經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第17章8

The bird Guide did not answer at once. It spread its wings and, with an easy grace, ascended into the air and flew out into the rain which, once again, was beginning to lighten.

指南鳥沒有立刻回答。它舒展開翅膀飛進了再次減弱的雨裏，動作從容而優雅。

It soared ecstatically up into the night sky, lights flashed around it, dimensions dithered in its wake. It swooped and turned and looped and turned again and came at last to rest two feet in front of Random’s face, its wings beating slowly and silently.

它挺陶醉地一飛沖天，光線在它周圍閃爍，空間在它的尾巴後邊顫抖。它俯衝，轉向，翻騰，再轉向，最後在蘭登跟前停下，緩慢而輕柔地扇動翅膀，離她的面孔只有兩尺遠。

It spoke to her again.

它再次對她講話。

‘Your universe is vast to you. Vast in time, vast in space. That’s because of the filters through which you perceive it. But I was built with no filters at all, which means I perceive the mish mash which contains all possible universes but which has, itself, no size at all. For me, anything is possible. I am omniscient and omnipotent, extremely vain, and, what is more, I come in a handy self-carrying package. You have to work out how much of the above is true.’

“對你來說你的宇宙及其廣闊，在時間上，在空間上都是如此。原因就在於你用來感知並且過濾信息的知覺。但人家在造我的時候沒有加入任何過濾器，這就意味着，我能感知包含所有可能宇宙的全體各色總雜燴，而且還知道它——全體各色總雜燴本身——是沒有大小可言的。對於我來說，一切皆有可能。我是全知全能的，極其自負，而且最重要的是，可以自行移動，攜帶方便。以上言論，你得自己判斷到底有多少是真話。”

A slow smile spread over Random’s face.

蘭登臉上慢慢露出一個笑容。

‘You bloody little thing. You’ve been winding me up!’

“你這鬼東西，你一直在耍我。”

‘As I said, anything is possible.’

“就像我剛纔說的，一切皆有可能。”

Random laughed. ‘OK,’ she said. ‘Let’s try and go to Earth. Let’s go to Earth at some point on its, er…

蘭登哈哈大笑。“好吧，”她說，“咱們就試試去地球看看。咱們就去那個什麼上找它，呃，那個……”

‘Probability axis?’

“概率曲線？”

‘Yes. Where it hasn’t been blown up. OK. So you’re the Guide. How do we get a lift?’

“沒錯，去它沒被炸爛的地方，好吧。這麼說你是指路的。我們怎麼才能搭到車呢？”

‘Reverse engineering.’

“反向操控。”

‘What?’

“什麼？”

‘Reverse engineering. To me the flow of time is irrelevant. You decide what you want. I then merely make sure that it has already happened.’

“反向操控。對於我來說，時間流無關緊要。你來決定你想要什麼，然後我只需要確定它已經發生過就行。”

‘You’re joking.’

“你開玩笑吧？”

‘Anything is possible.’

“一切皆有可能。”

Random frowned. ‘You are joking aren’t you?’

蘭登皺起眉頭，“你是在開玩笑對吧？”