DAY 6 10:11 A.M.
In retrospect1, I was right about one thing: it was vitally important to know how the rabbit had died. Of course I know the reason now. I also know why the rabbit was attacked. But that first day at the laboratory, I didn’t have the faintest notion of what had happened. And I could never have guessed the truth.
None of us could have, at that point.
Not even Ricky.
Not even Julia.
It was ten minutes after the swarms3 had gone and we were all standing4 in the storage room. The whole group had gathered there, tense and anxious. They watched me as I clipped a radio transmitter to my belt, and pulled a headset over my head. The headset included a video camera, mounted by my left ear. It took a while to get the video transmitter working right. Ricky said, “You’re really going out there?”
“I am,” I said. “I want to know what happened to that rabbit.” I turned to the others. “Who’s coming with me?”
Nobody moved. Bobby Lembeck stared at the floor, hands in his pockets. David Brooks5 blinked rapidly, and looked away. Ricky was inspecting his fingernails. I caught Rosie Castro’s eye. She shook her head. “No fucking way, Jack6.”
“Why not, Rosie?”
“You saw it yourself. They’re hunting.”
“Are they?”
“Sure as hell looked like it.”
“Rosie,” I said, “I trained you better than this. How can the swarms be hunting?”
“We all saw it.” She stuck her chin out stubbornly. “All three of the swarms, hunting, coordinated7.”
“But how?” I said.
Now she frowned, looking confused. “What are you asking? There’s no mystery. The agents can communicate. They can each generate an electrical signal.”
“Right,” I said. “How big a signal?”
“Well ...” She shrugged8.
“How big, Rosie? It can’t be much, the agent is only a hundredth of the thickness of a human hair. Can’t be generating much of a signal, right?”
“True ...”
“And electromagnetic radiation decays according to the square of the radius9, right?” Every school kid learned that fact in high school physics. As you moved away from the electromagnetic source, the strength faded fast—very fast.
And what that meant was the individual agents could only communicate with their immediate10 neighbors, with agents very close to them. Not to other swarms twenty or thirty yards away. Rosie’s frown deepened. The whole group was frowning now, looking at each other uneasily.
David Brooks coughed. “Then what did we see, Jack?”
“You saw an illusion,” I said firmly. “You saw three swarms acting11 independently, and you thought they were coordinated. But they’re not. And I’m pretty certain that other things you believe about these swarms aren’t true, either.”
* * *
There was a lot I didn’t understand about the swarms—and a lot I didn’t believe. I didn’t believe, for example, that the swarms were reproducing. I thought Ricky and the others must be pretty unnerved even to imagine it. After all, the fifty pounds of material they’d exhausted12 into the environment could easily account for the three swarms I had seen—and dozens more besides. (I was guessing that each swarm2 consisted of three pounds of nanoparticles. That was roughly the weight of a large bee swarm.)
As for the fact that these swarms showed purposeful behavior, that was not in the least troubling; it was the intended result of low-level programming. And I didn’t believe the swarms were coordinated. It simply wasn’t possible, because the fields were too weak. Nor did I believe the swarms had the adaptive powers that Ricky attributed to them. I’d seen too many demos of robots carrying out some task—like cooperating to push a box around the room—which was interpreted by observers as intelligent behavior, when in fact the robots were stupid, minimally14 programmed, and cooperating by accident. A lot of behavior looked smarter than it was. (As Charley Davenport used to say, “Ricky should thank God for that.”) And finally, I didn’t really believe that the swarms were dangerous. I didn’t think that a three-pound cloud of nanoparticles could represent much of a threat to anything, not even a rabbit. I wasn’t at all sure it had been killed. I seemed to recall that rabbits were nervous creatures, prone15 to die of fright. Or the pursuing particles might have swarmed16 in through the nose and mouth, blocking the respiratory passages and choking the animal to death. If so, the death was accidental, not purposeful. Accidental death made more sense to me. In short, I thought that Ricky and the others had consistently misinterpreted what they saw. They’d spooked themselves.
