Chapter 7

Chapter 7 TIME TO HIT THE BOOKS! BUT NOT LITERALLY, BECAUSE THAT WOULD BE RUDE. The next day after school, Morgan and his friends gathered at the Stonesword Library, as they often did. But this time, they didn't head right for the computers and VR goggles. Morgan went to the information desk instead. "Hi, Mr. Mallory," he said, greeting the media specialist. "What sorts of books do you have on codes and ciphers?" Instead of answering him, Mr. Mallory tapped on the desk. "Uh," said Morgan. "Mr. Mallory, did you hear me?"

第七章读书的时间到了！但不是字面意思，因为那样很粗鲁。 第二天放学后，摩根和他的朋友们像往常一样聚集在石字图书馆。 但这一次，他们并没有朝着电脑和VR眼镜的方向前进。 摩根转而去了问讯处。 “你好，马洛里先生，”他向这位媒体专家打招呼。 “你们有什么关于密码和密码的书？”马洛里先生没有回答他，而是敲了敲桌子。 “嗯，”摩根说。“马洛里先生，你听到了吗？”

The media specialist broke into a grin. "I guess you don't know Morse code," he said. "I just tapped out an answer to your question: we have many books on that topic. Come on, follow me!" Within a few minutes, Morgan had joined Harper, Po, and Jodi in a small conference room to work through the stack of books Mr. Mallory had pulled for them. Harper was using her smartphone to search for online resources, too. "This is a lot to wrap our heads around," said Po, rubbing his temple.

这位媒体专家突然笑了起来。 “我猜你不懂摩尔斯电码，”他说。 “我刚刚找到了你问题的答案：我们有很多关于这个主题的书。 来吧，跟我来！”几分钟后，摩根和哈珀、阿宝、乔迪在一间小会议室里一起翻阅马洛里先生给他们找来的一堆书。 哈珀也在用她的智能手机搜索在线资源。 阿宝一边揉着太阳穴，一边说：“这太让我们头疼了。”

"I'll admit, I wish Theo were here," said Morgan. "He's good with brainteasers." "I hope he's good at gardening, too," said Jodi. "I saw him with Ms. Minerva's landscaping club when I was walking here." "Oh!" said Harper as her phone chimed. "Ash is calling me back. Hang on…." Harper set her phone up against a stack of books. Ash's face appeared on the screen, and she waved in greeting "Hi, team!" she said. "Harper filled me in earlier. I'm here to help any way I can." Morgan could feel himself growing calmer. Ash usually had that effect. Morgan liked to think of himself as the team's leader, but that wasn't always an easy thing to be. He had long ago realized that Ash was a natural problem solver. She also had a calm, confident energy that made challenges seem less overwhelming. Jodi held the library's hamster up to the screen. "Say hello to Duchess Dimples, Ash!"

“我承认，我真希望西奥也在这里。”摩根说。 “他很擅长脑筋急转弯。” “我希望他也擅长园艺，”乔迪说。 “我路过这里的时候，看见他和密涅瓦女士的园艺俱乐部在一起。” “哦！”哈珀的电话响了。 “阿什给我回电话了。挂在……” 哈珀把她的手机靠在一摞书上。 阿什的脸出现在屏幕上，她挥手打招呼：“嗨，团队！” “哈珀早些时候告诉了我。 我会尽我所能帮助你。” 摩根感到自己渐渐平静下来。 灰烬通常有这种效果。 摩根喜欢把自己看作团队的领导者，但这并不总是一件容易的事。 他很久以前就意识到阿什是一个天生的问题解决者。 她还有一种冷静、自信的能量，让挑战看起来不那么势不可挡。 乔迪把图书馆的仓鼠举到屏幕前。 “阿什，跟公爵夫人酒窝打个招呼吧！”

Ash bowed. "It's an honor to see you again, my duchess." The hamster squeaked with pleasure. "Okay, Ash," said Harper. "We've started in on all the books at Stonesword. Do you want focus on abbreviations?" "I still think the answer could be 'Please reheat oatmeal,'" said Po. Morgan sighed. "I put it on the list, but I have a lot of doubt about it." "I'm on it," said Ash. "And actually…what do you guys think if I ask some of my fellow scouts to help?" Morgan's cheeks prickled. "I don't know about that," he said, without even really stopping to think about it first. Harper peered at him over his open book. "Why not?" she asked. "If we're looking for an abbreviation, we're talking about thousands of possibilities. The more people sharing ideas, the faster it will go."

