They went through it all a couple more times till Tricia was certain that everything that possibly could be clear was as clear as it possibly could be.

这些内容又从头到尾过了两遍，直到崔茜卡觉得确定无疑：任何可能讲清楚的事情都已经讲得尽可能地清楚了。

She showered, put on fresh clothes and retouched her makeup with the speed of a professional, and, looking at her bed with a sigh, left the room again.

她冲了个澡，她以专业人士的水准补好妆，她看着床叹了口气，然后再次走出门去。

She had half a mind just to sneak off and hide.

她真想干脆溜出去躲起来。

No. Not really.

不。其实不是这样。

She had a look at herself in the mirror in the elevator lobby while she was waiting. She looked cool and in charge, and if she could fool herself she could fool anybody.

等电梯的时候崔茜卡顺便照了照镜子。她看起来成竹在胸，镇定自若。既然能骗得过自己，她就能骗得过任何人。

She was just going to have to tough it out with Gail Andrews. OK, she had given her a hard time. Sorry but that’s the game we’re all in – that sort of thing. Ms. Andrews had agreed to do the interview because she had a new book out and TV exposure was free publicity. But there’s no such thing as a free launch. No, she edited that line out again.

盖尔?安德鲁斯的事儿她只好咬牙挺过去。好吧，她今早的确让对方难受了一阵。很抱歉，可游戏规则就这样——这种事你早就知道。安德鲁斯女士之所以答应做采访，还不是因为她正准备出本书，想在电视上曝曝光，来个免费宣传。世上哪有白吃的午餐？不，这一句还是划掉。

What had happened was this:

事情是这样的：

Last week astronomers had announced that they had at last discovered a tenth planet, out beyond the orbit of Pluto. They had been searching for it for years, guided by certain orbital anomalies in the outer planets, and now they’d found it and they were all terribly pleased, and everyone was terribly happy for them and so on. The planet was named Persephone, but rapidly nicknamed Rupert after some astronomer’s parrot – there was some tediously heart-warming story attached to this – and that was all very wonderful and lovely.

上个星期，天文学家宣布说他们终于在冥王星外边发现了第十颗行星。他们早就观察到靠外边几颗行星的运行轨道有些异常，于是根据这些数据去找，已经找了好多年，现在他们找到了，所以全都开心极了，大家也都为他们高兴得不得了，诸如此类。第十颗行星被命名为普西芬妮，但很快就得了个绰号叫鲁珀特——这是某个天文学家养的鹦鹉的名字，还附带个超级赚人热泪的故事——总之一切都妙极了，棒极了。

Tricia had followed the story with, for various reasons, considerable interest.

崔茜卡，出于种种原因，一直饶有兴趣地关注着这事儿。

Then, while she had been casting around for a good excuse to go to New York at her TV company’s expense she had happened to notice a press release about Gail Andrews, and her new book, You and Your Planets.

后来，她正绞尽脑汁想找个借口，让公司出钱送自己去纽约，结果恰好注意到一个新闻发布会，盖尔?安德鲁斯出了本新书，《你和你的星座》。

Gail Andrews was not exactly a household name, but the moment you mentioned President Hudson, cream whips and the amputation of Damascus (the world had moved on from surgical strikes. The official term had in fact been ‘Damascectomy’, meaning the ‘taking out’ of Damascus), everyone remembered who you meant.

盖尔?安德鲁斯的名字还算不上什么家喻户晓，可一旦你提起哈德逊总统、奶油点心和截瘫大马士革（这个字眼是从“外科手术式的打击”发展过来的。事实上，正式的术语应该是“大马士革切除”，意思是“除掉”大马士革），反正你一提到这几样东西，每个人都能想起来你说的是谁。

Tricia saw an angle here which she quickly sold to her producer.

崔茜卡瞅出了个卖点，然后说服了自己的制片人。

Surely the notion that great lumps of rock whirling in space knew something about your day that you didn’t must take a bit of a knock from the fact that there was suddenly a new lump of rock out there that nobody had known about before.

按照星象学的说法，天上飞的那些个大石头比你自己还清楚你会遇到什么事。现在天上突然多出来块以前谁都不知道的大石头，这下子，星象理论怕是要吃点瘪了吧？

That must throw a few calculations out, mustn’t it?

有些个计算肯定是不能算数了，对不？