经典科幻文学:《银河系漫游指南》第5章 Part 5

A huge furry creature bounded through the door with his lunch tray. It was grinning like a maniac.
Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz was delighted. He knew that when a Dentrassi looked that pleased with itself there was something going on somewhere on the ship that he could get very angry indeed about.
Ford and Arthur stared about them.
"Well, what do you think?" said Ford.
"It's a bit squalid, isn't it?"
Ford frowned at the grubby mattress, unwashed cups and unidentifiable bits of smelly alien underwear that lay around the cramped cabin.
"Well, this is a working ship, you see," said Ford. "These are the Dentrassi sleeping quarters."
"I thought you said they were called Vogons or something."
"Yes," said Ford, "the Vogons run the ship, the Dentrassis are the cooks, they let us on board."
"I'm confused," said Arthur.
"Here, have a look at this," said Ford. He sat down on one of the mattresses and rummaged about in his satchel. Arthur prodded the mattress nervously and then sat on it himself: in fact he had very little to be nervous about, because all mattresses grown in the swamps of Squornshellous Zeta are very thoroughly killed and dried before being put to service.
Ford handed the book to Arthur.
"What is it?" asked Arthur.

一个浑身长满毛的庞大生物从门里走出来，托着他的午餐盘。这家伙笑起来活像个疯子。
沃贡·杰尔兹一下产变得很高兴。他知道，当一个丹特拉斯人看上去乐成这副模样时，就意味着在这艘飞船上的某个地方发生了一些足以让他大发雷霆的事情。
福特和阿瑟望着他们四周。
“好吧，你怎么想？”福特问道。
“有点儿脏，不是吗？”
福特皱起眉头看着身旁这些邋遢的床垫、没有洗过的杯子以及分辨不清的已经起味儿了的内衣裤。
“噢，如你所见，这显然是—艘工作船，”福特说，“这些应该是丹特拉斯入睡觉的铺位。”
“我想你曾经说过他们叫做沃贡人或者其他什么玩意儿。”
“是的，”福特说，“沃贡人负责驾驶飞船，丹特拉斯人则是厨师；正是他们让我们登上这艘飞船的。”
“你把我搞糊涂了。”阿瑟说。

“过来，看看这个。”福特说。他在一张床垫上坐下来，开始在自己的背包中翻拣。阿瑟紧张兮兮地用手戳了戳床垫，然后也坐了下来。其实他根本用不着这么紧张，因为所有这些床垫在使用之前都经过了彻底的除菌消毒。
福特把书递给阿瑟。
“这是什么？”阿瑟问。