Chapter 24

chapter twenty-four "Ooh, you invited Thrull?" Debra squeals. "How exciting!" "NO! I DIDN'T!" Wracksaw snaps. "Did you?" "No." "Eye-Bulb?" "Not me." "You're both going in the carcass pit later," Wracksaw growls, then shuts up as Thrull marches down the ship's tongue-ramp. The Dire Nurses quickly attempt to look busy. Debra flicks gunk off the table. Eye-Bulb polishes his eye-bulb. Thrull's voice booms. "I hope I am not interrupting you, Wracksaw. But I have grown tired of waiting." Wracksaw attempts to look calm, but the patterns along his armacles tell the truth: tiny, helpless polka dots, like goose bumps. He sinks into a sad little bow. "You could never interrupt me, Thrull. I am, after all, your humble servant." Thrull's presence sends a nervous chitter through the guards. And a nervous chill through me. The last time I saw Thrull, he'd just speared Ghazt like a cocktail wiener—then disappeared like a thief in the night.

第二十四章“哦，你邀请了瑟鲁？”黛布拉尖叫。 “多激动人心啊!”“不!我没有!”Wracksaw快照。 “你呢?”“没有。”“Eye-Bulb ?”“不是我。” “过会儿你们俩都得进尸坑。”怪锯咆哮着，然后在Thrull走下飞船的舌形斜坡时闭嘴。 可怕的护士们迅速装出忙碌的样子。 黛布拉弹掉桌上的黏糊糊的东西。 眼球擦亮他的眼球。 斯拉尔的声音轰隆作响。“我希望我没有打扰你，锯怪。 但我已经厌倦了等待。” Wracksaw试图看起来很平静，但他手臂上的图案告诉我们真相：小小的，无助的波点，就像鸡皮疙瘩。 他悲伤地鞠了一躬。 “你永远不能打断我的话，瑟鲁。 我毕竟是您卑微的仆人。” Thrull的出现让守卫们紧张不安。 一股紧张的寒意贯穿了我的全身。 我最后一次见到Thrull时，他就像刺鸡腿一样刺了Ghazt，然后像小偷一样在夜里消失了。

Wracksaw regains his composure. "Your timing could not be more perfect. The Tower Schematics are nearly found." "So get on with it," Thrull orders. "Of course, my lord," Wracksaw says. He returns to his work—angrily wrenching the probe back and forth. Electronic hissing echoes through the theater. And then— Something like a holographic cross section of a nightmare is projected. "There!" Thrull cries in a voice that borders on actual joy. "At long last..."

断臂锯恢复了镇静。 “你的时机再好不过了。 塔的结构图快找到了。” “那就继续干吧。”Thrull命令道。 “当然，大人。”断臂锯说。 他回到他的工作中，愤怒地来回扭动着探针。 电子嘶嘶声在剧院里回响。 然后——像噩梦的全息横截面被投影出来。 “有!”Thrull用一种近乎真正喜悦的声音呼喊。 “终于……”

The tower schematics.

塔的结构图。

I look to my friends. Nervous glances pass between us. Rover and Drooler are frowning. "What do we do?" Dirk whispers. I don't respond. I don't shake my head. I don't move an inch. Because I truly, truly do not know. "The bio-vac tube, Debra. Now!" Wracksaw snaps. "It is time to extract and transfer the information." Debra hands Wracksaw what looks like a pool noodle made of worm skin. I spy a toggle switch on one end. Wracksaw yanks out the probe and drops it onto the slab. The schematics flicker away. Wracksaw raises the bio-vac tube high above Ghazt's cranium. He looks like he's about to stake a sleeping vampire through the heart. "Placing the extractor-end... NOW!" he says, jamming it into Ghazt. Once it's secure, he turns to Thrull. "The honor is all yours, my leader," Wracksaw says, offering him the tube. Thrull's long fingers—all bone and vine—wrap around it. He lifts it up and presses it against his face. No. Actually—into his face. We watch in horror as Thrull's head splits, opening in a vertical seam down the center. His forehead opens, his cheekbones crack, his eyes shudder sideways.

我指望着我的朋友们。我们之间紧张地互相瞥了一眼。 Rover和Drooler皱着眉头。 “我们该怎么办？”德克低声说。 我没有回应。我不摇头。 我一动也不动。因为我真的，真的不知道。 “生物真空管，黛布拉。现在!”Wracksaw快照。 “是时候提取并传递信息了。” 黛布拉用手锯了一个看起来像用虫皮做的泳池面。 我发现一端有个拨动开关。 Wracksaw拔出探针，把它扔到平板上。 原理图闪烁着。 断臂锯将生物真空管高举在Ghazt的头盖骨上方。 他看起来像是要用木桩刺穿一个熟睡的吸血鬼的心脏。 “将提取器端放置…… 现在！”他说，把它塞进Ghazt。 一旦安全，他转向Thrull。 “这是你的荣誉，我的领袖，”莱克索说，把管子递给他。 瑟鲁长长的手指——全是骨头和藤蔓——把它缠住了。 他把它举起来，贴在脸上。 否。实际上是冲着他的脸。 我们惊恐地看着Thrull的头裂开，在中间的垂直缝中裂开。 他的额头张开，颧骨裂开，眼睛向侧面颤抖。

Thrull forces the tube into his wide, horrifically open visage like he's inserting a gas pump nozzle into a car's gas tank. "DELIVER THE SCHEMATICS TO ME!" Thrull roars. Eye-Bulb reaches for the toggle, but Wracksaw slaps his hand away. He flicks the toggle—and Ghazt's head jerks. The tube snaps to life—and I realize it's like a vacuum hose. It pulls and pulls until, with a sickening schlorp— POP! The crucial piece of brain-knowledge—the Tower Schematics—are suctioned out of Ghazt's brain. The

Thrull把管子插进他那张大得吓人的脸，就像他把一个油泵的喷嘴插进汽车的油箱一样。 “把结构图给我！”Thrull怒吼。 Eye-Bulb伸手去拿开关，但是Wracksaw把他的手拍开了。 他拨动开关——Ghazt的头抽搐了一下。 管子啪的一声卡住了——我意识到它就像一根真空软管。 它拉啊拉，直到发出一声令人作呕的嘶嘶声——砰！大脑知识的关键部分——塔图——被从Ghazt的大脑中抽走了。 的

tube bulges as the information is carried toward Thrull, and then finally into Thrull. The rush of information is so powerful it lifts Thrull's body off the floor as he cries out— Yes, now I see. Now I understand. Now nothing will stop the completion of the tower With each neuro-byte of information, Thrull's body spasms. It looks like this process might tear him apart, rip him open. But we don't get that lucky... There's one last, long tremble—then Thrull crashes back down to his feet.

当信息被传送到Thrull，然后最终进入Thrull时，管道膨胀。 信息的冲击是如此强大，以至于把瑟鲁尔的身体从地板上抬起来，他喊道：“是的，现在我明白了。” 现在我明白了。现在没有什么能阻止塔的完成每一个神经字节的信息，瑟鲁的身体就会痉挛。 看起来这个过程可能会把他撕碎，撕开。 但我们没有那么幸运…… 最后一次，漫长的颤抖——然后斯拉尔又摔了下来。