經典科幻文學:《 再見 多謝你們的魚》第37章2

The flying toolkits screeched and sawed and drilled and fried things with light throughout that day and all through the night time, and in the morning, stunningly, a giant mobile gantry started to roll westwards on several roads simultaneously with the robot standing on it, supported within the gantry.

Westward it crawled, like a strange carnival buzzed around by its servants and helicopters and news coaches, scything through the land until at last it came to Bournemouth, where the robot slowly freed itself from it transport system’s embraces and went and lay for ten days on the beach.

It was, of course, by far the most exciting thing that had ever happened to Bournemouth.

Crowds gathered daily along the perimeter which was staked out and guarded as the robot’s recreation area, and tried to see what it was doing.

It was doing nothing. It was lying on the beach. It was lying a little awkwardly on its face.

It was a journalist from a local paper who, late one night, managed to do what no one else in the world had so far managed, which was to strike up a brief intelligible conversation with one of the service robots guarding the perimeter.

It was an extraordinary breakthrough.

I think there’s a story in it, confided the journalist over a cigarette shared through the steel link fence, but it needs a good local angle. I’ve got a little list of questions here, he went on, rummaging awkwardly in an inner pocket, perhaps you could get him, it, whatever you call him, to run through them quickly.

The little flying ratchet screwdriver said it would see what it cold do and screeched off.

A reply was never forthcoming.

Curiously, however, the questions on the piece of paper more or less exactly matched the questions that were going through the massive battle-scarred industrial quality circuits of the robot’s mind. They were these:

How do you feel about being a robot?

How does it feel to be from outer space? and

How do you like Bournemouth?

Early the following day things started to be packed up and within a few days it became apparent that the robot was preparing to leave for good.

The point is, said Fenchurch to Ford, can you get us on board?

Ford looked wildly at his watch.

I have some serious unfinished business to attend to, he exclaimed.

那些飛行的工具箱花了一整天和一整夜的時間發出尖銳的哨音，把一些東西用光束鋸開、鑽孔、烤焦，到早上，令人震驚出現一個巨大的移動平臺沿着公路開始向西滾動，上面就站着那個機器人。

它向西爬行，四周嗡嗡飛舞着它的機器僕人和直升飛機，還有一些新加入的隊伍，看起來像一個奇特的嘉年華會，穿過大地最後到達了伯恩茅斯，然後機器人緩緩從運輸系統上下來，來到海灘上躺了十天。

當然，這是在伯恩茅斯發生過的最令人興奮的事情了。

專門劃出並設置了警戒的機器人休閒區周圍，每天都人潮洶涌，人們竭力要看清它在做什麼。

它什麼都沒做。它就是倒在海灘上。有些不太雅觀地趴着。

一天夜晚，當地一家報紙的一個記者，成功地完成了之前世界上任何人都沒有做成的事，就是和一個在周邊警戒的機器僕人進行了簡單明瞭的談話。

這實在是一個了不起的突破。

“我想它應該有個什麼故事，”那個記者叼着一根香菸隔着鐵鏈警戒線說，“可是它還該有個本地化的採訪角度。我這兒有一個列了幾個問題的小單子，”他笨手笨腳地在衣服的內袋中摸着，繼續說，“也許你能讓他，它，隨你們怎麼叫他了，花一點點時間答一答。”

那個飛着的棘輪旋鑿說它會看看它能做什麼，然後就尖叫着飛走了。

沒有任何迴音。

不過，奇怪的是，那張紙上的問題的確多多少少和那個機器人腦中的那巨大的、久經考驗的、工業品質的電路中思考的問題想吻合。那些問題是：

“作爲一個機器人您有什麼感想？”

“從外太空來的感覺怎麼樣？”以及

“您喜歡伯恩茅斯嗎？”

第二天早些時候事情開始變得有條理了，幾天之後情況很明顯：機器人準備離開這裏永遠不來了。

“問題在於，”芬切琪對福特說，“你能把我們弄到船上去嗎？”

福特狂亂地看着他的手錶。

“我有些很重要的事情沒做完，我要去搞定。”他宣佈。