On the other hand, I had to admit that several unanswered questions nagged17 at me. The first, and most obvious, was why the swarm had escaped their control. The original camera swarm was designed to be controlled by an RF transmitter beaming toward it. Now apparently18 the swarm ignored transmitted radio commands, and I didn’t understand why. I suspected an error in manufacturing. The particles had probably been made incorrectly. Second was the question of the swarm’s longevity19. The individual particles were extremely small, subject to damage from cosmic rays, photochemical decay, dehydration20 of their protein chains, and other environmental factors. In the harsh desert, all the swarms should have shriveled up and died of “old age” many days ago. But they hadn’t. Why not? Third, there was the problem of the swarm’s apparent goal. According to Ricky, the swarms kept coming back to the main building. Ricky believed they were trying to get inside. But that didn’t seem to be a reasonable agent goal, and I wanted to look at the program code to see what was causing it. Frankly21, I suspected a bug22 in the code. And finally, I wanted to know why they had pursued the rabbit. Because PREDPREY didn’t program units to become literal predators24. It merely used a predator23 model to keep the agents focused and goal-oriented. Somehow, that had changed, and the swarms now appeared to be actually hunting.
That, too, was probably a bug in the code.
To my mind, all these uncertainties25 came down to a single, central question—how had the rabbit died? I didn’t think it had been killed. I suspected the rabbit’s death was accidental, not purposeful.
But we needed to find out.
I adjusted my portable radio headset, with the sunglasses and the video camera mounted by the left eye. I picked up the plastic bag for the rabbit’s body and turned to the others. “Anybody coming with me?”
There was an uncomfortable silence.
Ricky said, “What’s the bag for?”
“To bring the rabbit back in.”
“No fucking way,” Ricky said. “You want to go out there, that’s your business. But you’re not bringing that rabbit back here.”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” I said.
“I’m not. We run a level-six clean environment here, Jack. That rabbit’s filthy26. Can’t come in.”
“All right, then, we can store it in Mae’s lab and—”
“No way, Jack. Sorry. It’s not coming through the first airlock.” I looked at the others. They were all nodding their heads in agreement.
“All right, then. I’ll examine it out there.”
“You’re really going to go out?”
“Why not?” I looked at them, one after another. “I have to tell you guys, I think you’ve all got your knickers in a twist. The cloud’s not dangerous. And yes, I’m going out.” I turned to Mae. “Do you have a dissection27 kit28 of some kind that—”
“I’ll come with you,” she said quietly.
“Okay. Thanks.” I was surprised that Mae was the first to come around to my way of seeing things. But as a field biologist, she was probably better than the others at assessing real-world risk. In any case, her decision seemed to break some tension in the room; the others visibly relaxed. Mae went off to get the dissecting29 tools and some lab equipment. That was when the phone rang. Vince answered it, and turned to me. “You know somebody named Dr. Ellen Forman?”
“Yes.” It was my sister.
“She’s on the line.” Vince handed me the phone, and stepped back. I felt suddenly nervous. I glanced at my watch. It was eleven o’clock in the morning, time for Amanda’s morning nap. She should be asleep in her crib by now. Then I remembered I had promised my sister I would call her at eleven to check in, to see how things were going. I said, “Hello? Ellen? Is everything all right?”
“Sure. Fine.” A long, long sigh. “It’s fine. I don’t know how you do it, is all.”
“Tired?”
“About as tired as I’ve ever felt.”
“Kids get off to school okay?”
Another sigh. “Yes. In the car, Eric hit Nicole on the back, and she punched him on the ear.”
“You’ve got to interrupt them if they start that, Ellen.”
“So I’m learning,” she said wearily.
“And the baby? How’s her rash?”
“Better. I’m using the ointment30.”
“Her movements okay?”
“Sure. She’s well coordinated for her age. Is there a problem I should know about?”
“No, no,” I said. I turned away from the group, lowered my voice. “I meant, is she pooping okay?”
Behind me, I heard Charley Davenport snicker.
“Copiously,” Ellen said. “She’s sleeping now. I took her to the park for a while. She was ready to go down. Everything’s okay at the house. Except the pilot for the water heater went out, but the guy’s coming to fix it.”
“Good, good ... Listen, Ellen, I’m in the middle of something here—”
“Jack? Julia called from the hospital a few minutes ago. She was looking for you.”
“Uh-huh ...”
“When I said you’d gone to Nevada, she got pretty upset.”
“Is that right?”
“She said you didn’t understand. And you were going to make it worse. Something like that. I think you better call her. She sounded agitated32.”
