經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》第22章9

They stood out in the heat and the dust and looked at the big pink and chrome thing with amazement and admiration. Or at least, Ford looked at it with amazement and admiration.

他們站在熱氣和沙塵裏，帶着驚奇讚歎的神氣望着那個鍍鉻的粉紅色大傢伙。或者至少，福特帶着驚奇讚歎的神氣望着它。

Arthur just looked at it. ‘You don’t think it’s a bit overdone, do you?’

阿瑟只是望着它而已，“你一點不覺得它裝飾得有些過分了對嗎？”

He said it again when they climbed inside it. The seats and quite a lot of the controls were covered in fine fur skin or suede. There was a big gold monogram on the main control panel which just read ‘EP’.

他們爬進去的時候，阿瑟把這話又說了一遍。座椅和好多操控按鈕都用精美的毛皮或者山羊皮包裹。主控制鍵面上還有兩個金子做的大字母，寫的不過是“EP”。

‘You know,’ said Ford as he fired up the ship’s engines, ‘I asked him if it was true that he had been abducted by aliens, and you know what he said?’

“你知道。”福特一面啓動飛船的引擎一面說，“我問他是不是真被外星人綁架了，你猜他怎麼說？”

‘Who?’ said Arthur.

“誰？”阿瑟問。

‘The King.’

“王啊。”

‘Which King? Oh, we’ve had this conversation, haven’t we?’

“哪個王？哦，這一套我們已經說過了不是嗎？”

‘Never mind,’ said Ford. ‘For what it’s worth, he said, no. He went of his own accord.’

“別管那個了。”福特說，“反正他說，不，他是自願去的。”

‘I’m still not sure who we’re talking about,’ said Arthur.

“我還是不大確定我們說的是什麼。”阿瑟說。

Ford shook his head. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘there are some tapes over in the compartment to your left. Why don’t you choose some music and put it on?’

福特搖搖頭，“聽着，你左手邊有些磁帶，幹嘛不選一盤來放放？”

‘OK,’ said Arthur, and flipped through the cartons. ‘Do you like Elvis Presley?’ he said.

“好啊。”阿瑟在盒子中間翻起來，“喜歡貓王嗎？”他問。

‘Yeah I do as a matter of fact,’ said Ford. ‘Now. I hope this machine can leap like it looks like it can.’ He engaged the main drive.

“說起來我還真挺喜歡呢。”福特說，“好，這東西看起來挺能蹦躂的，希望不是繡花枕頭。”他打開了主驅動器。

‘Yeeehaah!’ shouted Ford as they shot upwards at face-tearing speed.

“耶耶耶耶哈哈啊！”福特喊道。他們“刷”的一聲沖天而起，速度快得能把人臉撕開。

It could.

它的確不是繡花枕頭。