經典科幻文學:《銀河系漫遊指南》第24章3

"Well, the Earth Mark Two in fact," said Slartibartfast cheerfully. "We're making a copy from our original blueprints."
There was a pause.
"Are you trying to tell me," said Arthur, slowly and with control, "that you originally ... made the Earth?"
"Oh yes," said Slartibartfast. "Did you ever go to a place ... I think it was called Norway?"
"No," said Arthur, "no, I didn't."
"Pity," said Slartibartfast, "that was one of mine. Won an award you know. Lovely crinkly edges. I was most upset to hear about its destruction."
"You were upset!"
"Yes. Five minutes later and it wouldn't have mattered so much. It was a quite shocking cock-up."
"Huh?" said Arthur.
"The mice were furious."
"The mice were furious?"
"Oh yes," said the old man mildly.
"Yes well so I expect were the dogs and cats and duckbilled platypuses, but ..."
"Ah, but they hadn't paid for it you see, had they?"
"Look," said Arthur, "would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up and went mad now?"
For a while the aircar flew on in awkward silence. Then the old man tried patiently to explain.
"Earthman, the planet you lived on was commissioned, paid for, and run by mice. It was destroyed five minutes before the completion of the purpose for which it was built, and we've got to build another one."
Only one word registered with Arthur.
"Mice?" he said.

“喔，實際上應該足地球二號。”司拉提巴特法斯特愉快地說，“我們正在按照我們的原始藍圖製造一個副本。”
一陣短暫的沉默。
“你是想告訴我，”阿瑟緩緩說道，極力控制着自己，“是你們……製造了地球？”
“噢，是的。”司拉提巴特法斯特說，“你曾經上過一個地方……我想應該是叫挪威吧？”
“沒有，”阿瑟說，“我沒去過。”
“真遺憾，”司拉提巴特法斯特說，“那是屬於我的。是我的獲獎作品，你知道。多麼可愛的曲折海岸線啊。當我聽說它被毀滅時，真是難過極了。”
“你感到難過？”
“是的。不過5分鐘以後就好多了。真是一場令人震驚的混亂。”
“什麼？”阿瑟說。
“老鼠發怒了。”
“老鼠發怒了？”
“哦，是的。”老人溫和地說。
“是的，好吧，我倒是希望狗啊、貓啊和鴨嘴獸什麼的也這樣，可是……”
“哦，可是它們並沒有付錢啊，明白嗎？不是嗎？”
“你瞧，”阿瑟說，“如果我現在就放棄，然後瘋掉，是不是能夠節省你很多時間？”
有那麼一會兒，空中飛車在一陣尷尬的沉默中飛行着。然後，老人耐心地試圖向阿瑟解釋這一切。
“地球人，你所居住的那顆行星是老鼠訂製、付款和管理的。把它造出來有一個目的，但就在它實現這個目的之前5分鐘，它被毀掉了。所以我們正在建造另外一個。”
阿瑟整個腦子裏只有一個詞。
“老鼠？”他說。