地带。早些时候降落的一大片飞行汽车又相继起飞，车内都是空的，是车的主人遥控它们飞上天阻止穿梭机发射的。天空中的飞行车越来越多，悬停在发射台上空，形成一片黑色的屏障，这样下去，很快谁都走不成了。
Someone had begun to launch while surrounded by people in the parking lot!
有人竟然在停泊区的人群中启动发射了！
AA watched the horrifying scene and bit her bottom lip. Then she waved the window away and began to type on another small window.
AA咬着下唇看着惨烈的画面，然后一挥手关上了这个窗口，埋头在另一个小窗口上点击操作起来。
“We’re taking off.”
“起飞。”
“What are you doing?” Cheng Xin asked.
“你干什么？”程心问。
The crowd quieted. They looked up and saw the shuttle that had probably killed dozens of people lifting off from the parking lot, rumbling, dragging its white trail until it was high in the air, then turning east. They seemed unable to believe their eyes. A few seconds later, yet another shuttle took off from the parking lot, even closer to them. The rumbling, flames, and waves of superheated air threw the stunned crowd into complete panic. Then a third, a fourth… the shuttles in the parking lot took off one after another. Amidst the fiery balls of flame, burnt remains of bodies flew through the air, turning the parking lot into a crematorium.
人群瞬间寂静下来，人们抬头看着，那架可能烧死了几十人的穿梭机轰鸣着从停泊区升起，拖着白色的尾迹直上高空，然后转向东方。人们似乎不敢相信眼前发生的事。只过了十几秒钟，又一架穿梭机从停泊区起飞，这次距离他们更近，轰鸣、火光和热浪让人群由僵滞陷人极度的狂乱中。接下来，第三架，第四架……停泊区的穿梭机相继强行发射，团团烈焰中，焦黑的人体拖着烟火在空中横飞，停泊区变成了火葬场！
“No.”
“停下。”
“Look.” AA tossed another small window at Cheng Xin, which showed the few shuttles around them. A cooling loop was located just above the tail nozzle of each vehicle. The loops were used to dissipate the heat from the fusion reactors. Cheng Xin saw that the loops of all the surrounding shuttles had begun to glow with a dim red light, indicating that their reactors had been turned on in preparation for liftoff.
“你看看——”AA把另一个小窗口甩给程心，其中显示着周围几架穿梭机——在每架穿梭机的尾部发动机喷口上方，都有一圈散热环，由大量的小散热片组成，用于聚变堆的散热。程心看到，周围几架穿梭机的散热环都发出暗红色的光芒，表示创门的聚变堆已经启动，即将起飞。
“We’d better launch before they do,” said AA. If any of these shuttles took off, the plasma would probably melt the launch frames of the rest of the shuttles, causing them to topple onto the molten ground.
“与其让他们先飞，还不如我们飞！”AA说。如果这些穿梭机中有一架启动发动机就有可能烧熔周围穿梭机的起落架，使它们倾倒在已经熔化的地面上，包括星环公司的这架。
“No. Stop.” Cheng Xin’s voice was calm, but unwavering. She had experienced even worse catastrophes, and she would face this one with serenity.
“不行，停下。”程心的声音平静，但无比坚定，她经历过比这更大的灾难。这一次她能够从容面对。
“Because there are people around.”
“因为下面有人群。”
“Our values still hold, at least for now. I’m the president of the Halo Group. This shuttle belongs to the Halo Group, and you’re the company’s employee. I have the authority to make this decision.”
“至少现在，道德底线还在。我是星环公司的总裁，这架穿梭机的所有权是星环公司的，你也是公司的员工，我有权做这个决定。”
“Why?” AA’s voice was equally calm.
“为什么？”AA的声音变得同样平静。
AA stared at Cheng Xin for a few moments, then she nodded and closed the control window. She also turned off all the other information windows, thus isolating the cabin from the mad, noisy world outside.
AA与程心对视良久，然后点点头，伸手关闭了操作窗口，接着又关上了所有的信息窗口，把这里与外面狂躁的世界隔绝了。
AA stopped typing and turned to face Cheng Xin. “Soon, you, me, the crowd, and the Earth itself will all turn into tiny fragments. Can you tell which ones are honorable and which ones despicable in that mess?”
AA停下操作，转身面对程心，“那样，过不久，我们、人群和地球就要一起变成碎片，在这些碎片中，你能分清哪些是高尚的，哪些是卑鄙的？”
“If we can’t leave, they can’t leave either. Fuck them.”
“我们走不了，他们也他妈的别想走！”
AA said nothing. But then she jumped up, as if suddenly remembering something. She picked up the laser rifle from one of the empty seats and climbed down the ladder. “Keep your seat belts on. The shuttle might fall over any moment.”
AA没有回答她，像突然想起什么似的跳起来，从一排空着的座椅上拿起那支激光步枪，离开座位沿梯子向下走去，同时说：“你们都系好安全带，这里随时可能倒下去。”
“Thank you,” said Cheng Xin.
“谢谢。”程心说。
AA opened the cabin door, went out, and immediately closed the door and locked it to prevent anyone from trying to force their way in. Then she climbed down the stairs and began to shoot at the tail fin of the nearest shuttle. Smoke rose up from the tail fin, leaving behind a tiny hole about the size of a finger. That was enough. The self-monitoring system within the shuttle would discover the damage to the tail fin and the AI would refuse to initiate the launch sequence. This was a safety measure that couldn’t be overridden by those inside. The cooling ring around the shuttle began to fade, indicating a reactor shutdown. AA turned around in a circle and shot a hole through the tail fins of each of the eight shuttles around them. As the crowd was in total panic, no one noticed what she was doing amidst the waves of heat and smoke and dust.
AA挥着步枪喊道。从打开舱门走出去，立刻把舱门紧紧关上以防人们进人，然后从舷梯下到地面，端起步枪对着最近的一架正在启动的穿梭机尾翼射击。尾翼被击中的地方冒起一股青烟，被穿出一个小洞。洞只有手指粗，但已经足够了，穿梭机的监测系统会检测到尾翼的缺陷，AI系统将拒绝执行发射程序，这种拒绝是超越最高系统权限的，穿梭机里面的人不可能解除它。果然，那架穿梭机的敞热环暗了下来，标志着聚变堆停机。AA转着圈连续开枪，把周114的八架穿梭机每一架的尾翼上都穿了一个洞。在滚滚热浪和烟尘中的人群一片混乱，甚至没人注意到她干什么。
“What are you going to do?” Cheng Xin asked.
“你去干什么？”程心问。
AA climbed back up the stairs and pushed Cheng Xin, who had poked her head out, back in. Then she followed and shut the door behind her. She began to vomit.
