经典科幻文学:《宇宙尽头的餐馆》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.

“电影摄像机，”福特说，“记录这历史性的一刻，”
“哦，我不知道你怎么想，”过了片刻，福特再次开口道，“不过，我完蛋丁”
他沉默地坐了一会儿。
又过了一会儿阿瑟觉得幅特的这句话需要一点儿注释。
“嗯，你说你完蛋了，究竟是什么意思？”阿瑟问，
“问得好！”搞特说，“我这儿完全没信号，”
从幅特的肩膀看过去，阿瑟看见他正征摆弄一个黑色小盒子上的旋钮。福特已经向阿瑟介绍过这个盒子了，它叫以太感应器。阿瑟心不在焉地点了点头，没有继续追问下去。在他的头脑里，宇宙仍然划分为两个部分一地球，和其他所有东西。地球为了给一条超空间通道让路而被毁灭了，这意味着这个划分观点有点儿不平衡，但是阿瑟坚持这种不平衡，以维系最后剩下的一点儿他和自己家同的联系。毫无疑问，以太感应器属于“其他所有东西”这一目录。
“连根香肠都没有。”福特说，一边摇晃着手里的玩意儿
香肠，阿瑟无精打采地望着眼前这个原始的世界，心想，如果现在能弄到一根上好的地球香肠，让我干什么都成。
“你相信吗，”福特恼怒地说，“在这个愚昧的角落，好几光年范嗣之内措然没有任何传送信号，体在听我说话吗？”
“什么？”阿瑟问。
“我们碰上麻烦了。”幅特说。
“峨，”阿瑟说。对他米说，这听起来像一个月以前的1日闻：
“在我们从这台机器里获得任何信号之前，”福特说，”我们离开这颗行星的儿牢是零。有可能是这颗行星的磁场出现了一些异常波动——要是这样的话，我们就得不断移动，找一个清晰的接收隧。你来吗？”
他操起他的家伙，大步走开了。
阿瑟朝下望去。那个带着电影摄像机的人已经再一次挣扎着站了起束。
阿瑟捡起一块玻璃片当成防身武器，大步跟上福特。