一个15岁的少年，在爱和游戏的陪伴下，走完了人生的最后一段旅程。故事很长，值得一看。（英文原文约 1300 words）
How a video game community filled my nephew's final days with joy
原文：The Guardian | Mat WesthorpeMy nephew, Michael, died on 22 May 2019. He was 15 years old.2019年5月22日，我的侄子迈克尔（Micheal）离开了人世，年仅15岁。
He loved his family, tractors, lorries, tanks, spaceships and video games (mostly about tractors, lorries, tanks and spaceships), and confronted every challenge in his short, difficult life with a resolute will that earned him much love and respect. Online in his favourite game, Elite Dangerous by Frontier Developments, he was known as CMDR Michael Holyland.迈克尔深爱他的家人，还有拖拉机、卡车、坦克、宇宙飞船和电子游戏。虽然他的一生短暂而又艰难，但他总是意志坚定地应对每一次挑战，这也让他赢得了人们的尊敬和爱。《精英：危机四伏》（Elite Dangerous）是迈克尔最喜爱的游戏，他在游戏里的名字是Michael Holyland。
In Michael's last week of life, thanks to the Elite Dangerous player community, a whole network of new friends sprang up in our darkest hour and made things more bearable with a magnificent display of empathy, kindness and creativity. I know it was Michael's wish to celebrate the generosity he was shown, so I've written this account of how Frontier and friends made the intolerable last days of a 15-year-old boy infinitely better.在他人生中的最后一周，《精英：危机四伏》的许多玩家展示了极大的同情心、善意和创造力，减轻了病痛对他的折磨。我知道迈克尔很想感谢这些朋友的善意，所以我写下了这篇文章，记录《精英：危机四伏》的玩家们是怎样帮助这个15岁男孩走完人生最后一程的。
表示“突然出现；涌现”，英文解释为“to start to exist suddenly”举个🌰：
Thousands of new businesses have sprung up in the past couple of years.
过去几年里数千家新企业如雨后春笋般涌现出来。
On 14 May, I stood in Michael's room in Addenbrooke's hospital, Cambridge, trying to process the inevitability of his death.5月14日，在剑桥艾登布鲁克医院，我站在迈克尔的病房里试着接受他即将死亡的事实。At that moment, he was perched on his hospital bed playing a racing game on his Xbox, squinting at the screen obscured by his swollen face. There was nothing anybody could do for him; after almost six years of debilitating illness, all medical treatments had been exhausted or were no longer viable. We watched helplessly as this isolated, disabled and lonely autistic teenager unknowingly faced his final days.当时他坐在病床上用Xbox玩一款赛车游戏，面部肿大的他正眯着眼睛看着屏幕。我们对病情恶化无能为力，所有医疗手段似乎都已经没有效果。我们只能无助地看着这个孤独、残疾的自闭症少年度过人生中的最后几天。
表示“眯起眼看”，英文解释为“to partly close your eyes in order to see more clearly”举个🌰：
The sun was shining straight in her eyes and made her squint.
阳光刺眼，她不得不眯起了眼睛。
表示“遮蔽；使朦胧；使听不清”，英文解释为“to prevent something from being seen or heard clearly”举个🌰：
The view was obscured by mist.
薄雾中景色朦胧。
表示“使虚弱；削弱，使衰弱”，英文解释为“to make someone or something physically weak”举个🌰：
Chemotherapy exhausted and debilitated him.
