Chapter 47 45

★★ I escaped from Wanxing.com's data circle before I had time to escape. Watching giant dataspheres eat themselves up is both unbelievable and strangely unsettling.Brown.Lamia's view of the Giant DataNet as an organism, a semi-sentient organism more virtual than the ecology of a city, is largely correct.Now, after the connection of the portal no longer exists, the inner pathways of this world have collapsed, and the outer data circle has also collapsed like a big tent on fire that suddenly lost its support, personnel or pillars. The circle devoured itself, like a very hungry carnivore biting its own tail, stomach, internal organs, front paws, and heart in a frenzy. In the end, only a thoughtless mouth was left, still biting in vain.

The hyperdatasphere is still there, but now it's wilder than ever. The black forest of unknown time and space. Nocturnal noises. lion. And tigers. And bears. When the Void Connection vibrates, sending that single, mundane message to the human universe, it is like an earthquake sending shock waves out of solid rock.I can't help but smile as I hurry across the hypersphere moving over Hyperion, as if the virtual god is getting tired of the ants constantly scribbling on his toes. I haven't seen any gods in the super data circle.I didn't even try to find it.I have had enough of my own troubling problems.

The black vortex at the entrance of Ten Thousand Stars Network and Intellectual Core has now disappeared, erased from space and time like removing a wart.Disappear cleanly like the eddies in the water after the storm has passed. I'm stuck here unless I want to venture into the hyperdatasphere. I don't want to do this.Not yet. But that's exactly where I want to be.In the Hyperion system, the Datasphere has completely disappeared, and on this world, those poor remnants and the remaining Tyrant fleets have dried up like puddles in the hot sun, but those Time Tombs But the light shines out through the primary data circle, like a lighthouse in the increasingly thick darkness.If the connections of those portals are all black vortexes, those time tombs are like white holes, emitting more and more diffuse light.

I move toward those time mounds.So far, I've been the one who's been there before, and all I've done is appear in other people's dreams, and now it's time to do something about it. Sol was waiting. Several hours have passed since he handed over his only daughter to Jing Demon God.He has not eaten or slept for several days.Around him the storm rose and ebbed, and the time mounds glowed and rumbled like reactors out of control.And Shi Chao hit him with the force of a tsunami.But Thor clung to the stone steps of the sphinx and held on, and now he waited. Thor was half-comatose from exhaustion and the shock of his daughter's fear, only to find his scholarly mind still racing.

For most of his life and throughout his career, Saul.Wen Chaobo, a historian, classicist and philosopher, studied the moral issues of human religious behavior.Religion and morality don't always or even often go hand in hand.Demands for religious absolutism or orthodoxy, or unruly relativism, etc., often reflect the worst aspects or prejudices of the current culture, rather than a system in which both men and gods can truly feel just.Saul's most famous work, finally titled "Abraham's Dilemma", was published in a number of prints that he could never have imagined when it was published by the Academy Press.At the time of writing Rachel was dying of Merlin's disease.The discussion in the book is clearly about the difficult choice between Abraham's obedience or disobedience to God's direct command to sacrifice his son.

Saul argues in the book that primitive times demanded total obedience, but later generations evolved to the point where parents were willing to sacrifice themselves like the dark days in the history of the earth when Nazi Germany cremated Jews and the current generation denies any demands Sacrifice command.Saul believes that regardless of the form of God in human consciousness, whether it is just a subconscious expression of the needs of revanchists, or a more conscious attempt to evolve in philosophy and ethics, human beings can no longer agree to sacrifice in the name of God. up.Sacrifice and consent to sacrifice both write the history of humanity in blood.

But a few hours ago, like a long, long dream, Saul.Wen Chaobo entrusted his only daughter to a god of death. For years, the voice in his dreams had been ordering him to do so.For years Saul refused.He will agree in the end, only because time is running out, and other hope is gone, and he found that, all these years, the voice in his dream with Sha Rui is not the voice of God, nor is it related to the thorn demon god some kind of dark force. It was their daughter's voice. In a realization beyond his pain and sorrow, Saul.Wen Chaobo suddenly fully understood why Abraham agreed to sacrifice his son Isaac when God commanded him.

