【官方小说翻译】《克隆人战争》——第八章

August

翻译：August
目录：http://www.starwarsfans.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=4403&extra=page%3D1

第八章

One day, I must thank Master Yoda and the Jedi Council for contributing so generously to our cause. You would think they would take better care of their Chosen One. But all they seem to do, from what I hear—and I hear a great deal—is to frustrate and alienate young Skywalker. I believe they're storing up trouble for themselves.
有朝一日，我必须感谢尤达大师和绝地议会为我们的事业作出如此慷慨的贡献。你也许以为他们会加倍关照他们的天选之子。可就我所听说的——而且我听说了不少——似乎他们所做的一切就是让年轻的天行者受挫，并且疏远他。我相信他们正在给自己积累麻烦。

Darth Sidious, better known as Chancellor Palpatine, to Count Dooku
达斯·西帝亚斯，更为人所知的身份是最高议长帕尔帕廷，对杜库伯爵的谈话


RV POINT ON THE FOREST FLOOR, BENEATH THE ABANDONED MONASTERY, TETH
泰斯星，废弃修道院下方，树林层预定接头点


The droids couldn't get a visual on the GAR forces through the thick foliage, but that didn't stop them pouring down fire.
机器人无法透过浓密的树叶看到共和军部队，不过这并没有让它们停止向下方倾泻炮火。

"Something tells me the residents have given up a contemplative life of prayer," Rex said. A burst of laserfire crashed through the tree canopy, bringing down branches and vines. He wiped something wet, sticky, and dismembered from his forearm plate.
“我猜，这里的居民放弃了祈祷者的冥想生活。” 雷克斯说。一串激光枪弹猛地打穿了树冠，带下树枝与藤蔓。他把一些湿漉漉、黏糊糊，被打得粉碎的东西从自己的前臂铠甲上抹掉。

"There goes their tax-exempt status."
“现在是自己的免税特权。”

Ahsoka spun and deflected a stray bolt with her lightsaber. "I don't even want to think what happened to the monks. What do you know about tax, anyway?"
阿索卡旋转光剑挡开一发流弹。“我甚至不想去想那些僧侣发生了什么事。不过，你是怎么知道税务的事的？”

"Everything HNE bulletins taught me." It was his window on a world he wasn't part of, but he was used to absorbing information that way. Flash-training had formed a large part of his early life, and it often diverged from the real world, but he could fill in the gaps—most of the time, anyway. "Now, it's at times like this that I wish all we had to do was blow that castle to pieces from orbit."
“HNE新闻快报教给我一切。”对他来说，这是一扇通向另一个不属于他的世界的窗口，不过他习惯于用这种方式获取信息。新兵训练形成了他早期生活的大部分，但这部分常常与真实世界有差距，不过他可以弥合这差距——不管怎么说，绝大部分时候都可以。“现在，有时象现在这样的情况，我希望我们所要作的就是从轨道把这城堡炸成碎片。”

Rex stared up the sheer cliff of the granite plateau that rose from the jungle floor like an island covered in a frozen waterfall of fleshy vines. There was only one way to insert: the hard way. He calculated the height precisely with his visor's inbuilt telemetry system.
雷克斯抬头望着那陡峭悬崖，这片花岗岩高地仿佛一座岛屿，盖满了肉质藤蔓构成的冰冻瀑布，从丛林中拔地而出。只有一个方法攻占它：艰难的方法。他通过面甲内置的遥测系统精确测量了高度。

"Got enough cable?" Ahsoka asked.
“搞到足够钢索了吗？”阿索卡问。

"Just about."
“差不多了。”

He could hear the grinding whee-umpp-whee-umpp sound of the AT-TE armored vehicle as it picked its way between the trees on sturdy mechanical legs. Skywalker came jogging ahead of it, gesturing to stand clear. The machine slowed to a halt, and its cannon turrets elevated.
他可以听见AT-TE装甲车迈动强壮的机械腿，穿越树林时发出的沉重的“whee-umpp-whee-umpp”声。天行者慢跑着跑到车前，打手势让它停到一边。机器缓慢地停下了，然后它的加农炮塔开始抬升。

"Here's our covering fire." Rex switched to the AT-TE crew's comm circuit. They were getting a sensor fix on a parapet running the length of the castle wall so they could fire through the canopy unseen. "Stick close to General Skywalker."
“这是我们的掩护炮火。‘雷克斯把频道转到AT-TE操作员的通讯频段。他们正在将传感器锁定围绕城堡修建的胸墙，这样他们可以透过树冠开火而不被察觉。“紧紧跟着天行者将军。”

"That's what he keeps saying, too."
“他也一直这么说。”

"Smart advice, obviously." Rex tapped the top of his helmet to get his squad to form up on him, and reinforced the command with a quick comm burst. "Stand by. We'll ascend behind the fire line."
“显然，是聪明的建议。”雷克斯敲敲头盔顶，把小队召集到自己身边，并用一次快速的通讯爆裂音强化指挥效果。“准备。我们要在火线后攀岩。”

The AT-TE had a firing solution. He could see it on one of his HUD icons. But as he waited for the barrage to start, something heavy came crashing down through the branches overhead, dislodging chunks of stone and vine.
AT-TE有了一个射击解算。他可以在HUD的一个图标上看见结果。但就在他等待掩护炮火开始时，有什么很重的东西从头顶上穿透树枝直坠下来，带出了大块的石头和藤蔓。

