Chapter 43 Chapter Forty-Two
Colonel Federman Kassad died in battle. , he was still fighting the Shrike, and Moneta was only a blur at the edge of his vision.He traveled through time and changed places. After a while of dizziness, he finally fell into the sunlight.
The Shrike folded his arms and took a step back, his red eyes seemed to reflect the blood splattered on Kassad's pseudoskin suit.It was Kassad's blood.
The Colonel looked around.They were near the Time Tombs, but in another time, a distant time.It used to be a barren land, full of desert rocks and sand dunes, but now it was replaced by a forest, which stood tall within half a kilometer of the entire valley.To the southwest, about where the ruins of the dead city of Kassad's time stood, a living city rose, its towers, walls, and domed corridors glimmering in the nightlight.The city on the edge of the forest on one side, the valley on the other, and between the two, the prairie covered with tall grass billows in the breeze.The wind was blowing from the distant Bridle Mountains.
To Kassad's left, the Valley of the Time Tombs stretched away as usual, but now the cliffs had fallen, crumbled by erosion and landslides, and covered with tall grass.The Tombs of Time themselves looked new, as though they had just been built, with workers' scaffolding still standing around the obelisk and the Monolith.Every surface tomb shone brightly and seemed bound to polished precious metal.Doors and entrances are tightly shut.Impossibly lumbering machines crouched around the mound, surrounding the Sphinx, huge anchor chains and thin-wire booms moving back and forth.Kassad suddenly realized that he was in the future—perhaps in the future hundreds or thousands of years later—the Tomb of Time was about to be thrown back into the past, marching towards his own era, and bursting into a further past.
Kassad looked behind him.
Thousands of men and women stood line after line along the green hill where the cliffs had once been.Silent and armed, they stood in formation, facing Kassad, like combat troops awaiting orders from their commanders.The energy field of the skin-like suit flashed on some of them, while others were only covered with fur, wings, scales, strange weapons, and detailed coloring. Earlier, Kassad traveled with Moneta to the place where he was healed (time ), he had seen these sights before.
monita.She stood between Kassad and the fighters, the power field of the skin-like suit flickering around her midriff, but she was also wearing a skydiving suit that appeared to be made of black velvet.A red scarf is tied around the neck.A thin rod-shaped weapon hangs from the shoulder.Eyes fixed on Kassad.
He swayed slightly, feeling the crippling wound under his skin-like suit, but also something in Moneta's gaze that made his legs go weak with surprise.
She doesn't know him.Her face expressed surprise, wonder...awe? ... the rows of faces in the back showed the same expression.Kassad and Moneta stared at each other, and the valley was silent except for the hunting of pennants on spears, or the slight rustle of grass in the wind.
Kassad looked back.
The Shrike stood there motionless, like a metal statue ten meters away.The tall grass barely reached its thorny knees.
Behind the Shrike, across the head of the valley, just beside where the clusters of black elegant trees took root, groups of Shrikes, lines of Shrikes, and lines of Shrikes stood in the hazy daylight, sharply dissected. The knife gleamed.
Kassad recognized his Shrike, the only Shrike.One is because it looks very similar, and the other is because the monster's claws and carapace are dripping with his own blood.The monster's eyes glowed crimson.
"You're the one, aren't you?" Someone's soft voice came from behind.
Kassad turned around, feeling dizzy again for a split second.Moneta was standing just a few steps away.Her hair was short, as he recalled when they first met.The skin is soft, and the green eyes covered with brown spots are deep and mysterious.An impulse surged in Kassad's heart, and he wanted to raise his hand to gently touch her cheek, stroking the familiar curve of his lower lip with his curved fingers.But he didn't.
"You are the one," Moneta said again, not asking him this time, "the warrior I prophesied to my people."
"Don't you know me, Moneta?" Kassad's several wounds were almost to the bone, but at this moment, all the wounds have died down.
She shook her head and pushed back the hair that fell on her forehead. This movement was very familiar. "Moneta. Means 'daughter of memory,' and also 'adviser.' A good name."
"Isn't that your name?"
She smiled.Kassad recalled that smile, the first time they made love in the forest glen. "No," she whispered, "not yet. I have just arrived here. My journey and guardianship have not yet begun." She told him her name.
Kassad blinked, raised his hand, and pressed his palm to her cheek. "We were lovers," he said. "We met on long-forgotten battlefields. You'll be with me every time." He looked around. "It all led me here, didn't it?"
"Yes," Moneta said.
Kassad turned and stared at the Shrike army across the valley. "Is this a war? A war of thousands against thousands?"
"War," Moneta said, "thousands against thousands. On ten million planets."
Kassad closed his eyes and nodded.The skin-like suits served as sutures, field dressings, and supermorphine syringes, but they couldn't keep the pain and debilitating pain of a badly wounded wound out for long. "Ten million planets," he said, opening his eyes, "so, is this the ultimate battle?"
"right."
"The winner can get the Time Tomb?"
Moneta looked down the valley. "The victor decides that the Shrike buried there paved the way for others..." She nodded towards the Shrike army. "Or, humans have a say in our past and future."
"I don't understand," Kassad said, his voice full of oppression, "but the military rarely understands the political situation." He leaned forward, kissed a surprised Moneta, and took off her red blouse. Scarf, "I love you," he said, tying the little piece of cloth to the barrel of his assault rifle.The indicator showed that the rifle had half its pulse charge and ammo remaining.
Feldman Kassad took five steps forward, turned his back to the Shrike, and raised his arms in front of the group of people, who were still standing quietly on the hill, Kassad shouted: "For freedom!"
Three thousand voices immediately shouted: "For freedom!" The roar continued.
Kassad turned, holding his rifle and pennant aloft.The Shrike took half a step forward, showing off his majestic posture, and opened his finger blade.
Kassad yelled and charged forward.Behind him, Moneta followed closely, arms held high.Thousands followed.