“Okay. I’ll call.”
“How are things going out there? You be back tonight?”
“Not tonight,” I said. “Sometime tomorrow morning. Ellen, I have to go now—”
“Call the kids at dinnertime, if you can. They’d like to hear from you. Auntie Ellen is fine, but she’s not Dad. You know what I mean.”
“Okay. You’ll eat at six?”
“About.”
I told her I’d try to call, and I hung up.
* * *
Mae and I were standing by the double glass walls of the outer airlock, just inside the building entrance. Beyond the glass, I could see the solid-steel fire door that led outside. Ricky was standing beside us, gloomy and nervous, watching as we made our final preparations. “You sure this is necessary? To go outside?”
“It’s essential.”
“Why don’t you and Mae wait until nightfall, and go out then?”
“Because the rabbit won’t be there,” I said. “By nightfall, coyotes or hawks33 will have come and taken the carcass away.”
“I don’t know about that,” Ricky said. “We haven’t seen any coyotes around here for a while.”
“Oh hell,” I said impatiently, turning on my radio headset. “In the time we’ve spent arguing about this, we could have been out and back already. See you, Ricky.” I went through the glass door, and stood in the airlock. The door hissed35 shut behind me. The air handlers whooshed36 briefly38 in the now-familiar pattern, and then the far glass slid open. I walked toward the steel fire door. Looking back, I saw Mae stepping into the airlock. I opened the fire door a crack. Harsh, glaring sunlight laid a burning strip on the floor. I felt hot air on my face. Over the intercom, Ricky said, “Good luck, guys.” I took a breath, pushed the door wider, and stepped out into the desert. The wind had dropped, and the midmorning heat was stifling39. Somewhere a bird chittered; otherwise it was silent. Standing by the door, I squinted40 in the glare of the sunlight. A shiver ran down my back. I took another deep breath.
I was certain that the swarms were not dangerous. But now that I was outside, my theoretical inferences seemed to lose force. I must have caught Ricky’s tension, because I was feeling distinctly uneasy. Now that I was outside, the rabbit carcass looked much farther away than I had imagined. It was perhaps fifty yards from the door, half the length of a football field. The surrounding desert seemed barren and exposed. I scanned the shimmering41 horizon, looking for black shapes. I saw none.
The fire door opened behind me, and Mae said, “Ready when you are, Jack.”
“Then let’s do it.”
We set off toward the rabbit, feet crunching42 on the desert sand. We moved away from the building. Almost immediately, my heart began to pound, and I started to sweat. I forced myself to breathe deeply and slowly, working to stay calm. The sun was hot on my face. I knew I had let Ricky spook me, but I couldn’t seem to help it. I kept glancing toward the horizon. Mae was a couple of steps behind me. I said, “How’re you doing?”
“I’ll be glad when it’s over.”
We were moving through a field of knee-high yellow cholla cactus43. Their spines44 caught the sun. Here and there, a large barrel cactus stuck up from the floor like a bristling45 green thumb. Some small, silent birds hopped46 on the ground, beneath the cholla. As we approached, they took to the air, wheeling specks47 against the blue. They landed a hundred yards away. At last we came to the rabbit, surrounded by a buzzing black cloud. Startled, I hesitated a step.
“It’s just flies,” Mae said. She moved forward and crouched48 down beside the carcass, ignoring the flies. She pulled on a pair of rubber gloves, and handed me a pair to put on. She placed a square sheet of plastic on the ground, securing it with a rock at each corner. She lifted the rabbit and set it down in the center of the plastic. She unzipped a little dissection kit and laid it open. I saw steel instruments glinting in sunlight: forceps, scalpel, several kinds of scissors. She also laid out a syringe and several rubber-topped test tubes in a row. Her movements were quick, practiced. She had done this before.
I crouched down beside her. The carcass had no odor. Externally I could see no sign of what had caused the death. The staring eye looked pink and healthy. Mae said, “Bobby? Are you recording49 me?”
Over the headset, I heard Bobby Lembeck say, “Move your camera down.”
Mae touched the camera mounted on her sunglasses.
“Little more ... little more ... Good. That’s enough.”
