经典科幻文学:《宇宙尽头的餐馆》第24章6

Ford tossed down his drink, took the bottle from the first officer’s tray and refilled his glass to the top.
“What,” he said, “is a ‘B’ Ark?”
“This is,” said the Captain, and swished the foamy water around joyfully with the duck.
“Yes,” said Ford, “but…”
“Well what happened you see was,” said the Captain, “our planet, the world from which we have come, was, so to speak, doomed.”
“Doomed?”
“Oh yes. So what everyone thought was, let’s pack the whole population into some giant spaceships and go and settle on another planet.”
Having told this much of his story, he settled back with a satisfied grunt.
“You mean a less doomed one?” promoted Arthur.
“What did you say dear fellow?”
“A less doomed planet. You were going to settle on.”
“Are going to settle on, yes. So it was decided to build three ships, you see, three Arks in Space, and… I’m not boring you am I?”
“No, no,” said Ford firmly, “it’s fascinating.”
“You know it’s delightful,” reflected the Captain, “to have someone else to talk to for a change.”
Number Two’s eyes darted feverishly about the room again and then settled back on the mirror, like a pair of flies briefly distracted from their favourite prey of months old meat.
“Trouble with a long journey like this,” continued the Captain, “is that you end up just talking to yourself a lot, which gets terribly boring because half the time you know what you’re going to say next.”
“Only half the time?” asked Arthur in surprise.
The Captain thought for a moment.

福特一口干掉自己的饮料，然后从大副的托盘里拿过瓶子，重新斟满自己的杯子。
“什么是，”他说，“‘B’方舟？”
“这儿就是。”舰长回答说，一边高兴地推着那只鸭子在泡沫水里游来游去。
“是的，”福特说，“可——”
“嗯，事情是这样的，”舰长说，“我们的星球，我们的那个世界，这么说吧，注定要毁灭了。”
“毁灭？”
“噢，是的。所以每个人的想法都是，把所有人装进巨型太空飞船，到另一颗星球上去居住。”
讲了这么多他的故事后，他往后一靠，发出满足的哼哼声。
“你是指不会注定灭亡的一颗？”阿瑟脱口而出：
“你说什么，亲爱的伙计？”
“一颗不会注定灭亡的行星。你们打算去那儿定居？”
“打箅去定居，是的。于是，我们决定建造i艘飞船，你瞧，这艘太空中的方舟，并且……我没有让你们觉得烦吧？”
“没有，没有，”福特肯定地说，“这个故事很有趣。”
“你知道，”舰长接过柬说，”能有机会和别的人聊聊，真是件愉快的事情。”
二号的灼热目光再次扫过房问，然后又回到了镜子上，就像一对苍蝇从它们最喜欢的一块放了一个月的臭肉上短暂地离开片刻，然后又回来了。
“像这么漫鼬构航程，总会有个大问题，”舰长继续说，“到头来，你会不停地自言自语，这可真是太闷了，因为有一半的时间，你知道你下一句话将要说什么？”
“只有一半的时间吗？”阿瑟惊讶地问
舰长思索了会儿。