Afterwards, among the piles of corpses in the valley, Moneta and some of the specially selected fighters found Kassad's body. He and the crushed Shrike were still tightly hugging each other, which was the embrace of death.They carefully pulled Kassa out, carried him to the waiting tent in the valley, washed and cared for his traumatized body, carried him through the soldiers, and entered the Crystal Monolith.
The body of Colonel Federman Kassad rests on a white marble bier with his weapons at his feet.In the valley, a huge campfire filled the entire space with light.Up and down the valley, men and women moved with torches, others swarmed down from the blue sky, some in airships as fragile as molded bubbles, others with wings of energy, or It is wrapped in a ring of green gold.
Afterwards, the whole valley shone brightly, and above it, the stars took their places and shone brightly and coldly.Moneta bid farewell to the crowd and entered the Sphinx.All the soldiers sang in unison.In the fields far away, small rodents weaved among the fallen pennants, among the scattered remains of armor, armor, metal blades, and molten steel.
Near midnight, the crowd stopped singing and walked back panting.The Tomb of Time glowed.The ferocious tide of the anti-entropic field drove the crowd farther—to the entrance of the valley, and they crossed the battlefield and returned to the city that shimmered under the night.
In the valley, the huge tombs gleamed, faded from gold to bronze, and began their long journey into the past.
Braun Lamia walked past the gleaming obelisk, struggling against the wall of violent winds.Grains of sand tore at her skin, gripping her eyes like claws.Silent lightning bursts on the cliff top, making the already eerie light around the tomb even more eerie.Braun spread her hands to cover her face and staggered forward, squinting her eyes, searching for traces of the path through her fingers.
Braun saw a ray of golden light, radiant and even stronger than the ordinary light that spilled from the broken glass windows of the Crystal Monolith, seeping from within, onto the warped sand dunes that hid the valley floor.Someone is in the Monument.
Braun had vowed to go directly to the Shrike Temple, do everything he could to save Silenas, and then return to Sol.Never deviate from the business in the middle.But she saw the silhouette of a person in the tomb.Kassad was still nowhere to be seen.Thor had told her of the consul's mission, but the diplomat might have returned because the storm was too strong.Father Duré was nowhere to be found.
Braun walked toward the light, and she stopped at the jagged entrance to the Monolith.
The interior space is extremely vast and breathtaking.The space skyrocketed up, reaching almost a hundred meters, and then reached the roof that looked like a skylight.The walls appeared translucent from the inside, as though some sun-like light had turned them a gorgeous golden-brown.In front of Braun is a vast space, with thick light falling on its central scene.
Feldman Kassad lay on some kind of rock burial dais.He was wearing the black military uniform of the military department, with big pale hands crossed on his chest.In addition to Kassad's assault rifle, there were other weapons Braun didn't recognize lying at his feet.The colonel's face was haggard and lifeless, but it was not much haggard compared with his life.He looked calm.There is no doubt that he is dead; the silence of death hangs in the air like incense.
But the figure Braun saw in the distance was another figure in the room who now caught Braun's attention.
A young woman in her twenties was kneeling beside the funeral altar.She was wearing a black skydiving suit, short hair, fair skin, and big eyes.Braun recalled the soldier's story on their long journey to the valley, and she recalled all the details of Kassad's phantom lover.
"Moneta," Braun whispered.
The young woman is kneeling on one knee, with her right hand outstretched, touching the rock next to the colonel's body.A purple canopy flickered around the altar, and another energy—some powerful vibration in the air—refracted the light around Moneta, enveloping the scene in a haze and halo.
The young woman raised her head and stared at Braun. She stood up and nodded.
Braun stepped forward, with more than twenty questions already popping up in her mind, but the tides of time in the tomb were too strong, they drove her with waves of dizziness and deja vu, causing her to keep moving backwards .
She looked up, the altar was still there, Kassad was lying safely under the force field, but Moneta was gone.
An impulse came over her to turn and run back to the Sphinx, find Thor, tell her all this, and wait there until the storm died down and morning came.But, amidst the scraping and whining of the storm, Braun thought he heard the scream from the thorn tree, which had disappeared under the curtain of sand.
Braun turned up his collar and walked back into the storm, finding the path to the Shrike's sanctuary.
A large mass of rocks floats in the air like a caricature of mountains.Mountains of jagged spikes, edged ridges, absurdly vertical faces, narrow ridges, wide rocky terraces, snow-capped peaks so narrow that only one person can stand on them—and one One foot on top of the other.
The river meanders from space, passes through the multi-layered shelter half a kilometer away from the mountains, crosses the grassy depressions on the widest rocky terrace, and then plunges down more than a hundred meters at one end, turning into a slow-moving The waterfall falls to the next terrace, and then rebounds into five or six small streams and small waterfalls through cleverly directed spray streams, all the way down the mountain wall.
The trial will be held on the highest terrace.Seventeen Ousters—six men, six women, and five of unknown sex—sat in a rock circle that squatted within a wider circle of grass with stone walls.Both circles have the consul as their center.
"You understand," said Freeman Zhenjia, a qualified civic spokesperson for the Freeman Tribe of the super ear tour group, "we already know about your betrayal?"
"Yes," said the Consul.He was dressed in his finest dark blue poirot, a maroon cape, and a diplomat's three-cornered hat.
"Know one fact, that is——you killed Freeman Andil, Freeman Iriam, Caldwell Bates, Mizhensby Torrance."
"I know Andil's name," the consul said in a low voice, "Those three technicians didn't introduce me."
"But you killed them?"
"I admit."
"Without reason and without warning."
"right."
"Kill them and loot the device they brought to Hyperion. We told you that the machine would undo the so-called Tides of Time, open the Time Tombs, and free the Shrike from its bondage."
"Yes." The consul seemed to be staring at something behind Freeman Zhen Jia, something far, far away.
