“Would you know him if you saw him?”
“Umm-mm, I guess not. Do you think we really can halt his elan in subspace and divert it over to the Glory of the Galaxy1?”
“I take it you’re beginning to see things my way. And the answer to your question is yes.”
“Poor Mayhem. You know, I actually feel sorry for the guy. He’s had more adventures than anyone since Homer wrote the Odyssey2 and there won’t ever be any rest for him.”
“Stop feeling sorry for him and start hoping he succeeds.”
“Yeah.”
“And let’s see about getting a bead3 on his elan.”
The two young men walked to a tri-dim chart which took up much of the room. One of them touched a button and blue light glowed within the chart, pulsing brightly and sharply where space-sectors intersected.
“He’s in C-17 now,” one of the men said as a gleaming whiteness was suddenly superimposed at a single point on the blue.
“Can you bead him?”
“I think so. But I still feel sorry for Mayhem. He’s expecting to wake up in a cold-storage corpse6 on Deneb IV but instead he’ll come to in a living body aboard a spaceship on collision course for the sun.”
“Just hope he—”
“I know. Succeeds. I don’t even want to think of the possibility he might fail.”
In seconds, the gleaming white dot crawled across the surface of the tri-dim chart from sector4 C-17 to sector S-1.
The Glory of the Galaxy was now nineteen million miles out from the sun and rushing through space at a hundred miles per second, normal space drive. The Glory of the Galaxy thus moved a million miles closer to fiery7 destruction every three hours—but since the sun’s gravitational force had to be added to that speed, the ship was slated8 to plunge9 into the sun’s corona10 in little more than twenty-four hours.
Since the ship’s refrigeration units would function perfectly11 until the outer hull12 reached a temperature of eleven hundred degrees Fahrenheit13, none of its passengers
knew that anything was wrong. Even the members of the crew went through all the normal motions. Only the Glory of the Galaxy’s officers in their bright new uniforms and gold braid knew the grim truth of what awaited the gleaming two-thousand ton spaceship less than twenty-four hours away at the exact center of its perihelion passage.
Something—unidentified as yet—in all the thousands of intricate things that could go wrong on a spaceship, particularly a new one making its maiden14 voyage, had gone wrong. The officers were checking their catalogues and their various areas of watch meticulously—and not because their own lives were at stake. In spaceflight, your own life always is at stake. There are too many imponderables: you are, to a certain degree, expendable. The commissioned contingent15 aboard the Glory of the Galaxy was a dedicated16 group, hand-picked from all the officers in the solar system.
But they could find nothing. And do nothing.
Within a day, their lives along with the lives of the enlisted17 men aboard the Glory of the Galaxy and the passengers on its maiden run, would be snuffed out in a brilliant burst of solar heat.
And the President of the Galactic Federation18 would die because some unknown factor had locked the controls of the spaceship, making it impossible to turn or use forward rockets against the gravitational pull of the sun.
Nineteen million miles. In normal space, a considerable distance. A hundred miles a second—a very considerable normal space speed. Increasing….
Ever since they had left Earth’s assembly satellites, Sheila Kelly had seen a lot of a Secret Serviceman named Larry Grange, who was a member of the President’s corps5 of bodyguards19. She liked Larry, although there was nothing serious in their relationship. He was handsome and charming and she was naturally flattered with his attentions. Still, although he was older than Sheila, she sensed that he was a boy rather than a man and had the odd feeling that, faced with a real crisis, he would confirm this tragically20.
It was night aboard the Glory of the Galaxy. Which was to say the blue-green night lights had replaced the white day lights in the companionways
and public rooms of the spaceship, since its ports were sealed against the fierce glare of the sun. It was hard to believe, Sheila thought, that they were only nineteen million miles from the sun. Everything was so cool—so comfortably air-conditioned….
She met Larry in the Sunside Lounge, a cabaret as nice as any terran nightclub she had ever seen. There were stylistic Zodiac drawings on the walls and blue-mirrored columns supporting the roof. Like everything else aboard the Glory of the Galaxy, the Sunside Lounge hardly seemed to belong on a spaceship. For Sheila Kelly, though—herself a third secretary with the department of Galactic Economy—it was all very thrilling.
“Hello, Larry,” she said as the Secret Serviceman joined her at their table. He was a tall young man in his late twenties with crewcut blond hair; but he sat down heavily now and did not offer Sheila his usual smile.
“Why, what on earth is the matter?” Sheila asked him.
“Nothing. I need a drink, that’s all.”
The drinks came. Larry gulped21 his and ordered another. His complete silence baffled Sheila, who finally said:
“Surely it isn’t anything I did.”
“You? Don’t be silly.”
“Well! After the way you said that I don’t know if I should be glad or not.”
“Just forget it. I’m sorry, kid. I—” He reached out and touched her hand. His own hand was damp and cold.
“Going to tell me, Larry?”
“Listen. What’s a guy supposed to do if he overhears something he’s not supposed to overhear, and—”
“How should I know unless you tell me what you overheard? It is you you’re talking about, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. I was going off duty, walking by officer quarters and … oh, forget it. I better not tell you.”
“I’m a good listener, Larry.”
“Look, Irish. You’re a good anything—and that’s the truth. You have looks and you have brains and I have a hunch22 through all that Emerald Isle23 sauciness24 you have a heart too. But—”
“But you don’t want to tell me.”
