Chapter 4 Chapter Four: The Birth of a Great Man

I continued my training in the cabin.Before this particular flight, this stateroom had been Mr. Penfort's reception room.Aside from hypnosis, I have had no sleep, nor do I appear to need it.Dr. Capek or Ms. Penney was with me all the time. help me.Fortunately, the person I want to play is the same as any great man in history, with all audio and video recordings, not to mention that I have his close aides to provide close cooperation at any time.The material was inexhaustible and endless, and the question was how much assimilation would all of this have in me both waking and under hypnosis.

I don't know at what point or when my distaste for Penforte ceased.Dr. Capek assured me that he had absolutely not used hypnotism to sway my opinion on this matter; The moral responsibility that should be borne is scrupulous. I began to feel that if I was going to be a character who was not afraid of anything, I had to learn to like it. "To know everything is to forgive everything." I began to understand Penforte. During the flip flight, we were in a gravitational condition that Tucker had promised, and finally took a breather.We were never in free fall.They didn't shut down the flare ship.I guess they don't want to do that in flight.The spacecraft did what Tucker called a 180-degree bank, which required the spacecraft to use the accelerator the entire time.

All I know of spaceships is that the ones launched from the planet's surface are real rockets, but because they have jets of steam that fuel water or hydrogen, astronauts call them "tea kettles."Even though jet engines are heated by atomic reactors, they cannot be considered true atomic-powered spaceships.Long-range spaceships like the Tom Paine, or torchships they told me, are the real thing, Liberty D=MC2, or M=EC2?Do you know?That's something Einstein invented. Tucker did his best to explain it all to me.Undoubtedly, it is very interesting to people who like this kind of stuff.But I can't imagine why a gentleman should bother with it.It seems to me that life gets more and more complicated every time the science lads are busy pulling slide rules.What's wrong with the original stuff?

During the two hours we had been in one gravity, I had been transferred to Penfort's cabin.I wore his clothes, disguised to his face, and everyone who saw me had to remember to call me "Mr. Peck can be called), of course, this is nothing more than to help me play realistically and establish the role. Everyone does that except Penney.She, she just doesn't want to call me "Mr. Penforte."She tried her best to help herself to cooperate with my performance, but she just couldn't do what she wanted.Needless to say, she liked Penforte and hated me as Penforte. There was no doubt that she was conflicted and bitter.Although her resentment towards me was unreasonable, it was natural.The situation made us both very uncomfortable.I can't hate her the other way around, though, and while I'm sick of it, I have a lot of sympathy for her.

Now, we're in the rehearsal phase, because not everyone on the Tom Paine knows that I'm not Penfort.I don't know exactly which ones know the secret of my double, but the rule is that I am only allowed to relax and ask questions in front of Tucker, Penny, and Dr. Capek.I'm sure Mr. Washington, Penfort's first secretary, knows.But he never showed it, he was a small, elderly mulatto with a saintly face, silent.Two others must have known, too, but they were not on the Tom Paine; they were on the Desperate for cover, handling news and daily dispatches.They were Bill Copasman and Roger Clifton, Dypenfold's press front men.I don't know how to describe Clifton's work.It is only known that he was an irrelevant minister when Penfort was prime minister.In layman's terms, their relationship is roughly as follows: Penfort makes an idea and makes a decision, and Critton authorizes someone to execute it.

These people know in their hearts that even if others know, there is no need to tell me.It was certain that those on Penfort's team, and the entire crew of the ship, knew that something strange was afoot, although they might not know what it was.Many people have seen me aboard—but publicly as "Benny Gray," not Lorenzo myself.The funny thing is, when they saw me again, I was Penfort. Some people have the ability to recognize makeup and can spot it at a glance, but I hardly use makeup.Up close, the make-up is sure to reveal itself, and even the most delicate chemical skin cannot have a natural, exact skin texture.I've never darkened my natural complexion a little with long-lasting dye at best, to carve out his face from the inside.I did have to sacrifice quite a bit of hair, which Dr. Capek did for me.I don't care, it's common for actors to make such sacrifices, not to mention that it pays me a lot of money, which is enough for me to retire for life.

On the other hand, I sometimes shudder at the thought that life may not be long—to tell the truth, I actually began to trust these people.Getting along, they all seem to be pretty nice people.This incident itself made me realize that Penfort is indeed not alone, they are a harmonious group.If Penfort hadn't been a decent man, he wouldn't have so many good people rallying around him. I decided to do as promised. But the biggest worry is the language of the Martians.Like most actors, I quickly picked up Martian, Venusian, Exo-Jupiter, etc. It was not difficult, and I was completely able to get by in front of the camera or on the stage.However, the tongue roll and vibrato consonants are very difficult to pronounce accurately.I believe that the vocal chords of Earthlings are not as dexterous as those of Martians.