"We have stated," Zhen Jia said, "that we will use this device after we have successfully repelled the Overlord ship. That is when our conquest is on the verge of imminent. Just when the Shrike can be controlled by... when."
"right."
"Yet you still murdered our people, lied to us, and activated the status a few years in advance on your own."
"Yes." Merio Arandesi and Theo Rain stood side by side one step behind the consul, with gloomy faces.
Freeman Zhenjia crossed her arms.She was a tall woman with a standard Ouster form—bald, thin, and wearing a luxurious dark blue dress that seemed to absorb the light.His face was vicissitudes, but there was hardly a wrinkle on his face.The eyes are very dark.
"Even though it seems to you that it's been four standard years, do you think we'll forget?" Zhen Jia asked.
"No," the consul looked down at Zhen Jia.There seemed to be a little smile on his face, "Very few civilizations will forget the traitor, Freeman Zhen Jia."
"But you're still back."
The consul remained silent.Theo Lane stood aside, feeling a breeze gently blowing his formal three-cornered hat.He felt as if he were dreaming.The voyage just passed was so weird, it seemed like a dream.
The three Ousters met them in a long, short gondola floating effortlessly on the calm waters below the Consul's ship.When the three overlord guests sat on the belly of the boat, the Destroyer at the bow pushed the boat away with a long pole.The boat sailed away in the opposite direction from which it had come, as if the flow of the Impossible River had been reversed.They came to the waterfall, and the stream rose straight up to the surface of their little planet.At this moment, Theo closed his eyes, but when he opened them a second later, down and down, the river seemed to be flowing perfectly normally, even though the grassy spheres of this small world hovered like huge curved walls .A sky full of stars can be seen through the two-meter-thick ribbon of river water beneath them.
Then they began to travel through the containment field, out of the atmosphere, and their speed began to increase as they traveled along the winding ribbon of water.They were surrounded by the conduits of the Concealed Field—the inevitability indicated by logical reasoning, plus their lack of immediate and dramatic deaths—but the Confinement Field lacked the usual twilight and visual character of the Saints' Treeship Or the temporary passenger environment exposed in space will always have that quality.But here, there are only rivers, ships, people, and the vastness of space.
"They can't use this river as a means of transport between their hordes," said Merio Arandesi in a trembling voice.Theo noticed that the archaeologist's pale fingers were also gripping the gunwale.Neither the Ouster in the stern nor the two in the bow said a word, and the Consul asked them if this was the vehicle they had promised, and they just nodded in the affirmative.
"They are showing off the river," said the Consul softly. "They use it when the flock rests, but only for ceremonial purposes. If the river is used when the flock is moving, it is to make an impression. .”
"Using their advanced technology to frighten us?" Theo asked, his voice low.
The Consul nodded.
The river twisted and twisted through space, sometimes doubled in some unreasonably huge loop, sometimes wrapped itself in a tight spiral like a fiber-plastic rope, and sometimes shimmered in the Hyperion daylight, receding ahead of them. to infinity.Sometimes the river blocks the light, and that's when it produces a cascade of colors; Theo looks up at the river circuit a hundred meters above his head, panting, fish swimming in it against the sun's disc .
But the tail end of the ship was always facing down, and they galloped all the way, the speed must be close to the speed of the earth-moon transmission, and the traffic road was a river that was not interrupted by rocks and turbulent currents.A few minutes into the journey, Aron Dezi noticed that it was like being in a canoe on the edge of an endless waterfall and trying to enjoy the ride all the way down.
The river flows through roving armies that fill the sky like false stars: magnificent comet farms, their dusty surfaces shattered by crop patterns grown in a harsh vacuum; zero-gravity spherical cities, wrapped in Huge irregular spheres of hyaline membranes look like incredible amoebas swarming with bustling bacterial communities and fauna; ten-kilometre-long spiny bushes, growing and prospering for centuries, their internal units, Habitats and biomes look like they've been pilfered from O'Neill's leather cords and the Enlightenment of the space age; roaming forests cover hundreds of kilometers like giant floating kelp beds, passing through sheltered fields and tangled bundles Rhizomes and runners, with their thorny bushes and command nodes—globose treelike structures swaying gently in the gravitational breeze, then ignited by straight streaks of sunlight, glowing bright green and deep orange. the hundreds of shades of Old Earth's fall; hollowed-out asteroids, long abandoned by their denizens, now delivered to automated manufacturing and heavy metal recycling, buildings where every centimeter of surface rock has been corroded , Chimneys, and bone-shaped cooling towers, whose internal fusion flames make every cinder field look like a forge; huge spherical docks, only because torch ships and cruiser-sized battleships streamed on their surfaces, Showing their huge size, it looks like sperm are attacking eggs; there are also unforgettable organisms, I don’t know if the river is approaching them, or they are flying towards the river... This organism may have been created , or naturally occurring, but probably a combination of both, the shape of a huge butterfly, the energy source from the sun's wings spread out, a spaceship like an insect, and an insect that seems to be a spaceship, when they pass by, their antennae Turning towards the river, the gondola, and the passengers on board, the many-faced eyes gleamed in the starlight, and small flying figures—human beings—passed in and out of the opening in its belly, the size of the belly of a ship the size of a military headquarters. The cabin of the landing spacecraft attacking the aircraft carrier is about the same size.
Finally, they came to the mountain range—it was actually a whole series of mountains: some raised hundreds of environmental chambers, some opened their doors to space, but were still densely populated, and some were interconnected with other mountains by suspension bridges or tributaries thirty kilometers long. , others stand alone, like a king, many are empty, neat and well-proportioned like a Zen garden.Then there's the last mountain range, towering even higher than the Olympus Mons or the Hillarys of Asquith.The river began its penultimate drop towards the summit, and Theo, the Consul, and Alain Dezi paled and fell silent for a moment as the boat plunged headlong for the final kilometers at a perceptibly frightening speed. In shock, he gripped the horizontal seat board tightly.Finally, in this last unbelievable 100-meter section, the river radiated full energy without slowing down, and the vast atmosphere once again surrounded them.The ship came to a screeching halt and floated on the green grass where the Inquisition of the Ouster Horde stood waiting, the rocks standing like a Stonehenge circle of silence.
