2001：太空漫游(上)

⊙ By Arthur C. Clarke

翻译：郝明义

2001：太空漫游(上)

⊙ By Arthur C. Clarke

翻译：郝明义

2001: A Space Odyssey (I)

美式发音 适合欣赏

语速：150词/分钟

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[处方]for suicide[自杀]. 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[气闸], and jetted[喷射]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[浅碟]of the long-range antenna[天线]had been pointing back along the invisible[看不见的]road that Discovery had traveled—back toward the Earth, circling so close to the warm fires of the Sun.

1968年，在与电影导演斯坦利·库布里克合作而成的小说《2001：太空漫游》首版序中，人类最伟大的科幻作家之一——阿瑟·查理斯·克拉克写下一段非常浪漫的话：

“开天辟地以来，在地球上活过的人大约总共一兆。这是个有趣的数字，因为说巧不巧，我们所在的这个宇宙，也就是银河系，也有大约一兆颗星星。因此，每一个在地球上活过的人，在这个宇宙里都有一颗对应的星星在闪烁。”

如果说数字之中确实蕴含着某些无法解释的玄机，那么对科幻界来说，2017–2018年就是一个非常神奇的时间节点：我们即将在今年12月迎来克拉克的100周年诞辰，而明年则是《2001：太空漫游》小说和电影面世50周年、导演库布里克诞辰90周年，以及克拉克本人的忌辰10周年！

而数字的玄妙也是“太空漫游”四部曲的思想根源之一：这套科幻“神作”以一批比例为1∶ 4∶ 9的神秘黑石板为线索，从远古时代延伸至遥远未来，启发读者去思考人与自然、人与世界、人与宇宙的哲学问题……

本期节选为第25章，出自小说第四篇。2001年，宇航员鲍曼与普尔搭乘“发现号”太空船执行土星任务，船上有另外三名处于人工冬眠状态的宇航员、被命名为“贝蒂”的分离舱，还有一台负责船上所有活动的人工智能电脑“哈儿9000”。这一路上他们遇到了各种各样的麻烦，然而更大的危机正在步步逼近……

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[轴]of the ship—and, therefore, pointing very close to the brilliant beacon[指向标]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[惊人的]system of orbiting[环绕]dust and ice filled their sky, and Discovery had become an eternal[永恒的]moon[卫星]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[从容地]drift[漂]toward the antenna. Then Bowman, standing by on the control deck[甲板], heard various puffings[喘息]and grunting[咕哝].

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

There was another long silence; then Poole called out:

“Hal, swing the pod[小舱]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[准确找出]the cause.

Hal had executed[执行]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[电路]with his gloved hands, and was worrying[反复推拉]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[坏蛋],” 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[移动]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[猛冲]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.)

见招拆招

这个“神展开”是不是相当惊心动魄、扣人心弦？这一章节剧情清晰，句式明快，在语法上并没有特别复杂的内容——但是，英文科幻小说的“第一道坎儿”还是在于词汇。克拉克的语言准确到位、生动传神，用词极其生活化，还很注意在表达上的多样性（比如saucer和shallow dish，base和mounting）。感兴趣的同学不妨在选段所标注的生词中选取5个进行重点学习，查阅词典，掌握它们的读音、词义及用法，并通过造句来加深印象。

参考译文

第一个去土星的人

整个程序，弗兰克·普尔已经走过一遍，不过他可不敢把任何事情视为理所当然——在太空里，“理所当然”可是一剂很好的自杀药方。他照例对贝蒂作一次全面检查，也检查过所有消耗品的储备量。虽然他待在外面的时间不会超过30分钟，但他还是想确认一切供给品都如常足够24小时使用。然后他告诉哈儿打开气闸，便发动喷射器，滑向太空。

宇宙飞船看来和他上次出来的时候一模一样——除了一个很重要的差异之外。先前，长程天线的大碟子一直沿着“发现号”那看不见的来路，回头指向近距离绕着太阳温暖火焰而转动的地球。

现在，失去了指引方向的信号，浅浅的天线碟自动停在一个自然的角度，沿着宇宙飞船的中轴指向前方，也就是指向很接近土星的方向——那个醒目的标识还在几个月的行程之外。普尔不知道在“发现号”抵达那个仍然十分遥远的目的地之前，还会出现多少问题。如果他看得仔细一点，他会发现土星的形状其实不够滚圆——由于土星环的存在，这个星球的两头显得微扁——这是人类肉眼裸视未曾见过的景象。他告诉自己：等看到那不可思议的沙尘和冰屑绕行在整个天空，等“发现号”也加入土星永恒的卫星群时，那该有多壮观啊！不过，除非他们能够重新建立和地球的通讯，否则这样的成就也没有任何意义。

这一次，普尔还是把贝蒂停泊在离天线底座大约20英尺（约6.10米）的地方，在打开分离舱之前，他把操控权交给哈儿。

“现在要出去了，”他向鲍曼报告，“一切都在掌握之中。”

“希望你说得没错，我很想看看那副组件。”

“保证20分钟后放到你的测试台上。”

普尔朝向天线悠然移动过去，无线电里一片寂静。接着，守在主控甲板里的鲍曼听到一阵喘气和咕咕哝哝讲话的声音。

“看来我要食言了。有颗防松螺帽卡住了，大概是上次我锁得太紧……呼，总算好了！”

接着好长一段时间没有动静，然后，普尔嚷道：

“哈儿，请把分离舱的灯光往左转20度——谢谢，对对……好了。”

在鲍曼的意识深处隐隐响起一声警铃，有什么地方透着古怪——也不是什么紧急情况，但就是不太寻常。他凝重地思索了一会儿，终于找到原因了。

哈儿执行了普尔的指令，但是并没有出声确认——那是他每次必不遗漏的动作。等普尔回来，要查一查……

在外面的天线底座上，忙碌的普尔并没注意到任何异乎寻常之处。他戴着手套的手已经抓起那片电路芯片，正设法把它从沟槽里拉出来。

终于拿出来了。他将芯片拿起来，在微弱的太阳光下察看。

“可算逮到你这个小混蛋了。”他半是在对虚空的宇宙说，半是在对鲍曼说，“我还是没看出有什么问题嘛。”

接着他停了下来。他无意中瞥见什么东西在动——在这个根本不可能有东西在动的地方。

他警觉地抬起头。在太阳投下的这片阴影之中，先前他一直靠着分离舱那两盏聚光灯的照明工作，现在，灯光从他身边转开了。

也许贝蒂在太空中荡开了，他大概是不小心没把她停好。接着，他惊骇得来不及恐惧，因为他看到分离舱正以全速直冲而来。

这个画面实在过于出人意料，将他所有的本能反应动作都冻住了，因此他根本没有采取任何动作躲避这个直冲而来的怪物。直到最后一刻，他终于找回自己的声音，大声吼道：“哈儿，全力刹车——”太晚了。

在撞上去的那一刹那，贝蒂的速度其实仍然十分缓慢。建造她的目的并不是用来加速冲刺。不过，即使在区区每小时十英里（约16.09千米）的速度下，半吨重的东西还是足以致命，不论是在地球上还是在太空中……

（未完待续，选自上海人民出版社版本，有改动）