冰之河 River of Ice
By David Levine
Translate By Ninesnow
2015-02
彗星科幻
Airlock doors don't slam, but Lai Meifen gave it her best effort. Gritting her teeth, she pushed against the obstinate hydraulics until the hatch shut with a thud she could feel even through her suit's heavy polycarbon-fiber gloves. She couldn't hear it, not in this thin excuse for an atmosphere, but it would have to do.
Even at a distance of a billion kilometers, Lanfen -- Meifen's fraternal twin sister -- could still make her furious. This time it was a cheery little email announcing that she had been promoted to team lead in the exobiology department and promising more exciting news to follow very soon. Meifen had sent a polite reply of congratulations, then immediately suited up and charged out the door.
She would show Lanfen. She would show them all!
Meifen paused, closed her eyes, and breathed through her nose to calm herself. She was on Enceladus -- she was the one who was on Enceladus, not Lanfen! -- and running off angry could get her killed. Once her heart rate had slowed, she opened her eyes, checked that the hatch was properly sealed, then turned to take in the view.
Saturn dominated the scene, looming like a gigantic glowing dome on the horizon. Fifty times as wide as a full moon, it was horizontally banded in a hundred subtle shades of butterscotch, yellow, and brown, roiling with storms bigger than Earth. The rings, alas, were below the horizon, and always would be -- Saturn never moved in Enceladus's sky, the moon being tidally locked.
The International Space Agency had denied Meifen's request to rotate the lander so that Saturn would be the first thing they saw on each EVA. But, one by one, she had gently persuaded her three crewmates to join in a small rebellion. Dr. Seung, the stern Korean commander, had been the most difficult, but eventually Meifen had managed to convince the commander that it had been her own idea in the first place. The four of them had simply lifted and turned the lander -- it had been easy in the moon's minuscule gravity, had taken less than an hour, and the ISA had been powerless to prevent it. Meifen smiled at the memory.
Her smile widened as she reminded herself again that it was she who was beholding this view with her own eyes, not Lanfen -- the elder, the taller, the smarter, the prettier sister. This time, for once, Meifen had won out. And she would win out again, definitively, when she found proof of extraterrestrial life.
She shook her head, tried to put old rivalries and anger aside, and set off toward Silverstein Ridge. The bright white ice was not slick beneath her feet; at these temperatures, water ice behaved more like rock. It vibrated faintly with the constant distant thunder of Enceladus's cryovolcanoes, like an engine running somewhere far below.
Walking on Enceladus was more like skipping underwater, and remarkably difficult. The tiny moon's gravity was only a hundredth of Earth's, barely more than a downward drift; too forceful a step could easily send you tumbling helplessly until you impacted some icy scarp. For this reason their suits were the toughest ever built, layered polycarbon fiber with synthetic diamond faceplates, and sported gyroscopes and attitude jets. Nonetheless, despite all her training, Meifen had been a mass of bruises until she'd learned the knack.
Meifen's destination for this EVA was a new feature which had just appeared on the far side of Silverstein Ridge in the latest imagery from the orbiter. As seen from above, it looked like a river -- a snaking curve, brighter than the surrounding terrain, flowing down a valley from the cryovolcano called Kowal Peak. But it couldn't be a river of water, not at a hundred below zero Celsius.
Not liquid water, anyway.
As she loped across the landscape, Meifen's thoughts returned to her sister. She could not deny that Lanfen was more than qualified to head up an exobiology team; in fact, Lanfen would certainly have risen even higher in the bureaucracy by now if she hadn't been so focused on her deep-ocean extremophile research project. She had been certain it would give her the edge in selection for the Enceladus mission -- and she had nearly been right.
It was probably inevitable that the twins had both become exobiologists, with their astrophysicist mother and biochemist father both so enthusiastic about their fields. It was equally inevitable that they had turned out so competitive -- Mother always said that she had felt the two of them jockeying to be born first. Lanfen had won that race, but Meifen had beaten her to Enceladus; perhaps that would finally even the score.
And perhaps Meifen's victory had even done Lanfen a favor. After her project collapsed and she lost the competition for Enceladus, Lanfen had thrown herself into more collaborative projects; that surely must have helped in gaining this new position.
Meifen paused to sip some water -- cold though it was outside her suit, bounding across Enceladus's surface was hot and sweaty work -- and mark a new vent on her map. Dr. Lufkin, the stolid, babushka-like Russian geologist, was insistent that any significant changes in the terrain be properly recorded, and this vent was certainly significant: a jet of steam several meters wide, bursting from a crack in the ice and hurtling skyward at hundreds of meters per second, freezing to snow as it rose. Even from a hundred meters away she could feel the thunder through her boots. Perhaps some day it would grow into an enormous cryovolcano like Mount Hurst, whose geyser-topped peak was the second largest feature on the horizon after Saturn itself.
Much of the water in this jet would escape Enceladus's gravity to add to Saturn's E ring, while the heaviest, saltiest particles would fall back to the surface. Those particles -- frozen drops of water from the salty ocean forty kilometers beneath her feet -- were the thing she, the mission's exobiologist, had come to Enceladus to study. But though she'd collected and inspected snow of every type, age, and temperature, she had failed to find incontrovertible evidence of life. Organic molecules, yes; dissolved minerals that might be life precursors, yes; but nothing with any structure. If any life swam in Enceladus's subsurface ocean, the violence of the geysers destroyed all evidence of it.
But the river of ice on Kowal Peak, she hoped, might be different. Meifen checked her map, took a breath, and loped off toward it.
The craggy terrain as she approached the peak reminded Meifen of the last vacation she and Lanfen had taken together, on Kaua'i, together with Lanfen's husband Zhou Sheng. The tension between the sisters had been fierce then -- both had made it to the finals for astronaut selection -- and Sheng, along with the sisters' parents, had insisted that they take a break to do something together.
And, indeed, there had been a certain amount of togetherness...
The ground rose swiftly, becoming twisted and jumbled, covered with a loose scree of ice crystals. She deployed the climbing claws on her boots, but even with their help she often slipped and stumbled, only the sudden hissing shove of the attitude jets at her shoulders keeping her upright. Sometimes she had to jump across chasms tens of meters wide, but after months of EVAs she was confident in her abilities and her suit. She continued to climb, drawing closer and closer to the shimmering geyser that rose like a gigantic white tree from the cryovolcano's summit. The ice rumbled beneath her boots and gloves.
Soon she found herself on Silverstein Ridge, comparing the view with her map. And there it was, flowing down Yule Valley toward Cooper Crater: the river of ice she'd spotted on the satellite view, gleaming smooth and white against the jagged terrain around it. She bounded off toward it.