AA走上“星环”号的舷梯，把刚探出头来的程心推了回去，自己也跟进去，然后飞快地关上舱门。进来后，AA立刻呕吐起来。
The door of one of the other shuttles opened, and an elegantly dressed woman climbed down. She walked around the tail of the shuttle and soon discovered the hole. She began to cry hysterically, then rolled around on the ground. She tried to head-butt the launch frame, but no one paid any attention to her. All the crowd cared about was the door to her shuttle, which had been left open. They surged up the stairs and tried to squeeze into the shuttle that could no longer fly.
有一架散热环暗下来的穿梭机的舱门开了，走下来一个衣着华丽的女人，她围着穿梭机底部察看，很快发现了尾翼上的小洞，歇斯底里地哭叫起来，接着在地上打滚。把头向起落架上掩。没有人理会她，人们只看到她忘记关上的舱门。一拥而上拼命地想挤进那架已经不能起飞的穿梭机，很快挤成一大堆。
“It smells like… barbeque out there,” AA finally said after the heaves subsided.
“外面……全是烤肉味儿。”AA在呕吐平缓下来后说。
“We’re going to witness a magnificent sight of the cosmos,” AA said, a mysterious expression on her face. “What sight?”
“我们会看到非常非常壮观的宇宙景象。”AA一脸神秘地对她说。“是什么样子？”
“Are we going to die?” asked one of the girls, poking her head into the aisle from the seat above them.
“我们会死吗？”一个女孩儿从上面的座椅里探出头问。
“It’s the most impressive thing ever. The Sun is going to turn into a giant firework.”
“反正，是最最壮观的，太阳将变成一团大焰火！”
AA smiled back. It was a smile Cheng Xin was familiar with. In her eyes, AA had always seemed young, less worn down by the darkness of the world that Cheng Xin had experienced. She felt more mature in front of AA, but also powerless.
AA对程心笑笑，这笑容程心很熟悉，AA在她眼中一直是一个小女孩儿，但却是一个强有力的小女孩儿，她在AA面前既感觉成熟，又感到无力。
“Then… nothing. What can there be when there’s nothing?” AA climbed up and patted the three children on their heads in turn. She wasn’t going to lie to them. If they could answer her questions, surely they were smart enough to understand the situation.
“然后……也没什么，什么都没了能有什么，是吧？”AA走上去依次拍拍三个孩子的头说，她不打算哄骗他们，他们既然能答出那样的问题，就不会缺少看清眼前现实的智力。
“Don’t worry about it. It’s all just busywork anyway. In the end, the result is going to be the same. At least now we can relax.” AA exhaled.
“别放在心上，反正都是瞎忙活，最后结果都一样，像这样省点儿心也好。”AA长出一口气说。
“And then?”
“然后呢？”
AA seemed to sense what Cheng Xin was thinking. “Even if the advance warning system had been completely operational, we’d get at most a day’s warning… But now that I’ve thought about it some, I think it’s likely a false alarm.”
AA似乎看出了程心的想法，“即使太阳系预警系统完全建成，预警时间也不过一天而已……不过冷静下来细想想，我感觉警报可能是假的。”
Again, AA and Cheng Xin sat down next to each other. Cheng Xin put a hand over AA’s hand. “I’m sorry.”
当两人再次紧挨着坐下后，程心把一只手放到AA的手上，轻轻说道：“AA，对不起。”
If Halo really were a stellar ship, then it would be able to get to Jupiter much faster than she had expected. Although the distance between the Earth and Jupiter wasn’t long enough for it to reach maximum acceleration, the whole journey should take only about two weeks.
如果“星环”号真的是恒星际飞船，那它飞到木星就要快得多。虽然地球至木星间的距离还不足以让它充分加速，但航程也只需两周左右。
Cheng Xin wasn’t sure if that was why AA had submitted to her authority earlier so easily.
程心不知道，AA是不是因为这个想法，刚才才那么轻易对她屈服的。
Once the outside had calmed down a bit, Cheng Xin and AA exited the shuttle. The scene that greeted them was like a battlefield. Burnt bodies lay everywhere, charcoal-black, a few still on fire. Many of the shuttles lay on the ground while others leaned against each other. In total, nine shuttles had taken off from the parking lot, and their trails were still clearly visible in the sky, like sliced-open wounds. The crowd was no longer frantic. Some sat on the still-hot ground, some stood in place, stunned, some wandered around aimlessly — and everyone seemed uncertain whether they were experiencing reality or a nightmare. The police had arrived to maintain order, and rescue operations were underway.
等外面稍稍平静一些，程心和AA走出穿梭机，看到的景象如惨烈的战场。到处是烧焦的尸体，都呈炭黑色，有的仍在冒出火苗。穿梭机群东倒西歪，有的倒在地上，有的相互斜靠在一起。前后共有九架穿梭机从停泊区强行发射，现在它们在天空中的尾迹还十分清晰，像划开的伤口一般。人群已不再狂躁，人们有的坐在发热的地上，有的呆立着，有的漫无目的地走动，似乎都搞不清眼前的一切究竟是噩梦还是现实。有警察部队在维持秩序，救护工作也开始了。
AA’s theory was quickly proven. The PDC official who was also a member of the IDC called Cheng Xin to let her know that Fleet International and the UN had issued a joint statement that the alarm was false. No signs of a dark forest strike had been detected. AA opened a few information windows, and most of them were broadcasting the announcement from Fleet International and the UN. Outside, the unauthorized launches had ceased. It was still chaotic, but at least the situation wouldn’t deteriorate further.
AA的话很快得到了证实。程心收到了那个IDC委员会、同时也是PDC官员的电话，告诉她舰队国际和联合国已经联合发表声明，警报纯属误传，目前没有发现任何黑暗森林打击的迹象。AA点开了几个信息窗口，大部分都在播放联合国和舰队发言人发布声明的画面。再看看外面，发射区和停泊区的穿梭机发射都停止了，混乱还在继续，但不会再恶化了。
The difference between a planetary spaceship and a stellar spaceship was like the difference between a ferryboat with a single oar plying a river and an oceangoing container ship with a tonnage measured in tens of thousands. Of course, in spaceships, the difference wasn’t merely a matter of volume — there were small stellar spaceships, too. Compared to planetary ships, stellar ships had more advanced propulsion systems, were equipped with ecological cycling systems, and every subsystem had three or four backups. If Cheng Xin really rode the new Halo into the shadow of Jupiter, the ship would be able to maintain her for the rest of her life, no matter what happened.
行星际飞船与恒星际飞船的差别，就像内河渡船与大洋上的万吨巨轮的差别一样，当然区别并不是体现在体积上，恒星际飞船也有体积很小的，但与行星际飞船相比，它们拥有最精良的推进系统，装备着行星际飞船上没有的生态循环系统，且每个分系统都有三到四个冗余备份。如果程心真的乘新的“星环”号到木星背阳而，不管发生什么情况，飞船都足以维持她一生的生存。
“The next warning may be real,” AA said to Cheng Xin. “You should come with me to the back of Jupiter. The Halo Group will build a space city for the Bunker Project.”