Fortunately, Penfort doesn't have much talent in the language, I just need to learn to be able to speak Martian like him. Besides, I'm an actor, with a keen sense of hearing, and I can imitate any sound, from the sawing of wood to the restless cry of a brooding hen: I'm good at it.Penfort had struggled to overcome his lack of linguistic genius.Besides, for every Martian word he knows, they have made audio-visual recordings for him first, so it is very convenient to correct wrong sounds. Therefore, it is easy for me to study his language habits, especially his mistakes.I moved the projector into his office, and Penney was there to retrieve the tapes I needed and answer questions.

... Dude, it took me a lot to study the hundreds of Martian sentences he already knew! Penny seemed more emotionally tense than I was.Both she and Tucker speak some Martian language.But the burden of counseling me fell on her.Tucker had to stay in the control room most of the time. Jacques' death left him short of manpower.In the last few million miles of our journey to our destination, we drop from two gravitational pulls to one gravitational pull.During this time he was too busy to come down to the cabin at all.With Penny's help, I spent all of this time learning and mastering what I needed to know about "admissions" and etiquette, etc.

So far, I've just finished the speech I'm supposed to give when I'm about to be accepted into the Ka family.The spirit of this kind of speech is not like an Orthodox Jewish child swearing to assume the responsibility of an adult, but like performing the inner monologue of Shakespeare's tragedy.I read the speech aloud, imitating Penfort's mispronunciation and facial tics.I finished my speech and asked, "How is it?" "Very good," Penny replied quite seriously. "Thank you, curly-haired girl." This is a phrase I learned from Penforte's archives of language learning audio tapes, and it is also a way for Penforte to address her when he is happy.I used this sentence very appropriately, and it fully reflects Penfort's character.

