經典科幻文學:《生命 宇宙及一切》第9章1

Chapter 9
Another world, another day, another dawn.
The early morning’s thinnest sliver of light appeared silently.
Several billion trillion tons of superhot exploding hydrogen nuclei rose slowly above the horizon and managed to look small, cold and slightly damp.
There is a moment in every dawn when light floats, there is the possibility of magic. Creation holds its breath.
The moment passed as it regularly did on Squornshellous Zeta, without incident.
The mist clung to the surface of the marshes. The swamp trees were grey with it, the tall reeds indistinct. It hung motionless like held breath.
Nothing moved.
There was silence.
The sun struggled feebly with the mist, tried to impart a little warmth here, shed a little light there, but clearly today was going to be just another long haul across the sky.
Nothing moved.
Again, silence.
Nothing moved.
Silence.
Very often on Squornshellous Zeta, whole days would go on like this, and this was indeed going to be one of them.
Fourteen hours later the sun sank hopelessly beneath the opposite horizon with a sense of totally wasted effort.
And a few hours later it reappeared, squared its shoulders and started on up the sky again.
This time, however, something was happening. A mattress had just met a robot.
Hello, robot, said the mattress.
Bleah, said the robot and continued what it was doing, which was walking round very slowly in a very tiny circle.
Happy? said the mattress.
The robot stopped and looked at the mattress. It looked at it quizzically. It was clearly a very stupid mattress. It looked back at him with wide eyes.
After what it had calculated to ten significant decimal places as being the precise length of pause most likely to convey a general contempt for all things mattressy, the robot continued to walk round in tight circles.
We could have a conversation, said the mattress, would you like that?
It was a large mattress, and probably one of quite high quality. Very few things actually get manufactured these days, because in an infinitely large Universe such as, for instance, the one in which we live, most things one could possibly imagine, and a lot of things one would rather not, grow somewhere. A forest was discovered recently in which most of the trees grew ratchet screwdrivers as fruit. The life cycle of ratchet screwdriver fruit it quite interesting. Once picked it needs a dark dusty drawer in which it can lie undisturbed for years. Then one night it suddenly hatches, discards its outer skin which crumbles into dust, and emerges as a totally unidentifiable little metal object with flanges at both ends and a sort of ridge and a sort of hole for a screw. This, when found, will get thrown away. No one knows what it is supposed to gain from this. Nature, in her infinite wisdom, is presumably working on it.
No one really knows what mattresses are meant to gain from their lives either. They are large, friendly, pocket-sprung creatures which live quiet private lives in the marshes of Squornshellous Zeta. Many of them get caught, slaughtered, dried out, shipped out and slept on. None of them seem to mind and all of them are called Zem.
No, said Marvin.

第九章
另一個世界，另一個日子，另一個黎明。
清晨第一縷曙光靜靜投向大地。
多達幾兆幾億噸的超高溫爆炸態氫核，從地平線上冉冉升起，看着卻像很小、很涼、很潮溼的樣子。
這一刻，是流光溢彩的清晨，彷彿奇蹟也可能發生。一切造物都屏息凝神。
和往常一樣，斯科謝勒斯Ζ星上的清晨就這樣過去了，沒有任何意外。
霧氣在沼澤上方縈繞不散。溼地樹木在霧裏顯得灰濛濛的，高高的蘆葦模糊不清，他們無言地矗立在那兒，彷彿在屏息凝神。
一切靜止。
惟有沉寂。
太陽從濃霧中吃力地爬了上來，努力想要傳遞一些熱量下去，散佈一點光明。可惜，今天顯然也只能在天上閒逛一圈罷了。
一切靜止。
依然，沉寂。
一切靜止。
沉寂。
斯科謝勒斯Ζ星上，日子通常都是這樣過去的。今天也會是其中之一。
十四個小時之後，太陽絕望地沉到另一側地平線之下，它知道，今天又全白費了。
幾個小時之後它再次出現，挺直了肩膀，開始它新一天的空中之行。
然而這一次，有情況了。一張牀墊遇上了一個機器人。
“你好，機器人。”牀墊說。
“嗷。”機器人說，一邊繼續做它正在做的事——極其緩慢地轉着極小的圈圈。
“你快樂嗎？”牀墊說。
機器人停下來，看着這張牀墊，帶着嘲弄似的目光。顯然這是張愚蠢的牀墊。它正一臉天真地看着機器人。
等了足夠長的時間之後（這個時間是機器人所算好的、剛好能讓一切牀墊類事物感到被藐視的時間，精確到小數點後十位），機器人又開始繞它的小圈。
“我們也許能說說話，”牀墊說，“你覺得怎麼樣？”
這是張很大的牀墊，可能是個高檔品。這年頭，已經很少有人真正去製造什麼東西了。在一個無限大的宇宙裏（比如，我們生活的這個），不論是你能想象的東西，還是你不能想象的東西，都能在某個地方自己長出來。近來就有人發現了一座森林，裏面的樹上都結着棘輪螺絲刀果實。棘輪螺絲刀果實的一生非常有趣。當被摘下來以後，它需要一個黑洞洞、灰撲撲的抽屜來裝自己，一裝就是好幾年。然後，某一天晚上，它會突然孵化，褪掉自己那快碎成渣的表皮，變成一個完全認不出來的金屬物品，兩頭都有突起，身上有棱，還有爲螺絲準備的凹槽。到達這個形態的棘輪螺絲刀果實，一旦被發現，就會馬上被扔掉。沒人知道這一切有什麼意義。大自然，大概正以她無窮的智慧，考慮着這個問題吧。
同樣，沒人知道牀墊的一生究竟有什麼意義。他們是寬大、友好、有彈簧袋的生物，在斯科謝勒斯Ζ星的沼澤地裏過着隱居生活。它們中很多會遭到捕捉、屠宰、風乾、運走，最後被人躺在上面。然而他們似乎都不在意。並且，它們的名字都叫贊姆。
“不。”馬文說。