經典科幻文學:《 再見 多謝你們的魚》第40章3

Leave me, he said, go on ahead, leave me to struggle painfully on my way. My time at last has nearly come. My race is nearly run. I fully expect, he said, feebly waving them on with a broken finger, to come in last. It would be fitting. Here I am, brain the size…

Between them they picked him up despite his feeble protests and insults. The metal was so hot it nearly blistered their fingers, but he weighed surprisingly little, and hung limply between their arms.

They carried him with them along the path that ran along the left of the Great Red Plain of Rars toward the encircling Mountains of Quentulus Quazgar.

Arthur attempted to explain to Fenchurch, but was too often interrupted by Marvin’s dolorous cybernetic ravings.

They tried to see if they could get him some spare parts at one of the booths, but Marvin would have none of it.

I’m all spare parts, he droned.

Let me be! he groaned.

Every part of me, he moaned, has been replaced at least fifty times… except… He seemed almost imperceptibly to brighten for a moment. His head bobbed between them with the effort of memory. Do you remember, the first time you ever met me, he said at last to Arthur. I had been given the intellect-stretching task of taking you up to the bridge? I mentioned to you that I had this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side? That I had asked for them to be replaced but they never were?

He left a longish pause before he continued. They carried him on between them, under the baking sun that hardly ever seemed to move, let alone set.

See if you can guess, said Marvin, when he judged that the pause had become embarrassing enough, which parts of me were never replaced? Go on, see if you can guess.

Ouch, he added, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch.

At last they reached the last of the little booths, set down Marvin between them and rested in the shade. Fenchurch bought some cufflinks for Russell, cufflinks that had set in them little polished pebbles which had been picked up from the Quentulus Quazgar Mountains, directly underneath the letters of fire in which was written God’s Final Message to His Creation.

Arthur flipped through a little rack of devotional tracts on the counter, little meditations on the meaning of the Message.

Ready? he said to Fenchurch, who nodded.

They heaved up Marvin between them.

“丟下我，”他說，“接着走吧。丟下我在這裏痛苦地掙扎。我的日子總算快到頭了。我的路快走完了。我真希望，”他說，“用一根破碎的手指和它們揮手告別，——終於要結束了。很是時候。我在這裏，腦容量……”

他倆從兩邊把他架起來，沒有理會他微弱的抗議和侮辱。他身上的金屬熱得幾乎要把他們的手燙起水泡，不過他輕得令人吃驚，就那樣軟塌塌地在兩人的胳膊上耷拉着。

他們架着他壓着拉爾斯紅色大平原左拐的路走向環繞在前方的昆圖魯斯·垮茲噶爾山脈。

阿瑟試着向芬切琪解釋，但是總是被馬文悲痛的傾訴打斷。

在一個售貨亭，他們想看看能不能給馬文找點備用零件，可是馬文一個都不要。

“我整個都是備用零件。”他喃喃的說。

“別管我！”他呻吟着。

“我的每個零件，”他哀號着，“都被換了至少五十次了，……除了……”他看起來好像難以察覺地高興了一下。他的頭在他們之間晃動了一下試圖回憶起來，“你記不記得，你第一次碰見我的時候，”最後他對阿瑟說，“我被派來執行那個鍛鍊大腦的任務，就是帶你去艦橋？我跟你說過我左邊所有的二極管都疼得要命？我讓他們給我換換，但是一直都沒換？”

他停了一會兒沒接着說。他倆在兩邊架着他，上面的太陽好像一直沒挪過窩，更別說落下了。

“看看你能不能猜到，”馬文發現他的停頓已經變得很尷尬，於是說，“我哪個部分一直沒被換過？來，看看你能不能猜到？”

“哎喲，”他接着說，“哎喲，哎喲，哎喲，哎喲，哎喲。”

他們終於到達了最後的幾個小售貨亭，把馬文在陰影中放下來。芬切琪給拉塞爾買了幾個鏈釦，那些鏈釦上鑲着磨光了的小石頭，那些石頭都是從昆圖魯斯·垮茲噶爾山脈裏，寫着上帝給自己造物最後的訊息的火焰字母下面撿來的。

阿瑟在櫃檯上翻動着一個小架子裏面的內容虔誠的小冊子，都是有關訊息的意義的一些冥思。

“準備好了嗎？”他問芬切琪，芬切琪點點頭。

他們從兩邊把馬文架起來。