經典科幻文學:《銀河系漫遊指南》第18章2

"Then what's happened to the missiles?" he said.
A new and astounding image appeared in the mirrors.
"They would appear," said Ford doubtfully, "to have turned into a bowl of petunias and a very surprised looking whale ..."
"At an Improbability Factor," cut in Eddie, who hadn't changed a bit, "of eight million seven hundred and sixty-seven thousand one hundred and twenty-eight to one against."
Zaphod stared at Arthur.
"Did you think of that, Earthman?" he demanded.
"Well," said Arthur, "all I did was ..."
"That's very good thinking you know. Turn on the Improbability Drive for a second without first activating the proofing screens. + Hey kid you just saved our lives, you know that?"
"Oh," said Arthur, "well, it was nothing really ..."
"Was it?" said Zaphod. "Oh well, forget it then. OK, computer, take us in to land."
"But ..."
"I said forget it."
Another thing that got forgotten was the fact that against all probability a sperm whale had suddenly been called into existence several miles above the surface of an alien planet.

“那些導彈怎麼樣了？”他問。
一幅新的、令人震驚的景象出現在鏡子裏。
“它們好像變成了，”福特懷疑地說，“一盆牽牛花和一頭非常怪異的鯨魚……”
“基於一個非概率因子，”艾迪插話道，看來倒是它一點兒也沒有改變，“發生這種情況的可能性是8，767，128比1.”
贊福德望着阿瑟。
“你想到過這種情況嗎，地球人？”他問。
“哦，”阿瑟說，“我所做的只是……”
“你知道嗎，這真是個絕妙的主意，在不事先激活保護屏的情況下啓動非概率驅動。嘿，夥計，你剛剛救了我們大家的命，你知道嗎？”
“噢，”阿瑟說，“真的，這沒什麼……”
“是嗎？”贊福德說，“那好，讓我們忘掉它吧。好了，電腦，我們登陸。”
“可是……”
“我說過了，忘了它。”
被忽略的另一個事實是：儘管違背所有的可能性，但是一隻抹香鯨確實突然間在距離一顆行星表面幾英里的高度出現了。