Rex ducked instinctively, thinking it was an explosive device; if he'd been up there defending that position, he'd have been rolling lateral-blast ordnance down the cliff to detonate a meter above ground level and disintegrate everything—and everyone—in a five-hundred-meter radius. But they weren't him. And what had fallen from the plateau wasn't ordnance, but a battle droid commander.
雷克斯本能地闪避，他以为这是一个爆炸性装置；如果是他在那上面防守，面对这样的局势，他就会向悬崖下投掷侧向爆炸装置（？），在离地一米处引爆，摧毁半径500米范围内所有的物体——所有的人。但它们不是他。从高地上掉下来的不是炸弹，而是一个战斗机器人指挥官。

It hit the ground with a crash. Rex pulled his sidearm and put a burst of fire through its head without thinking. It wasn't armed, but he ran a hand sensor over it to make sure it wasn't booby-trapped.
机器人“咔”地一声砸到地上。雷克斯不假思索地掏出手枪，把一串爆能弹打进了它的脑袋。它没有武器，不过雷克斯还是用一架手持式传感器进行扫描以确保它身上没有安饵雷。

"They don't bounce much, do they?" He looked up the cliff wall again, then glanced back at Skywalker. Ahsoka stood at his side as if bolted there. "Ready when you are, sir."
“它们反弹得不高（？？），是不是？”他再次抬头看着悬崖峭壁，然后回头瞥了一眼天行者。阿索卡就好象钉在那里一样站在他身边，“随时待命，长官。”

Skywalker had a distracted look on his face that Rex had seen before. It was like a brief trance; maybe it was Jedi meditation of some kind. Whatever it was, Rex read it as the moment when Skywalker tussled with himself, trying to overcome something within, or psyching himself up, or something where two elements of him pulled in different directions; because whatever it achieved, he came out of it in what Rex thought of as his killing-machine mode. He was unstoppable, all lethal movement, cutting down everything he came into contact with.
天行者脸上有一种恍惚的表情，雷克斯以前曾见过。这就象是一次短暂的催眠状态；也许这是绝地某种形式的冥想。不管是什么，雷克斯都将此解释为：这是天行者正在进行天人交战的一刻，他正力图压制住内心的什么情绪，或是正让自己兴奋起来，又或是他体内的两股力量正把他向不同方向拖拽；因为不管哪个方向，他都会变成那种被雷克斯看作是他的杀戮机器模式。他不可阻挡，全然致命的移动，砍倒他所接触到的一切东西。

"A-tee," Skywalker said, "return fire."
“A-tee，”天行者说，“还击。”

He started climbing the vine.
他开始沿藤蔓攀爬。

A stream of blue-white bolts seared upward through the trees, vaporizing branches. From that moment, the forest was all deafening mechanical noise, and Rex's helmet activated buffers to protect his hearing. He could have switched off the audio completely and fought in soundproofed peace, but he needed to hear something of the battle environment around him to get a gut feel for what was happening. The shapes and icons in his HUD were just detail now. AT-TEs thundered and wheezed as they moved up to scale the cliff face, firing as they went.
一连串蓝白色的爆能弹向上烧灼着穿透了树林，将树枝汽化。从那一刻开始，森林里充斥着震耳欲聋的机械噪音，雷克斯头盔中的消音器被激活来保护他的听力。他可以将音频系统完全关闭，在隔音后的静寂中作战，但他需要听到周围战斗环境里的一些声响，以获取对正在发生的事的直观感受。平视显示器中的图形和图标现在刚刚细节化。AT-TE轰鸣着，喘息着，开始沿悬崖表面向上攀登，一边行进一边开炮。

The armored walkers, tanks in six heavy jointed legs, were built for horizontal terrain, however uneven, and perfect for it.
这种装甲步行机，是装了六条沉重的有关节的腿的坦克，专为水平地形建造，无论有多崎岖对它们来说都再适合不过。

They could climb, but it limited their effectiveness and made them very vulnerable. Using them to scale a vertical cliff was as near to a last-resort deployment as he'd seen so far in this war.
它们可以攀岩，但这限制了它们的效能，并且让它们变得极易受到攻击。用它们来攀登一座垂直峭壁，是目前为止雷克斯在这场战争中所见过的最接近于最终手段的部署方式。

But they didn't have time to do it by the book. They had one day.
但他们没有时间按常规来做。他们只有一天的时间。

Because some jumped-up gangster of a Hutt says so.
因为某个赫特族的黑帮爆发户这样说。

He put it out of his mind. All flesh and blood could do was concentrate on what was immediately in front. Rex fired his rappel line almost vertically through the tree canopy, feeling the grappling hook bite into something solid. Then he let the powered winch lift him. He became one man in a curtain of white-armored troopers ascending the steep rock face. He could see himself as a sitting target hanging in midair, or as a fast-moving weapons platform conserving his energy for the battle that was certain to be waiting at the top of the ascent. He chose the latter.
他把这念头驱除出脑海。每个血肉之躯能做的就是专注于眼前瞬间发生的事。雷克斯以近乎垂直的角度将速降绳射出，穿过树冠，感觉到抓钩咬住了某个坚硬物体。然后他让有动力装置的绞盘把自己拉上去。现在他成了一片在陡峭岩壁上攀缘的无数白色盔甲士兵中的一员。他可以将自己看作是悬在半空中的一个静态目标，也可以将自己看作是在一个快速移动武器平台上，为注定在高地顶端等待着的战斗保存体力。他选择后者。

