经典科幻文学:《 再见 多谢你们的鱼》第5章4

Hey look, said the girl, if you get paid, look me up. I’m a working girl, and there are people over there who need me. I gotta go.

She brushed aside Ford’s half-articulated protests, and left him sitting dejectedly on his garbage can preparing to watch a large swathe of his working life being swept away electronically into the ether.

Out in the street things had calmed down a little. The police battle had moved off to other sectors of the city, the few surviving members of the rock band had agreed to recognize their musical differences and pursue solo careers, the street theatre group were re-emerging from the pasta restaurant with the pack animal, telling it they would take it to a bar they knew where it would be treated with a little respect, and a little way further on the steel grey limousine was parked silently by the kerbside.

The girl hurried towards it.

Behind her, in the darkness of the alley, a green flickering glow was bathing Ford Prefect’s face, and his eyes were slowly widening in astonishment.

For where he had expected to find nothing, an erased, closed-off entry, there was instead a continuous stream of data text, diagrams, figures and images, moving descriptions of surf on Australian beaches, Yoghurt on Greek islands, restaurants to avoid in Los Angeles, currency deals to avoid in Istanbul, weather to avoid in London, bars to go everywhere. Pages and pages of it. It was all there, everything he had written. With a deepening frown of blank incomprehension he went backwards and forwards through it, stopping here and there at various entries.

Tips for aliens in New York: Land anywhere, Central Park, anywhere. No one will care, or indeed even notice.

Surviving: get a job as cab driver immediately. A cab driver’s job is to drive people anywhere they want to go in big yellow machines called taxis. Don’t worry if you don’t know how the machine works and you can’t speak the language, don’t understand the geography or indeed the basic physics of the area, and have large green antennae growing out of your head. Believe me, this is the best way of staying inconspicuous.

If your body is really weird try showing it to people in the streets for money.

Amphibious life forms from any of the worlds in the Swulling, Noxios or Nausalia systems will particularly enjoy the East River, which is said to be richer in those lovely life-giving nutrients then the finest and most virulent laboratory slime yet achieved.

“嘿，”女孩说，“如果你收到了报酬，记得找我。我是一名职业女性，这里全都是需要我的人。我得撤了。”

她无视掉福特的抗议，把沮丧的他晾在垃圾桶上，他准备看到自己的工作成果即将被电子化地扫进以太的虚空中。

街上似乎清静点了。警察大战转移到了另外一个城区，摇滚乐队的少数幸存者认清了互相在音乐上的分歧因此决定单干；街头剧团从意大利餐馆里拖着牲口出来了，声称他们将把它带到一家他们认识的能给它尊重的酒吧里；不远处那辆铁灰色的豪华轿车正静静地停在路边。

女孩向那辆车跑去。

在她身后漆黑的巷子中，闪烁的绿光映在福特.普里弗克特的脸上，他惊讶地瞪大了眼睛。

他本来以为会是空白的，删除的，关闭的条目，竟然被一股持续不断的数据流所代替——文本、图表、数据还有图像，关于澳大利亚海滩冲浪的描述，希腊岛屿上的酸奶，在洛杉矶千万不要进的餐厅，在伊斯坦布尔千万不要用的货币，在伦敦千万不要碰到的天气，在任何地方都千万要去的酒吧。一页又一页。全都在那儿，他写的所有东西全都在那儿。他一片茫然，眉头紧锁，反复浏览着那些不同的条目。

“给纽约外星人的提示：可降落在任何地区，可降落在中央公园的任何地区。没人会管你，即便是他们注意到了你。

“谋生提示：尽快找一份出租车司机的工作。出租车司机的工作就是把人用一种黄色的名为的士的大机器运到他们想去的任何地方。如果你不知道机器怎么工作或当地语言怎么说，别担心；如果你不了解当地地理甚至是当地物理法则，别担心；如果你的头上长着巨大的绿色触角，别担心。相信我，这是保持低调的最佳方式。

“如果你的身体实在是太奇异了，就试着把它展示在大街上来赚钱。

“从斯乌凌、诺克西斯或那沙利亚星系的任何世界中前来的两栖生命体一定会特别喜欢东河，那里据说有相当丰富的可爱的营养物质以及目前为止最好最毒的实验室废液。