"If they did it to frighten me," Theo whispered, as the boat crashed against the grassy bank, "then they succeeded."
"Why did you return to Youqun?" Freeman Zhen Jia asked.The woman paced slowly, with the grace and grace that only a man born in space possessed in the minuscule gravity.
"I was called by CEO Yueshi," said the Consul.
"You came here knowing that we would sentence you to death?"
The leader was too gentlemanly and sociable for he didn't shrug his shoulders.Even so, his expression conveyed the same emotion.
"What does Yueshi want?" asked another deportee, a man introduced by Zhen Jia as the spokesperson for eligible citizens, Caldwell Minmeng.
Consul repeated five questions from the CEO.
Spokesman Min Meng crossed his arms and looked at Freeman Zhen Jia.
"I'll answer it now," Zhen Jia said.She glanced at Alun Dezi and Theo, "You two, please listen well, in case the person who brought these problems can't return to the spaceship with you."
"Wait," said Theo, stepping forward to face the tall Ousters, "you must take into account the fact that—"
"Quiet," the spokesman, Freeman Zhenjia, ordered, but the consul had already put his hand on his shoulder and silenced him.
"I'll answer these questions now." Zhen Jia repeated.High overhead, more than 20 small warships flashed past silently. These ships, called Lancers by the military, were like a group of fish zigzagging under a gravity level of three hundred times.
"First of all," Zhen Jia said, "Yueshi asked, why did we attack the ring network." She paused, looked at the other sixteen Ousters gathered nearby, and then continued, "We didn't. Actually , only our group tried to occupy Hyperion before the Time Tombs opened, other than that, other groups did not attack the ring network."
The three overlord citizens took a step forward.Even the Consul lost his dazed calm and stammered excitedly.
"How is this possible! We saw..."
"I saw the super light image, just at..."
"The gate of the kingdom of heaven has been destroyed! The sacred forest has been burned!"
"Quiet!" Freeman Zhen Jia ordered.In the silence, she continued, "We are the only pack fighting the Overlord. Our sister pack is at the point where the Remote Ring first captured their position... away from the Ring, fleeing something like A further provocation for the Battle of Brescia."
The Consul rubbed his face, as if he had just woken up from a sleep alone. "But who...?"
"Absolutely," Freeman Zhen Jia said, "Who has this supernatural power and can realize such a disguise? Who has this motive and wants to slaughter hundreds of millions of human beings?"
"Kernel?" the Consul whispered.
The mountains are slowly rotating, and they are entering night at once.A convective wind moved across the terraces of the mountains, rustling the Ouster's robes and the consul's cocked hat.Overhead, the stars seemed to explode brightly.The massive lithosphere of Stonehenge is glowing as if with internal heat.
Theo Lane stood beside the consul, worried that the man would fall head over heels. "That's just one side of your story," Theo told an Ouster spokesman. "It doesn't make sense."
Zhen Jia didn't blink her eyes. "We'll show you the evidence. Emission locator from the Nether Void. Real-time star field images from our sister group."
"The Void of Negotiation?" said Arandez.His always calm voice now seemed agitated.
"It's what you call super light." Spokesman Freeman Zhen Jia walked to the nearest rock, touching the rough surface of the rock with one hand, as if absorbing the heat inside.Hoshino spun overhead.
"Now to Pleasant's second question," she said, "we don't know where the inner core is. For centuries we have fled from it, fought against it, sought it out, feared it. But we have not found it. You must tell Our answer to this question! We have declared war on this parasitic entity you call the Technokernel."
The Consul seemed to be softening. "We don't know either. Web authorities have been looking for the inner core since before the Exile, but the inner core is as elusive as the fabled El Dorado. We haven't found any hidden worlds, no large asteroids stuffed with hardware , and there is no trace of it in the ring world," he waved his left hand wearily, "we all thought that you hid the kernel in a group of wanderers."
"We don't," said spokesman Caldwell Minmeng.
The Consul finally shrugged. "The Great Exodus ignores thousands of worlds in the big survey. Any planet that doesn't score at least 9.7 points out of 10 on the foundational scale is ignored. The core may have been lost during those early voyages and Anywhere along the line. We'll never find it... If we did find it, the Web would have been destroyed years ago. You are our last hope of finding its whereabouts."
Zhen Jia shook her head.High overhead, the twilight line raced toward them below the ice field with frightening speed, while the mountaintops caught the glory of the rising sun. "Thirdly, Yueshi asked us to cease fire. However, only the wandering groups in this system launched the attack, and we are not the ones attacking other planets. As long as Hyperion is under our control, we will accept the cease fire... In fact, we will immediately All right. We have just received word that our expeditionary force has taken control of the capital and its airport."
"Nonsense." Theo said, clenching his fists without hesitation.
"It's indeed nonsense," Freeman Zhen Jia didn't object, "tell Yueshi, we will now fight side by side with you to resist the core of technology." She glanced at the other silent people in the trial. "However, since we are separated by several years of travel from your Ring, and since we do not rely on core-controlled teleporters, our assistance must be to avenge your overlord's destruction with fire in fire. We will To avenge you all."
"It's very satisfying," said the Consul dryly.
"Fourth, Pleasant Stone asked if we would meet with her. My answer was: yes...if she - as she said - would come to the Hyperion system. We did not destroy the remote The teleporter, for that possibility. But we don't travel by teleporter ourselves."
"Why not?" Alain Dezi asked.
A third unintroduced Ouster, a hairy but rather well-shaven man, said, "The device you call a teleporter is an abomination . .”
"Ah, religious reasons," said the consul, nodding his head in understanding.
