經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第17章9

‘Let me put it another way,’ said the bird. ‘Reverse engineering enables us to shortcut all the business of waiting for one of the horribly few spaceships that passes through your galactic sector every year or so to make up its mind about whether or not it feels like giving you a lift. You want a lift, a ship arrives and gives you one. The pilot may think he has any one of a million reasons why he has decided to stop and pick you up. The real reason is that I have determined that he will.’

“讓我換個講法。”鳥說，“反向操控讓我們可以抄條近道，把漫長無比的等待一筆勾銷。每一年左右纔會有可憐巴巴的幾艘飛船路過你們的星區，而且人家樂不樂意讓你搭車還是個問題。但現在，你想搭車，於是就有一艘飛船來讓你搭。開飛船的傢伙或許以爲自己有這個或者那個理由停下來捎你一段，但真正的原因卻是我決定了他的行動。”

‘This is you being extremely vain isn’t it, little bird?’

“這就是你極其自負的那部分了對吧，小東西？”

The bird was silent.

指南鳥保持沉默。

‘OK,’ said Random. ‘I want a ship to take me to Earth.’

“好吧。”蘭登說，“我想要艘飛船載我去地球。”

‘Will this one do?’

“這艘你還滿意嗎？”

It was so silent that Random had not noticed the descending spaceship until it was nearly on top of her.

它飛行的時候是那麼安靜，以至於都快開到頭頂了蘭登纔看見它。

Arthur had noticed it. He was a mile away now and closing. Just after the illuminated sausage display had drawn to its conclusion he had noticed the faint glimmerings of further lights coming down out of the clouds and had, to begin with, assumed it to be another piece of flashy son et lumiere.

阿瑟也看見它了。眼下他隔着他們一里遠，正在不斷接近中。閃閃發光的香腸表演剛結束他就注意到雲上又出現了些微弱的亮光。一開始他還以爲那又是一場光影效果。

It took a moment or so for it to dawn on him that it was an actual spaceship, and a moment or two longer for him to realise that it was dropping directly down to where he assumed his daughter to be. That was when, rain or no rain, leg injury or no leg injury, darkness or no darkness, he suddenly started really to run.

過了一兩秒鐘他才意識到，那是艘貨真價實的宇宙飛船，之後再過了一兩秒他又進一步意識到，那艘飛船正直挺挺地往他假設女兒所在的位置降落。就在這時候，他突然發力狂奔，下沒下雨，腿疼不疼，天黑不黑，這些全都顧不上了。

He fell almost immediately, slid and hurt his knee quite badly on a rock. He slithered back up to his feet and tried again. He had a horrible cold feeling that he was about to lose Random for ever. Limping and cursing, he ran. He didn’t know what it was that had been in the box, but the name on it had been Ford Prefect, and that was the name he cursed as he ran.

他幾乎立刻就摔了一跤，滑倒在地，撞上塊石頭狠狠地傷了膝蓋。他歪歪曲曲地爬起來，試着繼續往前跑。他有種可怕的預感，自己馬上就要永遠失去蘭登了。他罵罵咧咧，跌跌撞撞地跑啊跑啊。他不知道那盒子裏裝的是什麼，可上頭的名字是福特.長官，這一路他罵的就是這個名字。

The ship was one of the sexiest and most beautiful ones that Random had ever seen.

那艘飛船是蘭登見過最性感，最美麗的飛船之一。

It was astounding. Silver, sleek, ineffable.

實在讓人震撼，華麗的銀色，圓潤的線條，簡直無法言表。

If she didn’t know better she would have said it was an RW6. As it settled silently beside her she realised that it actually was an RW6 and she could scarcely breathe for excitement. An RW6 was the sort of thing you only saw in the sort of magazines that were designed to provoke civil unrest.

要是她沒這麼見多識廣，她會說這是艘RW6，然後它悄無聲息地降落在她身邊，她意識到這的確是艘RW6，於是激動得簡直喘不過氣來。RW6這種東西，要想看它一眼，基本上唯一的辦法就是去翻翻那些專門爲了挑起公衆不滿而辦的雜誌。

She was also extremely nervous. The manner and timing of its arrival was deeply unsettling. Either it was the most bizarre coincidence or something very peculiar and worrying was going on. She waited a little tensely for the ship’s hatch to open. Her Guide – she thought of it as hers now – was hovering lightly over her right shoulder, its wings barely fluttering.

同時她也極其緊張。它抵達的方式和時機實在讓人不安。這要麼是個最最奇特的巧合，要麼就是件非常，非常麻煩的事情。她有些僵硬地等待着艙門打開。她的指南——現在她已經把她當成自己的了——飄在她左肩上，翅膀幾乎沒有扇動。