Chapter 32 Chapter Thirty

Since we came here, Mary and I have lived in a small room about the size of a bronze drum.This kind of room can only accommodate a low-ranking officer, but the laboratory does not have a bedroom for couples.We were packed together like a platter, but we didn't mind. I woke up first the next morning.As always, I first did a quick check to make sure Mary wasn't possessed by a slug. While checking, she opened her eyes and smiled at me sleepily. "Sleep a little longer." I said, "Half an hour." But she did not sleep again.after awhile.I asked her, "Mary, do you know the incubation period of the Black Death?"

She replied, "Should I know? Well, one of your eyes is only slightly darker than the other. You seem to be in danger." I shook her and said, "Listen to me, daughter-in-law. I did some rough math in the lab last night, and it came out that the slugs must have been in Africa three months before they came to us. ," "Yes, of course." "You know? Then why didn't you tell me?" "You didn't ask. Besides, is there even a need to ask? It's obvious." "Oh, you! Get up, don't delay breakfast." Before leaving the cubicle, I asked her, "Same as before this morning, playing parlor games with them?"

"right." "Mary, you never talk about what they ask you." She looked surprised: "But I never knew what they asked me." "I guess that's it! They're implementing deep sleep plus the 'forget again' command, right?" "Probably so." "Um... well, Dao Dai makes some adjustments. I'll go with you today." All she said was, "Yes, honey." They assembled as usual in Dr. Stilton's office, the old man, Stilton himself, Colonel Gibbsey, chief of staff, a lieutenant colonel whom I had met but did not know, and a large group of technicians, junior officers. and valet.In the military, senior officers seem to need a team of eight to blow their noses, which is one of the reasons I left the military.

The old man frowned when he saw me, but said nothing.A sergeant who looked like a janitor tried to stop me. "Good morning, Mrs. Nivens," he greeted Mary, and then to me, "you don't seem to be on my list." "I'm going to add my name," I announced to the room, and pushed him away to walk on. Colonel Gibbsey glared at me, turned to the old man, and muttered, meaning to ask, "What the hell is going on here?" The old man did not answer, but raised his eyebrows even higher.The others kept straight faces, pretending to have nothing to do with them.Only one female sergeant couldn't help smiling.

The old man got up and said to Gibsey, "Just a second, Colonel," and shambled toward me.He said in a voice only I could hear, "Son, you promised me." "I take it back now. You have no right to make a man make promises about his wife. The conversation you had with me was inappropriate." "You have no right to be here, son. You are not professional in these matters. For Mary's sake, get out." Before that statement, it hadn't occurred to me to ask why the old man had the right to stay there.But without thinking, I blurted out. "You're not an analyst, so you have no right to be here. Get out."

The old man glanced at Mary, and I glanced at her.She was expressionless, perhaps waiting for me to make a decision. The old man said slowly, "Son? Did you take gunpowder or something?" I replied, "It is my wife who is undergoing the experiment. From now on, I will make the rules—otherwise the experiment will be cancelled." Colonel Gibbsey interrupted: "Young man, are you crazy?" I asked him, "What is your role here?" I glanced at his hand and added, "You're wearing a Virginia Military Academy ring, right? Do you have any other credentials? You're a medical A doctor or a psychologist?"

He held his head upright, trying to put on a dignified look—but nobility is hard to fake, it is an inner temperament, like the kind of dignity that Mary has. "You seem to have forgotten that this is a military zone." "You seem to have forgotten that my wife and I are not soldiers!" I said again, "Come on, Mary, it's time for us to go." "Okay, Sam." I said to the old man again, "I'll give our contact address to the headquarters office." I started walking towards the door, Mary following me. The old man said quickly, "Wait, just do me a favor." I stopped, and he said to Gibbsie, "Colonel, can you come out with me? I want to talk to you privately."

Colonel Gibbsey gave me the look of a court-martial, but he went out anyway. We all wait.Mary sat down and I remained standing.The junior officers remained expressionless, the lieutenant colonel looked disturbed, and the lady seemed about to burst out laughing.Only Stilton looked indifferent.He took out a stack of documents from the mail basket and began to work hard. Ten to fifteen minutes later, a sergeant came in and said, "Dr. Stilton, the commander said to start the experiment." "Okay, Sergeant," he agreed, then looked at me and said, "Let's go into the lab."

I replied: "Don't be too busy. Who are the idlers here? Are they all?" I pointed to the lieutenant colonel. "Ah, this is Dr. Hazelhurst—two years on Venus." "Well, he stays," I said, looking at the smiling sergeant. "What do you do here, ma'am?" "Me? Well, I'm here as an escort." "I will take on the escort task. Now, doctor, please pick out the unnecessary personnel." "Certainly, sir." Turns out he only needed Lieutenant Colonel Hazelhurst.I get the feeling he's happy to drive the onlookers away.Me, Mary, and two experts walked into the lab.

