經典科幻文學:《 再見 多謝你們的魚》第37章1
Chapter 37
For a total of three days and nights the giant silver robot stood in stunned amazement straddling the remains of Knightsbridge, swaying slightly and trying to work out a number of things.
Government deputations came to see it, ranting journalists by the truckload asked each other questions on the air about what they thought of it, flights of fighter bombers tried pathetically to attack it but no lizards appeared. It scanned the horizon slowly.
At night it was at its most spectacular, floodlit by the teams of television crews who covered it continuously as it continuously did nothing.
It thought and thought and eventually reached a conclusion.
It would have to send out its service robots.
It should have thought of that before, but it was having a number of problems.
The tiny flying robots came screeching out of the hatchway one afternoon in a terrifying cloud of metal. They roamed the surrounding terrain, frantically attacking some things and defending others.
One of them at last found a pet shop with some lizards, but it instantly defended the pet shop for democracy so savagely that little in the area survived.
A turning point came when a crack team of flying screechers discovered the Zoo in Regent’s Park, and most particularly the reptile house.
Learning a little caution from their previous mistakes in the petshop, the flying drills and fretsaws brought some of the larger and fatter iguanas to the giant silver robot, who tried to conduct high-level talks with them.
Eventually the robot announced to the world that despite the full, frank and wide-ranging exchange of views the high level talks had broken down, the lizards had been retired, and that it, the robot would take a short holiday somewhere, and for some reason selected Bournemouth.
Ford Prefect, watching it on TV, nodded, laughed, and had another beer.
Immediate preparations were made for its departure.
第37章
整整三天三夜，那個巨大的銀色機器人都吃驚地跨立在騎士橋的廢墟上，輕輕地來回搖晃着試圖弄明白一些事情。
政府代表過來見了它，口沫紛飛的記者在採訪車上通過電波互相詢問對它的看法，轟炸機跑來對它作了一些柔弱的進攻——但是沒有蜥蜴出現。它慢慢地在視野中掃描。
晚上是它最壯觀的時候，電視臺的強力光柱一直籠罩着它，而它一直什麼都沒做。
它想啊想啊最後得出一個結論。
它要派出自己的機器僕人。
他應該早點想到這個的，不過那會兒它還有一些問題。
一天下午，微型的飛行機器人像一片恐怖的金屬雲一樣尖叫着衝出了艙門。他們在周圍遊蕩，瘋狂地攻擊一些東西，保衛另一些東西。
其中一個終於在一個寵物商店裏面找到一些蜥蜴，它立刻開始爲了民主而保護這家商店，不過它的保護進行得過於野蠻，那個地方沒多少東西活下來。
一隊這種噼裏啪啦作響的飛行的哨子發現了攝政王公園裏面的動物園，特別是爬行館之後，事情出現了轉折點。
這些飛行的鑽頭和電鋸們從之前寵物店裏面的失誤中學會了謹慎一點，它們把一些相對比較肥大的美洲蜥蜴帶去見那個巨大的銀色機器人，於是它試圖與跟這些蜥蜴進行高端會談。
最後機器人宣佈，雖然他們全面而坦率的交換了觀點，但會談還是破裂了，蜥蜴們被送回，而機器人自己要找個地方度假，出於某種原因它選擇了伯恩茅斯 。
正在看電視的福特·長官點了點頭，笑了笑，又來了杯啤酒。
爲它的出發所做的準備工作立刻開始了。