It was the pressure that was her greatest enemy, she thought. The pressure of forty kilometers of ice on the ocean below forced liquid water up through cracks to the surface, where it met near-vacuum and flashed to steam, destroying any evidence of life.
The same sort of pressure -- from her sister, her parents, from society at large -- had forced her, too, into space. And had destroyed so much.
With a skipping, bobbling step she brought herself to a halt on the surface of the ice river. She was no geologist -- that was Dr. Lufkin's job -- but the instruments in her suit and her cross-training let her identify at a general level what she was seeing. The river was, as she had suspected from the satellite imagery, much warmer and hence softer than the rocky stuff around it; it was behaving like lava, flowing downhill at a comparatively rapid pace. But the gravity here was so low that it piled up on itself as it flowed, forming heaps and ridges like frozen waves. Even Meifen, who knew she had no aesthetic sense whatsoever, had to admit that it was beautiful.
She took several photographs, then set off uphill. What she was seeking was most likely to be found at the river's source -- the newest, warmest part of the flow.
It had been while climbing Mount Wai'ale'ale on Kaua'i that she and Sheng had begun flirting. She hadn't even meant it at first; she felt nothing for the man. But when he had appeared to respond, that response had triggered an impulse in her. A greedy, nasty, competitive impulse.
She should probably not have followed through.
The source of the ice river came suddenly: an enormous crested dome of smooth, gleaming ice, and beyond it nothing but stony gray. In places the dome was completely transparent, in others a froth of glittering crystalline white; it had the appearance of a breaking wave. Through her boots she could feel a low, intermittent creak as the mass of water slowly pressed its way to the surface, freezing as it came.
This was exactly what she had been searching and hoping for: a slow seep, ice from the ocean below that had not been vaporized and catapulted into space. From her toolkit she brought out drills and scrapers and sample containers.
The work was difficult, the positions into which she was forced to contort herself uncomfortable. But she persevered, gathering samples from high and low and deep and shallow, until the beep of her air supply's monitor forced her to gather her equipment and head back to the lander.
She was happy, but exhausted, and stumbled frequently. At one point she misjudged a leap over a gap she had cleared with no difficulty on the outward journey, and wound up scrabbling on the chasm's edge for interminable seconds before clawing her way to safety. She lay on her stomach, gasping, for some minutes until she was calm enough to continue.
She would have to be more careful. It would be horrible to die now, when she was so close to victory. She had worked too hard, sacrificed too much, made too many difficult choices to fail now.
Although she had to admit that the choices that had secured her position on the Enceladus mission had barely been hers at all. It had been Sheng who had responded to her subtle overtures, Sheng who had come to her tent in the middle of the night.
And it had been Lanfen's choice to smash her own equipment in a jealous rage when she'd found out, destroying years of her own work.
Lanfen had told the ISA that the data had been lost due to a lab accident. Bad enough that her project had collapsed; even worse if the agency had reason to doubt her emotional stability. For obvious reasons, neither Sheng nor Meifen had been inclined to reveal the truth. But, in the end, the deception had done Lanfen no good; Meifen had been selected instead.
The sisters had barely spoken since. Lanfen had not even come to the launch, to their parents' puzzled disappointment.
Back at the lander, Meifen fidgeted impatiently as the airlock cycled, listening to her suit creak as air pressure returned. She began doffing the suit as soon as she possibly could, her breath fogging the air and the cold metal of her neck ring burning her fingers, and left the helmet bouncing lazily on the EVA prep room floor.
Dr. O'Neill, the disgustingly perky Irish engineer, tried to interrupt Meifen as she rushed to the science bay. "There's a priority transmission coming in from Earth," she said as Meifen rushed past.
"I'll be there in a minute," Meifen replied, not slowing. She took the ladder in one jump, the precious sample container clutched to her chest.
Her fingers trembled, and not just from the cold, as she thawed and prepared the first sample and slipped it into the microscope. She held her breath as the image came up on the screen.
And took in more air in an excited gasp as the view swam into focus.
Curved, transparent forms drifted in the water, the salty Enceladan water from forty kilometers below the surface. One resembled an amoeba with a tail. Another looked more like a paramecium, only arrowhead-shaped. Structures were visible within, resembling vacuoles and organelles.
They were unmoving, clearly quite dead. They were in bad shape -- exploded by decompression, torn by ice crystals that had frozen and thawed. But there was no question that they were life forms, possibly even multicellular. And they were definitely no Earth species.
Extraterrestrial life! She was the first human being to ever behold extraterrestrial life! Her place in history was assured!
A sudden happy shriek from the wardroom two levels above was the only thing that could have broken her spell of exhilarated wonder. "Dr. Lai!" called the commander, his voice full of surprise and delight. "Get up here right now! You don't want to miss this!"
"Coming!" she called, barely able to contain her own excitement. She couldn't wait to share her news with the rest of the crew... and the anticipation of her sister's reaction was even more delicious.
She leapt up from the science bay to the engineering deck in one jump. A second jump took her to the wardroom, where her three crewmates were gathered around the big wall display.
And on that display...
Fabulous creatures.
Golden-skinned they were, and large-eyed... nocturnal, perhaps, or evolved for a lower level of sunlight than Earth's. Tall and slim, with gill-like structures pulsing on the sides of their heads. Tool-using hands. The rest was obscured by clothing, colorful and diaphanous.
The camera pulled back, revealing the big press room at ISA headquarters in Mumbai. The head of the ISA was there on the stage with the aliens, and the president of the Asian Union, and...
...and her sister.
LAI LANFEN, read the text beneath her grinning face. XENOBIOLOGY LEAD, FIRST CONTACT TEAM.
Meifen's knees buckled, but it was three long seconds before her body hit the deck.
赖梅芬已经用尽全力,然而减压舱的门还是没有关上。她咬紧牙关和顽固的液压系统用力抗争终于关上舱门。她甚至能隔着太空服上沉重的聚碳酸酯纤维手套感受到舱关上时发出的声响。在这种稀薄的大气中她听不到关门的声音,但她没法不去听。
即使隔着十亿公里,兰芬——梅芬的异卵双胞胎姐姐——都能让她抓狂。这次的起因来自一封欢快短小的电子邮件,她在信里宣布自己被提升为宇宙生物学部的领头人,还信誓旦旦地声称很快就会发布更多激动人心的消息。梅芬礼貌的回复了一句“恭喜”,随即穿上太空服冲出门外。
她要证明给兰芬看。她要证明给所有人看!
