After two seasons of harvest, the granaries in Zufluchtsland are all full, yet there is no trace of festive atmosphere here. Erich von Lübeck's U-2513 and its crew have never returned after setting sail, and it has been ten months past the scheduled return date.
经过了两季丰收,庇护之地的粮仓都堆满了,但是这里却没有丝毫喜庆的气氛.吕贝克的U-2513和他的船员出航一直没有归来,距离预计归来的时间已经逾期十个月了.
A large number of crew members' families in Zufluchtsland are in a constant state of panic every day, and people keep going to the military station, the dock and the town hall to inquire about the situation. After discussing with the bureaucrats, the town hall secretary Müller had no choice but to issue the official notice of U-2513's disappearance, and arranged the livelihood of the crew members' families one by one, which naturally included Lübeck's family.
庇护之地的大量船员家属每天人心惶惶,不停有人去兵站,码头和市政厅询问情况.市政厅秘书米勒与官僚商议之后不得已发布了官方的U-2513失踪公告,并逐个家庭安顿了船员家属的生计情况,这自然也包括吕贝克的家人.
Staring at Müller's back as he leaves in the rain, Ruth's vision gradually blurs in the pattering autumn rain. The stamped official spaceship disappearance notice in her hand has long been soaked by the cold rain, but she still clutches it tightly in her trembling hand, as if it is the only thing she can hold onto.
望着米勒在雨中离去的背影,露丝的视线在淅淅沥沥的秋雨中逐渐模糊,手中那份盖章的市政厅飞船失踪通知单早已被冰冷的雨水浸透,却依然紧攥在颤抖的手中,仿佛是她唯一能够抓住的一点什么.
After seeing Müller off, Ruth walks back into the house. She wants to comfort Emma, that big child who never really grew up. When she steps into Emma's room, she sees her pair of red, tear-swollen eyes looking back at her.
送走米勒,露丝返回到室内,她想去安慰一下艾玛,那个长不大的大孩子.走进她的房间,只见她一双哭红的眼睛,望向自己.
How can she comfort her? Ruth sits down beside her, wrapping one arm around her waist. Emma looks up at her for a moment, then lowers her head again.
要怎么安慰她呢?露丝坐在她的身边,一手搂着她的腰,只见艾玛抬头看了看自己,又低下了头,
"They only announced that the ship is missing right now. Maybe nothing bad happened to them, they just ran into some trouble and will come back."
"现在只是发布失踪,或许他们没有出事,只是遇到了一点麻烦,会回来的."
Hearing her say that, Emma looks up at Ruth again. Those red, teary eyes seem to be pressing her for an answer, a definite answer. But where on earth can she bring Lübeck back from?
听自己这么说,艾玛又抬起头,望着露丝,那双哭红的眼睛好像在向自己追问答案,一个肯定的答案给她.可是,自己又去哪给她找回吕贝克呢?
Ruth can only glance at the child aside.
露丝只好看了一眼一旁的孩子,
"Alas, even if Lübeck never comes back, his son is still here. You have to take good care of him and raise him up."
"唉,就算吕贝克不回来,他的儿子还在这里,你要好好照顾他长大."
"Mm," Emma nods.
"嗯,"艾玛点了点头,
"Müller said that the salaries of all missing crew members will still be paid to their families as usual, and Lübeck is no exception. So you don't have to worry about the cost of living."
"米勒说了,所有失踪船员的薪水都会照常发放给家属,吕贝克也是,所以你不用担心生活花费的问题."
"Mm."
"嗯,"
"Where there is a gathering, there is a separation. It's just that the time you spent with him was too short." Ruth lifts her head after saying that, stopping the tears from rolling down her cheeks. She seems to suddenly remember something. The portrait of Lübeck and Emma hangs on the wall, while decades of moments they spent together flash through her mind: from childhood to growing up side by side, from the Third Reich all the way to Zufluchtsland.
"有相聚就有分离,只是你和他在一起的时间有点短,"说完露丝仰起头,不让眼中的泪水流出,又像是想起了什么.墙上挂的是吕贝克与艾玛的画像,而自己脑海里却是几十年的相处瞬间闪过,从小时候到一起长大,从第三帝国到庇护之地.
Hearing this, Emma turns her head to glance at the portrait of herself and Lübeck, then wraps both arms around Ruth's neck, leans against her chest and bursts into sobs again.
艾玛听到这话,扭头看了一眼自己和吕贝克的画像,又双手搂着露丝的脖颈,靠在她的胸前又呜呜地哭了起来.
At this moment, half of a child's face peeks out quietly from the bedroom doorway, looking into Emma's room silently. It's Clara, the child who just joined this family not long ago.