The strangely striped and hairy Ouster shook his head stubbornly. "No! The teleporter webs are the ties around the necks of humanity, the servile pacts that bind you to a standstill. We will not use them."
"Fifth," said Freeman Zhenjia, "Pleasant Stone mentioned the death stick as a powerful weapon, but that was nothing more than a poor ultimatum. I solemnly declare that it was aimed at the wrong enemy. Those who The troops that enter your defenseless Ring to sweep are not the tribe of the Twelve Sisters."
"That's just one side of your story," said the consul.Now, he and Zhen Jia looked at each other with firm, contemptuous eyes.
"My words are worth nothing to you," said spokeswoman Zhen Jia. "The tribal elders don't even speak to kernel slaves. But it's the truth."
The Consul seemed a little distracted as he half-turned to face Theo. "We have to tell Yue Shi the news immediately." He turned back and looked at Zhen Jia, "Speaker, can my friend return to the spaceship to convey your reply?"
Zhen Jia nodded and waved her hand to signal that the gondola was ready.
"We won't go back without you," Theo said to the consul, stepping forward to stand between the consul and the nearest deportee, as if to protect the old man with his own body.
"No," said the Consul, putting his hand on Theo's upper arm again, "you have to go back. You have to go back."
"He's right," said Arandez, pulling the young governor away before he could speak again. "The matter is too important, we can't take risks, we must convey it. You go. I will stay with him."
Zhen Jia waved at the two strange and bulky Ousters. "Both of you must go back. The Consul remains. The Inquisition has not yet ruled on his fate."
Arandezi and Theo both turned around at the same time, raising their fists high, but the hairy Destroyer held them down and pulled them away.The Ousters didn't use much effort, just like adults dealing with unruly children.
The Consul watched his two companions settle in the gondola.Just when he resisted the urge to wave goodbye to them, the boat started to drive along the calm river, disappeared beyond the curved terrace twenty meters away, and then reappeared, climbing up the path leading to the black and silent space. Fall.The blinding light of the sun came down, and in a few minutes it was gone.The consul turned around slowly and looked at each of the seventeen deportees.
"Just get it over with," said the Consul. "I've waited a long time for this moment."
Saul Winterberg sat under the great paws of the sphinx and watched the storm die down, the wind change from shrieks to whimpers to whispers, die away bit by bit, the curtain of dust shrinks, Then it splits into two, revealing a sky full of stars.Finally, the long night stabilized and became strangely peaceful.The tomb was brighter than before, but nothing came out of the sphinx's bright entrance, and Thor could not enter.The pushing of the blinding light was like a thousand irresistible fingers oppressing his chest. No matter how much he tilted and how hard he tried, Sol still couldn't get three meters closer to the entrance.Whatever was standing inside, or moving, or waiting, was lost in the blinding light, and nothing could be seen.
Thor sat there, clutching the rocky steps, while the tides of time pushed and tugged at him, making him tear up under the shock of deja vu mistakes.The violent storm formed by the rising and falling anti-entropy field seems to make the whole Sphinx shake and tilt.
Rachel.
As long as his daughter had any chance of being alive, Thor would not leave.Lying on the icy rock, he listened to the howling storm die down, watched the cold star emerge, watched the meteor trails and laser-cut weapons of the orbital war criss-cross, attacking and counterattacking each other.He knew with all his heart that the war was lost and the Ring was at stake.As he watched, great empires were falling.In this endless night, the human race may be in jeopardy...but he doesn't care.
Saul Winterburo misses his daughter.
As he leaned there, cold, beaten by the wind and the tides of time, bruised from exhaustion, starving from hunger, he felt a sudden sense of peace descend upon him.He sacrificed his daughter to a monster, but not because God asked him to do it, not because of the will of fate and fear, just because his daughter appeared in his dream and told him that it didn't matter, that's what it should be made.It was what their love—his and Sarai's—asked for.
In the end, Saul thought, what transcended logic and hope was dreams, our undying love for those dearest to us, and that was Abraham's answer to God.
Sol's comlog no longer works.It might have been an hour, or five, since he had given the dying child to the Shrike with his own hands.The tide of time caused the Sphinx to toss up and down like a boat on the sea, and Thor lay back, still clinging to the rock, gazing at the stars and the battle overhead.