Rocks, burning fragments of droid casing, and chunks of vine as thick as a man's waist fell past him. He batted away what he could, but there was little room for maneuver on the end of a winch line.
石块，燃烧的机器人外壳残片，以及大量人腰粗细的藤蔓从他身边坠落下去。他把能打掉的都打掉，但悬挂在绞索底端几乎没有他的施展空间。

He glanced down to see where Ahsoka was. She'd been scrambling up a vine, face set in grim, wide-eyed determination. No sign of her: his gut lurched, fearing the worst. But then he looked to his side, spotting one of the AT-TE walkers lurching its way up the vertical face like a manakur climbing a fruit tree, and there was Ahsoka, clinging to the deckhead plate of the armored walker with her gaze fixed firmly above her.
他向下望了一眼,想看看阿索卡在哪。她曾沿一根藤蔓向上攀爬，脸上满是倔强和令人惊异的坚定表情。没有她的影子。他的心猛地向下一沉，担心发生了最糟糕的状况。但接着他向边上看去，发现一辆AT-TE步行机，好象正在爬水果树的manakur那样在垂直峭壁上蹒跚前进，而阿索卡就在那里，她牢牢依附在装甲步行机的舱口甲板上，眼睛紧紧盯着上方。

She was a smart kid. But then so were his boys, and plenty of them wouldn't be returning to barracks after this assault. War didn't care much about smart or nice or deserving to survive.
她是个聪明孩子。不过他的小伙子们也一样，而这次突袭之后，他们中的许多人将再也无法回到军营。战争可不在乎你是不是聪明，是不是正派，或是不是值得生还。

Rex stopped thinking about it. Another droid plummeted past him trailing smoke, and struck a trooper on one shoulder. The man swung helpless on his line for a moment, but hung on. If he was lucky, his armor would have dissipated the impact and he wouldn't have a fracture.
雷克斯不再去想这种问题。另一个机器人拖曳着黑烟从他边上直坠而下，撞到了一个士兵的肩膀。那士兵无助地挂在绳索上摇晃了一会，不过还是坚持住了。如果他够走运，他的盔甲会抵消这股冲击力，而他也不会骨折。

The next falling object, though, was an AT-TE.
不过下一个掉下来的物体，是一架AT-TE。

Rex felt the shock wave from a blast above him. The next impression he had was of falling from a building and watching the walls streak by. But it was the armored walker: he hung relatively motionless to its rapid fall, senses telling him he was the moving object. He managed to swing to one side by kicking out from the cliff wall. The stricken AT-TE tumbled. It had no other route down than through the troopers ascending the cliff.
雷克斯感觉到上方传来的爆炸冲击波。接下来他就觉得自己正一边从建筑物上坠落，一边看着墙壁飞速倒塌。但那其实是装甲步行机：相对于步行机快速的坠落，他就象是静止地悬挂着，但感觉告诉他，他是个移动物体。他设法蹬踹崖壁以荡到一边去。被击中的AT-TE翻滚着。除了穿过悬挂在崖壁上的士兵坠落外别无它法。

Rex couldn't divert his eyes from horror any more than the next human being could. There was always that one terrible moment when a death in all its unexpected detail grabbed his attention, and wouldn't let go for what felt like hours until he jerked his eyes away the next second. Then there was the desperate relief at not being dead, followed rapidly by equally desperate scenarios about how the guys below could have survived if ... if ... if . . .
和其他所有人一样，雷克斯无法让自己的视线从恐怖的场景上移开。这永远是个可怕的时刻：死亡展现出所有出人意料的细节抓住他的注意力，即使只有一秒钟，这一秒也会让他度日如年，恍若隔世，直到他拼命掉转了视线。然后，就是为自己还活着而感到一股绝望的解脱感，紧随其后的是同样绝望的设想，掉下去的那些人也许原本可以活下来，如果……如果……如果……

Rex couldn't let himself dwell on it. He could hear something else, a sound his helmet systems recognized and identified as a droid STAP fighter.
雷克斯不能让自己沉溺于此。他可以听见其他什么声音，那声音经他的头盔系统辨认，识别为一架机器人单兵飞行平台。

And another.
然后又一架。

And another.
又一架。

They were fragile aerial platforms just big enough to carry a battle droid, not proper airframes, with narrow profiles that made them hard moving targets to hit. Their blasterfire punched into the cliff face. White blurs fell in his peripheral vision.
这是一种外形单薄的空中平台，大小仅够达载一名战斗机器人，没有常规机身，狭窄的轮廓让它们成为很难被击中的移动目标。它们的炮火射向崖壁。他的周边视觉里出现了白色光斑。

If any of his 501st company reached the top of this plateau, it would be a miracle. And then they still had to fight their way into the monastery.
如果他的501军团有任何一人登上这块高地的顶端，那都将是一个奇迹。而接着他们还必须一路杀进修道院去。

