Chapter 11 chapter Ten

CFCs not only absorb heat, they also eat up the ozone layer.As early as the middle of the 20th century, people have known this indisputable fact, but human beings will not stand still because of it.They continue to make HCFCs, they continue to pump large amounts of them into the atmosphere.After all, this is a profitable thing, and the benefit estimation formula corresponding to this kind of human behavior is basically: 1 dollar (now) > 1 human life (future).In this way, after seven or eighty years of intense ultraviolet radiation, human beings have finally reaped the fruits of their own.The clouds over Alaska mostly survived the trees (except for those killed by the acid rain), while the opposite was true in Scandinavia with clear skies.The scorching sun and scorching wind destroyed most of the most fertile land in the world.However, the remaining arable land is still enough to feed the world's population, simply because there are far fewer people on the planet than in the past.Factors contributing to the reduction of the Earth's population to manageable numbers include melting ice and snow flooding the land, the destruction of the ozone layer, acid rain, harsh winds creating arid dust bowls—and, yes, one more factor.This factor no longer exists because its power has long since been exhausted, but at its peak it was a remarkably effective means of controlling population.It is AIDS.

When Margerie Dapp knocked on Sandy's door the next morning, he was already awake, and had been up for hours.After getting up, he fiddled with the new gadgets in the room, experienced the interesting little devices in the bathroom, and stared at the scenery outside the window for a while.But most of the time, he was busy preparing something to surprise Marge. He wanted to give it to her as soon as he saw her, but there was no chance.She came in a hurry, apologized for being late, and rushed him to the TV station for a talk show about the Heckley spaceship.He decided to put the surprise aside for now.Fortunately, this postponement did not bother him, for there were many other pleasant things to do.Sandy's second day on earth was even happier than the first.He is not as timid as before, at least he has understood the basic behavior of people on earth, learned to use toilets and elevators on earth, and even learned to "shopping".Besides, at some point he can take out the surprise in his pocket and dedicate it to the woman he loves.

At the TV station, Sandy saw his Heckley teammates, and they weren't too excited.They stood in the lobby with their escorts, Hamilton Boyle and a woman named Marion Zuckerman. "I'm so hungry," Aubier cried when he saw Sandy. "Polly says we can't have lunch yet, but I've been up for hours." "It's not time yet," said Polly grimly, who was also enduring the endless Earth time. Unconsoled, Aubier complained, "We should have started practicing living by this stupid time." "You'll get used to it," Sandy reassured, even though he was having a hard time getting used to it himself.For him, though, it didn't matter.He felt as if he didn't need sleep at all.Hamilton looked at his watch and said that there was still time to have some "breakfast" before the show started, and Sandy said yes repeatedly.

At the door, Boyle stopped them. "Have you got your hats on?" he checked them one by one. "Very well, one more thing. Ultraviolet light isn't very good for your eyes either. Marianne has something for you." A woman named Marion Zuckerman pulled out several pairs of mirrored glasses she called "sunglasses," a large size for Sandy and two larger ones for two Made to order by the Heckleys, it goes over the head with an elastic strap.Margerie helped Sandy put on her sunglasses, stopping suddenly to stare at his ears. "What is this?" she asked. He replied sheepishly: "You might call this a 'hearing aid'. I'm a little deaf because, well, the standard air pressure on Earth and the ship is different, so we keep our cabin at Earth's air pressure On a level, going in and out like that damaged my hearing. I was very young, and the Highkleigh had to fit me with this."

"Interesting," Boyle said, "would you mind showing us your ears later? We've got some good doctors who specialize in that kind of thing." "We Highkleys have good doctors," said Polly displeased. "Oh, that's natural, but maybe our doctors are more experienced with human diseases, aren't they? Well, let's go to the restaurant." "I'd rather eat biscuit milk in my room," said Aubier with a sad face. "Not yet time for biscuit milk!" Polly snapped. "If you're really hungry, try the earth food and see if you can digest it. It's not bad."

