（外文电子版资料）Gene Wolfe - Castaway.pdfVIP

Castaway by Gene Wolfe We picked him up on some dead world nobody ever goes to. We did it because we had a field problem that required a lot of tests, and that stuff is easier if you can just dodge in and out of the ship without worrying about the airlocks and how much air youre dumping every time you go outside. Bad as this place was, you could breathe—the air turned out to be real good, in fact—so we set down in a warm belt around the middle. Warms one of those words, you know? It was still cold enough for hightherms, and even with hightherms I blew on my fingers a lot. The sun was red and real close, but there didnt seem to be a lot of heat in it. Anyway, he had been there twenty-seven years, he said, and I said, standard years or world years, and he said, they were so close it didnt make any difference. World years were half an hour shorter now, he said, and I shouldve asked why now—had they been longer a while back? Only I didnt think of it right then. We got hit by the Atrothers, he said; so it had been back during the war all right, back before I was born. We tried to get home, but we could see we couldnt make it. This place was close, and we landed here. Were not there anymore, I told him, we took off. Well, that shut him up for the rest of the week. So next time I tried not to say things like that. I know they had him up to Debriefing three times. So you know they never got much out of him, didnt get what they wanted, or they wouldnt have talked to him so much. Somebody said his mind was blown, and I guess that was sort of right. Only he used to open up to me sometimes in the break area, and thats what I want to tell about. Then maybe I can stop thinking about him. There were only three of us, he said, and Obert died the first year and Yarmouth the second year. I thought we were dying off one by one, and Id go next year if nobody came. But I didnt. Wed hung up the distress buoy. It didnt do a bit of good, but I stayed