梅芬停下动作,闭上眼睛,通过鼻腔呼吸让自己平静下来。她正在土卫二上——她才是登上土卫二的那个人,不是兰芬!——就这么怒火冲天的冲出来很可能会要了她的命。她等到自己的心跳平和下来,睁眼检查舱门确实正常封闭,这才转过身观看眼前的景色。
土星占据了大部分视野,像是在地平线上冒出一个闪闪发光的巨大穹顶。看上去比满月大五十倍的星球腰间落满大大小小奶油糖果般的阴影。土星表面黄棕相间,比地球还大的风暴点缀其上。可惜看不到土星环,它在地平线以下,一直都在地平线以下——由于土卫二被潮汐锁定的缘故,土星在这颗卫星的天空中从不移动位置。
梅芬曾经提议让登陆舱转变一下方位,这样每次进行舱外活动时宇航员们都会最先看到土星。但是她的提议被国际空间局否决了。于是她不动声色地说服了其他三名船员加入这场小小的叛乱。严厉的韩国指挥官承炫是最难劝说的一个人。不过梅芬最终还是成功的让指挥官确信她最初就有这个意图。他们四个人只花了不到一个小时的时间就很轻松的抬起登陆舱把它转了个个儿——在引力微弱的卫星上做这种事很容易,国际空间局则无力阻止他们的行为。梅芬笑着回想起这件事。
她再一次提醒自己:亲自用双眼欣赏这番景象的人是她自己,不是兰芬——不是那个比她年长,比她个高,比她聪明,比她漂亮的姐姐。她的笑容愈发灿烂。这次,就这么一次,梅芬胜出。而当她找到存在外星生命的证据后她还会再次获胜,这一点毫无疑问。
她摇摇头试图抛开那些沉年积怨,向西尔弗斯坦山脊走去。脚下的白色冰面踩上去不会打滑。在土卫二的温度下这些冰在性质上更接近岩石。远处传来土卫二上常有的冰火山爆发的雷鸣,冰面随之微微振动,仿佛冰面之下遥远的某处有台正在运行的引擎。
在土卫二上行走相当有难度,说是行走其实更像是在水下跳行。这颗小卫星的引力只有地球的百分之一,在这里物体的下落速度不比地球上纸片向下飘落快多少。只要用力向前迈出一步就会让你无助的翻滚,直到撞上某个冰壁才能停下来。就是因为这个原因他们身上穿的是有史以来最坚固的太空服:多层聚碳酸酯纤维加上人造钻石面罩,同时装配陀螺仪和姿势调节喷射器。尽管如此,抛开她经受的所有训练不说,梅芬在掌握行走技巧之前身上布满了碰撞造成的瘀伤。
根据最新的轨道卫星图像显示,梅芬这次舱外活动的目的地是西尔弗斯坦山脊远端最新出现的一处地形。从高空向下看像是一条河——它比两旁的地貌更明亮,从一座叫科瓦尔峰的冰火山的山谷中蜿蜒而出。不过在零下一百摄氏度的温度下,这不可能是一条流淌着水的河。
无论如何不会是液态水。
梅芬跳跃前进,思绪又回到她姐姐那里。她无法否认兰芬更有资格做宇宙生物学部的领导;实际上,要不是她在深海嗜极生物研究项目上太过投入,她现在一定已经在官场上升到了更高的位置。兰芬曾经十分确信这项研究会让她在土卫二探索队员选拔中更胜一筹——只差一点就能证明自己是对的。
双胞胎的母亲是天体物理学家,父亲是生物化学家,这两个人对自己的专业都怀有极大的热情。所以姐妹二人双双成为宇宙生物学家这种事大概是不可避免的。同样无法避免的还有两人之间强烈的竞争意识——她们的母亲总是说分娩时能感觉到她们两个想方设法让自己先降生。兰芬赢得了出生比赛,而梅芬在争夺出征土卫二的任务中扳回一局;也许对她们两人而言,最终还是达成了平局。
梅芬的胜利对兰芬来说也许还是一种助力。兰芬在项目失败并且输掉入选土卫二任务之后一头扎入更具合作性的项目中;这无疑帮她获得了目前的职位。
梅芬停下来喝了口水——尽管太空服外面是凛冽的严寒,蹦蹦跳跳地穿过土卫二表面可是个让人汗流浃背的体力活——在地图上标注上一个新的喷出口。拉夫金博士,脸总是板的像一块俄式头巾一样的俄国地理学家,坚持让他们完整记录下地貌上任何的重要变化。这个喷出口毫无疑问符合重要的定义:数米宽的蒸汽从冰面的罅隙中喷薄而出,以每秒数百米的速度直冲天际,在上升的过程中被冷冻成雪。她在几百米开外都能通过靴子感受到轰鸣声。也许终有一天它会变成和赫斯特山一样巨大的冰火山。后者的冰火山喷射口是土卫二地平线上除了土星以外的第二大标志物。
这些喷射物中的大部分水分会逃逸土卫二的引力加入土星E环,而分量最重含盐最多的颗粒则会落回卫星表面。这些颗粒——来自于她脚下四万千米深处海水所冻成的冰粒——则是本次任务中的宇宙生物学家,也就是她,在土卫二上的研究对象。尽管她收集检验了各种类型各种年代各种温度的雪,她还是没能找到能够证明这里存在生命的确凿证据。这里存在有机分子,也存在可能是生命组成成分的可溶矿物质;但是这些都没有形成结构体。即便有任何生命形式在土卫二冰层下的海洋中游弋,在它们通过猛烈的喷射到达地表之上时也早已被毁尸灭迹了。
她希望从科瓦尔峰流淌出来的冰河或许能有些不同。梅芬查看了一下地图,深吸一口气,朝科瓦尔峰奔去。
走近山峰时,那些悬崖峭壁让她想起她和兰芬一起考察过的最后一座火山。当时是在考艾岛上,同行的还有兰芬的丈夫周胜。那时姐妹之间的紧张气氛就已经愈演愈烈——两人都在为竞争宇航员选拔做最后的努力——而周胜和姐妹俩的父母则坚持要让她们两人暂时休息一下,共同做点事情。
这种状况下当然也少不了大量的家庭聚会......