随着激光切割武器命中目标，火花划过天际，如超新星般璀璨发亮，熔化的残骸如阵雨倾泻——从白热到红焰，再到一片漆黑。索尔脑海中想象着熊熊燃烧的登陆飞船，想象着驱逐者部队和霸主海兵在啸叫的大气和熔化的钛金属中呜呼而死……他试图想象……但是无功而返。索尔明白，太空战、舰队的调遣、帝国的陨落都是他无法想象的，它们都藏匿在他的同情和理解的蓄水池之下。这种事属于修昔底德、塔西佗、凯通，还有吴。索尔曾面见过巴纳之域的议员，曾多次面见过她，出于他和萨莱的请求，希望拯救瑞秋，让她幸免于梅林症，但索尔无法想象费尔德斯坦是如何参与到大规模的星际战争中的——他也无法想象任何比首府巴萨德新医疗中心落成仪式、比克罗佛大学集会时的讨好性握手更加庞大的事情。
索尔从没面见过现任霸主首席执行官，但身为学者，他喜欢她充满才智地引用丘吉尔、林肯、阿尔瓦雷兹一腾普这些经典人物的演讲。但现在，躺在这巨型石兽的脚爪之下，索尔为他的女儿哭泣，他无法想象，那女人在做决定的时候头脑里在想什么东西，而她的决定，将可能拯救数十亿人类，也可能毁灭他们；可能保护住人类历史长河中最伟大的帝国，也可能将它引入歧途。
索尔没有咒骂。他想要他的女儿回来。他不顾一切逻辑的反对，想要瑞秋活下来。
索尔·温特伯躺在被蹂躏帝国那受困世界上的狮身人面像石爪下，抹掉眼角的泪水，以便看清楚天上的繁星，他同时想到了叶芝的那首诗，《为我女儿的祈祷》：
风暴又一次咆哮；半掩
在这摇篮的篷罩和被巾下面，
我的孩子依然安睡，除去
格雷戈里的森林和一座秃丘
再没有任何屏障足以阻挡
那起自大西洋上的掀屋大风；
我踱步祈祷已一个时辰，
因为那巨大阴影笼罩在我心上。
为这幼女我踱步祈祷了一个时辰，
耳听着海风呼啸在高塔顶，
在拱桥下，在泛滥的溪水上，
在溪上的榆树林中回荡；
在快乐的迷狂中幻梦
未来的岁月已经来到：
踏着狂乱的鼓点舞蹈，
来自大海残酷的天真……
索尔现在终于明白，他所想要的一切，就是诗中所述的这种可能，那是每一个为人父为人母恐惧害怕、忧心忡忡的未来。不能让自己儿女的童年、少年时代和危险的年轻成人期被疾病所摧毁。
索尔用去了一生的时间，希望无法返回的东西能够返回。他记起那天他突然看见萨莱在折叠瑞秋刚学会走路时的衣服，把它们放在阁楼的箱子里，他回想起她的泪水和他自己对女儿的失落感觉。虽然当时女儿还在，但对他们来说，她已经遗失在时间的简单箭头中了。索尔知道，现在不会有什么东西可以返回，除了记忆——萨莱已去天国，无法返回，瑞秋孩提时期的好友和世界都永远消失，甚至连他几个星期前刚刚离开的社会也正在湮没，无法返回了。
索尔躺在狮身人面像的魔爪下，这些想法在他的脑海中一闪而过。风儿停歇，假星闪耀，就在此时，他想到了叶芝另一首诗，但这首诗带着更多的不祥之兆：
必然，即将有某种启示；
必然，即将有再度的降临。
再度降临！这句话才出口，
便自宇宙魂升起一巨影，
令我目迷：在沙漠的某地，
一个形象，狮其身而人其首，
一种凝视，空茫残忍如太阳，
正缓缓举足，而四面八方，
愤然，沙漠之鸟的乱影在轮转。
黑暗重新降下；但现在我知道
沉睡如石的二十个世纪，当时
如何被一只摇篮摇成了恶魔，
而何来猛兽，时限终于到期，
正蹒跚向伯利恒，等待诞生？
索尔不知道。他再次发现，自己毫不在乎。索尔只想要自己的女儿回来。
作战理事会中多数人的意见似乎炸开了锅。
梅伊娜·悦石坐在长桌子的最前面，她感觉到一种奇特但并不怎么难受的孤独感，那是由于长时间以来睡眠过少造成的。闭上双眼，即便是一秒钟，也意味着在疲劳的黑冰上滑动，因此她不敢闭眼，即使它们在火辣辣地灼烧，而简报、会话、紧急辩论的嗡嗡声在倦意的厚帘之下逐渐消退、模糊。
理事会成员一起观看了181.2特遣部队的余烬——也就是指挥官李的攻击队——一个个地熄灭，直到最后，原先七十四艘舰船只剩下十几艘，仍旧在朝逼近的游群开赴。李的巡洋舰就在这些幸存者当中。
在寂静的人员消耗期间，大家都凝望着这抽象的、带着古怪魅力的图像（那是极其真实的残暴死亡），就在此时，辛格元帅和莫泊阁将军完成了他们阴郁的战争评估。
“……军部和新武士道是为有限的战争、小规模冲突、禁止极端、适中有度的目标设计出来的，”莫泊阁总结道，“军部只有不足五十万数量的服役公民，没法和一千年前的旧地民族国家军队相比。游群可以用人海将我们淹没，打败我们的舰队，通过数量取得压倒性胜利。”
科尔谢夫议员坐在桌子对面的位置上怒目而视。在整个简报和争论的过程中，这位卢瑟斯人比悦石更为活跃——大多数问题都频频地转向他提出，而非悦石——就好像房里每个人的潜意识里都明白，权力在转移，领导权的火炬已经被传递。
还没呢，悦石想，她竖着手指，轻叩下巴，倾听着科尔谢夫在那向将军盘诘。
“……撤退，防卫第二波名单上的主要星球——当然包括鲸逖中心，但还有其他不可或缺的工业星球，比如复兴之二，富士星，天津四丁，以及卢瑟斯？”
莫泊阁将军低下头，翻了翻文件，似乎要借此隐藏眼中突然闪现的怒火。“议员先生，离第二波展开对目标名单的侵略，只有不到十天时间。复兴之二，在九十小时之内就将受到大举进攻。但是，我所说的是，凭军部目前的规模、体系和技术，我们甚至不能保证自己能不能保住一个系统……比如说，鲸心。”
柿沼议员站起身。“将军，这完全不能接受。”
莫泊阁抬起头。“我同意，议员。但这就是事实。”