化疗使他感到非常疲惫虚弱。
In an act of despondence, I sent a tweet, which started something bittersweet and amazing.Elite Dangerous had become a vital component of Michael's care package. It is an online spaceship simulator set in a 1:1 scale approximation of the Milky Way galaxy, giving each player the freedom to explore its vast, austere beauty. It could be quite tranquil and very time consuming. Michael revelled in it. For us, it was a lifeline: I spent time with Michael in the game world as he tried to escape the suffering of the real one.作为一款太空沙盒模拟游戏，《精英：危机四伏》在迈克尔的人生中扮演着重要角色，对我们来说就像一条生命线：迈克尔试图摆脱现实世界中的痛苦，我也会花时间和他一起玩游戏。
表示“平静的，宁静的，静谧的”，英文解释为“pleasantly calm, quiet, and peaceful”，如：a small tranquil village 宁静的小村庄。
表示“陶醉于，沉湎于”，英文解释为“o enjoy something very much”举个🌰：
He revelled in his new-found fame.
新近成名令他飘飘然。
It wasn't long before I was contacted by Paige Harvey, a community manager at Frontier Developments. Paige had seen my tweet and wanted to do something to lift Michael's spirits. She told me that she was scouring the office for “goodies to send”. At this point, I hadn't made the gravity of Michael's circumstances clear on Twitter; Michael was pretty internet savvy and we decided to keep his terminal state from him to spare him avoidable emotional distress. Upon learning that Michael had only a few days to live, Paige moved things up a gear.在我发布推文后不久，Frontier Developments的一位社区经理Paige Harvey就与我取得了联系。Paige看到了那条推文，希望做些事情来为迈克尔打气。Paige说她在办公室里到处找“可以作为礼物的好东西”，而我告诉她并没有在Twitter上清楚说明病情的严重性——迈克尔精通互联网，为了避免让他承受太大的精神压力，我们决定将病情向他保密。当得知迈克尔的人生只剩下最后几天时，Paige决定立即采取行动。
表示“搜寻，翻找，搜查”，英文解释为“to search very carefully and thoroughly through an area, a document etc”举个🌰：
Her family began to scour the countryside for a suitable house.
她的家人开始在乡下寻找合适的房子。
表示“（尤指体育运动中）大有转机，开始有很大起色；换挡提速”，英文解释为“to start to do something better, especially in sports, in a way that is easy to see”举个🌰：
After a disappointing first half, United moved up a gear and took control of the game.
上半场联队表现令人失望，但此后却表现出色，掌控了比赛的主动权。
The next day, she and her colleague Sally Morgan-Moore visited Michael on the Addenbrooke's oncology ward and, as promised, brought a bag of swag including a poster signed by many members of the Elite Dangerous team. They were absolutely brilliant with Michael, who could be quite abrupt and challenging at times. I had not seen him this elated for some time. Michael's Dad, Karl, got the gifts framed and mounted on his wall.第二天，她和同事Sally Morgan-Moore来到艾登布鲁克医院的肿瘤病房，并按照承诺带来了一包礼物，其中包括一张拥有《精英：危机四伏》开发团队许多成员签名的海报。迈克尔特别喜欢她们送来的礼物，我有很长一段时间没有看到他那么兴奋了。迈克尔的父亲卡尔（Karl）将海报装裱后挂在了病房墙上。
表示“肿瘤学”，英文解释为“the part of medical science that deals with cancer and tumours”。
表示“兴高采烈的，欢欣鼓舞的”，英文解释为“extremely happy and excited, especially because of something that has happened or is going to happen”。
The outpouring of empathy and support continued from all quarters. Scores of fellow Elite Dangerous players sent their best wishes; authors Drew Wagar, Kate Russell and their publisher Dan Grubb of Fantastic Books Publishing all got in touch; David Braben, creator of the Elite series , tweeted his best wishes.
