经典科幻文学:《银河系漫游指南》第12章 Part1

"Improbability Drive," she said patiently. "You explained it to me yourself. We pass through every point in the Universe, you know that."
"Yeah, but that's one wild coincidence isn't it?"
"Yes."
"Picking someone up at that point? Out of the whole of the Universe to choose from? That's just too ... I want to work this out. Computer!"
The Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Shipboard Computer which controlled and permeated every particle of the ship switched into communication mode.
"Hi there!" it said brightly and simultaneously spewed out a tiny ribbon of ticker tape just for the record. The ticker tape said, Hi there!
"Oh God," said Zaphod. He hadn't worked with this computer for long but had already learned to loathe it.
The computer continued, brash and cheery as if it was selling detergent.
"I want you to know that whatever your problem, I am here to help you solve it." "Yeah yeah," said Zaphod. "Look, I think I'll just use a piece of paper."
"Sure thing," said the computer, spilling out its message into a waste bin at the same time, "I understand. If you ever want ..."
"Shut up!" said Zaphod, and snatching up a pencil sat down next to Trillian at the console.
"OK, OK ..." said the computer in a hurt tone of voice and closed down its speech channel again.
Zaphod and Trillian pored over the figures that the Improbability flight path scanner flashed silently up in front of them.
"Can we work out," said Zaphod, "from their point of view what the Improbability of their rescue was?"
"Yes, that's a constant", said Trillian, "two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against."
"That's high. They're two lucky lucky guys."
"Yes."

“非概率驱动。”她耐心地说，“你自己还解释给我听过的。我们穿越了宇宙中的每一个点，这你知道。”
“没错，但那只是一个巧合，不是吗？”
“是的。”
“正好在那个点上救起了这两个人？在整个宇宙所有可能的点中间？这也太……我得算一算。电脑！”
天狼星控制系统舰载电脑，这个控制、渗透了飞船每一个角落的家伙，立刻切换到了交流模式。
“你好！”它的声音生气勃勃，同时还输出了一小段记录纸带，上面写着“你好”。
“噢，上帝呀。”赞福德说。虽然他和这台电脑共事的时间并不长，但已经开始很厌恶它了。
电脑继续说着，语速很快，兴高采烈，仿佛是在推销某个牌子的清洁剂。
“我要告诉你的是，无论你碰到了什么难题，我都会在这儿帮助你解决。”‘“好了，好了。”赞福德说，“是这样的，我想我需要一张纸。”
“没问题，”电脑说，一边又向垃圾桶里输出—截记录，“我能够理解。如果你还需要……”
“闭嘴！”赞福德吼了—句，随手操起一枝铅笔坐在崔莉恩身旁的控制台前。
“好吧，好吧。”电脑用一种受了伤害的语调说，然后关闭了通话频道。
赞福德和崔莉恩死死地盯着面前的非概率航行轨道扫描器上静静闪烁着的数字。
“我们能算出来吗？”赞福德问，“从他们的角度看他们获救的非概率是多少？”
“可以，那是个恒量。”崔莉恩说，“2的276，709次方比1.”
“很高啊。这两个家伙真的是太幸运太幸运了。”
“没错。”