Rex went back to concentrating on surviving the next moment, a second at a time, and hung from his rappel line spraying blasterfire at the strafing STAP fighters.
雷克斯收回心神，每秒钟都要为下一秒的幸存而专注凝神，他悬挂在自己的速降绳上，朝着不断扫射的单兵飞行平台射击。


Anakin had no choice; he jumped.
阿纳金别无选择；他跳了出去。

Plummeting down a cliff face now infested with spider droids, he landed briefly on the AT-TE below, narrowly missing Ahsoka, and then launched himself at the first STAP fighter in the formation.
他从一面现在已爬满蛛形机器人的崖壁笔直落下，暂时跳到下方的一架AT-TE上，差一点撞上阿索卡，然后朝着飞行编队中的第一架单兵飞行平台跳了过去。

It was mainly blind instinct that made him do it. He could get killed like anyone else, he knew. But once his body had taken control like this, his brain was just along for the ride, unable to step in.As he hit the tiny platform, barely big enough to take a droid's metal feet, he smashed the battle droid pilot squarely in the chest, sending it tumbling hundreds of meters into a blurred green sea of treetops, then leaped again, onto the next STAP. The sheer inertia of his body sent the droid plummeting. He didn't even need to draw his lightsaber. Now he was fully mobile in a way that not even his Force powers could match: he could fly, not just glide.
让他这样做的主要是盲目的本能。他知道，他可能象其他任何人一样丢了性命。但一旦他的身体象这样取得控制，他的大脑也只能顺其自然，无法介入。当他撞上那架勉强够放下机器人一只金属脚的细小平台，正好将战斗机器人飞行员的胸部打碎，让它笔直地坠下几百米之下的一片迷离的绿色树冠之海，然后再次跳跃，跳向下一架单兵飞行平台。纯粹由他身体的惯性让那机器人直坠下去。他甚至不需要抽出自己的光剑。现在从某种角度上说，他处于全然的机动状态，甚至他的原力都无法匹敌：他可以飞行，而不仅仅是滑翔。

And that meant he could stand off from the vertical rock face far enough to make a difference. The other droid STAP pilots were now in disarray, seeming not to know how to deal with an organic that could leap from fighter to fighter, and that confusion gave Anakin the edge he needed.
这意味着他可以和直立岩壁拉开足够远的距离，以对战局造成影响。其余的机器人STAP战斗机现在陷入一片混乱，看上去它们不知道如何应付一个可以从一架战斗机跳到另一架战斗机的有机生物，而这种困惑给了阿纳金所需要的优势。

He checked the cliff below, felt where there were fewest of his men, where he might safely bring down tons of droid and debris, and opened up with the STAP's laser cannon. A path of pluming, flame-filled smoke ripped up the cliff face to the top, blazing a clear path. Anakin dived closer. Now he could see exactly where to place fire to clear the way for individual troopers or provide suppressing fire for an AT-TE to get a better foothold.
他检查了一下下方的悬崖，感觉了一下哪里他的士兵数量最少，而哪里他可以安全地打下成吨的机器人和残骸，然后用STAP上的激光炮开了火。一道充斥着火焰的羽状烟柱向上划过崖壁，直达顶端，开辟出一条清晰的路径。阿纳金俯冲得更近些。现在他可以准确地看出哪里需要他开火为个别士兵开道，或是为一架AT-TE获得更好的落脚点提供压制火力。

One simple STAP platform shouldn't have been enough to make that much difference, but he was Anakin Skywalker, and he knew without even thinking how to hit an enemy where it hurt most, and strike fear into them.
单独一架STAP平台不应该有足够的火力对战局造成如此大的差异，但他是阿纳金·天行者，他甚至不用想就知道，如何打击敌人而造成最大伤害，同时让它们产生恐惧感。

Droids did feel fear. He could see it now. They reacted to threats like a living being. They avoided damage and destruction wherever they could. That was all fear was; a safety mechanism, whether it was organic adrenaline or a computer program. The battle droids on the top of the plateau, peering down onto the GAR assault, seemed to be in chaos. Anakin swept a dozen of them aside with a raw surge of Force power. Could Rex see the path? Could any of the troopers, clinging so close to the cliff? They had no overview.
机器人的确能感到恐惧。现在他能看得出来。它们象生物一样对危险作出反应。不论在哪里，它们都竭力避免受伤和被毁。那就是恐惧；一种安全机制，不管这是有机的肾上腺素还是一个计算机程序。高地顶端的战斗机器人，低头凝视着GAR攻击，看上去已经一片混乱。阿纳金挥出一股粗暴的原力，将十几个机器人打到一边。雷克斯能看见那条小径吗？士兵中能有任何一人可以离悬崖那么近吗？他们看不到全貌。

Yes, Rex could see it.
是的，雷克斯能看见。

Anakin picked him out by his traditional kama, the leather half kilt worn over his armor. He was waving troops toward the smoking line. It was almost as good as a beacon. And they were close enough to the top now to use the vines rather than hang passively on the rappel winches. Anakin could do no more here. He swooped for the line of droids forming up on the plateau.
阿纳金靠着雷克斯穿着的传统卡玛认出了他，那是一种穿在盔甲外的皮质半短裙。他正挥手让士兵们向着那条冒烟的路径爬。那几乎和一个信标一样管用。现在他们已经非常接近崖顶，可以用藤蔓攀缘而不再是被动地悬挂在速降绞盘上。这里已经不再需要阿纳金做什么了。他向着高地上正在集结的机器人战线俯冲过去。

