Awakening1 came slowly, as it always did. It was a rising through infinite gulfs, a rebirth for a man who had died a hundred times and might die
a thousand times more as the years piled up and became centuries. It was a spinning, whirling, flashing ascent2 from blackness to coruscating3 colors, brightness, giddiness.
And suddenly, it was over.
A needle spray of ice-cold water beat down upon him. He shuddered4 and reached for the water-taps, shutting them. Dripping, he climbed from the shower.
And floated up—quite weightless—toward the ceiling.
Frowning with his new and as yet unseen face, Johnny Mayhem propelled himself to the floor. He looked at his arms. He was naked—at least that much was right.
But obviously, since he was weightless, he was not on Deneb IV. During his transmigration he had been briefed for the trouble on Deneb IV. Then had a mistake been made somehow? It was always possible—but it had never happened before.
Too much precision and careful planning was involved.
Every world which had an Earthman population and a Galactic League—now, Galactic Federation5—post, must have a body in cold storage, waiting for Johnny Mayhem if his services were required. No one knew when Mayhem’s services might be required. No one knew exactly under what circumstances the Galactic Federation Council, operating from the Hub of the Galaxy7, might summon Mayhem. And only a very few people, including those at the Hub and the Galactic League Firstmen on civilized8 worlds and Observers on frontier planets, knew the precise mechanics of Mayhem’s coming.
Johnny Mayhem, a bodiless sentience9. Mayhem—Johnny Marlow then—who had been chased from Earth a pariah10 and a criminal seven years ago, who had been mortally wounded on a wild planet deep within the Sagittarian Swarm11, whose life had been saved—after a fashion—by the white magic of that planet. Mayhem, doomed12 now to possible immortality13 as a bodiless sentience, an elan, which could occupy and activate14 a corpse16 if it had been preserved properly … an elan doomed to wander eternally because it could not remain in one body for more than a month without body and elan perishing. Mayhem, who had dedicated17 his strange, lonely life to the services of the Galactic League—now the Galactic Federation—because a normal life and normal social
relations were not possible to him….
It did not seem possible, Mayhem thought now, that a mistake could be made. Then—a sudden change in plans?
It had never happened before, but it was entirely18 possible. Something, Mayhem decided19, had come up during transmigration. It was terribly important and the people at the Hub had had no opportunity to brief him on it.
But—what?
His first shock came a moment later. He walked to a mirror on the wall and approved of the strong young body which would house his sentience and then scowled20. A thought inside his head said:
So this is what it’s like to have schizophrenia.
What the hell was that? Mayhem thought.
I said, so this is what it’s like to have schizophrenia. First the world’s worst headache and then I start thinking like two different people.
Aren’t you dead?
Is that supposed to be a joke, alter ego21? When do the men in the white suits come?
Good Lord, this was supposed to be a dead body!
At that, the other sentience which shared the body with Mayhem snickered and lapsed22 into silence. Mayhem, for his part, was astounded23.
Don’t get ornery now, Mayhem pleaded. I’m Johnny Mayhem. Does that mean anything to you?
Oh, sure. It means I’m dead. You inhabit dead bodies, right?
Usually. Listen—where are we?
Glory of the Galaxy—bound from Earth to Mars on perihelion.
And there’s trouble?
How do you know there’s trouble?
Otherwise they wouldn’t have diverted me here.
We’ve got the president aboard. We’re going to hit the sun. Then, grudgingly24, Larry went into the details. When he finished he thought cynically25: Now all you have to do is go outside yelling have no fear, Mayhem is here and everything will be all right, I suppose.
Mayhem didn’t answer. It would be many moments yet before he could adjust to this new, unexpected situation. But in a way, he thought, it would be a boon26. If he were co-inhabiting the body of a living man who belonged on the Glory of the Galaxy, there was no need to reveal his identity as Johnny Mayhem to anyone but his host….
“I tell ya,” Technician First Class Ackerman Boone shouted, “the refrigeration unit’s gone on the blink. You can’t feel it yet, but I ought to know. I got the refrigs working full strength and we gained a couple of degrees heat. Either she’s on the blink or we’re too close to the sun, I tell you!”
Ackerman Boone was a big man, a veteran spacer with a squat27, very strong body and arms like an orangutan. Under normal circumstances he was a very fine spacer and a good addition to any crew, but he bore an unreasonable28 grudge29 against the officer corps15 and would go out of his way to make them look bad in the eyes of the other enlisted30 men. A large crowd had gathered in the hammock-hung crew quarters of the Glory of the Galaxy as Boone went on in his deep, booming voice: “So I asked the skipper of the watch, I did. He got shifty-eyed, like they always do. You know. He wasn’t talking, but sure as my name’s Ackerman Boone, something’s wrong.”