“Okay,” Mae said. She turned the rabbit’s body over in her hands, inspecting it from all sides. She dictated50 swiftly: “On external examination the animal appears entirely52 normal. There is no sign of congenital anomaly or disease, the fur is thick and healthy in appearance. The nasal passages appear partially53 or entirely blocked. I note some fecal material excreted at the anus but presume that is normal evacuation at the time of death.” She flipped54 the animal onto its back and held the forepaws apart with her hands. “I need you, Jack.” She wanted me to hold the paws for her. The carcass was still warm and had not begun to stiffen55.
She took the scalpel and swiftly cut down the exposed midsection. A red gash56 opened; blood flowed. I saw bones of the rib13 cage, and pinkish coils of intestine57. Mae spoke58 continuously as she cut, noting the tissue color and texture59. She said to me “Hold here,” and I moved my one hand down, to hold aside the slick intestine. With a single stroke of the scalpel she sliced opened the stomach. Muddy green liquid spilled out, and some pulpy60 material that seemed to be undigested fiber61. The inner wall of the stomach appeared roughened, but Mae said that was normal. She ran her finger expertly around the stomach wall, then paused. “Umm. Look there,” she said.
“What?”
“There.” She pointed62. In several places the stomach was reddish, bleeding slightly as if it had been rubbed raw. I saw black patches in the midst of the bleeding. “That’s not normal,” Mae said. “That’s pathology.” She took a magnifying glass and peered closer, then dictated: “I observe dark areas approximately four to eight millimeters in diameter, which I presume to be clusters of nanoparticles present in the stomach lining63,” she said. “These clusters are found in association with mild bleeding of the villous wall.”
“There are nanoparticles in the stomach?” I said. “How did they get there? Did the rabbit eat them? Swallow them involuntarily?”
“I doubt it. I would assume they entered actively64.”
I frowned. “You mean they crawled down the—”
“Esophagus. Yes. At least, I think so.”
“Why would they do that?”
“I don’t know.”
She never paused in her swift dissection. She took scissors and cut upward through the breastbone, then pushed the rib cage open with her fingers. “Hold here.” I moved my hands to hold the ribs65 open as she had done. The edges of bone were sharp. With my other hand, I held the hind31 legs open. Mae worked between my hands.
“The lungs are bright pink and firm, normal appearance.” She cut one lobe66 with the scalpel, then again, and again. Finally she exposed the bronchial tube, and cut it open. It was dark black on the inside.
“Bronchi show heavy infestation67 with nanoparticles consistent with inhalation of swarm elements,” she said, dictating68. “You getting this, Bobby?”
“Getting it all. Video resolution is good.”
She continued to cut upward. “Following the bronchial tree toward the throat ...” And she continued cutting, into the throat, and then from the nose back across the cheek, then opening the mouth ... I had to turn away for a moment. But she continued calmly to dictate51. “I am observing heavy infiltration69 of all the nasal passages and pharynx. This is suggestive of partial or full airway70 obstruction71, which in turn may indicate the cause of death.” I looked back. “What?”
The rabbit’s head was hardly recognizable any longer, she had cut the jaw72 free and was now peering down the throat. “Have a look for yourself,” she said, “there seems to be dense73 particles closing the pharynx, and a response that looks something like an allergic74 reaction or—” Then Ricky: “Say, are you guys going to stay out much longer?”
“As long as it takes,” I said. I turned to Mae. “What kind of allergic reaction?”
“Well,” she said, “you see this area of tissue, and how swollen75 it is, and you see how it’s turned gray, which is suggestive—”
“You realize,” Ricky said, “that you’ve been out there four minutes already.”
“We’re only out here because we can’t bring the rabbit back,” I said.
“That’s right, you can’t.”
Mae was shaking her head as she listened to this. “Ricky, you’re not helping76 here ...”
Bobby said, “Don’t shake your head, Mae. You’re moving the camera back and forth77.”
“Sorry.”
But I saw her raise her head, as if she was looking toward the horizon, and while she did so, she uncorked a test tube and slipped a slice of stomach lining into the glass. She put it in her pocket. Then looked back down. No one watching the video would have seen what she did. She said, “All right, we’ll take blood samples now.”
“Blood’s all you’re bringing in here, guys,” Ricky said.
“Yes, Ricky. We know.”
