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牛津书虫《奥米茄文件》:第522号:厄瓜多尔,加拉帕戈斯

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2018年07月08日

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OMEGA FILE 522:Galápagos, Ecuador

'Got your sun hats?' said Arla.
'Why?' asked Jude. 'Where are we going now?'
'South America,' Arla said.
'Big place,' said Jude. 'How about Chile? I like Chile.'
'No, it's Ecuador. You're going to the Galápagos Islands, a thousand kilometres out in the Pacific Ocean. '
'Oh, right,' Hawker said. 'Are you going to tell us why?'
Arla looked unhappy. 'There's something strange going on. EDI is getting emails every day from the Galápagos. They're all about Isabela Island and they all say things like this.' He gave Hawker and Jude a piece of paper.
* * * IMPORTANT NEWS* * * IMPORTANT NEWS* * *
A new time is coming for our planet.
The first visitors are now on Isabela Island, Galápagos.
Don't fight them. Don't be afraid of them. Be friendly.
Tell your government now.
Hawker and Jude looked at Arla, and then laughed. 'There are a lot of crazy people out there on the Internet,' said Jude. 'You don't believe this one—do you?'
'Perhaps it's crazy, and perhaps it's not,' said Arla. 'But when we email back with questions, they don't answer. The Americans are watching the island by satellite, but they don't want to tell us why. There are two Australian ships going there. The Mexicans are getting very excited, and the Ecuadorians are saying nothing... Something is happening on Isabela. What is it? We want to know. '
*  *  *
From Brussels to the Galápagos is a long way. Hawker and Jude took a plane to Cuba, a second plane to Ecuador, then a third plane out to Baltra Island, in the Galapagos. When they got out of the plane, a wall of hot air hit them.
'Whew,' said Hawker. He put on his sun hat quickly.
They went across to Santa Cruz Island and down to Puerto Ayora. There they found a boat, the Sea-Lion, to take them to Isabela, about 90 kilometres away. At first, the boatman, Gonzalo, did not want to take them.
'My boat can take ten people,' he said. 'It's a very good boat, but very expensive for only two people.'
Jude smiled at him. 'Not for two rich people.'
'Rich?' said Hawker. 'It's not our money—ouch!'
Jude hit him hard on the arm. 'We're on holiday,' she told Gonzalo. 'We want to see the giant tortoises on Isabela.' She looked at Hawker. 'Don't we?'
'Er, yes. That's right,' said Hawker quickly. 'We're very interested in the giant tortoises.'
On the way to Isabela Island Jude read a book about the Galápagos, and Hawker watched the sea. 'Isabela is a very young island,' Jude told him. 'And it has— listen to this ! —six volcanoes. One erupted only two years ago.'
'Oh, that's great!' said Hawker. 'Crazy emails, strange visitors in the middle of the Pacific, and now erupting volcanoes!Thank you, Arla!'
Not many people lived on Isabela, and Puerto Villamil was usually a sleepy place. But when the Sea-Lion arrived, there were about fifty people down by the sea. There were two small boats, and on them Hawker and Jude could see chairs and tables, beds, boxes and bags, and a bicycle.
Gonzalo called out in Spanish to the people on the boats, then turned to Hawker and Jude. 'Lots of people are leaving Isabela,' he said. 'They are afraid.'
'Afraid of what?' asked Jude. 'Go and talk to them, Hawker. Your Spanish is better than mine.'
Hawker came back half an hour later. 'You're not going to believe this,' he told Jude. 'The people here say there's a spaceship on Isabela. It came down ten days ago, right down inside Volcano Alcedo. And it's still there.'
'How do they know that?' said Jude.
'There's an Australian, Dr Jim Miller, up on Alcedo. He works here, studying giant tortoises. He saw the spaceship, and now he's waiting for the visitors to come out.'
'So the "visitors" in those emails are extraterrestrials. ETs. Little green men from another planet. Oh dear,' said Jude. 'Can we go home now, Hawker?'
Hawker laughed. 'No, we can't. We climb Volcano Alcedo,' he said. 'Talk to Dr Miller. Say hello to the ETs.'