"Don't you want to taste the food of the earth?" Hamilton Foyle said politely. "Biologists think our metabolism is the same." Polly looked at him thoughtfully. "How do your biologists know this?" He said apologetically, "Oh, of course, thanks to Lasander, we tested the food samples he gave us." "Really!" Polly gave Sandy a nasty look. "It's okay. We'll talk about it later. But I don't want to experiment on myself. It's okay to have one less astronaut like Aubier, I'm The person in charge of this mission cannot be a victim."

All kinds of sensory stimuli hit Sandy from all directions: strange, alluring, mysterious, all unique to the earth.He liked to smell all the smells of the earth: sweat, perfume, feet, cinnamon, fresh coffee, pine trees, sewage, roses and gardenias, pepper, freshwater. The smell of baked bread, roasted meat, boiled cabbage; whether it's trampled dog poop, freshly cut grass or starched laundry, hot oil or wet pavement.The colorful colors on the earth also made him very excited: the colors of mountains include green, brown, snow-covered white, rust red and earthy gray; human skin is also divided into reddish brown, olive, pink, and black close to deep purple. and almost snow-white pallor.He hadn't realized how colorless the Heckley were until he'd seen cars and trucks on Earth in every shade of white and diamond blue and fiery red and gold, clothes in every shade and pattern, and Colorful flashing neon lights.

It was the Earthlings who excited him the most, those who would stop and stare whenever Sandy and his party passed by, or lean out of the window to look at them, or greet them in a friendly way.Of course, there was only one person who made him unable to help himself.As they crossed a road, Margery politely took Sandy's hand.He trembled at the touch of her hand.They were safely across the street, and he still held on.Margery gave him a strange and serious look, and didn't insist on anything. He held her hand and walked all the way to the revolving door of the restaurant. Then she gently pulled her hand out and invited him in first.

Restaurant people know they're coming.The waiter immediately ushered them to a six-seat table, where there were only four chairs, leaving two empty seats for Aubie and Polly.Diners around looked at them curiously.The two Hykleites squatted comfortably on the floor, their heads just level with the others. The variety of earth food is dizzying. The name of the food on the "breakfast" menu is fully written, and there is also a "lunch" menu.Hamilton Boyle explained that they could choose between two menus.Sandy and his teammates never had to choose what to eat at each meal.Looking at the menu, he was overwhelmed.All food names are familiar, or fairly familiar.But what are "Eggs Benedict" and "Avocado Spleen"?The more familiar items are hamburgers, french fries, milkshakes, fudge, ice cream and cheese sandwiches.The three companions each ordered breakfast, and after the plate was served, they asked Sandy and the others to have a taste first.Nothing tasted like what they ate during mock practice on the ship.Of course, there is nothing like the food on the spacecraft.Polly didn't touch any of these, but took out some Highkley biscuits from her pocket and began chewing loudly one after another.

Sandy is bolder, or he has a mind of his own.After all, he is a person on Earth, why should he keep away human food thousands of miles away?However, it was difficult to choose what to eat, and finally Marge Li offered a helping hand and ordered food for him.He was grateful to find that her boiled potatoes were acceptable, and that the dry toast was all right, and that he didn't want to eat anything else, and it took a lot of effort just to taste it. Obiye became even more courageous.In front of him was a spread of a dozen different foods — a Western omelet, an avocado stuffed with crab, a hamburger and a “Texas hot dog,” and Sandy couldn’t name anything else. Come up with a name.Obiye barely swallowed a few mouthfuls of the hamburger, and he didn't want to eat the other food because it tasted terrible.He coaxed Polly for some biscuits, which he chewed resentfully.He cheered up again when he saw the "sweets" brought by the waitress.The dessert was "ice cream". He tasted a spoonful, his eyes popped out in amazement, and he declared that "ice cream" was delicious. "It's cold," he exclaimed, both surprised and delighted. "I never knew you could eat something frozen and taste good."

