It wasn’t particularly accurate or anything, but it looked good. The planets were whizzing around in reasonably good simulations of their orbits, and you could watch the movement of the whole piece of virtual cosmological clockwork from any point within the system – very roughly. You could watch from Earth, you could watch from Mars, etc. You could watch from the surface of the planet Rupert. Tricia had been quite impressed with herself, but also very impressed with the computer system she was working on. Using a computer workstation on Earth the task would probably have taken a year or so of programming.

它倒并不特别精确什么的，但看起来不错。行星们都在各自轨道上打转，总的来说跟实际的情形差得还不算太远，而且你可以从太阳系里的任何位置——基本上吧——观察整个虚拟宇宙大钟的动作，你可以从地球上看，你可以从火星看，等等等等。你可以从鲁伯特的地表上看，崔茜卡对自己的本事大为赞赏，但同时也很欣赏自己使用的计算机系统，要是用地球上的计算机工作站，搞这玩意编程就得花上一年左右。

When she was finished, the Leader came up behind her and watched. He was very pleased and delighted with what she had achieved.

完成之后，首领走到她身后观赏，对她的成就十分高兴和满意。

‘Good,’ he said. ‘And now, please, I would like you to demonstrate how to use the system you have just designed to translate the information in this book for me.’

“很好，”他说，“那么现在，我希望请你演示一下，如何使用你刚才设计的系统来为我翻译这本书的信息。”

Quietly he put a book down in front of her.

他静静地把一本书放在她跟前。

It was You and Your Planets by Gail Andrews.

那是盖尔.安德鲁斯的《你和你的星座》。

Tricia stopped the tape again.

崔茜卡又停下带子。

She was definitely feeling very wobbly indeed. The feeling that she was hallucinating had now receded, but had not left anything any easier or clearer in her head.

眼下她真是天旋地转了。那种以为自己产生了幻觉的感觉已经消退，但并没给她脑袋里留下任何更容易，更清楚的概念。

She pushed her seat back from the editing desk and wondered what to do. Years ago she had left the field of astronomical research because she knew, without any doubt whatsoever, that she had met a being from another planet. At a party. And she had also known, without any doubt whatsoever, that she would have made herself a laughing stock if she had ever said so. But how could she study cosmology and not say anything about the single most important thing she knew about it? She had done the only thing she could do. She had left.

她把椅子从编辑台往后一推，开始琢磨现在如何是好。许多年前她之所有放弃天文学研究，是因为她确定无疑地知道，自己遇上了来自另一个星球的生物。在一个派对上，而且她还确定无疑地知道，把这事说出去她准会变成一个大笑话。可她怎么可能一边研究宇宙天体学一边又对自己一生中最重要的宇宙天体发现缄口不言？她没有别的选择，她离开了。

Now she worked in television and the same thing had happened again.

现在她转作媒体，而相同的事情再次发生。

She had videotape, actual videotape of the most astounding story in the history of, well anything: a forgotten outpost of an alien civilisation marooned on the outermost planet of our own solar system.

她有一卷录影带，一卷实实在在的录影带，里面拍下了自从，自从，好吧，自从一切开始以来最最惊爆的故事：在我们自己的太阳系最遥远的那颗行星上，竟然存在着一个被遗忘的外星文明的前哨站。

She had the story.

她抓到了故事。

She had been there.

她去了现场。

She had seen it.

她看到了一切。

She had the videotape for God’s sake.

看在上帝的份上她也有录影带为证。

And if she ever showed it to anybody, she would be a laughing stock.

并且，如果这东西给人看她就会变成个大笑话。