“What do you think it is, Acky?” one of the younger men asked.
“Well, I tell ya this: I know what it isn’t. I checked out the refrigs three times, see, and came up with nothing. The refrigs are in jig31 order, and if I know it then you know it. So, if the refrigs are in jig order, there’s only one thing it can be: we’re getting too near the sun!” Boone clamped his mouth shut and stood with thick, muscular arms crossed over his barrel chest.
A young technician third class said in a strident voice, “You mean you think maybe we’re plunging32 into the sun, Acky?”
“Well, now, I didn’t say that. Did I, boy? But we are too close and if we are too close there’s got to be a reason for it. If we stay too close too long, O.K. Then we’re plunging into the sun. Right now, I dunno.”
They all asked Ackerman Boone, who was an unofficial leader among them, what he was going to do. He rubbed his big fingers against the thick stubble of beard on his jaw33 and you could hear the rasping sound it made. Then he said, “Nothing, until we find out for sure. But I got a hunch34 the officers are trying to pull the wool over the eyes of them politicians we got on board. That’s all right with me, men. If they want to, they got their reasons. But I tell ya this: they ain’t going to pull any wool over Acky
Boone’s eyes, and that’s a fact.”
Just then the squawk box called: “Now hear this! Now hear this! Tech/1 Ackerman Boone to Exec’s office. Tech/1 Boone to Exec.”
“You see?” Boone said, smiling grimly. As yet, no one saw. His face still set in a grim smile, Ackerman Boone headed above decks.
“That, Mr. President,” Vice6 Admiral T. Shawnley Stapleton said gravely, “is the problem. We would have come to you sooner, sir, but frankly—”
“I know it, Admiral,” the President said quietly. “I could not have helped you in any way. There was no sense telling me.”
“We have one chance, sir, and one only. It’s irregular and it will probably knock the hell out of the Glory of the Galaxy, but it may save our lives. If we throw the ship suddenly into subspace we could pass right through the sun’s position and—”
“I’m no scientist, Admiral, but wouldn’t that put tremendous stress not only on the ship but on all of us aboard?”
“It would, sir. I won’t keep anything from you, of course. We’d all be subjected to a force of twenty-some gravities for a period of several seconds. Here aboard the Glory, we don’t have adequate G-equipment. It’s something like the old days of air flight, sir: as soon as airplanes became reasonably safe, passenger ships didn’t bother to carry parachutes. Result over a period of fifty years: thousands of lives lost. We’d all be bruised35 and battered36, sir. Bones would be broken. There might be a few deaths. But I see no other way out, sir.”
“Then there was no need to check with me at all, I assure you, Admiral Stapleton. Do whatever you think is best, sir.”
The Admiral nodded gravely. “Thank you, Mr. President. I will say this, though: we will wait for a miracle.”
“I’m afraid I don’t follow you.”
“Well, I don’t expect a miracle, but the switchover to subspace so suddenly is bound to be dangerous. Therefore, we’ll wait until the last possible moment. It will grow uncomfortably warm, let me warn you, but as long as the subspace drive is in good working order—”
“I see what you mean, Admiral. You have a free hand, sir; let me repeat that. I will not interfere37 in any way and I have the utmost confidence
in you.” The President mopped his brow with an already damp handkerchief. It was growing warm, come to think of it. Uncomfortably warm.
As if everyone aboard the Glory of the Galaxy was slowly being broiled38 alive….
Ackerman Boone entered the crew quarters with the same smile still on his lips. At first he said nothing, but his silence drew the men like a magnet draws iron filings. When they had all clustered about him he spoke39.
“The Exec not only chewed my ears off,” he boomed. “He all but spit them in my face! I was right, men. He admitted it to me after he saw how he couldn’t get away with anything in front of Ackerman Boone. Men, we’re heading on collision course with the sun!”
A shocked silence greeted his words and Ackerman Boone, instinctively40 a born speaker, paused dramatically to allow each man the private horror of his own thoughts for a few moments. Then he continued: “The Admiral figures we have one chance to get out of this alive, men. He figures—”
“What is it, Acky?”
“What will he do?”
“How will the Admiral get us out of this?”
Ackerman Boone spat41 on the polished, gleaming floor of the crew quarters. “He’ll never get us out alive, let me tell you. He wants to shift us into subspace at the last possible minute. Suddenly. Like this—” and Ackerman Boone snapped his fingers.
“There’d be a ship full of broken bones!” someone protested. “We can’t do a thing like that.”
“He’ll kill us all!” a very young T/3 cried hysterically42.