地面迅速变陡,并且崎岖不平,遍地都是碎冰块。即便她使用了靴子上的攀登装置,脚下依然常常打滑,走的很不稳当。她只有靠肩部姿势调整器突然喷出的嘶嘶响的喷汽的反作用力才能站直身体。有时她要跳过几十米宽的裂缝。不过经过几个月的舱外活动她对自己的能力和太空服都很有信心。她不断地攀登,距离冰火山峰顶的喷射物越来越近,它在那里闪闪发光好像白色的参天巨树。透过靴子和手套她能感受到冰层在隆隆作响。
根据地图的指引,她很快就到达了西尔弗斯坦山脊。而它就在那里,从圣诞山谷流向库柏火山口的冰河:她在卫星图片上发现的冰河,被曲折突起的地貌包围着的光亮,洁白,平滑的冰河。她一跃而起朝河奔去。
她认为压力是她最大的敌人。她脚下四万千米厚的冰层对海洋产生的压力迫使液态水穿过冰层上的裂缝喷涌而出,在地表近乎真空的环境里膨胀成蒸气,毁灭了所有生命的证据。
同样的压力——来自于她姐姐,她的父母,来自于整个社会的压力——也把她推进了宇宙。也摧毁了她。
她又蹦又跳,终于在冰河表面停稳。她不是地理学家——那是拉夫金博士的工作——但是通过太空服中的设备和她受过的交叉学科训练,她能对眼前看到的东西作出大致的判断。和她在看到卫星照片时怀疑的一样,这条河的温度较高,使它比周边坚如岩石的地貌更柔软。它就像岩浆一样以相对较快的速度从山上流下。由于土卫二极微弱的引力,这条河在流淌的同时也在自己的身上不断堆积,形成了如同凝固的波浪一样的地表堆积和隆起。即便是梅芬这样自知毫无审美观的人,也不得不承认这种景象堪称美丽。
她照了几张照片,继续向上攀登。她想要找的东西很可能就在河的发源地——在那段最新鲜最温暖的水流里。
她是在考艾岛上攀登怀厄莱阿莱火山的时候和周胜开始的。起初她并没有这种意图,她对那个男人没有任何感觉。不过他对她的挑逗有所回应,这种回应让她产生了冲动。一种贪婪,卑鄙,充满竞争意识的冲动。
也许她不应该任由事情这样发展下去。
冰河的发源地突然出现在眼前:一个巨大的由闪亮光滑的冰穹形成的峰顶,除此之外都是岩灰色。从某个角度看过去穹顶是完全透明的,从其他角度看则像是个闪烁着水晶光泽的白色泡沫;整个形状就像一个破碎波。她能透过自己的靴子感觉到一种低沉的,断断续续地嘎吱声,那是大量的水缓慢的涌向地表并在得见天日后随即凝结的声音。
这正是她一直在搜寻,一直想要的东西:从地下海洋缓慢渗出的冰;没有被蒸发,也没有被抛向太空。她从工具箱内拿出钻头,铲子和样品盒。
这是个艰苦的工作,她进行钻探的位置让她觉得很不舒服。但她坚持着,从高矮深浅各不相同的位置收集样品。直到空气供给监控器鸣叫着迫使她收回工具返回登陆舱。
她很开心,也很疲惫,脚下频繁的发生各种磕绊。一条裂缝在来的时候她明明毫不费力的跳过去了,眼下却判断错误没能跳过。她在裂缝边缘悬挂了几秒钟,感觉有一辈子那么长,然后爬出裂缝,到达安全地带。她趴在地上,大口喘气,直到几分钟后平静下来继续赶路。
她应该加倍小心才对。她离成功已经如此之近,要是现在死掉就太遗憾了。她那么努力的工作,做出那么多牺牲,做过那么多抉择,绝不能在这一刻失败。
虽然她必须承认那些把她安全送入土卫二任务的选择根本就不是她自己做出的。是那个回应她巧妙的爱之序曲,半夜钻入她帐篷的周胜,是他替她做出了决定。
当兰芬发现真相后,在嫉妒心驱使的愤怒之下,她选择砸碎了所有的设备,毁掉了自己经年的工作成果。
兰芬告诉国际空间局项目数据毁于一场实验室事故。对她来说项目失败已经够糟糕了;要是让局里有理由怀疑她的情绪不稳定无异于雪上加霜。而周胜和梅芬出于显而易见的原因都无意揭露真相。最终这场骗局也没能帮上兰芬;取而代之的是梅芬被选入土卫二的勘探任务。
从那以后姐妹俩人就没怎么说过话。考察队启航时兰芬甚至没来送行,这让她们的父母迷惑不解,也很失望。
回到登陆舱,在等待减压舱注入空气的期间内,梅芬坐立不安的听着她的宇航服在逐渐增大的气压下嘎吱作响。舱内刚一达到安全环境,她立刻动手脱下宇航服。她的呼吸在空中形成雾气,她的手指被脖子上冰冷的金属环灼伤,导致头盔掉在出舱活动准备室的地板上,懒洋洋的弹跳了几下。
那个总是兴高采烈的讨厌鬼,爱尔兰工程师奥尼尔博士在梅芬冲向科学区的时候想要打断她的行动。“马上会有一个来自地球的高优先级转播。”她对跑过身边的梅芬说。
“我马上就到。”梅芬不减速的回复她。她把样本盒紧紧地抱在胸前一步跃上爬梯。
在她把第一份样品解冻,准备好并放到显微镜下的时候,她的手指颤抖着,不仅仅因为寒冷。她屏住呼吸看着视野中的图像。
当视野中的图像聚焦时她激动地吸入一大口气。
蜷曲透明的形态在来自土卫二地表之下四万千米的盐水中漂浮。有的看上去像是带着尾巴的阿米巴原虫。有的看上去像箭头状的草履虫。它们的内部结构清晰可辨,看上去像是液泡和细胞器。
它们一动不动,明显已经死去。经过减压以及冰晶的冷凝和解冻,它们的形体遭到了破坏。但是它们毫无疑问是某种生命形态,甚至有可能是多细胞生物,并且绝对不是地球上的生物。
外星生命!她是亲眼见到外星生命的第一人!她在历史中的地位由此奠定!
两层楼上的起居室内突然传来一阵欢快的叫嚷声,打破了带给她惊奇欢乐的咒语。“赖博士!”指挥官呼叫她的声音里充满惊讶和欢欣。“马上上楼来!你决不会想错过这个!”
“就来!”她喊道,几乎无法掩饰自己的激动。她实在等不及要和队友分享这个消息......而一想到她姐姐对这件事的反应,更让她甘之如饴。
她从科学区一步跳到上一层的工程区,又跳跃一次到达起居室。她的三个队友聚集在一面显示墙前。
整面墙上显示的是......
无与伦比的生物。
它们长着金色的皮肤和硕大的眼睛——也许是夜生生物,也许相比地球而言他们的进化环境里没有那么多的阳光。他们个头高挑而苗条,头部两侧有腮有一样的器官在不断搏动,有能够使用工具的手。身体的其他部位被半透明的斑斓彩衣遮掩。
镜头向后拉,展现出国际空间局总部位于孟买的宽敞的新闻发布室,在展示台上和外星人站在一起的人分别是国际空间局的领导,亚洲联盟的总统,还有......
