经典科幻文学:《银河系漫游指南》第3章 Part 1

Chapter 3
On this particular Thursday, something was moving quietly through the ionosphere many miles above the surface of the planet; several somethings in fact, several dozen huge yellow chunky slablike somethings, huge as office buildings, silent as birds. They soared with ease, basking in electromagnetic rays from the star Sol, biding their time, grouping, preparing.
The planet beneath them was almost perfectly oblivious of their presence, which was just how they wanted it for the moment. The huge yellow somethings went unnoticed at Goonhilly, they passed over Cape Canaveral without a blip, Woomera and Jodrell Bank looked straight through them — which was a pity because it was exactly the sort of thing they'd been looking for all these years.
Beneath that in Ford Prefect's satchel were a few biros, a notepad, and a largish bath towel from Marks and Spencer.
The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels.
A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value — you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you — daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
Hence a phrase which has passed into hitch hiking slang, as in "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)
"You got a towel with you?" said Ford Prefect suddenly to Arthur.
Arthur, struggling through his third pint, looked round at him.
"Why? What, no ... should I have?" He had given up being surprised, there didn't seem to be any point any longer.
Ford clicked his tongue in irritation.
"Drink up," he urged.

第三章
就在这个星期四，有个东西无声无息地穿行在距离地球表面很多英里之上的电离层中。实际上，应该说是—些东西，好几十个巨大而粗矮的黄色板状物，像办公楼一样大，像鸟一样无声无息。它们轻快地滑翔着，沐浴在这颗叫做太阳的恒星的电磁射线中，花费时间集结、编队、准备着。
它们下面这颗行星完全没有意识到它们的到来，惟一探测到它们的是一个叫做亚以太感应器的黑色微型仪器，它开始无声地闪烁起来。它被放在一个皮质小背包里，福特·普里弗克特总是习惯把这个小背包挂在脖子上。福特·普里弗克特的小背包里面其实相当有趣，足以使地球上的任何物理学家瞠目结舌，所以他总是把两本已经卷角的剧本（他假装自己正准备去这两个剧组试镜）放在面上遮住。
在福特·普里弗克特的小背包里，这几件东西下面是几支圆珠笔、一个笔记本，以及一条在M&S超市买的大洗澡毛巾。
《银河系漫游指南》中关于毛巾这个词条也有一些解释。
一条毛巾，它解释说，大概是对一个星际漫游者来说最有用的东西了。从一个方面看，毛巾有着巨大的实用价值：但更重要的是，毛巾有着巨大的心理学上的价值。也不知道出于什么原因，如果一个“正常人”（正常人：非漫游者）发现一个漫游者随身带着毛巾，那么他会很自然地认为此人同样也有牙刷、浴衣、肥皂、装饼干的罐子、保温瓶、指南针、地图、绳捆、灭蚊喷剂、雨衣、太空服……等等。于是乎，他会很乐意借给这个漫游者所有这些东西，甚至还有其他的许多东西——而这些东西通通是这个漫游者碰巧“丢失”了的。这个正常人的心理就是，一个人，在广阔的银河系中漫游，在面对了许多可怕的困难并且成功地战而胜之以后，他如果仍然还弄得清楚自己的毛巾在哪里，那么这显然是一个值得认真对待的人。
因此，在搭便车漫游的行话中有这么一句，就是：“嘿，你碰过那个同行的福特·普里弗克特吗？那可是个真正知道自己的毛巾在哪里的好搭档。”（碰：知道，认识，遇见，发生过性关系；同行：确实在一起的家伙；好搭档：在一起时让人惊叹的家伙）
“你带毛巾了吗？”福特突然对阿瑟说。
阿瑟——这可怜的人正在对付他的第三品脱啤酒——上下打量了他几眼。
“为什么？什么，不，没有……我应该带吗？”喝到这个时候，他对这种突兀的问题已经不再感到惊讶了。
福特恼火地弹了一下舌头。
“干。”他劝道。