"Beware of poison," said Polly grimly. The broadcast of Qing Taiqi Luo's speech to the people of the earth was transmitted from the starship to the earth, and the whole process used the technology of both human and Heikeli.The broadcast signal was first transmitted from the spacecraft to the communication equipment on the landing ship far away in the Inuit Republic. A human camera was installed in the cabin of the landing ship to capture the images on the screen and then broadcast them to all parts of the world.After hearing Bolton describe the setup of the whole process to her, Polly yelled in Heckley, "This is an unreasonable mistake! You have no right to allow earthlings to enter our landing ship!" "You're wrong," Bolton said triumphantly, "this was approved by Qing Taiqi Luo himself." "It shouldn't have happened anyway!" said Polly angrily.After suppressing the fire, she turned around and shed a tear of friendliness to the people on the TV station, saying: "I just checked with my teammates to see if the arrangements are in place. Now everything is ready. Our direct supervisor Qing Taiqi Luo 'Elder' will address you." "It's our pleasure," said Hamilton Boyle politely. "It's just, I wonder, why don't the Highkleys broadcast it directly to our TV stations, but through your landing ships?" "It was the decision of the Senators," explained Polly. "They must have had good reasons. The Senators are always right." On the screen, Bolton turned and listened, then turned back. "One last reminder," he said to the camera, "Ching Tai Chi Roma starts on." On all the screens of the TV station, the screen flashed and switched to the image on the receiving screen of the landing ship. Graphics are really bad.Both the Earthlings and the Heckleys were doing their best, but the broadcast equipment on both sides didn't quite match, and there were always some colorful, dark-toned meshes across the screen annoyingly.Still, when their old instructor appeared on screen, Sandy recognized him right away. "Hello," Qing Taiqi Luo said in perfect English, with tears of joy streaming down his face, "As the first Heckley 'Elder' to talk to the humans on Earth—our friends and brothers, I It is a great honor. As the Haikeli people who arrived on the earth on the first landing ship said, we have come with the belief of peace and friendship. Like you humans, we Haikeli people also have the custom of giving gifts to guests," listen Arriving here, Sandy suddenly frowned. He had never heard of this custom among the Haikeli people.Polly made a quick pinching gesture, and Sandy fell silent. "The first gift we bring to you is a fellow of your kind, John William Washington, better known to his Hackley friends on board as Lasander. We send him back to his native land to prove that Our kindness." Qing Taiqi Luo smiled all over his face and leaned in front of the camera. "How are you, Lasander?" he asked. "Are you happy to be back among your own family?" Sandy felt Polly's eyes fixed on him, and quickly replied respectfully: "Qing Taiqi Luo, I feel very good and happy." He waited for Qing Taiqi Luo's answer.It took a while for the signal to arrive, and Qing Taiqi Luo on the screen was always looking out affectionately.Sandy thought, no wonder, the spaceship is so far away, even though the radio signal travels at the speed of light, it takes a certain amount of time to go back and forth.Then, Qing Taiqi Luo nodded. "Very well, Lasander. Now I want to talk about some other things. The Hekri have many other gifts for the people of Earth. I will only mention a few of them now. We have some ideas about some of the problems on Earth. Understood. The Hekri have several technologies available to deal with radiation and other pollution problems and are happy to make them available to you. We also have the means of creating new plant species through gene splicing to provide seeds for your desolate forests as a remedy The imbalance of carbon dioxide on Earth." Qingtaiqi Luo let a tear show his benevolence fall in front of the audience on the earth, and continued: "In addition, there is an energy problem. The engine on the Heckley spacecraft can generate huge energy. We are willing to convert this into electrical energy. Launch anywhere on the surface of the earth at your command, it's completely free, all you have to do is build some receivers. Then there's what we call an 'electromagnetic accelerator', you may call it a 'rail gun', Using this launcher your satellites will be able to enter space again. They will pass through the layer of space junk