Abruptly4, she sprang to her feet. “Walter! Dick! Something’s happening to Martin!”
Before she had ceased we were beside her; bending over Ventnor. His mouth was opening, slowly, slowly — with an effort agonizing5 to watch. Then his voice came through lips that scarcely moved; faint, faint as though it floated from infinite distances, a ghost of a voice whispering with phantom6 breath out of a dead throat.
“Hard — hard! So hard!” the whispering complained. “Don’t know how long I can keep connection — with voice.
“Was fool to shoot. Sorry — might have gotten you in worse trouble — but crazy with fear for Ruth — thought, too, might be worth chance. Sorry — not my usual line —”
The thin thread of sound ceased. I felt my eyes fill with tears; it was like Ventnor to flay7 himself like this for what he thought stupidity, like him to make this effort to admit his supposed fault and crave8 forgiveness — as like him as that mad attack upon the flaming Disk in its own temple, surrounded by its ministers, had been so bafflingly unlike his usual cool, collected self.
“Martin,” I called, bending closer, “it’s nothing, old friend. No one blames you. Try to rouse yourself.”
“Dear,” it was Ruth, passionately9 tender, “it’s me. Can you hear me?”
“Only speck10 of consciousness and motionless in the void,” the whisper began again. “Terribly alive, terribly alone. Seem outside space yet — still in body. Can’t see, hear, feel — short-circuited from every sense — but in some strange way realize you — Ruth, Walter, Drake.
“See without seeing — here floating in darkness that is also light — black light — indescribable. In touch, too, with these —”
Again the voice trailed into silence; returned, word and phrase pouring forth disconnected, with a curious and turbulent rhythm, like rushing wave crests11 linked by half-seen threads of the spindrift, vocal12 fragments of thought swiftly assembled by some subtle faculty13 of the mind as they fell into a coherent, incredible message.
“Group consciousness — gigantic — operating within our sphere — operating also in spheres of vibration14, energy, force — above, below one to which humanity reacts — perception, command forces known to us — but in greater degree — cognizant, manipulate unknown energies — senses known to us — unknown — can’t realize them fully15 — impossible cover, only impinge on contact points akin16 to our senses, forces — even these profoundly modified by additional ones — metallic17, crystalline, magnetic, electric — inorganic18 with every power of organic — consciousness basically same as ours — profoundly changed by differences in mechanism19 through which it finds expression — difference our bodies — theirs.
“Conscious, mobile — inexorable, invulnerable. Getting clearer — see more clearly — see —” the voice shrilled20 out in a shuddering21, thin lash22 of despair —“No! No — oh, God — no!”
Then clearly and solemnly:
“And God said: let us make men in our image, after our likeness23, and let them have dominion24 over all the earth, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
A silence; we bent25 closer, listening; the still, small voice took up the thread once more — but clearly further on. Something we had missed between that text from Genesis and what we were now hearing; something that even as he had warned us, he had not been able to articulate. The whisper broke through clearly in the middle of a sentence.
“Nor is Jehovah the God of myriads26 of millions who through those same centuries, and centuries upon centuries before them, found earth a garden and grave — and all these countless27 gods and goddesses only phantom barriers raised by man to stand between him and the eternal forces man’s instinct has always warned him are ever in readiness to destroy. That do destroy him as soon as his vigilance relaxes, his resistance weakens — the eternal, ruthless law that will annihilate28 humanity the instant it runs counter to that law and turns its will and strength against itself —”
A little pause; then came these singular sentences:
“Weaklings praying for miracles to make easy the path their own wills should clear. Beggars who whine29 for alms from dreams. Shirkers each struggling to place upon his god the burden whose carrying and whose carrying alone can give him strength to walk free and unafraid, himself godlike among the stars.”
And now distinctly, unfalteringly, the voice went on:
“Dominion over all the earth? Yes — as long as man is fit to rule; no longer. Science has warned us. Where was the mammal when the giant reptiles30 reigned31? Slinking hidden and afraid in the dark and secret places. Yet man sprang from these skulking32 beasts.
“For how long a time in the history of earth has man been master of it? For a breath — for a cloud’s passing. And will remain master only until something grown stronger wrests33 mastery from him — even as he wrested34 it from his ravening35 kind — as they took it from the reptiles — as did the reptiles from the giant saurians — which snatched it from the nightmare rulers of the Triassic — and so down to whatever held sway in the murk of earth dawn.
“Life! Life! Life! Life everywhere struggling for completion!
“Life crowding other life aside, battling for its moment of supremacy36, gaining it, holding it for one rise and fall of the wings of time beating through eternity37 — and then — hurled38 down, trampled39 under the feet of another straining life whose hour has struck.
“Life crowding outside every barred threshold in a million circling worlds, yes, in a million rushing universes; pressing against the doors, bursting them down, overwhelming, forcing out those dwellers40 who had thought themselves so secure.
“And these — these —” the voice suddenly dropped, became thickly, vibrantly41 resonant42, “over the Threshold, within the House of Man — nor does he even dream that his doors are down. These — Things of metal whose brains are thinking crystals — Things that suck their strength from the sun and whose blood is the lightning.
“The sun! The sun!” he cried. “There lies their weakness!”
The voice rose in pitch, grew strident.
