VJ-23X of Lameth stared into the black depths of the three-dimensional, small-scale map of the Galaxy and said, “Are we ridiculous, I wonder in being so concerned about the matter?”
兰默斯VJ-23X注视着幽深的银河三维缩影图，说：“我想我们这么担心这件事是不是很可笑？”
MQ-17J of Nicron shook his head. “I think not. You know the Galaxy will be filled in five years at the present rate of expansion.”
尼克隆MQ-17J摇头道：“我不觉得。你知道照现在的扩展速度银河系在五年内就会被挤满。”
Both seemed in their early twenties, both were tall and perfectly formed.
两个人看起来都是二十出头，都很高大健康。
“Still,” said VJ-23X, “I hesitate to submit a pessimistic report to the Galactic Council.”
“但是，”VJ-23X说，“我不太想给银河参议会提交这样一个悲观的报告。”
“I wouldn’t consider any other kind of report. Stir them up a bit. We’ve got to stir them up.”
“我不会考虑作任何其他的报告。得引起他们的注意。我们必须引起他们的注意。”
VJ-23X sighed. “Space is infinite. A hundred billion Galaxies are there for the taking. More.”
VJ-23X叹了一口气。“太空是无限的。还有一千亿个星系等着我们。甚至更多。”
“A hundred billion is not infinite and it’s getting less infinite all the time. Consider! Twenty thousand years ago, mankind first solved the problem of utilizing stellar energy, and a few centuries later, interstellar travel became possible. It took mankind a million years to fill one small world and then only fifteen thousand years to fill the rest of the Galaxy. Now the population doubles every ten years –”
“一千亿并不是无限，而且正在变得越来越有限。想想吧！两万年前人类刚刚找到了利用恒星能量的方法，几个世纪之后星际旅行就实现了。人类用了一百万年才填满一个小小的星球（佳人微信公众号：jiarenorg），可是只用了一万五千年就占据了整个银河系。而现在人口每十年就翻一倍——”
VJ-23X interrupted. “We can thank immortality for that.”
VJ-23X 插口道：“这得归功于永生。”
“Very well. Immortality exists and we have to take it into account. I admit it has its seamy side, this immortality. The Galactic AC has solved many problems for us, but in solving the problem of preventing old age and death, it has undone all its other solutions.”
“不错。永生实现了，我们得把它考虑进去。我觉得它的确有阴暗的一面。银河AC给我们解决了很多问题，但当它解决了防止衰老和死亡这个问题之后其他的一切都白费了。”
“Yet you wouldn’t want to abandon life, I suppose.”
“但是我想你也不想放弃生命吧。”
“Not at all,” snapped MQ-17J, softening it at once to, “Not yet. I’m by no means old enough. How old are you?”
“一点也不想，”MQ-17J断然道，随即柔和了语调，“现在还不想。我还一点也不老。你多少岁了？”
“Two hundred twenty-three. And you?”
“两百二十三。你呢？”
“I’m still under two hundred. –But to get back to my point. Population doubles every ten years. Once this GaIaxy is filled, we’ll have filled another in ten years. Another ten years and we’ll have filled two more. Another decade, four more. In a hundred years, we’ll have filled a thousand Galaxies. In a thousand years, a million Galaxies. In ten thousand years, the entire known universe. Then what?”
“我还不到两百。——但是回到我说的事情上来。人口每十年增加一倍。一旦银河系被占满了，我们会在十年内占满另一个。再过十年我们能占满另外两个。再过十年，四个。一百年内我们会占满一千个星系。一千年内，一百万个。一万年内就是整个已知的宇宙。然后呢？”
VJ-23X said, “As a side issue, there’s a problem of transportation. I wonder how many sunpower units it will take to move Galaxies of individuals from one Galaxy to the next.”
VJ-23X说：“还有附带的一点是运输的问题。我不知道把一整个星系的人运送到另一个需要多少太阳单位的能量。”
“A very good point. Already, mankind consumes two sunpower units per year.”