at an astonishing speed, and only 2/12 to 5/12 satellites will be destroyed. This loss is still quite low, because the rocket They do not require engines or fuel themselves, so their cost is extremely low, and even the loss of 6/12 or more satellites can be easily tolerated." He paused for a moment with a broad smile on his face. "Finally," he said, "we have a great deal of scientific knowledge that Earth scientists may not have discovered, and in addition, because of the distance and insight of the Heckley spacecraft, we have first-hand knowledge of many other galaxies. , all of which are available to you. As a prelude, I will now present some astronomical data held in the Heckley Archives." Saying that, Qing Taiqi Luo disappeared from the screen, and some pictures were played one after another.Unfortunately, due to poorly adapted broadcasting technology between the Earthlings and the Heckleys, the picture was terrible, but it was nothing the Earth astronauts had ever seen.The pictures flashed one by one, and Qing Taiqi Luo's voice explained. "This is the star you call Alpha Centauri, which is only 1,000 radials away from the earth. These are the asteroids of Epsilon Eridanus, and you can see that they are numerous, but they are small and have no atmosphere. Regarding this, my colleague Obier can tell you more about it. Here are the photos of the planets in the solar system and the earth taken by our spacecraft when it approached the solar system." The astronomical photo disappeared in a flash, and Qing Taiqi Luo appeared on the screen again. "Friends on Earth, this is just the beginning," he said, "My dear student Obier is a qualified astronomy expert." On the TV, Obier looked around happily and nodded in affirmation. "He carried a special database on this trip, which is stored in the storage system of the landing ship. There are 10,000 times more data on the spacecraft for him to use. He will provide you with these astronomical data. As much as you want. Our other experts will also guide your professionals in their areas of expertise. All of this is a gift from our being a guest." He paused and smiled cheerfully at the camera. "Now," he said, "I bid you farewell for the time being. But we will have occasion to talk, and there will be many, as a new era of shared knowledge and friendship opens up for us." The image disappears.Margeley sighed and separated her folded legs. "You know?" she said casually. "It's unbelievable." "There is no need to doubt," Sandy said proudly, "The Heckley people have all kinds of things for you, no, for us." He corrected quickly. Hamilton Boyle looked at him teasingly. "I'm sure of that," he said, "but I wonder what they want in return?" As soon as the broadcast was over, the two Highkleys hurried back to their hotel room for lunch. "What about you?" Margeley asked Sandy, "Are you hungry? Would you like something to drink first?" He hesitated, not because he had any doubts about what he was going to do—how much he wanted to be alone with Margery Dapp, and as soon as possible—but because he was having trouble deciding what would be the best arrangement. it is good. "You mean to get a cup of coffee?" he asked tentatively. "No, I want you to order a different drink." She said with a bright smile, and led him to the coffee shop on the roof. Sandy was horrified to discover that the "different drink" had alcohol in it. "Alcohol is poisonous, isn't it?" "Oh, I guess so," said Margerie, "but it's a very special kind of poison. It helps people relax, you know? And it's an appetizer with a glass of wine before dinner. Come on, I'll give You call a glass of sparkling wine, which is white wine and soda water, and there is not much wine in it, okay?" The word "wine" was magic to Sandy. "Okay!" he said enthusiastically.A glass or two of wine would be just enough to set the mood for his surprise offering to Marge Lie, and he knew that in the affairs of men and women on Earth, wine was always inextricably associated with romance.After the wine came, he tasted it, and immediately looked up at Marge with a disgusted and strange expression and said, "This wine has a rotten smell." "It's not spoilage, it's fermentation. That's how wine is made," she told him. "Isn't fermentation and rotting the same thing?" Sandy, however, backed down.He made up his mind that in order to pursue an earth woman, he would do what all earth men do.He took another sip, and it tasted just as bad as the first, but then he felt the wine create a rush of heat through his body.He forced himself to try to fit