經典科幻文學:《銀河系漫遊指南》第31章4

"Yes sir," said the old man coldly, "thank you very much. Well, goodbye Earthman," he said to Arthur, "hope the lifestyle comes together." With a brief nod to the rest of the company he turned and walked sadly out of the room.
Arthur stared after him not knowing what to say.
"Now," said Benji mouse, "to business."Ford and Zaphod clinked their glasses together.
"To business!" they said.
"I beg your pardon?" said Benji.
Ford looked round.
"Sorry, I thought you were proposing a toast," he said.
The two mice scuttled impatiently around in their glass transports. Finally they composed themselves, and Benji moved forward to address Arthur. + "Now, Earth creature," he said, "the situation we have in effect is this. We have, as you know, been more or less running your planet for the last ten million years in order to find this wretched thing called the Ultimate Question."
"Why?" said Arthur, sharply.
"No — we already thought of that one," said Frankie interrupting, "but it doesn't fit the answer. Why? — Forty-Two ... you see, it doesn't work."
"No," said Arthur, "I mean why have you been doing it?"
"Oh, I see," said Frankie. "Well, eventually just habit I think, to be brutally honest. And this is more or less the point — we're sick to the teeth with the whole thing, and the prospect of doing it all over again on account of those whinnet-ridden Vogons quite frankly gives me the screaming heeby jeebies, you know what I mean? It was by the merest lucky chance that Benji and I finished our particular job and left the planet early for a quick holiday, and have since manipulated our way back to Magrathea by the good offices of your friends."
"Magrathea is a gateway back to our own dimension," put in Benji.
"Since when," continued his murine colleague, "we have had an offer of a quite enormously fat contract to do the 5D chat show and lecture circuit back in our own dimensional neck of the woods, and we're very much inclined to take it.""I would, wouldn't you Ford?" said Zaphod promptingly.
"Oh yes," said Ford, "jump at it, like a shot."Arthur glanced at them, wondering what all this was leading up to."But we've got to have a product you see," said Frankie, "I mean ideally we still need the Ultimate Question in some form or other." Zaphod leaned forward to Arthur.

“是，先生，”老人冷冷的說，“謝謝你。好吧，再見，地球人，”他對阿瑟說，“希望那種生活方式能夠實現。”他朝剩下的人微微點了點頭，然後轉過身去，傷心地走出房間。
阿瑟望着他的背影，不知道該說些什麼。
“現在，”本吉老鼠說，“爲了正事。”福特和贊福德碰了一下手中的酒杯。
“爲了正事！”他們說。
“請原諒，可你們這是什麼意思？”本吉問。
福特朝四下看了看。
“對不起，我還以爲你是在提議祝酒呢。”他說。
兩隻老鼠不耐煩的在他們的玻璃交通工具裏踱着步。最後他們終於使自己安定下來，本吉移動過來，開始和阿瑟交談。“目前，地球生物，”他說，“我們所面臨的情況是這樣的：如你所知，在過去的1000萬年裏，我們操控着你們的行星，目的是爲了尋找那個倒黴的東西，那個叫做終極問題的東西。”
“爲什麼？”阿瑟尖銳的問。
“不——你說的這個問題我們已經考慮過了。”弗蘭克插了進來，“但它不能解釋那個答案。爲什麼？42……你瞧，沒用。”
“不，”阿瑟說，“我的意思是，你們爲什麼要這樣做？”
“哦，我懂了。”弗蘭克說，“嗯，最終還是應該歸結爲習慣吧。坦率的說，我們對整件事情已經厭倦到極點了。由於那些該死的沃貢人，又得重起爐竈再來一遍。說實話，一想起這個我就神經過敏。你明白我的意思嗎？只是由於一點兒最微小的幸運，本吉和我完成了我們的任務，提前離開那顆行星去享受假期，這才得以利用你的朋友們所提供的好心回到了曼格拉斯。”
“曼格拉斯是回到我們自己那個維度的一個通道。”本吉補充說。
“從那時起，”他的老鼠夥伴接着說，“我們就得到了一份相當有油水的意向合同，要求將五維的脫口秀和演說電路接入我們自己的那個維度。當然，我們很願意接受這樣的活計。”“我也會的，你呢，福特？”贊福德鼓動的說。
“哦，當然。”福特說，“猛撲上去，就像出膛的子彈。”阿瑟掃視着它們，不知道這些談話將通往什麼方向。“但我們必須得有產品，你瞧。”弗蘭克說，“我是指，按照最理想的情況，以這樣或那樣的方式，我們仍然需要那個終極問題。”贊福德把身子靠向阿瑟。