......还有她的姐姐。
屏幕在她灿烂的笑容下给出了这样的字幕:“赖兰芬,宇宙生物学部领头人,第一接触小组”。
梅芬双腿一软,然后花了三秒钟的时间才摊倒在地上。
「完」
—————————————————————————--
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By David Levine
Translate By Ninesnow
2015-02
彗星科幻
Airlock doors don't slam, but Lai Meifen gave it her best effort. Gritting her teeth, she pushed against the obstinate hydraulics until the hatch shut with a thud she could feel even through her suit's heavy polycarbon-fiber gloves. She couldn't hear it, not in this thin excuse for an atmosphere, but it would have to do.
Even at a distance of a billion kilometers, Lanfen -- Meifen's fraternal twin sister -- could still make her furious. This time it was a cheery little email announcing that she had been promoted to team lead in the exobiology department and promising more exciting news to follow very soon. Meifen had sent a polite reply of congratulations, then immediately suited up and charged out the door.
She would show Lanfen. She would show them all!
Meifen paused, closed her eyes, and breathed through her nose to calm herself. She was on Enceladus -- she was the one who was on Enceladus, not Lanfen! -- and running off angry could get her killed. Once her heart rate had slowed, she opened her eyes, checked that the hatch was properly sealed, then turned to take in the view.
Saturn dominated the scene, looming like a gigantic glowing dome on the horizon. Fifty times as wide as a full moon, it was horizontally banded in a hundred subtle shades of butterscotch, yellow, and brown, roiling with storms bigger than Earth. The rings, alas, were below the horizon, and always would be -- Saturn never moved in Enceladus's sky, the moon being tidally locked.
The International Space Agency had denied Meifen's request to rotate the lander so that Saturn would be the first thing they saw on each EVA. But, one by one, she had gently persuaded her three crewmates to join in a small rebellion. Dr. Seung, the stern Korean commander, had been the most difficult, but eventually Meifen had managed to convince the commander that it had been her own idea in the first place. The four of them had simply lifted and turned the lander -- it had been easy in the moon's minuscule gravity, had taken less than an hour, and the ISA had been powerless to prevent it. Meifen smiled at the memory.
Her smile widened as she reminded herself again that it was she who was beholding this view with her own eyes, not Lanfen -- the elder, the taller, the smarter, the prettier sister. This time, for once, Meifen had won out. And she would win out again, definitively, when she found proof of extraterrestrial life.
She shook her head, tried to put old rivalries and anger aside, and set off toward Silverstein Ridge. The bright white ice was not slick beneath her feet; at these temperatures, water ice behaved more like rock. It vibrated faintly with the constant distant thunder of Enceladus's cryovolcanoes, like an engine running somewhere far below.
Walking on Enceladus was more like skipping underwater, and remarkably difficult. The tiny moon's gravity was only a hundredth of Earth's, barely more than a downward drift; too forceful a step could easily send you tumbling helplessly until you impacted some icy scarp. For this reason their suits were the toughest ever built, layered polycarbon fiber with synthetic diamond faceplates, and sported gyroscopes and attitude jets. Nonetheless, despite all her training, Meifen had been a mass of bruises until she'd learned the knack.
Meifen's destination for this EVA was a new feature which had just appeared on the far side of Silverstein Ridge in the latest imagery from the orbiter. As seen from above, it looked like a river -- a snaking curve, brighter than the surrounding terrain, flowing down a valley from the cryovolcano called Kowal Peak. But it couldn't be a river of water, not at a hundred below zero Celsius.
Not liquid water, anyway.
As she loped across the landscape, Meifen's thoughts returned to her sister. She could not deny that Lanfen was more than qualified to head up an exobiology team; in fact, Lanfen would certainly have risen even higher in the bureaucracy by now if she hadn't been so focused on her deep-ocean extremophile research project. She had been certain it would give her the edge in selection for the Enceladus mission -- and she had nearly been right.
It was probably inevitable that the twins had both become exobiologists, with their astrophysicist mother and biochemist father both so enthusiastic about their fields. It was equally inevitable that they had turned out so competitive -- Mother always said that she had felt the two of them jockeying to be born first. Lanfen had won that race, but Meifen had beaten her to Enceladus; perhaps that would finally even the score.
And perhaps Meifen's victory had even done Lanfen a favor. After her project collapsed and she lost the competition for Enceladus, Lanfen had thrown herself into more collaborative projects; that surely must have helped in gaining this new position.
Meifen paused to sip some water -- cold though it was outside her suit, bounding across Enceladus's surface was hot and sweaty work -- and mark a new vent on her map. Dr. Lufkin, the stolid, babushka-like Russian geologist, was insistent that any significant changes in the terrain be properly recorded, and this vent was certainly significant: a jet of steam several meters wide, bursting from a crack in the ice and hurtling skyward at hundreds of meters per second, freezing to snow as it rose. Even from a hundred meters away she could feel the thunder through her boots. Perhaps some day it would grow into an enormous cryovolcano like Mount Hurst, whose geyser-topped peak was the second largest feature on the horizon after Saturn itself.
Much of the water in this jet would escape Enceladus's gravity to add to Saturn's E ring, while the heaviest, saltiest particles would fall back to the surface. Those particles -- frozen drops of water from the salty ocean forty kilometers beneath her feet -- were the thing she, the mission's exobiologist, had come to Enceladus to study. But though she'd collected and inspected snow of every type, age, and temperature, she had failed to find incontrovertible evidence of life. Organic molecules, yes; dissolved minerals that might be life precursors, yes; but nothing with any structure. If any life swam in Enceladus's subsurface ocean, the violence of the geysers destroyed all evidence of it.
But the river of ice on Kowal Peak, she hoped, might be different. Meifen checked her map, took a breath, and loped off toward it.
The craggy terrain as she approached the peak reminded Meifen of the last vacation she and Lanfen had taken together, on Kaua'i, together with Lanfen's husband Zhou Sheng. The tension between the sisters had been fierce then -- both had made it to the finals for astronaut selection -- and Sheng, along with the sisters' parents, had insisted that they take a break to do something together.
And, indeed, there had been a certain amount of togetherness...
The ground rose swiftly, becoming twisted and jumbled, covered with a loose scree of ice crystals. She deployed the climbing claws on her boots, but even with their help she often slipped and stumbled, only the sudden hissing shove of the attitude jets at her shoulders keeping her upright. Sometimes she had to jump across chasms tens of meters wide, but after months of EVAs she was confident in her abilities and her suit. She continued to climb, drawing closer and closer to the shimmering geyser that rose like a gigantic white tree from the cryovolcano's summit. The ice rumbled beneath her boots and gloves.
Soon she found herself on Silverstein Ridge, comparing the view with her map. And there it was, flowing down Yule Valley toward Cooper Crater: the river of ice she'd spotted on the satellite view, gleaming smooth and white against the jagged terrain around it. She bounded off toward it.