The laboratory has a psychoanalyst's couch surrounded by chairs in a semicircle.With the twin probes of a 3D camera protruding from covert overhead, I concluded that the microphone was hidden in the couch.Mary sat down on the sofa, and Dr. Stilton took out a syringe and said, "Mrs. Nivens, we will continue from last time." I said, "Wait, do you have records from previous experiments?" "certainly." "Let's play it first. I want to understand the whole story in detail." He hesitated for a moment, and replied: "If you want to do this, you can let it go. Mrs. Nivens, I suggest you wait in my office. That's right, it will take a long time to go through it. I will send someone to invite you later. How is it?" ?”

My thoughts were just the opposite of theirs, and my adrenaline surged just now by contradicting the old man. "Let's see if she is willing to leave first." Stilton looked surprised. "You don't understand what your suggestion means. Your wife's reading of these records will disturb her emotionally and even hurt her." Hazelhurst also chimed in: "Your treatment options are very questionable, young man." I said, "It's not therapy, you know. If you make therapy your goal, you'll be using visual recall of what you've seen before, and you won't be using drugs." Stilton looked worried. "There's no time to play. In order to get the results as soon as possible, we have to find a way, even if it is some stupid way." Hazelhurst interrupted: "I agree with your first opinion, Doctor." I couldn't hold back my anger, and said repeatedly: "Damn! No one asked you to be an authority on everything, and you have no authority on this issue. These records were peeped from my wife's brain, and they belonged to her .I hate you fake gods.I don't like this vice of slugs.I hate it even more that humans have it.She decides whether she wants to watch it or not.Also,please ask her opinion,ask her Do you want others to see this record." Stilton had no choice but to ask: "Mrs. Nivens, do you want to see your records?" Mary replied, "Yes, Doctor, I'd love to see it." He looked surprised. "Huh? Of course, do you want to see it with your own eyes?" He finished and gave me a look. "My husband and I would love to see it. You and Dr. Hazelhurst are welcome to stay. If you like." They stayed, too, and a stack of videotapes was brought in, each with a corresponding date and year.It would take hours to read them all, so I gave up on Marie's life after about 1991.The videos of these days are not very meaningful to solve the problem. If Mary wants to watch it, it is not too late to watch it later. So we start with her childhood.Like all those forced to rewind in memory tracks, each tape begins with the choking, groaning, struggling of the subject—that is, Mary—all those forced to recall events they would rather forget It's all this reaction.After that, the memory began to be gradually reconstructed.The tape contained Mary's voice as well as other voices she remembered speaking.What surprised me the most was Mary's face, I mean, the way that face was soaking in the sink.We zoomed in on her face little by little, so that its three-dimensional image was clearly presented in front of our eyes, and the slightest change in facial expression could be captured. At first, her lids were those of a little girl—well, her features were not much different then from those of a grown-up, just as my dear wife was when she was a child.It makes me wish we could have a girl. Then, as other actors in her memory appeared, her expression changed accordingly.It seemed to me that I was watching a superb one-man showman play many kinds of roles. Mary looked very peaceful while watching the video, but she quietly put her hand on mine.She clung to my fingers as she watched the horrific sight of her parents being turned into slaves to the slugs.If my hands were not as hard as ham, I would definitely be crushed into meatloaf by her.Still, she kept her emotions in check. I skipped through the tapes labeled "Periods of Physical Pause."I was surprised to find that there are many tapes like this.I thought there wasn't much to dig out of the memory of someone in this state.Still, I feel, to be in this state.She couldn't possibly have known what would help us understand the circumstances of the slug's demise.So I skipped those parts and focused on two sets of tapes: her waking phase, her rescue from the swamp. One thing is certain from the expression on the video: she was possessed by the slug as soon as she woke up.Her face was impassive and expressionless, suggesting that the slugs hadn't bothered to fake the facial expressions of their hosts, the kind that populate Red Zone stereo shows.Her memory of that period is almost nothing, which further confirms my above judgment. Then, suddenly, no longer enslaved by the slugs, she was a little girl again, very weak and terrified.From her recollection, it can be seen that she was a little delirious at the time.Towards the end, a new voice, loud and clear, called out, "Well, you guys come back to me on Sunday! Hey, Pete—there's a little girl!" Another voice answered, "Is she still alive?" The previous voice replied, "I don't know." The rest of the tape is in Catherwell, her recovery phase.Among them are many new voices and memories.At this time, the tape is finished. "I suggest," Dr. Stilton said, taking the tape from the projector, "that we put another tape from the same period. There are slight differences between these tapes, and, moreover, this period's resolution of the whole problem Very crucial." "Why, Doctor?" Mary wondered. "Huh? Of course, you don't have to watch this if you don't want to, but it's this period that we're going to investigate. We have to recreate the slugs on Venus from your memory, see what happened to them, and study why they Extinction. Especially once we figure out what exactly is the virus that kills the slug that controls you—that is, the slug dies and you survive. That means we've found what we need arms." "Don't you know everything? Don't you even know this?" Mary asked suspiciously. "Eh? Not yet. But we'll