經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》第16章2

Seen from the outside, which it never is, the Restaurant resembles a giant glittering starfish beached on a forgotten rock. Each of its arms houses the bars, the kitchens, the forcefield generators which protect the entire structure and the decayed planet on which it sits, and the Time Turbines which slowly rock the whole affair backwards and forwards across the crucial moment. In the centre sits the gigantic golden dome, almost a complete globe, and it was into this area that Zaphod, Ford, Arthur and Trillian now passed.
At least five tons of glitter alone had gone into it before them, and covered every available surface. The other surfaces were not available because they were already encrusted with jewels, precious sea shells from Santraginus, gold leaf, mosaic tiles, lizard skins and a million unidentifiable embellishments and decorations. Glass glittered, silver shone, gold gleamed, Arthur Dent goggled.
“Wowee,” said Zaphod, “Zappo.”
“Incredible!” breathed Arthur, “the people…! The things…!”
“The things,” said Ford Prefect quietly, “are also people.”
“The people…” resumed Arthur, “the… other people…”
“The lights…!” said Trillian.
“The tables…” said Arthur.
“The clothes…!” said Trillian.
The waiter thought they sounded like a couple of bailiffs.
“The End of the Universe is very popular,” said Zaphod threading his way unsteadily through the throng of tables, some made of marble, some of rich ultra-mahagony, some even of platinum, and at each a party of exotic creatures chatting amongst themselves and studying menus.
“People like to dress up for it,” continued Zaphod, “Gives it a sense of occasion.”
The tables were fanned out in a large circle around a central stage area where a small band were playing light music, at least a thousand tables was Arthur’s guess, and interspersed amongst them were swaying palms, hissing fountains, grotesque statuary, in short all the paraphernalia common to all Restaurants where little expense has been spared to give the impression that no expense has been spared. Arthur glanced around, half expecting to see someone making an American Express commercial.
Zaphod lurched into Ford, who lurched back into Zaphod.
“Wowee,” said Zaphod.
“Zappo,” said Ford.
“My great granddaddy must have really screwed up the computer’s works, you know,” said Zaphod, “I told it to take us to the nearest place to eat and it sends us to the End of the Universe. Remind me to be nice to it one day.”
He paused.
“Hey, everybody’s here you know. Everybody who was anybody.”
“Was?” said Arthur.

從外面看——雖然這種情形從來沒有發生過——這家餐館就像一個閃閃發光的巨大海星，趴在一塊被遺忘的礁石上，在它的每隻手臂的位置上，座落着灑吧、廚房，用來維持它所處星球的整個結構及其衰變部分的力場發生器，還有時間渦輪機。後者控制着這一切，在宇宙終結這條重要分界線兩邊緩慢地來回移動，往它的中心位置座落着乒大的金色穹頂，大得幾乎像一個完整的星球。這就是贊福德、福特、阿瑟和崔莉恩現在正準備進去的地方。
起碼有足足五噸的閃光物質已經在他們之前進入了這個空間，覆蓋了看得見的每一寸表面，其餘不可見的表面之所以是不可見的，因爲它們早已被覆上了寶石、來自桑特拉金斯的珍貴貝殼、金葉子，馬賽克瓷磚、蜥蝸皮，以及上百萬種無法識別的飾物和裝潢。玻璃耀眼，銀器發光，金子閃爍，而阿瑟·鄧特則瞪大了眼。
“哇，”贊福德說，“過癮。”
“簡直不可思議！”阿瑟有點兒喘不過氣來，“這些人！這些……傢伙！”
“這些‘傢伙’，”福特長官輕聲說，“其實都是人。”
“這些人……”阿瑟重新說道，“這些……另外的……傢伙……”
“這些燈……”崔莉恩說。
“這些桌子……”阿瑟說。
“這些衣服……”崔莉思又說。
侍者聽在耳朵裏，覺得他們活像一羣管家。
“宇宙盡頭餐館很受歡迎，”贊福德說着，搖搖晃晃地穿過密集的桌子……其中一些是大理石的，一些是上等紅木的，還有一些甚至是白金製成的。每張桌旁都罔坐着一夥奇怪的生物，一邊聊天，一邊研究菜譜。
“人們喜歡盛裝打扮，到這裏就餐，”贊福德繼續說，“所以這兒的場面纔會這麼隆重。”
這些桌子圍繞着一箇中心舞臺散開，形成一個巨大的圓形。舞臺上，一支小型樂隊正在演奏輕音樂。阿瑟估計，這裏起碼有上千張桌子。其間點綴着播曳的棕櫚、噝噝作響的噴泉、奇形怪狀的雕塑，簡而言之，就是所有那些不遺餘力地希望給人留下自己在裝滿上不遺餘力的印象的餐館所常用的一切裝備。阿瑟四下張望着，目的多半是希望能看到有人在用美國運通卡付賬。
贊福德突然間歪向福特，而福特反過來也歪向了贊福德了。
“哇。”贊福德說。
“過癮。”福特說。
“你知道，我那位曾祖父一定強化了那臺電腦的功能。”贊福德說，“我叫它把我們帶到最近的能夠吃上東西的地方，而它居然把我們送到了宇宙盡頭。記得提醒我對它好點兒——等哪天我們冉見到它的時候。”
他停頓了一下。
“嘿，每個人都在這兒。曾經是個人物的每個人。”
“曾經是？”阿瑟問。