It was the pressure that was her greatest enemy, she thought. The pressure of forty kilometers of ice on the ocean below forced liquid water up through cracks to the surface, where it met near-vacuum and flashed to steam, destroying any evidence of life.
The same sort of pressure -- from her sister, her parents, from society at large -- had forced her, too, into space. And had destroyed so much.
With a skipping, bobbling step she brought herself to a halt on the surface of the ice river. She was no geologist -- that was Dr. Lufkin's job -- but the instruments in her suit and her cross-training let her identify at a general level what she was seeing. The river was, as she had suspected from the satellite imagery, much warmer and hence softer than the rocky stuff around it; it was behaving like lava, flowing downhill at a comparatively rapid pace. But the gravity here was so low that it piled up on itself as it flowed, forming heaps and ridges like frozen waves. Even Meifen, who knew she had no aesthetic sense whatsoever, had to admit that it was beautiful.
She took several photographs, then set off uphill. What she was seeking was most likely to be found at the river's source -- the newest, warmest part of the flow.
It had been while climbing Mount Wai'ale'ale on Kaua'i that she and Sheng had begun flirting. She hadn't even meant it at first; she felt nothing for the man. But when he had appeared to respond, that response had triggered an impulse in her. A greedy, nasty, competitive impulse.
She should probably not have followed through.
The source of the ice river came suddenly: an enormous crested dome of smooth, gleaming ice, and beyond it nothing but stony gray. In places the dome was completely transparent, in others a froth of glittering crystalline white; it had the appearance of a breaking wave. Through her boots she could feel a low, intermittent creak as the mass of water slowly pressed its way to the surface, freezing as it came.
This was exactly what she had been searching and hoping for: a slow seep, ice from the ocean below that had not been vaporized and catapulted into space. From her toolkit she brought out drills and scrapers and sample containers.
The work was difficult, the positions into which she was forced to contort herself uncomfortable. But she persevered, gathering samples from high and low and deep and shallow, until the beep of her air supply's monitor forced her to gather her equipment and head back to the lander.
She was happy, but exhausted, and stumbled frequently. At one point she misjudged a leap over a gap she had cleared with no difficulty on the outward journey, and wound up scrabbling on the chasm's edge for interminable seconds before clawing her way to safety. She lay on her stomach, gasping, for some minutes until she was calm enough to continue.
She would have to be more careful. It would be horrible to die now, when she was so close to victory. She had worked too hard, sacrificed too much, made too many difficult choices to fail now.
Although she had to admit that the choices that had secured her position on the Enceladus mission had barely been hers at all. It had been Sheng who had responded to her subtle overtures, Sheng who had come to her tent in the middle of the night.
And it had been Lanfen's choice to smash her own equipment in a jealous rage when she'd found out, destroying years of her own work.
Lanfen had told the ISA that the data had been lost due to a lab accident. Bad enough that her project had collapsed; even worse if the agency had reason to doubt her emotional stability. For obvious reasons, neither Sheng nor Meifen had been inclined to reveal the truth. But, in the end, the deception had done Lanfen no good; Meifen had been selected instead.
The sisters had barely spoken since. Lanfen had not even come to the launch, to their parents' puzzled disappointment.
Back at the lander, Meifen fidgeted impatiently as the airlock cycled, listening to her suit creak as air pressure returned. She began doffing the suit as soon as she possibly could, her breath fogging the air and the cold metal of her neck ring burning her fingers, and left the helmet bouncing lazily on the EVA prep room floor.
Dr. O'Neill, the disgustingly perky Irish engineer, tried to interrupt Meifen as she rushed to the science bay. "There's a priority transmission coming in from Earth," she said as Meifen rushed past.
"I'll be there in a minute," Meifen replied, not slowing. She took the ladder in one jump, the precious sample container clutched to her chest.
Her fingers trembled, and not just from the cold, as she thawed and prepared the first sample and slipped it into the microscope. She held her breath as the image came up on the screen.
And took in more air in an excited gasp as the view swam into focus.
Curved, transparent forms drifted in the water, the salty Enceladan water from forty kilometers below the surface. One resembled an amoeba with a tail. Another looked more like a paramecium, only arrowhead-shaped. Structures were visible within, resembling vacuoles and organelles.
They were unmoving, clearly quite dead. They were in bad shape -- exploded by decompression, torn by ice crystals that had frozen and thawed. But there was no question that they were life forms, possibly even multicellular. And they were definitely no Earth species.
Extraterrestrial life! She was the first human being to ever behold extraterrestrial life! Her place in history was assured!
A sudden happy shriek from the wardroom two levels above was the only thing that could have broken her spell of exhilarated wonder. "Dr. Lai!" called the commander, his voice full of surprise and delight. "Get up here right now! You don't want to miss this!"
"Coming!" she called, barely able to contain her own excitement. She couldn't wait to share her news with the rest of the crew... and the anticipation of her sister's reaction was even more delicious.
She leapt up from the science bay to the engineering deck in one jump. A second jump took her to the wardroom, where her three crewmates were gathered around the big wall display.
And on that display...
Fabulous creatures.
Golden-skinned they were, and large-eyed... nocturnal, perhaps, or evolved for a lower level of sunlight than Earth's. Tall and slim, with gill-like structures pulsing on the sides of their heads. Tool-using hands. The rest was obscured by clothing, colorful and diaphanous.
The camera pulled back, revealing the big press room at ISA headquarters in Mumbai. The head of the ISA was there on the stage with the aliens, and the president of the Asian Union, and...
...and her sister.
LAI LANFEN, read the text beneath her grinning face. XENOBIOLOGY LEAD, FIRST CONTACT TEAM.
Meifen's knees buckled, but it was three long seconds before her body hit the deck.
赖梅芬已经用尽全力,然而减压舱的门还是没有关上。她咬紧牙关和顽固的液压系统用力抗争终于关上舱门。她甚至能隔着太空服上沉重的聚碳酸酯纤维手套感受到舱关上时发出的声响。在这种稀薄的大气中她听不到关门的声音,但她没法不去听。
即使隔着十亿公里,兰芬——梅芬的异卵双胞胎姐姐——都能让她抓狂。这次的起因来自一封欢快短小的电子邮件,她在信里宣布自己被提升为宇宙生物学部的领头人,还信誓旦旦地声称很快就会发布更多激动人心的消息。梅芬礼貌的回复了一句“恭喜”,随即穿上太空服冲出门外。
她要证明给兰芬看。她要证明给所有人看!
