经典科幻文学:《宇宙尽头的餐馆》第2章4

“And Zaphod Beeblebrox.”
For an instant Halfrunt’s smile flickered.
“Ah yes,” he said, “I had been expecting this. It is most regrettable.”
“A personal friend?” inquired the Vogon, who had heard the expression somewhere once and decided to try it out.
“Ah, no,” said Halfrunt, “in my profession you know, we do not make personal friends.”
“Ah,” grunted the Vogon, “professional detachment.”
“No,” said Halfrunt cheerfully, “we just don’t have the knack.”
He paused. His mouth continued to smile, but his eyes frowned slightly.
“But Beeblebrox, you know,” he said, “he is one of my most profitable clients. He had personality problems beyond the dreams of analysts.”
He toyed with this thought a little before reluctantly dismissing it.
“Still,” he said, “you are ready for your task?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Destroy the ship immediately.”
“What about Beeblebrox?”
“Well,” said Halfrunt brightly, “Zaphod’s just this guy, you know?”
He vanished from the screen.
The Vogon Captain pressed a communicator button which connected him with the remains of his crew.
“Attack,” he said.

“以及赞福德·毕博布鲁克斯。”
这一瞬间，哈尔佛兰特的笑容闪烁了一下。
“哦，是的，”他说，“我猜到会是这样。真是令人遗憾啊。”
“是你的朋友？”沃贡人问，他以前在某个地方听到过“朋友”这种表述方法，所以决定自己也来试试。
“噢，不是，”哈尔佛兰特说，“在我这个行当里，你知道的，我们是不交私人朋友的。”
“喔，”沃贡人咕哝着，“职业性冷漠。”
“不，”哈尔佛兰特愉快地说，“我们只是没有交朋友的概念。”
他顿了一下，嘴上仍然挂着笑容，但眉头已经轻轻皱起。
“不过，毕博布鲁克斯，你知道，”他说，“他是我最有利可图的主顾之一。他身上的人格病症简直是精神分析医生们梦寐以求的。”
他玩味了一会儿这个念头，最后不得不很不情愿地丢开了。
“那么，”他问，“你准备好了吗？”
“是的。”
“好。立即摧毁这艘飞船。”
“毕博布鲁克斯怎么办？”
“噢，”哈尔佛兰特轻快地说，“赞福德不过是赞福德罢了，懂吗？”
说着，他从屏幕上消失了。
沃贡舰长按下一个通话器按钮，把他和他剩下的船员们联系起来。
“攻击，”他说。