經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第15章12

This was All getting a bit eventful.

最近的生活也過於豐富多彩了些。

In fact, when the parcel arrived, delivered by a kind of robot drone that dropped out of the sky making droning robot noises, it brought with it a sense which gradually began to permeate through the whole village, that it was almost one event too many.

事實上，當送包裹的那個嗡嗡的機器人發出機器人的嗡嗡聲從天上掉下來的時候，它帶來的是一個正逐漸在整個村子瀰漫的感覺——這日子過得，實在是豐富過頭了。

It wasn’t the robot drone’s fault. All it required was Arthur Dent’s signature or thumb print, or just a few scrapings of skin cells from the nape of his neck and it would be on its way again. It hung around waiting, not quite sure what all this resentment was about. Meanwhile, Kirp had caught another fish with a head at both ends, but on closer inspection it turned out that it was in fact two fish cut in half and sewn together rather badly, so not only had Kirp failed to rekindle any great interest in two-headed fish but he had seriously cast doubt on the authenticity of the first one. Only the pikka birds seemed to feel that everything was exactly normal.

這當然不是那個機器人的錯。它需要的不過是阿瑟.鄧特的親筆簽名或者手印再或者從脖子背後去取一點點皮膚細胞而已，然後它就會繼續上路。它懸在空中等着，對周圍人的憤憤不平半點也摸不着頭腦。與此同時，柯爾普又逮住了一條兩頭各有一個腦袋的魚，但經過仔細檢查大家發現，那其實是兩條魚砍成兩半再笨手笨腳地縫在一起的結果，因此柯爾普不僅沒能重燃大家對雙頭魚的興趣，甚至還給上一次發現的真實性投下了陰影。似乎只有噼卡鳥覺得一切都很正常。

The robot drone got Arthur’s signature and made its escape. Arthur bore the parcel back to his hut and sat and looked at it.

機器人拿上阿瑟的簽名逃走了。阿瑟把包裹拿回茅屋，坐下來盯着它。

‘Let’s open it!’ said Random, who was feeling much more cheerful this morning now that everything around her had got thoroughly weird, but Arthur said no.

“讓我們快拆開！”既然周圍的一切都變得超級詭異，蘭登就覺得心情好多了。可阿瑟說不。

‘Why not?’

“爲什麼？”

‘It’s not addressed to me.’

“這不是寄給我的。”

‘Yes, it is.’

“當然是寄給你的。”

‘No, it isn’t. It’s addressed to… well, it’s addressed to Ford Prefect, in care of me.’

“不，真的不是。它是寄給……唔，寄給福特.長官的，由我代爲保管。”

‘Ford Prefect? Is he the one who…’

“福特.長官？就是那個……？”

‘Yes,’ said Arthur tartly.

“沒錯。”阿瑟的語氣好不辛酸。

‘I’ve heard about him.’

“我聽說過他。”

‘I expect you have.’

“我猜也是。”