梅芬停下动作,闭上眼睛,通过鼻腔呼吸让自己平静下来。她正在土卫二上——她才是登上土卫二的那个人,不是兰芬!——就这么怒火冲天的冲出来很可能会要了她的命。她等到自己的心跳平和下来,睁眼检查舱门确实正常封闭,这才转过身观看眼前的景色。
土星占据了大部分视野,像是在地平线上冒出一个闪闪发光的巨大穹顶。看上去比满月大五十倍的星球腰间落满大大小小奶油糖果般的阴影。土星表面黄棕相间,比地球还大的风暴点缀其上。可惜看不到土星环,它在地平线以下,一直都在地平线以下——由于土卫二被潮汐锁定的缘故,土星在这颗卫星的天空中从不移动位置。
梅芬曾经提议让登陆舱转变一下方位,这样每次进行舱外活动时宇航员们都会最先看到土星。但是她的提议被国际空间局否决了。于是她不动声色地说服了其他三名船员加入这场小小的叛乱。严厉的韩国指挥官承炫是最难劝说的一个人。不过梅芬最终还是成功的让指挥官确信她最初就有这个意图。他们四个人只花了不到一个小时的时间就很轻松的抬起登陆舱把它转了个个儿——在引力微弱的卫星上做这种事很容易,国际空间局则无力阻止他们的行为。梅芬笑着回想起这件事。
她再一次提醒自己:亲自用双眼欣赏这番景象的人是她自己,不是兰芬——不是那个比她年长,比她个高,比她聪明,比她漂亮的姐姐。她的笑容愈发灿烂。这次,就这么一次,梅芬胜出。而当她找到存在外星生命的证据后她还会再次获胜,这一点毫无疑问。
她摇摇头试图抛开那些沉年积怨,向西尔弗斯坦山脊走去。脚下的白色冰面踩上去不会打滑。在土卫二的温度下这些冰在性质上更接近岩石。远处传来土卫二上常有的冰火山爆发的雷鸣,冰面随之微微振动,仿佛冰面之下遥远的某处有台正在运行的引擎。
在土卫二上行走相当有难度,说是行走其实更像是在水下跳行。这颗小卫星的引力只有地球的百分之一,在这里物体的下落速度不比地球上纸片向下飘落快多少。只要用力向前迈出一步就会让你无助的翻滚,直到撞上某个冰壁才能停下来。就是因为这个原因他们身上穿的是有史以来最坚固的太空服:多层聚碳酸酯纤维加上人造钻石面罩,同时装配陀螺仪和姿势调节喷射器。尽管如此,抛开她经受的所有训练不说,梅芬在掌握行走技巧之前身上布满了碰撞造成的瘀伤。
根据最新的轨道卫星图像显示,梅芬这次舱外活动的目的地是西尔弗斯坦山脊远端最新出现的一处地形。从高空向下看像是一条河——它比两旁的地貌更明亮,从一座叫科瓦尔峰的冰火山的山谷中蜿蜒而出。不过在零下一百摄氏度的温度下,这不可能是一条流淌着水的河。
无论如何不会是液态水。
梅芬跳跃前进,思绪又回到她姐姐那里。她无法否认兰芬更有资格做宇宙生物学部的领导;实际上,要不是她在深海嗜极生物研究项目上太过投入,她现在一定已经在官场上升到了更高的位置。兰芬曾经十分确信这项研究会让她在土卫二探索队员选拔中更胜一筹——只差一点就能证明自己是对的。
双胞胎的母亲是天体物理学家,父亲是生物化学家,这两个人对自己的专业都怀有极大的热情。所以姐妹二人双双成为宇宙生物学家这种事大概是不可避免的。同样无法避免的还有两人之间强烈的竞争意识——她们的母亲总是说分娩时能感觉到她们两个想方设法让自己先降生。兰芬赢得了出生比赛,而梅芬在争夺出征土卫二的任务中扳回一局;也许对她们两人而言,最终还是达成了平局。
梅芬的胜利对兰芬来说也许还是一种助力。兰芬在项目失败并且输掉入选土卫二任务之后一头扎入更具合作性的项目中;这无疑帮她获得了目前的职位。
梅芬停下来喝了口水——尽管太空服外面是凛冽的严寒,蹦蹦跳跳地穿过土卫二表面可是个让人汗流浃背的体力活——在地图上标注上一个新的喷出口。拉夫金博士,脸总是板的像一块俄式头巾一样的俄国地理学家,坚持让他们完整记录下地貌上任何的重要变化。这个喷出口毫无疑问符合重要的定义:数米宽的蒸汽从冰面的罅隙中喷薄而出,以每秒数百米的速度直冲天际,在上升的过程中被冷冻成雪。她在几百米开外都能通过靴子感受到轰鸣声。也许终有一天它会变成和赫斯特山一样巨大的冰火山。后者的冰火山喷射口是土卫二地平线上除了土星以外的第二大标志物。
这些喷射物中的大部分水分会逃逸土卫二的引力加入土星E环,而分量最重含盐最多的颗粒则会落回卫星表面。这些颗粒——来自于她脚下四万千米深处海水所冻成的冰粒——则是本次任务中的宇宙生物学家,也就是她,在土卫二上的研究对象。尽管她收集检验了各种类型各种年代各种温度的雪,她还是没能找到能够证明这里存在生命的确凿证据。这里存在有机分子,也存在可能是生命组成成分的可溶矿物质;但是这些都没有形成结构体。即便有任何生命形式在土卫二冰层下的海洋中游弋,在它们通过猛烈的喷射到达地表之上时也早已被毁尸灭迹了。
她希望从科瓦尔峰流淌出来的冰河或许能有些不同。梅芬查看了一下地图,深吸一口气,朝科瓦尔峰奔去。
走近山峰时,那些悬崖峭壁让她想起她和兰芬一起考察过的最后一座火山。当时是在考艾岛上,同行的还有兰芬的丈夫周胜。那时姐妹之间的紧张气氛就已经愈演愈烈——两人都在为竞争宇航员选拔做最后的努力——而周胜和姐妹俩的父母则坚持要让她们两人暂时休息一下,共同做点事情。
这种状况下当然也少不了大量的家庭聚会......
