經典科幻文學:《生命 宇宙及一切》第4章(11)

The Somebody Else’s Problem field is much simpler and more effective, and what’s more can be run for over a hundred years on a single torch battery. This is because it relies on people’s natural disposition not to see anything they don’t want to, weren’t expecting, or can’t explain. If Effrafax had painted the mountain pink and erected a cheap and simple Somebody Else’s Problem field on it, then people would have walked past the mountain, round it, even over it, and simply never have noticed that the thing was there.
And this is precisely what was happening with Slartibartfast’s ship. It wasn’t pink, but if it had been, that would have been the least of its visual problems and people were simply ignoring it like anything.
The most extraordinary thing about it was that it looked only partly like a spaceship with guidance fins, rocket engines and escape hatches and so on, and a great deal like a small upended Italian bistro.
Ford and Arthur gazed up at it with wonderment and deeply offended sensibilities.
Yes, I know, said Slartibartfast, hurrying up to them at that point, breathless and agitated, but there is a reason. Come, we must go. The ancient nightmare is come again. Doom confronts us all. We must leave at once.
I fancy somewhere sunny, said Ford.
Ford and Arthur followed Slartibartfast into the ship and were so perplexed by what they saw inside it that they were totally unaware of what happened next outside.
A spaceship, yet another one, but this one sleek and silver, descended from the sky on to the pitch, quietly, without fuss, its long legs unlocking in a smooth ballet of technology.
It landed gently. It extended a short ramp. A tall grey-green figure marched briskly out and approached the small knot of people who were gathered in the centre of the pitch tending to the casualties of the recent bizarre massacre. It moved people aside with quiet, understated authority, and came at last to a man lying in a desperate pool of blood, clearly now beyond the reach of any Earthly medicine, breathing, coughing his last. The figure knelt down quietly beside him.
Arthur Philip Deodat? asked the figure.
The man, with horrified confusion in eyes, nodded feebly.
You’re a no-good dumbo nothing, whispered the creature. I thought you should know that before you went.

“別人的問題作用場”，比這要方便得多，也有效得多。此外，它僅靠一個手電筒電池就能運行上百年。它的原理在於人們的天性，即對他們不想看、沒想到或無法解釋的事物視而不見。如果埃夫拉法克斯把巨山塗成粉紅色，然後建一座廉價又簡便的“別人的問題作用場”在上面，那麼人們就會走過這座山，繞過這座山，甚至翻過這座山，卻注意不到它就在那兒。
這正是發生在司拉提巴特法斯的飛船身上的事。它不是粉紅色，不過那也沒什麼，人們照樣會無視它。
最不尋常的是：它只是有一點像一艘裝着領航鰭、火箭發動機和救生艙之類的普通飛船；它更像的，是一個倒立的意大利小飯館。
福特和阿瑟懷着驚奇和深深的戒備心理，注視着飛船。
“是的，我瞭解。”這時司拉提巴特法斯跑到他們身邊，氣喘吁吁，惶惶不安，“但這是有原因的。來吧，咱們該走了。遠古的噩夢再次來臨，厄運已擺在我們面前。咱們必須馬上離開。”
“我真想去一個有陽光的地方。”福特說。
福特和阿瑟跟着司拉提巴特法斯走上飛船，立刻被他們所看見的飛船內的景象弄得頭暈腦脹。於是他們完全沒有注意到，接下來外面發生的事。
一艘飛船——當然，是另一艘，它是銀白鋥亮的，自天上降落到球道上，平穩地、不緊不慢地、像芭蕾舞一樣輕盈地，散開長長的支撐腳架。
它優雅地着陸。它展開一架短短的舷梯。一個高高的、灰綠色的身影輕快地走下來，走向一小羣人類，他們正簇擁在球道中央，照顧剛纔那場古怪的屠殺的傷員。外星人沉默而威嚴地把人們撥到一邊，走到一個躺在血泊之中的人身旁。顯然這個人已經無（地球上的）藥可救，正喘着他最後一口氣。那個身影在他身邊輕輕地蹲了下來。
“阿瑟·菲利普·迪奧達特？”身影問道。
那個人滿眼疑懼，虛弱地點點頭。
“你是個一無是處的呆瓜。”那個生物輕聲說，“我想你應該在離開人世之前知道這一點。”