He jumped off the STAP onto the parapet, leaving the fighter to crash into the droid line. As he regained his balance, a battle droid commander stepped forward and raised its rifle.
他跳下STAP，站在胸墙之上，任由战斗机冲进机器人战线坠毁。当他恢复平衡时，一个战斗机器人指挥官走上前来，举起步枪。

"Surrender, Jedi."
“投降吧，绝地。”

"Bad time to ask me," Anakin said, more to himself than anything, and plunged into the droid ranks with his lightsaber. "Bad time."
“说得不是时候，”阿纳金说，更多地是自言自语而不是对其他人，同时手握光剑，跳进了机器人队伍，“不是时候。”

There was nothing in his mind beyond his troops and that only he could save them. Save; he did so much saving now but it would never be enough to make him whole. He felt his lightsaber blade slice through metal—there was always a slight kick on contact, like a drill hitting a hard spot—but he craved more. He craved destruction, not to prove to himself that he had such huge power, but simply to hold the chaos at bay.
现在他满脑子都想着他的士兵，想着自己是唯一能拯救他们的人。拯救；他拯救了那么多人，但永远也无法让他变得完整。他感觉到自己的光剑切过金属——光剑接触金属时总有轻微的阻力，就好象钻头撞到了坚硬的物体——但他渴望有更多。他渴望毁灭，不是为了证明自己拥有如此巨大的力量，只是单纯地想要在困境中控制混乱。

I didn't save my mother.
我没能救得了我的母亲。

He had the strength and skill to wipe out legions of droids, but he hadn't used it for the person who mattered most.
他有消灭无数机器人的力量和技巧，可他却没有用这来挽救他最在乎的那个人。

Anakin tore into droid after droid, killing on upstroke and downstroke, spinning to take out droids rushing him from behind, rolling to scythe his way through their legs. Hot hydraulic fluid spattered on his face like blood.
阿纳金一个接一个地猛攻机器人，光剑上挑下劈砍杀着，他或转身干掉从背后向自己扑来的机器人，或就地翻滚，在机器人的腿间砍出一条路来。灼热的液压油象血一样喷洒到他的脸上。

Why didn't I go back for my mother, when I could have done this, and this, and this?
为什么我没有回去救我母亲，当我已经可以做这样，这样，还有这样的时候？

As the surge of Force power almost squeezed the air from his lungs in his all-out effort to crush the next rank of droids, he felt suddenly light-headed, and in that second's pause he became aware of troopers fighting furiously to his right—smashing metal skulls with butts of rifles, ramming vibroblades into weak points, but he couldn't see Ahsoka.
他全力以赴地冲向下一波机器人，原力的巨浪几乎把他肺里的气都压了出来，而就在此时，他突然感到一阵晕眩，就在这瞬间的停滞中，他意识到自己的士兵们正在自己的右侧疯狂作战——用步枪枪托狠砸那些金属脑壳，将振动刀猛插进敌人的薄弱环节，但他看不见阿索卡。

She'd been clinging to an AT-TE. He didn't know where she was. He couldn't even sense her in the maelstrom of Force disturbances churned up by desperate combat, and when the last battle droid crashed to its knees, he steadied himself to look for her.
她依附在一架AT-TE上。他不知道她在哪儿。他甚至无法在被殊死战斗搅起的原力干扰旋涡中感觉到她，当最后一个战斗机器人四分五裂地跪倒时，他站稳脚跟，抬头找她。

He was never going to lose someone he cared about again. If anyone so much as looked at Padme the wrong way, he'd make them regret the day they were born.
他再也不要失去一个自己在乎的人了。如果任何人膽敢打帕德美的坏脑筋，不管是谁，他都要让他们后悔自己为什么要被生下来。

You can't think those things. You're a Jedi.
你不能想那种事情。你是个绝地。

But I can. And I do.
可我能。而且我这样想了。

Then three destroyer droids rolled through the battle debris, unfurled themselves and raised their shields. Anakin, exhausted by jungle heat and a hard ascent, raised his lightsaber two-handed, muscles screaming for rest. One droid rocked back a fraction on its gyros to fire.
然后三台毁灭者机器人滚动着穿过战斗机器人，展开身体，升起了护盾。阿纳金已经被丛林热和艰苦的攀岩搞得精疲力竭，双手握把举起光剑，他的肌肉尖叫着需要休息。一个机器人把陀螺仪调回了一些，准备开火。

I promised Obi-Wan we'd wrap this up inside a day. I promised Ahsoka I'd look out for her.
我向欧比万保证过，我们能在一天之内了结这事。我向阿索卡保证过，我会照看她。

Anakin steadied himself for a split second that lasted forever, choosing between lunging forward or waiting to block the cannon round, and then the lead droid exploded in a white-hot shower of shrapnel that made him duck to shield himself with the Force. The plateau echoed as the blast bounced back off the monastery's high walls.
阿纳金在一瞬间就稳住身形，但这瞬间仿佛有永远这么久，他在是向前扑去还是等着抵挡加农炮弹之间进行选择，但接着，领头的那台机器人就在一阵白热的弹片雨中爆炸了，这让他闪避着用原力保护自己。当爆炸声反射回修道院的高墙时，高地上回声不断。

