VJ-23X和MQ-17J

VJ-23X of Lameth stared into the black depths of the three-dimensional, small-scale map of the Galaxy and said, “Are we ridiculous, I wonder, in being so concerned about the matter?”

蘭默斯的VJ-23X注視著幽深的銀河三維縮影圖，說：“我想我們這麼擔心這件事是不是很可笑？”

MQ-17J of Nicron shook his head. “I think not. You know the Galaxy will be filled in five years at the present rate of expansion.”

尼克容的MQ-17J搖頭道：“我不覺得。你知道照現在的擴張速度銀河系在五年內就會被擠滿。”

Both seemed in their early twenties, both were tall and perfectly formed.

兩個人看起來都是二十出頭，身形高大，體態優美。

“Still,” said VJ-23X, “I hesitate to submit a pessimistic report to the Galactic Council.”

“不過，”VJ-23X說，“我不太想給銀河參議會提交這樣一個悲觀的報告。”

“I wouldn’t consider any other kind of report. Stir them up a bit. We’ve got to stir them up.”

“我不會考慮作任何其他的報告。得引起他們的注意。我們必須引起他們的注意。”

VJ-23X sighed. “Space is infinite. A hundred billion Galaxies are there for the taking. More.”

VJ-23X嘆了一口氣，“太空是無限的。還有一千億個星系等著我們。甚至更多。”

“A hundred billion is not infinite and it’s getting less infinite all the time. Consider! Twenty thousand years ago, mankind first solved the problem of utilizing stellar energy, and a few centuries later, interstellar travel became possible. It took mankind a million years to fill one small world and then only fifteen thousand years to fill the rest of the Galaxy. Now the population doubles every ten years –”

“一千億並不是無限，而且正在變得越來越有限。想想吧！兩萬年前人類剛剛找到了利用恆星能量的方法，幾個世紀之後星際旅行就實現了。人類用了一百萬年才填滿一個小小的星球，可是隻用了一萬五千年就佔據了整個銀河系。而現在人口每十年就翻一倍——”

VJ-23X interrupted. “We can thank immortality for that.”

VJ-23X 插口道：“這得歸功於永生。”

“Very well. Immortality exists and we have to take it into account. I admit it has its seamy side, this immortality. The Galactic AC has solved many problems for us, but in solving the problems of preventing old age and death, it has undone all its other solutions.”

“不錯。永生實現了，我們得把它考慮進去。我覺得它的確有陰暗的一面。銀河埃克給我們解決了很多問題，但當它解決了防止衰老和死亡這個問題之後其他的一切都白費了。”

“Yet you wouldn’t want to abandon life, I suppose.”

“但是我想你也不想放棄生命吧。”

“Not at all,” snapped MQ-17J, softening it at once to, “Not yet. I’m by no means old enough. How old are you?”

“一點也不想，”MQ-17J斷然道，隨即又委婉地說，“現在還不想。我還一點也不老。你多少歲了？”

“Two hundred twenty-three. And you?”

“兩百二十三。你呢？”

“I’m still under two hundred. –But to get back to my point. Population doubles every ten years. Once this Galaxy is filled, we’ll have another filled in ten years. Another ten years and we’ll have filled two more. Another decade, four more. In a hundred years, we’ll have filled a thousand Galaxies. In a thousand years, a million Galaxies. In ten thousand years, the entire known Universe. Then what?”

“我還不到兩百歲。——不過，回到我說的事情上來。人口每十年增加一倍。一旦銀河系被佔滿了，我們會在十年內佔滿另一個。再過十年我們能佔滿另外兩個。再過十年，四個。一百年內我們會佔滿一千個星系。一千年內，一百萬個。一萬年內就是整個已知的宇宙。然後呢？”

VJ-23X said, “As a side issue, there’s a problem of transportation. I wonder how many sunpower units it will take to move Galaxies of individuals from one Galaxy to the next.”

VJ-23X說：“還有附帶的一點是運輸的問題。我不知道把一整個星系的人運送到另一個需要多少太陽單位的能量。”

“A very good point. Already, mankind consumes two sunpower units per year.”

