"Nice speech," said Cameron.
"Yeah." Docchi glanced at the telecom. The view didn't inspire further comment.
"That's the trouble, it was just a speech. It didn't do you any good. My advice is to give up before you get hurt."
"It would be."
Cameron stood at the threshold. "I may as well tell you," he said reluctantly. "I tried to before the broadcast, as soon as I found out what you were going to do. But you wouldn't listen."
He came into the control compartment3. Nona was huddled4 in a seat, motionless, expressionless. Anti was absent.
"You know why the Medicouncil refused to let you go?"
"Sure," said Docchi.
"The general metabolism5 of accidentals is further from normal than that of creatures we dredge from the bottom of the sea. Add to that an enormously elongated6 life span and you ought to see the Medicouncil's objection."
"Get to the point!"
"Look at it this way," Cameron continued almost desperately7. "The Centauri group contains quite a few planets. From what we know of cosmology, intelligent life probably exists there to a greater or lesser8 extent. You will be our representatives to them. What they look like isn't important; it's their concern. But our ambassadors have to meet certain minimum standards. They at least—damn it, don't you see that they at least have to look like human beings?"
"I know you feel that way," said Jordan, rigid9 with contempt.
"I'm not talking for myself," Cameron said. "I'm a doctor. The medicouncilors are doctors. We graft10 on or regenerate11 legs and arms and eyes. We work with blood and bones and intestines12. We know what a thin borderline separates normal people from—from you.
"Don't you understand? They're perfect, perhaps too much so. They can't tolerate even small blemishes13. They rush to us with things like hangnails, pimples14, simple dandruff. Health—or rather the appearance of it—has become a fetish. They may think they're sympathetic to you, but what they actually feel is something else."
"What are you driving at?" whispered Docchi.
"Just this: if it were up to the Medicouncil, you would be on your way to the Centauri group. But it isn't. The decision always had to be referred back to the Solar System as a whole. And the Medicouncil can't go counter to the mass of public opinion."
Docchi turned away in loathing15.
"Don't believe me," said Cameron. "You're not too far from Earth. Pick up the reaction to your broadcast."
Worriedly, Jordan looked at Docchi.
"We may as well find out," said Docchi. "It's settled now, one way or the other."
They searched band after band. The reaction was always the same. Obscure private citizen or prominent one, man or woman, they all told how sorry they were for the accidentals, but—
"Turn it off," said Docchi at last.
"Now what?" Jordan asked numbly16.
"You have no choice," said the doctor.
"No choice," repeated Docchi dully. "No choice but to give up. We misjudged who our allies were."
"We knew you had," said Cameron. "It seemed better to let you go on thinking that way while you were on the asteroid17. It gave you something to hope for. It made you feel you weren't alone. The trouble was that you got farther than we thought you would ever be able to."
"So we did," Docchi said. His lethargy seemed to lift a little. "And there's no reason to stop now. Jordan, pick up the ships behind us. Tell them we've got Cameron on board. A hostage. Play him up as a hero. Basically, he's not with those who are against us."
Anti came into the control compartment. Cheerfulness faded from her face. "What's the matter?" she asked.
"Jordan will explain to you. I've got to think."
Docchi closed his eyes. The ship lurched slightly, though the vibration18 from the rockets did not change. There was no reason for alarm; the flight of a ship was never completely steady. Docchi paid no attention.
At last he opened his eyes. "If we were properly fueled and provisioned," he said without much hope, "I would be in favor of the four of us heading for Alpha or Proxima. Maybe even Sirius. It wouldn't matter where, since we wouldn't intend to come back. But we can't make it with our small fuel reserve. If we can shake the ships behind us, we might be able to hide until we can steal the necessary fuel and food."
"What'll we do with Doc?" asked Jordan.
"We'd have to raid an unguarded outpost, of course. Probably a small mining asteroid. We can leave him there."
"Yeah," said Jordan. "A good idea, if we can run away from our personal escort of bloodhounds. Offhand19, that doesn't seem very likely. They didn't come any closer when I told them we had Doc with us, but they didn't drop back—"
He stopped and raised his eyes to the telecom. He blinked, not believing what he saw.
"They're gone!" His voice broke with excitement.
Almost instantly Docchi was beside him. "No," he corrected. "They're still following, but they're very far behind." Even as he looked, the pursuing ships visibly lost ground.