When he jumped up, ready to fight to the death, he was staring at an AT-TE as it clunked its way forward from the monastery walls. One cannon was still trained on the smoking spot where the destroyer droids had paused.
就在他跳起来准备战斗到底的时候，他看见一架AT-TE正从修道院院墙处“克啷克啷”地向前走来。一门大炮仍然瞄准着那块原先毁灭者机器人立足现在却冒着烟的地方。

"Did you get hit?" Ahsoka called. She was standing on top of the armored walker, looking breathless. "Sorry."
“你被打中了吗？”阿索卡叫道。她正站在这台装甲步行机的顶端，看起来气喘吁吁，“对不起。”

"No, I'm fine." His legs shook with fading adrenaline. It was always like this for a few moments when the fighting stopped. "I told you to stay close, so I can't complain, can I?"
“不，我很好。”他的双腿随着高度亢奋的逐渐减退而颤抖。战斗结束后，这样的状况总是会持续一会儿。“我告诉过你跟紧我，所以我不能太抱怨，对吧？”

"Just watching your back, Master."
“不过是照看着你，师父。”

The plateau was silent now, and the remnant of 501st Torrent Company were spread out, securing a perimeter. Anakin did a quick head count. He'd lost nearly half his men.
高地现在安静下来了，501激流连的残部分散开，建立环形防线。阿纳金迅速清点了一下人数。他差不多失去了一半的部下。

All for a kriffing Hutt. This had better be worth my men's lives.
全是为了一个该死的赫特人。这事最好能让我的部下死得有价值。

Rex jogged over to them, lifting off his helmet. He obviously thought the situation was under control to do that. Anakin could sense no immediate danger. Rex's HUD sensors must have given him similar reassurance.
雷克斯快步朝他们走来，一边摘下了头盔。显然他认为局势已在控制之下，自己可以这样做了。阿纳金感觉不到直接的危险。雷克斯的HUD传感器一定给了他类似的保证。

"Fifteen wounded, sir." He didn't mention the KIAs. He wiped the palm of his gauntlet across his shaven head, looking oddly exhilarated—odd, because while his face was flushed and he was breathing harder than usual, his eyes looked distant and anguished. "I've called in one larty to casevac the injured. I didn't wait for your order, sir ..."
“十五人受伤，长官。”他没有提阵亡人数。他用长手套的手掌部分擦了擦自己新剃的脑袋，看上去有种古怪的高兴劲——说古怪，是因为他的面颊通红，呼吸也比平常粗重，但同时他的眼神却疏离而痛苦。“我已经招来一架LAAT/i运送伤员。我没有等您的命令，长官。”

"Fine by me, Rex. I don't want to spend one more life on this Hutt than I have to." Anakin didn't look at Ahsoka, but he could feel her gaze boring into him, tinged with dismay. A Jedi was entitled to be less than saintly sometimes; sooner or later, she had to learn that it could be a dirty job. "Judging by the number of droids, I'd say this is an official Separatist operation, not a spot of freelance hobby extortion."
“我觉得没问题，雷克斯。我不想为了这个赫特人再多任何不必要的牺牲。”阿纳金没有看阿索卡，但他可以感觉到她那带点惊愕意味的目光直直地盯着自己。有时一个绝地有权做些决非圣洁的事；她早晚都得了解到，那可能是个肮脏的工作。“根据机器人的数量判断，我得说这是一次分离主义者的官方军事行动，而不是少数自由主义者的业余绑架。”

"Agreed. It's got Dooku's fingerprints all over it, sir. Explains the dead bounty hunters, too."
“同意。这上面到处都是杜库的指纹，长官。也解释了那些赏金猎人的死。”

Ahsoka edged her way between the two men and looked up expectantly. "But the hard bit's over, right? I mean, we just crawled up a cliff under fire and wiped out a battalion of droids or something."
阿索卡侧身挤到这两个男子中间，满怀希望地抬头看着他们。“不过最艰难的部分已经过去了，对吗？我是说，我们刚刚顶着炮火爬上一座悬崖，还消灭了一整支机器人军队之类的东西。”

"'Fraid not, littl'un," Rex said, patting her on the head. "The hard bit isn't over until we put our boots down on Republic soil again, preferably with one Huttlet on board."
“恐怕没有，小家伙，”雷克斯说着，拍了拍她的头，“除非我们的脚再次踏上共和国的土地，船上最好还有一个赫特人，否则困难的部分就还没完。”

Anakin kicked through the carpet of shattered droid components like fallen leaves. Some chunks of debris were still smoking. His boots came away oily and dark.
阿纳金踢着脚，从一大片落叶般铺满地的散架机器人零件中走过。一些大块的碎片仍在冒着烟。他的靴子变得油腻而乌黑。

"Yes, it's definitely Dooku," he said. "Expect the worse."
“没错，无疑是杜库，”他说，“还会更糟。”


UPPER LEVEL, TETH MONASTERY
泰斯修道院，上层


Jedi were so predictable.
绝地真是庸才。

Asajj Ventress stood one pace back from the narrow slit of a window, but she could see the aftermath of the battle. Everything was going according to plan. Skywalker would think he'd won a magnificent victory rather than that he'd been duped. He'd encountered just enough resistance to make it look like more than a token defense, without the droids getting lucky and actually killing the Jedi. The things couldn't act. She'd had to balance the battle carefully.
阿萨吉·文崔斯站的位置离窗户上的窄缝一步之遥，但她可以看见战斗的结局。一切都在按计划进行。天行者会认为自己赢得了一场伟大的胜利，而不是觉得自己被愚弄了。阻击的强度既不会让他觉得这仅仅是一次象征性的抵抗，又不至于让机器人走运，真的杀死绝地。这事不能装。她必须小心地保持战局的平衡。

