Incoming strong-interaction space probes detected.
发现强互作用力宇宙探测器！
The white wall turned bloody red, as though the hellish magma behind it had burned through. Highest alert. A line of white text appeared against the red background, each character a terrifying scream.
弧形的自墙突然变成了红色，仿佛被地狱的岩浆烧透了，这是最高警报的颜色。一行白色大字出现在红色的背景上，侮个字都像是一声惊惧的尖叫。
Total number: 6. One is headed toward the L1 Lagrangian point between the Earth and the Sun.
共六个，其中一个飞向地球与太阳的拉格朗日点。
Speed: 25,000 km/s. Estimated arrival time at the surface: 10 minutes.
以25000千米/秒的速度冲向地球，预计十分钟后到达地面！
The other 5 are headed for the Earth in a 1-2-2 formation.
另外五个以一、二、二分为三个编队，
Later, Earth would learn that the six droplets had been hiding just outside the fifteen-million-kilometer advance-warning zone. Three of them had relied on solar interference from the Sun to avoid detection, and the other three had disguised themselves in the orbiting space trash scattered in this region. Most of the space trash consisted of spent fuel from the early fusion reactors. Even without these measures, it would have been nearly impossible for the Earth to discover them outside the advance-warning zone because people had always assumed that the droplets were hiding in the asteroid belt, farther away.
后来知道，六个水滴就潜伏在一千五百万千米警戒圈外围不远，距地球一千八百万至两千万千米之间的太空中，其中三个长期以太阳为背景，借助凌日干扰1掩护自己；另外三个则混杂在飘浮于这一区域的一堆太空垃圾中，这堆垃圾主要是地球轨道上的早期裂变核电厂的反应堆核废料。其实，即使水滴不采取这些隐蔽措施，在警戒圈外也很难发现它们。之前，人们一直认为水滴最可能的潜伏位置是在更远处的小行星带。
Five floating numbers appeared next to Cheng Xin, glowing with a green light. These were holographic buttons: Pressing any of them would bring up a corresponding floating window displaying more detailed information gathered from the advance warning system sweeping the region of space within fifteen million kilometers out from the Earth. The Solar System Fleet General Staff analyzed the data and passed it on to the Swordholder.
在程心的身边出现了1至5这五个悬浮的数字，发出幽幽的绿光。这是五个全息按钮，点击任何一个，都会在空中弹出相应的信息窗口，不同程度地显示更详细的情报内容。所有的信息均来自监视地球周围一千五百万千米太空的预警系统，由太阳系舰队总参谋部对预警信息进行分析后转发给执剑人。
The thunderclap that Luo Ji had been waiting for for half a century arrived within five minutes of his departure, and struck Cheng Xin.
罗辑等待了半个世纪的晴空霹雳，在他离开五分钟后就降临到了程心的头上。
In her subconscious, she had never truly accepted that the events facing her now were possible.
她在潜意识中不相信现在的事情会发生。
Cheng Xin didn’t bother pressing any of the holographic buttons. She didn’t need any more information.
程心没有点击那些全息按钮，她不需要更多的信息了。
Right away, she understood the profundity of her error. In the depths of her subconscious, the vision she had held of the mission of the Swordholder had always been utterly, completely wrong. To be sure, she had always planned for the worst, or at least made an effort to do so. Guided by specialists from the PDC and the fleet, she had studied the deterrence system in detail and discussed various possible scenarios with strategists. She had imagined scenarios even worse than the current one.
程心首先明白了一件事：错了，自己全弄错了。在她的潜意识深处，自己的执剑人使命一直呈现着一幅完全错误的图像。当然，她一直在做着最坏的准备，或者说努力使自己这样做。她曾在舰队和PDC专家的帮助下，详细了解了威慑系统的整体配置，也曾同舰队上层指挥系统和PDC的战略家们彻夜讨论可能出现的各种极端情况，甚至设想过比现在还槽糕的情形。
But she had also committed a fatal error, an error that she did not and could not have realized. The error, however, was also the very reason she had been elected to be the second Swordholder.