“Go back to the city! Go back to the city! Walter — Drake. They are not invulnerable. No! The sun — strike them through the sun! Go into the city — not invulnerable — the Keeper of the Cones43 — strike at the Cones when — the Keeper of the Cones — ah-h-h-ah —”
We shrank back appalled44, for from the parted, scarcely moving lips in the unchanging face a gust45 of laughter, mad, mocking, terrifying, racked its way.
“Vulnerable — under the law — even as we! The Cones!
“Go!” he gasped46. A tremor47 shook him; slowly the mouth closed.
“Martin! Brother,” wept Ruth. I thrust my hand into his breast; felt the heart beating, with a curious suggestion of stubborn, unshakable strength, as though every vital force had concentrated there as in a beleaguered48 citadel49.
But Ventnor himself, the consciousness that was Ventnor was gone; had withdrawn50 into that subjective51 void in which he had said he floated — a lonely sentient52 atom, his one line of communication with us cut; severed53 from us as completely as though he were, as he had described it, outside space.
And Drake and I looked at each other’s eyes, neither daring to be first to break the silence of which the muffled54 sobbing55 of the girl seemed to be the sorrowful soul.
点击收听单词发音
1 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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2 crimsoned | |
变为深红色(crimson的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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3 drooped | |
弯曲或下垂,发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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4 abruptly | |
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
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5 agonizing | |
adj.痛苦难忍的;使人苦恼的v.使极度痛苦;折磨(agonize的ing形式) | |
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6 phantom | |
n.幻影,虚位,幽灵;adj.错觉的,幻影的,幽灵的 | |
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7 flay | |
vt.剥皮;痛骂 | |
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8 crave | |
vt.渴望得到,迫切需要,恳求,请求 | |
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9 passionately | |
ad.热烈地,激烈地 | |
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10 speck | |
n.微粒,小污点,小斑点 | |
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11 crests | |
v.到达山顶(或浪峰)( crest的第三人称单数 );到达洪峰,达到顶点 | |
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12 vocal | |
adj.直言不讳的;嗓音的;n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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13 faculty | |
n.才能;学院,系;(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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14 vibration | |
n.颤动,振动;摆动 | |
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15 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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16 akin | |
adj.同族的,类似的 | |
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17 metallic | |
adj.金属的;金属制的;含金属的;产金属的;像金属的 | |
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18 inorganic | |
adj.无生物的;无机的 | |
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19 mechanism | |
n.机械装置;机构,结构 | |
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20 shrilled | |
(声音)尖锐的,刺耳的,高频率的( shrill的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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21 shuddering | |
v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 );发抖;(机器、车辆等)突然震动;颤动 | |
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22 lash | |
v.系牢;鞭打;猛烈抨击;n.鞭打;眼睫毛 | |
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23 likeness | |
n.相像,相似(之处) | |
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24 dominion | |
n.统治,管辖,支配权;领土,版图 | |
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25 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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26 myriads | |
n.无数,极大数量( myriad的名词复数 ) | |
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27 countless | |
adj.无数的,多得不计其数的 | |
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28 annihilate | |
v.使无效;毁灭;取消 | |
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29 whine | |
v.哀号,号哭;n.哀鸣 | |
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30 reptiles | |
n.爬行动物,爬虫( reptile的名词复数 ) | |
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31 reigned | |
vi.当政,统治(reign的过去式形式) | |
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32 skulking | |
v.潜伏,偷偷摸摸地走动,鬼鬼祟祟地活动( skulk的现在分词 ) | |
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33 wrests | |
(用力)拧( wrest的第三人称单数 ); 费力取得; (从…)攫取; ( 从… ) 强行取去… | |
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34 wrested | |
(用力)拧( wrest的过去式和过去分词 ); 费力取得; (从…)攫取; ( 从… ) 强行取去… | |
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35 ravening | |
a.贪婪而饥饿的 | |
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36 supremacy | |
n.至上;至高权力 | |
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37 eternity | |
n.不朽,来世;永恒,无穷 | |
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38 hurled | |
v.猛投,用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 );大声叫骂 | |
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39 trampled | |
踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 ); 践踏; 无视; 侵犯 | |
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40 dwellers | |
n.居民,居住者( dweller的名词复数 ) | |
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41 vibrantly | |
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42 resonant | |
adj.(声音)洪亮的,共鸣的 | |
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43 cones | |
n.(人眼)圆锥细胞;圆锥体( cone的名词复数 );球果;圆锥形东西;(盛冰淇淋的)锥形蛋卷筒 | |
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44 appalled | |
v.使惊骇,使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的;丧胆的 | |
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45 gust | |
n.阵风,突然一阵(雨、烟等),(感情的)迸发 | |
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46 gasped | |
v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要 | |
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47 tremor | |
n.震动,颤动,战栗,兴奋,地震 | |
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48 beleaguered | |
adj.受到围困[围攻]的;包围的v.围攻( beleaguer的过去式和过去分词);困扰;骚扰 | |
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49 citadel | |
n.城堡;堡垒;避难所 | |
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50 withdrawn | |
vt.收回;使退出;vi.撤退,退出 | |
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51 subjective | |
a.主观(上)的,个人的 | |
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52 sentient | |
adj.有知觉的,知悉的;adv.有感觉能力地 | |
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53 severed | |
v.切断,断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 );断,裂 | |
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54 muffled | |
adj.(声音)被隔的;听不太清的;(衣服)裹严的;蒙住的v.压抑,捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 );用厚厚的衣帽包着(自己) | |
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55 sobbing | |
<主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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