（外文电子版资料）Terry Bisson - Necronauts.pdf

Necronauts Terry Bisson A DF Books N.E.R.D’s Release Copyright ©2000 by Terry Bisson. All rights reserved. 1993 by Playboy First published in Playboy, July 1993 From the collection Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories ElectricS and the ES design are trademarks of ElectricS, Inc. These stories are works of fiction. All characters, events, organizations, and locales are either the product of the authors imagination or used fictitiously to convey a sense of realism. Necronauts The first time I died was an eye-opener. Literally. I got a call from a researcher at Duke. He said he had seen my paintings in the National Geographic and Smithsonian magazines and wanted to engage me as illustrator for an expedition he was planning. I explained that I was blind and had been for eighteen months. He said he knew; he said that was why they wanted me. * * * * The next morning, I was dropped in front of the universitys Psy Studies Institute by my ex. You can tell a lot about a space by its echoes, and the one I entered was drab and institutional, like a hospital waiting room. Dr. Philip DeCandyles hand was moist and cold, two qualities that dont always go together. I form a mental picture of those I am dealing with and I saw an overweight, soft man, almost six feet tall; later I was told I was not far off. After introducing himself, DeCandyle introduced the woman standing beside him as Dr. Emma Sorel. She was only a little shorter, with a high-pitched voice and a cold, tentative touch that told me she was more skilled at withdrawing from the world than engaging it; a common quality in a scientist, but curious for an explorer. I wondered what sort of expedition these two could be planning. “Were both very excite