"How dare you call me that!" I looked at her in amazement, looking bewildered, and still replied in a deep-character language, "Why, Penny, my baby!" "Don't call me that either! You impostor! You liar! You... poor actor!" She actually jumped up, ran to the door, and stood there with her back to me, covering her face with her hands , shoulders shaking from crying. With great effort I stepped out of the role, took a deep breath, regained my original frame of mind, and replied in my own voice, "Miss Russell!" She stopped crying, turned sullenly, and turned to look at me.Still using my own identity, I added, "Come and sit down." I expected her to refuse, but she seemed to have changed her mind after thinking about it, and came slowly over and sat down with her hands on her lap.But the expression on her face was that of a little girl who doesn't want to talk much.I let her sit for a while, and then said calmly: "Yes, Miss Russell, I am an actor, and does that give you any excuse for insulting me?" She just seemed so stubborn and awkward. "I'm an actor, and I'm here to play a part. You know full well, and you know, that I was conned into this part by you. If I knew the truth, I wouldn't lose my mind to do it for you." This sort of thing. I suffer from being stuck, neither advancing nor retreating. To tell the truth, it is far more than your hatred for me. Notwithstanding Captain Broadbent's easy assurance to me, I am not at all How can I be sure that this old life will be saved. Who knows if I can be safe? I cherish my life very much, you must know that people only have one life! I fully believe that you know why you are so difficult to tolerate me. But, this Is that why you want to make my job more difficult: " She grunted.I said loudly, confidently: "Speak!" "It's a deception to do this, it's not above board!" I sigh. "Indeed. Nothing like this could ever have been done without the wholehearted support and assistance of the actors. Well, let's call Broadbent here and set him straight. The play I think it's better not to continue acting!" She jerked her face up and said, "Oh, no! We can't do that." "Why not? We all think it's not a fair thing to do. Besides, it's better to quit now than to fail when I come on stage. I can't perform under these conditions. We have to admit it," "But... but... we must act! We must act!" "Why do you have to act? Miss Russell, is it you or your secret reason? I'm not interested in this at all, and I doubt that you are really interested. In this case, why do you have to do such a stupid thing? " "Because... because of him..." She choked and stopped talking, sobbing so hard that she couldn't continue. I stood up, walked to the ground, and put my hands on her shoulders. "I know, because if we don't do it, all his years of hard work will be ruined, and because he is now in his own hands, and his friends and followers are trying desperately to cover up the truth, and to serve him; and because his A friend is loyal to him, and you are loyal to him most clearly. Yet it hurts you to see someone else take his rightful place—though it is only a show—and besides, You're still sad and worried about his current situation, and you're even dying of pain. Isn't it?" "Yes." I could barely hear her say it. So, I lifted her chin and tilted her face up. "I know very well why you feel so sorry to see me here in his place. You adore him, you love him, that's all! You know, I'm here to give all my talent as an actor , It’s not a joke, you lied to me, saying that you invited me here! God knows, how can there be a woman like you! Are you planning to scold me as worthless, just to let me work smoothly? Are you really making my job harder by doing this?" She looked shocked.It occurred to me that these words would irritate her and slap me.However, she said intermittently: "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! This kind of thing will never happen again, I promise!" I let go of her jaw and said lightly, "So, let's get on with it!" She didn't move, but whispered, "Forgive me!" "Hey! No forgiveness, Penny! Your impulse just now was because you adored him. Your apprehension is understandable. Now let's get to work. Only a few hours away. I have to know the part I want to play like the back of my hand. .” I immediately fell into character. She picked up a roll of VHS tape and turned on the projector.I watched Penforte from beginning to end, and then erased the sound, leaving only the image, and aimed at Penforte's moving image and mouth shape, accompanied by my imitation and acting of his speaking voice, and published his acceptance speech. speech.Penny looked at me, at the image, and at my face, showing a very confused expression.After it was over, I turned off the projector myself and asked her, "How is it?" "great!" I smiled like Penforte did. "Thank you, curly-haired girl." "You're welcome...Mr. Penfort." Two hours later our ship rendezvoused with the Desperate. The ship Desperate carried Roger Clifton and Bill Copemans aboard our yacht.Tucker immediately took them into my cabin.I've seen him in movies.So I got up and said, "Hi, Rogar. Nice to meet you, Bill." I was warm and casual, which is what I'd say I'm speaking to these people.Hurrying back and forth between the earth and the space vehicle, it's just a few days of separation, that's all.I limped forward and offered my hand.Our yacht was sailing at a low speed at this time, as we had to adapt to the tighter orbit of the Desperate during its previous operations. Clifton glanced at me before speaking.He took the pistachio out of his mouth, shook my hand, and said calmly, "Glad to see you back, Chief." He was small, bald, middle-aged, and looked like an expert at gambling and poker. "Is there anything special when I go out?" "No. Business as usual. I gave Penny the file." "Good!" I turned to Bill Copsman and held out my hand again. Instead of shaking my hand, he put both fists on his hips, looked up at me, and whistled, "Brilliant! I'm sure we can handle it." He hit me up and down. After a while, he said: "Turn around, Lorenzo, and walk around. I want to see how you walk." Already I felt a little annoyed, as Penfort would have been annoyed at this inexplicable insolence.Of course, this immediately turned angry, and it showed on his face.Tucker touched Clifton's sleeve lightly, and said quickly, "Shut up, Bill. Remember how we agreed?" "Coward!" he replied disapprovingly. "The room is soundproofed. I just want to make sure he's doing well. Lorenzo, how's your Martian language? Can you speak it?" I responded immediately in harsh, polysyllabic Martian, which roughly meant "Justice requires one of us to go!" Someone said: That guy is screwed. I figured he didn't understand, because he grinned and replied, "I've got to leave this up to you. Lorenzo, that's great." But Tucker understood me.He took Clifton's arm and said, "Bill, I tell you to shut up. You're on my ship, that's the order. From now on, every second is going to be fake, understand?" Tucker added, "Watch what he does, Bill. We've agreed to do it, you know, or somebody's going to let it out." Clifton glanced at him, then shrugged and said, "Okay, okay. I'm just checking. After all, it's my brain." He said to me with a half-smile: " Hello, Mr. Penforte. Nice to see you back." He put a little emphasis on the word "sir," but I replied, "Just come back, Bill. Is there anything special you want me to know before you disembark?" "I don't think so. After