"Swallow this," said the doctor after making a series of tests.
Asa swallowed the capsule. Two minutes later he felt himself beginning to lose consciousness.
"This is it!" he thought in panic.
He felt someone ease him back down onto a wheeled stretcher. Before consciousness faded completely he realized that no one got a chance to back out of becoming a changeling, that he was on his way to the conversion3 tank right now.
When he finally awoke he felt well rested and very comfortable. But for a long time he was afraid to open his eyes.
"Come on, Graybar," said a deep, booming voice. "Let's test our wings."
It was not Kershaw's voice, but it had to be Kershaw. Asa opened his eyes.
Everyone had seen pictures of muck men. It was different having one stand beside you. Kershaw looked much like an enormous frog except that his head was still mostly human. He was sitting on webbed feet, his lower legs bent4 double under huge thighs5, and his trunk tilted6 forward so that his arms dangled7 to the ground. The arms were as thick around as an ordinary man's legs. The hands had become efficient scoops8, with broad fingers webbed to the first joint9 and tipped with spade-like claws. The skin was still pinkish but had become scaly10. Not a thread of hair showed anywhere on the body, not even on the head.
This, Asa realized, was what he looked like himself.
It would have been more bearable if the head had not retained strong traces of humanity. The nostrils11 flared12 wide and the jaws13 hardly emerged from the neck, but the ears were human ears and the eyes, under those horny ridges14, were human eyes. Asa felt sure that the eyes could still weep.
He started to walk forward and tipped over on his side. Kershaw laughed.
"Come to daddy, babykins," Kershaw said, holding out his hands. "Only try hopping16 this time. And take it easy."
Asa pushed himself upright with one arm and tried a small hop15. Nerve and muscle coordination17 was perfect. He found himself leaping as high as Kershaw's head.
"That's the way," Kershaw said approvingly. "Now get this on and we'll go outside."
Asa snapped on a belt and breech cloth combination that had flaps of fabric18 dangling19 from the belt in front and behind. He followed as Kershaw pushed open a sliding door to lead the way out of the room where they had been left to revive from conversion.
They went into a courtyard partly covered by a roof projecting from the Hazeltyne company's dome20 settlement. The far half of the courtyard was open to the gray drizzle21 that fell almost ceaselessly from the sky of Jordan's Planet and turned most of its surface into marsh22 and mud flats. A high wall enclosed the far portion of the courtyard. Ranged along the wall were thirty stalls for muck men.
From fifty yards across the courtyard a muck man bounded over to them in two leaps. Attached to a harness across his shoulders and chest were a gun and a long knife.
"Names?" he growled23. He was a foot taller than Graybar and big everywhere in proportion.
"Kershaw. I'm back, Furston."
"I'm Graybar."
"Kershaw again? Just start in where you left off, sucker. Come on, you." He pointed24 to Asa and leaped to the open portion of the courtyard.
"Do what he says," Kershaw whispered to Graybar. "He's sort of a trusty and warden25 and parole officer rolled into one."
Asa was put through a series of exercises to get him used to his distorted body, to teach him how to leap and how to dig. He was shown how to operate the radio he would carry and how to fire the pencil-slim rockets of this gun. Finally he was told to eat a few berries from a native vine. He did so and immediately vomited26.
Furston laughed.
"That's to remind you you're still a man," Furston said, grinning. "Everything that grows on this planet is poison. So if you got any ideas of hiding out till your term is up, forget 'em. Right here is where you eat."
Asa turned without a word and hopped27 feebly away from Furston. He lifted his head to breathe deeply and saw two humans watching him from an observation tower on the roof.
He leaped twenty feet into the air for a closer look.
Gazing at him with repugnance28, after witnessing the end of his session with Furston, were Harriet Hazeltyne and general manager Tom Dorr.
The girl's presence merely puzzled Asa, but Dorr's being here worried him. Dorr had tried to get rid of him once and was now in an excellent position to make the riddance permanent.
At supper that night, squatting29 on the ground beside a low table with the dozen other muck men operating from the dome, Asa asked what the two were doing out here.
"The girl will inherit this racket some day, won't she?" asked one of the others. "She wants to see what kind of suckers are making her rich."
"Maybe that guy Dorr brought her along to show her what a big wheel he is," said one of the others. "Just hope he doesn't take over the operations."
点击收听单词发音
1 discomfort | |
n.不舒服,不安,难过,困难,不方便 | |
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2 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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3 conversion | |
n.转化,转换,转变 | |
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4 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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5 thighs | |
n.股,大腿( thigh的名词复数 );食用的鸡(等的)腿 | |
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6 tilted | |
v. 倾斜的 | |
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7 dangled | |
悬吊着( dangle的过去式和过去分词 ); 摆动不定; 用某事物诱惑…; 吊胃口 | |
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8 scoops | |
n.小铲( scoop的名词复数 );小勺;一勺[铲]之量;(抢先刊载、播出的)独家新闻v.抢先报道( scoop的第三人称单数 );(敏捷地)抱起;抢先获得;用铲[勺]等挖(洞等) | |
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9 joint | |
adj.联合的,共同的;n.关节,接合处;v.连接,贴合 | |
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10 scaly | |
adj.鱼鳞状的;干燥粗糙的 | |
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11 nostrils | |
鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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12 Flared | |
adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词 | |
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13 jaws | |
n.口部;嘴 | |
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14 ridges | |
n.脊( ridge的名词复数 );山脊;脊状突起;大气层的)高压脊 | |
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15 hop | |
n.单脚跳,跳跃;vi.单脚跳,跳跃;着手做某事;vt.跳跃,跃过 | |
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16 hopping | |
n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式 | |
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17 coordination | |
n.协调,协作 | |
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18 fabric | |
n.织物,织品,布;构造,结构,组织 | |
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19 dangling | |
悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 ); 摆动不定; 用某事物诱惑…; 吊胃口 | |
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20 dome | |
n.圆屋顶,拱顶 | |
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21 drizzle | |
v.下毛毛雨;n.毛毛雨,蒙蒙细雨 | |
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22 marsh | |
n.沼泽,湿地 | |
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23 growled | |
v.(动物)发狺狺声, (雷)作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 );低声咆哮着说 | |
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24 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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25 warden | |
n.监察员,监狱长,看守人,监护人 | |
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26 vomited | |
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27 hopped | |
跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 ); 单足蹦跳; 齐足(或双足)跳行; 摘葎草花 | |
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28 repugnance | |
n.嫌恶 | |
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29 squatting | |
v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的现在分词 );非法擅自占用(土地或房屋);为获得其所有权;而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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