“下一次警报可能就是真的了，”AA对程心说，“你跟我们到木星背面去吧，星环公司要在那里建掩体工程的太空城。”
“We’re not talking about the original ship with that name, but a new miniature stellar spaceship. It can seat twenty during planetary voyages, and five for stellar flight. The board of directors agreed to build it for you, and you can use it as a mobile office at Jupiter.”
“这不是原来的‘星环’号，是新建的一艘小型恒星际飞船，行星航行状态时可乘二十人，恒星状态时乘五人，这是董事会特别为你建造的，可以作为你在木星的办公地点。”
Instead of answering her, Cheng Xin asked, “What is going on with Halo?”
程心没有回答AA，而是问道：“‘星环’号是怎么回事？”
“You just don’t want to be one of the few to survive.”
“你只是不想成为少数能活下来的人。”
“I’m here with billions of people. No matter what happens, if it happens to several billion at the same time, it won’t be frightening.”
“我与几十亿人在一起，不管发生什么事情，如果同时发生在几十亿人身上，那就不再可怕。”
“I’ve been through that already.”
“我已经遇到过了。”
Cheng Xin shook her head. “You should go. Take Halo. I don’t participate in the day-to-day operations of the company, and it’s fine for me to stay on the Earth.”
程心摇摇头，“你们去木星吧，你乘‘星环’号去，我不参与公司的具体事务，待在地球上就可以。”
“I’m worried about you,” AA said, and grabbed Cheng Xin by both shoulders. “I’m not worried that you’ll die along with a few billion others, but that you’ll experience things worse than death.”
“我很担心你。”AA抱住程心的双肩关切地端详着她，“不是担心你同几十亿人一起死去，我是怕你遇到比死更可怕的事。”
“If you continue to pursue the dream of lightspeed spaceflight, you’ll encounter more such experiences. Can you really endure them?”
“如果向着光速飞船的理想走下去，你肯定还会遇到的，可你还能经受得起吗？”
Most of the thousands of spaceports across the world had shuttles that took off while surrounded by crowds, and more than ten thousand people died in the flames of fusion drives. Armed conflicts also took place at the base stations of space elevators. Unlike at the spaceports, the fights at the space elevators involved nations. Some countries attempted to occupy the international elevator’s base station in tropical waters, and only the timely confirmation that the attack alarm was false prevented full-scale warfare. In orbits around Earth, and even on Mars, groups of people fought over spaceships.
在世界各地的上千个太空发射港中，大部分都发生了穿梭机从人群中强行发射的罪行，有一万多人死于核发动机的烈焰。在太空电梯的基站也发生了武装冲突，与发射港骚乱不同，这种冲突是国家间的，部分国家试图派军队控制赤道海洋上的国际基站，只是由于假警报的及时解除才没有升级成战争。在地球的太空轨道上，甚至在火星，都发生了民众群体争夺飞船的事件。
The false alarm was the largest social disturbance since the Great Resettlement. Although brief in duration and limited in the damage caused, it left an indelible mark in the psyche of the world.
假警报事件是大移民以来最大的社会动乱，虽然很短暂，造成的损失也十分有限，但给人们留下的印象却铭心刻骨。
In addition to the degenerates who were willing to kill to ensure their own survival, the public discovered something else that disgusted them during the course of the false alarm: tens of small stellar spaceships and near-stellar spaceships were discovered to be in secret construction in geosynchronous orbit and on the dark side of the moon. Near-stellar spaceships possessed the ecological cycling systems of stellar ships, but were only equipped with propulsion systems for interplanetary flight. Some of these luxurious yachts belonged to large companies, and others to extremely wealthy individuals. All the crafts were small, and could only maintain a few people with their ecological cycling systems. They had only one purpose: long-term seclusion behind the giant planets.
除了那些为自己逃命不顾众人死活的败类，在假警报事件中还发现了一件同样让公众深恶痛绝的事：在地球同步轨道和月球背面，有几十艘小型的恒星际和准恒星际飞船正在秘密建造中。所谓的准恒星际飞船，是指拥有恒星际飞船的生态循环系统，但只装备行星际推进系统的太空飞行器。这些建造中的昂贵飞船有些属于大公司，有些属于超级富豪。这些飞船都很小，恒星际状态下，也就是在完全依赖生态循环系统长期生存的状态下，大多只能容纳几个人。它们的目的只有一个：长期躲在巨行星背面。
The advance warning system that was still being constructed could only provide a warning window of about twenty-four hours. If a dark forest strike really arrived, there wasn’t enough time for any spacecraft to go from the Earth to Jupiter, the nearest barrier planet. In actuality, the Earth dangled over a sea of death. Rationally, everyone understood this, and the ugly fights that broke out during the false alarm were nothing more than meaningless mass madness driven by a survival instinct that overwhelmed rational thinking. Currently, about fifty thousand individuals resided at Jupiter — most of them were space force personnel at the Jupiter base, along with some staff doing preparatory work for the Bunker Project. They had plenty of justification for being at Jupiter, and the public did not begrudge them their place. But once these secret stellar ships were completed, their wealthy owners would be able to hide in the shadow of Jupiter indefinitely.
正在建设的太阳系预警系统只能提供约二十四小时的预警时间，如果黑暗森林打击真的到来，这点时间内，现有的任何宇宙飞行器都不可能把人从地球送到最近的掩蔽处——木星，地球其实是孤悬于死亡之海上。这是一个人们早就看清了的事实，假警报过程中的争相逃命，不过是被压倒一切的求生欲望所驱使的集体疯狂，其实没有意义。目前长期生活在木星的有五万多人，大多是舰队木星基地的太空军军人，也有一部分掩体工程前期准备的工作人员，他们有充足的理由待在那里，公众无话可说。但那些秘密建造的恒星际飞船一旦完工，它们那些暴富的拥有者就可以长期躲在木星的背阳面了。
Legally — at least right now — there was no international or national prohibition against the construction of stellar ships by organizations or individuals, and hiding out behind the gas giants wasn’t the same as Escapism. However, the inequality here was seen as the greatest in human history: inequality before death.
从法律角度讲，至少在目前，没有国际法或国家法律禁止团体或个人建造恒星际飞船，在巨行星背阳面避难也不被看做是逃亡主义，但这里出现了一个人类历史上最大的不平等：在死亡面前的不平等。
Historically, inequality mainly manifested itself in areas like economics or social status, but death basically treated everyone the same. To be sure, such equality wasn’t absolute: For instance, access to medical care wasn’t evenly distributed; the wealthy fared better in natural disasters than the poor; soldiers and civilians had different rates of survival in war; and so on. But never before had a situation like this presented itself: less than one-ten-thousandth of the population could go into safe hiding, leaving billions on Earth to die.
在历史上，社会不平等主要出现在经济和社会地位领域，所有人在死亡面前基本上是平等的。当然，死亡上的不平等也一直存在，比如医疗条件的不均、因贫富差距造成的在自然灾害中不同的生存率、战争中军队与平民的生存差异等等，但还从来没有出现过这样的局面：占人类总数不到万分之一的少数人能够躲到安全之处生存下来，而剩下的几十亿人在地球上等死。
Even in ancient times, such manifest inequality would have been intolerable, let alone now.