'Oh dear,' Jude said again. 'I was afraid of that.'
Gonzalo took them in the Sea-Lion up to Shipton Cove. There, very early the next morning, Hawker and Jude began their climb up the volcano.
'There is a path,' Gonzalo told them, 'but it is five hours to the top and hard climbing. And very, very hot. You must carry water—two litres for one person for one day. You must sleep at the top and come down tomorrow— but not when the sun is high in the sky. And be careful, please !'
'Careful of the spaceship visitors, you mean?' said Jude.
'I don't know about spaceships,' smiled Gonzalo, 'but Volcano Alcedo is always a little excited — she is always doing something new.'
It was a very hard climb. After two hours, they stopped under some trees. They drank some water and looked out over the blue sea. The black volcanic rocks under their feet were hot from the sun.
'It's so beautiful here,' said Jude.
'Mmm. Yes and no,' said Hawker. Then, 'Hey, Jude! Look !That animal, over there by that rock. What—is—it?'
'Oh, wow!' whispered Jude. 'It's an iguana—a Galápagos iguana. Isn't he wonderful?'
The iguana stared at them with its hot orange eyes, and did not move. Its body was about a metre long, and an orange-yellowy colour.
'It looks about a thousand years old,' said Hawker. 'A very strange animal.'
'Everything about this island is strange,' said Jude.
They climbed and climbed, and the sun got hotter and hotter. After three more hours they came to the top, and looked down into the great crater of Alcedo, two hundred metres deep and seven kilometres across. To the north and the south they could see more volcanoes, and across the sea to the west the island of Fernandina—but they could not see Dr Miller or his camp.
'We need to go round the crater to the south,' said Hawker. 'It's another two hours' walk, the villagers said. '
It was hard walking over the black lava rock, and once Hawker nearly fell. Jude caught his arm.
'Don't break a leg here,' she said. 'I don't want to carry you back down to the boat.'
'Why not?' said Hawker. 'I carried you home once.'
'We weren't on top of a volcano then,' said Jude.
At last they saw Dr Miller's camp, and ten minutes later they arrived. Dr Miller was short, very brown, and angry.

'Go away!' he shouted. 'You're Americans, aren't you?'
'No, we aren't,' said Hawker. 'We're European. How do you do, Dr Miller?'
'What are you doing here?' he said angrily.
'We'd like to talk to you,' said Jude quietly. 'About the spaceship down in the crater. Why are you so angry?'
'Because nobody listens to me!' said Dr Miller. 'Nobody believes me! The Americans say, "Oh, crazy man!" The Australian government says, "Get some sleep!" What can I do? Something very important is happening on this planet, and nobody is listening !'
'Well, we're here now, and we're listening,' Jude said.
Dr Miller looked at them, 'Who do you work for?'
'Europe,' said Hawker. 'Europe is very interested in this spaceship. Please tell us about it. '
'Ah, the emails did get through, then,' said Dr Miller.
'Who did the emails come from?' asked Hawker.
'Ecuadorian friends,' said Dr Miller. 'Over on Santa Cruz. Look, I've got some beer here. You want one?'
They sat on the black lava rocks under the hot sun, and drank hot beer. Below them clouds of smoke and steam moved this way and that way across the crater. And was there, under those clouds, a spaceship from another planet?
'Sometimes I think I can see it down there,' said Jim Miller, 'but mostly I can't. It's a great white thing, and long legs came out of it when it came down.'
'But why here, Jim?' said Jude. 'Why into a volcano?'
'Who knows?' said Jim. 'Perhaps they like hot places. Perhaps they need something from the hot lava.'
'And why are you angry with the Americans, Jim?' Hawker asked. 'I know their beer's no good, but...'
'They watched this spaceship on their satellite. I know they did. They know it's here, but they don't want the world to know. They don't want people like you and me to meet any extraterrestrial visitors. Oh no! They want it all to be a big secret. Then they can be top dog. '
Just then there was a sudden noise, a BOOM deep below the ground. 'What... what was that, Jim?' asked Jude.