“It isn’t I don’t want to, but no one’s supposed to know, not even the President.”
“You sure make it sound mysterious.”
“Just the officers. Oh, hell. I don’t know. What good would it do if I told you?”
“I guess you’d just get it off your chest, that’s all.”
“I can’t tell anyone official, Sheila. I’d have my head handed to me. But I’ve got to think and I’ve got to tell someone. I’ll go crazy, just knowing and not doing anything.”
“It’s important, isn’t it?”
Larry downed another drink quickly. It was his fourth and Sheila had never seen him take more than three or four in the course of a whole evening. “You’re damned right it’s important.” Larry leaned forward across the postage-stamp table. A liquor-haze clouded his eyes as he said: “It’s so important that unless someone does something about it, we’ll all be dead inside of twenty-four hours. Only trouble is, there isn’t anything anyone can do about it.”
“Larry—you’re a little drunk.”
“I know it. I know I am. I want to be a lot drunker. What the hell can a guy do?”
“What do you know, Larry? What have you heard?”
“I know they have the President of the Galactic Federation aboard this ship and that he ought to be told the truth.”
“No. I mean—”
“They sent out an SOS, kid. Controls are locked. Lifeboats don’t have enough power to get us out of the sun’s gravitational pull. We’re all going to roast, I tell you!”
Sheila felt her heart throb25 wildly. Even though he was well on the way to being thoroughly26 drunk, Larry was telling the truth. Instinctively27, she knew that—was certain of it. “What are you going to do?” she said.
He shrugged28. “I guess because I can’t do a damned thing I’m going to get good and drunk. That’s what I’m going to do. Or maybe—who the hell knows?—maybe in one minute I’m going to jump up on this table and tell everyone what I overheard. Maybe I ought to do that, huh?”
“Larry, Larry—if it’s as bad as you say, maybe you ought to think before you do anything.”
“Who am I to think? I’m one of the muscle men. That’s what they pay me for, isn’t it?”
“Larry. You don’t have to shout.”
“Well, isn’t it?”
“If you don’t calm down I’ll have to leave.”
“You can sit still. You can park here all night. I’m leaving.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Oh … that.” Larry got up from the table. He looked suddenly green and Sheila thought it was because he had too much to drink. “You don’t have to worry about that, Sheila. Not now you don’t. I all of a sudden don’t feel so good. Headache. Man, I never felt anything like it. Better go to my cabin and lie down. Maybe I’ll wake up and find out all this was a dream, huh?”
“Do you need any help?” Sheila demanded, real concern in her voice.
“No. ’Sall right. Man, this headache really snuck up on me. Pow! Without any warning.”
“Let me help you.”
“No. Just leave me alone, will you?” Larry staggered off across the crowded dance floor. He drew angry glances and muttered comments as he disturbed the dancers waltzing to Carlotti’s Danube in Space.
Why don’t you admit it, Grange, Larry thought as he staggered through the companionway toward his cabin. That’s what you always wanted, isn’t it—a place of importance?
A place in the sun, they call it.
“You’re going to get a place in the sun, all right,” he mumbled29 aloud. “Right smack30 in the middle of the sun with everyone else aboard this ship!”
The humor of it amused him perversely31. He smiled—but it was closer to a leer—and lunged into his cabin. What he said to Sheila was no joke. He really did have a splitting headache. It had come on suddenly and it was like no headache he had ever known. It pulsed and throbbed32 and beat against his temples and held red hot needles to the backs of his eyeballs, almost blinding him. It sapped all his strength, leaving him physically33 weak. He was barely able to close the door behind him and stagger to the shower.
An ice cold shower, he thought would help. He stripped quickly and got under the needle spray. By that time he was so weak he could barely stand.
A place in the sun, he thought….
Something grabbed his mind and wrenched34 it.
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收听单词发音
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1
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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odyssey
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| n.长途冒险旅行；一连串的冒险 | |
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bead
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| n.念珠；(pl.)珠子项链；水珠 | |
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sector
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| n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形 | |
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corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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7
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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slated
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| 用石板瓦盖( slate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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corona
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| n.日冕 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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hull
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| n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
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Fahrenheit
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| n./adj.华氏温度；华氏温度计(的) | |
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14
maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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15
contingent
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| adj.视条件而定的；n.一组，代表团，分遣队 | |
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16
dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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17
enlisted
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| adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持） | |
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18
federation
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| n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会 | |
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19
bodyguards
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| n.保镖，卫士，警卫员( bodyguard的名词复数 ) | |
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tragically
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| adv. 悲剧地，悲惨地 | |
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21
gulped
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| v.狼吞虎咽地吃，吞咽( gulp的过去式和过去分词 )；大口地吸（气）；哽住 | |
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22
hunch
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| n.预感，直觉 | |
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isle
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| n.小岛，岛 | |
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sauciness
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| n.傲慢，鲁莽 | |
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25
throb
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| v.震颤，颤动；(急速强烈地)跳动，搏动 | |
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26
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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28
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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mumbled
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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30
smack
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| vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍 | |
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31
perversely
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| adv. 倔强地 | |
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32
throbbed
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| 抽痛( throb的过去式和过去分词 )； （心脏、脉搏等）跳动 | |
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33
physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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34
wrenched
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| v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
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