經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》第18章1

The main reception foyer was almost empty but Ford nevertheless weaved his way through it.
Zaphod grasped him firmly by the arm and manoeuvred him into a cubicle standing to one side of the entrance hall.
“What are you doing to him?” asked Arthur.
“Sobering him up,” said Zaphod and pushed a coin into a slot. Lights flashed, gases swirled.
“Hi,” said Ford stepping out a moment later, “where are we going?”
“Down to the car park, come on.”
“What about the personnel Time Teleports?” said Ford, “Get us straight back to the Heart of Gold.”
“Yeah, but I’ve cooled on that ship. Zarniwoop can have it. I don’t want to play his games. Let’s see what we can find.”
A Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Happy Vertical People Transporter took them down deep into the substrata beneath the Restaurant. They were glad to see it had been vandalized and didn’t try to make them happy as well as take them down.
At the bottom of the shaft the lift doors opened and a blast of cold stale air hit them.
The first thing they saw on leaving the lift was a long concrete wall with over fifty doors in it offering lavatory facilities for all of fifty major lifeforms. Nevertheless, like every car park in the Galaxy throughout the entire history of car parks, this car park smelt predominantly of impatience.
They turned a corner and found themselves on a moving catwalk that traversed a vast cavernous space that stretched off into the dim distance.
It was divided off into bays each of which contained a space ship belonging to one of the diners upstairs, some smallish and utilitarian mass production models, others vast shining limoships, the playthings of the very rich.
Zaphod’s eyes sparkled with something that may or may not have been avarice as he passed over them. In fact it’s best to be clear on this point avarice is definitely what it was.
“There he is,” said Trillian, “Marvin, down there.”
They looked where she was pointing. Dimly they could see a small metal figure listlessly rubbing a small rag on one remote corner of a giant silver suncruiser.
At short intervals along the moving catwalk, wide transparent tubes led down to floor level. Zaphod stepped off the catwalk into one and floated gently downwards. The others followed. Thinking back to this later, Arthur Dent thought it was the single most enjoyable experience of his travels in the Galaxy.
“Hey, Marvin,” said Zaphod striding over towards to him, “Hey, kid, are we pleased to see you.”
Marvin turned, and in so far as it is possible for a totally inert metal face to look reproachfully, this is what it did.
“No you’re not,” he said, “no one ever is.”

主接待大廳幾乎是空的，但福特仍然搖搖晃晃、東拐兩繞。
贊福德一把牢牢抓住他的胳膊，把他架到大廳一側的～問小屋於裏，
“你要對他幹什麼？”阿瑟聞。
“讓他清醒過來。”贊福德說，一邊把一枚硬幣塞進一個投幣口，指示燈開始閃爍，氣流也旋轉起來。
“嗨……”過了一會兒，福特從裏面走出來，“我們這是要去哪兒？”
“下到停車場去，來吧。”
“爲什麼不用時間傳送法？”福特說，“直接把我們送回‘黃金之心號’上去。”
“本來可以，但我對那艟飛船已經沒興趣了。扎尼烏醬得到了它，我不想玩他那個遊戲。咱們去停車場，看看能找到些什麼。”
一部天狼星控制系統公司的人體垂直傳送器，把他們帶到了餐館地下很深的底層。大家高興地發現這部機器已經被人蓄意破壞掉了，所以在運送他們下去的過程中沒有試圖使他們快樂起來。
到了傳送通道底部，電梯門打開了，迎面撲來一陣寒冷、陳腐的空氣，
走出電梯後，他們第一眼看到的是一堵長的混凝土牆，以便爲所有五十種主要生命形式提供衛生設備。儘管如此，就像銀河系內的任何一個停車場、停車場歷史的任何一個停車場一樣，這個停車場的氣味也同樣讓人無法忍受。
他們轉過一個角落，發現自己簧身於一條正在移動的高架通道，這條通道橫穿一片壓大的目目穴式空間，直朝着昏暗的遠處延伸過去，
這片空間被分隔成一個個泊位，每一個都停放着一艘屬於樓上某個用餐者的飛船。其中一些是小而實用的大衆化產品，另一些則是n大閃亮的豪華飛船，是那些鉅富之人的玩物。
經過這些飛船的時候，贊福德的眼裏閃閃發光，可能是貪婪，也可能不是。實際上，準確地說……正是貪婪。
“他在那兒，”欄莉恩說，“馬文，在那頭。”
他們順着她指的方向看過去，隱隱約約地看見一個小小的金屬東西在遠處的一個角落裏，正無精打采地用一塊破布擦着一艘再大的恆星巡航飛船。
這條高架通道每隔一小段距離，就有一些粗大的透明管子通向地面。贊幅德近走通道，進了其中一根，輕巧地滑落地面。其他人跟着他。後來回想起來，阿瑟·鄧特認爲，這是他的銀河系旅程中惟一令人愉快的經所，
“嘿，馬文”贊福德說，大步胡他走過去，“嘿，夥計，我們很高必看她你，”
馬文轉過身來，如果一張完全沒有表情的金臉上有可能的表情，那麼他的臉上正是這種表情。
“不，見到我你們並不高興，”他說，“沒有人會高興。”