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发信人: by (春天的小懒虫), 信区: SFworld
标  题: 2010  (7)
发信站: 哈工大紫丁香 (Wed Oct  6 14:28:35 1999), 转信

                       7
                     Tsien

When Heywood Floyd's voice came from the comset
speaker, the two dolphins suddenly stopped circling around
the pool and swam over to its edge. They placed their heads
on the rim and stared intently at the source of the sound,
So they recognize Heywood, thought Caroline, with a
twinge of bitterness. Yet Christopher, crawling around his
playpen, did not even stop playing with the colour controls
of his picturebook as his father's voice came loud and clear
across half a billion kilometres of space.
  ...My dear, you won't be surprised to hear from me, a
month ahead of schedule; you'll have known for weeks that
we have company out here.
  'I still find it hard to believe; in some ways, it doesn't even
make sense. They can't possibly have enough fuel for a safe
return to Earth; we don't even see how they can make the
rendezvous.
  'We never saw them, of course. Even at its closest, Tsien
was more than fifty million kilometres away. They had
plenty of time to answer our signals if they wanted to, but
they ignored us completely. Now they'll be much too busy
for friendly chat. In a few hours they'll hit Jupiter's atmo-
sphere -- and then we'll see how well their aerobraking
system works. If it does its job, that will be good for our
morale. But if it fails -- well, let's not talk about that.
  'The Russians are taking it remarkably well, all things
considered. They're angry and disappointed, of course -- but
I've heard many expressions of frank admiration. It was
certainly a brilliant trick, building that ship in full view and
making everyone think it was a spacestation until they
hitched on those boosters.
  'Well, there's nothing we can do, except watch. And at
our distance, we won't have a much better view than your
best telescopes. I can't help wishing them luck, though of
course I hope they leave Discovery alone. That's our prop-
erty, and I bet the State Department's reminding them of
it, every hour on the hour.
  'It's an ill wind -- if our Chinese friends hadn't jumped the
gun on us, you wouldn't have heard from me for another
month. But now that Dr Rudenko's woken me up, I'll be
speaking to you every couple of days.
  'After the initial shock, I'm settling down nicely -- getting
to know the ship and its crew, finding my space legs. And
polishing up my lousy Russian, though I don't have much
chance of using it -- everyone insists on speaking English.
What shocking linguists we Americans are! I sometimes feel
ashamed of our chauvinism - or our laziness.
  'The standard of on-board English ranges from absolute-
ly perfect - Chief Engineer Sasha Kovalev could earn a
living as a BBC announcer - down to the if -you-talk-fast-
enough-it-doesn't-matter-how-many-mistakes-you-make
variety. The only one who isn't fluent is Zenia Marchenko,
who replaced Irina Yakunina at the last moment. Incidental-
ly, I'm glad to hear that Irina made a good recovery-what a
disappointment that must have been! I wonder if she's
started hang-gliding again.
  'And speaking of accidents, it's obvious that Zenia must
also have had a very bad one. Though the plastic surgeons
have done a remarkable job, you can tell that she must have
been severely burned at some time. She's the baby of the
crew and the others treat her with - I was going to say pity,
but that's too condescending Let's say with special kind-
ness.
  'Maybe you're wondering how I get on with Captain
Tanya. Well, I like her very much - but I'd hate to make her
angry. There's no doubt exactly who runs this ship.
  'And Surgeon-Commander Rudenko - you met her at
the Honolulu Aerospace Convention two years ago, and
I'm sure you won't have forgotten that last party. You'll
understand why we all call her Catherine the Great - behind
her broad back, of course.
  'But that's enough gossip. If I run overtime, I hate to
think of the surcharge. And by the way, these personal calls
are supposed to be completely private. But there are a lot of
links in the communications chain, so don't be surprised if
you occasionally get messages by - well, another route.
  'I'll be waiting to hear from you - tell the girls I'll be
speaking to them later. My love to you all-I miss you and
Chris very badly. And when I get back, I promise I'll never
leave again.'
  There  was  a  brief  hissing  pause, then an obviously syn-
thetic  voice  said:  `This  terminates Transmission Four Hun-
dred   Thirty-two  Stroke  Seven  from  Spacecraft  Leonov.' As
Caroline  Floyd  switched  off  the  speaker, the two dolphins
slid  beneath  the surface of the pool and glided out into the
Pacific, leaving scarcely a ripple in the water.
  When  he  realized  that  his friends were gone, Christopher
began  to  cry.  His  mother  picked  him  up  in her arms and
tried  to  comfort  him,  but  it  was  a long time before she
succeeded.

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