即使在古代，这种巨大的不平等都无法被容忍，更不用说在现代社会了。
This led directly to international skepticism about the plan for lightspeed ships.
这种现象直接导致了国际社会对光速飞船计戈的质疑。
Although spaceships hiding permanently behind Jupiter or Saturn could survive a dark forest strike, life on those ships would not be enviable. No matter how comfortable the ecological cycling systems made the shipboard environment, the occupants would be living in the cold, desolate regions of the outer Solar System in isolation. But as observations of the Second Trisolaran Fleet revealed, spacecraft powered by curvature propulsion could achieve lightspeed almost instantaneously. A lightspeed ship could go from the Earth to Jupiter in less than an hour, and the advance warning system would be more than sufficient. Powerful and wealthy individuals who possessed lightspeed ships could thus live in comfort on the Earth and then escape at the last minute, without regard for the billions left behind. This was a prospect society simply could not tolerate. The terrifying sights from the false alarm remained fresh in the public’s mind, and most people agreed that the appearance of lightspeed ships would lead to worldwide chaos. Thus, the plan for developing lightspeed ships faced unprecedented resistance.
生活在木星或土星背后的飞船中，固然能够在黑暗森林打击中幸存下来，却不是一种让人羡慕的生活，不管生态循环系统能够提供多么舒适的环境，毕竟是生活在寒冷荒凉、与世隔绝的太阳系外围。但对三体第二舰队的观测表明，曲率驱动的宇宙飞行器加速到光速几乎不需要时间，光速飞船有可能在几十分钟的时间里从地球航行到木星，这样，太阳系预警系统提供的预警时间就绰绰有余，那些拥有光速飞船的特权人士和超级富豪完全可以在地球上舒适地生活，打击到来之际丢下几十亿人一逃了之，这个前景绝对无法让社会接受。假警报事件中的恐怖场景人们仍历历在目，大多数人都认为，光速飞船的出现可能引发世界范围的动动荡，光速飞船计划因此面临前所未有的巨大阻力。
[Excerpt from A Past Outside of Time, Space Sentries: The Solar System Advance Warning System]
【摘自《时间之外的往事》太空前哨——太阳系预警系统】
The false alarm was the result of the explosive amplifying effects of a hyper-information society when fed sensitive news. Its source was an anomaly detected by the first observation unit of the advance warning system. The anomaly was real, though it had nothing to do with photoids.
假警报的产生是由于超信息化社会对敏感信息的迅速放大效应，它的源头和起因是太阳系预瞥系统第一观测单元发现的异常现象，发现异常现象这件事是真实的，只是这个发现与光粒无关。
The Earth had observed photoids only twice in the past: the destruction of 187J3X1 and of the Trisolaran system. Knowledge about the phenomenon was thus limited. All that was known was that a photoid moved at close to the speed of light, but there was no data concerning its volume, rest mass, or relativistic mass as it approached the speed of light. A photoid was certainly the most primitive weapon capable of attacking a star, since it relied only on the enormous kinetic energy generated by its high relativistic mass to damage the target. Once a civilization possessed the technology to accelerate an object to near the speed of light, a “bullet” with very little mass possessed immense destructive power. This was indeed “economical.”
对于光拉，地球世界只在187J3X1恒星和三体星系被摧毁时观察到两次，对它的了解很少，只知道它的运行速度极为接近光速，对于它的体积、初始质量和接近光速时的相对论质量则一无所知。但光粒确实可以称得上是攻击恒星的最原始武器，仅凭其巨大的相对论质量产生的动能摧毁目标。如果具备了将物体加速到光速的技术，只需发射极小质量的“子弹”即可产生巨大的摧毁能力，确实很“经济”。
At first blush, it seemed impossible to give advance warning for photoids, because they moved at close to the speed of light. This meant that they moved almost as fast as the radiation they generated, and reached their target almost simultaneously. In other words, the observer was outside the event’s light cone. But reality was a bit more complicated. Any object with rest mass could not achieve lightspeed. Although a photoid’s speed approached lightspeed, it was still slightly slower than true lightspeed. This difference meant that the radiation from the photoid moved just a bit faster than the photoid itself. If the photoid had to travel a long distance, this difference was magnified. Also, a photoid’s trajectory to the target wasn’t an absolute straight line. Since it wasn’t massless, it couldn’t avoid the gravitational attractions of nearby celestial bodies, and its path typically ended up being slightly curved. The curvature was much greater than the curvature of light through the same gravitational field. For the photoid to strike the target, its trajectory had to take this effect into account. This meant that the path traveled by the photoid was longer than the path taken by its radiation.
初看光粒攻击是无法预警的，因为它的运行速度几乎是光速，与它自己产生的辐射几乎并行前进，同时到达目标——换句话说，观测者在事件光锥之外——但真实的情况却更复杂一些。由于有静止质量的物体不可能完全达到光速，光粒的速度虽极为接近光速。但与精确的光速还是有一个微小的差值，这个差值使得光粒发出的辐射比光粒本身要稍快一些，如果光粒的飞行距离足够长，这个差值将越来越大。另外，光粒攻击目标的弹道并非绝对直线，由于其巨大的质量，不可避免地受附近天体引力的影响，弹道会发生轻微的弯曲，而这种弯曲比纯光线在相同引力场中弯曲的曲率要大得多，在接近目标时需要进行修正，这就使得光粒所走的路程比它发出的辐射要长一些。
The most valuable data concerning photoids was obtained right before the annihilation of the Trisolaran system. Scientists were able to make an important discovery: Due to a photoid’s ultrahigh velocity, powerful radiation ranging from visible light to gamma rays was emitted as it collided with the few atoms scattered in space and interstellar dust. The radiation had distinctive characteristics. Since the photoids were extremely small, direct observation of them was impossible. But the characteristic radiation could be detected.
有关光粒的最宝贵的观测数据是在三体星系毁灭前取得的，科学家们发现了一个重要现象：由于光粒极高的速度，在与星际空间的稀薄原子和尘埃的剧烈碰撞中，会发出包括从可见光到伽马射线的强烈辐射，这种辐射有明显的特征。由于光粒的体积极小，所以直接观察完全不可能，而这种辐射却能够被观测到。
For these two reasons, the radiation from the photoid would reach the Solar System before the photoid itself. The twenty-four-hour estimated warning period was calculated based on the maximum distance at which photoid emissions could be observed. By the time the radiation reached the Earth, the photoid itself would still be about 180 AU away.
由于以上两个因素，光粒发出的辐射将先于光粒本身到达太阳系，这个时间差就是预警时间。二十四小时的预警时间，是根据目前能够观测到光粒辐射的最远距离枯算的，这种情况下，辐射超前光粒约一百八十个天文单位到达太阳系。
But that was merely the ideal scenario. If the photoid were launched from a nearby spaceship, there would be almost no warning — like what had happened to Trisolaris.
