經典科幻文學:《銀河系漫遊指南》第17章2

"Shush!" said Ford. "It's carrying on."
The voice was old, courteous, almost charming, but was underscored with quite unmistakable menace.
"This is a recorded announcement," it said, "as I'm afraid we're all out at the moment. The commercial council of Magrathea thanks you for your esteemed visit ..."
("A voice from ancient Magrathea!" shouted Zaphod. "OK, OK," said Ford.)
"... but regrets," continued the voice, "that the entire planet is temporarily closed for business. Thank you. If you would care to leave your name and the address of a planet where you can be contacted, kindly speak when you hear the tone."
A short buzz followed, then silence.
"They want to get rid of us," said Trillian nervously. "What do we do?"
"It's just a recording," said Zaphod. "We keep going. Got that, computer?"
"I got it," said the computer and gave the ship an extra kick of speed.
They waited.
After a second or so came the fanfare once again, and then the voice.
"We would like to assure you that as soon as our business is resumed announcements will be made in all fashionable magazines and colour supplements, when our clients will once again be able to select from all that's best in contemporary geography." The menace in the voice took on a sharper edge. "Meanwhile we thank our clients for their kind interest and would ask them to leave. Now."
Arthur looked round the nervous faces of his companions.
"Well, I suppose we'd better be going then, hadn't we?" he suggested.
"Shhh!" said Zaphod. "There's absolutely nothing to be worried about."
"Then why's everyone so tense?"

“噓！”福特說，“它還在說。”
這聲音顯得老成、彬彬有禮、相當有魅力，卻傳達出一種明確無誤的惡意。
“恐怕此時我們已經全部不在人世了，”它說，“所以這是一段事先錄製的聲明。曼格拉斯商業委員會歡迎尊貴的客人們的到來……”
（“來自遠古的曼格拉斯的聲音！”贊福德叫了起來。“行啊，行啊。”福特說。）
“……但是很遺憾，”這聲音繼續道，“整顆星球目前暫時停止了一切業務。謝謝你們。如果你們願意留下你們的名字和可以聯繫上你們的地址，聽到信號後請留言。”
接下來是一聲蜂鳴，然後一片沉寂。
“他們不想搭理咱們。”崔莉恩緊張地說，“我們現在該怎麼辦？”
“這只不過是錄音罷了，”贊福德說，“我們繼續前進。聽到了嗎，電腦？”
“明白。”電腦說着加快了飛船的速度。
他們等待着。
才過了差不多一秒，號角聲再次響起，然後那聲音傳來。
“我們向你們保證，一旦我們的生意業務重新開始，相關的聲明將會刊登在所有時尚雜誌和彩色副刊上，到那時我們的客戶又將能夠訂製當代最好的地理環境了。”然後，聲音中的威脅意味更明顯了，“感謝貴客戶對我們的興趣，但現在，我們必須要求你們離開。馬上。”
阿瑟環顧同伴們神色緊張的臉。
“好吧，我認爲我們最好現在就走，你們說呢？”他建議道。
“噓！”贊福德說，“這沒什麼值得擔心的。”
“那怎麼每個人都顯得這麼緊張呢？”