經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》第6章4

“I’m sorry, sir, if…”
“I mean where’s the percentage in being kind or helpful to a robot if it doesn’t have any gratitude circuits?”
“And you don’t have any?” said the insect, who didn’t seem to be able to drag itself out of this conversation.
“I’ve never had occasion to find out,” Marvin informed it.
“Listen, you miserable heap of maladjusted metal…”
“Aren’t you going to ask me what I want?”
The insect paused. Its long thin tongue darted out and licked its eyes and darted back again.
“Is it worth it?” it asked.
“Is anything?” said Marvin immediately.
“What… do… you… want?”
“I’m looking for someone.”
“Who?” hissed the insect.
“Zaphod Beeblebrox,” said Marvin, “he’s over there.”
The insect shook with rage. It could hardly speak.
“Then why did you ask me?” it screamed.
“I just wanted something to talk to,” said Marvin.
“What!”
“Pathetic isn’t it?”
With a grinding of gears Marvin turned and trundled off. He caught up with Zaphod approaching the elevators. Zaphod span round in astonishment.
“Hey… Marvin!” he said, “Marvin! How did you get here?”
Marvin was forced to say something which came very hard to him.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“But…”

“我很抱歉，先生，如果……”
“我的意思是，對一個沒有感激電路的機器人好，或者願意幫助它，這種人的比例有多大？”
“你沒有嗎？”蟲子說，看上去，它已經不太可能讓自己從這次談話中抽身而退了。
“我連去證明這一點的機會都從來沒有過。”馬文說。
“聽着，你這堆可憐的心理失調的金屬……”
“難道你不打算問問我想要的是什麼嗎？”
蟲子頓了頓。它那細長的舌頭彈出來，舔了舔自己的眼睛，又彈了回去。
“有必要做這種事嗎？”它問。
“有必要做任何事嗎？”馬文立刻接過話頭。
“你—想—要—什—麼？”
“我在找一個人。”
“誰？”蟲子嘶嘶地問。
“贊福德·畢博布魯克斯，”馬文說，“他就在那邊。”
蟲子氣得渾身發抖，連話都說不出來了。
“那麼，你跑來問我幹嘛？”它尖叫着說。
“我只是想找個人聊聊。”馬文說。
“什麼！”
“這很可悲，不是嗎？”
伴隨着齒輪的摩擦聲，馬文轉身離開了。他在贊福德走向電梯時趕上了他。贊福德回過身來，吃了一驚。
“嘿……馬文？”他說，“馬文！你怎麼會在這兒？”
馬文迫於無奈，只好說出一句對他而言難以啓齒的話。
“我不知道。”他說。
“可是——”