經典科幻文學:《銀河系漫遊指南》第14章 Part2

Trillian couldn't sleep. She sat on a couch and stared at a small cage which contained her last and only links with Earth — two white mice that she had insisted Zaphod let her bring. She had expected not to see the planet again, but she was disturbed by her negative reaction to the planet's destruction. It seemed reMote and unreal and she could find no thoughts to think about it. She watched the mice scurrying round the cage and running furiously in their little plastic treadwheels till they occupied her whole attention. Suddenly she shook herself and went back to the bridge to watch over the tiny flashing lights and figures that charted the ship's progress through the void. She wished she knew what it was she was trying not to think about.
Zaphod couldn't sleep. He also wished he knew what it was that he wouldn't let himself think about. For as long as he could remember he'd suffered from a vague nagging feeling of being not all there. Most of the time he was able to put this thought aside and not worry about it, but it had been re-awakened by the sudden inexplicable arrival of Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent. Somehow it seemed to conform to a pattern that he couldn't see.
Ford couldn't sleep. He was too excited about being back on the road again. Fifteen years of virtual imprisonment were over, just as he was finally beginning to give up hope. Knocking about with Zaphod for a bit promised to be a lot of fun, though there seemed to be something faintly odd about his semi-cousin that he couldn't put his finger on. The fact that he had become President of the Galaxy was frankly astonishing, as was the manner of his leaving the post. Was there a reason behind it? There would be no point in asking Zaphod, he never appeared to have a reason for anything he did at all: he had turned unfathomably into an art form. He attacked everything in life with a mixture of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence and it was often difficult to tell which was which.
Arthur slept: he was terribly tired.
There was a tap at Zaphod's door. It slid open.
"Zaphod ...?"
"Yeah?"
"I think we just found what you came to look for."
"Hey, yeah?"

崔莉恩失眠了。她坐在沙發上，盯着面前的一個小籠子，裏面裝着她和地球之間惟一的聯繫——兩隻小白鼠。這還是她堅持說服贊福德讓自己帶上的。雖說她原本已經想好了再也不會回到那顆星球，但它被毀滅的消息還是給她帶來了沉重的消極反應——雖然這件事看上去那麼遙遠，那麼不真實，她完全找不到任何理由去想。她凝視着小白鼠在籠子裏亂竄，在它們的塑料小踏車上瘋狂地奔跑，直到它們佔據了她的全部注意力。突然，她站起身，回到控制橋上，去看那些標識出飛船在虛空中行進路線的閃爍的燈光和數字。她希望知道自己正試圖不去思考的那個東西究竟是什麼。
贊福德失眠了。他也希望知道自己無法讓自己思考的那個東西究竟是什麼。自從記事以來，他就被一種模模糊糊、斷斷續續、似是而非的感覺所困擾。大多數時間，他能把這種感覺放到一邊，不去擔心它。但是現在，這種感覺被福特·普里弗克特和阿瑟。登特突然而又解釋不清的到來喚醒了。
福特也失眠了。終於又回到漫遊的路上，這讓他興奮不已。15年的煎熬終於結束了，就在他正要放棄最後的希望前的那一剎那。遇見贊福德也很有意思，雖然自己的這位半個堂兄有點兒奇怪。他成爲銀河系總統這個事實，以及他離開這個職位的方式，說實在的，讓人覺得不可思議。這背後有什麼原因嗎？問贊福德肯定是沒有用的，他幹所有事情都沒什麼原因；他簡直已經把深不可測變成了一門藝術。他在生活中所做的每一件事都是出於非凡的天才和無能的幼稚的混合物，而且通常很難區分出哪部分是哪部分。
阿瑟睡着了：他實在是太累了。
有人在敲贊福德的門。門開了。
“贊福德……”
“什麼事？”
“我想我們剛剛找到你來這兒要尋找的東西了。”
“喔，是嗎？”