*Hellfire Van Winkle and the Aliens*
地狱火·凡·温克尔和外星人
* * * *
Hellfire Van Winkle sped toward Edith of Scotland, the smaller of Henry I’s two moons.
地狱火·凡·温克尔快速向苏格兰的艾迪斯星驶近，这是亨利艾的两颗卫星之一。
“So you thought you could hide here?” he muttered aloud as the alien encampment showed up on his sensor screen. “Hell, if I could find the last Landship in the jungles of Peponi, I can sure as hell find a military outpost on a dead moon.”
“你们真以为能藏在这里？”当外星人的营地出现在副屏幕上时，他大声地自言自语道，“该死，既然我能在天堂林里找到最后一艘着陆艇的话，那我肯定能在找到无人卫星上找到一个军事岗哨。”
He fell silent again, the current moment less real to him than the past. He remembered the sights and smells of Peponi, the feel of the thornbush as it scraped against his safari jacket, the taste of cold pure water on a hot afternoon, the thrill of the hunt, the adrenaline rush when he finally got a Demoncat or a Sabrehorn or a Landship in his sights.
他闭上了嘴，这一瞬间对他来说比以往更不真实。他想起了天堂林的风景和气味，那里的荆棘林划破他的猎衫的触感，炎炎午后凉爽清纯的水的味道，打猎过程中的激动，当他最终发现一只地狱猫或一把军刀刀鞘或一艘着陆艇的时候那种冲刺的感觉。
What the hell was he doing here, fighting aliens he’d never seen in a ship he hadn’t adjusted to in a section of the Frontier that hadn’t even been mapped when he was a young man? He was not only half a galaxy away from where he wanted to be; he was _millennia_ away.
他当时在那儿在干什么？在他还年轻时从来没了解过的前线的一艘从来没想过的结构的飞船里和一群从来没见过的外星人打个你死我活？当时他离想去的地方有多半个星系那么远；有一千年那么远。
Time hadn’t so much passed him by as played a nasty trick on him. He didn’t fit here, didn’t belong in this era, wasn’t comfortable anywhere except perhaps the Outpost, where he could rub shoulders and swap stories with other misfits. But misfits though they all were, none fitted in as awkwardly as Hellfire Bailey.
时间对他的影响并不大，就像在他身上玩了个把戏一样。他不属于这里，不属于这个时代，在哪里也不会自在——除了岗哨，在岗哨他可以搂着肩，向别的怪人们吹牛。不过即使是那些怪人也绝不会认为自己和古怪的地狱火·贝利是一类人。
(Make that Hellfire Van Winkle, he corrected himself with a grimace; one more example of Time thumbing its nose at him.)
（还是说地狱火·凡·温克尔吧，他扮了个鬼脸，纠正了自己。又一个时间没注意到他把他给忽视了的例子。）
Yes, he’d outlived his time, no question about it. Now he had to prove that he hadn’t outlived his usefulness as well.
对，他比自己的时间还要活得久，这点肯定没错。现在他必须得证明他没自己的无能活得时间长了。
The problem was that he was tired of outliving things. He should have been dead and buried 4,700 years ago. He hadn’t enjoyed the past dozen years, and he didn’t anticipate enjoying the next dozen either.
问题是他不想再活得比什么东西长了。四千七百年前他就应该死掉被埋起来了。过去的几十年他过得实在不怎么愉快，而且感觉接下来的几十年也不会愉快了。
_So if I survive this battle, what will I do with the rest of my life? Just sit around remembering the past and feeling cheated because it was taken away from me before I was through with it? That’s no way for anyone to live._
那么，如果我在这场战斗中活下来了，接下来的这辈子应该干什么呢？干脆做下来，想想过去？我会感觉自己被骗了，因为“过去”——我还没有经历过它就被从我身边拿走了。没人能在这种情况下生活。
His mind made up, Hellfire Van Winkle yelled out a “Geronimo!” that no one else could hear, aimed his ship at the very center of the military encampment, and increased his speed.
他的脑子里冒出各种想法，地狱火·凡·温克尔低吼了一句没人能听到的“杰罗尼莫”，把他的船指向了军事基地的中心，加快了速度。
Just before he hit, he idly wondered if the explosion would be visible all the way to the Outpost. He was not surprised to discover that he didn’t really give a damn.
在撞上之前，他懒洋洋地想到这场爆炸能不能在前哨看到。发现自己对这件事一点都不在乎，他一点也不感觉奇怪。