That is not obedience. That's not even putting the love of God above the love of the Son. (Abraham was testing God.) By not sacrificing at the last moment, holding back the knife, God earned the right to be Abraham's God in Abraham's eyes and in the heart of his son. Sol could not help but shudder when he thought that no matter what gesture Abraham made, no matter how much he pretended to be willing to sacrifice the child, it would be impossible to imitate the bondage between the higher power and human beings. Abraham must know in his heart that he would kill His Son, and God, whatever his form, must have known Abraham's determination, must have felt the grief and determination to destroy the most precious thing in the universe to Abraham.

Abraham did not come to offer a sacrifice, but to find out if this God was worthy of trust and obedience.No other test method will get real results. Then why, Sol thought, grasping the stone steps with his hands, the sphinx seemed to be undulating in the sea when there was a storm.Why is this test repeated again?What terrible new apocalypse awaits mankind? And then Thor saw that from what Braun had told him, and the stories he'd heard on the pilgrimage, and what he'd learned over the past few weeks, the mechanical supreme intelligence, whatever it was, Efforts to find out the lack of sympathy in the god of men were utterly in vain.Thor no longer saw the thorn tree standing on the top of the cliff, those metal branches and the suffering people, but now he knew very clearly that that thing was a living machine like the Thorn Demon God, a kind of pain spreading in the universe. A tool to force the human god to react and appear.

If gods can evolve, and Saul is sure they must, then that evolution is toward compassion, toward a shared sense of suffering, not toward power and domination.But the wicked tree these pilgrims saw made poor Martin.The tree of which Cylenus was a victim was not the method that would generate that lost power. Sol now understood that whatever form that machine god took, he had enough insight to understand that compassion was a response to the pain of others, but this supreme wisdom was too stupid to understand, in fact Compassion is more than the definition given by both man and man's supreme wisdom.Compassion and love are inseparable and inexplicable.The AI ​​of the machine will never understand this or even understand enough to use this to lure out that part of the supreme human intelligence that is weary of future wars.

Love, the most mundane of all things, the most trite in terms of religious motives, yet has a greater force Thor now knows is greater than strong nuclear energy or weak nuclear energy or electromagnetism or gravity many.Thor understands that love is those other forces.Void connections, those subquanta that teleport one photon within a photon to another, are neither more nor less than love. But love simple and ordinary love can explain the so-called origin of human beings that has kept scientists shaking their heads for more than 700 years An almost infinite series of coincidences created a universe of just the right size, just the right electron value, just the right amount just the right gravity, just the right age of the stars, just the right pre-genesis of life to create the perfect bacteria, to be just the right variety of DNA in short, a string of absurd coincidences that are precise and correct, utterly illogical and beyond comprehension , and even difficult to explain religiously.like? The grand unified theory that has existed for more than 700 years, the statement that the universe is self-contained, boundless, and has no starting point and subsequent end point proposed by high-level quantum physics and intelligence core has actually obliterated the role of God Primitive anthropomorphism or esoteric post-Einsteinianism doesn't even count as a caregiver or making all the rules before creating anything.The modern universe, as understood by machines and humans, does not require a Creator; in fact, it does not allow for one.Its rules cannot be broken, nor can it be substantially revised.There is no beginning and there is no end beyond the cycles of expansion and contraction that are regular