Beyond the Aquila Rift - Beyond the Aquila Rift (IV)
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Author: ALASTASR REYNOLDS (Alastair Reynolds)
Translation: Zhu Shiyu
"Caterina," I said. "Hi. Hope you are all right. At this point I hope someone in the company has gotten in touch with you. If not, I'm pretty sure you'll investigate for yourself. I don't know what they'll say to you, but I promise we're safe and ready to go home now. Record this message from a place called Somraki Station, a maintenance station on the edge of Wang Liang's fourth district. There's not much to see: a bunch of crowded tunnels and tubes on a pitch-black D-shaped asteroid, about half a light-year from the nearest star. The only reason it exists is when it happens to be next door to the aperture. That's why we got here in the first place. Somehow the Blue Goose made a mistake in the network, which they called a path error. I arrived here last night, local time, and I've been staying in the hotel ever since. I didn't call last night because I was so tired and confused after I left the cabin, and I don't know how long I'm going to stay here. It seems better to wait until the morning, when we have a better idea of how to repair the ship. It's not serious -- it's that some bits and pieces get stuck in transit -- but it also means we'll have to stay a few more days. Kolding— who was the repair supervisor — said three days at most. When we got back on the route, it was about forty days or so later than planned. ”
I paused and looked at the rising cost metrics. Usually before entering the phone booth, I sketch an eloquent and economical speech in my mind, with the scale and elegance of a monologue, to accurately convey what I want to convey. But as soon as I opened my mouth, my inspiration dried up, and I ended up sounding more like an insignificant time thief than an actor, making up a clumsy alibi in front of a vigilant interrogator.
I smiled awkwardly and continued, "I feel terrible at the thought that this message will take so long to reach you." But if there's a glimmer of life, I wouldn't be much later than that. I'll be home in a few days after you receive it. So don't waste money replying, by the time you receive it I'm already out of Somraki Station. Stay where you are, and I promise I'll be back soon. ”
That's it. I needn't say much, except: "I miss you." After a moment's pause, I wanted it to sound solemn. But when it was replayed, it was found to be more like an afterthought.
I could have re-recorded it, but I doubt I would have looked happier. Instead, I just sent the existing message and imagined how long it would take to continue sending. Since Somlaki doesn't look like there is a lot of business going on, our boats are probably the most suitable outbound boats.
Come out of the phone booth. Feeling ashamed for some reason, as if ignored in some way. It took me a while to realize the thoughts in my head. And Caterina mentioned somraki station. He even talked to her about the damage to Kolding and the Blue Goose. But he didn't tell her about Greta at all.
That wouldn't work for Susie.
She was too smart, too adaptable to the physiological characteristics of pressure chamber infiltration. I could give her all the assurances in the world, but she knew she couldn't be in a coma for long except for a truly epic blunder. She knows we're not talking about weekly or monthly delays. Every nerve in her body screamed at her skeleton.
"I had some dreams," she said, as the drowsiness faded.
"Which?"
"I've been awake in my dreams. You dragged me out of the pressure chamber. You and others. ”
Smile as much as you can. Alone here, Greta is not far away. The syringe is in my pocket right now.
"I always have nightmares after I get out of the cabin," I said.
"Sounds real. Your story is always changing, but you keep telling me we're elsewhere... We were a bit off course and there was nothing to worry about. ”
Greta had said so much during the awakening that after our efforts had failed, Susie would not remember anything. It seems that her short-term memory is not as unreliable as we think.
"That's funny," I told her. "Because, actually, we did deviate a little bit."
With each breath, she became more and more acute. Susie was the best of us to adapt to the cabin.
"Tell me how far off, Thorne?"
"It's farther than I thought."
She clenched her fists. It was impossible to tell whether it was a provocation or a lingering effect on the neuromusculars during that time in the cabin. "How far? Jumped over the local bubble? ”
"Jumped over the local bubble. That's right. ”
Her voice grew softer and more childish.
"Tell me, Thorne. Did we jump over Aquila? ”
Fear was heard. I understand what she's going through. This is the nightmare that all crew members face on every journey. The path will go wrong, so bad that they will die at the edge of the network. Too far from home, the return journey is not counted in months, but in years. Of course, many years have passed before the return trip.
By the time they got home, the loved one was old.
If they're still around. If they remember you or want to remember. If they are still recognizable or alive.
Beyond the Aquila Rift. Is an abbreviation for a journey that no one wants to happen unexpectedly. It will ruin the rest of your life and will create visible ghosts to haunt the shadows of the company bar throughout the bubble. Men and women are stripped away by time, and alien technology that we use but barely understand accidentally cuts off family ties with their loved ones.