"What's our relative speed?" asked Jordon. He looked at the dials himself, frowned, tapped them as if the needles had gone crazy.
"What did you do to the rockets?" demanded Docchi.
"Nothing! There wasn't a thing I could do. We were already running at top speed."
"We're above it. Way above it. How?"
There was nothing to explain their astonishing velocity20. Cameron, Anti, and Jordan were in the control compartment. Nona still sat huddled up, hands pressed tight against her head. There was no explanation at all, yet power was pouring into the gravital unit, as a long unused, actually useless dial was indicating.
"The gravital drive is working," Docchi blankly pointed21 out.
"Nonsense," said Anti. "I don't feel any weight."
"You don't," answered Docchi. "You won't. The gravital unit was originally installed to drive the ship. When that proved unsatisfactory, it was converted. The difference is slight but important. An undirected general field produces weight effects inside the ship. That's for passenger comfort. A directed field, outside the ship, will drive it. You can have one or the other, not both."
"But I didn't turn on the gravital drive," said Jordan in flat bewilderment. "I couldn't if I wanted to. It's disconnected."
"I would agree with you, except for one thing. It's working." Docchi stared at Nona, whose eyes were closed. "Get her attention," he said.
It was Jordan who gently touched her shoulder. She opened her eyes. On the instrument board, the needle of a once useless dial rose and fell.
"What's the matter with the poor dear?" asked Anti. "She's shaking."
"Let her alone," said Docchi.
No one moved. No one said anything at all. Minutes passed while the ancient ship creaked and groaned22 and ran away from the fastest rockets in the Solar System.
"I think I know," said Docchi at last, still frowning. "Consider the gravity-generating plant. Part of it is an electronic computer, capable of making the necessary calculations and juggling23 the proportion of power required to produce, continuously, directed or undirected gravity. In other words, a brain, a complex mechanical intelligence. From the viewpoint of that intelligence, why should it perform ad infinitum a complicated but meaningless routine? It didn't know why, and because it didn't, very simply, it refused to do so.
"Now consider Nona. She's deaf, can't speak, can't communicate. In a way she's comparable to the gravital computer. Like it, she has a very high potential intelligence. Like it, she's had difficulty grasping the facts of her environment. Unlike it, though, she has learned something. How much, I don't know, but it's far more than the Medicouncil psychologists credit her with."
"Yeah," said Jordan dubiously24. "But what's happening now?"
"If there were two humans involved, you would call it telepathy," answered Docchi hesitantly, fumbling25 for concepts he could only sense without grasping. "One intelligence is electronic, the other organic. You'll have to coin a new term, because the only one I know is extrasensory perception, and that's obviously ridiculous. It is, isn't it?"
Jordan smiled and flexed26 his arms. Under the shapeless garment his muscles rippled27. "It isn't," he said. "The power was there, but we're the only ones who know how to use it. Or rather Nona is."
"Power?" repeated Anti, rising majestically28. "You can keep it. I want just enough to get to Centauri."
"I think you'll get it," Docchi promised. "A lot of things seem clearer now. For example, in the past, why didn't gravital units work well at considerable distances from the Sun? As a matter of fact, the efficiency of each unit was inversely29 proportional to the square of the distance between it and the Sun.
"The gravital computer is a deaf, blind, mass-sensitive brain. The major fact in its existence is the Sun, the greatest mass in the Solar System. To such a brain, leaving the Solar System would be like stepping off the edge of a flat world, because it couldn't be aware of stars.
"Now that it knows about the Galaxy30, the drive will work anywhere. With Nona to direct it, even Sirius isn't far away."
"Doc," said Jordan carelessly, "you'd better be figuring a way to get off the ship. Remember, we're going faster than man ever went before." He chuckled31. "Unless, of course, you like our company and don't want to leave."
"We've got to do some figuring ourselves," interposed Docchi. "Such as where we are heading now."
"A good idea," said Jordan. He busied himself with charts and calculations. Gradually his flying fingers slowed. His head bent32 low over his work. At last he stopped and folded his arms.
"Where?" asked Docchi.
"There." Jordan dully punched the telecom selector and a view became fixed on the screen. In the center glimmered33 a tiny world, a fragment of a long-exploded planet. Their destination was easily recognizable.
It was Handicap Haven34.
"But why do we want to go there?" asked Anti. She looked in amazement35 at Docchi.