and self-regulating like the seasons on meta-Earth.There is no place for love there. It seems as though Abraham only tested a phantom in the murder of his son. It seemed as though Thor had brought his dying daughter over hundreds of light-years and countless hardships, to no avail. But now, with the sphinx standing above him, and the first rays of sunlight turning Hyperion's sky white, Thor finds that what he seeks is a master more terrifying or painful than the thorn demon. A more fundamental and persuasive force.If he's right he doesn't know but just feels it then love is part of the skeleton in the fabric of the universe as is gravity and matter/antimatter.There is indeed a place for God, not between the walls of the network, nor in the cardinal points in the cracks, nor somewhere before or outside things but in the warp and woof of all.Evolves as the universe evolves.Learn as you learn with the learnable parts of the universe, loving as humans have loved. Sol knelt first, then stood up, the storm of the tide seemed to have weakened a little, and he thought that he could try to find a way to enter the tomb for the hundredth time. The strong light still appeared from the Jing Demon God, took Sol's daughter away, and then shot out from where it disappeared.But now the morning light is dawning in the sky, and the stars are fading away. Thor climbed the stone steps. He remembered the time when ten-year-old Rachel tried to climb the tallest elm tree in town at the house on Barnard's Star, but fell only five meters from the top of the tree.Saul rushed to the medical center to find his child floating in a restorative nutrient solution, with a punctured lung, a broken leg and several ribs, a shattered jaw, and numerous cuts and bruises.She smiled at him, gave him a thumbs up, moved her stitched mouth and said: I will definitely succeed next time. Before Rachel went to bed that night, Saul and Shari sat in the medical center until dawn.Sol held her hand all night. He waits now. The tide of time pouring out of the entrance of the Sphinx still pushed him like a strong wind that would not let up, but he leaned forward to meet it, standing there like an unshakable rock, just five meters away Waiting, squinting to look into the glare. When he saw the contrail behind a descending spacecraft piercing the dawn sky, he looked up instead of backing away.Hearing the landing of the spaceship, turning around and seeing three figures coming down from the ship, he did not back away. Hearing other voices, shouts came from the bottom of the valley, and saw a familiar figure hugging another familiar figure, like a firefighter When he walked towards him from the jade mound with his arms in his arms, he only took a look and didn't take a step back. These things have nothing to do with his daughter, he is waiting for Rachel. ★★ Even without the datasphere, it was possible to send my personality through the void-connection that thickened around Hyperion.My immediate reaction was to meet the man who would be, but despite the light of that man enveloping the hypersphere, I wasn't ready.After all, I'm just little John.Keats, not John the Baptist 40. 40 John the Baptist: A Jewish prophet who appeared at the beginning of the first century AD and baptized Jesus. The Sphinx A time tomb built from real biological forms that genetic engineers have been unwilling to replicate for centuries is a maelstrom of time energy.With my dilated eyesight, I can see that there are actually several sphinxes: the anti-entropic time tomb carrying the Thorn Demon God. When the stable sphinx first wanted to open a passage in time, it made Rachel.Wen Chaobo was infected, and the opened Sphinx was moving forward in time again.The last sphinx was a dazzling portal of light, only slightly inferior to the man it would have been.Illuminated Hyperion with its pilling fire. I landed in that bright spot just in time to see Saul.Wen Chaobo entrusted his daughter to Jing Demon God. Even if I could come earlier, it is impossible for me to interfere with this matter.And even if I could, I wouldn't interfere.The world beyond reason depends on this kind of action. But I waited in the sphinx for the Jing Demon God to pass by, holding