經典科幻文學:《 基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第8章3
Colin reported that the doors had been getting generally a lot grimmer down in these lower reaches of the building.
科林早就報告說，越往下走這些門就越是陰沉的厲害。
They were about ten stories below ground level now. The air was refrigerated and the tasteful grey hessian wall-weave had given way to brutal grey bolted steel walls. Colin’s rampant euphoria had subsided into a kind of determined cheeriness. He said that he was beginning to tire a little. It was taking all his energy to pump the slightest bonhomie whatsoever into the doors down here.
現在他們已經到了地下十層左右。地面上的大樓裏是冷卻過的空氣和品位十足的灰色條紋牆紙，這裏則只有兇巴巴的灰色鋼牆。科林暴風雨般的喜悅已經消解爲一種毅然決然的快樂。他說他有點累了，要使出吃奶的力氣才能搜刮出星星點點的和善，輸進這底下的門裏。
Ford kicked at the door. It opened.
福特對準大門飛起一腳。它開了。
‘Mixture of pleasure and pain,’ he muttered. ‘Always does the trick.’
“糖和鞭子。”他喃喃道，“從來都奏效。”
He walked in and Colin flew in after him. Even with a wire stuck straight into his pleasure electrode his happiness was a nervous kind of happiness. He bobbed around a little.
他走進去，科林跟在他身後往裏飛。即使快感電極裏插了根電線，它的快樂還是帶上了緊張。它四下晃了晃。
The room was small, grey and humming.
屋子是灰色的，面積不大，還嗡嗡作響。
This was the nerve centre of the entire Guide.
這是整個《指南》的神經中樞。
The computer terminals that lined the grey walls were windows on to every aspect of the Guide’s operations. Here, on the left-hand side of the room, reports were gathered over the Sub-Etha-Net from field researchers in every corner of the Galaxy, fed straight up into the network of sub-editor’s offices where they had all the good bits cut out by secretaries because the sub-editors were out having lunch. The remaining copy would then be shot across to the other half of the building – the other leg of the ‘H’ – which was the legal department. The legal department would cut out anything that was still even remotely good from what remained and fire it back to the offices of the executive editors, who were also out at lunch. So the editors’ secretaries would read it and say it was stupid and cut most of what was left.
灰色的牆壁前排滿了計算機終端，《指南》的行動全都顯示在上面，事無鉅細，面面俱到。《指南》的外派通訊員分散在銀河系的每個角落，他們通過亞以太網絡把稿子發回總部，由屋子左手邊的電腦收集起來，直接傳進助理編輯的辦公室網絡，並在那裏被他們的祕書把所有精彩部分砍個一乾二淨，因爲助理編輯們全都去吃午飯了。稿子剩下的部分會傳送到大樓的另一邊——也就是“H”的另一豎——那是法律部。法律部又挑選出哪怕稍微有些精彩之嫌的內容，把它們咔嚓掉，再把剩下的東西打回執行編輯的辦公室。執行編輯也出去吃飯了，於是他們的祕書會把稿子讀上一遍，然後說這真傻透了，接着繼續砍掉餘下的大部分內容。
When any of the editors finally staggered in from lunch they would exclaim ‘What is this feeble crap that X’ – where X was the name of the field researcher in question – ‘has sent us from half-way across the bloody Galaxy? What’s the point of having somebody spending three whole orbital periods out in the bloody Gagrakacka Mind Zones, with all that stuff going on out there, if this load of anaemic squitter is the best he can be bothered to send us. Disallow his expenses!’
等終於有哪個編輯吃完了午飯踉踉蹌蹌地跑回辦公室，他們就會驚叫：“這個*！”——*指的是交稿子的那位——“從他媽半個銀河系之外就寄這麼個破玩意回來？要是他只肯費那麼一丁點功夫寄一堆得了貧血的結結疤疤，我們幹嘛還要送他去那該死的珈古拉卡卡思維區待上整整三個軌道週期，見識那麼多好東西？不給他報銷！”
‘What shall we do with the copy?’ the secretary would ask.
“稿子怎麼辦？”祕書會問他。
