經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》第24章1

Away in the inky depths of space invisible movements were being made.

而在黑黝黝的太空深處，各種不可見的行動正在展開。

Invisible to any of the inhabitants of the strange and temperamental Plural zone at the focus of which lay the infinitely multitudinous possibilities of the planet called Earth, but not inconsequential to them.

所謂不可見，是對於那個稀奇古怪，喜怒無常的復區裏的居民而言——順便說一句，那個概率無窮無盡，名叫地球的行星就在這個復區的焦點上——問題是，看不見並不意味着對他們沒有影響。

At the very edge of the solar system, hunkered down on a green leatherette sofa, staring fretfully at a range of TV and computer screens sat a very worried Grebulon leader. He was fiddling with stuff. Fiddling with his book on astrology. Fiddling with the console of his computer. Fiddling with the displays being fed through to him constantly from all of the Grebulons’ monitoring devices, all of them focused on the planet Earth.

在太陽系最遠最遠的邊上有張綠色人造革沙發，上頭盤踞着一個極爲焦慮的格里布隆首領，他心煩意亂，正盯着一排電視機和電腦屏幕，還不住擺弄着各種東西——他的占星書，他的計算機控制面板，還有一刻不停從所有格里布隆監視裝置裏傳回來的圖像，全都是地球的畫面。

He was distressed. Their mission was to monitor. But to monitor secretly. He was a bit fed up with his mission, to be honest. He was fairly certain that his mission must have been to do more than sit around watching TV for years on end. They certainly had a lot of other equipment with them that must have had some purpose if only they hadn’t accidentally lost all trace of their purpose. He needed a sense of purpose in life, which was why he had turned to astrology to fill the yawning gulf that existed in the middle of his mind and soul. That would tell him something, surely.

他心情抑鬱。他們的使命是監視，但必須祕密監視，說實話，對這任務他已經有點受夠了。他幾乎敢打包票，自己原先的使命肯定不止一年到頭坐在電視機前這麼簡單。飛船上不是還有那麼多別的材料嗎？他們肯定該是爲某種目的而準備的，只可惜這些目的已經被忘得一乾二淨。他的生命需要目的性，所以他才轉向占星術，用它來填補自己的心和自己的靈魂之間那道張得老大的口。占星術肯定能告訴他點什麼，沒錯。

Well, it was telling him something.

好吧，它的確告訴了他一些東西。