that weak thing, and now I can see the child.She was only seconds old, dirty, wet, and wrinkled.The cry of a newborn baby is being heard.From my former bachelor status and my position as a poet, it is really difficult to understand how such a crying, unbeautiful baby could be attractive to her father and this universe. However, seeing the child's body, no matter how unattractive the newborn baby may be, being held in the bladed claws of the Thorn Demon God still touched my heart. Three steps into the Sphinx, and Jing Demon God and the child could be moved forward in time for several hours.Right at the entrance, the river of time is speeding up.If I don't do something in a few seconds, it will be too late. The thorn god will use this portal to take this child to some black hole in the far future that he seeks. Many images came unsolicited: spiders sucking the flesh of hunting dogs dry, cave wasps put their larvae into the paralyzed body of their prey, becoming the best parasite and food source. I must act, but I am as incorporeal here as I am in the Intellectual Core.The Thorn Demon God walked past me, as if I were an invisible light and shadow.My fictitious personality is useless here, as limbless and bodily as the gas of a turbulent army. But the poisonous gas of the rebellion has no brains, John.Keats did. The Thorn Demon God took two more steps, and several hours passed for Sol and the others outside.I saw the blood that flowed from the little baby's body when it was cut into the flesh by the thorn demon god's sharp claws. fuck it. Outside, on the broad stone platform of the Sphinx, a flood of time energy was flowing through the tomb, drowning the knapsacks, blankets, empty food containers, and everything Thor and others had left there. What the pilgrims left there. Contains a Moebius cube. That box was made by Hayte, the Word of the Tree.As Mastine prepares for his long voyage, he seals it off with a level-eight guard force field aboard the Templar treeship, the World Tree.One of these ergs, sometimes called a binder, is a small creature, perhaps not intelligent by human standards, but which evolved on a distant planet to develop a more controllable and powerful Strong field capabilities. Templars and Ousters have communicated with this creature for generations.Templars have used this little creature to keep security in their beautiful but mostly defenseless treeships. Hite.Mastine brought this thing from hundreds of light years away to complete the agreement between the Templars and the Church of Final Reconciliation, and assist the Thorn Demon God in flying the thorn tree.However, after seeing the Jing Demon God and the tree of pain, Masting did not fulfill their agreement, so he died. The Mobius cube stayed.I could see that erg was a compressed red energy ball in the time flood. Through the dark curtain, Saul outside.Wen Chaobo can vaguely see a pitifully funny figure, because the subjective time frenzy outside the time force field of the Sphinx makes him seem to move faster like a character in a silent film, but the Mobius box is inside the Sphinx circle. Rachel's cries carried the fear that even a newborn baby knew.Afraid of falling, afraid of pain, afraid of being separated from loved ones. Jing Demon God took a step, and those outside lost another hour. To Jing Demon God, I am a non-entity.But the energy force field can even be touched by the virtual ghost of our intelligence core.I eliminated the protective force field of the Mobius Cube and released Ergo. Templars use electromagnetic radiation, radio codes, and eargs to communicate, and after the eargs do what they're supposed to do, they're rewarded with radiation but basically in an almost mystical form, only the Brotherhood of Templars and a few xenomorphs of the Ousters Know.Scientists call it a crude telepathy.In fact, it was almost pure sympathy. Jing Demon God took another step towards the door leading to the future.Rachel was crying with the energy that only those who have just been born into this universe can have. The ears grow larger, understand my mind, and become one with my personality, John.Keats took on physical form. I quickly took five steps to catch up with Jing Demon God, took the baby