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The Forever War, The Forever War #8

The Forever War #8

8 The two weeks‘ training around Miami Base eventually cost us eleven lives. Twelve, if you count Dahiquist. I guess having to spend the rest of your life on Charon with a hand and both legs missing is close enough to dying. Foster was crushed in a landslide and Freeland had a suit malfunction that froze him solid before we could carry him inside. Most of the other deaders were people I didn‘t know all that well. But they all hurt. And they seemed to make us more scared rather than more cautious. Now dark side. A flyer brought us over in groups of twenty and set us down beside a pile of building materials thoughtfully immersed in a pool of helium H. We used grapples to haul the stuff out of the pool. It‘s not safe to go wading, since the stuff crawls all over you and it‘s hard to tell what‘s underneath; you could walk out onto a slab of hydrogen and be out of luck. I‘d suggested that we try to boil away the pool with our lasers, but ten minutes of concentrated fire didn‘t drop the helium level appreciably. It didn‘t boil, either; helium II is a „super fluid,“ so what evaporation there was had to take place evenly, all over the surface. No hot spots, so no bubbling. We weren‘t supposed to use lights, to „avoid detection.“ There was plenty of starlight with your image converter cranked up to log three or four, but each stage of amplification meant some loss of detail. By log four the landscape looked like a crude monochrome painting, and you couldn‘t read the names on people‘s helmets unless they were right in front of you. The landscape wasn‘t all that interesting, anyhow. There were half a dozen medium-sized meteor craters (all with exactly the same level of helium II in them) and the suggestion of some puny mountains just over the horizon. The uneven ground was the consistency of frozen spiderwebs; every time you put your foot down, you‘d sink half an inch with a squeaking crunch. It could get on your nerves. It took most of a day to pull all the stuff out of the pool. We took shifts napping, which you could do either standing up, sitting or lying on your stomach. I didn‘t do well in any of those positions, so I was anxious to get the bunker built and pressurized. We couldn‘t build the thing underground---it‘d just fill up with helium 11-so the first thing to do was to build an insulating platform, a permaplast-vacuum sandwich three layers thick.


The Forever War #8 La guerra eterna #8

8 The two weeks‘ training around Miami Base eventually cost us eleven lives. 8 マイアミ基地周辺での 2 週間の訓練により、最終的に 11 人の命が失われました。 Twelve, if you count Dahiquist. Dahiquist を数えると 12 です。 I guess having to spend the rest of your life on Charon with a hand and both legs missing is close enough to dying. 手と両足を失った状態で残りの人生をカロンで過ごさなければならないのは、死に近いと思います。 Foster was crushed in a landslide and Freeland had a suit malfunction that froze him solid before we could carry him inside. フォスターは土砂崩れで押しつぶされ、フリーランドはスーツの誤動作により、彼を中に運ぶ前に凍りついた. Most of the other deaders were people I didn‘t know all that well. 他の死者のほとんどは、私がよく知らない人々でした。 But they all hurt. しかし、それらはすべて傷ついています。 And they seemed to make us more scared rather than more cautious. そして、彼らは私たちを用心深くするというよりも、より怖がらせているように見えました. Now dark side. もうダークサイド。 A flyer brought us over in groups of twenty and set us down beside a pile of building materials thoughtfully immersed in a pool of helium H. We used grapples to haul the stuff out of the pool. フライヤーが 20 人のグループで私たちを連れてきて、ヘリウム H のプールに思慮深く沈められた建材の山のそばに私たちを置きました。 It‘s not safe to go wading, since the stuff crawls all over you and it‘s hard to tell what‘s underneath; you could walk out onto a slab of hydrogen and be out of luck. 水遊びをするのは安全ではありません。なぜなら、物が体中を這い回り、その下に何があるかわかりにくいからです。水素のスラブの上に出て、運が悪くなる可能性があります。 I‘d suggested that we try to boil away the pool with our lasers, but ten minutes of concentrated fire didn‘t drop the helium level appreciably. レーザーでプールを沸騰させることを提案しましたが、10 分間の集中射撃ではヘリウム レベルがそれほど低下しませんでした。 It didn‘t boil, either; helium II is a „super fluid,“ so what evaporation there was had to take place evenly, all over the surface. 沸騰もしませんでした。ヘリウム II は「超流体」であるため、蒸発は表面全体で均一に行われる必要がありました。 No hot spots, so no bubbling. ホットスポットがないので、泡立ちません。 We weren‘t supposed to use lights, to „avoid detection.“ There was plenty of starlight with your image converter cranked up to log three or four, but each stage of amplification meant some loss of detail. 「検出を避ける」ために、ライトを使用することは想定されていませんでした。イメージ コンバーターを log 3 または 4 に上げた状態で星明かりがたくさんありましたが、増幅の各段階で詳細がいくらか失われました。 By log four the landscape looked like a crude monochrome painting, and you couldn‘t read the names on people‘s helmets unless they were right in front of you. ログ 4 では、風景は粗雑なモノクロームの絵のように見え、目の前にいない限り、人々のヘルメットの名前を読み取ることはできませんでした。 The landscape wasn‘t all that interesting, anyhow. とにかく、風景はそれほど面白くありませんでした。 There were half a dozen medium-sized meteor craters (all with exactly the same level of helium II in them) and the suggestion of some puny mountains just over the horizon. 半ダースほどの中型の流星クレーターがあり (すべて正確に同じレベルのヘリウム II を含んでいた)、地平線のすぐ上にいくつかのちっぽけな山が示唆された。 The uneven ground was the consistency of frozen spiderwebs; every time you put your foot down, you‘d sink half an inch with a squeaking crunch. でこぼこした地面は、凍った蜘蛛の巣のようでした。足を下ろすたびに、きしむ音で0.5インチ沈みます。 It could get on your nerves. それはあなたの神経質になる可能性があります。 It took most of a day to pull all the stuff out of the pool. プールからすべてのものを引き出すのに、ほとんど1日かかりました。 We took shifts napping, which you could do either standing up, sitting or lying on your stomach. 昼寝は、立ったり、座ったり、うつぶせになったりすることができます。 I didn‘t do well in any of those positions, so I was anxious to get the bunker built and pressurized. 私はそれらのポジションのほとんどでうまくいかなかったので、バンカーを構築して加圧することを切望していました. We couldn‘t build the thing underground---it‘d just fill up with helium 11-so the first thing to do was to build an insulating platform, a permaplast-vacuum sandwich three layers thick. 地下に物を作ることはできませんでした--ヘリウム11で満たされるだけだったので、最初に行うことは、断熱プラットフォームを構築することでした.3層の厚さのパーマプラスト-真空サンドイッチです。