Anti stopped. "Look at her. If I didn't know she's a freak like the rest of us, the only one, in fact, who was born that way, it would be easy to hate her—she's so disgustingly normal."
Normal? True and yet not true. Surgical2 techniques that could take a body apart and put it back together again with a skill once reserved for the repair of machines had made beauty commonplace. No more sagging3 muscles, wrinkles; even the aged4 were attractive and youthful-seeming until the day they died. No more ill-formed limbs, misshapen bodies. Everyone was handsome or beautiful. No exceptions.
None to speak of, at least.
The accidentals didn't belong, of course. In another day most of them would have been candidates for a waxworks5 or the formaldehyde of a specimen6 bottle.
Nona fitted neither category; she wasn't a repair job. Looking at her closely—and why not?—she was an original work as far from the normal in one direction as Anti, for example, was in the other.
"Why is she staring at the little dial?" asked Anti as the others slipped past her and came into the compartment7. "Is there something wrong with it?" She shrugged8. "I would be interested in the big dials. The ones with colored lights."
"That's Nona." Docchi smiled. "I'm sure she's never been in the control room of a rocket before, and yet she went straight to the most curious thing in it. She's looking at the gravital indicator9. Directly behind it is the gravital unit."
"How do you know? Does it say so?"
"It doesn't. You have to be trained to recognize it, or else be Nona."
Anti dismissed that intellectual feat10. "What are you waiting for? You know she can't hear us. Go stand in front of her."
"How do I get there?" Docchi had risen a few inches from the floor, now that Jordan had released him from his grip.
"A good engineer would have enough sense to put on magneslippers. Nona did." Anti grasped his jacket. How she was able to move was uncertain. The tissues that surrounded the woman were too vast to permit the perception of individual motions. Nevertheless, she proceeded to the center of the compartment, and with her came Docchi.
Nona turned before they reached her.
"My poor boy," sighed Anti. "You do a very bad job of concealing11 your emotions, if that's what you're trying to do. Anyway, stop glowing like a rainbow and say something."
"Hello," said Docchi.
Nona smiled at him, though it was Anti that she came to.
"No, not too close, child. Don't touch the surgery robe unless you want your pretty face to peel off like a plastiwrapper."
Nona stopped; she said nothing.
Anti shook her head hopelessly. "I wish you would learn to read lips or at least recognize written words. It's so difficult to communicate with you."
"She knows facial expressions and actions, I think," said Docchi. "She's good at emotions. Words are a foreign concept to her."
"What other concepts does anyone think with?" asked Anti dubiously12.
"Maybe mathematical relationships," answered Docchi. "Though she doesn't. They've tested her for that." He frowned. "I don't know what concepts she does think with. I wish I did."
"Save some of that worry and apply it to our present situation," said Anti. "The object of your concern doesn't seem to be interested in it."
That was true. Nona had wandered back and was staring at the gravital indicator again. What she saw to hold her attention was a puzzle.
In some ways she seemed irresponsible and childlike. That was an elusive13 thought, though: whose child? Not really, of course. Her parents were obscure technicians and mechanics, descendants of a long line of mechanics and technicians. The question he had asked himself was this: where and how does she belong? He couldn't answer.
With an effort Docchi came back to reality. "We appealed to the Medicouncil," he said. "We asked for a ship to go to the nearest star. It would have to be a rocket, naturally. Even allowing for a better design than any we now have, the journey would take a long time, forty or fifty years going and the same length of time back. That's entirely14 too long for a normal, but it wouldn't matter to a biocompensator."
"Why a rocket?" interrupted Jordan. "Why not some form of gravity drive?"
"An attractive idea," admitted Docchi. "Theoretically, there's no limit to gravity drive except light speed, and even that's not certain. If it would work, the time element could be cut to a fraction. But the last twenty years have proved that gravity drives won't work at all outside the Solar System. They function very poorly even when the ship is as far out as Jupiter's orbit."
"I thought the gravity drive on a ship was nearly the same as the gravital unit on the asteroid," said Jordan. "Why won't they function?"
"I don't know why," answered Docchi impatiently. "If I did, I wouldn't be marooned15 on Handicap Haven16. Arms or no arms, biocompensator or not, I'd be the most important scientist on Earth."
"With a multitude of pretty women competing for your affections," added Anti.
"I think he'd settle for one. A certain one," suggested Jordan.
"Poor, unimaginative boy," said Anti. "In my youth...."
"We've heard about your youth," said Jordan.
"Youth and love are long since past, for both of you. Talk about them privately17 if you want, but not now." Docchi glowered18 at them. "Anyway," he resumed, "gravity drive is out. One time they had hopes for it, but no longer. It should be able to drive this ship. Actually, its sole function is to provide an artificial gravity inside the ship, for passenger comfort. So rocket ship it is. That's what we asked for. The Medicouncil refused. Therefore we're going to appeal to a higher authority."
"Fine," said Anti. "How?"
"We've discussed it," answered Docchi. "Ultimately the Medicouncil is responsible to the Solar Government. And in turn—"
"All right, I'm in favor of it," said Anti. "I just wanted to know."
"Mars is closer," continued Docchi. "But Earth is the seat of government. As soon as we get there...." He stopped suddenly and listened.
Anti listened with him and waited until she could stand it no longer. "What's the matter?" she asked. "I don't hear anything."
Jordan leaned forward in his seat and looked at the instrument panel. "That's the trouble, Anti. You're not supposed to hear anything. But you should be able to feel the vibration19 from the rocket exhaust, as long as it's on."
"I don't feel anything, either."
"Yeah," said Jordan. He looked at Docchi. "There's plenty of fuel."
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收听单词发音
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1
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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2
surgical
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| adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的 | |
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3
sagging
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| 下垂[沉，陷]，松垂，垂度 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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waxworks
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| n.公共供水系统；蜡制品，蜡像( waxwork的名词复数 ) | |
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6
specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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7
compartment
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| n.卧车包房，隔间；分隔的空间 | |
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8
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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9
indicator
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| n.指标；指示物，指示者；指示器 | |
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10
feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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11
concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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12
dubiously
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| adv.可疑地，怀疑地 | |
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13
elusive
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| adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的 | |
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14
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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15
marooned
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| adj.被围困的；孤立无援的；无法脱身的 | |
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16
haven
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| n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所 | |
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17
privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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18
glowered
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| v.怒视( glower的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19
vibration
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| n.颤动，振动；摆动 | |
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