經典科幻文學:《銀河系漫遊指南》第3章 Part 1

Chapter 3
On this particular Thursday, something was moving quietly through the ionosphere many miles above the surface of the planet; several somethings in fact, several dozen huge yellow chunky slablike somethings, huge as office buildings, silent as birds. They soared with ease, basking in electromagnetic rays from the star Sol, biding their time, grouping, preparing.
The planet beneath them was almost perfectly oblivious of their presence, which was just how they wanted it for the moment. The huge yellow somethings went unnoticed at Goonhilly, they passed over Cape Canaveral without a blip, Woomera and Jodrell Bank looked straight through them — which was a pity because it was exactly the sort of thing they'd been looking for all these years.
Beneath that in Ford Prefect's satchel were a few biros, a notepad, and a largish bath towel from Marks and Spencer.
The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels.
A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value — you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you — daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
Hence a phrase which has passed into hitch hiking slang, as in "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)
"You got a towel with you?" said Ford Prefect suddenly to Arthur.
Arthur, struggling through his third pint, looked round at him.
"Why? What, no ... should I have?" He had given up being surprised, there didn't seem to be any point any longer.
Ford clicked his tongue in irritation.
"Drink up," he urged.

第三章
就在這個星期四，有個東西無聲無息地穿行在距離地球表面很多英里之上的電離層中。實際上，應該說是—些東西，好幾十個巨大而粗矮的黃色板狀物，像辦公樓一樣大，像鳥一樣無聲無息。它們輕快地滑翔着，沐浴在這顆叫做太陽的恆星的電磁射線中，花費時間集結、編隊、準備着。
它們下面這顆行星完全沒有意識到它們的到來，惟一探測到它們的是一個叫做亞以太感應器的黑色微型儀器，它開始無聲地閃爍起來。它被放在一個皮質小揹包裏，福特·普里弗克特總是習慣把這個小揹包掛在脖子上。福特·普里弗克特的小揹包裏面其實相當有趣，足以使地球上的任何物理學家瞠目結舌，所以他總是把兩本已經卷角的劇本（他假裝自己正準備去這兩個劇組試鏡）放在面上遮住。
在福特·普里弗克特的小揹包裏，這幾件東西下面是幾支圓珠筆、一個筆記本，以及一條在M&S超市買的大洗澡毛巾。
《銀河系漫遊指南》中關於毛巾這個詞條也有一些解釋。
一條毛巾，它解釋說，大概是對一個星際漫遊者來說最有用的東西了。從一個方面看，毛巾有着巨大的實用價值：但更重要的是，毛巾有着巨大的心理學上的價值。也不知道出於什麼原因，如果一個“正常人”（正常人：非漫遊者）發現一個漫遊者隨身帶着毛巾，那麼他會很自然地認爲此人同樣也有牙刷、浴衣、肥皂、裝餅乾的罐子、保溫瓶、指南針、地圖、繩捆、滅蚊噴劑、雨衣、太空服……等等。於是乎，他會很樂意借給這個漫遊者所有這些東西，甚至還有其他的許多東西——而這些東西通通是這個漫遊者碰巧“丟失”了的。這個正常人的心理就是，一個人，在廣闊的銀河系中漫遊，在面對了許多可怕的困難並且成功地戰而勝之以後，他如果仍然還弄得清楚自己的毛巾在哪裏，那麼這顯然是一個值得認真對待的人。
因此，在搭便車漫遊的行話中有這麼一句，就是：“嘿，你碰過那個同行的福特·普里弗克特嗎？那可是個真正知道自己的毛巾在哪裏的好搭檔。”（碰：知道，認識，遇見，發生過性關係；同行：確實在一起的傢伙；好搭檔：在一起時讓人驚歎的傢伙）
“你帶毛巾了嗎？”福特突然對阿瑟說。
阿瑟——這可憐的人正在對付他的第三品脫啤酒——上下打量了他幾眼。
“爲什麼？什麼，不，沒有……我應該帶嗎？”喝到這個時候，他對這種突兀的問題已經不再感到驚訝了。
福特惱火地彈了一下舌頭。
“幹。”他勸道。