但她犯了一个自己没有也不可能觉察到的致命错误，其实也正是因为这个错误，她才得以当选第二任执剑人。
Average distance of incoming formation of strong-interaction space probes: approximately 14 million kilometers. The closest one is at 13.5 million kilometers. Estimated arrival time at the surface: nine minutes.
强互作用力宇宙探测器三个编队与地球平均距离，400万千米。最近1350万千米。九分钟到达地面！
In Cheng Xin’s subconscious, she was a protector, not a destroyer; she was a woman, not a warrior. She was willing to use the rest of her life to maintain the balance between the two worlds, until the Earth grew stronger and stronger with Trisolaran science, until Trisolaris grew more and more civilized with Earth culture, until one day, a voice told her: Put down that red switch and return to the surface. The world no longer needs dark forest deterrence, no longer needs a Swordholder.
在程心的潜意识中，她是一个守护者，不是毁灭者；她是一个女人，不是战士。她将用自己的一生守护两个世界的平衡，让来自三体的科技使地球越来越强大，让来自地球的文化使三体越来越文明，直到有一天，一个声音对她说：放下红色开关，到地面来吧，世界不再需要黑暗森林威慑，不再需要执剑人了。
When she faced that distant world as the Swordholder, Cheng Xin, unlike Luo Ji, did not feel this was a life-or-death contest. She thought of it as a game of chess. She would sit tranquilly before the chessboard, thinking of all the openings, anticipating the opponent’s attacks, and devising her own responses. She was ready to spend her life playing this game.
当她以执剑人的身份面对那个遥远的世界时。与罗辑不同，她没感觉到这是一场生死决斗，只感觉这是一盘棋，她平静地在棋盘前坐下，想好了各种开局，假设了对方的各种棋路并一一想好应对的方法。她准备用一生的时间下这盘棋。
But her opponents hadn’t bothered to move any pieces on the board. Instead, they had simply lifted the chessboard and smashed it at her head.
但对方方没有移动一枚棋r。而是抓起棋盘向她劈头盖脸砸过来。
The moment Cheng Xin accepted the red switch from Luo Ji, the six droplets had begun accelerating at maximum power toward the Earth. The enemy did not waste a single second.
就在五分钟前程心从罗辑手中接过红色开关的一刹那，六个水滴就从前复出开始想地球全力加速，敌人没有多耽搁一秒钟。
Average distance of incoming formation of strong-interaction space probes: approximately 11.5 million kilometers. The closest one is at 10.5 million kilometers. Estimated arrival time at the surface: seven minutes.
强互作用力宇宙探测器三个编队与地球平均距离1150万千米。最近1050万千米，七分钟到达地面！
Average distance of incoming formation of strong-interaction space probes: approximately 13 million kilometers. The closest one is at 12 million kilometers. Estimated arrival time at the surface: eight minutes.
强互作用力宇宙探测器三个编队与地球平均距离1300万千米，最近1200万千米，八分钟到达地面！
Blankness.
空白。
Blankness, nothing but blankness. In addition to the white hall and the white letters, everything else around her had also turned a blank white. Cheng Xin seemed to be suspended in a milky universe, just like a bubble of milk sixteen billion light-years across. In this vast blankness, she found nothing to hold on to.
空白，全是空自，除了白色的大厅、白色的大字，外面的一切也都是空I’]，程心仿佛恳浮在牛奶宇宙之中。这是一团直径160亿光年的牛奶，在这广漠的空白中，她找不到任何依托。
What was she supposed to do?
怎么办？
Average distance of incoming formation of strong-interaction space probes: approximately 10 million kilometers. The closest one is at 9 million kilometers. Estimated arrival time at the surface: six minutes.
强互作用力宇宙探测器三个编队与地球平均距离，1000万千米，最近900万千米。六分钟到达地面！
Average distance of incoming formation of strong-interaction space probes: approximately 9 million kilometers. The closest one is at 7.5 million kilometers. Estimated arrival time at the surface: five minutes.
