经典科幻文学:《银河系漫游指南》第8章 Part 7

"Please relax," said the voice pleasantly, like a stewardess in an airliner with only one wing and two engines one of which is on fire, "you are perfectly safe."
"But that's not the point!" raged Ford. "The point is that I am now a perfectly save penguin, and my colleague here is rapidly running out of limbs!"
"It's alright, I've got them back now," said Arthur.
"Two to the power of fifty thousand to one against and falling," said the voice.
"Admittedly," said Arthur, "they're longer than I usually like them, but ..."
"Isn't there anything," squawked Ford in avian fury, "you feel you ought to be telling us?"
The voice cleared its throat. A giant petit four lolloped off into the distance.
"Welcome," the voice said, "to the Starship Heart of Gold."
The voice continued.
"Please do not be alarmed," it said, "by anything you see or hear around you. You are bound to feel some initial ill effects as you have been rescued from certain death at an improbability level of two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand to one against — possibly much higher. We are now cruising at a level of two to the power of twenty-five thousand to one against and falling, and we will be restoring normality just as soon as we are sure what is normal anyway. Thank you. Two to the power of twenty thousand to one against and falling."
The voice cut out.
Ford and Arthur were in a small luminous pink cubicle.
Ford was wildly excited.

“请放松一点儿，”那声音悦耳地说，像个空中小姐，只不过是在一架只剩一只机翼的双引擎飞机上，另一只机翼正在着火，“你很安全。”
“这不重要！”福特被激怒了，“重要的是我现在变成了一只很安全的企鹅，而我的同伴很快就会失去他的四肢！”
“还好，我已经把它们拉回来了。”阿瑟说。
“2的50，000次方比1，正在下降。”那声音又说。
“很明显，”阿瑟说，“这串数字长了点儿，我不喜欢，不过……”
“难道就没有什么，”福特发出愤怒的鸟叫声，“你觉得应该告诉我们的吗？”
那声音清了一下嗓子。一块巨大的糖霜蛋糕向远处飘荡而去。
“欢迎，”那声音说，“来到黄金之心号飞船。”
那声音继续道：

“请不要因为你们所见到或者听到的任何东西恐慌。开始时你们可能会有一些不适反应，因为你们刚刚被从死亡线上救起来，在那种情况下存活概率只有2的276，000次方比1——可能还要小得多，我们现在正以2的25，000次方比1的水平巡航，这个比率正在下降。一旦我们确定了什么是正常水平，很快便会恢复到正常水平。谢谢你们。2的20，000次方比1，正在下降。”
声音戛然而止。
福特和阿瑟在一间泛着粉红色光的小卧室里。
福特感到一阵狂喜。