经典科幻文学:《银河系漫游指南》第8章 Part 2

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy says that if you hold a lungful of air you can survive in the total vacuum of space for about thirty seconds. However it goes on to say that what with space being the mind boggling size it is the chances of getting picked up by another ship within those thirty seconds are two to the power of two hundred and sixty-seven thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. By a totally staggering coincidence that is also the telephone number of an Islington flat where Arthur once went to a very good party and met a very nice girl whom he totally failed to get off with — she went off with a gatecrasher.
Though the planet Earth, the Islington flat and the telephone have all now been demolished, it is comforting to reflect that they are all in some small way commemorated by the fact that twenty-nine seconds later Ford and Arthur were rescued.
A computer chatted to itself in alarm as it noticed an airlock open and close itself for no apparent reason.
This was because Reason was in fact out to lunch.
A hole had just appeared in the Galaxy. It was exactly a nothingth of a second long, a nothingth of an inch wide, and quite a lot of million light years from end to end.
As it closed up lots of paper hats and party balloons fell out of it and drifted off through the universe. A team of seven three-foot-high market analysts fell out of it and died, partly of asphyxication, partly of surprise.
Two hundred and thirty-nine thousand lightly fried eggs fell out of it too, materializing in a large woobly heap on the famine-struck land of Poghril in the Pansel system.
The whole Poghril tribe had died out from famine except for one last man who died of cholesterol poisoning some weeks later.

《银河系漫游指南》上说，如果你吸入满满一肺的空气，那么你能在绝对真空的太空里存活大约30秒。然而，它没有继续说，在如此广袤无垠的太空中，你在这30秒内被另一艘飞船救起的概率是2的276，709次方比1.一个令人难以置信的巧合是，276，709恰恰是伊思林顿一座公寓的电话号码，阿瑟曾经在那儿参加过一场非常精彩的派对。他在派对上遇到了一个很不错的姑娘，但他却没能和这个姑娘多亲热——她被一个闯派对者抢跑了。
虽然地球、伊思林顿的这座公寓，以及这个电话号码现在统统灰飞烟灭了，但令人鼓舞的是，它们全都通过下述事实得到了一丝微薄的纪念——29秒之后，福特和阿瑟获救了。
当发现了一个气闸没有任何原因地打开又自动关上后，—台电脑开始不停地自动报警。
实际上，找不到原因，原因大概出去吃午饭了。
一个洞出现在银河系里。确切地说，它仅仅只存在了一秒钟，仅仅只有一英寸宽，但洞两头之间的距离却有好几百万光年。
当它关闭时，许多纸帽子和派对气球从里面掉出来，慢慢地飘过整个宇宙。还有一队7个3英尺高的市场分析家掉出来，已经死了，部分是由于窒息，部分则是由于惊讶。
239，000个煎得很嫩的鸡蛋也掉了出来，组成摇摆不定的一大堆，落在正饱受饥荒折磨的潘塞尔星系的普格瑞尔大陆上。
整个普格瑞尔大陆的部落已经全部死于饥荒，只有最后幸存的一个人，而这个人几周后也死于胆固醇中毒。