I didn’t pay much attention to Anastasia’s last remark. I was too absorbed in watching Arkaan’s actions. He went on giving voice commands, and the following events ensued in the room.
From a section of the wall all at once an armchair began to inflate. Then beside the chair another little niche opened, from which a small table emerged, along with some kind of semi-transparent container resembling a laboratory flask. On the opposite wall of the room a large screen lit up, about one-and-a-half to two metres in diagonal. The screen showed a beautiful woman in a slinky body-suit seated in a comfortable chair. The woman was holding a container in her hands similar to the one on the table beside Arkaan. The image of the woman on the screen was three-dimensional, and much sharper than on our TV sets. It seemed as though she were not on a screen, but sitting right there in the room.
我沒注意到阿納絲塔夏最後那句話，我的心思都放在阿爾坎後來的動作。他繼續發出語音指令，然後房裡發生了這樣的事：
牆壁的一部分突然出現一張正在充氣的扶手椅，然後旁邊打開了另一個小凹間，裡面伸出了一張小桌子，上頭放著一個類似實驗燒瓶的半透明密封容器。對面的牆上亮起一個對角線約一點五到兩公尺的大熒幕，熒幕上有位漂亮的女人穿著緊身連身衣，坐在扶手椅上，雙手拿著一個與阿爾坎桌上類似的容器。她的影像是立體的，畫質比我們的電視好很多。她仿佛不是在熒幕裡，而是直接坐在房間裡。
Anastasia explained that Arkaan and the woman sitting opposite him were forming a child together.
「The inhabitants of this planet do not have sufficient strength of feeling to enter into sexual relations like people on the Earth. Outwardly their bodies are no different. But the absence of feelings does not allow them to produce offspring the way people do on the Earth. It is their own cells and hormones that are contained in the test-tubes you see. Men and women visualise what they would like their future child to look like. They mentally instil in him the information they themselves contain, and discuss his future activity. This process lasts approximately three years in Earth time. Once they determine that the process of the child’s forma-tion is complete, they join the contents of the two containers together in a special laboratory, the child is produced and raised in a special nursery school until he comes of age. Then as a mature member of the community he is offered an apartment and assigned to the personnel roster of one of the work groups.」
阿納絲塔夏解釋，阿爾坎和坐在他面前的女人是要「製造小孩」：
「這顆星球的居民沒有足夠的感受力量，無法像地球人那樣進入親密關係。雖然外表上看起來他們的身體和地球人沒有不同，但是缺乏感受讓他們無法像地球人那樣繁衍後代。
你現在看到的試管裡裝著他們的細胞和荷爾蒙，男女雙方會想像他們希望未來的孩子長什麼樣子，然後用他們的思想把他們擁有的訊息傳給孩子，並討論孩子未來要參與的活動。這個過程大約要花上地球三年的時間。當他們認定孩子的形塑過程完成時，就會在特殊實驗室中把兩個容器的內容物結合在一起，把小孩製造出來。接著小孩會在特殊的育兒學校長大，直到成年。一旦到達社會的成年年齡，就會獲得一間房間並被指配到某個團體工作。」
Arkaan alternated his gaze between the woman on the screen and the liquid in the little sealed container. All at once the wall screen dimmed, but the alien remained seated in his chair, his eyes fixed on the container on the table in front of him holding a particle of his future child. Now the oppositewall was flashing with red squares. The alien turned sideways, his hands shielding his eyes from the flashing lights, and inclined his head even closer to his container. New illuminated squares and triangles began flashing alarmingly from the ceiling.
阿爾坎一會兒看著熒幕上的女人，一會兒看著眼前裝有液體的小密封容器。突然間，牆上的內嵌熒幕暗了下來，但這位外星人仍坐在扶手椅上，眼睛盯著前面桌上裝有自己後代粒子的容器。前面的牆這時亮起了紅色方格，外星人轉到側面，用手掌遮住閃爍的燈光，把頭更靠向容器。此時，天花板閃起了新的警示方格和三角形光線。
「The wake-time allotted Arkaan by the computer has expired. Now the computer is insistently reminding him of the need for sleep,」 Anastasia explained.
But the alien bent his head down even closer to his flask, clasping it in his hands.
The lights on the walls and the ceiling stopped flashing. The room began filling with some kind of steam-like gas. Anastasia’s voice remarked:
「Now the computer is using gas to put Arkaan to sleep.」
「電腦為阿爾坎分配的清醒時間過了，電腦正在不斷地提醒他該睡覺了。」阿納絲塔夏解釋。
但是這位外星人仍把頭靠向燒瓶，將它緊緊地握住。
天花板和牆上的光線不再閃爍，房間開始充滿了某種類似蒸氣的氣體。阿納絲塔夏解釋：
「現在電腦要用氣體讓阿爾坎睡著。」
The alien’s head began slowly drooping toward the table and soon it was resting on it, his eyes closed. The armchair began emerging even further out of the wall and transforming itself into a bed. Then the bed-chair began rocking from side to side, and the body of the already sleeping alien fell back into a comfortable cradle.
外星人的頭開始緩緩地倒向桌子，過沒多久就趴在桌上閉上眼睛了。扶手椅開始往外延伸，最後變成一張床。接著，床開始左右搖擺，讓睡著的外星人掉在舒適的床上。
Arkaan slept clasping the little container in his hands to his chest.
There is so much more to tell about the advanced technological features not only of the apartment, but on the huge planet as a whole. According to Anastasia, the community of people inhabiting it have no fear of any invasion from the outside. Not only that, but with the help of their technical achievements they are capable of destroying life on any other planet in the Universe. Any except the Earth.
阿爾坎睡著時，還將小容器緊緊握在胸前。在這間令人驚訝的房間，以及整個巨大星球上，還有很多科技的完美成就值得一提。
根據阿納絲塔夏的說法，住在這顆星球上的居民不怕任何外來入侵，甚至還能藉助自己的科技成就，毀掉宇宙中任何星球的生命，但是地球除外。
（未完待續）
圖片來自網絡