经典科幻文学:《银河系漫游指南》第9章 Part 4

"Just a couple of guys we seem to have picked up in open space," she said. "Section ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha."
"Yeah, well that's a very sweet thought Trillian," complained Zaphod, "but do you really think it's wise under the circumstances? I mean, here we are on the run and everything, we must have the police of half the Galaxy after us by now, and we stop to pick up hitch hikers. OK, so ten out of ten for style, but minus several million for good thinking, yeah?"
He tapped irritably at a control panel. Trillian quietly moved his hand before he tapped anything important. Whatever Zaphod's qualities of mind might include — dash, bravado, conceit — he was mechanically inept and could easily blow the ship up with an extravagant gesture. Trillian had come to suspect that the main reason why he had had such a wild and successful life that he never really understood the significance of anything he did.
"Zaphod," she said patiently, "they were floating unprotected in open space ... you wouldn't want them to have died would you?"
"Well, you know ... no. Not as such, but ..."
"Not as such? Not die as such? But?" Trillian cocked her head on one side.
"Well, maybe someone else might have picked them up later."
"A second later and they would have been dead."
"Yeah, so if you'd taken the trouble to think about the problem a bit longer it would have gone away."
"You'd been happy to let them die?"
"Well, you know, not happy as such, but ..."
"Anyway," said Trillian, turning back to the controls, "I didn't pick them up."
"What do you mean? Who picked them up then?"
"The ship did."
"Huh?"

“只是两个普通家伙，我们在外太空中把他们捞了起来，”她说，“就在229复Z阿尔发区域。”
“喔，好吧，心肠不错，崔莉恩。”赞福德抱怨说，“但在目前的情况下，你认为这样做合适吗？我是说，我们正在逃亡中，身后起码跟了整个银河系一半的警察，我们却停下来搭救两个漫游者，嗯？”
他暴躁地不停敲着控制面板。每次快碰到重要按钮之前，崔莉恩总是一声不吭地把他的手移开。不管赞福德的心理属于哪一类——冲动、虚张声势、狂妄——他在机械技能上总归是蠢笨不堪的，随时可能用一些莫名其妙的动作轻易地把这艘飞船弄翻。崔莉恩甚至越来越怀疑，他之所以能有今天这样成功而疯狂的人生，最主要的原因就是他从来没有真正理解过他所做的任何事情的意义和后果。
“赞福德，”她耐心地解释道，“他们在外太空没有任何保护地飘来荡去……你总不希望看着他们死掉吧，对吗？”
“喔，你知道……不。当然不是，可是……”
“当然不是？当然不想看着他们死掉？可是？”崔莉恩的头一偏。
“喔，也许会有其他什么人在我们后面把他们救起来。”
“可再过一秒钟他们就已经死掉了。”
“是的，所以如果你对这个问题多考虑一会儿的话，这个问题早就解决了。”
“你难道很乐意让他们去死吗？”
“喔，你知道，当然不能说乐意，可是……”
“总之，”崔莉恩说，一边转回去面对控制面板，“又不是我把他们救起来的。”
“你这是什么意思？那是谁把他们救起来的？”
“这艘飞船。”
“什么？”