GR translation: dithering between executioner’s silence and the Big Time

[Mike Jing]

V489.27-38   How probable is the Anubis in this estuary tonight? Its
schedule has lapsed, fashionably, unavoidably: it should have been through
Swinemünde weeks ago, but the Vistula was under Soviet interdiction to the
white ship. The Russians even had a guard posted on board for a while, till
the Anubian ladies vamped them off long enough to single up all lines—and
so the last long reprise of Polish homeland was on, across these
water-meadows of the north, radio messages following them in clear one day
and code the next, an early and shapeless situation, dithering between
executioner’s silence and the Big Time. There are international reasons for
an Anubis Affair right now, and also reasons against, and the arguments go
on, too remote to gather, and orders are changed hour to hour.

What does "the Big Time" imply here?
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