經典科幻文學:《 基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第2章9

They went through it all a couple more times till Tricia was certain that everything that possibly could be clear was as clear as it possibly could be.

這些內容又從頭到尾過了兩遍，直到崔茜卡覺得確定無疑：任何可能講清楚的事情都已經講得儘可能地清楚了。

She showered, put on fresh clothes and retouched her makeup with the speed of a professional, and, looking at her bed with a sigh, left the room again.

她衝了個澡，她以專業人士的水準補好妝，她看着牀嘆了口氣，然後再次走出門去。

She had half a mind just to sneak off and hide.

她真想幹脆溜出去躲起來。

No. Not really.

不。其實不是這樣。

She had a look at herself in the mirror in the elevator lobby while she was waiting. She looked cool and in charge, and if she could fool herself she could fool anybody.

等電梯的時候崔茜卡順便照了照鏡子。她看起來成竹在胸，鎮定自若。既然能騙得過自己，她就能騙得過任何人。

She was just going to have to tough it out with Gail Andrews. OK, she had given her a hard time. Sorry but that’s the game we’re all in – that sort of thing. Ms. Andrews had agreed to do the interview because she had a new book out and TV exposure was free publicity. But there’s no such thing as a free launch. No, she edited that line out again.

蓋爾?安德魯斯的事兒她只好咬牙挺過去。好吧，她今早的確讓對方難受了一陣。很抱歉，可遊戲規則就這樣——這種事你早就知道。安德魯斯女士之所以答應做採訪，還不是因爲她正準備出本書，想在電視上曝曝光，來個免費宣傳。世上哪有白吃的午餐？不，這一句還是劃掉。

What had happened was this:

事情是這樣的：

Last week astronomers had announced that they had at last discovered a tenth planet, out beyond the orbit of Pluto. They had been searching for it for years, guided by certain orbital anomalies in the outer planets, and now they’d found it and they were all terribly pleased, and everyone was terribly happy for them and so on. The planet was named Persephone, but rapidly nicknamed Rupert after some astronomer’s parrot – there was some tediously heart-warming story attached to this – and that was all very wonderful and lovely.

上個星期，天文學家宣佈說他們終於在冥王星外邊發現了第十顆行星。他們早就觀察到靠外邊幾顆行星的運行軌道有些異常，於是根據這些數據去找，已經找了好多年，現在他們找到了，所以全都開心極了，大家也都爲他們高興得不得了，諸如此類。第十顆行星被命名爲普西芬妮，但很快就得了個綽號叫魯珀特——這是某個天文學家養的鸚鵡的名字，還附帶個超級賺人熱淚的故事——總之一切都妙極了，棒極了。

Tricia had followed the story with, for various reasons, considerable interest.

崔茜卡，出於種種原因，一直饒有興趣地關注着這事兒。

Then, while she had been casting around for a good excuse to go to New York at her TV company’s expense she had happened to notice a press release about Gail Andrews, and her new book, You and Your Planets.

後來，她正絞盡腦汁想找個藉口，讓公司出錢送自己去紐約，結果恰好注意到一個新聞發佈會，蓋爾?安德魯斯出了本新書，《你和你的星座》。

Gail Andrews was not exactly a household name, but the moment you mentioned President Hudson, cream whips and the amputation of Damascus (the world had moved on from surgical strikes. The official term had in fact been ‘Damascectomy’, meaning the ‘taking out’ of Damascus), everyone remembered who you meant.

蓋爾?安德魯斯的名字還算不上什麼家喻戶曉，可一旦你提起哈德遜總統、奶油點心和截癱大馬士革（這個字眼是從“外科手術式的打擊”發展過來的。事實上，正式的術語應該是“大馬士革切除”，意思是“除掉”大馬士革），反正你一提到這幾樣東西，每個人都能想起來你說的是誰。

Tricia saw an angle here which she quickly sold to her producer.

崔茜卡瞅出了個賣點，然後說服了自己的製片人。

Surely the notion that great lumps of rock whirling in space knew something about your day that you didn’t must take a bit of a knock from the fact that there was suddenly a new lump of rock out there that nobody had known about before.

按照星象學的說法，天上飛的那些個大石頭比你自己還清楚你會遇到什麼事。現在天上突然多出來塊以前誰都不知道的大石頭，這下子，星象理論怕是要吃點癟了吧？

That must throw a few calculations out, mustn’t it?

有些個計算肯定是不能算數了，對不？