from its hands, and then backed away.Even in the maelstrom of energy that is the Sphinx, I can smell her newborn baby, and I hold the baby close to my chest, holding her wet head against mine. on the cheek. Jing Demon God turned around in surprise, stretched out his four arms, and opened the fingers of the blade, and stared at me with those red eyes.But the monster was too close to the door, and was carried away by the torrent of time without even moving.The monster's steam shovel-like mouth opened, clenching its steel teeth, but it had faded into a small dot in the distance, and then even that dot disappeared. I turned to the entrance, but it was too far away, and Ergo's weakening energy could send me there, traveling backwards in time, but not with Rachel.To lead another living person to resist such a powerful force and go so far, even with the help of Erge, is beyond my ability. The baby was crying, and I shook her gently, whispering nonsense doggerel into her warm ear. If we can't go back and we can't move forward, then we'll just wait there for a while.Maybe someone will come. Martin.Selenus' eyes widened, Braun.Lamia turned around quickly and saw the Thorn Demon God floating in mid-air behind her. God, Brown whispered in awe. In the Jing Demon Temple, layers of sleeping bodies receded into the darkness far away, except for Martin.All but Cylenus are still connected by throbbing umbilical cords to the thorn tree, the mechanical AI, and God knows what else. The Jing Demon God seemed to want to show its power here, no longer climbing up, but stretched out four arms, floated up three meters, and finally hung on Brown squatting on Martin.In the air five meters above the stone shelf next to Cylenos. Find a way, Cylenus said softly, the poet has been freed from the umbilical cord of the nerve shunt, but is still too weak to lift his head. Any ideas?said Brown, but the tremor in her voice could not be concealed by her brave reply. trust.said a voice below them, and Braun moved to look down. Brown recognized the young woman she had seen in Kassad's tomb named Moneta, standing far below. Help!cried Brown. to believe.Moneta disappeared after speaking.The Jing Demon God was not distracted at all, it put down its hands and walked forward, as if walking on a hard rock instead of mid-air. Damn it, Brown said softly. I agree, Martin.Cylenos gasped.Only then did he leave the oil pan and enter the fire pit again. Shut up, Brown said, and then, as if to himself, "Trust in what?"Who do you trust? Believe that the goddamn thorn god will kill us, or stick us both in that goddamn tree.Cylenos gasped.He barely got close and grabbed Brown's arm.Better dead than back up a tree, Brawn. Braun touched his hand, then stood up, facing the Thorn Demon God who was five meters away in the air. (Believe it?) Brown stretched out one foot, explored in the void, closed her eyes and opened them again, her foot seemed to be stepping on a solid step, she opened her eyes wide . There was nothing but air under her feet. (Trust?) Brown stepped out with his full weight on the outstretched foot, rocked back and forth, and stepped the other foot down. She and Jing Demon God face to face in the air ten meters above the ground.The monster seemed to be grinning grimly at her and outstretched its arms, its shell gleaming dimly in the dim light.Those red eyes were very bright. (Trust?) Braun felt the rush of adrenaline, and walked forward step by step on the invisible stone steps, walking higher and higher into the embrace of Jing Demon God. She felt bladed fingers cutting through her clothes and skin, and the monster began to hug her tightly, toward the curved blade protruding from its metal chest, toward its gaping mouth and rows of steel teeth.But Braun still stood firmly on the thin air, leaned forward, and pressed her uninjured hand flat on the Thorn Demon God's chest, feeling the coldness of its shell, but also felt a warm current at the same time. Welling up, it was energy coming out of her, out, through her. After those blades cut through the skin, they didn't cut further.Jing Demon God was stunned, as if the torrent of time energy surrounding them had turned into a large piece of amber. Brown put his hand on