the ceremony, there's going to be a press conference in Goddard." I could see him watching me for my reaction. I nodded and said, "Very good." Peake quickly said, "Hey, what's going on? Is this arrangement necessary? Have you approved it?" "I was going to say before the captain got nervous," Copsman went on, turning to Clifton, "that it's up to me to tell the reporters that the chief got dry laryngitis after the ceremony—or We stipulated that they ask questions in advance, and during the ceremony, I wrote the answers for Chi first. Since he looked and sounded very much like the leader when he looked closely, I said it might as well take a risk .Well, Mr. Penfold? Do you think you can handle it?" "I don't see a problem with that, Bill." I was thinking, if I can outwit the Martians, I'll be able to deal with a bunch of journalists going down to Earth.It's not difficult at all to say something off-the-cuff, as long as they listen.I had now mastered Penforte's usual tone of voice, or at least a general idea of ​​his thoughts and attitudes--I need not be very specific. Clifton, however, appears to have concerns.Just as he was about to speak, the spacecraft's loudspeaker beeped: "Please come to the control room, captain. There are still four minutes." Tucker immediately said: "It's up to you to decide! I have to put the spaceship into orbit—there is no one on it except young Epstein, so I have to go right away." He hurried towards the door as he spoke. Copsman yelled, "Hey, Captain! I have something to say to you..." He went out too, and followed Tucker without saying goodbye. Roger Clifton closed the door that Copsman had opened, turned and said slowly, "Are you going to risk a press conference?" "That's up to you. What I want to do." "Oh, . . . I'm inclined to take a chance, too. If we're using written questions, we can. But before you answer, I'm going to check Bill's answers myself." "Very good," I added Said: "If you can find a way to notify me ten minutes in advance, I don't think there will be a problem. I read documents very quickly." He looked at me. "I'm pretty sure you can do it—chief. Well, as soon as the ceremony is over, I'll have Penny slip the answers in for you, and then you can excuse yourself to go to the bathroom and come out after you've memorized them." It will work." I think so.Ah, I must say, I am much relieved to see you.What else should I do? " "I don't think so. By the way, there is one more thing. He, any news?" "Well, I can't say. Both. He's still in Goddard, we're sure of that. Haven't gotten him out of Mars, or even in the countryside. They can't do it if they want to, we've sealed them off. " "Oh? Goddard City is not a big place, is it? It won't exceed 100,000 square meters! Is it difficult to get there?" "The difficulty is that we dare not admit that you—I say him—are missing. As soon as we send out the 'acceptance' thing as a news report, we hide you and declare you Kidnapped, as if it had just happened, let them search the city from house to house. The city authorities were all appointed by our opponents, but after the ceremony, they had to cooperate. Because they must be in a hurry to get Mr. Penfold Show your face, or the Cagraals will turn on them and smash the whole city to pieces in front of them." "Oh... I'm still learning the psychology and habits of Martians!" "Aren't we all learning?" "Yeah,... how do you think Penfort is still alive? Wouldn't it be better for them to achieve their goals and take less risk if they just killed him?" I thought uneasily, a brutal man People, isn't it easy to kill a lot of people?Why the kidnapping? "I understand what you mean. But this is closely related to the sacredness of 'ritual' (he used a personal star word) advocated by the Martians. In the eyes of the Martians, death is the 'only forgiveness' of punishment. If he is killed, the Martians will posthumously recognize him as a member of the 'Ka' clan after his death. Then, the entire clan, maybe all the clans on Mars, will rise up to avenge him. As for whether the entire earth people will be extinct, they don't care. That's why I'm sure our opponents would never have killed Penfort." He finished, frowning, and added, "The Martian reaction to such things is neither good nor bad, it's just instinctive. It's not because they're brilliant, of course, they do stupid things. Sometimes, I hate myself for being so far away from England." The siren siren interrupted our discussion, forcing us to rush back to our respective hydraulic compartments.Tucker seized the time tightly. As we entered free fall, a shuttle roving rocket from the city of Goddard was waiting for us.The five of us got into the rocket and just filled the space.This also seemed to be planned, because the foreign officials had said they would come up to meet "me", but Tucker had to dissuade him by telegraphing him that we needed all the accommodations for our party. When I landed, I wanted to get the best possible look at the surface of Mars, since I'd only glimpsed it from Tom Paine's control room.People always thought that since I was an actor, I must have been there many times, so I should not show the usual curiosity of tourists.I didn't get much of a glimpse this time, though; the busy astronauts didn't get a chance to turn around and see the Martian surface until we leveled the rocket and glide downward, while I had to be busy putting on my oxygen mask. That annoying Martian paint set nearly killed us, and I never got a chance to practice wearing the mask.Tucker didn't think of this and I didn't realize it would be a problem.I've worn a spacesuit and scuba on other occasions.I thought these types of masks were all the same, but that's not the case.Penfold's favorite model is the "Sweet Wind" open-mouth type produced by Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan, which is characterized by directly pressurizing the nostrils - a nose clip, two nostril plugs, each connected with a hose, bypassing the back of the ear A booster that extends to the back of the neck.I admit, this is pretty good equipment, as long as you get used to it.Because you can eat, drink, and talk while wearing it.But I'd rather have a dentist put his hands in my mouth than wear this thing. The real difficulty and hassle is that you have to consciously control the muscles behind the clenched mouth, otherwise you're going to be chugging like a kettle, because these sorts of devices operate on their own with varying pressures.Fortunately, as soon as we put on the mask, the astronauts adjusted the pressure to be the same as that of Mars, so we had at least 20 minutes to gradually adapt.Still, for a moment, I felt the jig levitate, over the top of that stupid contraption.I had no choice but to convince myself secretly: I have worn this thing before, and I have long been used to it, just like brushing my teeth every day, and then I gradually feel a little used to it. During the hour we landed all the way, Tucker waited at the airfield for the shuttle's finished rocket.He did manage to keep the foreign officials from talking to me casually, but it was still impossible to avoid it completely, because I had to enter the Martian city immediately, and he calculated the time tight and tight, so that I at least didn't have to deal with other Earths people.This plot makes sense: I am safer among Martians than I am among my fellow Earthlings.This may seem a little strange, but not strange. It's strange to run to Mars!