普罗·特恩·登齐尔一希亚特一阿明总统坐在那儿，摇了摇白发苍苍、布满斑点的脑袋。“讨论这毫无意义。难道我们没有什么计划来防卫环网吗？”
辛格元帅坐在自己位子上发言道：“我们对威胁进行过估算。最好的结果是，我们离游群展开攻击最少还有十八个月的时间。”
外交部长佩索夫清清嗓子。“那……如果我们将这二十五个世界拱手让给驱逐者，元帅，距离第一和第二波侵略军攻击我们其它的环网世界，还有多长时间？”
辛格不必查阅他的笔记或者通信志。“佩索夫先生，那要看他们袭击的目标了，最近的环网星球——希望星——离最靠近它的游群有九个标准月。最远的目标——家园星系——用霍金驱动器驾驶的话，也得十四年左右。”
“时间够我们转向战时经济政策，”费尔德斯坦议员说道，她那些巴纳之域选民仅剩四十标准小时不到的活命时间了。费尔德斯坦曾许诺，她将和自己的子民一起面对末日降临。现在，她的声音清晰，却毫无热情。“有道理。我们得认赔。即使我们损失了鲸心和二十多个世界，环网依然能生产大量的军需品……甚至只需九个月时间。这一年内，驱逐者将会深入环网，但我们肯定能通过大规模工业生产将他们打败。”
防御部长伊本摇摇头。“在第一和第二波侵略中，我们会损失一些不可替代的原材料。环网经济将受到重创。”
“我们有别的选择余地吗？”来自天津四丁的彼得斯议员说。
所有人的目光都转向坐在阿尔贝都这位人工智能顾问身边的人。
仿佛是为了强调这一时刻的重要性，一名新人工智能人格获准进入战略决议中心，他将介绍贴着“死亡之杖装置”的别扭标签的武器。他就是南森顾问。此人身材高大，男性，皮肤黝黑，脾气随和，给人深刻印象，有说服力，可信赖，充满了罕见的领袖魅力，让人一眼见到就会喜欢上他，并且还心生敬意。
梅伊娜·悦石立即就对这位新顾问产生了恐惧感和厌恶感。她感到，人工智能专家设计出这个投影，似乎就是特意要让人产生信赖和服从的反应。她感觉到桌边的其他人都已经有了这种反应。而南森的信息，她害怕的信息，意味着死亡。
几个世纪以来，死亡之杖一直都是环网手里拥有的技术——由内核设计，仅限军部人员和一些特殊安全军使用，比如说政府大楼的警力和悦石的禁卫军。死亡之杖不燃烧、不爆炸、不发射、不熔毁，也不会把啥东西轰成炮灰。它不发出任何声音，不放射任何无形的射线或声波覆盖区。它仅仅是让目标死亡。
确切说来，如果目标是人类的话。死亡之杖的射程极为有限——不足五十米——但在那范围之内，被击中的人就会一命呜呼，而其它动物或者属物完全安然无恙。通过尸体解剖可以发现，他们的神经元突触成了一锅粥，但是其它地方毫发无伤。死亡之杖仅仅让人终止生命。好几世代以来，军部的军官把它们带在身上，作为个人短程武器，也作为权威的象征。
现在，南森顾问发话了，他说，内核已经完成了一项无懈可击的装置，此武器使用死亡之杖的原理，但是范围更加广大。他们很犹豫，不知道是否要把它的存在告诉大家，但是由于驱逐者侵略军迫在眉睫的可怕威胁……
接下来的质问力道十足，还带着点尖酸刻薄，带着军事方面的质疑，而不是政治方面的。是的，死亡之杖能让我们摆脱掉驱逐者，但是霸主的人呢？
把他们转移到一个迷宫世界的掩体里去，南森回答道，他重复了阿尔贝都顾问早先的计划。五公里厚的岩石可以保护他们不受死亡之杖宽波辐射的影响。
这些死亡射线能穿透多远距离？
它们的作用不满三光年就会减小到低于致命水平，南森平静且自信地回答，最后一名推销员使用了他倒数第二条推销说辞。杀伤半径够大，足以杀光任何体系的攻击性游群。当然也够小，最近的毗邻星系完全不会受损。百分之九十二的环网星球在五光年的范围内都没有其它住人星球。
那么，那些无法撤离的人呢？莫泊阁问。
南森顾问笑了笑，摊开手掌，似乎想要让大家知道里面什么也没有。先让当局确认所有的霸主公民已经撤离或者受到保护，然后再开动装置，他说。总而言之，一切都由你们掌控。
费尔德斯坦、撒本斯多拉芬、彼得斯、佩索夫和其他人一下子变得热情高涨起来。一种秘密武器，可以终结其它所有武器的秘密武器。驱逐者可以受到警告……我们可以作一下演示。
Feel sorry.南森顾问说。笑容绽放的时候露出一嘴白牙，似珍珠，犹如他穿的那身白袍。不能演示。此武器的效用跟死亡之杖完全一样，仅仅是范围更广。不会有属物损失，也不会有爆炸波效应，没有可测量的微中子水平之上的冲击波。仅仅会让侵略者一命呜呼。
如果要演示，阿尔贝都解释道，你们必须把它用在一队驱逐者游群头上。
战略决议中心内的兴奋之情毫无减弱。棒极了，全局发言人吉本斯说，那就选择一队游群，试试装置，把结果通过超光发送给游群，再给他们一小时的最后通牒时间，让他们停止攻击。我们并没有发起这场战争。让数百万敌人死掉，总比在接下来十年吞噬数百亿人生命的战争要好得多。
广岛。 悦石道，这是她当日仅有的一句评论。这句话说得非常轻，只有她的助手赛德普特拉听见了。
莫泊阁问：致命的射线真的只是在三光年范围内有效吗？你们有没有试验过？
南森顾问笑了。如果他回答是，那也就是说，某个地方有一摞死尸。如果他回答否，那此项装置的可靠性就将受到严重质疑。我们确信它能起作用，南森说。我们的模拟运行是天衣无缝的。
基辅小组的人工智能也是这么评价第一个远距传输器奇点的，悦石想。而那个奇点摧毁了地球。 她没有说出声。
然而，辛格、莫泊阁、范希特和他们的特种兵挫败了南森的计划，他们表示，无限极海已经无法迅速撤离，而且受到第一波袭击的环网世界中，拥有迷宫的仅有阿马加斯特，距佩森和自由星一光年远。