强互作用力宇宙探测器三个编队与地球平均距离900万千米，最近750万千米，五分钟到达地面！
The blankness began to dissipate. The forty-five-kilometer-thick crust above her reasserted its presence: sedimentary time. The lowest stratum, or the layer immediately above the Deterrence Center, had probably been deposited four billion years ago. The Earth had been born only five hundred million years before that. The turbid ocean was in its infancy, and nonstop flashes of lightning struck its surface; the Sun was a fuzzy ball of light in a haze-veiled sky, casting a crimson reflection over the sea. At short intervals, other bright balls of light streaked across the sky, crashing into the sea and trailing long tails of fire; these meteor strikes caused tsunamis that propelled gigantic waves to smash onto continents still laced with rivers of lava, raising clouds of vapor generated by fire and water that dimmed the Sun…
空白开始消散，上方四十五千米厚的地层又显示出沉重的存在，那是沉积的时间。在最下面的一层，就是紧压在威慑控制中心上面的，可能是四十亿年前的沉积层，那时地球刚刚诞生五亿年。那一片浑浊的海，那是海的婴儿状态，海面被不间断的闪电击打着；那时的太阳，是迷蒙的天空中一个毛茸茸的光团，在海面上映出一片血红；以很短的间隔，天空中不时出现另一些光团，拖着长长的火尾撞击海面，这些陨石激起的海啸会把巨浪推上岩浆横流的大陆，水火相遇产生的遮天蒸汽云让太阳更加黯淡……
In contrast to this hellish but magnificent sight, the turbid water brewed a microscopic tale. Here, organic molecules were born from lightning flashes and cosmic rays, and they collided, fused, broke apart again — a long-lasting game played with building blocks for five hundred million years. Finally, a chain of organic molecules, trembling, split into two strands. The strands attracted other molecules around them until two identical copies of the original were made, and these split apart again and replicated themselves… In this game of building blocks, the probability of producing such a self-replicating chain of organic molecules was so minuscule that it was as if a tornado had picked up a pile of metallic trash and deposited it as a fully-assembled Mercedes-Benz.
与这地狱的惨烈不同，浑浊的海水中悄悄地酝酿着小小的故事。这时，有机分子在闪电和宇宙射线中诞生，它们碰撞、融合、裂解。这是一场漫长的积木游戏，持续了五亿年。终于，一根分子链颤抖着分裂，复制出另一根完全相同的分子链，然后它们分别吸附周围的有机小分子，再次复制自己……在这场积木游戏中，产生这样自我复制的分子链的几率如此之小，如同一阵龙卷风卷起一堆金属垃圾，落下后粗装成一辆奔驰车一般。
Average distance of incoming formation of strong-interaction space probes: approximately 7.5 million kilometers. The closest one is at 6 million kilometers. Estimated arrival time at the surface: four minutes.
强互作用力宇宙探测器三个编队与地球平均距离750万千米，最近600万千米，四分钟到达地面！
But it happened, and so, a breathtaking history of 3.5 billion years had begun.
但这事竟然发生了，于是，长达三十五亿年的壮丽历程开始了。
Average distance of incoming formation of strong-interaction space probes: approximately 6 million kilometers. The closest one is at 4.5 million kilometers. Estimated arrival time at the surface: three minutes.
强互作用力宇宙探测器三个编队与地球平均距离600万千米。最近450万千米，三分钟到达地面！
The Archean Eon was followed by the Proterozoic Eon, each billions of years; then the Paleozoic: the Cambrian’s seventy million years, the Ordovician’s sixty million years, the Silurian’s forty million years, the Devonian’s fifty million years, the Carboniferous’s sixty-five million years, and the Permian’s fifty-five million years; then the Mesozoic: the Triassic’s thirty-five million years, the Jurassic’s fifty-eight million years, and the Cretaceous’s seventy million years; then the Cenozoic: the Tertiary’s 64.5 million years and the Quaternary’s 2.5 million years.
