2001：太空漫游(上)

⊙ By Arthur C. Clarke

翻譯：郝明義

2001：太空漫游(上)

⊙ By Arthur C. Clarke

翻譯：郝明義

2001: A Space Odyssey (I)

美式發(fā)音 適合欣賞

語速：150詞/分鐘

First Man to Saturn[土星]

Frank Poole had been through the whole routine before, but he took nothing for granted—in space that was a good recipe[處方]for suicide[自殺]. He made his usual thorough check of Betty and her supply of expendables[消耗品]; though he would be outside for no more than thirty minutes, he made sure that there was the normal twenty-four-hour supply of everything. Then he told Hal to open the airlock[氣閘], and jetted[噴射]out into the abyss[（喻）宇宙].

The ship looked exactly as it had done on his last excursion[短途旅行]—with one important difference. Before, the big saucer[淺碟]of the long-range antenna[天線]had been pointing back along the invisible[看不見的]road that Discovery had traveled—back toward the Earth, circling so close to the warm fires of the Sun.

1968年，在與電影導(dǎo)演斯坦利·庫布里克合作而成的小說《2001：太空漫游》首版序中，人類最偉大的科幻作家之一——阿瑟·查理斯·克拉克寫下一段非常浪漫的話：

“開天辟地以來，在地球上活過的人大約總共一兆。這是個有趣的數(shù)字，因為說巧不巧，我們所在的這個宇宙，也就是銀河系，也有大約一兆顆星星。因此，每一個在地球上活過的人，在這個宇宙里都有一顆對應(yīng)的星星在閃爍?！?/p>

如果說數(shù)字之中確實蘊含著某些無法解釋的玄機，那么對科幻界來說，2017–2018年就是一個非常神奇的時間節(jié)點：我們即將在今年12月迎來克拉克的100周年誕辰，而明年則是《2001：太空漫游》小說和電影面世50周年、導(dǎo)演庫布里克誕辰90周年，以及克拉克本人的忌辰10周年！

而數(shù)字的玄妙也是“太空漫游”四部曲的思想根源之一：這套科幻“神作”以一批比例為1∶ 4∶ 9的神秘黑石板為線索，從遠古時代延伸至遙遠未來，啟發(fā)讀者去思考人與自然、人與世界、人與宇宙的哲學(xué)問題……

本期節(jié)選為第25章，出自小說第四篇。2001年，宇航員鮑曼與普爾搭乘“發(fā)現(xiàn)號”太空船執(zhí)行土星任務(wù)，船上有另外三名處于人工冬眠狀態(tài)的宇航員、被命名為“貝蒂”的分離艙，還有一臺負責(zé)船上所有活動的人工智能電腦“哈兒9000”。這一路上他們遇到了各種各樣的麻煩，然而更大的危機正在步步逼近……

Now, with no directing signals to orient[定向]it, the shallow dish had automatically set itself in the neutral[中性的]position. It was aimed forward along the axis[軸]of the ship—and, therefore, pointing very close to the brilliant beacon[指向標]of Saturn, still months away. Poole wondered how many more problems would have arisen by the time Discovery reached her still far-distant goal. If he looked carefully, he could just see that Saturn was not a perfect disk; on either side was something that no unaided human eye had ever seenbefore—the slight oblateness[扁率]caused by the presence of the rings. How wonderful it would be, he told himself, when that incredible[驚人的]system of orbiting[環(huán)繞]dust and ice filled their sky, and Discovery had become an eternal[永恒的]moon[衛(wèi)星]of Saturn! But that achievement would be in vain, unless they could reestablish communication with Earth.

Once again he parked Betty some twenty feet from the base of the antenna support, and switched control over to Hal before opening up.

“Going outside now,” he reported to Bowman. “Everything under control.”

“I hope you’re right. I’m anxious to see that unit.”

“You’ll have it on the test bench in twenty minutes, I promise you.”

There was silence for some time as Poole completed his leisurely[從容地]drift[漂]toward the antenna. Then Bowman, standing by on the control deck[甲板], heard various puffings[喘息]and grunting[咕噥].

“May have to go back on the promise; one of these locknuts[防松螺母]is stuck. I must have tightened[弄緊]it too much…oh, here it comes!”

There was another long silence; then Poole called out:

“Hal, swing the pod[小艙]light round twenty degrees left—thanks, yeah…that’s OK.”

The very faintest[最微弱的]of warning bells sounded somewhere far down in the depths of Bowman’s consciousness. There was something strange—not really alarming, just unusual. He worried over it for a few seconds before he pinpointed[準確找出]the cause.

Hal had executed[執(zhí)行]the order, but he had not acknowledged it, as he invariably did. When Poole had finished, they’d have to look into this…

Out on the antenna mounting[底座], Poole was too busy to notice anything unusual. He had gripped[抓]the wafer[晶片]of circuitry[電路]with his gloved hands, and was worrying[反復(fù)推拉]it out of its slot[槽].

It came loose, and he held it up in the pale[暗淡的]sunlight.

“Here’s the little bastard[壞蛋],” he said to the universe in general and Bowman in particular. “It still looks perfectly OK to me.”

Then he stopped. A sudden movement had caught his eye—out here, where no movement was possible.

He looked up in alarm. The pattern of illumination[照明]from the space pod’s twin spotlights, which he had been using to fill in the shadows cast by the sun, had started to shift[移動]around him.

Perhaps Betty had come adrift; he might have been careless in anchoring[固定]her. Then, with an astonishment so great that it left no room for fear, he saw that the space pod was coming directly toward him, under full thrust[推力].

