經典科幻文學:《生命 宇宙及一切》第12章3

Why not, said Ford, go mad?
In front of them and, of course, totally unaware of their presence for the very good reason that they weren’t actually there, were the three pilots. They had also constructed the ship. They had been on the hill path that night singing wholesome heArtwarming songs. Their brains had been very slightly turned by the nearby crash of the alien spaceship. They had spent weeks stripping every tiniest last secret out of the wreckage of that burnt-up spaceship, all the while singing lilting spaceship-stripping ditties. They had then built their own ship and this was it. This was their ship, and they were currently singing a little song about that too, expressing the twin joys of achievement and ownership. The chorus was a little poignant, and told of their sorrow that their work had kept them such long hours in the garage, away from the company of their wives and children, who had missed them terribly but had kept them cheerful by bringing them continual stories of how nicely the puppy was growing up.
Pow, they took off.
They roared into the sky like a ship that knew precisely what it was doing.
No way, said Ford a while later after they had recovered from the shock of acceleration, and were climbing up out of the planet’s atmosphere, no way, he repeated, does anyone design and build a ship like this in a year, no matter how motivated. I don’t believe it. Prove it to me and I still won’t believe it. He shook his head thoughtfully and gazed out of a tiny port at the nothingness outside it.
The trip passed uneventfully for a while, and Slartibartfast fastwound them through it. Very quickly, therefore, they arrived at the inner perimeter of the hollow, spherical Dust Cloud which surrounded their sun and home planet, occupying, as it were, the next orbit out.
It was more as if there was a gradual change in the texture and consistency of space. The darkness seemed now to thrum and ripple past them. It was a very cold darkness, a very blank and heavy darkness, it was the darkness of the night sky of Krikkit.
The coldness and heaviness and blankness of it took a slow grip on Arthur’s heart, and he felt acutely aware of the feelings of the Krikkit pilots which hung in the air like a thick static charge. They were now on the very boundary of the historical knowledge of their race. This was the very limit beyond which none of them had ever speculated, or even known that there was any speculation to be done.
The darkness of the cloud buffeted at the ship. Inside was the silence of history. Their historic mission was to find out if there was anything or anywhere on the other side of the sky, from which the wrecked spaceship could have come, another world maybe, strange and incomprehensible though this thought was to the enclosed minds of those who had lived beneath the sky of Krikkit.
History was gathering itself to deliver another blow.
Still the darkness thrummed at them, the blank enclosing darkness. It seemed closer and closer, thicker and thicker, heavier and heavier. And suddenly it was gone.
They flew out of the cloud.
They saw the staggering jewels of the night in their infinite dust and their minds sang with fear.
For a while they flew on, motionless against the starry sweep of the Galaxy, itself motionless against the infinite sweep of the Universe. And then they turned round.
It’ll have to go, the men of Krikkit said as they headed back for home.
On the way back they sang a number of tuneful and reflective songs on the subjects of peace, justice, morality, culture, sport, family life and the obliteration of all other life forms.

“這不是瘋了麼？”福特說。
他們前面那幾個人——當然，完全意識不到他們的存在，因爲他們本來就不在——便是三位飛行員。這三人也參與了飛船的製造。那個晚上，他們幾個也曾在山間小道上，唱着思想健康、內容積極的歌兒。而那艘外星飛船墜毀之後，他們的思維就起了變化。他們用了好幾周的時間，拆開飛船殘骸，研究每一處細枝末節，口裏一邊唱着拆飛船之歌。然後，他們就自己造了艘飛船，也就是現在這艘。這是他們自己的飛船。他們正唱着相關歌曲，表達着成功和自主的雙重歡欣。和聲部分倒有點傷感，唱的是他們在修理廠花了好多時間，沒有妻子和孩子的陪伴，心中憂傷。妻兒深深地思念着他們，而終於見面時，卻只想保持快樂，還給他們講了許多關於小狗狗成長過程的故事。
砰！起飛了。
飛船呼嘯着衝向天空，好象很清楚自己的方向。
“不可能。”福特剛從加速度帶來的暈眩中緩過來，便說道。飛船正朝大氣層外飛去。“不可能，”他又道，“在一年之內設計、製造出這麼一艘飛船來，無論他們信念多麼堅定，我都不信。證明給我看也不信。”他若又所思地搖着頭，望着遠方。
飛行了好久，一切平靜。司拉提巴特法斯按下快進。於是很快，他們到達了塵雲的邊界。就是這空蕩蕩、球狀的塵雲團，包裹着他們的恆星和行星，佔據着所有的軌道。
太空的質地和濃度，彷彿在漸漸變化。周圍的黑暗彷彿呈波瀾狀拂過。那是冰冷的黑暗，空虛卻沉重的黑暗。那是版求夜空的黑暗。
這種冰冷、沉重和空虛的感覺，慢慢侵入了阿瑟的心。他深切感受到版求飛行員的心情。此時，他們正漂浮在空中，像個靜電荷一樣。他們走到了整個種族有史以來知識儲備的邊界。邊界之外，從來沒人探究過，甚至從來沒人覺得可以探究。
黑暗的塵雲不斷襲來。飛船之內，是靜默的歷史的時刻。他們身上的歷史責任，便是去看看天空另一端究竟爲何物何地，那艘墜毀的飛船是從哪兒來的。也許，是另一個世界——就連這個念頭，在版求夜空之下人們那閉塞的心靈中，都是怪誕而無法理解的。
歷史正用盡全身力量，再給他們猛力一擊。
黑暗依然在四周流動。黑暗之外是空虛。一切彷彿越來越近，越來越濃，越來越重。突然之間，沒了。
他們飛出了塵雲。
他們看見夜空中那數不盡的、令人眩暈的星之珠寶。他們的心裏在尖叫。
他們又飛了一會兒，無動於衷地面對浩瀚的銀河，銀河則無動於衷地面對着無垠的宇宙。然後，他們掉轉了方向。
“它得離開。”掉轉方向的時候，一個版求人說。
回去的路上，他們唱了好多動聽又發人深省的歌。主題有：愛、正義、道德、文化、體育、家庭生活，以及滅絕所有其他生命形式。