'Oh, Alcedo does that all the time,' said Jim. 'Then hot water comes up, and steam, dust—sometimes a little lava, but not much. That's why there are always clouds in the crater. You can never see anything down there.'
'Can we climb down into the crater?' asked Hawker.
'Are you crazy? It's dangerous down there!' Jim said.
All evening Hawker and Jude stared down into the crater, but they could see nothing through the clouds of steam and dust. Just before the sun went down, Hawker saw something near the top of the crater and shouted to Jude, but it was only two of the giant tortoises. They came slowly past the camp and went away down the other side of the volcano. Later, four more came past, going the same way, moving slowly and quietly over the black rocks.
'They're very strange animals!' said Jude.
Hawker and Jude did not sleep much. The rocks were hard, and below them they heard again and again the deep BOOM of the volcano. Late in the night they turned their radio on. It was very noisy, but through the noise they could hear a voice from Santa Cruz. Hawker listened hard.
'They're talking about Volcano Alcedo!' he said. 'They think it's going to erupt in the next twenty-four hours!'
Jude sat up. 'Oh no! We're seven hours away from the boat. Let's get moving! Go and call Jim.'
But Jim Miller did not believe Santa Cruz radio. 'It's the Americans again,' he said. 'They want us all to go away.'
'Please come with us, Jim,' said Jude. 'Please. You can come back in a day or two. '
'You two go,' said Jim, 'but I'm staying right here, and watching that spaceship. '
It was a hard climb down. When they got to the sea, they saw Gonzalo with the little boat. 'Hurry!' he shouted. 'Did you hear on the radio? Alcedo's going to erupt!'
Quickly, they went out to the Sea-Lion and climbed up onto the boat. 'Go! Go! Go!' Gonzalo shouted to his men, and before long the Sea-Lion was a kilometre out at sea.
Two hours later Volcano Alcedo erupted. There was asudden great BANG! —and then clouds of dust flew up into the sky. Red-hot lava came out of the volcano's sides and ran down to the sea. The noise did not stop, and with every bang, rocks flew hundreds of metres up into the sky, then fell slowly back down to the ground. For hours the night sky was filled with great flowers of red and orange light.
It was a beautiful, and a terrifying thing to watch.

□ □ □

'What happened to Dr Miller?' I asked.
'Poor Jim went to the great spaceship in the sky,' Jude said. 'Five hundred metres of red-hot lava fell on top of him.'
'And was there a spaceship in the volcano?'
'No', said Jude.
'Yes,' said Hawker.
He looked at Jude, and they laughed. Then Jude looked at me. 'What do you want to believe?' she asked. 'They weren't very clever extraterrestrials, were they?—sitting there in their spaceship in an erupting volcano!'
Hawker smiled. 'Ah, but perhaps the spaceship left just before the volcano erupted. Gonzalo and I saw something in the clouds of dust—a white light, moving very fast, faster than the dust. It went up very high.'

'Well, I didn't see anything,' said Jude. 'And that's because there wasn't anything in that volcano!'
Hawker looked up into the blue Greek sky. 'How do we know?' he said slowly. 'One day someone, or something, is going to visit us from out there. Perhaps that was the first visit, all those years ago in the Galápagos. Who knows?'


​奥米茄文件第522号:厄瓜多尔,加拉帕戈斯

“带你的太阳帽了吗?”阿拉问。
“干吗?”祖德说,“我们去哪儿?”
“南美洲。”阿拉回答。
“范围太大了,”祖德说,“去智利怎么样?我喜欢那儿。”
“不,是去厄瓜多尔。你们要到加拉帕戈斯群岛去,那儿是一片距陆地1,000公里远的太平洋小岛。”
“哦,好的,”霍克说,“告诉们去的目的吧。”
阿拉显得很不悦。“那儿有异常情况。EDI每天都能收到加拉帕戈斯发来的电子邮件,都是关于伊莎贝拉岛的,内容都是这样的。”说着,他递给霍克和祖德一张纸。
* * *重要消息* * *重要消息* * *
我们的星球迎来了一个新纪元。
第一批访问者已到达加拉帕戈斯的伊莎贝拉岛。
不要与他们交火。不要惧怕他们。友好地接待他们。
通知你们的政府。
霍克和祖德看了看阿拉,笑了。“网上有一些疯狂的人,”祖德说,“你不会相信这个的——对吗?”
