Ford looked around again. Then his attention was gradually drawn to Colin, the absurdly over-happy security robot, who was cowering in a corner of the room gibbering with what seemed strangely like fear.

福特又一次四下张望，他的注意力渐渐被科林吸引住了：那个高兴的荒唐地保安机器人现在正蜷缩在一个角落里，嘴里叽里呱啦的，看来竟然有些害怕。

Odd, thought Ford. He looked around to see what it was that Colin might have been reacting to. Then he saw something that he hadn’t noticed before, lying quietly on top of a work bench.

真怪。福特暗想。他的目光扫过房间，想知道是什么引起了科林这样的反应。他在一张工作台上发现了一件自己之前没留意的东西。

It was circular and black and about the size of a small side plate. Its top and its bottom were smoothly convex so that it resembled a small lightweight throwing discus.

黑色，圆形，面积大约有一个盛黄油的餐盘大小，顶端和底部都是圆润的弧线，所以看起来仿佛一个轻质小飞盘。

Its surfaces seemed to be completely smooth, unbroken and featureless.

它的表面似乎完全是平整的，既没有缝隙也没有任何特征。

It was doing nothing.

它什么也没干。

Then Ford noticed that there was something written on it. Strange. There hadn’t been anything written on it a moment ago and now suddenly there was. There just didn’t seem to have been any observable transition between the two states. All it said, in small, alarming letters was a single word:

然后，福特注意到上头写着什么东西。奇怪。一秒钟之前明明什么都没有，现在突然就出现了，而且这两个阶段之间仿佛并没有任何显著的转变。它上头那条让人心惊胆战的信息只有一个：

PANIC

恐慌

A moment ago there hadn’t been any marks or cracks in its surface. Now there were. They were growing.

之前他的表面上没有任何痕迹或者缝隙。现在有了。它们在生长。

Panic, the Guide Mk II said. Ford began to do as he was told. He had just remembered why the slug-like creatures looked familiar. Their colour scheme was a kind of corporate grey, but in all other respects they looked exactly like Vogons.

恐慌。《指南》Mk 2是这么说的。福特开始照对方说的做。他刚记起为什么那些鼻涕虫样的生物似乎有些眼熟。他们的色调的确是《指南》的公司灰，但在其他所有方面，他们都跟沃贡人一模一样。