但这只是一种理想情况，如果光粒从近距离的飞船上发射，便几乎没有预誉的机会，就像三体世界的命运一样。
Thirty-five observation units were planned for the Solar System advance warning system. These would monitor the sky in every direction for photoid emissions.
太阳系预警系统计划建立了三十五个观测单元，从所有方向密切监视太空中的光粒辐射。
Observation Unit #1 was in fact just the Ringier-Fitzroy Station from the end of the Crisis Era. More than seventy years ago, it was this observation station that had first discovered the strong-interaction space probes — the droplets. The station was still located on the outer edge of the asteroid belt, but all its equipment had been updated. Take the visible light telescope, for instance: The lenses were even bigger, and the first lens’s diameter had increased from twelve hundred meters to two thousand meters, big enough for a small town to fit on it. These gigantic lenses were made from materials taken directly from the asteroid belt. The first one was a medium-sized lens five hundred meters in diameter. After that was finished, it was used to focus sunlight on asteroids so that the melted rock could be made into pure glass and then formed into additional lenses. In total, six lenses floated in a ten-kilometer-long column in space, far apart from each other. The observation station itself was located at the end of the column of lenses, and could only hold a crew of two.
一号观测单元其实就是危机纪元末的林格—斐兹罗观测站，七十多年前，正是这个观测站首先发现了驶向太阳系的强互作用力探测器——水滴。现在，观测站仍位于小行星带外侧的太空中，只是设备都进行了更新。比如可见光观测部分，望远镜的镜片面积又增大了许多，第一个镜片的直径由一千二百米增至两千米，上面可以放下一个小城镇了。这些巨型镜片的制造材料直接取自小行星带。最初制造的是透镜组中一片中等的镜片，直径五百米，它造出后被临时用来把太阳光聚焦到小行星上，熔化岩石制造高纯度玻璃，继而造出了其他的镜片。各个镜片成一排悬浮在太空中，透镜组延绵二十五千米，镜片间相距很远，看上去都像是孤立而互不相关的东西。观测站位于透镜组的末端，是一个仅容纳两人的小型空间站。
[Broadcast Era, Year 8, Fate’s Choice]
【广播纪元8年，命运的抉择】
Two days before the false alarm; Observation Unit #1
假警报事件两天前，太阳系预警系统一号观测单元。
The crew was still made up of a scientist and a military officer. The officer was responsible for monitoring photoid emissions, while the scientist conducted astronomical and cosmological research. Thus, the tradition of fighting for observation time begun three centuries ago by General Fitzroy and Dr. Ringier continued.
观测站中的常驻人员仍然是军人与学者的组合，前者负责预警观测，后者从事天文学和宇宙学研究，因此，三个世纪前开始的林格博士和斐兹罗将军之间因为观测时问而发生的争执也延续了下来。
After this, the largest telescope in history, had completed its shakedown tests and successfully taken its first image — a star forty-seven light-years away — Widnall, the astronomer on the crew, was as excited as if he’d just had a son. Laymen did not understand that previous telescopes could only amplify the luminosity of stars outside the Solar System, not reveal any shapes. No matter how powerful the telescopes were, the stars always showed up as tiny point sources, only incrementally brighter than images taken by lesser telescopes. But now, in the view of this ultrapowerful telescope, a star showed up as a disk for the first time. Though it was small, like a Ping-Pong ball seen from tens of meters away, and one couldn’t see any details in the disk, this was still an epochal moment in the history of the ancient science of visible-light astronomy.
当这架有史以来最大的望远镜调试完成、第一次成功地获取一颗四十七光年外的恒星图像时，观测站中的天文学家威纳尔激动得像看到儿子降生一般。与普通人想象的不同，以前的天文望远镜在观察太阳系外的恒星时，能做到的只是增强光度，不可能看到形状，不管望远镜有多强大，看到的恒星都是一个点，只是亮了些。但这时，在这架超级望远镜的视野中，恒星第一次显出了圆盘形状，虽然很小，像几十米外的一个乒乓球，看不清任何细节，但对于古老的可见光天文观测来说仍是一个划时代得时刻。
Widnall’s eyes temporarily left the terminal showing the image from the telescope and looked out the porthole of the station. He could see a few irregularly shaped rocks drifting at some distance: fragments of asteroids left from the glass-making operation. They spun slowly in the cold sunlight and seemed to emphasize the desolation of space. The scene did seem to evoke a sense of the “mental space” the sublieutenant described.
威纳尔的眼睛暂时离开显示着望远镜图像的终端屏幕，向空间站的窗外看了看，只见到远近飘浮着几块不规则的石块。那是制造镜片玻璃留下的小行星残块，它们在冷瑟的阳光中缓缓转动，更衬托出太空的荒凉。倒是真有些中尉所说的意境。
But Sublieutenant Vasilenko wasn’t impressed. “I think you need to remember our role here: We are sentries. In the old days, we’d be perched atop a wooden watchtower on the frontier, a desolate desert or snowfield around us. Standing erect in the frigid breeze, we’d be gazing in the direction of the enemy. As soon as we saw tanks coming up the horizon, or men on horses, we’d make a call or light smoke signals to inform the homeland that the enemy invasion had begun… You need to get into that mental space. Don’t think of yourself as being in an observatory.”
预替观测员瓦西里却不以为然，“我说，你应该明白我们的身份：前哨哨兵。在过去的时代。我们应该是站在边境线上的木头岗亭上，周围是没有人烟的戈壁或雪原，我们在寒风中看着敌国方向一旦发现地平线上的坦克或骑兵。就打电话或点狼烟通知后方说敌人要入侵了……你一定要找到这种哨兵的感觉，别总把这儿当天文台。”
“The cataracts have been removed from the eyes of astronomy!” said Widnall dramatically, wiping his eyes.
“天文学从此摘除了白内障！”威纳尔热泪盈眶地说。
The observation station received new orders from Fleet Command to adjust the telescope and observe the remnants of the Trisolaran system. Widnall didn’t argue with Vasilenko this time, because he was very interested in that ruined world as well.
观测站接到舰队总参谋部的命令，调整望远镜方向，对三体星系进行观测，这一次威纳尔和瓦西里倒没有发生争执，天文学家对那个被摧毁的世界也很感兴趣。
Widnall said, “If we really discover a photoid, it would be better to not issue a warning at all. It’s useless, anyway. To die suddenly without even knowing what hit you is actually a rather fortunate fate. But you’d rather torture a few billion people for twenty-four hours. I think that’s akin to a crime against humanity.”
威纳尔说：“如果真发现了光粒。不发警报可能是更好的选择，反正也没什么用。本来嘛，在不知不觉中突然完蛋是一种幸运，你却又要把几十亿人折磨二十四小时，这简直是反人类罪。”
“By that logic, you and I would be the most unfortunate people in the world since we would know about our fate the longest.”
