《雙尾貓與機器人9000號》連載 · 第二章

這是一個被@Carol.W去年的圖話接力活動激發靈感，用兩種語言寫出的科幻兒童故事，有時間時便斷斷續續將它寫完。點擊此閱讀第一章。

Chapter 2

第二章

The little shack was sad and rundown, covered with a thick layer of dust. The atmosphere on the tiny planet was sparse, but there was sometimes a gust of wind that showered everything with yellow colored particles.

那座看起來十分簡陋的小屋表面覆蓋了一層厚厚的灰塵。小行星的大氣層比較稀薄，但時不時還是會有一陣風刮過，把一切東西蒙上一層黃色的塵土。

Robot9000 was the first to discover the mummified corpse sprawled in a chair built out of PVC piping, covered by a threadbare blanket. In his dry wrinkled claw of a hand, he held a box that looked almost exactly like the one Cat o’ Two Tails had found.

機器人9000號最先發現那具蓋在舊毯子下已經風乾的屍體。它癱坐在用廢棄的PVC管道搭成的椅子上，而在它乾枯如爪子一樣的手中緊緊握著的盒子，與雙尾貓找到的那隻幾乎一模一樣。

“I have discovered the source of the signal,” Robot9000 declared, and when Cat saw the body her eyes grew wide. “That’s it? That’s the guy and he’s DEAD?”

“我已發現了信號源頭，” 9000號宣佈道。當雙尾貓看到那具屍體時，她的眼睛睜大了。“這就是他？這就是那個發信號的傢伙，可他已經嚥氣了？”

“The advanced desiccation would indicate that all vital signs ceased quite some time ago,” Robot9000 said cheerfully. “I calculate –“

“屍體高度脫水的狀態表明一切生命徵象已停止很久，” 機器人9000號爽快地回答。“我估計—”

“Thanks, very helpful,” interjected Cat o’ Two Tails. “What I want to know is why the heck there’s a PERSON here. They never send humans through that thing, there’s enough rehab centers to change brains they don’t like.”

“謝啦，多話先生，“ 雙尾貓插嘴道。”我想知道的是為什麼這裡會有一個人？他們從來不會把人類送入傳送門的，改造那些不合群人類的大腦的實驗室有的是。“

“Unclear.” Robot9000 said. He pulled the box out of the hand that fell away like a dead branch and examined it. “There seems to be a switch on the underside of this device. Shall I activate it?”

“不清楚，”機器人9000號說。他將屍體握著的盒子拽出來；那隻手像枯枝一樣掉到一邊。他仔細地將那隻盒子檢驗一番。“這個設備底部似乎有一個開關。我是否應該將它激活？“

“Why not? Maybe it’s a bomb and we can all be put out of our misery,” Cat O’ Two Tails replied, still miffed that there were no cans of Spam to be found.

”為什麼不呢？也許這玩意是個炸彈，那樣我們都能登天啦，“雙尾貓怏怏不樂地回答。她一罐午餐肉也沒有找到，心裡很不爽。

Robot9000 pressed the tiny black button and the box began to hum. A light beam shot out of a small round hole on the opposite side, and a holographic image emerged, suspended in midair. Cat inhaled sharply.

機器人9000號把盒子底部的小黑按鈕按下，盒子開始發出嗡聲。一束光從另一側射出，在空中投射出一個三維影像。雙尾貓嚇得吸了一口氣。

The red-haired man in the image looked to be in his fifties. His eyes were sunken and his face gaunt, his lips a tight pale seam that exposed no teeth. He looked like he was in the process of being dried out from the inside. He wore a faded blue shirt with the threadbare blanket that covered the corpse draped over his shoulders, but what caught the two explorers’ eye was the yellow scarf hanging haphazardly around his neck.

影像中的紅髮男子樣子五十多歲，眼眶深陷在瘦削的臉上，蒼白的嘴唇是一道不露齒的細線。他看起來似乎正在從內乾枯到外。他身上穿著一件褪色的藍襯衫，肩上披著那塊屍體身上蓋著的舊毛毯，可是吸引兩個小探險家的注意力的是他脖子上那條鬆鬆圍披的黃圍巾。

“He’s got your–“ Cat o’ Two Tails started. Robot9000 didn’t respond.

“那是你的 —” 雙尾貓開始說。9000號沒搭理她。

“Hello,” The man in the video began to speak, and Cat fell silent.

“你好啊，” 錄像中的男子開口說道。雙尾貓便不吭氣了。

Despite his sickly appearance, the voice of the man in the video was surprisingly warm and congenial.

令人驚訝的是，雖然他的模樣病入膏肓，男子的嗓音卻十分溫和友好。

“If you are watching this, I assume that you are a sentient, intelligent organism that may have been sent through the waste disposal portal on Earth.” He sighed. “If that is the case, you need to get off this planet immediately, because the heavy metals permeating everything on this rock will eventually kill you unless you leave.”

“如果你在看這個，我推測你是一個被送入地球垃圾傳送門的智慧生物，“ 他嘆了口氣。”如果的確如此，那你必須馬上離開這個星球，因為這塊該死的石頭已被重金屬完全污染，你如果留在此處將會被慢慢毒死。“

Cat groaned at this. “Of course that’d be a thing,” she said.

雙尾貓發出沮喪的怨聲。“當然啦，禍不單行嘛，”她酸酸地說。

“I wish I could help you in person, but by the time you are watching this, I’ll be knocking back a few beers with Freddie Mercury. Hopefully, the transport pod I took to get here through the trash chute on earth will get you to the habitable exoplanet that this one orbits around. I no longer have the strength to travel in it, but you can, provided you are not yet at an advanced stage of heavy metal poisoning. The launch site is not far. You’re welcome, by the way.” He sniffed and pulled the blanket tighter around him. “There is a catch, though. I implore you to take my son with you.”

