經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第16章4

It was a commercial. The guy who had shot her was part of a holographic in-flight movie. She must now be very close to where the ship had crashed. Obviously some of its systems were more indestructible than others.

那是條廣告，向她開槍的男人則是飛船上放的全息電影。現在她離飛船失事的地方肯定已經很近了。顯然它的某些系統要比另一些更可靠。

The next half-mile of the journey was particularly troublesome. Not only did she have the cold and the rain and the night to contend with, but also the fractured and thrashing remains of the ship’s on-board entertainment system. Spaceships and jetcars and helipods crashed and exploded continuously around her, illuminating the night, villainous people in strange hats smuggled dangerous drugs through her, and the combined orchestra and chorus of the Hallapolis State Opera performed the closing March of the AnjaQantine Star Guard from Act IV of Rizgar’s Blamwellamum of Woont in a little glade somewhere off to her left.

接下來的半里路特別累人。她不僅要忍受寒冷、雨水和黑夜，飛船艦載娛樂系統的殘骸時不時出來抽陣風。宇宙飛船，噴射汽車和太陽能飛艇不住地在她周圍墜毀、爆炸，放出耀眼的光芒；長相醜陋，頭戴怪帽子的傢伙穿過她的身體走私着危險的毒品；在她左邊一點的空地上，國家大劇院的管絃樂隊跟合唱團正在演出，節目是利茲加作曲的《翁式的布蘭威拉姆》，剛演到第四幕結束時的《安加-狂泰星際守衛進行曲》。

And then she was standing on the lip of a very nasty looking and bubbly-edged crater. There was still a faint warm glow coming from what would otherwise have looked like an enormous Piece of caramelised chewing gum in the centre of the pit: the melted remains of a great spaceship.

然後，她來到了一個凹凸不平、長相十分醜惡的彈坑邊緣。彈坑中間有一塊東西，彷彿融化成焦糖色的口香糖，直到現在還散發着一點點微弱的溫度：那是一艘大飛船溶解後的殘餘。

She stood looking at it for a longish while, and then at last started to walk along and around the edge of the crater. She was no longer certain what she was looking for, but kept moving anyway, keeping the horror of the pit to her left.

她站在那兒看了好一會，最後終於沿着彈坑邊緣繞了過去，她已經不知道自己在找什麼，但還是繼續往前走，把那個恐怖的坑拋在身後。

The rain was beginning to ease off a little, but it was still extremely wet, and since she didn’t know what it was that was in the box, whether it was perhaps something delicate or damageable, she thought she ought to find somewhere reasonably dry to open it. She hoped she hadn’t already damaged it by dropping it.

雨勢稍微開始減弱，但到處都還溼的要命。她並不知道盒子裏裝的是什麼，也拿不準它是不是什麼特別精密或者容易損壞的東西，所以覺得該找個稍微乾燥些的地方再打開。她祈禱剛纔盒子掉在地上的時候它沒有被摔壞。

She played her torch around the surrounding trees, which were thin on the ground here, and mostly charred and broken. In the middle distance she thought she could see a jumbled outcrop of rock which might provide some shelter, and she started to pick her way towards it. All around she found the detritus that had been ejected from the ship as it broke up, before the final fireball.

蘭登用手電筒照照周圍的樹。這邊的樹長得挺稀疏，大多數都燒焦折斷了。在稍遠的地方，她覺得彷彿有堆伸出來的亂石，沒準能遮擋雨水，於是她小心翼翼地往那邊走。放眼一看，周圍盡是殘骸，都是飛船化成火球之前給拋出來的。在距離彈坑邊緣大約兩三百碼的地方，她看見了些破破爛爛的碎片，那是種蓬鬆的粉紅色材料，浸着雨水，沾上了泥巴，無精打采地垂在破敗的樹木中間。她猜出這就是救了父親性命的逃生繭。她走過去湊近了看，然後注意到地上有什麼東西半掩在泥裏。

She picked it up and wiped the mud off it. It was some kind of electronic device the size of a small book. Feebly glowing on its cover, in response to her touch, were some large friendly letters. They said DON’T PANIC. She knew what this was. It was her father’s copy of The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

她把它撿起來，擦掉上頭的泥土。那是個書本大小的電子裝置，在她的觸摸下，封面上幾個友好的大字發出微弱的光芒：“不要恐慌”。她知道這是什麼。這是她父親那本《銀河系漫遊指南》。

She felt instantly reassured by it, turned her head up to the thundery sky and let some rain wash over her face and into her mouth.

看到這東西，她立刻覺得安心多了。她朝雷聲陣陣的天空揚起頭，讓雨水洗過她的臉，流進她嘴裏。

She shook her head and hurried on towards the rocks. Clambering up and over them she almost immediately found the perfect thing. The mouth of a cave. She played her torch into its interior. It seemed to be dry and safe. Picking her way carefully, she walked in. It was quite spacious, but didn’t go that deep. Exhausted and relieved she sat on a convenient rock, put the box down in front of her and started immediately to open it.

她晃晃腦袋繼續朝石頭那邊跑。她爬到它們頂上，幾乎馬上看見了一個完美的地點：一個山洞的洞口。她拿手電筒往裏照照。看起來很乾燥也很安全。她走了進去，非常小心謹慎。裏頭空間挺大，但並不太深。蘭登筋疲力盡，同時又鬆了一口氣，於是找合適的石頭坐下，把盒子放在身前，立刻動手拆起來。