“要是那样，我们俩岂不是成了最不幸的？”
The floating lenses began to move around and adjust their positions, the plasma thrusters at the rims of the lenses emitting blue flames. Only now did the lenses in the distance reveal themselves, the blue flames marking out the overall shape of the telescope. The ten-kilometer-long group of lenses slowly turned, stopping when the telescope was pointed in the direction of the Trisolaran system. Then the lenses shifted up and down the axis to focus. Finally, most of the flames went out, with only a few fireflies flickering now and then as the lenses engaged in precision focus adjustments.
各个悬浮的镜片开始进行位置调整，镜片边缘的离子推进器发出蓝色的光焰，只有这时，远方透镜的位置才显示出来，蓝色的光点也在太空中勾勒出超级望远镜的整体形状。二十五千米长的透镜组缓慢转向，当望远镜指向三体星系方向时，透镜组的位置被固定了，然后，各片透镜在轴向上前后移动进行对焦，最后大部分光点都熄灭，只有少数像萤火虫般间或亮起，那是镜片在进行对焦微调。
In the unprocessed view of the telescope, the Trisolaran system looked very ordinary, just a small patch of white against the background of space, like a feather. But after the image had been processed and magnified, it appeared as a magnificent nebula that took up the entire screen. It had been seven years since the explosion of the star, so what they were seeing now was the scene three years after the explosion. Under the influence of gravity and the exploded star’s angular momentum, the nebula had turned from sharp radiating rays into a soft blur of clouds, which was then flattened by the centrifugal force of the spin into a spiral. Above the nebula, the two remaining stars could be seen. One of them showed up as a disk, while the other one, more distant, remained a point of light distinguished only by its motion against the background stars.
在望远镜的原始视野中，三体星系的图像看上去很平淡。只是太空背景上的一小片白色，像夜空中的一片羽毛，但图像经过处理放大至全屏后，显现出一片壮丽的星云。恒星爆发已经七年。现在看到的是爆发后三年的景象。在引力和原恒星留存下来的角动量的作用下，星云由凌厉的放射状渐渐变成一片柔和模糊的云团，然后被自转离心力压扁，显示出清晰精致的螺旋状。在星云上方，还可以看到另外两颗恒星，其中一颗显示出圆盘形状，另一颗只是更远处的一个光点，只有从它在群星背景上的移动中才能分辨出来。
The two stars that survived the catastrophe achieved the dream of generations on Trisolaris and formed a stable double-star system, but no life would enjoy their light, as the entire system was now uninhabitable. It was now apparent that the dark forest strike had destroyed only one star out of the three, not only because of economics, but also to achieve a more sinister goal: As long as the system still retained one or two stars, the material in the nebula would be constantly absorbed by the stars, generating powerful radiation in the process. The Trisolaran system was now a radiation furnace, a domain of death for life and civilization. It was the powerful radiation that caused the nebula itself to glow and appear so clear and bright on the telescope.
从灾难中幸存下来的两颗恒星实现了三体世界世代的梦想，构成了一个稳定的双星系统，但现在没有生命能享受它们的照耀，这个星系已经完全不适合生命生存了。现在看来，黑暗森林打击只摧毁三星中的一颗，并不仅仅是为了经济，还有着更毒辣的目的。在星系中仍存在一至两颗恒星的情况下，星云物质不断被恒星吸人，这个过程产生了巨量的强辐射，使现在的三体星系成为了辐射的熔炉，对生命和文明来说是一个死亡之域。正是这强辐射的激发，才使得那片星云自身发光，看起来如此明亮清晰。
Widnall examined the image some more and made an important discovery. “What is that?!” He pointed at a spot in the image some distance from the nebula. By scale, it was about thirty AU from the nebula center.
威纳尔再次细看图像，得到了一个重要发现，“天啊，那是什么？！”他指着图像中距星云有一段距离的太空说，按比例，那里距星云中心大约三十个天文单位。
Seeing this silvery graveyard more than forty trillion kilometers away made Widnall wax philosophical. “From a scientific perspective, ‘destroy’ isn’t really accurate. Nothing has disappeared. All the matter that used to be there is still there, and so is all the angular momentum. It’s only the arrangement of matter that has changed, like a deck of cards being reshuffled. But life is like a straight flush: Once you shuffle, it’s gone.”
看着这四十万亿千米外的银色墓场，威纳尔也感慨万千，“其实吧，从科学角度讲，毁灭一词并不准确，没有真正毁掉什么，更没有灭掉什么，物质总量一点不少都还在，角动量也还在，只是物质的组合方式变了变，像一副扑克牌，仅仅重洗而已……可生命是一手同花顺，一洗什么都没了。”
Vasilenko stared at the spot. He lacked the trained eye of an astronomer, and couldn’t see anything unusual at first. But eventually, he saw a vague circular outline against the pitch-black background, like a soap bubble in space.
瓦西里盯着那里看，他毕竞没有天文学家久经训练的眼睛。开始什么都看不出来，但后来还是在漆黑的背景上看出了隐隐约约的轮廓线，勾勒出一个大致的圆形，像夜空中的一个肥皂泡。
“I’m reminded of the clouds viewed from atop Mount Emei,” said Vasilenko. “That’s a mountain in China. Viewing the moon from the peak is an exquisite sight. The night I was there, the peak floated in a boundless sea of clouds, turned pure silver by the moon above. It looked a lot like this.”
“这让我想起了那天夜里峨眉山的云海，”瓦西里说，“那是中国的一座山，在那山的顶上看月亮是最美的景致。那天夜里，山下全是云海，望不到边，被上空的满月照着，一片银色，很像现在看到的样子。”
“Absolutely not. Dust doesn’t look anything like that.”
“绝对不是，尘埃不是这种形态。”
“No one could have seen it. Whatever it is, it’s transparent, with a very faint border. The largest telescopes in the past wouldn’t have been able to detect it.”
“谁也没见过。这东西透明，边界很淡，以前最大的望远镜也看不到。”
“It’s very large. The diameter is about… ten astronomical units. Is it dust?”
“看上去很大，直径有……约十个A1吧，是尘埃吗？”
Widnall zoomed out a bit to get a better sense of the position of the strange new object with respect to the double stars, and to try to observe the spin of the nebula. On the screen, the nebula again turned into a small patch of white against the black abyss of space.
威纳尔把图像再次推远，想从整体上看看星云与双星的位置关系，并且想知道是否能看出星云的自转。在视野中，星云再次变成漆黑深空中的一小片白色。
About six thousand AU from the Trisolaran system, he found another “soap bubble.” This one was much bigger than the first, with a diameter of about fifty AU, spacious enough to contain the Trisolaran system or the Solar System.
就在这时，在距离三体星系约六千个天文单位的远距离太空中，他又看到了一个“肥皂泡”，比刚才那个大许多倍，直径约五十个天文单位、约为一个行星系大小，在里面可以容纳三体星系或太阳系。
“You’ve never seen it before?”
