經典科幻文學:《銀河系漫遊指南》第9章 Part 4

"Just a couple of guys we seem to have picked up in open space," she said. "Section ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha."
"Yeah, well that's a very sweet thought Trillian," complained Zaphod, "but do you really think it's wise under the circumstances? I mean, here we are on the run and everything, we must have the police of half the Galaxy after us by now, and we stop to pick up hitch hikers. OK, so ten out of ten for style, but minus several million for good thinking, yeah?"
He tapped irritably at a control panel. Trillian quietly moved his hand before he tapped anything important. Whatever Zaphod's qualities of mind might include — dash, bravado, conceit — he was mechanically inept and could easily blow the ship up with an extravagant gesture. Trillian had come to suspect that the main reason why he had had such a wild and successful life that he never really understood the significance of anything he did.
"Zaphod," she said patiently, "they were floating unprotected in open space ... you wouldn't want them to have died would you?"
"Well, you know ... no. Not as such, but ..."
"Not as such? Not die as such? But?" Trillian cocked her head on one side.
"Well, maybe someone else might have picked them up later."
"A second later and they would have been dead."
"Yeah, so if you'd taken the trouble to think about the problem a bit longer it would have gone away."
"You'd been happy to let them die?"
"Well, you know, not happy as such, but ..."
"Anyway," said Trillian, turning back to the controls, "I didn't pick them up."
"What do you mean? Who picked them up then?"
"The ship did."
"Huh?"

“只是兩個普通傢伙，我們在外太空中把他們撈了起來，”她說，“就在229復Z阿爾發區域。”
“喔，好吧，心腸不錯，崔莉恩。”贊福德抱怨說，“但在目前的情況下，你認爲這樣做合適嗎？我是說，我們正在逃亡中，身後起碼跟了整個銀河系一半的警察，我們卻停下來搭救兩個漫遊者，嗯？”
他暴躁地不停敲着控制面板。每次快碰到重要按鈕之前，崔莉恩總是一聲不吭地把他的手移開。不管贊福德的心理屬於哪一類——衝動、虛張聲勢、狂妄——他在機械技能上總歸是蠢笨不堪的，隨時可能用一些莫名其妙的動作輕易地把這艘飛船弄翻。崔莉恩甚至越來越懷疑，他之所以能有今天這樣成功而瘋狂的人生，最主要的原因就是他從來沒有真正理解過他所做的任何事情的意義和後果。
“贊福德，”她耐心地解釋道，“他們在外太空沒有任何保護地飄來蕩去……你總不希望看着他們死掉吧，對嗎？”
“喔，你知道……不。當然不是，可是……”
“當然不是？當然不想看着他們死掉？可是？”崔莉恩的頭一偏。
“喔，也許會有其他什麼人在我們後面把他們救起來。”
“可再過一秒鐘他們就已經死掉了。”
“是的，所以如果你對這個問題多考慮一會兒的話，這個問題早就解決了。”
“你難道很樂意讓他們去死嗎？”
“喔，你知道，當然不能說樂意，可是……”
“總之，”崔莉恩說，一邊轉回去面對控制面板，“又不是我把他們救起來的。”
“你這是什麼意思？那是誰把他們救起來的？”
“這艘飛船。”
“什麼？”