“Not if I can help it, he won’t,” shouted Ackerman Boone. “Listen, men. This ain’t a question of discipline. It’s a question of living or dying and I tell you that’s more important than doing it like the book says or discipline or anything like that. We got a chance, all right: but it ain’t what the Admiral thinks it is. We ought to abandon the Glory to her place in the sun and scram out of here in the lifeboats—every last person aboard ship.”
“But will they have enough power to get out of the sun’s gravitational pull?” someone asked.
Ackerman Boone shrugged43. “Don’t look at me,” he said mockingly. “I’m only an enlisted man and they don’t give enlisted men enough math to answer questions like that.
But reckoning by the seat of my pants I would say, yes. Yes, we could get away like that—if we act fast. Because every minute we waste is a minute that brings us closer to the sun and makes it harder to get away in the lifeboats. If we act, men, we got to act fast.”
“You’re talking mutiny, Boone,” a grizzled old space veteran said. “You can count me out.”
“What’s the matter, McCormick? Yellow?”
“I’m not yellow. I say it takes guts44 to maintain discipline in a real emergency. I say you’re yellow, Boone.”
“You better be ready to back that up with your fists, McCormick,” Boone said savagely45.
“I’m ready any time you’re ready, you yellow mutinous46 bastard47!”
Ackerman Boone launched himself at the smaller, older man, who stood his ground unflinchingly although he probably knew he would take a sound beating. But four or five crewmen came between them and held them apart, one saying:
“Look who’s talking, Boone. You say time’s precious but you’re all set to start fighting. Every minute—”
“Every second,” Boone said grimly, “brings us more than a hundred miles closer to the sun.”
“What can we do, Acky?”
Instead of answer, Ackerman Boone dramatically mopped the sweat from his face. All the men were uncomfortably warm now. It was obvious that the temperature within the Glory of the Galaxy had now climbed fifteen or twenty degrees despite the fact that the refrigs were working at full capacity. Even the bulkheads and the metal floor of crew quarters were unpleasantly warm to the touch. The air was hot and suddenly very dry.
“I’ll tell you what we ought to do,” Ackerman Boone said finally. “Admiral Stapleton or no Admiral Stapleton, President of the Galactic Federation or no President of the Galactic Federation, we ought to take over this ship and man the life boats for everyone’s good. If they don’t want to save their lives and ours—let’s us save our lives and theirs!”
Roars of approval greeted Boone’s words, but Spacer McCormick and some of the other veterans stood apart from the loud speech-making which followed. Actually, Boone’s wild words—which he gambled with after the first
flush of enthusiasm for his plan—began to lose converts. One by one the men drifted toward McCormick’s silent group until, finally, Boone had lost almost his entire audience.
Just then a T/2 rushed into crew quarters and shouted: “Hey, is Boone around? Has anyone seen Boone?”
This brought general laughter. Under the circumstances, the question was not without its humorous aspect.
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收听单词发音
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1
awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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3
coruscating
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| v.闪光，闪烁( coruscate的现在分词 ) | |
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shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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5
federation
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| n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会 | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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7
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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civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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9
sentience
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| n.感觉性；感觉能力；知觉 | |
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10
pariah
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| n.被社会抛弃者 | |
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swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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12
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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13
immortality
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| n.不死，不朽 | |
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14
activate
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| vt.使活动起来，使开始起作用 | |
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15
corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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16
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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17
dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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18
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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19
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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20
scowled
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| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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21
ego
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| n.自我，自己，自尊 | |
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22
lapsed
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| adj.流失的，堕落的v.退步( lapse的过去式和过去分词 )；陷入；倒退；丧失 | |
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23
astounded
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| v.使震惊(astound的过去式和过去分词)；愕然；愕；惊讶 | |
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24
grudgingly
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25
cynically
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| adv.爱嘲笑地，冷笑地 | |
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26
boon
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| n.恩赐，恩物，恩惠 | |
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27
squat
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| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
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28
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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29
grudge
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| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
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30
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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31
jig
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| n.快步舞（曲）；v.上下晃动；用夹具辅助加工；蹦蹦跳跳 | |
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32
plunging
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| adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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33
jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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34
hunch
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| n.预感，直觉 | |
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35
bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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36
battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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37
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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broiled
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| a.烤过的 | |
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39
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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40
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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41
spat
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| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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42
hysterically
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| ad. 歇斯底里地 | |
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43
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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44
guts
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| v.狼吞虎咽，贪婪地吃，飞碟游戏（比赛双方每组5人，相距15码，互相掷接飞碟）；毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的第三人称单数 )；取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 )；内脏；消化道的下段；肠 | |
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45
savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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46
mutinous
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| adj.叛变的，反抗的；adv.反抗地，叛变地；n.反抗，叛变 | |
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47
bastard
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| n.坏蛋，混蛋；私生子 | |
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