Mae reached for the syringe, stuck the needle into an artery78, drew a blood sample, expelled it into a plastic tube, popped the needle off one-handed, put on another, and drew a second sample from a vein79. Her pace never slowed.
I said, “I have the feeling you’ve done this before.”
“This is nothing. In Sichuan, we were always working in heavy snowstorms, you can’t see what you’re doing, your hands are freezing, the animal’s frozen solid, can’t get a needle in ...” She set the tubes of blood aside. “Now we will just take a few cultures, and we’re done ...” She flipped over her case, looked. “Oh, bad luck.”
“What’s that?” I said.
“The culture swabs aren’t here.”
“But you had them inside?”
“Yes, I’m sure of it.”
I said, “Ricky, you see the swabs anywhere?”
“Yes. They’re right here by the airlock.”
“You want to bring them out to us?”
“Oh sure, guys.” He laughed harshly. “No way I’m going out there in daylight. You want ’em, you come get ’em.”
Mae said to me, “You want to go?”
“No,” I said. I was already holding the animal open; my hands were in position. “I’ll wait here. You go.”
“Okay.” She got to her feet. “Try and keep the flies off. We don’t want any more contamination than necessary. I’ll be back in a moment.” She moved off at a light jog toward the door. I heard her footsteps fade, then the clang of the metal door shutting behind her. Then silence. Attracted by the slit-open carcass, the flies came back in force, buzzing around my head, trying to land on the exposed guts80. I released the rabbit’s hind legs and swatted the flies away with one hand. I kept myself busy with the flies, so I wouldn’t think about the fact that I was alone out here.
I kept glancing off in the distance, but I never saw anything. I kept brushing away the flies, and occasionally my hand touched against the rabbit’s fur, and that was when I noticed that beneath the fur, the skin was bright red.
Bright red—exactly like a bad sunburn. Just seeing it made me shiver.
I spoke into my headset. “Bobby?”
Crackle. “Yes, Jack.”
“Can you see the rabbit?”
“Yes, Jack.”
“You see the redness of the skin? Are you picking that up?”
“Uh, just a minute.”
I heard a soft whirr by my temple. Bobby was controlling the camera remotely, zooming81 in. The whirring stopped.
I said, “Can you see this? Through my camera?”
There was no answer.
“Bobby?”
I heard murmurs82, whispers. Or maybe it was static.
“Bobby, are you there?”
Silence. I heard breathing.
“Uh, Jack?” Now it was the voice of David Brooks. “You better go in.”
“Mae hasn’t come back yet. Where is she?”
“Mae’s inside.”
“Well, I have to wait, she’s going to do cultures—”
“No. Come in now, Jack.”
I let go of the rabbit, and got to my feet. I looked around, scanned the horizon. “I don’t see anything.”
“They’re on the other side of the building, Jack.”
His voice was calm, but I felt a chill. “They are?”
“Come inside now, Jack.”
I bent83 over, picked up Mae’s samples, her dissection kit lying beside the rabbit carcass. The black leather of the kit was hot from the sun.
“Jack?”
“Just a minute ...”
“Jack. Stop fucking around.”
I started toward the steel door. My feet crunching on the desert floor. I didn’t see anything at all.
But I heard something.
It was a peculiar84 low, thrumming sound. At first I thought I was hearing machinery85, but the sound rose and fell, pulsing like a heartbeat. Other beats were superimposed, along with some kind of hissing86, creating a strange, unworldly quality—like nothing I’d ever heard. When I look back on it now, I think that more than anything else, it was the sound that made me afraid.
I walked faster. I said, “Where are they?”
“Coming.”
“Where?”
“Jack? You better run.”
“What?”
“Run.”
I still couldn’t see anything, but the sound was building in intensity87. I broke into a jog. The frequency of the sound was so low, I felt it as a vibration88 in my body. But I could hear it, too. The thumping89, irregular pulse.
“Run, Jack.”
I thought, Fuck it.
And I ran.
* * *
Swirling90 and glinting silver, the first swarm came around the corner of the building. The hissing vibration was coming from the cloud. Sliding along the side of the building, it moved toward me. It would reach the door long before I could.
I looked back to see a second swarm as it came around the far end of the building. It, too, moved toward me.
The headset crackled. I heard David Brooks: “Jack, you can’t make it.”
