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发信人: by (春天的小懒虫), 信区: SFworld
标  题: 2010 (27)
发信站: 哈工大紫丁香 (Wed Oct  6 14:51:35 1999), 转信

                          27
             Interlude: True Confessions

The human mind has an astonishing capacity to adapt; after
a while, even the incredible becomes commonplace. There
were times when the crew of Leonov switched off their
surroundings, perhaps in an unconscious move to preserve
sanity.
  Dr Heywood Floyd often thought that, on such occa-
sions, Walter Curnow worked a little too hard at being the
life and soul of the party. And though he triggered what
Sasha Kovalev later called the `True Confessions' episode,
he certainly had not planned anything of the sort. It arose
spontaneously when he voiced the universal dissatisfaction
with almost all aspects of zero-gravity plumbing.
  `If I could have one wish granted,' he exclaimed during
the daily Six O'Clock Soviet, `it would be to soak in a nice
foaming bathtub, scented with essence of pine and with just
my nose above the waterline.'
  When the murmurs of assent and sighs of frustrated desire
had died away, Katerina Rudenko took up the challenge.
  `How splendidly decadent, Walter, she beamed at him
with cheerful disapproval. `It makes you sound like a
Roman emperor. If I were back on Earth, I'd like some-
thing more active.'
  `Such as?'
  `Umm... Am I allowed to go back in time as well?'
  `If you like.'
  `When I was a girl, I used to go for holidays to a collective
farm in Georgia. There was a beautiful palomino stallion,
bought by the director out of the money he'd made on the
local black market. He was an old scoundrel, but I loved
him - and he used to let me gallop Alexander all over the
countryside. I might have been killed - but that's the mem-
ory that brings Earth back to me, more than anything else.'
  There was a moment of thoughtful silence; then Curnow
asked, `Any other volunteers?'
  Everyone seemed so lost in their own memories that the
game might have ended there, had not Maxim Brailovsky
started it off again.
  `I'd like to be diving - that was just about my favourite
hobby, when I had time for one-and I was glad I could keep
it up through my cosmonaut training. I've dived off Pacific
atolls, the Great Barrier Reef, the Red Sea - coral reefs are
the most beautiful places in the world. Yet the experience I
remember best was in quite a different place - one of the
Japanese kelp forests. It was like an underwater cathedral,
with sunlight slanting through those enormous leaves.
Mysterious... magical. I've never been back; perhaps it
wouldn't be the same the next time. But I'd like to try.'
  `Fine,' said Walter, who as usual had appointed himself
master of ceremonies. `Who's next?'
  `I'll give you a quick answer,' said Tanya Orlova. `The
Bolshoi - Swan Lake. But Vasili won't agree. He hates
ballet.'
  `That makes two of us Anyway, what would you select,
Vasili?'
  `I was going to say diving, but Max beat me to it. So I'll
go  in  the opposite direction - gliding. Soaring through the
clouds  on a summer day, in complete silence. Well, not quite
complete  -  the  airflow over the wing can get noisy, espec-
ially  when  you're  banking. That's the way to enjoy Earth -
like a bird.'
  `Zenia?'
  `Easy. Skiing in the Pamirs. I love snow.'
  `And you, Chandra?'
  The  atmosphere  changed  noticeably  when  Walter  put the
question. After all this time, Chandra was still a stranger -
perfectly  polite,  even  courteous, but never revealing him-
self.
  `When  I  was  a  boy,' he said slowly, `my grandfather took
me  on  a  pilgrimage  to Varanasi - Benares. If you've never
been  there,  I'm  afraid  you  won't  understand. To me - to
many  Indians  even  nowadays, whatever their religion - it's
the centre of the world. One day I plan to go back.'
  `And you, Nikolai?'
  `Well,  we've  had  the  sea  and  sky. I'd like to combine
both.  My  favourite  sport  used  to  be  wind-surfing.  I'm
afraid I'm too old for it now - but I'd like to find out.'
  `That only leaves you, Woody. What's your choice?'
  Floyd  did  not  even stop to think; his spontaneous answer
surprised himself as much as the others.
  `I  don't mind where on Earth I am - as long as I'm with my
little son.'
  After  that,  there was no more to be said. The session was
over.

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