经典科幻文学:《基本上无害 Mostly Harmless》第21章10

Each of the monitors was showing a kaleidoscope of different images: a few seconds from a game show, a few seconds from a cop show, a few seconds from a supermarket warehouse security system, a few seconds from somebody’s holiday movies, a few seconds of sex, a few seconds of news, a few seconds of comedy. It was clear that the Leader was very proud of all this stuff and he was waving his hands like a conductor while continuing at the same time to talk complete gibberish.

每一个监视器上都显示着万花筒般的图像：几秒钟的比赛画面，几秒钟的警匪片，几秒钟的超市货仓的安全录像，几秒钟的某人度假的家庭录像，几秒钟性，几秒钟新闻，几秒钟喜剧。首领显然对这一切非常自豪，他像个指挥家一样挥动双手，嘴里继续着自己彻头彻尾的胡言乱语。

Another wave of his hands, and all the screens cleared to form one giant computer screen showing in diagrammatic form all the planets of the solar system and mapped out against a background of the stars in their constellations. The display was completely static.

他又一挥手，监视器上的图像全部消失，它们组成了一个巨大的屏幕，显示出太阳系的所有行星，背景则是各星座的恒星。画面完全是静止的。

‘We have great skills,’ the Leader was saying. ‘Great skills in computation, in cosmological trigonometry, in three-dimensional navigational calculus. Great skills. Great, great skills. Only we have lost them. It is too bad. We like to have skills only they have gone. They are in space somewhere, hurtling. With our names and the details of our homes and loved ones. Please,’ he said, gesturing her forward to sit at the computer’s console, ‘be skilful for us.’

“我们拥有伟大的技术，”首领说到，“无论是计算，宇宙三角学还是三维航行微积分上。伟大的技术，非常，非常伟大的技术，只不过我们失去了它们。这太糟了。我们喜欢这些技术，可它们却走了。它们就在这宇宙里的什么地方，在飞驰，带着我们的名字以及我们的故乡和爱人的详细资料。请你，”他挥手让她坐到计算机地控制台前边，“用你的技术帮我们。”

Obviously what happened next was that Tricia quickly set the video camera up on its tripod to capture the whole scene. She then walked into shot herself and sat down calmly in front of the giant computer display, spent a few moments familiarizing herself with the interface and then started smoothly and competently to pretend that she had the faintest idea what she was doing.

接下来，崔茜卡自然是赶紧把摄像机放在三脚架上，好把这整个情况录下来。然后她自己也走进镜头里，镇定自若地在巨大的计算机屏幕前坐下，花了几分钟熟悉界面，然后就顺顺溜溜地，非常专业地开始装模作样，假装她真晓得哪怕一丁点自己这是在干什么。

It hadn’t been that difficult, in fact.

事实上根本没那么难。

She was, after all, a mathematician and astrophysicist by training and a television presenter by experience, and what science she had forgotten over the years she was more than capable of making up by bluffing.

毕竟，她是受过正规训练的数学家和天体物理学家，又是个经验老道的电视主播，不管这些年来她忘了多少科学，凭虚张声势都能补的绰绰有余。

The computer she was working on was clear evidence that the Grebulons came from a far more advanced and sophisticated culture than their current vacuous state suggested, and with its aid she was able, within about half an hour, to cobble together a rough working model of the solar system.

她用的那台计算机非常先进，无疑说明格里布隆人的文明比如今这种真空状态所显示的要高级，精致很多。靠了它帮忙，崔茜卡修修补补了不到半个小时就搞出了个大致能用的太阳系模型。