“你以前没见过？”
Widnall stared at the screen for a while and said, tentatively, “That’s where the Second Trisolaran Fleet went into lightspeed, isn’t it?”
威纳尔盯着看了一会儿，试探着说：“三体第二舰队进入光速的位置？”
“My God!” Vasilenko cried out. “Do you know where that is?”
“天啊！”瓦西里惊叫一声，“你知道这是什么位置吗？！”
“Exactly.”
“对。”
“You’re certain?”
“你肯定？”
“My old job was to observe this part of space. I know it better than the palm of my hand.”
“我以前的职责就是观察这片空域，比对自己的手掌都熟悉。”
The conclusion was inescapable: Ships using curvature propulsion left behind trails as they accelerated to lightspeed. The trails apparently did not fade with time, but expanded and altered the nature of the space around them.
一个显而易见的事实：曲率驱动飞船在进人光速的加速段会留下航迹。
The first, smaller bubble was inside the Trisolaran system. There were several possible explanations for its existence. Perhaps the Trisolarans did not know initially that curvature propulsion would leave behind such trails, and the bubble was an accident created during engine tests or test flights; or perhaps they did know about the trails, but left them within the star system by mistake. But it was certain that they wanted to avoid purposefully leaving such trails. Eleven years ago, the Second Trisolaran Fleet had cruised for a full year using conventional means, and only when they were six thousand AU from their home world did they engage the curvature engines to enter lightspeed. The purpose was to start the trails as far from the home world as possible, though by that time it was already too late.
第一个较小的航迹在三体星系内部，它的出现有几种可能。也许，三体世界最初并不知道曲率驱动会留下航迹，在试验曲率引擎或光速飞船试航时在星系中意外产生了航迹；或者他们知道航迹的事，却因某种意外把航迹留在星系中。但有一点可以肯定，这绝对不是他们希望的事，他们肯定试图消除航迹，但没有做到。十一年前，三体第二舰队用了一年时间进行常规航行，在距母星系远达六千个天文单位时才启动曲率引擎进人光速，就是为了让航迹尽量远离母星系，虽然这样做已经晚了。
“That’s a bit of a stretch. We’ve just begun researching lightspeed ships. It would be impressive if we managed to build one in half a century.”
“你过虑了吧，人类才刚开始研究光速飞船，半个世纪后能造出来就不错了。”
“This is an alarm! We have to tell people not to expose us.”
“这就是警报！警告人类不要自我暴露！”
At the time, the behavior of the Second Trisolaran Fleet had puzzled people. The most convincing explanation was that they were trying to avoid ill effects on the home world caused by 415 ships entering lightspeed. However, it was clear now that they were trying to avoid exposing the location of Trisolaris by the trails of curvature propulsion. The Second Trisolaran Fleet had exited lightspeed when it was still six thousand AU from the Solar System for the same reason.
当时，这个举动一直让人们迷惑，最合理的解释是：这是为了避免415艘飞船进人光速时的能量溢出对三体世界产生影响。现在看来，是为了避免因曲率驱动航迹暴露母星文明。第二舰队在距太阳系六千个天文单位的远方就匆匆脱离光速也是这个原因。
“We have to report this right away,” said Widnall. “But it’s not time yet for our scheduled report. A report now would be treated as an alarm.”
“立刻报告。”威纳尔说。“可现在还不到常规通信时间，这时报告，就等于是警报了。”
Widnall and Vasilenko stared at each other, and they could each see the terror building in the other’s eyes. They had reached the same conclusion.
威纳尔和瓦西里长时间对视着，目光中的恐惧越来越深，他们都在进行着同一个推测。
“But what if an initial test generates such a trail? Maybe they’re already conducting such trials somewhere in the Solar System!”
“可万一初步试验就能产生那种航迹呢？也许这种试验在太阳系的什么地方正做着呢！”
The curvature trails were left behind when ships entered lightspeed, just as a rocket launching from the ground left burn marks on the launch pad. Once the ship was at lightspeed, it continued to coast by inertia, and left no more trails. It was a reasonable conjecture that dropping out of lightspeed would leave behind similar marks. It was still unknown how long such trails would persist in space. A guess was that the trails represented some kind of distortion in space due to curvature propulsion, and might last a long time — maybe even forever.
曲率驱动航迹是飞船在进入光速时留下的，就像火箭从地面起飞时在发射台上留下的烧痕，飞船进人光速后即以惯性飞行，不再留下航迹。可以合理地推测，飞船在由光速进人亚光速时同样会留下这样的痕迹。现在还不知道航迹能够在太空中保留多久，据推测，这可能是曲率驱动引起的某种空间畸变，可能会保留很长时间，甚至永久存在。
It was reasonable to conclude that Sophon had claimed Trisolaris appeared more dangerous than the Solar System when observed from a distance because of the ten-AU-diameter curvature propulsion trail left behind within the Trisolaran system, which is what caused the dark forest strike against Trisolaris to come so quickly. The trail and the broadcast of Trisolaris’s location mutually provided confirmation and made the danger value of the Trisolaran system skyrocket.
人们有理由认为，智子所说：从远距离观察，三体星系看起来比太阳系更危险，正是因为三体星系内部那一片直径十个天文单位的曲率驱动航迹——这使得对三体星系的黑暗森林打击来得无比迅速。航迹和坐标广播相互印证，使得三体星系的危险位急剧上升。
And so this information was transmitted to Fleet Command with an alarm-level neutrino beam, then passed on to the PDC. There, it was leaked and mistaken as a photoid attack alarm, which caused the global panic two days later.
于是，这个信息被以警报级别用中微子束发往舰队总参谋部，又被转发到联合国PDC总部，不想通过不正常渠道被误传为光粒攻击警报，引发了两天后的世界性动乱。
During the following month, Observation Unit #1 discovered six more curvature propulsion trails in different parts of space. All of these were approximately spherical, though their sizes varied widely, ranging from fifteen to two hundred AU. One of these bubbles was only six thousand AU from the Solar System, apparently the mark left by the Second Trisolaran Fleet as it dropped out of lightspeed. The directions and distances of the other trails, however, seemed to indicate that they had nothing to do with the Second Trisolaran Fleet. It appeared that curvature propulsion trails were common in the universe.
在接下来的一个月时间里，一号观测单元又在不同方向的太空中发现了六处曲率驱动航迹，都近似地呈球形，大小差别很大，直径从十五到两百个天文单位不等，但形状都很相似，其中有一处距太阳系仅为六千个天文单位，显然是三体舰队从光速脱离时留下的。其余的几处从它们所在的方向和位置看，都与三体第二舰队无关。可以认为，曲率航迹在宇宙中是普遍存在的。
One of the trails was only 1.4 light-years from the Sun, close to the Oort Cloud. A spaceship had apparently lingered there and then left by entering lightspeed. No one knew when this had happened.