太古代21亿年，元古代的震旦纪18亿3000万年；然后是古生代：寒武纪7000万年，奥陶纪6000万年，志留纪4000万年，泥盆纪5000万年，石炭纪650万年，二叠纪5500万年；然后中生代开始了：三叠纪3500万年。侏罗纪5800万年，白至纪7000万年；然后是新生代：第三纪6450万年，第四纪250万年。
Then humanity appeared. Compared to the eons before, mankind’s history was but the blink of an eye. Dynasties and eras exploded like fireworks; the bone club tossed into the air by an ape turned into a spaceship. Finally, this 3.5-billion-year-long road full of trials and tribulations stopped in front of a tiny human individual, a single person out of the one hundred billion people who had ever lived on the Earth, holding a red switch.
然后人类出现，与以前漫长的岁月相比仅是弹指一挥间，王朝与时代像焰火般变幻，古猿扔向空中的骨头棒还没落回地面就变成了宇宙飞船。最后。这35亿年风雨兼程的行进在一个小小的人类个体面前停下了，她只是在地球上生活过的一千亿人中的一个，她手中握着一个红色的开关。
Everything was deathly quiet. The eyes were the most terrifying: the eyes of dinosaurs; the eyes of trilobites and ants; the eyes of birds and butterflies; the eyes of bacteria… The humans alone possessed one hundred billion pairs of eyes, equal to the number of stars in the Milky Way. Among them were the eyes of ordinary men and women, and the eyes of Da Vinci, Shakespeare, and Einstein.
万籁俱寂，最可怕的是那些眼睛，恐龙的眼睛，三叶虫和蚂蚁的眼睛，鸟和蝴蝶的眼睛，细菌的眼睛仅人类的眼睛就有一千亿双，正好等于银河系中恒星的数量，其中所有普通人的眼睛，也有达·芬奇、莎士比亚和爱因斯坦的眼睛。
Four billion years were layered on top of Cheng Xin, suffocating her. Her subconscious tried to reach the surface, to catch a breath above it. In her subconscious, the surface was teeming with life, the most prominent form being the giant reptiles, including dinosaurs. Densely, they packed the ground, all the way to the horizon. Among the dinosaurs, between their legs and under their bellies, were the mammals, including humans. Still lower, under and between countless pairs of feet, were surging black currents of water: innumerable trilobites and ants… In the sky, hundreds of billions of birds formed a dark, swirling vortex that blotted out the firmament, and giant pterodactyls could be seen among them from time to time…
四十亿年时光沉积在程心上方，让她窄息，她的潜愈识拼命上浮，试图升上地面喘口气。潜意识中的地面挤满了生物，最显眼的是包括恐龙在内的巨大爬行动物，它们密密麻麻地挤在一起。铺满大地。直到目力所及的地平线；在恐龙间的缝隙和它们的腿间腹下，挤肴包括人类在内的喃乳动物；再往下，在无数双脚下，地面像涌动泞黑色的水流，那是无数三叶虫和蚂蚁……天空中，几千亿只鸟形成一个覆盖整个苍穹的乌云漩涡，翼手龙巨大的影子在其中时隐时现……
That baby seemed to be back in her arms: soft, cuddly, warm, his face moist, smiling sweetly, calling her mama.
那个婴儿仿佛又回到她的怀中，软软的，暖暖的，小脸湿乎乎的，甜甜地笑着，叫她妈妈。
Two of the probes are headed for Asia, two others for North America. The last one is aimed at Europe.
个数为二的两个编队分别指向亚洲和北美大陆，个数为一的编队指向欧洲大陆。
Average distance of incoming formation of strong-interaction space probes: approximately 4.5 million kilometers. The closest one is at three million kilometers. Estimated arrival time at the surface: two minutes.
强互作用力宇宙探测器三个编队与地球平均距离450万千米，最近300万千米，两分钟到达地面！
Pressing the switch would end the progress of 3.5 billion years. Everything would disappear in the eternal night of the universe, as though none of it had ever existed.
按动开关，三十五亿年的进程将中止，一切都将消失在宇宙的漫漫长夜中。像从未存在过一样。
Average distance of incoming formation of strong-interaction space probes: approximately 3 million kilometers. The closest one is at 1.5 million kilometers, and it is rapidly decelerating. Estimated arrival time at the surface: one minute and thirty seconds.
