经典科幻文学:《银河系漫游指南》第18章2

"Then what's happened to the missiles?" he said.
A new and astounding image appeared in the mirrors.
"They would appear," said Ford doubtfully, "to have turned into a bowl of petunias and a very surprised looking whale ..."
"At an Improbability Factor," cut in Eddie, who hadn't changed a bit, "of eight million seven hundred and sixty-seven thousand one hundred and twenty-eight to one against."
Zaphod stared at Arthur.
"Did you think of that, Earthman?" he demanded.
"Well," said Arthur, "all I did was ..."
"That's very good thinking you know. Turn on the Improbability Drive for a second without first activating the proofing screens. + Hey kid you just saved our lives, you know that?"
"Oh," said Arthur, "well, it was nothing really ..."
"Was it?" said Zaphod. "Oh well, forget it then. OK, computer, take us in to land."
"But ..."
"I said forget it."
Another thing that got forgotten was the fact that against all probability a sperm whale had suddenly been called into existence several miles above the surface of an alien planet.

“那些导弹怎么样了？”他问。
一幅新的、令人震惊的景象出现在镜子里。
“它们好像变成了，”福特怀疑地说，“一盆牵牛花和一头非常怪异的鲸鱼……”
“基于一个非概率因子，”艾迪插话道，看来倒是它一点儿也没有改变，“发生这种情况的可能性是8，767，128比1.”
赞福德望着阿瑟。
“你想到过这种情况吗，地球人？”他问。
“哦，”阿瑟说，“我所做的只是……”
“你知道吗，这真是个绝妙的主意，在不事先激活保护屏的情况下启动非概率驱动。嘿，伙计，你刚刚救了我们大家的命，你知道吗？”
“噢，”阿瑟说，“真的，这没什么……”
“是吗？”赞福德说，“那好，让我们忘掉它吧。好了，电脑，我们登陆。”
“可是……”
“我说过了，忘了它。”
被忽略的另一个事实是：尽管违背所有的可能性，但是一只抹香鲸确实突然间在距离一颗行星表面几英里的高度出现了。