| In time that skill would be imparted to Earth in return for some Earthly good, but Alfieri could not wait for the exchange to be consummated. | Со временем методику операции передали бы на Землю в обмен на что-то не менее ценное, но Олфайри не мог ждать. |
| He paid his fee, and the administrators of Halfway House sent him to Hinnerang. | Он заплатил назначенную цену, и диспетчеры Пересадочной станции отправили его на Хиннеранг. |
| Alfieri was unaware, once again, as he squeezed through the Schwarzchild singularity. | И снова Олфайри не почувствовал, как черная дыра заглотила его. |
| He had always loved tasting unfamiliar sensations, and it seemed unfair to him that a man should be compressed to zero volume and infinite density without some tactile knowledge of the fact. | Он любил новые впечатления, и ему казалось несправедливым, что человека сжимают до нулевого объема и бесконечной плотности, а потом он не может передать свои ощущения. |
| But so it happened. | Но изменить он ничего не мог. |
| A dying supernova was simulated for him, and he was whisked through the singularity to emerge in one more identical chamber on Hinnerang. | Вновь для Олфайри создали умирающую звезду и тоннель черной дыры вынес его в точно такую же лабораторию на Хиннеранге. |
| Here, at least, things looked properly alien. | Там по крайней мере Олфайри видел, что находится на другой планете. |
| There was a reddish tinge to the warm, golden sunlight, and at night four moons danced in the sky. The gravity was half that of Earth's; and as he stood under that quartet of shimmering orbs, Alfieri felt a strange giddiness and an inner access of ecstatic strength. | Красноватый солнечный свет, четыре луны в ночном небе, сила тяжести вдвое меньше, чем на Земле. |
| It seemed to him that he could leap at a bound and snatch one of those jewels from the sky. | Казалось, он может подпрыгнуть и сорвать с неба один из четырех плывущих по нему бриллиантов. |
| The Hinnerangi were small, angular beings with auburn skins, high-vaulted skullcaps, and fibrous fingers that divided and divided again until they formed writhing networks of filament at the tips. They spoke in sinister whispers, and their language struck Alfieri as more barbarous than Basque and as consonant-heavy as Polish; but the usual small devices turned their words to the tongue of Dante when they needed to communicate with him, a miracle that struck Alfieri as more awesome than the whole mechanism of the Fold, which at least he could pretend he understood. |