这时候卧室门口悄悄露出了半张孩子的脸,往艾玛的卧室内静静地观望着.是克拉拉,刚刚来到这个家庭还不久的那个孩子.
Ruth quickly nudges Emma's shoulder, reminding her not to cry in front of the child, then waves at Clara.
露丝赶紧推了推艾玛的肩膀,提醒她别在孩子面前哭了,然后对克拉拉招手,
"Come in."
"进来吧,"
Only then does that childish little figure step out from behind the doorframe, and it turns out she is holding her little sister by the hand, who is following right behind her.
这时那半张幼稚的脸庞才从门框后闪出她小小的身形,原来她的手里还拉着妹妹,跟在她的身后.
When they walk up to her, Ruth picks up Ada, sits her on her lap, wraps her other arm around Clara to let her lean close to her side, and explains to them.
等她们走到跟前,露丝抱起艾达,搂着她坐在自己腿上,另一只手搂着克拉拉靠在自己的身边,给她们解释,
"Daddy has something to take care of, so he can't come back right now."
"爸爸有事情,现在还不能回来,"
The two children are still too young to understand what has happened, but the blank, confused look in their eyes clearly carries their own childish understanding and worry. Ruth has to comfort them again.
两个孩子还小,也不明白发生了什么事情,但是她们望着露丝那愣愣的眼神里,显然有着孩子自己的理解与担忧,露丝还得安慰她们,
"Don't worry. No matter what happens, Mommy is still here..." The word "Mommy" squeezes out of Ruth's throat with a sob, and she can no longer hold back her tears.
"你们别担心,有什么事情还有妈妈在这...",妈妈两个字带着哭腔,勉强从露丝的喉咙里挤出来,她已经泣不成声.
Looking at the children in front of her, she quickly raises her arm to stop her tears from falling on their faces. Through her tear-blurred eyes, she looks past the doorframe of Emma's bedroom. Around the tables and chairs in the living room, in front of the kitchen stove, every corner is filled with the figures of Lübeck playing and bickering with Emma, and the moments he gave her a hug.
看着自己眼前的孩子,她急忙抬起胳膊,不让自己的泪水落在她们脸上.泪水模糊的眼睛,望穿艾玛卧室的门框,眼前起居室里的桌椅周围,厨房的灶台前,都是吕贝克与艾玛的打闹,给自己的拥抱的身影.
The tightly closed cabin door of the captain's cabin muffles the noisy sounds of personnel and equipment outside. Sitting in front of his workbench, Lübeck watches the navigation coordinates drifting on the screen. Things are not looking good. Whether it is a malfunction of the gravity detection device or the change of gravitational field value caused by external interference on the space tunnel structure, neither situation is good at this moment.
紧闭的舰长室舱门减弱了门外面人员和设备噪音的嘈杂,坐在自己的工作台前,吕贝克面前的导航坐标在漂移,情况不妙,不论是引力探测设备故障还是空间隧道结构受外界因素干扰而改变所体现的引力场数值变化在这时候发生都不妙.
He takes out his voyage log, starts to compare it with the navigation coordinate values recorded during previous voyages, selects several typical and distinguishable massive gravitational celestial bodies in different directions, and compares them one by one.
他拿出了自己的航行日志,开始对照之前航行中记录的导航坐标数值,按照不同方位的大引力天体,选取几个典型易分辨的,开始逐个比对.
Judging from the numerical differences, it seems to be an overall offset. Could it be that some major event happened to a celestial body somewhere, which shifted the original gravitational map as a whole? He has no idea whether this will affect the space-time tunnel where his ship is sailing.
从数值差异来说,似乎整体的偏移,难道是哪里的天体发生了什么大事件,整体偏移了原有的引力图谱?不知道会不会对自己航行所在的时空隧道有影响.
The always cautious Lübeck certainly decides to take some countermeasures. He picks up the phone and connects to the navigator.
一向谨慎的吕贝克当然要采取一些应对措施,他拿起电话,接通了导航员,
"Have you noticed the numerical drift of the navigation coordinates? Periodic, small-amplitude drift."
"你注意到导航坐标的数值漂移了吗?周期性的,小幅度漂移."
There is a moment of hesitation on the other end of the line.
对面迟疑了一会儿,
"Report to the captain, I didn't notice it."
"报告舰长,我没看出来."
"Pay close attention to it, track the periodic numerical change, then deduce the navigation deviation caused by it from the data. We'd better not break through the boundary wall of the space-time tunnel and fall into deep space, right?"
"你留意一下,周期性的数值变化,然后从数值上推测一下造成的导航偏差,我们最好不要撞穿时空隧道界壁掉进深空是吧."
"Yes, captain. I will start working on this immediately."
"是,舰长,我这就着手做这项工作."
"Good. Report to me in time if you find any problem."