in.He reached out to take out the "surprise" in his pocket, and was about to put on a smile on his face, but Marge Li stood up. "Let's go out on the balcony," she said, "it's a nice view." And it was.He looked around, and he could see the whole Dawson City, and a little further away, there was a rural scene.This situation and the scene couldn't be more suitable for his "surprise". She sat down and Sandy remained standing. "Margerie," he began, "I have something to... ouch!" He patted his neck heavily, and took his hand away to see that there was a drop of blood on it. "What is this?" he asked. She glanced into his hand. "Maybe it's mosquitoes," she said sympathetically. "You're really unlucky. There are usually no mosquitoes in such a high place. However, there have been more mosquitoes in recent years. It turns out that birds eat mosquitoes, but in that terrible place, there are no mosquitoes." During the period, they were wiped out in large numbers just like people. What did you want to say just now?" He sat down rubbing his neck. "Just something to give you," he said, frowning.He recalled the scenes in the earth film in his mind, and wanted to be more elegant, but his neck really hurt. Marge Li caught a piece of paper he handed over, and glanced curiously.Here is a poem he wrote for her in the morning: Oh me most Dear Sweet Margelee how desperately i want to love all of your beautiful body wonderful limbs i love busty boobs i love lips and eyes i love other places i love everything i love I love yes! I love yes! I love yes! love you yes! yes love you! "My God!" she exclaimed, looking up at him. He asked eagerly, "Do you like it?" She didn't answer right away, but looked at it again carefully, and then gave him a sideways glance. "Is this what I look like?" "Oh, no, Margea," he said awkwardly, "it's not a painting, that's how Hackley's poems are written. I'm just trying to refer to you." "You painted me like a man." "Oh, no! It's not like that at all! Margerie dear, you're not at all manly. If I offend you..." She put her finger on his lips and laughed, "Sandy, you didn't offend me, and your poems are actually pretty good. No one has ever written poems for me before. It's just . . . " He waited anxiously for her next words. "How about it?" She bit her lip. "Well, the truth is—perhaps I should have told you this earlier—that I was married." He stared at her in astonishment. "Oh, Margerie!" he whispered. She was a little upset. "You don't have to react so strongly." "Oh, but I was indeed surprised! I had no idea you were a married man. Will you forgive me?" "Damn it, Sandy! Of course I forgive you, there's nothing in the law against chasing someone you like, even if they're married. Don't be afraid if you don't know about it. You're flattering me, saying Honestly, I'm grateful." "Thank you," he said gratefully, "I promise I won't be an example. After all, there are plenty of other earth girls... other attractive women here, let me go, um, 'pursue'." After hearing this, she didn't seem happy, but frowned instead. "Hey, Sandy, don't let the wind make the rain, will you?" she said commandingly. "You're a good boy, and I like you. You don't have to do a U-turn." "I do not understand what you mean." "I mean take it easy, we still have a lot of time." He was startled. "But didn't you say you were married?" "Yes." She answered curtly, then picked up her glass and took a long, thoughtful swig.Sandy looked at her stupidly. "Except," she added, "I'm not really a married woman right now, and I haven't seen Dave in three or four months." "Dave? Is that your husband?" She thought about it. "You can say that, but it's in the past tense," she said, putting down her glass. "Dave and I got married seven years ago when we were in college. Can play basketball because he is 2.2 meters tall. I don't know if you noticed, but as a woman, I am too tall. Not many men like my type. You may think that tall men will pick me. Look around People in pairs, you will find that men who are 2 meters tall are often surrounded by women who are not more than 1.65 meters tall." "Why?" Sandy asked with interest. "Why? Men! That's why, because they're men. But," she added fairly, "I don't know why, that's how it is anyway. So, Dave asked me to marry him." I don't know how long it will be until another opportunity comes along. Besides, I like him. I've always wanted to take part in astronaut training. Maybe he thought there was no danger, because there are not many manned spaceships that can be launched. So we got along pretty well until I signed with 'Guoan'. That's when he felt threatened. He didn't mind me being too tall, but he was upset at the thought of marrying a Tiaozi." "Slipper? Do you mean something like Kejack?" [①Ke Jacket: The character in the American TV detective series of the same name is a burly and bald detective. 