经典科幻文学:《 再见 多谢你们的鱼》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.

芬琪诗凑过去，越过他的身子拖过来她的帆布包。
“这个东西与此有关么？”她说。她从包里拿出来的东西破破烂烂满面风尘，因为它被扔进过史前河流，被卡卡拉福恩星沙漠的火红烈日炙烤过，被桑塔基努斯五号星的迷醉蒸汽海洋旁边的大理石沙滩半掩埋过，被贾格兰贝塔星的月亮上的并和冷冻过（注），被坐过，被在宇宙飞船里踢来踢去，被拖拽过而且被常规性地虐待过，而且由于它的制作者早就考虑过这正是它可能遭遇的事儿，他们仔细地把它装在了一个坚硬的塑料壳中，然后用大而友善的字体写着“不要恐慌”。
“你从哪儿搞到它的？”阿瑟惊讶地说着，从她手里拿过它。
“啊，”她说，“我认为这是你的。那个晚上在拉塞尔的车里。你落下了它。你去过很多这种地方？”
阿瑟把《银河系漫游指南》从外壳里拿出来。那就像是一个微小纤薄柔软的便携式电脑。他敲击了一些按钮直到屏幕上展开了文字。
“只去过一些，”他说。
“我们能去那些地方么？”
“什么？不，”阿瑟生硬地说，接着态度缓和下来，但是很谨慎。“你想去吗？”他说着，希望答案是不。没说预料中的“你不想去的是吧？”已经是他崇高慷慨一面的表现了。
“想。”她说。“我想知道我丢失的信息是什么以及信息从哪儿来的。因为我不认为，”她补充道，站起来环视公园里逐渐扩大的阴暗，“它来自此地。”
“我甚至不确定，”她进一步补充着，把手搭在阿瑟腰间，“我知道此地是哪里。”