經典科幻文學:《 基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第5章1

Something moved deep inside her.

她內心深處有什麼東西活動起來。

Her arms dropped slowly down to her side. She didn't notice the scalding coffee slopping over her foot. She was hardly breathing as slowly, inch by inch, foot by foot, the craft came downwards. Its lights were playing softly over the ground as if probing and feeling it. They played over her.

崔茜卡的胳膊緩緩垂下去，她壓根兒沒注意到滾燙的咖啡濺到了自己腳上。她幾乎沒有呼吸，眼看着那艘飛船一寸一寸，一尺一尺地往下降落。它的燈光柔和地照在地面上，彷彿在探尋，在感覺。它們照到了她身上。

It seemed beyond all hope that she should be given her chance again. Had he found her? Had he come back?

她本來以爲毫無希望，自己絕不可能得到第二次機會。他找到她了？他回來了？

The craft dropped down and down until at last it had settled quietly on her lawn. It didn't look exactly like the one she had seen departing all those years ago, she thought, but flashing lights in the night sky are hard to resolve into clear shapes.

飛船繼續下降，下降，最後靜靜地停到她的草坪上，她覺得它的模樣跟許多年前飛走的那艘並不完全相同，不過那時她看見的僅僅是夜空裏閃爍的光線，原本就很難確定形狀。

Silence.

寂靜。

Then a click and a hum.

然後是一聲滴答和一聲嗡。

Then another click and another hum. Click hum, click hum.

然後又一聲滴答又一聲嗡。滴答，嗡，滴答，嗡。

A doorway slid open, spilling light towards her across the lawn.

一扇門打開，燈光沿着草坪一直灑到她眼前。

She waited, tingling.

她等着，滿心期待。

A figure stood silhouetted in the light, then another, and another.

燈光下出現了一個人影，然後又一個，然後又一個。

Wide eyes blinked slowly at her. Hands were slowly raised in greeting.

大眼睛緩緩地衝她眨巴眨巴。幾隻手慢慢地擡起來打個招呼。

'McMillan?' a voice said at last, a strange, thin voice that managed the syllables with difficulty. 'Tricia McMillan. Ms. Tricia McMillan?'

“麥克米倫？”終於有人開口了，那聲音又細又怪，似乎好不容易纔擠出來，“崔茜卡.麥克米倫？崔茜卡.麥克米倫女士？”

'Yes,' said Tricia, almost soundlessly.

“是我。”崔茜卡的回答幾乎哽在了喉嚨裏。

'We have been monitoring you.'

“我們一直在監控你。”

'M… monitoring? Me?'

“監……監控？我？”

'Yes.'

“是的。”