"好,有什么问题及时汇报."
"Yes, captain."
"是,舰长."
"By the way, report this situation to the duty officer as well."
"对了,你顺便把这个情况和执更官汇报一下."
"Yes, captain."
"是,舰长."
Then Lübeck connects to the phone in the forward torpedo compartment.
然后吕贝克又接通了前鱼雷舱的电话,
"This is Captain Lübeck. Check the 4 sets of gravity detection beacons, get them ready for launch. We might need to use these little babies."
"我是舰长吕贝克,检测引力探测信标,4组,做好发射准备,我们可能要用到这些小宝贝了."
"Yes, captain."
"是,舰长."
After arranging all these tasks, Lübeck refocuses his attention on monitoring the periodicity of the gravity offset data and the regularity of its numerical intensity. He is a little worried, hoping he did not run into the space gravity tide. No one knows how high the tide head from that tide is, or whether it will destroy the space-time tunnel his ship relies on to sail.
安排一番,吕贝克又把注意力放在了监视引力偏移数据的周期性和数值强度的规律性了.他有点担心,希望自己不是撞到了太空引力的海潮,因为没人知道那边来的潮水有多高的潮头,是否会冲毁自己飞船赖以航行的时空隧道.
After a moment of thinking, Lübeck still believes that the soon-to-be-released auxiliary gravity detectors are of great importance. He decides to go there in person to supervise the pre-launch inspection process.
思索片刻,吕贝克还是觉得即将释放的辅助引力探测器事关重大,他决定自己过去亲自监督释放前的检测过程.
He leaves his captain's cabin and walks through the narrow internal passage of the ship. Fortunately, there is no swaying from ocean waves in space. The auxiliary artificial gravity on the ship is not as strong as that on Earth, but it is enough for the crew to move around normally, except that there is a lack of friction under their feet when they open and close the heavy cabin doors.
离开自己的舰长室,通行在狭窄的飞船内部通道里,还好太空中没有海浪的摇摆.船上的辅助人工重力并没有地球上一样大,不过足以让人员正常活动了,只是在开关沉重舱门的时候脚下缺乏摩擦力.
Along the way, he keeps meeting young crew members. When they see the captain coming, they step aside and stand at attention to salute. Lübeck has to pretend that nothing is wrong, pats the soldiers on the shoulder as usual to encourage them.
一路上不时遇到年轻船员,看到舰长到来,靠边站立敬礼,吕贝克只好装作没有事情,像平常一样拍拍士兵的肩膀鼓励他们.
The forward torpedo compartment is bustling with activity. The already narrow space makes the multi-person parallel inspection operations a little crowded. After Lübeck calls to have the cabin door opened and enters the compartment, he stays on one side to supervise the sailors' equipment inspection process. They check the integrity of the equipment, test the circuits, power on the devices, carry out overall function tests, and fill in fuel. Lübeck supervises the whole process, then orders the sailors to load the devices and start a 30-minute countdown to launch.
前鱼雷舱正在忙碌,本身就狭小的空间使得多人并行的检测操作忙碌得有些拥挤.吕贝克打电话叫开舱门进入舱室后就一直在一边监督水手们的设备检测过程.检查设备完好性,测试电路,设备加载电源,整体功能测试,加注燃料.吕贝克监督了整个过程,然后命令水手们装填,三十分钟倒计时发射.
On his way back, Lübeck checks the results of the task he assigned to the navigation post, and he needs to remind the navigator of some precautions.
返回的路上,吕贝克又检查了导航岗位自己布置的任务成果,需要提醒导航员一些注意事项.
All possible navigation deviations caused by those gravitational disturbances. The key point is that the ship did not notice the drift of gravitational coordinates when it entered the space-time tunnel, but that does not mean the drift did not exist at that time. And a tiny initial deviation will keep accumulating during the voyage.
那些引力扰动所有可能造成的导航偏差.关键点是在自己的飞船进入时空隧道的时候还没有注意到引力坐标的漂移,但是不等于当时没有,而一个小小的初始偏差,会在航行过程中累积.
The most terrible thing is that he has no idea how large the deviation was back then, or even whether there was a deviation at all, let alone how to correct it. So his mind is only filled with all kinds of assumptions, and the plans to deal with these assumptions.
最要命的是不知道那时候的偏差有多大,甚至连那时候有没有偏差都不知道,就更别提如何修正了.所以脑海中只有各种假设,和如何应对这些假设.
After explaining all these details, he returns to his captain's cabin from the navigation post. With his mind full of all kinds of information, Lübeck lies down on his bunk. He needs to get some rest.
交代了这些细节,从导航员那里回到自己的舰长室,就这样吕贝克带着满脑子各种信息,躺在了自己的床铺上,他需要休息了.