Away in the inky depths of space invisible movements were being made.

而在黑黝黝的太空深处，各种不可见的行动正在展开。

Invisible to any of the inhabitants of the strange and temperamental Plural zone at the focus of which lay the infinitely multitudinous possibilities of the planet called Earth, but not inconsequential to them.

所谓不可见，是对于那个稀奇古怪，喜怒无常的复区里的居民而言——顺便说一句，那个概率无穷无尽，名叫地球的行星就在这个复区的焦点上——问题是，看不见并不意味着对他们没有影响。

At the very edge of the solar system, hunkered down on a green leatherette sofa, staring fretfully at a range of TV and computer screens sat a very worried Grebulon leader. He was fiddling with stuff. Fiddling with his book on astrology. Fiddling with the console of his computer. Fiddling with the displays being fed through to him constantly from all of the Grebulons’ monitoring devices, all of them focused on the planet Earth.

在太阳系最远最远的边上有张绿色人造革沙发，上头盘踞着一个极为焦虑的格里布隆首领，他心烦意乱，正盯着一排电视机和电脑屏幕，还不住摆弄着各种东西——他的占星书，他的计算机控制面板，还有一刻不停从所有格里布隆监视装置里传回来的图像，全都是地球的画面。

He was distressed. Their mission was to monitor. But to monitor secretly. He was a bit fed up with his mission, to be honest. He was fairly certain that his mission must have been to do more than sit around watching TV for years on end. They certainly had a lot of other equipment with them that must have had some purpose if only they hadn’t accidentally lost all trace of their purpose. He needed a sense of purpose in life, which was why he had turned to astrology to fill the yawning gulf that existed in the middle of his mind and soul. That would tell him something, surely.

他心情抑郁。他们的使命是监视，但必须秘密监视，说实话，对这任务他已经有点受够了。他几乎敢打包票，自己原先的使命肯定不止一年到头坐在电视机前这么简单。飞船上不是还有那么多别的材料吗？他们肯定该是为某种目的而准备的，只可惜这些目的已经被忘得一干二净。他的生命需要目的性，所以他才转向占星术，用它来填补自己的心和自己的灵魂之间那道张得老大的口。占星术肯定能告诉他点什么，没错。

Well, it was telling him something.

好吧，它的确告诉了他一些东西。