“這一點說得很對。人類現在每年已經得消耗兩個太陽單位的能量了。”

“Most of it’s wasted. After all, our own Galaxy alone pours out a thousand sunpower units a year and we only use two of those.”

“大部分都浪費了。試想想，我們自己的星系每年輸出一千個太陽單位能量，而我們只用了其中的兩個。”

“Granted, but even with a hundred per cent efficiency, we can only stave off the end. Our energy requirements are going up in geometric progression even faster than our population. We’ll run out of energy even sooner than we run out of Galaxies. A good point. A very good point.”

“沒錯，但是即使有百分之百的效率，我們也只是推遲了結局的到來。我們對能量的需求以幾何級數增長，比我們的人口還要快。在我們佔據完所有星系之前我們就會用光所有能量。你說得對。說得非常對。”

“We’ll just have to build new stars out of interstellar gas.”

“我們可以用星際氣體造出新的恆星。”

“Or out of dissipated heat?” asked MQ-17J, sarcastically.

“或者說用散失掉了的熱量？”MQ-17J嘲諷地說。

“There may be some way to reverse entropy. We ought to ask the Galactic AC.”

“也許會有辦法逆轉熵的增加。我們應該問問銀河埃克。”

VJ-23X was not really serious, but MQ-17J pulled out his AC-contact from his pocket and placed it on the table before him.

VJ-23X並不是認真的，但是MQ-17J把他的埃克聯絡器從口袋裡拿出來放在面前的桌子上。

“I’ve half a mind to,” he said. “It’s something the human race will have to face someday.”

“我早就想問。”他說，“這個問題總有一天人類得面對。”

He stared somberly at his small AC-contact. It was only two inches cubed and nothing in itself, but it was connected through hyperspace with the great Galactic AC that served all mankind. Hyperspace considered, it was an integral part of the Galactic AC.

他憂鬱地注視著小小的埃克聯絡器。這是個兩英寸見方的立方體。它本身並沒有什麼，而只是通過超時空與那個服務於全人類的超級銀河埃克相聯絡。如果將超時空算進來，它是銀河埃克龐大軀體的一部分。

MQ-17J paused to wonder if someday in his immortal life he would get to see the Galactic AC. It was on a little world of its own, a spider webbing of force-beams holding the matter within which surges of sub-mesons took the place of the old clumsy molecular valves. Yet despite it’s sub-etheric workings, the Galactic AC was known to be a full thousand feet across.

MQ-17J頓了一頓，揣測著在他長生不老的未來歲月中，是否有一天能有機會去看看銀河埃克。它佔據著單獨的一個小星球，能量束構成的蛛網支援著它的核心，其中古老笨拙的分子閥已被亞介子流取代。儘管有著亞以太級的精密結構，銀河埃克的直徑仍足有一千英尺長。

MQ-17J asked suddenly of his AC-contact, “Can entropy ever be reversed?”

MQ-17J突然開口向埃克聯絡器問道：“熵的增加能被逆轉嗎？”

VJ-23X looked startled and said at once, “Oh, say, I didn’t really mean to have you ask that.”

VJ-23X吃了一驚，立即說道：“哦，我說，我沒有真的想叫你問那個。”

“Why not?”

“為什麼不呢？”

“We both know entropy can’t be reversed. You can’t turn smoke and ash back into a tree.”

“我們都知道熵是不可逆轉的。你不能把燒剩的煙塵變回到一棵樹。”

“Do you have trees on your world?” asked MQ-17J.

“你們那兒有許多樹？”MQ-17J說。

The sound of the Galactic AC startled them into silence. Its voice came thin and beautiful out of the small AC-contact on the desk. It said: THERE IS INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.

突然而來的銀河埃克的聲音使他們住口了。從桌上的埃克聯絡器中傳出它纖細悅耳的聲音：資料不足，無法作出有效回答。

VJ-23X said, “See!”

VJ-23X說：“可不是嗎！”

The two men thereupon returned to the question of the report they were to make to the Galactic Council.

於是兩人又回到了他們要給銀河參議會提交的報告的話題上。