“也许是疯狂之人干的,也许不是。”阿拉说,“可当我们发邮件询问时,他们并不回信。美国人正用卫星监视这个岛,但他们不告诉我们原因。有两艘澳大利亚船只正赶往那里。墨西哥人也很兴奋,但厄瓜多尔人却保持沉默……伊莎贝拉岛一定有什么事情正在发生。是什么事呢?我们要知道。”
*  *  *
布鲁塞尔离加拉帕戈斯很远。霍克和祖德先坐飞机到古巴,又从古巴飞到厄瓜多尔,然后又飞到加拉帕戈斯群岛之一的巴尔特拉岛。他们一下飞机,就感觉一股热浪袭来。
“哦!”霍克惊叹,急忙戴上了他的太阳帽。
他们穿过圣克鲁斯岛,先到达阿约拉港,在那儿找到一只名为“海狮”的小船,送他们前往约90公里远的伊莎贝拉岛。一开始船夫贡萨洛不愿送他们去。
“我的船能载十人,”他说,“它可是条好船,只载两人费用会很高的。”
祖德微笑着说:“要是载两个有钱人,那点儿费用就不算什么了。”
“有钱人?”霍克插嘴道,“那可不是我们的钱——啊呦!”
祖德狠狠地打了一下他的手臂。“我们是来度假的,”她对贡萨洛说,“想去看伊莎贝拉岛的巨龟。”她望着霍克说,“难道不是吗?”
“嗯,对,是这样的。”霍克连忙说,“我们对巨龟很感兴趣。”
在去伊莎贝拉岛的路上,祖德读一本关于加拉帕戈斯岛的书,而霍克则看着大海。“伊莎贝拉形成的时间并不长。”祖德对霍克说,”它有——天啊!——六个火山。其中一个就在两年前喷发过一次。”
“哦,太好了!”霍克说,“疯狂的电子邮件,太平洋中央怪异的造访者,现在又添上了喷发的火山群!托你的福了,阿拉!”
伊莎贝拉岛上没多少居民,而维拉米尔港通常是个寂静的地方。可就在“海狮号”到达那里时,海边聚集了大约50个人。海边有两只小船,霍克和祖德看到船上有桌椅、床铺、箱包,还有一辆自行车。
贡萨洛用西班牙语和小船上的人打招呼,然后朝祖德和霍克转过身来。“许多人都要离开伊莎贝拉。”他说,“他们很害怕”。
“他们害怕什么?”祖德问道,“霍克,去和他们谈谈,你的西班牙语比我的好。”
霍克半小时后回来了。“你不会相信的,”他告诉祖德,“他们说伊莎贝拉岛上有一艘宇宙飞船。它降落在那儿十天了,恰好落在阿尔塞多火山口里。现在它仍在那里。”
“他们怎么知道的?”祖德问。
“有个澳大利亚人,吉姆·米勒博士,在阿尔塞多山上。他在那儿工作,研究巨龟。是他发现的那艘飞船,而现在他还在那儿等里面的天外来客出来。”
“原来电子邮件里说的‘访问者’就是外星人(ET)呀,那些从另一个星球来的矮小的、绿皮肤的生物。哦,天哪!”祖德说,“霍克,我们能回去了吗?”
霍克笑了。“不,还不能。我们得爬上阿尔塞多火山,”霍克说,“和米勒博士谈谈,还要和外星人打个招呼。”
“哦,天啊!”祖德又说,“我可不敢。”
贡萨洛的“海狮号”一直把他们送到希普顿海湾。第二天一大早,霍克和祖德就从那儿向火山进发了。
“那儿有条小路,”贡萨洛告诉他们,“可爬到顶需要五个小时,而且很难走,还非常非常的热。你们必须带够水——每人每天两升。你们必须在山顶上过夜,明天下山——千万别等太阳升起时才动身。一定要小心!”
