英文原版

OK, said Zaphod, tensing himself, open now.
The door slid open quietly. Zaphod slipped quietly through. The door closed quietly behind him.
Is that the way you like it, Mr. Beeblebrox? said the door out loud.
I want you to imagine, said Zaphod to the group of white robots who swung round to stare at him at that point, that I have an extremely powerful Kill-O-Zap blaster pistol in my hand.
There was an immensely cold and savage silence. The robots regarded him with hideously dead eyes. They stood very still. There was something intensely macabre about their appearance, especially to Zaphod who had never seen one before or even known anything about them. The Krikkit Wars belonged to the ancient past of the Galaxy, and Zaphod had spent most of his early history lessons plotting how he was going to have sex with the girl in the cybercubicle next to him, and since his teaching computer had been an integral part of this plot it had eventually had all its history circuits wiped and replaced with an entirely different set of ideas which had then resulted in it being scrapped and sent to a home for Degenerate Cybermats, whither it was followed by the girl who had inadvertently fallen deeply in love with the unfortunate machine, with the result (a) that Zaphod never got near her and (b) that he missed out on a period of ancient history that would have been of inestimable value to him at this moment.
He stared at them in shock.
It was impossible to explain why, but their smooth and sleek white bodies seemed to be the utter embodiment of clean, clinical evil. From their hideously dead eyes to their powerful lifeless feet, they were clearly the calculated product of a mind that wanted simply to kill. Zaphod gulped in cold fear.
They had been dismantling part of the rear bridge wall, and had forced a passage through some of the vital innards of the ship. Through the tangled wreckage Zaphod could see, with a further and worse sense of shock, that they were tunnelling towards the very heart of the ship, the heart of the Improbability Drive that had been so mysteriously created out of thin air, the Heart of Gold itself.
The robot closest to him was regarding him in such a way as to suggest that it was measuring every smallest particle of his body, mind and capability. And when it spoke, what it said seemed to bear this impression out. Before going on to what it actually said, it is worth recording at this point that Zaphod was the first living organic being to hear one of these creatures speak for something over ten billion years. If he had paid more attention to his ancient history lessons and less to his organic being, he might have been more impressed by this honour.
The robot’s voice was like its body, cold, sleek and lifeless. It had almost a cultured rasp to it. It sounded as ancient as it was.
It said:
You do have a Kill-O-Zap blaster pistol in your hand.
Zaphod didn’t know what it meant for a moment, but then he glanced down at his own hand and was relieved to see that what he had found clipped to a wall bracket was indeed what he had thought it was.
Yeah, he said in a kind of relieved sneer, which is quite tricky, well, I wouldn’t want to overtax your imagination, robot. For a while nobody said anything, and Zaphod realized that the robots were obviously not here to make conversation, and that it was up to him.
I can’t help noticing that you have parked your ship, he said with a nod of one of his heads in the appropriate direction, through mine.
There was no denying this. Without regard for any kind of proper dimensional behaviour they had simply materialized their ship precisely where they wanted it to be, which meant that it was simply locked through the Heart of Gold as if they were nothing more than two combs.
Again, they made no response to this, and Zaphod wondered if the conversation would gather any momentum if he phrased his part of it in the form of questions.
…haven’t you? he added.
Yes, replied the robot.
Er, OK, said Zaphod. So what are you cats doing here?
Silence.
“OK。”赞福德绷紧了神经，“开吧。”
门无声地开了。赞福德无声地溜了进去。门在他身后无声地关上了。
“您是否满意，毕博布鲁克斯先生？”门大声说道。
“我希望你们想象一下，”赞福德面前的机器人猛地回头望着他，于是他开口道，“我拿着一支火力超强的暴杀王手枪。”
房间里是冰冷而凶险的寂静。机器人们用可怖的、无神的眼睛看着他。它们静静地站着。它们的样子令人毛骨悚然，尤其在赞福德看来，因为他从没见过或听说过它们。版求战争是远古银河史的一部分，赞福德以前上远古历史课的时候，忙着谋划怎样钓到坐他隔壁的女孩了。由于他的教学电脑正是其阴谋的必要环节，所以他把所有历史课资料都删了，换成了一堆别的东西，最后导致此电脑被丢弃，并送到废旧数码产品集中站去了。那个女孩则随电脑而去——由于某种疏忽，她爱上了这台不幸的计算机。最终结果：a，赞福德再也没法接近她。b，他错过了一段远古银河历史课，其内容对于此时此刻的他恰好无比重要。
他也注视着机器人们，非常惊讶。
有一点似乎无法解释：这群机器人光滑亮泽的白色身体，仿佛是干净、超然的恶魔的最佳代言人。从它们可怖而无神的目光，到它们坚硬而无情的双脚，显然，它们的创造者一定进行过精密的设计，目的只有一个，便是杀戮。赞福德恐惧地咽了口唾沫。
它们正在拆控制台的墙，已经在飞船的中心区域弄出一个洞。赞福德看着这乱糟糟的一团，发现一件更惊人的事——它们正往飞船最核心部位挖掘，快要接近那神秘的、凭空造出的非概率驱动之心，也就是黄金之心本身。
离他最近的机器人盯着他的样子，仿佛要把他的每个粒子都看清楚——身体的粒子，灵魂的粒子和能力的粒子。它开口所说的话，更证实了这一感觉。 在透露其内容之前，有一件事颇有记录价值——一百亿年以来，赞福德是唯一一位听了他们说话而没死的有机生命体。如果他上远古历史课的时候认真点（而不是倾心于其生命行为）的话，他会为此刻的经历感到光荣的。
机器人的声音如其身体一般，冰冷，光滑，无情。也许正因为有这样的身体，才会有这样的声音。两者都已是年代久远。
它说：
“你是拿着一把暴杀王手枪。”
一时间，赞福德不知道它什么意思。他不经意瞥了下自己的手，十分欣慰地发现，自己刚才随手从托架上扯下的东西，正是他所希望的东西。
“对。”他轻松一笑，却显得有点滑稽，“噢，我可不想逼你过度使用想象力，机器人。”等了好一会也没人答话。赞福德意识到，这些机器人不是来聊天的，聊天得靠他自己了。
“我不得不注意到，你们把飞船停到——”他用一个脑袋朝那边点了点，“——我的飞船里边。”
没人否认他的话。它们就这样把飞船停到想停的地方，似乎从没想过合不合礼节的问题。就这样，直接钻进了黄金之心，好象它们不过是两把梳子似的。
依然，无人答话。赞福德想，如果他不使用疑问句的话，对话大概将失去动力了。
“……是吧？”他补充道。
“是的。”机器人回答。
“嗯，OK，”赞福德说，“那你们这些小猫咪在这儿干嘛？”
沉默。

背景阅读

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