】 She asked suspiciously: "What is Kojack? I mean the police. You must know that 'National Security' is a police organization. It is a general security department serving all republics. Its full name is the (Republic) International Security Department. Dai My husband and I made do with each other for a few years... about last year, and it was really unbearable. He asked me if I wanted a divorce. " "Oh," exclaimed Sandy joyfully, "I know what a divorce is." She glared at him. "You know what? No, stop it. Anyway, I like your poetry, and I think I like you too. Let me think about it, okay?" "Okay." Sandy nodded eagerly.He knew it was like that in movies, women never said yes right away, at least not in his favorite tap-dancing kind of movies.and also…… He knew that in this case one more step was necessary. The wine in Sandy's belly helped him make up his mind, and he leaned over, tentatively approaching her.She became uneasy, and then understood his intention. "Sandy," she began, "people in the bar are watching us..." But when his arms wrapped around her, she didn't resist. A kiss is nothing, but Sandy makes an astonishing discovery.Little did he expect her lips to open!This is only the first step towards the "ultimate goal", and it has already given him the feeling of being in a fairyland, and his breathing is getting faster and faster.She broke away laughing. "Oh, Sandy," she said, rubbing her neck, "don't you know how strong you are?" "Oh," he said pitifully, "I'm so sorry—" "Oh, stop! I like this kiss, just don't hold me so tight next time. Have you ever heard of a person whose body is as hard as a brick... er... latrine? What about you? , then it's not brick, it's granite." He didn't listen to what was said later. "Next time?" he repeated, his eyes widening in hope. She sighed and patted his arm. "I meant next time. Okay, but remember that next time is not this time. Stop thinking about it, I'm not going anywhere, just stay by your side. It's my job after all." He also sighed and sat up straight. "Okay," he said, taking another sip of the drink, and this time the warmth inside was more palpable, and seemed to spread pleasantly all the way to his groin.He smiled to himself, and suddenly found that Margery was squinting at him from the corner of her eyes. "What?" He was taken aback and asked quickly.He thought to himself, did he miss some obvious hint just now in a trance. She hesitated for a moment, then asked, "What was that like?" He looked at her, completely puzzled. "What is it like?" "In space. Tell me what it's like to be in space. Please, I've always wanted to know." He sat up and looked at her carefully.She looked very serious, her face was no longer flirtatious or even friendly, her eyes were fixed on him, waiting for him to speak, as if he knew some secret on which her life depended. But he didn't know what to say. "Oh," he said vaguely, waving his hand, "you know." "I don't know," she said fiercely, "I want to know." He stared at her in astonishment. "I'm sorry," he said, "but there's not much to say about that. If you're on a huge ship, you don't feel like you're in space at all. And you don't feel like you're anywhere at all, just Know it's on the ship. The engine keeps driving the ship at a constant g-speed, and you don't feel anything, except when it changes course, like when we went around the sun..." "By the sun?" she whispered, her eyes suddenly widening.So he had to tell her every detail about it—what they saw on the screen; how they felt as the ship heated up; when the ship finally reached orbit around Earth, with the main engines off; And most importantly, how they felt on the landing ship bound for Earth. "Are you driving it?" she asked, her eyes bright. "Oh no," he confesses, "they won't let me fly, that's Polly's job. Actually I would." Then he has to describe the time he spent in the flight simulator. While he was still talking, she whispered a few words to the waiter, and after a while, two glasses of wine were placed in front of them again-this time it was not wine for him, but a non-alcoholic carbonated drink.Sandy sneezed immediately after drinking it. "I wish you good health!" she said, with a dreamy look. "You know what? I trained in one of those simulators, too." He