“I see that,” I said. The first swarm had already reached the door, and was standing in front of it, blocking my way. I stopped, uncertain what to do. I saw a stick on the ground in front of me, a big one, four feet long. I picked it up, swung it in my hand. The swarm pulsed, but did not move from the door.
The second swarm was still coming toward me.
It was time for a diversion. I was familiar with the PREDPREY code. I knew the swarms were programmed to pursue moving targets if they seemed to be fleeing from them. What would make a good target?
I cocked my arm, and threw the black dissection kit high into the air, in the general direction of the second swarm. The kit landed on edge, and tumbled across the ground for a moment. Immediately, the second swarm began to go after it.
At the same moment, the first swarm moved away from the door, also pursuing the kit. It was just like a dog chasing a ball. I felt a moment of elation91 as I watched it go. It was, after all, just a programmed swarm. I thought: This is child’s play. I hurried toward the door. That was a mistake. Because apparently my hasty movement triggered the swarm, which immediately stopped, and swirled92 backward to the door again, blocking my path. There it remained, pulsing streaks93 of silver, like a blade glinting in the sun. Blocking my path.
It took me a moment to realize the significance of that. My movement hadn’t triggered the swarm to pursue me. The swarm hadn’t chased me at all. Instead it had moved to block my way. It was anticipating my movement.
That wasn’t in the code. The swarm was inventing new behavior, appropriate to the situation. Instead of pursuing me, it had fallen back and trapped me.
It had gone beyond its programming—way beyond. I couldn’t see how that had happened. I thought it must be some kind of random94 reinforcement. Because the individual particles had very little memory. The intelligence of the swarm was necessarily limited. It shouldn’t be that difficult to outsmart it.
I tried to feint to the left, then the right. The cloud went with me, but only for a moment. Then it dropped back to the door again. As if it knew that my goal was the door, and by staying there it would succeed.
That was far too clever. There had to be additional programming they hadn’t told me about. I said into the headset, “What the hell have you guys done with these things?” David: “It’s not going to let you get past, Jack.”
Just hearing him say that irritated me. “You think so? We’ll see.” Because my next step was obvious. Close to the ground like this, the swarm was structurally95 vulnerable. It was a cluster of particles no larger than specks of dust. If I disrupted the cluster—if I broke up its structure—then the particles would have to reorganize themselves, just as a scattered96 flock of birds would re-form in the air. That would take at least a few seconds. And in that time I would be able to get through the door.
But how to disrupt it? I swung the stick in my hand, hearing it whoosh37 through the air, but it was clearly unsatisfactory. I needed something with a much bigger flat surface, like a paddle or a palm frond—something to create a large disrupting wind ... My mind was racing97. I needed something.
Something.
Behind me, the second cloud was closing in. It moved toward me in an erratic98 zigzag99 pattern, to cut off any attempt I might make to run past it. I watched with a kind of horrified100 fascination101. I knew that this, too, had never been coded in the program. This was self-organized, emergent behavior—and its purpose was only too clear. It was stalking me. The pulsing sound grew louder as the swarm came closer and closer.
I had to disrupt it.
Turning in a circle, I looked at the ground all around me. I saw nothing I could use. The nearest juniper tree was too far away. The cholla cactuses were flimsy. I thought, of course there’s nothing out here, it’s the fucking desert. I scanned the exterior102 of the building, hoping someone had left out an implement103, like a rake ...
Nothing.
Nothing at all. I was out here with nothing but the shirt on my back, and there was nobody that could help me to—
Of course!
The headset crackled: “Jack, listen ...”
But I didn’t hear any more after that. As I pulled my shirt over my head, the headset came away, falling to the ground. And then, holding the shirt in my hand, I swung it in broad whooshing104 arcs through the air. And screaming like a banshee, I charged the swarm by the door.
The swarm vibrated with a deep thrumming sound. It flattened105 slightly as I ran toward it, and then I was in the midst of the particles, and plunged106 into an odd semidarkness, like being in a dust storm. I couldn’t see anything—I couldn’t see the door—I groped blindly for the doorknob—and my eyes stung from the particles, but I kept swinging my shirt in broad whooshing arcs, and in a moment the darkness began to fade. I was dispersing107 the cloud, sending particles spinning off in all directions. My vision was clearing, and my breathing was still okay, though my throat felt dry and painful. I began to feel thousands of tiny pinpricks all over my body, but they hardly hurt.
