Zima Blue 齐马蓝 1

After the first week people started drifting away from the island. The viewing stands around the pool became emptier by the day. The big tourist ships hauled back toward interstellar space. Art fiends, commentators and critics packed their bags in Venice. Their disappointment hung over the lagoon like a miasma 

I was one of the few who stayed on Murjek, returning to the stands each day. I'd watch for hours, squinting against the trembling blue light reflected from the surface of the water. Face down, Zima's pale shape moved so languidly from one end of the pool to the other that it could have been mistaken for a floating corpse. As he swam I wondered how I was going to tell his story, and who was going to buy it. I tried to remember the name of my fast newspaper, back on Mars. They wouldn't pay as much as some of the bigger titles, but some part of me liked the idea of going back to the old place. It had been a long time... I queried the AM, wanting it to jog my memory about the name of the paper. There'd been so many since... hundreds, by my reckoning. But nothing came. It took me another yawning moment to remember that I'd dismissed the AM the day before. 

"You're on your own, Carrie," I said. "Start getting used to it." 

In the pool, the swimming figure ended a length and began to swim back toward me. 

Two weeks earlier I'd been sitting in the Piazza San Marco at noon, watching white figurines glide against the white marble of the clock tower. The sky over Venice was jammed with ships parked hull-to-hull. Their bellies were quilted in vast glowing panels, tuned to match the real sky. The view reminded me of the work of a pre-Expansion artist who had specialised in eye-wrenching tricks of perspective and composition: endless waterfalls, interlocking lizards. I formed a mental image and queried the fluttering presence of the AM, but it couldn't retrieve the name. 

I finished my coffee and steeled myself for the bill. 

第一周刚过，人们就开始陆陆续续离开小岛。游泳池周围的看台渐渐空荡起来。巨型观光飞船启程返回星际空间，那些艺术迷、评论员和批评家都在威尼斯收拾行李。他们心中的失望之情像沼气一样弥漫了整个游泳池。  

我是留在穆尔耶克 星球的少数几个人之一。此时，我已经站在看台上看了几个小时，眯着眼斜视着水面反射的光芒。那是一种令人胆寒的蓝色光芒。在我的下方，齐玛拖着苍白而疲惫的身躯，从游泳池的一头游到另一头。乍一看，你还真会把他错当成一具漂浮的尸体。当他游泳时，我一直在考虑如何将他的故事讲给其他人听。我努力回忆我在火星工作的那家报社名字，那是我第一次在报社工作。这家报社付给我的工资没有大报社高，但是我隐隐觉得自己喜欢回到曾经工作的地方。我在那家报社工作已经是很久以前的事了。我查询了我的备忘录助手 ，想查到报社的名字。我大概已经查询了几百次，但是备忘录助手一点反应都没有。过了一会儿，我才想起自己前天已经彻底放弃了备忘录助手。  

“现在得靠你自己了，凯莉。”我对自己说道，“赶紧习惯吧。”  

游泳池里，齐玛已经游到了另一端，开始折返向我这边游过来……  

两周前的一个中午，我正坐在圣马可广场品尝咖啡，观赏着广场上白色的雕像与汉白玉钟塔。  

威尼斯的上空密集地停泊着一艘艘星际飞船。飞船的船舷装满了巨大的全反射发光面板，把飞船的颜色跟天空的真实颜色统一起来。  

这样的景象让我想起了一幅画作。这幅画的作者是一位前卫的画家，专攻空间扭曲透视立体图，比如永无止境的瀑布、相互连结的蜥蜴。我在头脑里回忆出这幅画大致的样子，然后发送给备忘录助手，让它查一查这幅画的名字。可是，它怎么也回忆不起来。  

我喝完了咖啡准备结账。