經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》第21章11

It wasn’t particularly accurate or anything, but it looked good. The planets were whizzing around in reasonably good simulations of their orbits, and you could watch the movement of the whole piece of virtual cosmological clockwork from any point within the system – very roughly. You could watch from Earth, you could watch from Mars, etc. You could watch from the surface of the planet Rupert. Tricia had been quite impressed with herself, but also very impressed with the computer system she was working on. Using a computer workstation on Earth the task would probably have taken a year or so of programming.

它倒並不特別精確什麼的，但看起來不錯。行星們都在各自軌道上打轉，總的來說跟實際的情形差得還不算太遠，而且你可以從太陽系裏的任何位置——基本上吧——觀察整個虛擬宇宙大鐘的動作，你可以從地球上看，你可以從火星看，等等等等。你可以從魯伯特的地表上看，崔茜卡對自己的本事大爲讚賞，但同時也很欣賞自己使用的計算機系統，要是用地球上的計算機工作站，搞這玩意編程就得花上一年左右。

When she was finished, the Leader came up behind her and watched. He was very pleased and delighted with what she had achieved.

完成之後，首領走到她身後觀賞，對她的成就十分高興和滿意。

‘Good,’ he said. ‘And now, please, I would like you to demonstrate how to use the system you have just designed to translate the information in this book for me.’

“很好，”他說，“那麼現在，我希望請你演示一下，如何使用你剛纔設計的系統來爲我翻譯這本書的信息。”

Quietly he put a book down in front of her.

他靜靜地把一本書放在她跟前。

It was You and Your Planets by Gail Andrews.

那是蓋爾.安德魯斯的《你和你的星座》。

Tricia stopped the tape again.

崔茜卡又停下帶子。

She was definitely feeling very wobbly indeed. The feeling that she was hallucinating had now receded, but had not left anything any easier or clearer in her head.

眼下她真是天旋地轉了。那種以爲自己產生了幻覺的感覺已經消退，但並沒給她腦袋裏留下任何更容易，更清楚的概念。

She pushed her seat back from the editing desk and wondered what to do. Years ago she had left the field of astronomical research because she knew, without any doubt whatsoever, that she had met a being from another planet. At a party. And she had also known, without any doubt whatsoever, that she would have made herself a laughing stock if she had ever said so. But how could she study cosmology and not say anything about the single most important thing she knew about it? She had done the only thing she could do. She had left.

她把椅子從編輯臺往後一推，開始琢磨現在如何是好。許多年前她之所有放棄天文學研究，是因爲她確定無疑地知道，自己遇上了來自另一個星球的生物。在一個派對上，而且她還確定無疑地知道，把這事說出去她準會變成一個大笑話。可她怎麼可能一邊研究宇宙天體學一邊又對自己一生中最重要的宇宙天體發現緘口不言？她沒有別的選擇，她離開了。

Now she worked in television and the same thing had happened again.

現在她轉作媒體，而相同的事情再次發生。

She had videotape, actual videotape of the most astounding story in the history of, well anything: a forgotten outpost of an alien civilisation marooned on the outermost planet of our own solar system.

她有一卷錄影帶，一卷實實在在的錄影帶，裏面拍下了自從，自從，好吧，自從一切開始以來最最驚爆的故事：在我們自己的太陽系最遙遠的那顆行星上，竟然存在着一個被遺忘的外星文明的前哨站。

She had the story.

她抓到了故事。

She had been there.

她去了現場。

She had seen it.

她看到了一切。

She had the videotape for God’s sake.

看在上帝的份上她也有錄影帶爲證。

And if she ever showed it to anybody, she would be a laughing stock.

並且，如果這東西給人看她就會變成個大笑話。