經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》第14章2

“No,” muttered Arthur. He had raised himself on to his elbows but it didn’t seem to improve things. He slumped down again.
“No,” said Trillian, standing up, “no way at all.”
A dull hoarse gurgling sound came from the floor. It was Zaphod Beeblebrox attempting to speak. “I certainly didn’t survive,” he gurgled, “I was a total goner. Wham bang and that was it.”
“Yeah, thanks to you,” said Ford, “We didn’t stand a chance. We must have been blown to bits. Arms, legs everywhere.”
“Yeah,” said Zaphod struggling noisily to his feet.
“If the lady and gentlemen would like to order drinks…” said the green blur, hovering impatiently beside them.
“Kerpow, splat,” continued Zaphod, “instantaneously zonked into our component molecules. Hey, Ford,” he said, identifying one of the slowly solidifying blurs around him, “did you get that thing of your whole life flashing before you?”
“You got that too?” said Ford, “your whole life?”
“Yeah,” said Zaphod, “at least I assume it was mine. I spent a lot of time out of my skulls you know.”
He looked at around him at the various shapes that were at last becoming proper shapes instead of vague and wobbling shapeless shapes.
“So…” he said.
“So what?” said Ford.
“So here we are,” said Zaphod hesitantly, “lying dead…”
“Standing,” Trillian corrected him.
“Er, standing dead,” continued Zaphod, “in this desolate…”
“Restaurant,” said Arthur Dent who had got to his feet and could now, much to his surprise, see clearly. That is to say, the thing that surprised him was not that he could see, but what he could see.
“Here we are,” continued Zaphod doggedly, “standing dead in this desolate…”
“Five star…” said Trillian.
“Restaurant,” concluded Zaphod.
“Odd isn’t it?” said Ford.
“Er, yeah.”

“不。”阿瑟咕噥道。他用雙肘撐起身體，但這樣似乎很難使他的處境有所改善。於是，他再次癱在地上。
“不，”崔莉恩說，一邊站起身來。 “根本不可能。”。
那是贊福德·畢博布魯克斯在努力嘗試着說話。 “我肯定是沒能括下來，”他說，“我已經完全是個死人了。‘轟’的一聲巨響，就這樣。”
“是啊，全都得多謝你，”福特說，“我們連一點兒機會都沒有。我們一定已經被炸成了碎片，殘肢斷腿到處都是。”
“是啊。”贊福德哼哼着、掙扎着，朝自己的雙腳移動過去。
“如果女士和先生們想來點兒喝的……”那團綠影說。它一直不耐煩地盤旋在他們身旁。
“‘砰’，這麼一聲，”贊福德繼續說道，“我們一瞬間就化成了分子！嘿！福特，”他說，他辨認出了圍繞在他身邊的那些正在緩慢凝同的影子中的一個，“你有過那種體驗嗎，你的一生在你面前一閃而過？”
”你也有那種體驗嗎？”福特說，“你的整個一生？”
“是的，”贊福德說，“最起碼我認爲那是我的一輩子。你知道的，我的腦子在我的頭骨以外度過了很多時間。”
他環顧自己周圍，只見縹緲的各種影子最終變成了固定的形狀，不再模糊，不再不具形態地遊移不定了。
“那麼”他說。
“那麼什麼？”福特說。
“那麼我們就在這裏了，”贊福德猶豫地說，“躺着，死了”
“站着。”崔莉恩糾正他說。
“哦，站着，死了，”贊福德繼續道，“在這個荒涼的……”
“餐館。”阿瑟·鄧特說，他已經接觸到了自己的雙腳，並且驚訝地發覺，自己現在居然能看清楚了。更準確地說，使他感到驚訝的並不是他能看見，而是他所看見的景物。
“我們就在這裏，”贊福德固執地繼續說道，“站着，死了，在這個荒涼的……”
“五星級——”崔莉恩說。
“餐館。”贊槁德作出了結論。
“這太古怪了，不是嗎，”福特說。
“嗯，是啊。”