“你是说小心飞船上的外星人吗?”祖德问。
“我可不知道什么宇宙飞船,”贡萨洛笑着说道,“但阿尔塞多火山的情绪总是有点不稳定——她总是做让人意想不到的事儿。”
上山的路很难走。走了两个小时后他们在几棵树下休息,喝了些水,望着远处的蓝色大海。他们脚下黑色的火山岩被太阳晒得烫脚。
“这儿真美。”祖德感叹。
“嗯,既美又不美。”霍克说。停了一会儿,他突然说:“嗨,祖德!你看哪!那里有个动物,就在那块岩石边。它是——什么——东西?”
“哦,哦!”祖德轻声说,“那是一只美洲大蜥蜴——一只加拉帕戈斯蜥蜴。他长得多漂亮啊!”
蜥蜴用它那凶狠的橘黄色眼睛盯着他们俩,一动不动。它有大约一米长,身体是橘黄色的。
“它看上去仿佛有1,000岁了。”霍克说,“真是一种奇怪的动物。”
“这个岛上所有的东西都很奇怪。”祖德说道。
他们继续爬呀爬,太阳也越来越灼人了。又过了三个小时,他们爬到了山顶,向脚下的火山口望去,只见此坑有200米深,直径有7,000米。他们还可看见此山北面和南面的另外几座火山,西面海上的费尔南迪纳岛——但他们却没看见米勒博士或他的帐篷。
“我们得沿着火山口到南面去,”霍克说,“村里人说,还要走两个小时才能到呢。”
在黑色的岩浆石上行走是很困难的。一次霍克差一点儿摔倒,祖德抓住了他的胳膊。
“别在这儿摔断了腿,”祖德说,“我可不想把你从这儿背回船上去。”
“为什么不想?”霍克问,“有一次可是我把你背回家的。”
“但那一次我们可不在火山顶上。”祖德说。
他们终于看见米勒博士的帐篷了,并花了十分钟走到了帐篷跟前。米勒博士个头矮小,皮肤呈棕色。他看见他们很生气。
“走开!”他大叫,“你们是美国佬,不是吗?”
“不,不是,”霍克说,“我们是欧洲人。米勒博士,你好吗?”
“你们来这儿干什么?”他气乎乎地问。
“我们想和你谈谈,”祖德心平气和地回答,“是有关火山口底下的那个飞船的。你为何如此生气?”
“因为没人听我的!”米勒博士说,“没人相信我!美国人说:‘哦,一个疯子!’澳大利亚政府说:‘你该去睡觉了!’我能做什么?一件重大的事情即将在地球上发生,却没人听我说!”
“好了,我们不是在这儿吗,我们在听你说。”祖德说。
米勒博士着看他们,问:“你们为谁工作?”
“欧洲,”霍克回答,“欧洲对这只飞船很感兴趣,请给我们讲讲吧。”
“啊,看来电子邮件发出去了。”米勒博士说。
“谁发的邮件?”霍克问。
“我的厄瓜多尔朋友们,”米勒博士说,“他们住在圣克鲁斯岛。看,我这儿有啤酒,来一杯吧?”
他们顶着烈日坐在黑岩浆石上喝着热啤酒。团团烟雾从他们脚下的火山口这里、那里冒上来。在这些烟雾下真有一艘外星飞船吗?
“有时我觉得在下面能看见它,”吉姆·米勒说,“但多数情况下我看不见它。它很大,是白色的,降落时船身里伸出许多长腿来。”
“吉姆,它为什么会降落在这儿?”祖德问,“为什么在一个火山口里?”
