經典科幻文學:《 再見 多謝你們的魚》第20章8

Fenchurch leaned across him and drew over her canvas bag.
Is it anything to do with this? she said. The thing she took out of her bag was battered and travelworn as it had been hurled into prehistoric rivers, baked under the sun that shines so redly on the deserts of Kakrafoon, half-buried in the marbled sands that fringe the heady vapoured oceans of Santraginus V, frozen on the glaciers of the moon of Jaglan Beta, sat on, kicked around spaceships, scuffed and generally abused, and since its makers had thought that these were exactly the sorts of things that might happen to it, they had thoughtfully encased it in a sturdy plastic cover and written on it, in large friendly letters, the words “Don’t Panic”.
Where did you get this? said Arthur, startled, taking it from her.
Ah, she said, I thought it was yours. In Russell’s car that night. You dropped it. Have you been to many of these places?
Arthur drew The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy from its cover. It was like a small, thin, flexible lap computer. He tapped some buttons till the screen flared with text.
A few, he said.
Can we go to them?
What? No, said Arthur abruptly, then relented, but relented warily. Do you want to? he said, hoping for the answer no. It was an act of great generosity on his part not to say, You don’t want to, do you? which expects it.
Yes, she said. I want to know what the message was that I lost, and where it came from. Because I don’t think, she added, standing up and looking round the increasing gloom of the park, that it came from here.
I’m not even sure, she further added, slipping her arm around Arthur’s waist, that I know where here is.

芬琪詩湊過去，越過他的身子拖過來她的帆布包。
“這個東西與此有關麼？”她說。她從包裏拿出來的東西破破爛爛滿面風塵，因爲它被扔進過史前河流，被卡卡拉福恩星沙漠的火紅烈日炙烤過，被桑塔基努斯五號星的迷醉蒸汽海洋旁邊的大理石沙灘半掩埋過，被賈格蘭貝塔星的月亮上的並和冷凍過（注），被坐過，被在宇宙飛船裏踢來踢去，被拖拽過而且被常規性地虐待過，而且由於它的製作者早就考慮過這正是它可能遭遇的事兒，他們仔細地把它裝在了一個堅硬的塑料殼中，然後用大而友善的字體寫着“不要恐慌”。
“你從哪兒搞到它的？”阿瑟驚訝地說着，從她手裏拿過它。
“啊，”她說，“我認爲這是你的。那個晚上在拉塞爾的車裏。你落下了它。你去過很多這種地方？”
阿瑟把《銀河系漫遊指南》從外殼裏拿出來。那就像是一個微小纖薄柔軟的便攜式電腦。他敲擊了一些按鈕直到屏幕上展開了文字。
“只去過一些，”他說。
“我們能去那些地方麼？”
“什麼？不，”阿瑟生硬地說，接着態度緩和下來，但是很謹慎。“你想去嗎？”他說着，希望答案是不。沒說預料中的“你不想去的是吧？”已經是他崇高慷慨一面的表現了。
“想。”她說。“我想知道我丟失的信息是什麼以及信息從哪兒來的。因爲我不認爲，”她補充道，站起來環視公園裏逐漸擴大的陰暗，“它來自此地。”
“我甚至不確定，”她進一步補充着，把手搭在阿瑟腰間，“我知道此地是哪裏。”