经典科幻文学:《银河系漫游指南》第9章 Part 3

The Improbability-proof control cabin of the Heart of Gold looked like a perfectly conventional spaceship except that it was perfectly clean because it was so new. Some of the control seats hadn't had the plastic wrapping taken off yet. The cabin was mostly white, oblong, and about the size of a smallish restaurant. In fact it wasn't perfectly oblong: the two long walls were raked round in a slight parallel curve, and all the angles and corners were contoured in excitingly chunky shapes. The truth of the matter is that it would have been a great deal simpler and more practical to build the cabin as an ordinary three-dimensional oblong rom, but then the designers would have got miserable. As it was the cabin looked excitingly purposeful, with large video screens ranged over the control and guidance system panels on the concave wall, and long banks of computers set into the convex wall. In one corner a robot sat humped, its gleaming brushed steel head hanging loosely between its gleaming brushed steel knees. Ittoo was fairly new, but though it was beautifully constructed and polished it somehow looked as if the various parts of its more or less humanoid body didn't quite fit properly. In fact they fitted perfectly well, but something in its bearing suggested that they might have fitted better.
Zaphod Beeblebrox paced nervously up and down the cabin, brushing his hands over pieces of gleaming equipment and giggling with excitement.
Trillian sat hunched over a clump of instruments reading off figures. Her voice was carried round the Tannoy system of the whole ship.
"Five to one against and falling ..." she said, "four to one against and falling ... three to one ... two ... one ... probability factor of one to one ... we have normality, I repeat we have normality." She turned her microphone off — then turned it back on, with a slight smile and continued: "Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem. Please relax. You will be sent for soon."
Zaphod burst out in annoyance: "Who are they Trillian?"
Trillian span her seat round to face him and shrugged.

黄金之心号的防非概率控制舱和一般的飞船并没有什么两样，只是这儿特别干净——毕竟是崭新的，一些控制座椅的塑料薄膜甚至还没有撕开。控制舱的基调是白色，长方形，基本上相当于一个小型餐厅的尺寸。实际上，它并不是标准的长方形：长的两面墙微微弯出了一个平行的弧度，舱内所有角度和角落都是圆润的弧形，给人留下深刻印象。关于这一点，真实的原因是：本来建造一个普通的三维长方形房间会简单得多，也实用得多，但那样的话，设计者的腰包是鼓不起来的。这样的一间控制舱显然是经过精心设计的，控制和导航系统仪表面板上方的凹面墙上悬挂着巨大的投影屏幕，而凸面墙上则安装了一长排电脑。一个角落里坐着一个机器人，打磨得锃亮的钢铁脑袋松松垮垮地垂在打磨得锃亮的钢铁膝盖中间。它也是崭新的，不过，虽然经过精心制造和打磨，它那多多少少看上去还算是个人形的躯体却相当地不协调。其实这些部分还是很协调的，只不过某些轴承看上去本来应该安装得更好些才是。
赞福德·毕博布鲁克斯正在控制舱内神经质地踱来踱去，双手拂过闪烁的仪表，不时发出兴奋的吃吃笑声。
崔莉恩坐在一堆设备前，正在读出上面的数据。她的声音通过扩音系统回荡在整艘飞船内。
“5比1，正在下降……”她读道，“4比1，正在下降……3比1……2……1……概率因子1比1……我们已经进入正常状态，重复一遍，我们已经进入正常状态。”她关掉麦克风——又重新打开——带着微笑继续道：“如果还有任何不适的话，那就是你们自己的问题了。放松点儿，你们很快就会没事儿的。”
赞福德恼怒地问：“他们是谁，崔莉恩？”
崔莉恩转过椅子，面对着他，耸了耸肩。