其中的一处航迹距太阳仅1.4光年，已经接近奥尔特早云，显然曾经有一艘宇宙飞船在那里停留。然后进入光速离去了，但谁也不知道这事是什么时候发生的。
The discovery of the curvature propulsion trail finally eliminated lightspeed space flight, already facing mounting skepticism, from consideration as a viable plan. Fleet International and the UN quickly enacted legislation prohibiting any further research and development of curvature propulsion, and the nation states followed suit. This was the most severe legal restriction against a technology since the nuclear nonproliferation treaties of three centuries ago.
曲率驱动航迹的发现，使得已经备受质疑的光速飞船计划彻底死亡。舰队国际和联合国都很快促成了国际立法，各个国家也相继立法，全面禁止对曲率驱动飞船的研究和制造，这是继三个世纪前的核不扩散条约以来，对一项技术最严厉的法律禁止。
After Blue Space and Gravity’s discovery inside the four-dimensional space fragment, this provided yet more direct evidence that large numbers of highly intelligent civilizations existed in the cosmos.
这是继“蓝色空间”和“万有引力”号两艘飞船在四维空问碎块中的发现后。对宇宙中存在大量高等智慧文明的又一个直接证据。
Superficially, research and development of lightspeed spaceflight died for obvious reasons: to avoid advance exposure of the existence of Earth civilization by the trails generated from curvature propulsion, and to prevent increasing the Solar System’s danger value in the eyes of observers elsewhere in the cosmos, either of which might have led to an earlier dark forest strike. But there were deeper reasons, too.
表面上看，光速飞船计划的死亡有着明显的原因：避免由此产生的曲率驱动航迹提前暴露地球文明的存在，或者提升太阳系在宇宙观察者眼中的危险值，招致更快到来的黑暗森林打击。但这件事背后有着更深层的原因。
Humanity now had only two choices left: the Bunker Project and the Black Domain Plan.
于是，人类文明面临的三个选择只剩下两个：掩体计划和黑域计划。
Excerpt from A Past Outside of Time, Terror of the Endless Night
【摘自《时间之外的往事》对无边暗夜的恐惧】
From the Common Era to the end of the Crisis Era, humanity looked at the stars with hope. But the first few steps they took toward the stars resulted in failure and pain. The tragic Doomsday Battle revealed the extent of humanity’s fragility in the cosmos, and the internecine warfare of the Battle of Darkness had injured the human spirit in equal measure. Later events, such as the judgment of Bronze Age and the hijacking of Gravity by Blue Space, resulting in the universal broadcast, all deepened these wounds and elevated the pain to the level of philosophy.
从公元世纪到危机纪元末，人类对星空是充满向往的。但迈向宇宙的头几步充满失败和痛苦。惨烈的末日战役让人类痛苦地意识到自己在宇宙中的脆弱，同样给人们心灵带来创伤的是人类之间的黑暗战役。后来发生的事，无论是对“青铜时代”号的审判，还是“蓝色空间”号劫持“万有引力”号并发布宇宙广播，都加深了这种创伤，并使其上升到哲学高度。
On the other hand, both staunch opponents and fervent supporters of lightspeed spaceships belonged to the elite classes of society.
相比大众的冷漠态度，对于光速飞船计划的狂热支持和坚决反对都来自精英阶层。
They cared far more about the Bunker Project, which seemed the most practical path to survival. To be sure, they also cared for the Black Domain Plan, because three centuries of horror had infused them with a strong desire for a serene life, and the Black Domain Plan promised just such a life. Although people were disappointed at the prospect of being sealed off from the rest of the universe, the Solar System itself was large enough that the disappointment was tolerable. The reason they were more interested in the Bunker Project than the Black Domain Plan was because even laypeople could see the extreme technical challenges of slowing down lightspeed, and generally agreed that it was unlikely for mere Man to complete God’s Engineering Project.
大众更关注掩体计划，这毕竟是最现实的生存之道；当然也关注黑域计划，三个世纪的恐惧经历使人们强烈向往平安的生活，黑域能够提供这种生活；至于与宇宙的隔绝，人们当然感到遗憾，但太阳系本身已经足够大了，这种遗憾是可以接受的。人们对黑域的关注度低于掩体计划，是因为普通人也能看出这种技术的超级难度，大众普遍认为，凭人类的力量很难完成这样的上帝工程。
As a matter of fact, most of the general public was relatively uninvested in the quest for lightspeed spaceships. They believed that even if such ships could be built within their lifetimes, they would have no chance of making use of them.
其实，普通大众对该计划只是持冷漠态度，他们认为，即使光速飞船在自己的有生之年造出来，也不是属于自己的东西。
The faction in support of researching lightspeed spaceflight believed that the ultimate security of the human race required expansion into the Milky Way and settlement among the stars. In this unfeeling cosmos, only outward-facing civilizations had a chance of survival, and isolationism ultimately led to annihilation. Those who held such views generally did not oppose the Bunker Project, but passionately despised the Black Domain Plan, viewing it as an attempt to dig humankind’s own grave. Even though they conceded that a black domain would guarantee the long-term survival of the human race, they saw such life as death for the civilization.
支持研制光速飞船的派别认为，人类最终的安全来自于向银河系的扩张和殖民，在这个冷酷的宇宙中，只有外向型的文明才能生存，偏安一隅终究要灭亡。持这种观点的人大多不反对掩体计划，但都对黑域计划持强烈的厌恶情绪，认为那是自掘坟墓，虽然他们承认黑域能够保证人类长期生存下去，但对整个文明而言，那种生活与死亡无异。
The faction opposed to researching lightspeed vessels felt this way for political reasons. They believed that human civilization had suffered many trials before reaching a nearly ideal democratic society, but once humanity headed for space, it would inevitably regress socially. Space was like a distorting mirror that magnified the dark side of humanity to the maximum. A line from one of the Bronze Age defendants, Sebastian Schneider, became their slogan: When humans are lost in space, it takes only five minutes to reach totalitarianism.
反对光速飞船的人大多是出于政治原因。他们认为，人类文明历尽艰辛，终于进入近乎理想的民主社会，而飞向星空后的人类则不可避免地发生社会大倒退。太空像一面放大镜，可以在瞬间把人类的阴暗面放到最大。“青铜时代”号审判中一名被告赛巴斯蒂安·史耐德的一句话被他们当做反复引用的口号：当人类真正流落太空时，极权只需五分钟。
The child that was human civilization had opened the door to her home and glanced outside. The endless night terrified her so much that she shuddered against the expansive and profound darkness, and shut the door firmly.
处于幼年的人类文明曾经打开家门向外看了一眼，外面无边的暗夜吓住了他，他面对黑暗中的广表和深邃打了个寒战，紧紧地关上了门。
For a democratic, civilized Earth to scatter innumerable seeds of totalitarianism among the Milky Way was a prospect that these people found intolerable.
由民主文明的地球向银河系播撒无数个极权的种子，这种前景是一些人死也不愿接受的。
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