"We're not going voluntarily," he answered, his voice flat and spent. "We're going where the Medicouncil wants us to go. We forgot about the monitor system. When Nona activated36 the gravital unit, that fact was indicated at some central station. All the Medicouncil had to do was use the monitor to take the gravital drive away from Nona."
"We thought we were running away from the ships, which we were, but only to beat them back to the junkpile?" asked Anti.
Docchi nodded.
"Well, it's over. We did our best. There's no use crying about it." Yet she was. She passed by Nona, patting her gently. "It's all right, darling. You tried."
Jordan followed her from the compartment.
Cameron remained; he came over to Docchi. "Everything isn't lost," he said, somewhat awkwardly. "You're back where you started from, but Nona at least will benefit."
"Benefit?" said Docchi. "Someone will. It won't be Nona."
"You're wrong. Now that she is an important factor—"
"So is a special experimental machine. Very valuable. I don't think she'll like that classification."
Silence met silence. It was Dr. Cameron who turned away.
"That ghastly glow of yours when you're angry always did upset me. I'll come back when it's dimmer."
Docchi glared after him. Cameron was the only normal aware that it was Nona who controlled the gravital unit. All the outside world could realize was that it was in operation, as it had been designed to work, but never had. If Cameron could be disposed of—
He shook his head. It wouldn't solve anything. He might fool them for a while. They might think he was responsible. In the end, they'd find out. Nona wasn't capable of that much deception37, for she never knew what a test was.
He went over to her. Once he had hoped.... It didn't matter what he had hoped.
She looked up and smiled. She had a right to. No word had ever broken the silence of her mind, but now she was communicating with something, whatever it was that an electronic brain could say. Of course she didn't understand that the conversation was taking place between two captives, herself and the gravital computer.
Abruptly38 he turned away. He stopped at the telecom panel and methodically kicked it apart. Delicate tubes smashed into powder. The emergency radio he thoroughly39 demolished40.
The ship was firmly in the grip of the gravital monitor. There was nothing he could do about that. All that remained was to protect Nona from their prying41 minds as long as he could.
She didn't hear the noise, or didn't care. She sat there, head in her hands, calm and smiling.
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收听单词发音
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1
flecks
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| n.斑点，小点( fleck的名词复数 )；癍 | |
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2
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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compartment
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| n.卧车包房，隔间；分隔的空间 | |
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huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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metabolism
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| n.新陈代谢 | |
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elongated
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| v.延长，加长( elongate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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7
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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8
lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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9
rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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graft
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| n.移植，嫁接，艰苦工作，贪污；v.移植，嫁接 | |
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11
regenerate
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| vt.使恢复，使新生；vi.恢复，再生；adj.恢复的 | |
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intestines
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| n.肠( intestine的名词复数 ) | |
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13
blemishes
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| n.（身体的）瘢点( blemish的名词复数 )；伤疤；瑕疵；污点 | |
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14
pimples
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| n.丘疹，粉刺，小脓疱( pimple的名词复数 ) | |
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15
loathing
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| n.厌恶，憎恨v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的现在分词)；极不喜欢 | |
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16
numbly
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| adv.失去知觉，麻木 | |
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asteroid
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| n.小行星；海盘车(动物) | |
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vibration
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| n.颤动，振动；摆动 | |
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offhand
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| adj.临时，无准备的；随便，马虎的 | |
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velocity
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| n.速度，速率 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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23
juggling
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| n. 欺骗, 杂耍(=jugglery) adj. 欺骗的, 欺诈的 动词juggle的现在分词 | |
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24
dubiously
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| adv.可疑地，怀疑地 | |
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fumbling
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| n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理 | |
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26
flexed
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| adj.[医]曲折的，屈曲v.屈曲( flex的过去式和过去分词 )；弯曲；（为准备大干而）显示实力；摩拳擦掌 | |
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rippled
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| 使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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majestically
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| 雄伟地； 庄重地； 威严地； 崇高地 | |
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inversely
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| adj.相反的 | |
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galaxy
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| n.星系；银河系；一群(杰出或著名的人物) | |
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31
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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33
glimmered
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| v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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haven
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| n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所 | |
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35
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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36
activated
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| adj. 激活的 动词activate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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deception
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| n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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40
demolished
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| v.摧毁( demolish的过去式和过去分词 )；推翻；拆毁（尤指大建筑物）；吃光 | |
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41
prying
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| adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开 | |
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