經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》第24章3

Its chances of spotting this other source of data – a massive yellow constructor ship – accidentAlly were practically nil. It was as far from the sun as Rupert was, but almost diametrically opposite, almost hidden by the sun.

它碰巧發覺這個數據源的機率實際上可以忽略不計——那是艘巨大的黃色建築飛船，離太陽和魯伯特一樣遠，但差不多正好位於完全相反的方向上，幾乎被太陽遮了個嚴嚴實實。

Almost.

幾乎。

The massive yellow constructor ship wanted to be able to monitor events on Planet Ten without being spotted itself. It had managed this very successfully.

那艘巨大的黃色建築船，它想不動聲色地監視第十行星上的一舉一動，而且乾得很成功。

There were all sorts of other ways in which this ship was diametrically opposite to the Grebulons.

在其他許多方面，這船也跟格里布隆人的船完全相反。

Its leader, its Captain, had a very clear idea of what his purpose was. It was a very simple and plain one and he had been pursuing it in his simple, plain way for a considerable period of time now.

它的首領，也就是它的船長，對自己的目的一清二楚，這目的簡單又明瞭，而他也以簡單明瞭的作風很努力地追求了它挺長的一段時間。

Anyone who knew of his purpose might have said that it was a pointless and ugly one, that it wasn’t the sort of purpose that enhanced a life, put a spring in a person’s step, made birds sing and flowers bloom. Rather the reverse in fact. Absolutely the reverse.

任何知道他目的的人都會認定這目的毫無意義而且醜陋不堪，誰都會說它不是那種能豐富你的人生，讓你的腳步充滿了活力，讓小鳥唱歌花兒綻放的目的。真要說的話，應該是正好相反，完全相反。