经典科幻文学:《 基本上无害 Mostly Harmless》 第8章1

Ford had his own code of ethics. It wasn’t much of one, but it was his and he stuck by it, more or less. One rule he made was never to buy his own drinks. He wasn’t sure if that counted as an ethic, but you have to go with what you’ve got. He was also firmly and utterly opposed to all and any forms of cruelty to any animals whatsoever except geese. And furthermore he would never steal from his employers.

福特有自己的一套道德准则。没什么可炫耀的，可这是属于他的原则，而他也绝不肯违背……基本上。其中一条规矩是永远不自己掏钱买酒。他不大确定这能不能算得上道德，可你也只能有什么就拿什么凑合不是。同时他还坚定地，决绝地反对所有任何虐待动物的行径，任何动物，只除了鹅。此外，他永远不会偷窃雇主的财物。

Well, not exactly steal.

好吧，不完全是偷。

If his accounts supervisor didn’t start to hyperventilate and put out a seal-all-exits security alert when Ford handed in his expenses claim then Ford felt he wasn’t doing his job properly. But actually stealing was another thing. That was biting the hand that feeds you. Sucking very hard on it, even nibbling it in an affectionate kind of a way was OK, but you didn’t actually bite it. Not when that hand was the Guide. The Guide was something sacred and special.

福特这个人，如果他的账目主管看过了他递上去的开销明细，却没有一边深呼吸一边拉响警报封锁所有出口，那么福特就会觉得自己没有尽到职责。但当真去偷东西就是另一码事了。偷你的雇主，那就是在咬喂养你的手。使劲地吮吸它，甚至挺亲热地轻轻啃几下都是可以的，但你不会真的咬。因为那只手是《指南》，所以你不会这么干。《指南》是神圣的，是特别的。

But that, thought Ford as he ducked and weaved his way down through the building, was about to change. And they had only themselves to blame. Look at all this stuff. Lines of neat grey office cubicles and executive workstation pods. The whole place was dreary with the hum of memos and minutes of meetings flitting through its electronic networks. Out in the street they were playing Hunt the Wocket for Zark’s sake, but here in the very heart of the Guide offices no one was even recklessly kicking a ball around the corridors or wearing inappropriately coloured beachware.

不过，福特一面低着身子在大楼里钻来钻去一面嘀咕：这一点就要改变了。而且也只能抱怨自己。瞧瞧这玩意：一排又一排整整齐齐的灰色小办公室和执行工作舱，满楼都是备忘录沉闷的嗡嗡声，各种会议记录在电子网络里飞来飞去。看在老天的份上，外头的人正玩着狩猎毛怪呢，可在《指南》的心脏地带，你却找不到一个找乐子的家伙，没人在过道上莽莽撞撞地踢球，或者哪怕穿件颜色不合时宜的泳装。

‘InfiniDim Enterprises,’ Ford snarled to himself as he stalked rapidly down one corridor after another. Door after door magically opened to him without question. Elevators took him happily to places they should not. Ford was trying to pursue the most tangled and complicated route he could, heading generally downwards through the building. His happy little robot took care of everything, spreading waves of acquiescent joy through all the security circuits it encountered.

“无敌帅公司。”福特不禁咬牙切齿。他大步往前走，穿过一条又一条走廊，所有的门都二话不说为他打开，电梯也高高兴兴地把他送到不应该去的地方。福特选了他所想象出的最复杂，最曲折的线路。但总的来说一直是在往下走。一切都由那个快乐的小机器人搞定；每次遇上保安电路，它都会散发出一波又一波的默认快感。

Ford thought it needed a name and decided to call it Emily Saunders, after a girl he had very fond memories of. Then he thought that Emily Saunders was an absurd name for a security robot, and decided to call it Colin instead, after Emily’s dog.

福特认为它需要一个名字，于是决定叫他爱丽丝.桑德斯——爱丽丝.桑德斯是他过去挺喜欢的一个姑娘。然后他又觉得，爱丽丝.桑德斯这名字用在保安机器人身上实在有些过了，于是决定改叫他科林，这是爱丽丝给自己的小狗取得名字。

He was moving deep into the bowels of the building now, into areas he had never entered before, areas of higher and higher security. He was beginning to encounter puzzled looks from the operatives he passed. At this level of security you didn’t even call them people anymore. And they were probably doing stuff that only operatives would do. When they went home to their families in the evening they became people again, and when their little children looked up to them with their sweet shining eyes and said ‘Daddy, what did you do all day today?’ they just said, ‘I performed my duties as an operative,’ and left it at that.

他现在已经深入大楼的腹地，这些区域安全级别越来越高，他过去从来没到过。路上遇到的员工开始露出迷惑的表情——在这种安全级别，你甚至不能再管他们叫人，他们干的多半也是除了员工谁都不会干的事。等晚上回家，这些家伙才重新变回人形。他们的小娃娃会用乖巧闪亮的眼睛望着他们问：“爸爸，今天一天你都干了些什么？”他们就言简意赅地回答：“我尽了一个员工应尽的职责。”就这么一句。