CHAPTER 4

 Jonner unstrapped and floated to each man in turn, examining his control belt. Farlan's channel dial was a fraction off the band they used.

"Farlan, your radio control's off center," said Jonner quietly.

"What?" said Farlan's voice, blurred¹ a little. He fumbled² at the dial, and his words came in clearly. "Must have hit it against something."

Or he could have missed a little when he returned the dial to channel after trying to warn Marscorp. But Tyruss had been fumbling³ with something on his belt as they ran onto the G-boat. No, it wouldn't do to make an accusation⁴ against the wrong man.

An automatic calendar on the G-boat's control board showed the date: upright, the Martian date, Aster⁵ 32, 24; reversed, the Earth date, June 1, 2020.

Jonner looked down through the port at the inhabited hemisphere of Mars unfolding below them. Those green lowlands, those red deserts, now were all in Marscorp hands—even the cradle of the Charax Rebellion, the dome-city of Charax, at the edge of the edge of the Tiphys Fretum Lowland in the south polar area.

There, six Martian years ago, the rebellion had flared⁶ bravely against the Mars Corporation. Marscorp had held a monopoly on space travel between Earth and Mars since the first Martian colony was established at Mars City in the Earth year 1985. For the supplies Marscorp brought from Earth, the price was kept high. Marscorp also was the OGM—the Official Government of Mars, or, as the colonists⁷ read the initials, "Old Greedy Marscorp"—and Marscorp made and enforced the laws.

It had been a fairly even match at first. Marscorp's initial monopoly of the supply lines had been overcome when many of the people on Earth were roused to sympathy for the Rebel cause. Gradually, the Rebels had invested much of the Hadriacum Lowland with its dome-farms and had captured Regina, another of the planet's six dome-cities.

That had been before the disastrous⁸ space battle of the year 23. Now, in the past year, the Rebels had been pushed back to the wall. All that was left to them was Plan Blue. And what was Plan Blue?

Jonner looked over his five companions. All helmets were off now, and Jonner couldn't detect a guilty look in any face. He had never seen such pure unanimity⁹ of apparent innocence¹⁰ and loyalty¹¹.

"Now that we're aspace, we'll go on the customary shifts," he said: "eight hours duty, eight hours sleep, eight hours free time. We'll pair off: Stein with Farlan, Wessfeld with Aron, Tyruss with me.

"And these are special orders: no one is to let the man with whom he is paired out of his sight."

He would not tell them more than that now; he hoped to trap the spy when they approached The Egg.

1 blurred   

v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离

参考例句：

• She suffered from dizziness and blurred vision. 她饱受头晕目眩之苦。
• Their lazy, blurred voices fell pleasantly on his ears. 他们那种慢吞吞、含糊不清的声音在他听起来却很悦耳。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 fumbled   

（笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下

参考例句：

• She fumbled in her pocket for a handkerchief. 她在她口袋里胡乱摸找手帕。
• He fumbled about in his pockets for the ticket. 他（瞎）摸着衣兜找票。

3 fumbling   

n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理

参考例句：

• If he actually managed to the ball instead of fumbling it with an off-balance shot. 如果他实际上设法拿好球而不是fumbling它。50-balance射击笨拙地和迅速地会开始他的岗位移动，经常这样结束。
• If he actually managed to secure the ball instead of fumbling it awkwardly an off-balance shot. 如果他实际上设法拿好球而不是fumbling它。50-50提议有时。他从off-balance射击笨拙地和迅速地会开始他的岗位移动，经常这样结束。

4 accusation   

n.控告，指责，谴责

参考例句：

• I was furious at his making such an accusation.我对他的这种责备非常气愤。
• She knew that no one would believe her accusation.她知道没人会相信她的指控。

5 aster   

n.紫菀属植物

参考例句：

• This white aster is magnificent.这棵白色的紫苑是壮丽的。
• Every aster in my hand goes home loaded with a thought.我手中捧着朵朵翠菊，随我归乡带着一片情思。

6 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

参考例句：

• The match flared and went out. 火柴闪亮了一下就熄了。
• The fire flared up when we thought it was out. 我们以为火已经熄灭，但它突然又燃烧起来。

7 colonists   

n.殖民地开拓者，移民，殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Colonists from Europe populated many parts of the Americas. 欧洲的殖民者移居到了美洲的许多地方。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some of the early colonists were cruel to the native population. 有些早期移居殖民地的人对当地居民很残忍。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 disastrous   

adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的

参考例句：

• The heavy rainstorm caused a disastrous flood.暴雨成灾。
• Her investment had disastrous consequences.She lost everything she owned.她的投资结果很惨，血本无归。

9 unanimity   

n.全体一致，一致同意

参考例句：

• These discussions have led to a remarkable unanimity.这些讨论导致引人注目的一致意见。
• There is no unanimity of opinion as to the best one.没有一个公认的最好意见。

10 innocence   

n.无罪；天真；无害

参考例句：

• There was a touching air of innocence about the boy.这个男孩有一种令人感动的天真神情。
• The accused man proved his innocence of the crime.被告人经证实无罪。

11 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。