Now I could see the door in front of me. The doorknob was just to my left. I kept swinging my shirt, and suddenly the cloud seemed to clear entirely away, almost as if it was moving out of range of my disruption. In that instant I slipped through the door and slammed it shut behind me. I blinked in sudden darkness. I could hardly see. I thought my eyes would adjust from the glare of sunlight, and I waited a moment, but my vision did not improve. Instead, it seemed to be getting worse. I could just make out the glass doors of the airlock directly ahead. I still felt the stinging pinpricks all over my skin. My throat was dry and my breathing was raspy. I coughed. My vision was dimming. I started to feel dizzy.
On the other side of the airlock, Ricky and Mae stood watching me. I heard Ricky shout, “Come on, Jack! Hurry!”
My eyes burned painfully. My dizziness grew rapidly worse. I leaned against the wall to keep from falling over. My throat felt thick. I was having difficulty breathing. Gasping108, I waited for the glass doors to open, but they remained closed. I stared stupidly at the airlock. “You have to stand in front of the doors! Stand!”
I felt like the world was in slow motion. All my strength was gone. My body felt weak and shaky. The stinging was worse. The room was getting darker. I didn’t think I could stand up on my own.
“Stand! Jack!”
Somehow, I shoved away from the wall, and lurched toward the airlock. With a hiss34, the glass doors slid open.
“Go, Jack! Now!”
I saw spots before my eyes. I was dizzy, and sick to my stomach. I stumbled into the airlock, banging against the glass as I stepped inside. With every second that passed it was harder to breathe. I knew I was suffocating109.
Outside the building, I heard the low thrumming sound start up again. I turned slowly to look back.
The glass doors hissed shut.
I looked down at my body but could barely see it. My skin appeared black. I was covered in dust. My body ached. My shirt was black with dust, too. The spray stung me, and I closed my eyes. Then the air handlers started up, whooshing loudly. I saw the dust sucked off my shirt. My vision was clearer, but I still couldn’t breathe. The shirt slipped from my hand, flattening110 against the grate at my feet. I bent to reach down for it. My body began to shake, tremble. I heard only the roar of the handlers.
I felt a wave of nausea111. My knees buckled112. I sagged113 against the wall. I looked at Mae and Ricky through the second glass doors; they seemed far away. As I watched, they receded114 even farther, moving away into the distance. Soon they were too far away for me to worry any longer. I knew I was dying. As I closed my eyes, I fell to the ground, and the roar of the air handlers faded into cold and total silence.
收听单词发音 |
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retrospect
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| n.回顾，追溯；v.回顾，回想，追溯 | |
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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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swarms
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| 蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 ) | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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brooks
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| n.小溪( brook的名词复数 ) | |
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6
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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coordinated
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| adj.协调的 | |
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shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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radius
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| n.半径，半径范围；有效航程，范围，界限 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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13
rib
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| n.肋骨，肋状物 | |
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14
minimally
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| 最低限度地，最低程度地 | |
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prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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16
swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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17
nagged
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| adj.经常遭责怪的；被压制的；感到厌烦的；被激怒的v.不断地挑剔或批评（某人）( nag的过去式和过去分词 )；不断地烦扰或伤害（某人）；无休止地抱怨；不断指责 | |
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18
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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19
longevity
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| n.长命；长寿 | |
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20
dehydration
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| n.脱水，干燥 | |
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21
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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22
bug
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| n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器 | |
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23
predator
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| n.捕食其它动物的动物；捕食者 | |
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24
predators
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| n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 )；奴役他人者（尤指在财务或性关系方面） | |
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25
uncertainties
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| 无把握( uncertainty的名词复数 )； 不确定； 变化不定； 无把握、不确定的事物 | |
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filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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27
dissection
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| n.分析；解剖 | |
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28
kit
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| n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物 | |
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29
dissecting
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| v.解剖（动物等）( dissect的现在分词 )；仔细分析或研究 | |
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30
ointment
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| n.药膏，油膏，软膏 | |
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31
hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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33
hawks
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| 鹰( hawk的名词复数 )； 鹰派人物，主战派人物 | |
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34
hiss
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| v.发出嘶嘶声；发嘘声表示不满 | |
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35
hissed
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| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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36
whooshed
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| v.（使）飞快移动( whoosh的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37
whoosh
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| v.飞快地移动，呼 | |
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38
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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39
stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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40
squinted
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| 斜视( squint的过去式和过去分词 )； 眯着眼睛； 瞟； 从小孔或缝隙里看 | |
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41
shimmering
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| v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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42
crunching
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| v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的现在分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄 | |
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43
cactus
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| n.仙人掌 | |
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44
spines
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| n.脊柱( spine的名词复数 )；脊椎；（动植物的）刺；书脊 | |
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45
bristling
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| a.竖立的 | |
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46
hopped
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| 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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47
specks
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| n.眼镜；斑点，微粒，污点( speck的名词复数 ) | |
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48
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49
recording
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| n.录音，记录 | |
