經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》第26章3

“Movie camera,” said Ford. “Recording the historic movement.”
“Well, I don’t know about you,” said Ford again after a moment, “but I’m off.”
He sat a while in silence.
After a while this seemed to require comment.
“Er, when you say you’re off, what do you mean exactly?” said Arthur.
“Good question,” said Ford, “I’m getting total silence.”
Looking over his shoulder Arthur saw that he was twiddling with knobs on a small box. Ford had already introduced this box as a Sub-Etha Sens-O-Matic, but Arthur had merely nodded absently and not pursued the matter. In his mind the Universe still divided into two parts – the Earth, and everything else. The Earth having been demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass meant that this view of things was a little lopsided, but Arthur tended to cling to that lopsidedness as being his last remaining contact with his home. Sub-Etha Sens-O-Matics belonged firmly in the “everything else” category.
“Not a sausage,” said Ford, shaking the thing.
Sausage, thought Arthur to himself as he gazed listlessly at the primitive world about him, what I wouldn’t give for a good Earth sausage.
“Would you believe,” said Ford in exasperation, “that there are no transmissions of any kind within light years of this benighted tip? Are you listening to me?”
“What?” said Arthur.
“We’re in trouble,” said Ford.
“Oh,” said Arthur. This sounded like month-old news to him.
“Until we pick up anything on this machine,” said Ford, “our chances of getting off this planet are zero. It may be some freak standing wave effect in the planet’s magnetic field – in which case we just travel round and round till we find a clear reception area. Coming?”
He picked up his gear and strode off.
Arthur looked down the hill. The man with the movie camera had struggled back up to his feet just in time to film one of his colleagues collapsing.
Arthur picked a blade of grass and strode off after Ford.

“電影攝像機，”福特說，“記錄這歷史性的一刻，”
“哦，我不知道你怎麼想，”過了片刻，福特再次開口道，“不過，我完蛋丁”
他沉默地坐了一會兒。
又過了一會兒阿瑟覺得幅特的這句話需要一點兒註釋。
“嗯，你說你完蛋了，究竟是什麼意思？”阿瑟問，
“問得好！”搞特說，“我這兒完全沒信號，”
從幅特的肩膀看過去，阿瑟看見他正徵擺弄一個黑色小盒子上的旋鈕。福特已經向阿瑟介紹過這個盒子了，它叫以太感應器。阿瑟心不在焉地點了點頭，沒有繼續追問下去。在他的頭腦裏，宇宙仍然劃分爲兩個部分一地球，和其他所有東西。地球爲了給一條超空間通道讓路而被毀滅了，這意味着這個劃分觀點有點兒不平衡，但是阿瑟堅持這種不平衡，以維繫最後剩下的一點兒他和自己家同的聯繫。毫無疑問，以太感應器屬於“其他所有東西”這一目錄。
“連根香腸都沒有。”福特說，一邊搖晃着手裏的玩意兒
香腸，阿瑟無精打采地望着眼前這個原始的世界，心想，如果現在能弄到一根上好的地球香腸，讓我幹什麼都成。
“你相信嗎，”福特惱怒地說，“在這個愚昧的角落，好幾光年範嗣之內措然沒有任何傳送信號，體在聽我說話嗎？”
“什麼？”阿瑟問。
“我們碰上麻煩了。”幅特說。
“峨，”阿瑟說。對他米說，這聽起來像一個月以前的1日聞：
“在我們從這臺機器裏獲得任何信號之前，”福特說，”我們離開這顆行星的兒牢是零。有可能是這顆行星的磁場出現了一些異常波動——要是這樣的話，我們就得不斷移動，找一個清晰的接收隧。你來嗎？”
他操起他的傢伙，大步走開了。
阿瑟朝下望去。那個帶着電影攝像機的人已經再一次掙扎着站了起束。
阿瑟撿起一塊玻璃片當成防身武器，大步跟上福特。