地面迅速变陡,并且崎岖不平,遍地都是碎冰块。即便她使用了靴子上的攀登装置,脚下依然常常打滑,走的很不稳当。她只有靠肩部姿势调整器突然喷出的嘶嘶响的喷汽的反作用力才能站直身体。有时她要跳过几十米宽的裂缝。不过经过几个月的舱外活动她对自己的能力和太空服都很有信心。她不断地攀登,距离冰火山峰顶的喷射物越来越近,它在那里闪闪发光好像白色的参天巨树。透过靴子和手套她能感受到冰层在隆隆作响。
根据地图的指引,她很快就到达了西尔弗斯坦山脊。而它就在那里,从圣诞山谷流向库柏火山口的冰河:她在卫星图片上发现的冰河,被曲折突起的地貌包围着的光亮,洁白,平滑的冰河。她一跃而起朝河奔去。
她认为压力是她最大的敌人。她脚下四万千米厚的冰层对海洋产生的压力迫使液态水穿过冰层上的裂缝喷涌而出,在地表近乎真空的环境里膨胀成蒸气,毁灭了所有生命的证据。
同样的压力——来自于她姐姐,她的父母,来自于整个社会的压力——也把她推进了宇宙。也摧毁了她。
她又蹦又跳,终于在冰河表面停稳。她不是地理学家——那是拉夫金博士的工作——但是通过太空服中的设备和她受过的交叉学科训练,她能对眼前看到的东西作出大致的判断。和她在看到卫星照片时怀疑的一样,这条河的温度较高,使它比周边坚如岩石的地貌更柔软。它就像岩浆一样以相对较快的速度从山上流下。由于土卫二极微弱的引力,这条河在流淌的同时也在自己的身上不断堆积,形成了如同凝固的波浪一样的地表堆积和隆起。即便是梅芬这样自知毫无审美观的人,也不得不承认这种景象堪称美丽。
她照了几张照片,继续向上攀登。她想要找的东西很可能就在河的发源地——在那段最新鲜最温暖的水流里。
她是在考艾岛上攀登怀厄莱阿莱火山的时候和周胜开始的。起初她并没有这种意图,她对那个男人没有任何感觉。不过他对她的挑逗有所回应,这种回应让她产生了冲动。一种贪婪,卑鄙,充满竞争意识的冲动。
也许她不应该任由事情这样发展下去。
冰河的发源地突然出现在眼前:一个巨大的由闪亮光滑的冰穹形成的峰顶,除此之外都是岩灰色。从某个角度看过去穹顶是完全透明的,从其他角度看则像是个闪烁着水晶光泽的白色泡沫;整个形状就像一个破碎波。她能透过自己的靴子感觉到一种低沉的,断断续续地嘎吱声,那是大量的水缓慢的涌向地表并在得见天日后随即凝结的声音。
这正是她一直在搜寻,一直想要的东西:从地下海洋缓慢渗出的冰;没有被蒸发,也没有被抛向太空。她从工具箱内拿出钻头,铲子和样品盒。
这是个艰苦的工作,她进行钻探的位置让她觉得很不舒服。但她坚持着,从高矮深浅各不相同的位置收集样品。直到空气供给监控器鸣叫着迫使她收回工具返回登陆舱。
她很开心,也很疲惫,脚下频繁的发生各种磕绊。一条裂缝在来的时候她明明毫不费力的跳过去了,眼下却判断错误没能跳过。她在裂缝边缘悬挂了几秒钟,感觉有一辈子那么长,然后爬出裂缝,到达安全地带。她趴在地上,大口喘气,直到几分钟后平静下来继续赶路。
她应该加倍小心才对。她离成功已经如此之近,要是现在死掉就太遗憾了。她那么努力的工作,做出那么多牺牲,做过那么多抉择,绝不能在这一刻失败。
虽然她必须承认那些把她安全送入土卫二任务的选择根本就不是她自己做出的。是那个回应她巧妙的爱之序曲,半夜钻入她帐篷的周胜,是他替她做出了决定。
当兰芬发现真相后,在嫉妒心驱使的愤怒之下,她选择砸碎了所有的设备,毁掉了自己经年的工作成果。
兰芬告诉国际空间局项目数据毁于一场实验室事故。对她来说项目失败已经够糟糕了;要是让局里有理由怀疑她的情绪不稳定无异于雪上加霜。而周胜和梅芬出于显而易见的原因都无意揭露真相。最终这场骗局也没能帮上兰芬;取而代之的是梅芬被选入土卫二的勘探任务。
从那以后姐妹俩人就没怎么说过话。考察队启航时兰芬甚至没来送行,这让她们的父母迷惑不解,也很失望。
回到登陆舱,在等待减压舱注入空气的期间内,梅芬坐立不安的听着她的宇航服在逐渐增大的气压下嘎吱作响。舱内刚一达到安全环境,她立刻动手脱下宇航服。她的呼吸在空中形成雾气,她的手指被脖子上冰冷的金属环灼伤,导致头盔掉在出舱活动准备室的地板上,懒洋洋的弹跳了几下。
那个总是兴高采烈的讨厌鬼,爱尔兰工程师奥尼尔博士在梅芬冲向科学区的时候想要打断她的行动。“马上会有一个来自地球的高优先级转播。”她对跑过身边的梅芬说。
“我马上就到。”梅芬不减速的回复她。她把样本盒紧紧地抱在胸前一步跃上爬梯。
在她把第一份样品解冻,准备好并放到显微镜下的时候,她的手指颤抖着,不仅仅因为寒冷。她屏住呼吸看着视野中的图像。
当视野中的图像聚焦时她激动地吸入一大口气。
蜷曲透明的形态在来自土卫二地表之下四万千米的盐水中漂浮。有的看上去像是带着尾巴的阿米巴原虫。有的看上去像箭头状的草履虫。它们的内部结构清晰可辨,看上去像是液泡和细胞器。
它们一动不动,明显已经死去。经过减压以及冰晶的冷凝和解冻,它们的形体遭到了破坏。但是它们毫无疑问是某种生命形态,甚至有可能是多细胞生物,并且绝对不是地球上的生物。
外星生命!她是亲眼见到外星生命的第一人!她在历史中的地位由此奠定!
两层楼上的起居室内突然传来一阵欢快的叫嚷声,打破了带给她惊奇欢乐的咒语。“赖博士!”指挥官呼叫她的声音里充满惊讶和欢欣。“马上上楼来!你决不会想错过这个!”
“就来!”她喊道,几乎无法掩饰自己的激动。她实在等不及要和队友分享这个消息......而一想到她姐姐对这件事的反应,更让她甘之如饴。
她从科学区一步跳到上一层的工程区,又跳跃一次到达起居室。她的三个队友聚集在一面显示墙前。
整面墙上显示的是......
无与伦比的生物。
它们长着金色的皮肤和硕大的眼睛——也许是夜生生物,也许相比地球而言他们的进化环境里没有那么多的阳光。他们个头高挑而苗条,头部两侧有腮有一样的器官在不断搏动,有能够使用工具的手。身体的其他部位被半透明的斑斓彩衣遮掩。
镜头向后拉,展现出国际空间局总部位于孟买的宽敞的新闻发布室,在展示台上和外星人站在一起的人分别是国际空间局的领导,亚洲联盟的总统,还有......
......还有她的姐姐。
屏幕在她灿烂的笑容下给出了这样的字幕:“赖兰芬,宇宙生物学部领头人,第一接触小组”。
梅芬双腿一软,然后花了三秒钟的时间才摊倒在地上。
「完」
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