I need you and your little Padawan in one piece, Skywalker.
我需要你和你的小徒弟活着，天行者。

The Jedi Council could spare the resources to drop everything for a Hutt they despised, when there was something in it for them.
绝地议会可以为了一个他们鄙视的赫特人放下一切，不遗余力，而这其中为他们设了陷阱。

But Rattatak—her homeworld—could drown in blood for all they cared.
但是拉塔塔克——她的故乡——却可以为了他们所关心的一切而陷入血海。

It had.
的确如此。

"What would you make of all this, Ky?" she said aloud. Ky Narec was long dead, and maybe that was just as well. He wouldn't want to see what the Jedi had become now. "Or me, maybe. But you'd understand why it had to be done, I know."
“你会如何看待这一切，凯？”她大声说道。凯·纳雷克死了很久了，也许幸好如此。他不会想看到绝地现在变成了什么样子。“或是我，也许。不过你会理解为什么必须这样做，我知道。”

"Ma'am?" said 4A-7. The droid watched from the window too. "Who's Ky?"
“夫人？”4A-7说。这个机器人也在窗前看着，“凯是谁？”

"Nothing you need to know." She pulled the hood back and let it slide from her smoothly polished scalp. Her twin lightsabers hung from her belt. She was ready. "The battle droids have done their duty. Now it's your turn. Be convincing.'"
“你不需要知道。”她向后一拉兜帽，让它从她剃得光溜溜的头皮上滑下。她的双光剑悬在腰带上。她准备好了。“战斗机器人完成了它们的使命。现在轮到你了。逼真一点。”

"That's my programming, ma'am."
“这正是我的程序，夫人。”

The spy droid slipped away. Ventress ran through her mental checklist. All she needed was that one incriminating holocam sequence of the Jedi with Rotta the Huttlet, anything that would convince Jabba that the Jedi were behind the kidnapping to force Jabba's cooperation with the Republic—handling Rotta roughly,making him cry, anything plausible. The slug cried a lot; that wasn't going to be hard. But there would be many ways to explain that away as innocent circumstance unless she could then deliver the Huttlet to Jabba.
间谍机器人滑行着走开了。文崔斯把清单过了一遍。她所需要的就是一段显示绝地与小赫特人罗塔在一起的全息录象作为罪证，任何能让贾巴相信绝地就是绑架案的幕后主谋、目的是强迫贾巴与共和国合作的镜头——粗暴地对待罗塔，让他哭，任何煞有其事的镜头。那个鼻涕虫哭个没完；那不是什么难事。不过会有许多方法可以解释清楚，说明这并非犯罪场景，除非她接着能把小赫特人交给贾巴。

I still think it would be better to have the Jedi framed with a dead Huttlet. Inarguable. Case proven.
我仍然认为，把绝地和小赫特人的尸体放在一个画面里效果更好。无可争辩。证据确凿。

If the situation demanded it, then that was how it would have to be, and Dooku could rage at her later. All that mattered was that the Jedi be denied access to Outer Rim space lanes, and that Jabba throw his considerable weight behind the Confederacy of Independent Systems.
如果情况需要，那么就是该怎么去做，杜库可以以后再对她大发雷霆。最要紧的就是，绝地武士被拒绝使用外环空间通道，而独立星系联盟会得到贾巴的强有力支持。

So I'd kill a youngling, would I?
那么我得杀了一个孩子，对吗？

Ventress was sometimes surprised by what she would consider doing these days, but it would have been a routine event on Rattatak; not even a minor headline, as it would have been on tidy, civilized Coruscant. Many youngsters died in the constant battles between the rival warlords. She could have been one of them. Her parents had died violently, just two more bystanders in the endless gang wars. Life was cheap on Rattatak.
有时，文崔斯会对自己这几天将要做的事感到惊讶，但在拉塔塔克，这不过是件日常事物，甚至不会象在整洁、文明的科洛桑那样，成为一个副版标题。许多年轻人死在了敌对军阀旷日持久的战争中。她本可能成为他们中的一员。她的父母惨烈地死去，而他们不过是这永无止境的帮派中两个局外人。在拉塔塔克，人命不值钱。

It had no strategic importance for the Republic. It didn't matter to Coruscant, and no Jedi stepped in to right wrongs.
这个星球对共和国来说没有战略价值。对科洛桑来说无关紧要，没有绝地来纠正错误。

Except Ky Nerac. I'd be dead now, without him.
除了凯·纳雷克。没有他，我现在已经死了。

Yes, she could kill a youngling, if she had to. She could kill the offspring of a criminal who made part of his fortune from slavery, if it meant putting an end to the Jedi, because Rattatak knew too much about slavers, too. Jedi kept a corrupt government in power. Anything was justified. Their massive power required exceptional countermeasures. They would not concede without a fight to the death.
是的，如果她必须这样做，她可以杀死一个孩子。如果这意味着可以消滅絕地，她就能杀死一个从奴隶買卖中获得部分财富的罪犯的孩子，因为拉塔塔克对奴隶贩子也非常了解。绝地保着一个腐败的政府当权。任何事都正当合法。他们巨大的权力需要非常的对策。他们不会不经过殊死搏斗就俯首称臣。

