經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第17章6

He was almost completely lost, convinced he was going to die of cold and wet and exhaustion and beginning to wish he could just get on with it. He had just been brought an entire golfing magazine by a squirrel, as well, and his brain was beginning to howl and gibber.

他已經完全找不着路，確信自己將死於寒冷，潮溼和疲憊，並且開始希望自己乾脆接受這個事實算了。而且剛纔還有隻松鼠給他拿來了一本《高爾夫》雜誌，他的腦袋已經開始嘰裏呱啦又笑又哭。

Seeing a huge bright image of himself light up in the sky told him that, on balance, he was probably right to howl and gibber but probably wrong as far as the direction he was heading was concerned.

在天空中看見一幅自己的巨型圖像，這告訴他一個事實，總的來說，嘰裏呱啦又笑又哭大概是正確的選擇；但如果單論前進的方向，他應該是走錯了纔對。

Taking a deep breath, he turned and headed off towards the inexplicable light show.

他深吸一口氣，轉身朝那個不知所謂的燈光表演走去。

‘OK, so what’s that supposed to prove?’ demanded Random. It was the fact that the image was her father that had startled her rather than the appearance of the image itself. She had seen her first hologram when she was two months old and had been put in it to play. She had seen her most recent one about half an hour ago playing the March of the AnjaQantine Star Guard.

“好吧，那這又能說明什麼？”蘭登問。她之所以嚇了一跳其實是因爲看到了她父親，而不是因爲圖像的出現。她兩個月大的時候就開始看全息圖了，而且大人也常把她放裏頭玩。再說，不過是半個鐘頭前她不是纔看過全息圖嗎，它還正演奏《安加-狂泰星際守衛進行曲》呢。

‘Only that it’s no more there or not there than the sheet was,’ said the bird. ‘It’s just the interaction of water from the sky moving in one direction, with light at frequencies your senses can detect moving in another. It makes an apparently solid image in your mind. But it’s all just images in the Mish Mash. Here’s another one for you.’

“只想說明它並不比剛纔的光更存在或者更不存在。”指南鳥說，“那只是天上的水在往一個方向移動，你能覺察的光線頻率關係在往另一個方向移動，兩者剛好發生互動。它在你心裏造成了一幅彷彿很真實的圖像。但這些其實只不過是全體各色總雜燴裏的畫面而已。來，再給你一幅。”

‘My mother!’ said Random.

“我母親！”蘭登道。

‘No,’ said the bird.

“不是。”鳥說。

‘I know my mother when I see her!’

“我自己的母親我還認得出來！”

The image was of a woman emerging from a spacecraft inside a large, grey hangar-like building. She was being escorted by a group of tall, thin purplish-green creatures. It was definitely Random’s mother. Well, almost definitely. Trillian wouldn’t have been walking quite so uncertainly in low gravity, or looking around her at a boring old life-support environment with quite such a disbelieving look on her face, or carrying such a quaint old camera.

畫面上是一個機庫模樣的大灰色建築，裏頭停了艘飛船，一個女人正從飛船上出來，護送她的那一隊瘦高個的皮膚是種紫兮兮的綠色。毫無疑問那就是蘭登的母親。唔，幾個毫無疑問。只不過，崔莉恩在低重力環境下走路，動作不會那麼缺乏自信，她也不會用那麼不敢置信的神情打量一個無聊的老式生命維繫環境，又或者拿着那麼個奇怪的老相機四處晃悠。

‘So who is it?’ demanded Random.

“這到底是誰？”蘭登問。

‘She is part of the extent of your mother on the probability axis,’ said the bird Guide.

“她是你母親在概率軸線上外延的一部分。”指南鳥說。

‘I haven’t the faintest idea what you mean.’

“我半點也不明白你在講些什麼。”

‘Space, time and probability all have axes along which it is possible to move.’

“空間，時間和概率都有軸線，它們可以沿着這些軸線移動。”

‘Still dunno. Though I think… No. Explain.’

“還是不明白。不過我想……不。解釋給我聽。”

‘I thought you wanted to go home.’

“我還以爲你想回家。”