經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》第24章6

Ford tossed down his drink, took the bottle from the first officer’s tray and refilled his glass to the top.
“What,” he said, “is a ‘B’ Ark?”
“This is,” said the Captain, and swished the foamy water around joyfully with the duck.
“Yes,” said Ford, “but…”
“Well what happened you see was,” said the Captain, “our planet, the world from which we have come, was, so to speak, doomed.”
“Doomed?”
“Oh yes. So what everyone thought was, let’s pack the whole population into some giant spaceships and go and settle on another planet.”
Having told this much of his story, he settled back with a satisfied grunt.
“You mean a less doomed one?” promoted Arthur.
“What did you say dear fellow?”
“A less doomed planet. You were going to settle on.”
“Are going to settle on, yes. So it was decided to build three ships, you see, three Arks in Space, and… I’m not boring you am I?”
“No, no,” said Ford firmly, “it’s fascinating.”
“You know it’s delightful,” reflected the Captain, “to have someone else to talk to for a change.”
Number Two’s eyes darted feverishly about the room again and then settled back on the mirror, like a pair of flies briefly distracted from their favourite prey of months old meat.
“Trouble with a long journey like this,” continued the Captain, “is that you end up just talking to yourself a lot, which gets terribly boring because half the time you know what you’re going to say next.”
“Only half the time?” asked Arthur in surprise.
The Captain thought for a moment.

福特一口乾掉自己的飲料，然後從大副的托盤裏拿過瓶子，重新斟滿自己的杯子。
“什麼是，”他說，“‘B’方舟？”
“這兒就是。”艦長回答說，一邊高興地推着那隻鴨子在泡沫水裏游來游去。
“是的，”福特說，“可——”
“嗯，事情是這樣的，”艦長說，“我們的星球，我們的那個世界，這麼說吧，註定要毀滅了。”
“毀滅？”
“噢，是的。所以每個人的想法都是，把所有人裝進巨型太空飛船，到另一顆星球上去居住。”
講了這麼多他的故事後，他往後一靠，發出滿足的哼哼聲。
“你是指不會註定滅亡的一顆？”阿瑟脫口而出：
“你說什麼，親愛的夥計？”
“一顆不會註定滅亡的行星。你們打算去那兒定居？”
“打箅去定居，是的。於是，我們決定建造i艘飛船，你瞧，這艘太空中的方舟，並且……我沒有讓你們覺得煩吧？”
“沒有，沒有，”福特肯定地說，“這個故事很有趣。”
“你知道，”艦長接過柬說，”能有機會和別的人聊聊，真是件愉快的事情。”
二號的灼熱目光再次掃過房問，然後又回到了鏡子上，就像一對蒼蠅從它們最喜歡的一塊放了一個月的臭肉上短暫地離開片刻，然後又回來了。
“像這麼漫鼬構航程，總會有個大問題，”艦長繼續說，“到頭來，你會不停地自言自語，這可真是太悶了，因爲有一半的時間，你知道你下一句話將要說什麼？”
“只有一半的時間嗎？”阿瑟驚訝地問
艦長思索了會兒。