find out. Human memory is, after all, a perfectly good recorder, it's just difficult to manipulate." "But I can tell you right now--I thought you knew--that I have 'nine-day fever.'" "What?!" Hazelhurst jumped up from the chair as if being pricked by a needle. "It's true! You've all watched the video, don't you see it from my face? It is the face of a nine-day fever patient with typical symptoms. I have seen such a face many times. When I arrived in Kaiser Will has taken care of this kind of patients in the future, because I have had this disease, so I am immune." Stilton asked: "Doctor, what do you think? Have you seen such a case before?" "A case like this? No, I haven't seen it. By the time of the second expedition to Venus, they had all been vaccinated against it. Of course, I am fully aware of the clinical symptoms of the disease." "But you didn't see it from this video?" "Well," replied Hazelhurst cautiously, "I'd say that what we've seen is consistent with the symptoms of the disease, but we can't say for sure yet." "What's inconclusive?" said Mary sharply. "I told you it was nine-day fever." "We have to confirm this first," Stilton said apologetically. "How sure? There's no question about that. I was told I had nine-day fever, and I was sick when Pete and Frisco found me. I've nursed other patients since, But I never caught it again. I still remember the faces of these patients when they were dying, just like I did in the video. Anyone who has seen this situation will never forget it, let alone mistake it for someone else. sickness. What more do you want? Waiting for burning letters in the sky?" I've never seen Mary lose her temper like this.I thought to myself: Watch out, gentlemen, you'd better stay out of the way. Stilton said: "I think you have made your point very clearly, dear lady. But please tell me that we all believe you have no memory of this period. From what I know of your past, I thought so too. But now, you seem to have a direct and vivid memory. Tell me, is that so?" Mary looked puzzled. "I remember now—and quite well. I haven't thought about it in years." "I think I get it." He turned to Hazelhurst. "Well, Doctor? Have we grown this bug in the laboratory? Have your men worked on it?" Hazelhurst looked astonished. "The germ? Of course not! Nine-day fever—impossible! We might as well just use polio or typhus. I'd rather use an ax for a nail splinter!" I touched Mary's arm and said, "Let's go, honey. We've done everything we can." As I left I found her shaking and tears welling up in her eyes. I took her into the base dining room.Systematically healed her wounds, using distilled potions, my specialty. After that, I put Marie to bed for an afternoon nap, and I sat with her until she fell asleep, and then I went to my father, who was in his allotted office, and the green light for no recording was on. "Hello!" I greeted. He looked at me thoughtfully. "Elihu, I hear you've had amazing success." "I prefer you to call me 'Sam'," I replied. "Very well, Sam. Winners can do what they want. Unfortunately, although the jackpot is won, the prize money is disappointingly small. The situation is as desperate as ever. September fever-no wonder the immigrants and slugs It's all dead. I don't know what to do with this germ, it's impossible to expect everyone to have Mary's indomitable will to live." I understand what he means.The mortality rate of this disease is more than 98% when the earth people are defenseless.Of course, the death rate for those who have been vaccinated is effectively reduced to zero.But in this way, the disease is useless again.We need a drug that just makes people sick.A virus that can kill a slug. "It doesn't make much sense, I think," I said. "It's more likely that within the next six weeks, polio and plague—or at least one of them—spreads throughout the Mississippi Valley. .” “If the slugs have learned from their setbacks in Asia and started taking extreme hygiene measures. So what?” he replied.I didn't expect this, and I was taken aback by his reminder, and I almost didn't hear what he said next, "No, Sam, you must devise a better plan." "Do I have to design it? I'm just a wage earner here." "You've done it once—but this time it's different, and you're in charge. I don't mind, I'm ready to retire anyway." "Huh? What the hell are you talking about? I can't be responsible for anything—and don't want to be. You're the head of the department." He shook his head and said: "Whoever gives the orders is the boss. Titles and badges are generally just a confirmation of facts. Do things first, not titles first. Tell me—do you think Oldfield is capable of taking my place?" " I thought about it and shook my head.Dad's first deputy is an executor, an official who "executes orders" rather than an "innovative thinking type". He went on to say: "I have known for a long time that you will succeed me. There will always be a day. But now you have begun to fight for power. You have firmly opposed my judgment on major issues and forced me to accept you. decision, and the result also proves that your approach is justified." "Fuck you! I'm being stubborn and imposing just this once. Your smart brain forgot to consult the veritable Martian expert next to you—I mean Mary. I didn't expect to find anything, just hand in Just good luck." He shook his head. "I don't believe in luck, Sam. Luck is what mediocrity uses to describe the achievements of genius." I put my hands on the desk, moved closer to him, and said, "Well, even if I'm a great genius—but you still don't want me to carry this burden. Once this is over, Ma Zhou and I will go to the mountains Having kids and raising kittens and stuff. We're not going to spend our lives commanding crazy agents." He smiled softly, looking much farther than mine. I went on, "I don't want to do your job—get it?" "That's what the devil said when he took the god's place--but he found he couldn't help it. Don't take it too seriously, Sam. For now, I'll keep the title to myself, and try to I will do my best to help you. In the meantime, what instructions do you have, sir?"