winked at her. "Hackley flight simulator? You haven't been on a spaceship before!" "No, of course I haven't been on your ship, how could that be? We have our own flight simulators. There are still volunteers going into space." "But that's impossible, isn't it? That layer of space junk..." "Yes," she said bitterly, "we can't go through that layer of garbage. But sometimes, unmanned satellites can. We launch some satellites every once in a while, and about 1/35 can last a year without being damaged, Or rather, not being completely destroyed. That's not too bad for an unmanned satellite, but it's not so good for sending people up. Humans are much more vulnerable. So as soon as I signed up to be an astronaut Dave had a big fight with me during training. He said I was a fucking kamikaze - well, he actually said 'you fucking kamikaze bitch'!" "Kamikaze...? Oh, you mean your Japanese suicide pilots in World War II?" "Yes. He meant that voluntary registration to enter space is suicide, and the result of the development of the matter was actually what he said. The first two spaceships launched really made the crew inside never return. There were four astronauts in total. There were two on each ship, both of whom I trained with. So they canceled the program, and the rest of us never got a chance to go into space." "Do you still want to go?" She got mad at him. "We fucking told you what we thought, not just me! There are millions of kids on the planet who would give up everything to do what you did, and millions of adults I can't wait to kill you immediately to take your place." "Really?" he asked in horror, "but it's no use, Margery. You can't fool the Highkleys, they'll see right away..." At this point, he stopped because she laughed at him. "I'm sorry, Sandy," she said, "you can't take my words literally. It wouldn't mean that at all, and it wouldn't be right. What I want to tell you is that you don't have to worry about anyone actually doing it, no one. " "I don't really think so, either." He reassures her that it's almost true. "But don't think people on Earth aren't interested in space! Actually, there's an Astronautics Conference coming up next week in the Republic of York. They might invite the three of you to the meeting so they can see the pictures and hear you speak, I Guess what they're most looking forward to is someone who has seen space." Sandy took a sip of his drink in thought, the numb feeling in his nose was just right, not painful.He found himself enjoying it. "Margerie?" he asked, "how did you make such a mess?" "A mess?" "The chaos on Earth. Garbage in space, sea level rise due to rising temperatures, ozone depletion, acid rain, all of that. How did you Earthlings make it so unmanageable?" "We Earth people? Then who are you?" She asked in a stiff tone, "A complete coward?" He opened his mouth in confusion to say something, and she shook her head. "Don't ask. I see what you mean." She thought for a moment, "Well, I guess the only answer is that people in the past didn't think they were doing wrong, or that people who knew that didn't have influence , influential people don’t care.” "Don't they know that war is wrong?" "Well," she said dubiously, "I think they know, it's just that they got themselves involved in a war zone, and that's how it happened. There's a place called the Near East..." "Where is it near?" "Sandy, that's a place name, it's called the 'Near East'. People there fought a war, it was just a small fight, but then they used a 'tactical nuclear weapon'. Then people elsewhere rolled It went in, and then those big powers started using large nuclear bombs on each other. Although the orbital defense system blocked most of the nuclear bombs, you know what? Things still became a mess." "I wish I knew," said Sandy worriedly, "that we'd never get your radio signal again." "Really? Well, then I can add to you what happened afterwards. It was a long time ago, but I still understand most of the situation. At that time, 5% of the nuclear weapons hit the target, and one from a nuclear submarine发射的核弹摧毁了华盛顿特区，那是当时美国政府的所在地。还有一批落在新墨西哥州、亚利桑那州及其他地方。其实这不算是一场大的核战争。总共只有15枚核弹头击中了目标，造成的后果就是那么多。在那之后……” 她停了下来，向杯中凝视着，然后说道：“哼，事情变得很糟了。有许多人受辐射影响病倒了，人们很难往这些城市运送食物了。而这场战争的发源地，原本盛产石油的近东再也不出产任何东西了……再往后又是爱滋病。桑迪，爱滋病真是害人不浅呐。这种病在当时的美国各地大肆流行。许多地方的情况是，这么说吧，没过多久人就统统死光了。抗爱滋病的疫苗制造出来之前，人们就把感染者都送到非洲等死，反正那儿人人都要死了。不仅仅是因为爱滋病，还有疟疾、伤寒，甚至只是由于饥饿。”她的表情很悲伤。“原先的人口是现在的10倍。现在的非洲已是荒无人烟了，全世界也只剩下5亿人。而战前像中国或印度一个国家的人口就比这要多得多了。” “你是说死了50亿人？”桑迪急促地问。 “桑迪，”她理性地答道，“哪怕他们当时不死，也活不到现在。而且……”她顿了一下，突然爆发了，“该死的，他们罪有应得！统统如此！我不能原谅他们的就是他们让我们与大空永远无缘了！