經典科幻文學:《銀河系漫遊指南》第22章3

He pointed down into the crater.
"Is that robot yours?" he said.
"No," came a thin metallic voice from the crater, "I'm mine."
"If you'd call it a robot," muttered Arthur. "It's more a sort of electronic sulking machine."
"Bring it," said the old man. Arthur was quite surprised to hear a note of decision suddenly present in the old man's voice. He called to Marvin who crawled up the slope making a big show of being lame, which he wasn't.
"On second thoughts," said the old man, "leave it here. You must come with me. Great things are afoot." He turned towards his craft which, though no apparent signal had been given, now drifted quietly towards them through the dark.
Arthur looked down at Marvin, who now made an equally big show of turning round laboriously and trudging off down into the crater again muttering sour nothings to himself.
"Come," called the old man, "come now or you will be Late."
"Late?" said Arthur. "What for?"
"What is your name, human?"
"Dent. Arthur Dent," said Arthur.
"Late, as in the late Dentarthurdent," said the old man, sternly. "It's a sort of threat you see." Another wistful look came into his tired old eyes. "I've never been very good at them myself, but I'm told they can be very effective."
Arthur blinked at him.
"What an extraordinary person," he muttered to himself.
"I beg your pardon?" said the old man.
"Oh nothing, I'm sorry," said Arthur in embarrassment. "Alright, where do we go?"
"In my aircar," said the old man motioning Arthur to get into the craft which had settled silently next to them. "We are going deep into the bowels of the planet where even now our race is being revived from its five-million-year slumber. Magrathea awakes."
Arthur shivered involuntarily as he seated himself next to the old man. The strangeness of it, the silent bobbing movement of the craft as it soared into the night sky quite unsettled him.

他指指坑底。
“那是你的機器人嗎？”他問。
“不是。”一個金屬聲音從下面傳來，“我是我自己的。”
“如果你把它叫做機器人的話，”阿瑟喃喃道，“這玩意兒更像是某種電子憤怒機器。”
“帶它上來。”老人說。老人突然發出一句命令，讓阿瑟吃了一驚。他招呼了馬文，於是他開始往斜坡上爬，一瘸一拐裝出瘸子的模樣，實際上他並不瘸。
“我改主意了。”老人說，“還是把它留在這兒。你必須跟我走，馬上就會出大事。”他轉向他的飛行器，雖然並沒有給出什麼明顯的信號，但它正從黑暗中向他們飄來。
阿瑟低頭朝馬文看去，他正在艱難地轉身，重新回到坑底，一邊還在咕噥着什麼。
“來吧。”老人對他喊道，“快來，不然就晚了。”
“晚了？”阿瑟問，“什麼晚了？”
“你叫什麼名字，人類？”
“鄧特。阿瑟·鄧特。”阿瑟回答說。
“我說的晚了，指的是不趕快的話，你就會成爲已故的鄧特、阿瑟·鄧特。”老人嚴厲地說，“這是一種威脅，你瞧。”他疲倦而衰老的眼中又一次流露出一絲憂傷，“我自己從來就不太擅長幹這種事，但我聽說它們非常有效。”
阿瑟直眨巴眼睛。
“真是個怪人。”他自言自語地說。
“你說什麼？”老人問。
“哦，沒什麼，對不起。”阿瑟窘迫地說，“好了，我們去哪兒呢？”
“上我的空中飛車。”老人說，讓阿瑟跨進靜靜地停在他們身旁的飛行器裏，“我們將進入這顆行星的地下深處，在那裏，我們的種族正在從500萬年的沉睡中甦醒過來。曼格拉斯醒過來了。”
坐在老人身邊，阿瑟不由自主地開始顫抖起來。一陣無聲的震動之後，這架奇怪的飛行器飛向夜空。他感到相當不安。