人们表达了对迈克尔的同情和支持。许多《精英：危机四伏》的玩家祝福他；作家Drew Wagar、Kate Russell和他们的出版商Dan Grubb of Fantastic Books Publishing与我们取得联系，《精英》系列创作者David Braben也在Twitter上表达了祝福。Facebook groups, Twitter and a post on the Elite forum were filled with other Elite players (CMDRs) clamouring to take Michael on excursions to the far side of the galaxy, to crew up and go to war, or to run rescue missions. CMDR Picard discovered a new Earth-like world, named it Michael's Rest and offered to take Michael there.在Facebook群组、Twitter和《精英：危机四伏》论坛的一篇帖子里，很多玩家（他们自称CMDR）纷纷自告奋勇地想带着迈克尔前往银河系的远方，与他组队参加战斗，或者执行救援任务。玩家Pichard发现了一个与地球相像的星球，将它命名为Michael's Rest，还提议带迈克尔去那儿。
表示“大声（或吵闹）地抱怨，大声地要求”，英文解释为“to make a loud complaint or demand”举个🌰：
The children were all clamouring for attention.
孩子们都吵吵嚷嚷希望引起注意。
Michael loved the attention. It was difficult to decide how much to share with him; his autism and experience of the last five years meant that his social tolerances were poor, so we tried to discourage too much contact with strangers on the internet. But the overwhelming kindness of this video game community was such a powerful, positive thing that it would have been a shame to keep Michael from it.迈克尔喜欢这种关注。由于他有自闭症，再加上过去五年饱受疾病困扰，社交容忍度较差，所以我们总是试图阻止他在网上与陌生人进行过多接触。但《精英：危机四伏》的玩家社群释放了伟大的爱和善意。
The whole experience had Michael brimming with new found energy. He would spend hours either playing Elite or tinkering with ship designs in the companion site Coriolis.io. His buoyant mood helped him walk from the oncology ward down to the food concourse, a feat he hadn’t managed for weeks.这段经历让迈克尔充满了新的能量。他要么花几个小时玩《精英：危机四伏》，要么就在模拟配船网站Coriolis.io尝试设计飞船。由于心情变得愉快，迈克尔甚至从病房走到了食堂——此前他已经连续几周没有步行到食堂吃饭了。
表示“愉快而自信的”，英文解释为“happy and confident”举个🌰：
He was in a buoyant mood.
他心情愉快。
Michael had requested a visit to Frontier Studios on the other side of Cambridge, but his doctor advised against leaving hospital. Michael soon deteriorated again, his facial swelling becoming so severe that it was difficult for him to open his eyes at all. Frustratingly, his one available form of escapism was now under threat. While nurses and Michael’s mum, Laura, did what they could to reduce his swollen eye tissue, Michael refused to give up and still managed to peer at the screen and tinker with his ship loadouts.迈克尔希望拜访位于剑桥另一边的Frontier工作室，但医生建议我们不要让他离开医院。病情很快再次恶化，面部肿胀变得十分严重，以至于很难睁开眼睛。这也意味着他可能无法再玩游戏了……护士和迈克尔的母亲劳拉（Laura）竭尽所能地减轻他眼部肿胀问题，迈克尔也拒绝放弃，仍然会努力看屏幕，设计他的飞船。
On Saturday morning, three days after Paige and Sally's visit, Frontier's Zac Antonaci (one of the most vocal and entertaining viewers of Michael's Twitch streams) made a ludicrously ambitious suggestion: what if we could organise enough people to create a short story, set in the world of Elite, where Michael was the hero, something he could listen to and enjoy when he had difficulties with his vision?周六上午，在Paige和Sally来到医院三天后，Frontier的Zac Antonaci（他经常观看迈克尔Twitter直播）提出了一个很有野心的建议：能否组织足够多的人手，在《精英：危机四伏》的世界观下创作一个将迈克尔作为主角的短篇故事？这样一来，就算很难看清东西，他仍然能听到自己的故事。
At first I declined Zac's offer, feeling that it would take more time than Michael had. But then Michael recovered enough to start making a hilariously overblown list of requests for his Elite account. He was now pushing for a Tony Stark-style tower on a moon orbiting the planet named for him.起初我拒绝了这个提议，因为觉得这需要花很长时间，迈克尔恐怕等不了了。但随后迈克尔的身体状态又稍有起色，并且还在《精英：危机四伏》账号里写了一些很夸张的请求，例如希望将月球上一座钢铁侠风格的塔以他的名字命名。