“谁知道。”吉姆答道,“也许他们喜欢待在热的地方,也许他们要从热岩浆里获取什么。”
“吉姆,你为什么生美国人的气?”霍克问,“我只知道他们的啤酒很糟糕,可……”
“他们用卫星监视这艘飞船,我知道他们在监视。他们知道飞船在这儿,可他们不想让全世界知道。他们不愿让你们和我这样的人和任何外星人接触。哦,他们不想!他们想让它成为一个大秘密,这样他们就是世界上的老大了。”
就在那时,地下深处突然传来“嘭”的一声巨响。“那……那是什么声音,吉姆?”祖德问道。
“噢,阿尔塞多总是发出这样的声响,”吉姆回答她说,“响过以后会喷出些热水、水蒸汽及火山灰——偶尔还会有一点儿岩浆,但不多。这就是为什么火山口处总是云雾缭绕的原因了。因此,你永远看不清坑底有什么。”
“我们能爬下去吗?”哈克问。
“你疯了吗?下面太危险了!”吉姆说。
整个傍晚,霍克和祖德都盯着火山口的下面,可那儿烟雾弥漫,还有火山灰,他们什么也看不见。就在太阳快落山时,霍克看见靠近坑口处有一个东西,他连忙叫祖德,可最后发现那仅是两只巨龟。它们慢慢地从帐篷旁边爬过,下到火山的另一侧。过了一会儿,又有四只巨龟沿着同样的路线,慢吞吞、静悄悄地从黑色岩石上爬过。
“它们真是种奇怪的动物!”祖德说。
霍克和祖德没有睡多久就醒了。岩石太硬,而且火山在他们下面不时地发出巨响。后半夜他们拧开收音机。杂音特别大,但透过杂音他们能听见圣克鲁斯的一个电台。霍克仔细地听着。
“他们说的是阿尔塞多火山!”他说,“他们认为火山将在24小时内喷发!”
祖德一下子坐直了:“哦,不!我们离船还有七个小时的路。快走吧!叫上吉姆。”
可是吉姆·米勒并不相信圣克鲁斯电台。“这又是美国人的鬼把戏,”他说,“他们想让我们离开。”
“吉姆,和我们一起走吧!”祖德说,“求你了,你一两天以后可以再回来嘛。”
“你俩下山去吧,”吉姆说,“我是哪儿也不去,就在这儿守着飞船。”
历尽千辛万苦,两人终于下了山。当他们来到海边时,看见了贡萨洛和他的小船。“快点儿!”贡萨洛喊道,“听广播了吗?阿尔塞多就要喷发了!”
他们飞快地朝“海狮号”走去,爬上了船。“起锚!起锚!起锚呀!”贡萨洛冲他的水手大喊道。不一会儿,“海狮号”已离岸一公里了。
两小时后,阿尔塞多火山喷发了。惊天动地的一声巨响!——一团团火山灰被抛向空中,火红炙热的岩浆从火山口四处溢出来,流向大海。巨响一声连着一声,伴着每一次响声,岩石被抛向数百米的空中,然后又慢慢地落到地上。一连好几个小时,夜空里到处是红色和橘红色的火花。
那种景象既美丽非凡,又异常恐怖。
□ □ □

“米勒博士怎么样了?”我问道。
“可怜的吉姆上了空中的巨型宇宙飞船,”祖德回答,“500米高的火红炙热的岩浆从他的头顶上浇下来。”
“火山口里真有飞船吗?”
“没有。”祖德回答。
“有。”霍克回答。
霍克望着祖德,他们一起笑了。然后祖德看看我。“你相信谁?”她问,“外星人并不聪明,对吗?——居然把他们的飞船停落在一个喷发的火山口里!”
霍克笑了。“哦,也许飞船在火山喷发前就离开了。贡萨洛和我都看见漫天的火山灰里有一个东西——一个白色的光点,移动得很快,比灰尘还快。它向高空飞去。”
“噢,可我却什么也没看见,”祖德说,“因为火山里什么也没有!”
霍克抬头望着希腊蔚蓝色的天空。“我们又怎么会知道呢?”他缓缓地说,“总有一天,遥远的天际会有人或其他什么来造访地球的。或许多年前出现在加拉帕戈斯的飞船正是他们的首次访问。谁知道呢?”
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