“这一点说得很对。人类现在每年已经得消耗两个太阳单位的能量了。”
“Most of it’s wasted. After all, our own Galaxy alone pours out a thousand sunpower units a year and we only use two of those.”
“大部分的都被浪费了。不管怎样，我们自己的星系每年泼出去一千个太阳单位能而我们只用其中的两个。”
“Granted, but even with a hundred per cent efficiency, we only stave off the end. Our energy requirements are going up in a geometric progression even faster than our population. We’ll run out of energy even sooner than we run out of Galaxies. A good point. A very good point.”
“没错，但是即使有百分之百的效率，我们也只是推迟了结局的到来。我们对能量的需求以几何级数增长，比我们的人口还要快。在我们占据完所有星系之前我们就会用光所有能量（佳人微信公众号：jiarenorg）。你说得对。说得非常对。”
“We’ll just have to build new stars out of interstellar gas.”
“我们可以用星际气体造出新的恒星。”
“Or out of dissipated heat?” asked MQ-17J, sarcastically.
“或者说用散失掉了的热量？”MQ-17J嘲讽地说。
“There may be some way to reverse entropy. We ought to ask the Galactic AC.”
“也许会有办法逆转熵的增加。我们应该问问银河AC。”
VJ-23X was not really serious, but MQ-17J pulled out his AC-contact from his pocket and placed it on the table before him.
VJ-23X并不是认真的，但是MQ-17J把他的AC联络器从口袋里拿出来放在面前的桌子上。
“I’ve half a mind to,” he said. “It’s something the human race will have to face someday.”
“我确实有点想问。”他说，“这个问题总有一天人类得面对。”
He stared somberly at his small AC-contact. It was only two inches cubed and nothing in itself, but it was connected through hyperspace with the great Galactic AC that served all mankind. Hyperspace considered, it was an integral part of the Galactic AC.
他忧郁地注视着小小的AC联络器。这是个两英寸的立方体。它本身并没有什么，而只是通过超时空与那个服务于全人类的超级银河AC相联系。如果将超时空算进来，它就是银河AC整体的一部分。
MQ-17J paused to wonder if someday in his immortal life he would get to see the Galactic AC. It was on a little world of its own, a spider webbing of force-beams holding the matter within which surges of submesons took the place of the old clumsy molecular valves. Yet despite its sub-etheric workings, the Galactic AC was known to be a full thousand feet across.
MQ-17J停下来想着在他不朽的生命中是否有一天他能有机会去看看银河AC。它占据着单独的一个小星球，能量束构成的蛛网支持着它的核心，其中古老笨拙的分子阀已被亚介子流取代。尽管有着亚以太级的精密结构，银河AC的直径仍足有一千英尺长。
MQ-17J asked suddenly of his AC-contact, “Can entropy ever be reversed?”
MQ-17J突然开口向AC联络器问道：“熵的增加能被逆转吗？”
VJ-23X looked startled and said at once, “Oh, say, I didn’t really mean to have you ask that.”
VJ-23X吃了一惊，立即说道：“哦，我说，我没有真的想叫你问那个。”
“Why not?”
“为什么不呢？”
“We both know entropy can’t be reversed. You can’t turn smoke and ash back into a tree.”
“我们都知道熵是不可逆转的。你不能把烧剩的烟尘变回到一棵树。”
“Do you have trees on your world?” asked MQ-17J.
“你们的星球上有树？”MQ-17J说。
The sound of the Galactic AC startled them into silence. Its voice came thin and beautiful out of the small AC-contact on the desk. It said: THERE IS INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.
突然而来的银河AC的声音使他们住口了。从桌上的AC联络器中传出它纤细悦耳的声音：数据不足，无法作答。
VJ-23X said, “See!”
VJ-23X说：“看吧！”
The two men thereupon returned to the question of the report they were to make to the Galactic Council.
于是两人又回到了他们要给银河参议会提交的报告的话题上。