the monster's broad chest and pushed hard. The Thorn Demon God completely condensed in place, becoming very fragile, the flash of metal faded, replaced by the transparent light of crystal, like the light of glass. Bulang stood in the air, embraced by a three-meter-high glass statue of the Thorn Demon God. On the monster's chest, where there should be a heart, there was something like a huge black moth flying around in the glass. wing. Brown took a deep breath and pushed harder.Jing Demon God slid back on the invisible platform she shared with her, wobbled, and fell down.Brown slipped short from the encircling arms, heard and felt her clothes being torn by the still-sharp blades that pierced them, ripping as the monster fell, and then she swayed herself, waving the He used a good arm to seek balance, while the glass Thorn Demon God rolled and a half in mid-air, fell to the ground, and shattered into a thousand irregular pieces. Brown turned around, fell to his knees on the invisible narrow high-altitude passage, and turned to Martin.Cylenus crawled back. At the last half a meter, she suddenly lost confidence, and the invisible support suddenly disappeared. She fell heavily and hit the edge of the stone slab and twisted her ankle. Fortunately, she grabbed Selenus' knee and escaped. Roll down. Cursing at the pain in her shoulders, broken wrists, sprained ankles and bruised hands and knees, she crawled safely to his side. Apparently a lot of weird things have happened since I left, Martin.Cylenus said in a hoarse voice: Shall we go now, or do you want to perform walking on water again? Shut up!Brown trembled. The words sounded almost full of emotion. She rested for a while, and then found that the easiest way to get the still-weakened poet down the steps and over the shattered glass floor of the Bramble Temple was to carry him out.When they were at the door, he suddenly patted her on the back and said, "What about King Billy and the rest?" Later, Brown breathed out as he stepped outside into the pre-dawn light. As she staggered two-thirds of the way down the valley with Cylenus on her shoulders like a great bundle of garments, the poet said: Brawn, are you still pregnant? Yeah, she said, praying to keep the baby after all the hard work today. Do you want me to carry you? Shut up.She said, and then went down the path around the jade mound. Look, Martin.Cylenus said he twisted around to point, even though he was hanging almost head-to-toe on her shoulders. In the growing morning light, Braun saw the Consul's dark spaceship now moored on the plateau beyond the entrance to the valley.But this is not what the poet is pointing at. Sol.Wen Chaobo stood like a silhouette in the strong light from the entrance of the Sphinx, with his arms raised high. Someone or something emerged from the glare. Thor saw her first, a figure walking in the torrent of light and time pouring out of the sphinx.From her shadow in front of the strong light, he could tell that it was a woman, a woman holding something. A woman holds a baby. His daughter Rachel came out the last time he saw her going to a world called Hyperion to collect information for her Ph.D. Rachel of that healthy young woman, Rachel of twenty something, Maybe a little older now, but it's Rachel, there's no doubt about it, Rachel, the tawny hair still cut short and hanging down her forehead, her cheeks still red as if she's found a new passion Tong Tong, a soft smile, almost trembling with joy now, and her eyes, large green eyes with brown flecks, stared at Sol. Lei Qiu hugged Lei Qiu.The little baby twisted its body, with its small face leaning against the woman's shoulder, fisting and releasing its two small hands, as if it was not sure whether to start crying again. Thor stood still.Tried to speak, but couldn't, and tried again.Rachel. "Father," said the young woman, stepping forward, putting her free arm around the scholar, turning slightly so that the little baby would not be caught between them. Sol kissed his grown daughter, held her, smelled the freshness of her hair, felt her real body, and held the little baby to his own neck and shoulders, feeling the rush of the newborn baby. Shaking, took a deep breath, and started crying.The