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50
dictated
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| v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 )；口授；支配；摆布 | |
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51
dictate
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| v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令 | |
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52
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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53
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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54
flipped
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| 轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥 | |
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55
stiffen
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| v.(使)硬，(使)变挺，(使)变僵硬 | |
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56
gash
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| v.深切，划开；n.(深长的)切(伤)口；裂缝 | |
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57
intestine
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| adj.内部的；国内的；n.肠 | |
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58
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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59
texture
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| n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理 | |
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60
pulpy
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| 果肉状的，多汁的，柔软的； 烂糊； 稀烂 | |
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61
fiber
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| n.纤维，纤维质 | |
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62
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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63
lining
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| n.衬里，衬料 | |
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64
actively
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| adv.积极地，勤奋地 | |
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65
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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66
lobe
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| n.耳垂，（肺，肝等的）叶 | |
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67
infestation
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| n.侵扰，蔓延 | |
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68
dictating
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| v.大声讲或读( dictate的现在分词 )；口授；支配；摆布 | |
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69
infiltration
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| n.渗透；下渗；渗滤；入渗 | |
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70
airway
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| n.空中航线，通风口 | |
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71
obstruction
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| n.阻塞，堵塞；障碍物 | |
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72
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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73
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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74
allergic
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| adj.过敏的，变态的 | |
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75
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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76
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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77
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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78
artery
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| n.干线，要道；动脉 | |
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79
vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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80
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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81
zooming
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| adj.快速上升的v.（飞机、汽车等）急速移动( zoom的过去分词 )；（价格、费用等）急升，猛涨 | |
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82
murmurs
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| n.低沉、连续而不清的声音( murmur的名词复数 )；低语声；怨言；嘀咕 | |
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83
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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84
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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85
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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86
hissing
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| n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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87
intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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88
vibration
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| n.颤动，振动；摆动 | |
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89
thumping
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| adj.重大的，巨大的；重击的；尺码大的；极好的adv.极端地；非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词)；狠打；怦怦地跳；全力支持 | |
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90
swirling
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| v.旋转，打旋( swirl的现在分词 ) | |
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91
elation
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| n.兴高采烈，洋洋得意 | |
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92
swirled
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| v.旋转，打旋( swirl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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93
streaks
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| n.（与周围有所不同的）条纹( streak的名词复数 )；（通常指不好的）特征（倾向）；（不断经历成功或失败的）一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 )；使布满条纹 | |
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94
random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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95
structurally
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| 在结构上 | |
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96
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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97
racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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98
erratic
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| adj.古怪的，反复无常的，不稳定的 | |
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99
zigzag
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| n.曲折，之字形；adj.曲折的，锯齿形的；adv.曲折地，成锯齿形地；vt.使曲折；vi.曲折前行 | |
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100
horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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101
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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102
exterior
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| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
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103
implement
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| n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行 | |
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104
whooshing
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| v.（使）飞快移动( whoosh的现在分词 ) | |
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105
flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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106
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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107
dispersing
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| adj. 分散的 动词disperse的现在分词形式 | |
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108
gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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109
suffocating
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| a.使人窒息的 | |
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110
flattening
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| n. 修平 动词flatten的现在分词 | |
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111
nausea
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| n.作呕，恶心；极端的憎恶(或厌恶) | |
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112
buckled
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| a. 有带扣的 | |
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113
sagged
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| 下垂的 | |
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114
receded
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| v.逐渐远离( recede的过去式和过去分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
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