經典科幻文學:《 基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第6章1

6

第六章

Ford Prefect hit the ground running. The ground was about three inches further from the ventilation shaft than he remembered it so he misjudged the point at which he would hit the ground, started running too soon, stumbled awkwardly and twisted his ankle. Damn! He ran off down the corridor anyway, hobbling slightly.

福特.長官跑着步撞到地上。地面跟通風井的距離比他記憶中遠了三寸，導致了他對落地的時間判斷錯誤，啓動過早，一面跑一面笨手笨腳地絆了一跤，結果扭傷了腳踝。見鬼！他繼續順着走廊往下跑，當然動作稍微有些跛。

All over the building, alarms were erupting into their usual frenzy of excitement. He dived for cover behind the usual storage cabinets, glanced around to check that he was unseen, and started rapidly to fish around inside his satchel for the usual things he needed.

整座大樓裏，警報照舊興奮地狂吼。他閃到了一貫用來藏身的儲物櫃背後，四下一瞟確定沒人發現自己，然後迅速開始在揹包裏搗騰，搜索他通常需要的那些東西。

His ankle, unusually, was hurting like hell.

跟平常不同的是，他的腳踝痛得要命。

The ground was not only three inches further from the ventilation shaft than he remembered, it was also on a different planet than he remembered, but it was the three inches that had caught him by surprise. The offices of the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy were quite often shifted at very short notice to another planet, for reasons of local climate, local hostility, power bills or tax, but they were always reconstructed exactly the same way, almost to the very molecule. For many of the company’s employees, the layout of their offices represented the only constant they knew in a severely distorted personal universe.

地面不僅比他記憶中遠了三寸，而且還出現在跟他記憶裏不同的星球上，不過真正讓他猝不及防的還是那三寸距離。《銀河系漫遊指南》常常二話不說就把辦公室搬到另外一個星球：搬家的理由多種多樣，從當地的氣候，當地人的敵視一直到電費賬單或者稅收問題。但無論到哪兒去，辦公室都會照原樣重建，幾乎連一個分子都不差。對於公司的許多員工來說，在他們嚴重扭曲的個人宇宙裏，自己的辦公室的佈局是唯一恆久不變的東西。

Something, though, was odd.

不過，有什麼地方的確有些古怪。

This was not in itself surprising, thought Ford as he pulled out his lightweight throwing towel. Virtually everything in his life was, to a greater or lesser extent, odd. It was just that this was odd in a slightly different way than he was used to things being odd, which was, well, strange. He couldn’t quite get it into focus immediately.

這本身倒沒什麼可吃驚的，福特一面扯出自己的輕量級投擲毛巾一面琢磨。事實上，他生活中的一切或多或少都有些古怪，程度不同而已。只不過這個古怪跟他平時習慣的古怪稍微有些區別。這就有點，唔，古怪了。他一時也理不出什麼頭緒來。

He got out his No.3 gauge prising tool.

他掏出了自己的三號扳手。

The alarms were going in the same old way that he knew well. There was a kind of music to them that he could almost hum along to. That was all very familiar. The world outside had been a new one on Ford. He had not been to Saquo-Pilia Hensha before, and he had liked it. It had a kind of carnival atmosphere to it.

警報的叫聲還是他熟悉的老樣子。那聲音裏有種旋律，他幾乎可以跟着哼起來。感覺真的挺親切。對於大樓外頭的世界，福特並不瞭解。他還從沒來過薩誇-派利亞.亨撒。這地方似乎帶着點狂歡節的氣氛。

He took from his satchel a toy bow and arrow which he had bought in a street market.

他從揹包裏拿出一副街邊買的玩具弓箭。