Rachel he had brought to Hyperion was now safe in his hands, puckering her little red face, trying to fix those wandering eyes on her father's face.Sol cupped her small head in his palms, held her closer, looked carefully at the little face, and then turned to the young woman. is she She is growing up normally, her daughter said.She wore what looked part morning jacket, part robe, and was made of soft brown material.Sol shook his head, looked at her, saw her smile, and noticed that the dimple on the lower left side of her mouth was exactly like the baby he was holding. He shook his head again.How is this possible? This won't last long.Rachel said. Thor leaned forward and kissed her grown daughter again on the cheek.He found himself crying, but he couldn't spare any hand to wipe his tears, the grown Rachel wiped his tears for him, and gently touched his cheek with the back of her hand. There was a sound from the stairs below them, and Saul turned his head to see the three men who had disembarked from the spaceship standing there, flushed from running, and Braun.Lamia is supporting the poet Cylenus sitting on a white stone that serves as a fence. Consul and Theo.Liam looked up at them. Rachel Mirio.Arendez said softly, tears welling up in his eyes. Rachel?Martin.Selennos frowned as he spoke, and looked at Braun.Lamia glanced. Brown's mouth was half open, his eyes widened.Moneta, she said pointing, then put her hand down again when she found herself pointing at someone else, you are Moneta.Moneta of Kassad. Rachel nodded, the smile on her face disappeared.I only have a minute or two here.She said: But there are many things to tell you. No, Saul said, taking his grown daughter's hand.You must stay.I want you to stay with me. Rachel smiled again, I'll stay with you, Dad, she said softly, raising her other hand to touch the baby's head.But only one of us can stay and she needs you more, she turns to the little group below, please listen to me, all of you. As the sun rose, illuminating the ruined buildings of the City of Poets, the Consul's spaceship, the cliffs to the west, and the taller Tombs of Time, Rachel told her short but compelling story.She was chosen and grew up in the future where the final battle will take place between the human spirit and the intelligence-core AI.She speaks of a mystical future that is both terrible and wonderful, in which humanity is scattered throughout the galaxy and begins to go elsewhere. other galaxies?Theo.Lien asked. other universes.Rachel smiled. Colonel Kassad knew you as Moneta before.Martin.Cylenos said. Will recognize me as Moneta in the future.Rachel said, her eyes clouded.I saw him die and sent his grave to the past.I knew that my part of the mission was to meet the famous warrior in this story and lead him forward to the final battle.I haven't actually met him yet, she looked across the valley to the crystal monolith.Moneta, she mused: Adviser in Latin, very fitting.I asked him to choose my name between that and Memories of Munimosini. Sol hadn't let go of his daughter's hand, and he wasn't letting go now.Are you going to go back in time with these tombs?Why?How to go? Rachel raised her head, the light reflected from the cliff in the distance shone warmly on her face.This is my job, my responsibility.Dad, they gave me a way to control Jing Demon God.Only I am prepared. Sol lifted his newborn daughter a little higher.Startling in her sleep, she blows a bubble of saliva, turns her head toward her father's neck for warmth, and presses her tiny fist against his shirt. Ready, said Bull: You mean Merlin? Yes, Rachel said. Sol shook his head.But you didn't grow up in some mysterious future world.You grew up on Feltig Street in the university town of Crawford, Barnard World.Your he stopped. Rachel nodded.She will grow up there and grow up.father.I'm sorry, I have to go.She withdrew her hand, floated down the steps, reached out and touched Milio.Arendez's cheek.I'm sorry for making you miserable with the memories.She said softly to the horrified archaeologist: For me, that was really another life. Arendez blinked, grabbed her hand and pressed it to his cheek for a while. Are you married?Rachel asked softly: Do you have any