The sight was so incredible that it froze[使僵住]his normal pattern of reflexes[反射]; he made no attempt to avoid the onrushing[猛沖]monster. At the last moment, he recovered his voice and shouted: “Hal! Full braking——” It was too late.

At the moment of impact, Betty was still moving quite slowly; she had not been built for high accelerations. But even at a mere ten miles an hour, half a ton of mass can be very lethal[致命的], on Earth or in space…

(To be continued.)

見招拆招

這個“神展開”是不是相當驚心動魄、扣人心弦？這一章節(jié)劇情清晰，句式明快，在語法上并沒有特別復(fù)雜的內(nèi)容——但是，英文科幻小說的“第一道坎兒”還是在于詞匯。克拉克的語言準確到位、生動傳神，用詞極其生活化，還很注意在表達上的多樣性（比如saucer和shallow dish，base和mounting）。感興趣的同學(xué)不妨在選段所標注的生詞中選取5個進行重點學(xué)習(xí)，查閱詞典，掌握它們的讀音、詞義及用法，并通過造句來加深印象。

參考譯文

第一個去土星的人

整個程序，弗蘭克·普爾已經(jīng)走過一遍，不過他可不敢把任何事情視為理所當然——在太空里，“理所當然”可是一劑很好的自殺藥方。他照例對貝蒂作一次全面檢查，也檢查過所有消耗品的儲備量。雖然他待在外面的時間不會超過30分鐘，但他還是想確認一切供給品都如常足夠24小時使用。然后他告訴哈兒打開氣閘，便發(fā)動噴射器，滑向太空。

宇宙飛船看來和他上次出來的時候一模一樣——除了一個很重要的差異之外。先前，長程天線的大碟子一直沿著“發(fā)現(xiàn)號”那看不見的來路，回頭指向近距離繞著太陽溫暖火焰而轉(zhuǎn)動的地球。

現(xiàn)在，失去了指引方向的信號，淺淺的天線碟自動停在一個自然的角度，沿著宇宙飛船的中軸指向前方，也就是指向很接近土星的方向——那個醒目的標識還在幾個月的行程之外。普爾不知道在“發(fā)現(xiàn)號”抵達那個仍然十分遙遠的目的地之前，還會出現(xiàn)多少問題。如果他看得仔細一點，他會發(fā)現(xiàn)土星的形狀其實不夠滾圓——由于土星環(huán)的存在，這個星球的兩頭顯得微扁——這是人類肉眼裸視未曾見過的景象。他告訴自己：等看到那不可思議的沙塵和冰屑繞行在整個天空，等“發(fā)現(xiàn)號”也加入土星永恒的衛(wèi)星群時，那該有多壯觀?。〔贿^，除非他們能夠重新建立和地球的通訊，否則這樣的成就也沒有任何意義。

這一次，普爾還是把貝蒂停泊在離天線底座大約20英尺（約6.10米）的地方，在打開分離艙之前，他把操控權(quán)交給哈兒。

“現(xiàn)在要出去了，”他向鮑曼報告，“一切都在掌握之中?！?/p>

“希望你說得沒錯，我很想看看那副組件?！?/p>

“保證20分鐘后放到你的測試臺上?！?/p>

普爾朝向天線悠然移動過去，無線電里一片寂靜。接著，守在主控甲板里的鮑曼聽到一陣喘氣和咕咕噥噥講話的聲音。

“看來我要食言了。有顆防松螺帽卡住了，大概是上次我鎖得太緊……呼，總算好了！”

接著好長一段時間沒有動靜，然后，普爾嚷道：

“哈兒，請把分離艙的燈光往左轉(zhuǎn)20度——謝謝，對對……好了?！?/p>

在鮑曼的意識深處隱隱響起一聲警鈴，有什么地方透著古怪——也不是什么緊急情況，但就是不太尋常。他凝重地思索了一會兒，終于找到原因了。

哈兒執(zhí)行了普爾的指令，但是并沒有出聲確認——那是他每次必不遺漏的動作。等普爾回來，要查一查……

在外面的天線底座上，忙碌的普爾并沒注意到任何異乎尋常之處。他戴著手套的手已經(jīng)抓起那片電路芯片，正設(shè)法把它從溝槽里拉出來。

終于拿出來了。他將芯片拿起來，在微弱的太陽光下察看。

“可算逮到你這個小混蛋了。”他半是在對虛空的宇宙說，半是在對鮑曼說，“我還是沒看出有什么問題嘛。”

接著他停了下來。他無意中瞥見什么東西在動——在這個根本不可能有東西在動的地方。

他警覺地抬起頭。在太陽投下的這片陰影之中，先前他一直靠著分離艙那兩盞聚光燈的照明工作，現(xiàn)在，燈光從他身邊轉(zhuǎn)開了。

也許貝蒂在太空中蕩開了，他大概是不小心沒把她停好。接著，他驚駭?shù)脕聿患翱謶?，因為他看到分離艙正以全速直沖而來。

這個畫面實在過于出人意料，將他所有的本能反應(yīng)動作都凍住了，因此他根本沒有采取任何動作躲避這個直沖而來的怪物。直到最后一刻，他終于找回自己的聲音，大聲吼道：“哈兒，全力剎車——”太晚了。

在撞上去的那一剎那，貝蒂的速度其實仍然十分緩慢。建造她的目的并不是用來加速沖刺。不過，即使在區(qū)區(qū)每小時十英里（約16.09千米）的速度下，半噸重的東西還是足以致命，不論是在地球上還是在太空中……

（未完待續(xù)，選自上海人民出版社版本，有改動）