Then we had to keep up our basic stocks of?consumable materials, including fuel, and that meant cracking?a few easy?baubles, going into them and scooping out such?treasures as remained unplundered.?We had done so, and proven that we could operate the ship and function as a crew. But still, every time we took the launch back from the surface of a bauble, we were reminded what our ship looked like from the outside. A predator.?

“If there is a ship stalking?us out here—or at least trying to get close enough to this?bauble to jump our claim—then her captain will be doing her utmost to control the disposition of her sails, with respect to the Old Sun, while not caring to cast light in our direction. But sometimes it can’t be avoided.”?To begin?with I swept the scope quite widely, picking up the red?glimmer of the bauble around which we were orbiting, and I?considered the chances that some of that glimmer might have?got caught up in the optics and thrown a confusing trick of
light across Surt’s eyepiece. It wasn’t that likely, I?decided. The optics were good and Surt would have needed to?be staring almost directly at the bauble to pick up any of?its blush.?

Sure as I can be,” Prozor said, sitting opposite me,?clutching her notebook—scrawled full of her bauble maps and?auguries and reminders to herself—as well as a very?expensive pocket chronometer, which she had in the other?hand, her thumb clicking down on the starting and stopping?buttons as if she needed reassurance that they still worked.?

Slowly the bauble came round in the nose windows of the launch. It was hard to see, even though we were less than twenty leagues out. The field was still up, cloaking the lump of rock, but unlike some we had seen it was gauzy and dim, like a layer of smoke clinging to the rock’s surface.?

“Rack used this place as a supply drop,” Prozor said,?looking around at the rest of? us?besides?Fura,?which?amounted?to?Strambli?and?myself.?Just?the?bare?minimum?for??an expedition?into a bauble, with Surt and Tindouf staying?behind on the main ship. Paladin counted as crew as well, I?suppose, but none of us were in the habit of thinking of him?in quite that way.?

“We’ll get in fast,” she was already saying, while?working the controls, steering us nearer to the bauble.?“Take as much as we need, and no more. What made sense for?Rack makes sense for us, too. Agreed, Prozor?”?“No truer thing ever said,” Prozor answered, which was?her way of managing to sound equivocal. She snapped shut her?bauble book, did up the fancy clasps as if she had no?expectation of ever needing to open it again between now and
the last gasp of the Old Sun. “Usual margins, I take it?”?

Bosa didn’t soil her hands scrabbling through baubles. She let other crews have the? pleasure?of?that,?and?then?jumped?them?for?their?pickings.?Bosa?had?left?us?some?handsome?black vacuum suits, but they were for boarding and gutting other?vessels, leaving us to? salvage our mongrel gear from the hulk of the Queen Crimson, Captain Trusko’s ship.?

When that light flopped onto the bauble like an exhausted traveller, about all it could do was daub a few red and purple highlights across those quills, hinting at the gloomy secrets? trapped between their roots.?On the side?facing the Empty—where the only dependable illumination was?that from the distant stars, too far away for any monkey mind?to? comprehend, even those of us who’ve ventured as far out?as Trevenza Reach, the bauble? was nearly as black as?Revenger’s own sails.?

The level ground under our feet?was new, which was to say it wasn’t more than a few? centuries old, rather than the millions of years that this?bauble had been ticking around the? Old Sun.?

margins?

If?you?are?equivocal,?you?are?deliberately?vague?in?what?you?say,?because?you?want?to?avoidspeaking the?truth?or making a?decision.?

flop - 重重地落下（或掉下）?

If you flop into a chair, for example, you sit down suddenly and heavily because you are so tired.

daub?（隨意）涂抹，亂涂，亂抹

gloomy -?If a place is gloomy, it is almost dark so that you cannot see very well.