children? Arendez nodded, and the other hand moved, as if to take out the photos of his wife and grown children from his pocket, but stopped immediately and nodded again. Rachel smiled, kissed him quickly on the cheek, and walked up the steps again.The sun was bright in the sky, but much brighter inside the door of the Sphinx. Daddy, she said: I love you. Sol tried to speak, and he cleared his throat.How can I get there to find you? Rachel made a gesture towards the open door of the Sphinx.For some, this is the gateway to the time I speak of.But, Daddy, she hesitated for a moment.That would require you to raise me all over again, which means enduring my childhood for the third time, which should not be expected of any parent. Thor forced a small smile.No parent would say no to that, Rachel.He switched hands to hold the sleeping baby and shook his head again.Will there be some time for the two of you Simultaneously again?Lei Qiu smiled and said: No.I'm going the other way now.You have no idea how difficult it was for me to get the Council of Contradictions to approve this meeting. Committee of Contradictions?Saul said. Rachel took a deep breath.She backed away until only her fingertips touched her father's, their arms stretched out.I must go, Daddy. Would I have him looking at that baby.Will we be alone there? Rachel laughed, and that laughter was as familiar as a warm hand wrapped around Sol's heart.Oh no, she said: not alone.There are a lot of great people out there, and a lot of amazing things to learn and do.Lots of great places to see her and look around.Places beyond our wildest dreams.No, Daddy, you won't be alone, and I'll be there, with my teenage awkwardness and my youthful dominance.She backed away, fingers slipping away from Thor. Go in later, Daddy, she said aloud, back into the glare.It doesn't hurt, but once you're in, you can never come back. 蕾秋，等一等。Saul said. 他的女兒向後退去，她的長袍飄過石頭，最後整個人被光包圍。她高舉起一隻手臂。再見了，短吻鱷！she cried. 索爾舉起了一隻手。回頭見小鱷魚。 年紀大的那個蕾秋消失在光裡。 嬰兒醒了，開始哭了起來。 一個小時之後，索爾和其他人才回到人面獅身像。他們先去了領事的太空船去治療布瑯和馬汀．賽倫諾斯的傷、吃飯，和替索爾和孩子的遠行做準備。 我覺得不過就是像跨進傳送門一樣，還要收拾行李，未免太蠢了。索爾說：不過不管未來有多了不起，要是沒有嬰兒食品包的話，我們就麻煩了。 領事咧嘴一笑，拍了下放在階梯上那裝得滿滿的背包。這夠你和小嬰兒用兩個禮拜的了。要是你到時候還找不到賣尿布的地方的話，就去另外一個蕾秋提到過的其他宇宙吧。 索爾搖了搖頭。這一切都是真的嗎？ 再等幾天或是幾個禮拜吧，米立歐．阿讓德茲說：和我們一起在這裡等一切明朗化。不用著急，未來會一直在那裡的。 索爾搔著鬍子，一面用太空船製造出來的嬰兒食品包餵著嬰兒。我們並不確定這扇門會一直開著。他說：何況，我說不定會害怕起來。要再養育一個孩子，我實在是太老了點尤其是要獨在異鄉為異客。 阿讓德茲把強壯有力的手按在索爾肩膀上。讓我跟你一起去吧。我對那個地方好奇得要死。 索爾咧嘴笑了笑，伸出手來，用力地握了下阿讓德茲的手。Thank you my friend.可是你在萬星網還有妻子兒女在文藝復興星正等著你回去。你有你的責任。 阿讓德茲點了點頭，望著天上。如果我們還能夠回去的話。 我們會回得去的，領事斷然地說：就算萬星網永遠消失了，使用老式霍金空間跳躍推進器的太空船還是有用的。可能會有個幾年的時債，米立歐，但是你一定會回得去的。 索爾點了點頭。把嬰兒餵飽了，把一塊乾淨的尿布擱在肩膀上，拍著她的背。他四下看了看這一小圈人。我們都有我們的責任。他和馬汀．賽倫諾斯握了握手。詩人先前拒絕進入營養恢復浴池，也不肯動手術把神經分流插槽去除。這種事情我以前也碰過。He said. 你會繼續把你的詩寫完嗎？索爾問他。 賽倫諾斯搖了搖頭。我在那棵樹上的時候已經把詩完成了，他說：而且我在那裡還發現了另外一件事，索爾。 那位學者挑起了一邊眉毛。 我認清了詩人不是神，可是如果真的有神或者其他什麼像神的東西的話祂一定是個詩人，而且是個蹩腳的詩人。 嬰兒打了個嗝。 Martin.賽倫諾斯咧嘴笑著，最後再和索爾握了一次手。到那裡去讓他們難過吧，溫朝博，告訴他們說你是他們的曾︱曾︱曾︱曾︱曾︱曾爺爺。要是他們不乖的話，你會打他們的屁股。索爾點了點頭，順著那一行人走到布瑯．拉蜜亞面前。我看到妳和船上的醫療電腦會商，他說：妳和妳懷著的孩子一切都還好吧？ 布瑯笑著說：一切都很好。 Is it a boy or a girl? 女孩。 索爾親了下她的臉頰，布瑯摸了下他的鬍子，別過臉去隱藏身為前私家偵探不該流下的淚水。女孩子都好麻煩，他說著，把蕾秋抓住他鬍子和布瑯鬈髮的小手扳開來。一有機會就把妳女兒去換一個男孩子回來。 好的，布瑯說完退開一步。 他最後再和領事、席奧及阿讓德茲握過手，讓布瑯抱著嬰兒，自己把背包背上，再把蕾秋抱在懷裡。要是這玩意沒作用，而我最後只是在人面獅身像裡亂轉的話，那可就太反高潮了。 領事瞇起眼睛來看了看那扇光亮的門。會有作用的。雖然我不知道會怎麼作用。我覺得這不像是什麼傳送門。 是時送門，賽倫諾斯大膽地說，然後舉起手臂來擋布瑯打來的一掌。詩人退後一步，聳了下臂膀，如果這扇門繼續有作用的話，索爾，我覺得你在那裡一定不會寂寞的，成千上萬的人會到你那裡去。 只要矛盾委員會批准的話，索爾說著像他平常想著別的心事時那樣拉著鬍子。他眨眨眼睛，調整了一下背包和嬰兒的位置，向前走去，這次敞開的大門裡的力場讓他走了進去。 Goodbye, everyone!他叫道：天啊，這一切都很值得，對吧？他進入光亮裡，他和小嬰兒就此消失了。 那一陣空虛和寂靜持續了幾分鐘之久。最後領事以近乎尷尬的語氣說：我們回太空船上去吧？ 把電梯叫下來給我們其他的人用，馬汀．賽倫諾斯說，拉蜜亞小姐會凌空走上去。 布瑯怒視著矮小的詩人。 妳覺得那是莫妮塔的安排嗎？阿讓德茲說，他指的是布瑯先前說的經過。 一定是的，布瑯說：是未來的科學之類的吧。 啊，不錯，馬汀．賽倫諾斯嘆了口氣說：未來的科學是那些畏縮得不敢迷信的人常用的說法。親愛的，另外一種說法就是，妳有那種之前始終未開發的能力，可以升到空中，把怪物變成一打就碎的玻璃小妖精。 閉嘴，布瑯說，這回語氣裡完全沒有一點感情。她回頭望了望，誰說不會隨時又有另外一個荊魔神出現呢？ 真的，領事同意道。我猜我們始終都會有個荊魔神，或是關於荊魔神的謠言的。 向來碰到不和的狀況就會很窘的席奧．連恩清了下喉嚨：你們看我在散落在人面獅身像四周的行李堆裡找到什麼，他舉起一件有三根弦，長把手和三角的琴身上漆有亮麗花紋的樂器，是一把吉他嗎？ 是三角琴，布瑯說：是霍依特神父的東西。 領事把那件樂器拿了過來，彈了幾個和弦。你們知道這首歌嗎？他彈了幾個音。 叫麗妲奶子相幹歌嗎？Martin.賽倫諾斯貿然地說。 領事搖了搖頭，又再彈了幾組和弦。 很老的歌嗎？布瑯猜道。 彩虹之外41。Milio.Arendez said. 想必是我那個時代之前的歌。Theo.連恩說，他隨著領事的彈奏點頭打拍子。 那是所有人都沒出生之前的歌。領事說：來吧，我們在路上的時候，我再把歌詞教給你們。 他們一起走在烈日之下，唱得有時荒腔走板，有時很好，有時忘了詞又重新來過，他們往山上走向那艘等待著的太空船。 41彩虹之外（Somewhere Over the Rainbow）：電影綠野仙蹤的主題曲，由裘蒂．迦蘭演唱，曾獲一九三九年奧斯卡最佳電影歌曲金像獎。