“我當然想助你一臂之力，但你看到這個的時候，我正在天上和貓王喝啤酒呢。我希望，我穿越垃圾傳送門時乘坐的小運輸艇可以帶你抵達這個小行星環繞的宜居星球。我已經沒有餘力去那裡了，但是你可以，只要你還沒有出現被金屬污染的症狀。發射地點離這裡不遠，不用感謝我了，“ 他吸吸鼻子，把毯子在身上包緊了些。”只有一個條件。我求你帶我的兒子一起離開。“

“What the heck,” Cat o’ Two Tails muttered.

”什…這又是什麼新名堂啊，“ 雙尾貓喃喃道。

“He’s not far from here. I’ve programmed him not to leave his immediate vicinity and perform self maintenance, but I want someone to take care of him beyond that. I came here with him because, well… there was no place for us on Earth, where negative emotions have essentially been outlawed,” The man’s shoulders slumped even further. “He was the first robot with true emotions that I built into him, the entire spectrum - not an artificial approximation, mind you - but for that they wanted to trash him.” His eyes teared up. “The world got cocky after eradicating illness, hunger and war, so it decided to eradicate all negative emotions, but when you remove sadness and pain, you remove empathy too. They voluntarily get chip implants so there is only joy and complacency, but nobody feels true attachment to anything anymore. They even make hyperintelligent, genetically modified pets that can talk to them, but if a pet has a negative personality, then it gets to kick the bucket. I couldn’t live like that, and I couldn’t live without my son either, so I signed a waiver to be disposed with him to wherever it might lead. It seems I won’t be joining him on the next journey though. By the time I finished revamping the pod for the flight you’re about to take, this planet and all its toxins has already gotten the best of me. ”

”他離這裡不遠。我給他的程序中編入指令叫他不要走遠，時不時進行自我維修，但是我希望在這之外能有人幫忙照看他。我和他一起來到這裡是因為…地球上已沒有我們的一席之地了。在那裡，任何負面的情感都被視為一種罪過，“男子的雙肩塌得更低了。”我的兒子是第一個具備真正情感的機器人 — 我是說整個人類情感的光譜，不是拙劣的模仿 — 但由於此，他們卻想把他毀掉。” 他的眼睛濕潤了。

“人類世界在消除飢餓，疾病和戰爭以後變得自滿，決定消滅一切負面感情；可是當你祛除一切悲傷和痛苦，同理心便也不復存在了。人們自願在腦中植入芯片使自己只能感受到快樂和滿足，可結果是不再有人對任何事物產生依戀和不捨的情感了。人類甚至創造能與他們談話的超智慧轉基因寵物，但如果那些寵物產生任何不快的情緒，那它們便會被銷毀。我著實不能那樣生活，但我也無法離開我的兒子，於是我簽了免責書與他一同進入傳送門，不管被送到哪裡。看來，我已不可能與他進行下一場旅行了。等我把小艇改造到可以成功飛到那顆宜居行星的程度，我已經被這個星球的污染毒害得太深。“

Without warning, the man began to weep quietly. Cat o’ Two Tails looked over at her companion to find him completely still, his indicator light rapidly cycling. She suddenly felt incredibly awkward.

男子突然開始小聲抽泣。雙尾貓發覺她的同伴一動不動，頭上的指示燈快速地循環閃爍著。她突然感到非常不自在。

“T-take him to your new home with you,” The man buried his face in his hands for a moment, took a deep breath and continued. “I blocked him from being able to access memories of me, because I know that he would be devastated by my death and the solitude afterwards, but now that you are here, perhaps having those memories restored by watching this would not be so bad for him.” He blew his nose into a corner of the blanket. “Please, do not let him watch this until you are ready to take him along. I don’t want him remembering everything too early and suffer for it.”

“請- 請帶他和你一道去新的世界，” 男子把臉埋入雙手片刻，深深吸了口氣後繼續說。“我把他記憶中與我有關的內容都阻斷了，因為我知道如果他能夠接入那些記憶的話，他會被我的死亡和之後的孤獨摧垮的。但是現在既然有你在，讓他看到這段錄像恢復記憶，或許對他會有益，“ 他用毯子一角響亮地擤了下鼻涕。 ”請求你在準備好帶他一起走之前，不要讓他看到這個錄像。我不想讓他太早憶起一切而蒙受更多的痛苦。“

“Well, crap, that ship has sailed,” Cat o’ Two Tails said. She suddenly felt a need to counter the prickly sensation in her eyes with coarseness.

”啊，該死，木已成舟啦，“ 雙尾貓說。她突然感到自己需要用粗話抵禦鼻子發酸的感覺。

“The flight route is preprogrammed into the pod, and there should be enough fuel for a one-way trip. I trust that you will take him, because I have no other choice but to trust you,” The man looked exhausted from speaking. “Please do not leave my son behind. Find him, and tell him I love him if you can. You have my gratitude, farewell.”

”飛行路線我已編制入小艇的電腦系統，單程旅行的燃料也應該足夠。我相信你會帶上他一起走，因為我除了信任你以外別無他法，“ 看起來，說話費的力氣已讓男子精疲力盡。”請不要把他丟棄。請找到他，並儘量告訴他我愛他。我非常感激你，再見了。“

He pressed something off screen, and the projection stopped.

男子在屏幕外某處按下按鍵，投影便停止了。

The Cat o’ Two Tails stood silent for a moment, and when she looked over at Robot9000, his entire body was lightly vibrating.

雙尾貓無言地站了一會後，轉頭看到機器人9000號的整個身體在輕輕振動。

“Dad,” he said.

“爸，” 他說。

未完待續！