Fine. I'm more than ready.
很好。我不仅仅是准备好了。

The holoreceiver flickered to life, and Count Dooku appeared as a blue ghost, elegantly cadaverous.
全息接收器闪烁着启动了，杜库伯爵的影像带着优雅的苍白，如蓝色幽灵般显现。

"Yes, Asajj?" Dooku said. "Progress?"
“是的，阿萨吉？”杜库说，“进展如何？”

"It's under way, Master." Ventress snapped her two lightsabers together into one weapon, interlocking the hilts. She clutched the extended handgrip like a parade baton. "Skywalker and his party are about to enter the monastery. The droid will intercept them and make sure they perform to order."
“正在进行，师父。”文崔斯“啪”一声将双光剑合为一体，成为一件武器，将两个剑柄锁扣在一起。她象握着游行指挥杖般紧握着延长的握柄。“天行者和他的队伍即将进入修道院。机器人会对他们进行侦听，确保他们按指定进行演出。”

"Be careful. They'll realize by now that this isn't a routine criminal kidnapping."
“要小心。他们现在应该已经意识到这不是一起常规的绑架案。”

"Does that matter?"
“这要紧吗？”

"Not if the incriminating evidence is forthcoming, and their secret dies with them."
“只要罪证到手，秘密和他们一起消失，就不要紧。”

"I could take them now and fabricate very good evidence, Master. The longer we give them to play, the greater the risk of their escape."
“我可以现在就拿下他们，伪造出非常好的证据，师父。我们让他们表演的时间越长，他们逃脱的风险就越高。”

Dooku considered her in silence for a few moments, stroking his fingertip down the center of his beard, apparently distracted.
杜库沉默着打量了她一会，用指尖抚摩着下巴中间的胡子，显然有些分神。

"They're not going to escape, Asajj," he said at last. "You're going to deliver the evidence I need, and rescue the Huttlet. Not because you fear my disapproval, or what I might do if you fail, but because you know why the Jedi and the Republic must be stopped. You know better than anyone what the stakes are. Better than me, in some ways."
“他们不会逃跑的，阿萨吉。”最后他说，“你将提交我需要的证据，救出小赫特人。这不是因为你怕我不允许，也不是因为如果你失败了我将要做的事，而是因为你知道为什么绝地和共和国必须被阻止。你比任何人都更了解厉害关系是什么。在某些方面，比我更了解。”

Dooku was right; she wasn't afraid of him. There was no pain he could cause her, no physical threat he could hold over her, because Rattatak had broken her long, long before she met him.
杜库是对的；她不怕他。他不能给她造成任何痛苦，没有什么肉体伤害他能用来威胁到她，因为远在她遇见他之前，很久之前，拉塔塔克就已经把她撕碎了。

"You're right, Master," she said. "I died a long time ago. So did everything I cared about. It's only the likes of me, with nothing to lose, who'll really be prepared to tear the galaxy down and start over."
“说得对，师父，”她说，“很久以前我就死了。我在乎的一切也死了。只有这样一无所有的我，才能真正准备好摧毁银河，重新开始。”

Dooku smiled. It was actually a sympathetic smile as far as she could see; he had his reasons, too, and she knew they weren't about expense accounts and feeding in the rich waters of government. Both of them had a vision of a fairer society.
杜库微笑起来。在她看来，这是个真正的表示赞同的微笑；他也有他的理由，她知道他们并不是为了中饱私囊、享受权力。他们俩对于一个更公正的社会有自己的设想。

"The galaxy will be torn apart by orphans," Dooku said at last. "I think that everyone I know who has the potential to bring down empires has been robbed of parents." He seemed to be talking to himself. "Carry on, then, Asajj. I'll wait to hear from you.And look out for Kenobi. He may yet show up."
“银河系会被孤儿们分裂，”杜库最终说道，“我想我认识的每个有潜力击败帝国的人都曾被剥夺了父母。”看上去他是在自言自语，“那么，继续吧，阿萨吉。我会等着听你的消息。小心克诺比。他还是可能会露面的。”

"I'll be ready for him," she said. "For all of them."
“我会准备好见他的，”她说，“他们所有人。”

Asajj Ventress waited for the hologram to vanish, then took her jointed lightsaber in both hands and snapped it back into two lethal blades.
阿萨吉·文崔斯等着全息图象消失，然后双手握住连体光剑，“啪”一声再分开成两柄致命的光刃。

That was how she would snap Skywalker's neck when he finally stood in her way.
当天行者最终挡了她的道时，她就会象这样拧断他的脖子。

0de浪漫

喵！喵！终于有的看了！
PS：孤儿那段是亮点！

jedixwolf

Asajj，译作“阿萨加”而不是“阿萨吉”？

August

Asajj，译作“阿萨加”而不是“阿萨吉”？
jedixwolf 发表于 2012-6-27 13:15

嗯，应该是“阿萨吉”，校对的时候疏忽了。已改正。

EVN

很好啊，加油！可以继续更么？●ˍ●