南森顾问脸上助人为乐的诚挚微笑没有消失。“你们想要演示，那仅仅是个明智的想法，”他平静地说道，“你们需要让驱逐者知道，你们不能容忍他们的侵略，但又想让死伤人数减到最低。你们想要保护你们的霸主土著公民，”他顿了顿，握着双手，摆在桌面上，“那么，海伯利安如何？”
桌边的嘁嘁喳喳声越发低沉了。
“那还不是真正的环网世界。”发言人吉本斯说。
“不，既然现在军部的远距传输器依然存在，那它实际上已经属于环网！”外交部长加利安·佩索夫叫道，显而易见，他已经转而皈依这一想法了。
莫泊阁负隅顽抗的表情没变。“到那还得花上几个小时。我们正在保护奇点球，但它随时会被驱逐者摧毁。海伯利安已经差不多全部落人驱逐者之手了。”
“但霸主人员已经被撤离了，对不对？”佩索夫说。
辛格回答道。“除了总督。我们在混乱中没有找到他。”
“真遗憾，”佩索夫部长说，但口气中并没显出多少遗憾，“但重要的是，剩下的人差不多全是海伯利安的土著了，他们很容易进入那里的迷宫，对不对？”
经济部长巴比·丹一基迪斯的儿子是浪漫港附近的纤维塑料种植园经理，他说道：“三小时内？不可能。”
南森站起身。“我不这么认为，”他说，“我们可以给留在首都的地方自治当局发送超光警告信息，他们可以立即展开撤离工作。海伯利安上的迷宫有上千人口。”
“首都济慈已经被围，”莫泊阁吼道，“整个星球正在受袭。”
南森顾问悲痛地点点头。“并将很快被驱逐者野蛮人手刃。女士们先生们，这实在是简单的抉择。装置肯定会起作用。海伯利安领空中的侵略军将简简单单不复存在。这个星球上的数百万人将获救。并会对别处的驱逐者侵略军产生非同凡响的效果。我们知道，他们所谓的姐妹游群通过超光互相交流。侵略霸主领空的首支游群——海伯利安游群的覆灭——将对他们造成极大的威慑。”
南森又摇了摇头，他左右四顾，脸上挂着几如父亲般的关切之情。如此痛苦的真挚感不可能伪造。“决定权在你们手里。这项武器是用，还是不用，全在你们。把人类……或者，由于无为，让人类的生命受到伤害，实在是让内核感到无比痛苦。但在目前这种情况下，数十亿生命危在旦夕……”南森再次摊开双手，最后一次摇了摇头，然后坐了回去，显然已经把决定权留给了人类的头脑和情感所处理。
长桌边的喋喋不休声突然变响。争论几乎变得狂暴不已。
“执行官大人！”莫泊阁将军叫道。
在突然的静寂之下，悦石仰起头，目光朝头顶黑暗中的全息显屏望去。无限极海的游群朝这个海洋世界落去，就像一阵血之湍流奔向一个篮色小球。只留下181.2特遣部队的三个橙色余烬，就在沉默的理事会注目的时候，其中两个也熄灭了。然后，最后一个也隐灭了。
悦石小声对她的通信志说着话。“通信器，李元帅有没有留下最后的信息？”
“没有发给指挥中心的信息，首席执行官，”传来答复，“只有战斗中的标准超光遥测信息。看样子他们没有进入游群中心。”
悦石和李原本希望能俘获驱逐者，希望能审问他们，希望能排除一切疑问，确认他们敌人的身份。现在，这个精力充沛、才华横溢的年轻人死了——因梅伊娜·悦石的命令而死——七十四艘第一线作战军舰被白白浪费。
“无限极海的远距传输器已被预置的等离子炸弹摧毁，”辛格元帅汇报道，“游群的先头部队现已进入地月防御圈。”
No one answered.全息像显示出，血红之光的巨浪将无限极海系统一口吞没，那个金色世界四周的最后橙色余烬尽数熄灭。
几百艘驱逐者战舰继续盘旋在轨道上，大概是在将无限极海的优美浮城和海洋农庄夷为一片燃烧的废墟，但是血潮的很大一部分继续席卷而上，淹没了上方区域。
“阿斯奎斯系统还有三标准小时，四十一分钟。”显示板边上的一名技师长叹一声。
Senator Korschef stood up. “我们来投票表决，是否进行海伯利安演示，”他说，表面上是朝悦石开口，其实是在对众人讲话。
梅伊娜·悦石拍了拍下嘴唇。“不，”她最后说道，“不投票。我们使用这项装置。元帅，准备将载有此装置的火炬舰船传输至海伯利安领空，然后向整个星球和驱逐者播放同样的警告信息。给他们三小时时间。伊本部长，将编码超光信号发送到海伯利安，告诉他们，他们必须……重复一遍，必须……立即到迷宫中寻求保护。告诉他们，我们要试验一项新武器。”
莫泊阁擦了擦脸上的汗水。“首席执行官，我们不能冒任何风险，这项装置不能落人敌人之手。”
悦石望了望南森顾问，她试图不让自己的表情透露出她的感受。“顾问先生，这项装置可不可以装配上一些东西，如果我们的飞船被俘获或者被摧毁，那它就能自动引爆，可以吗？”
“可以，首席执行官。”
“那就装上。向专门的军部专家解释所有必要的故障保护装置是如何运转的，”她转身面对着赛德普特拉，“为我准备全网广播，预定在装置触发前十分钟开始。我得把这一切告诉我们的人民。”
“这明智吗……？”费尔德斯坦议员开口道。
“必须这么做，”悦石说。她站起身，房内的三十八人紧接着站了起来。“你们工作的时候，我想先睡几分钟。我希望装置能立即准备好，并进入系统，同时海伯利安受到警告。我希望，三十分钟后我醒来时，你们能准备好进行谈判协议的紧急情况计划和次序。”
悦石朝众人望去，她知道，不管怎样，这里的大多数人都将在接下来二十小时内大权旁落，坠下政坛。不管怎样，这是她担任首席执行官的最后一天。
梅伊娜·悦石笑了笑。“理事会现在解散，”她说，然后传送到了她的私人住所，去小憩片刻。
Notes:
Notes: