They stood out in the heat and the dust and looked at the big pink and chrome thing with amazement and admiration. Or at least, Ford looked at it with amazement and admiration.

他们站在热气和沙尘里，带着惊奇赞叹的神气望着那个镀铬的粉红色大家伙。或者至少，福特带着惊奇赞叹的神气望着它。

Arthur just looked at it. ‘You don’t think it’s a bit overdone, do you?’

阿瑟只是望着它而已，“你一点不觉得它装饰得有些过分了对吗？”

He said it again when they climbed inside it. The seats and quite a lot of the controls were covered in fine fur skin or suede. There was a big gold monogram on the main control panel which just read ‘EP’.

他们爬进去的时候，阿瑟把这话又说了一遍。座椅和好多操控按钮都用精美的毛皮或者山羊皮包裹。主控制键面上还有两个金子做的大字母，写的不过是“EP”。

‘You know,’ said Ford as he fired up the ship’s engines, ‘I asked him if it was true that he had been abducted by aliens, and you know what he said?’

“你知道。”福特一面启动飞船的引擎一面说，“我问他是不是真被外星人绑架了，你猜他怎么说？”

‘Who?’ said Arthur.

“谁？”阿瑟问。

‘The King.’

“王啊。”

‘Which King? Oh, we’ve had this conversation, haven’t we?’

“哪个王？哦，这一套我们已经说过了不是吗？”

‘Never mind,’ said Ford. ‘For what it’s worth, he said, no. He went of his own accord.’

“别管那个了。”福特说，“反正他说，不，他是自愿去的。”

‘I’m still not sure who we’re talking about,’ said Arthur.

“我还是不大确定我们说的是什么。”阿瑟说。

Ford shook his head. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘there are some tapes over in the compartment to your left. Why don’t you choose some music and put it on?’

福特摇摇头，“听着，你左手边有些磁带，干嘛不选一盘来放放？”

‘OK,’ said Arthur, and flipped through the cartons. ‘Do you like Elvis Presley?’ he said.

“好啊。”阿瑟在盒子中间翻起来，“喜欢猫王吗？”他问。

‘Yeah I do as a matter of fact,’ said Ford. ‘Now. I hope this machine can leap like it looks like it can.’ He engaged the main drive.

“说起来我还真挺喜欢呢。”福特说，“好，这东西看起来挺能蹦跶的，希望不是绣花枕头。”他打开了主驱动器。

‘Yeeehaah!’ shouted Ford as they shot upwards at face-tearing speed.

“耶耶耶耶哈哈啊！”福特喊道。他们“刷”的一声冲天而起，速度快得能把人脸撕开。

It could.

它的确不是绣花枕头。