强互作用力宇宙探测器三个编队与地球平均距离300万千米，最近150万千米，正在急剧减速，一分钟三十秒到达地面！
“No –” Cheng Xin screamed, and threw the switch away. She watched it slide across the ground, as though watching a devil.
“不——”程心惊叫一声，把手中的开关扔了出去，像看一个魔鬼般看着它滑向远处。
Strong-interaction space probes approaching lunar orbit and continuing to decelerate. Extending their trajectories suggests that their targets are the gravitational wave broadcasting stations in North America, Europe, and Asia, and Gravitational Wave Universal Broadcast System Control Station Zero. Estimated impact on the surface: thirty seconds.
强互作用力宇宙探测器三个编队已接近月球轨道，继续减速。接照其航线延长线推测攻击目标：北美、欧洲和亚洲引力波发射台，引力波宇宙广播系统零号控制站，预计三十秒后接触地面。
Like a strand of spider silk, these final moments stretched out endlessly. But Cheng Xin did not vacillate; she had already made up her mind. This wasn’t a decision born of thought, but buried deep in her genes. These genes could be traced to four billion years ago, when the decision was first made. The subsequent billions of years only strengthened it. Right or wrong, she knew she had no other choice.
最后这段时间像蛛丝般被无限拉长，但程心没有再犹豫，她坚持已经做出的决断。这个决断不是用思想做出的，而是深藏在她的基因中，这基因可以一直追溯到四十亿年前，决断在那时已经做出，在后来几十亿年的沧海桑田中被不断加强。不管对与错，她知道自己别无选择。
A great jolt tumbled her to the ground: The droplets had penetrated the crust. She felt as though the solid rocks around her had vanished, and the Deterrence Center was on top of a giant drumhead. She closed her eyes and imagined the sight of a droplet passing through the crust like a fish swimming through water, waiting for the arrival at cosmic velocity of the perfectly smooth devil that would turn her and everything around her into molten lava.
强震出现了，这是水滴穿过地层时产生的。程心无法站立，跌坐在地，在她的感觉中，周围的坚实岩层都不存在了，控制中心似乎被放在一面巨大的鼓膜上。程心闭起双眼。想象着水滴在上面穿过地层的情，等待着那个光滑晶亮的魔鬼以宇宙速度击中这里，把她和周围的一切化为熔浆。
It was good that release was at hand.
好在解脱就要到来了。
But the quaking stopped after a few violent beats, like a drummer punctuating the end of the piece.
但震动猛烈跳动了几下后停止了，就像鼓师在曲终时的几下猛擂。
The red light on the screen faded, replaced by the white background from before. The room seemed brighter and more open. A few lines of black text appeared:
大屏幕上的红色消失了，代之以之前的白色，使这里瞬间显得明亮空旷起来。几行黑色大字在白色背景上显现：
North American gravitational wave transmitter destroyed.
北美引力波发射台被摧毁。
European gravitational wave transmitter destroyed.
欧洲引力波发射台被摧毁。
Solar radio-amplification function suppressed on all bands.
太阳电波放大功能被全频段压制。
Asian gravitational wave transmitter destroyed.
亚洲引力波发射台被摧毁。
Cheng Xin understood that the droplet attack on the Asian gravitational wave transmitter had caused the earthquake. That antenna was about twenty kilometers from here and was also deeply buried.
现在程心知道，刚才的震动是水滴攻击亚洲引力波发射天线时发出的，那个发射台距这里只有二十千米。也在同一深度的地下。
The droplets had not even bothered attacking the Swordholder.
水滴没有攻击执剑人。
Silence once again reigned over everything, except the faint sound of water trickling somewhere. A pipe had burst during the quake.
寂静再次覆盖了一切，只有隐约的浙沥水声，是什么地方被震裂的水管发出的。
The black text disappeared. After some moments of blankness, a last screen of text faded in:
那几行黑字消失，在一片茫然的空白后，最后的显示出现：
Gravitational wave universal broadcast system cannot be recovered. Dark forest deterrence has been terminated.
引力波宇宙广播系统无法恢复。黑暗森林威慑终止。
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