經典科幻文學:《銀河系漫遊指南》第9章 Part 3

The Improbability-proof control cabin of the Heart of Gold looked like a perfectly conventional spaceship except that it was perfectly clean because it was so new. Some of the control seats hadn't had the plastic wrapping taken off yet. The cabin was mostly white, oblong, and about the size of a smallish restaurant. In fact it wasn't perfectly oblong: the two long walls were raked round in a slight parallel curve, and all the angles and corners were contoured in excitingly chunky shapes. The truth of the matter is that it would have been a great deal simpler and more practical to build the cabin as an ordinary three-dimensional oblong rom, but then the designers would have got miserable. As it was the cabin looked excitingly purposeful, with large video screens ranged over the control and guidance system panels on the concave wall, and long banks of computers set into the convex wall. In one corner a robot sat humped, its gleaming brushed steel head hanging loosely between its gleaming brushed steel knees. Ittoo was fairly new, but though it was beautifully constructed and polished it somehow looked as if the various parts of its more or less humanoid body didn't quite fit properly. In fact they fitted perfectly well, but something in its bearing suggested that they might have fitted better.
Zaphod Beeblebrox paced nervously up and down the cabin, brushing his hands over pieces of gleaming equipment and giggling with excitement.
Trillian sat hunched over a clump of instruments reading off figures. Her voice was carried round the Tannoy system of the whole ship.
"Five to one against and falling ..." she said, "four to one against and falling ... three to one ... two ... one ... probability factor of one to one ... we have normality, I repeat we have normality." She turned her microphone off — then turned it back on, with a slight smile and continued: "Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem. Please relax. You will be sent for soon."
Zaphod burst out in annoyance: "Who are they Trillian?"
Trillian span her seat round to face him and shrugged.

黃金之心號的防非概率控制艙和一般的飛船並沒有什麼兩樣，只是這兒特別乾淨——畢竟是嶄新的，一些控制座椅的塑料薄膜甚至還沒有撕開。控制艙的基調是白色，長方形，基本上相當於一個小型餐廳的尺寸。實際上，它並不是標準的長方形：長的兩面牆微微彎出了一個平行的弧度，艙內所有角度和角落都是圓潤的弧形，給人留下深刻印象。關於這一點，真實的原因是：本來建造一個普通的三維長方形房間會簡單得多，也實用得多，但那樣的話，設計者的腰包是鼓不起來的。這樣的一間控制艙顯然是經過精心設計的，控制和導航系統儀表面板上方的凹面牆上懸掛着巨大的投影屏幕，而凸面牆上則安裝了一長排電腦。一個角落裏坐着一個機器人，打磨得鋥亮的鋼鐵腦袋鬆鬆垮垮地垂在打磨得鋥亮的鋼鐵膝蓋中間。它也是嶄新的，不過，雖然經過精心製造和打磨，它那多多少少看上去還算是個人形的軀體卻相當地不協調。其實這些部分還是很協調的，只不過某些軸承看上去本來應該安裝得更好些纔是。
贊福德·畢博布魯克斯正在控制艙內神經質地踱來踱去，雙手拂過閃爍的儀表，不時發出興奮的吃吃笑聲。
崔莉恩坐在一堆設備前，正在讀出上面的數據。她的聲音通過擴音系統迴盪在整艘飛船內。
“5比1，正在下降……”她讀道，“4比1，正在下降……3比1……2……1……概率因子1比1……我們已經進入正常狀態，重複一遍，我們已經進入正常狀態。”她關掉麥克風——又重新打開——帶着微笑繼續道：“如果還有任何不適的話，那就是你們自己的問題了。放鬆點兒，你們很快就會沒事兒的。”
贊福德惱怒地問：“他們是誰，崔莉恩？”
崔莉恩轉過椅子，面對着他，聳了聳肩。