表示“夸张的，过分渲染的”，英文解释为“made to seem greater or more impressive than something really is”。
That Sunday, Drew Wagar wrote a brilliant 7,000-word script in a single day. By Monday, Zac had conscripted three professional voice actors to record the story: Richard Reed, Jay Britton and Amelia Tyler (who drove six hours in a day to get to the studio and back). On Tuesday, audio engineer Joe Hogan put it all together and by that evening, Zac and Paige were back at the hospital playing Michael an exceptional piece of bespoke Elite audio fiction, preceded by a personal message from David Braben.在那个周日，Drew Wagar撰写了一份篇幅长达7000字的精彩剧本，而Zac则在周一找了三位专业配音演员来录制故事：Richard Reed、Jay Britton和Amelia Tyler（开车往返于家中和录音室花了她整整6个小时）。在周二，音频工程师Joe Hogan将所有录音进行整合编辑，而到了当天夜里，Zac和Paige又来到医院，为迈克尔播放一部精彩的定制音频小说，《精英》系列创作者David Braden还在故事开始前说了一句他想告诉迈克尔的话。
Listening to it with Michael was an epic, bittersweet experience. There were nods to how he had faced his medical challenges, and the more obvious references made him beam with pride and happiness.与迈克尔一起听那部音频小说是一段史诗般的、苦乐参半的体验。小说赞扬了他在面对疾病和医疗挑战时所展现的勇气，并且还让他变得更自豪和快乐。
表示“开怀大笑，眉开眼笑”，英文解释为“to smile very happily”举个🌰：
He beamed with pleasure.
他喜笑颜开。
The next day was Wednesday, the day Michael died.
We were playing Elite together online. Michael and I had been preparing to broadcast an expedition to obtain special “Guardian” modules for my ships and were joined by a couple of new friends, CMDR UselessED and CMDR Eid LeWeise. Suddenly, Michael coughed and started to become distressed on comms. I cut the stream, made my apologies and headed for hospital.我和迈克尔正在一起玩《精英：危机四伏》，打算做一次直播。他突然咳嗽，表情痛苦……我切断直播，向观众致歉后直奔医院。
By the time I got there, he had been sedated and wasn’t expected to recover consciousness. His mum, dad and I took turns to sit with him and hold his hand. While I was with him, I played his Elite audio story again. Some of Drew's words hit much harder the second time: “bravery, courage, unbowed in the face of overwhelming odds”.当我抵达医院时，迈克尔已经昏迷，医生认为他很难再恢复意识。迈克尔的母亲、父亲和我轮流坐在他身旁，握着他的手。当我陪在迈克尔身边时，我再次播放那个《精英》音频故事，Drew撰写的一些文字令我更加悲伤：“勇敢、勇气，在压倒性的逆境面前永不屈服”。
He took his last breath peacefully a few hours later.
Michael's end was unjust and tragic, but the heroic kindness of a video game community filled his last week of life with unexpected happiness. On behalf of Michael and his family, I want to offer my eternal gratitude to everyone who contributed, from the players who stood ready to meet Michael online or took the time to send him an “o7” salute, to the Frontier staff and associates who gave so much of their time, compassion and creative energy. You make the world – and the internet – a better place.迈克尔的人生结局是悲惨的，但在生命的最后几天里，玩家社群的善意为他带来了意想不到的快乐。我希望代表迈克尔和他的家人，向每一个富有同情心，曾经帮助迈克尔的玩家，以及Frontier的工作人员和同事们表示诚挚的感谢。你们花了很多时间和创造力，你们让这个世界，也让互联网变得更美好。
o7, an emoticon for a person saluting; Quite often in space sim games such as Elite Dangerous or EVE Online.
An emoticon meant to resemble the act of saluting another person. May also be used as 07.
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