火山灰鞠躬。“很荣幸再次见到您，公爵夫人。” 仓鼠高兴地吱吱叫着。 “好吧，阿什。”“我们已经开始着手石字的所有书了。 你想专注于缩写吗？”“我仍然认为答案可能是‘请重新加热燕麦片’，”阿宝说。 摩根叹了口气。“我把它列入了名单，但我对此有很多怀疑。” “我这就去。”阿什说。“实际上……如果我让我的童子军同伴帮忙，你们觉得怎么样？”摩根的脸颊一阵刺痛。 “我不知道，”他说，甚至没有真正停下来想一想。 哈帕从打开的书本上望着他。 “为什么不？”她问。“如果我们在寻找一个缩写，我们谈论的是成千上万的可能性。 分享想法的人越多，发展得就越快。”

"Yeah," Morgan said. "I know. It's just…" "Morgan doesn't like to share his toys," said Jodi. "He's always been that way." Morgan scowled. "Only because my little sister used to break every toy she borrowed." "I understand where you're coming from, Morgan," Harper said. "After all, we haven't told anyone about Doc's VR goggles. People think we're just playing regular Minecraft every day, not transporting to a virtual world where we're trying to rescue a broken artificial intelligence." Po laughed. "I'm not sure people would believe us if did tell them." "Harper's right," said Morgan. "I like keeping the secret of the goggles to ourselves. And I like having a club that feels special and is just ours. Remember, I wasn't very welcoming to Ash or to Theo." "And look how that turned out," Jodi said. "It feels like they've always been part of the team." Morgan thought about it for a long moment. "Okay," he said at last. "We need more people working on this puzzle. Just…don't tell them more than they need to know, okay?"

“是的，”摩根说。“我知道。 “摩根不喜欢和别人分享他的玩具，”乔迪说。 “他一直都是这样。” 摩根皱起了眉头。“那是因为我妹妹过去总是把她借来的玩具弄坏。” “我明白你的意思，摩根，”哈珀说。 “毕竟，我们还没有告诉任何人Doc的VR眼镜。 人们认为我们每天只是在玩普通的《我的世界》，而不是进入一个虚拟世界，在那里我们试图拯救一个破碎的人工智能。” 阿宝笑了。“我不确定如果我们告诉他们，人们会不会相信我们。” “哈帕说得对。”摩根说。 “我喜欢保守护目镜的秘密。 我喜欢有一个感觉特别的，只属于我们的俱乐部。 记住，我不太欢迎阿什和西奥。” “看看结果如何，”乔迪说。 “感觉他们一直都是团队的一部分。” 摩根想了很长时间。 “好吧，”他最后说。“我们需要更多的人来解决这个难题。 只是……不要告诉他们不必要的事情，好吗？”

"Got it," said Ash. "Thanks, Morgan. I'll hang up now and get to work." After that, they returned to their books, poring over the pages for any hint at how to translate the bees' message. Twenty minutes passed in silence before Mr. Mallory appeared in the doorway. "I found another book," he said. "Although I feel bad interrupting. Look at this hive mind at work!" "Hive mind?" said Po. "What does that mean?" "I was just pointing out how well you were all working together," said Mr. Mallory. "A hive mind is a phenomenon you see in social insects, like the bees we're keeping here on the library grounds. It refers to the idea that every individual insect is doing its own

“明白了。”阿什说。“谢谢,摩根。 我现在要挂电话去工作了。” 之后，他们回到书本上，仔细阅读书页，寻找如何翻译蜜蜂信息的线索。 二十分钟过去了，马洛里先生才出现在门口。 “我又找到了一本书，”他说。 “虽然我很抱歉打断你。 看看这种蜂群思维在起作用！”“蜂群思维？”阿宝说。 “这是什么意思？”马洛里先生说：“我只是在说你们合作得多么好。” “蜂群思维是你在群居昆虫身上看到的一种现象，就像我们在图书馆里养的蜜蜂一样。 它指的是每只昆虫都在做自己的事情