"Yes," I said. "We're just outside the Aquila Rift." Susie roared, weaving her face into a mask of anger and denial. My hands were cold next to the syringe. I am considering using it.
New estimates for repairs from Kolding. Five or six days.
I didn't even argue this time. Just shrugged and walked away, not knowing how long we would have to wait next time.
Tonight I sat in the same position as Greta for breakfast. The dining area was previously well lit, but now the only source of light comes from the table lamps and soft lighting panels on the aisles. In the distance, a model of a glass man swims from one empty table to another, playing Asturias on a glass guitar. No other guests dined tonight.
I didn't wait long for Greta to come.
"I'm sorry I'm late, Tom."
I turned to her after she approached the table. I loved the way she walked into the low-gravity stand, the soft light outlining the curvature of her hips and waist. She sat down slowly and leaned toward me like a schemer. The lamp on the table casts a red shadow with golden highlights, intertwined on her face. He looked ten years younger.
"You're not late," I said. "Anyway, I enjoyed the view."
"It's an improvement, isn't it?"
"That doesn't mean anything," I said with a laugh. "But yes, it's definitely an improvement."
"Just looking at it I could sit on this all night. In fact, it's what I do sometimes. Just me and a bottle of wine. ”
"I don't blame you."
Not holographic blue, now the dome is covered with stars. The scenery I've seen on any space station or journey in the past is unmatched. Noisily blue-white stars are embedded in something like flannel. Gold hard gemstones and soft red stains, as if hand-painted with crayons. Dim galaxies form streams and currents, like countless neon fish being captured as snapshots of stationary motion. Red and green clouds churned against a huge background, and cold black filaments doted the veins and blemishes. The cliffs and headlands composed of ochre dust are very rich in three-dimensional structure, just like vivid thick paint; Outline the thickness of the light-year thickness with a spatula. Red or pink stars burn like lanterns in the dust. Isolated worlds burst out of towers, dusty viscera are small spermatine-like. From here to there I saw the same knots that gave birth to the little eyes of the solar system. There are pulsars, flickering on and off like navigation towers, and their different rhythms seem to set a solemn tone for the whole scene, like a slow and deadly waltz.
There is too much detail for a landscape, an unmatched richness, but no matter which angle I look at, there is more to see, as if the dome senses my point of attention and does what I can in the line of sight. For a moment I felt a dizziness, and—though I tried my best to stop it before I was ugly—I found myself clutching one side of the table to prevent me from falling into the abyss of the scene.
"Yes, it has an impact on people," Greta said.
"Beautiful," I said.
"Do you mean beautiful, or terrible?"
I realized I wasn't sure. "It's magnificent," was everything I could think of.
"Of course, fake," Greta said, her voice softer than before leaning forward. "There is smart glass inside the dome. It amplifies the brightness of the star so that the human eye can recognize the difference. Except the color is not real. If you accept that certain frequencies have shifted to the visible band and that the scale of certain structures has been adjusted, everything else you see is incredibly accurate. For the sake of teaching, she pointed out some characteristics, "That is the edge of the dark clouds in Taurus, and the Pleiades cluster is exposed." That's a single fiber of local bubbles. Do you see the open clusters there? ”
She was waiting for my answer. "Yes," I said.
"Bi Star Cluster. Over there you can see Betelgeuse 4 and Veliko 5. ”
"It's exhilarating."
"You should. It cost a lot of money. "She leaned back, so that the shadow shone on her face again." Are you okay, Thorne? You look a little confused. ”
I sighed.
"I just got another prognosis from your friend Colin. Enough to ruin anyone's day. ”
"I'm sorry about that."
"One more thing," I said, "has been bothering me since I got out of the cabin. ”
A glass man model came over and ordered. I asked Greta to help me choose.
"You can talk to me, whatever it is," she said when the glassman model left.
"It's not easy."
"Private matters, and then what?" Is it about Caterina?" she bit her tongue and said, "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. ”
"It has nothing to do with Caterina. Not exactly. "But even if I say that, I know it's about Caterina in a sense, and how long it will be before we get together."
"Tom, go on."
"It sounds stupid. But I want to know if everyone is honest with me. It's not just Kolding. You too. When I got out of the cabin I felt the same feeling as when I left the crack. Worse, if anything, I felt like I was in the cabin for a long, long time. ”
"Sometimes that's what happens."
"I know something different, Greta. Believe me. ”
"So what do you mean?"
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