經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》第7章2
Zaphod tried to size the man up. Earnest type, he thought, not a barrel of laughs. He probably apportioned a fair whack of his time to running up and down heaving corridors, breaking down doors and making cryptic remarks in empty offices.
“Let me introduce myself,” the man said, “My name is Roosta, and this is my towel.”
“Hello Roosta,” said Zaphod.
“Hello, towel,” he added as Roosta held out to him a rather nasty old flowery towel. Not knowing what to do with it, he shook it by the corner.
Outside the window, one of the huge slug-like, gunmetal-green spaceships growled past.
“Yes, go on,” said Marvin to the huge battle machine, “you’ll never guess.”
“Errmmm…” said the machine, vibrating with unaccustomed thought, “laser beams?”
Marvin shook his head solemnly.
“No,” muttered the machine in its deep guttural rumble, “Too obvious. Anti-matter ray?” it hazarded.
“Far too obvious,” admonished Marvin.
“Yes,” grumbled the machine, somewhat abashed, “Er… how about an electron ram?”
This was new to Marvin.
“What’s that?” he said.
“One of these,” said the machine with enthusiasm.
From its turret emerged a sharp prong which spat a single lethal blaze of light. Behind Marvin a wall roared and collapsed as a heap of dust. The dust billowed briefly, then settled.
“No,” said Marvin, “not one of those.”
“Good though, isn’t it?”
“Very good,” agreed Marvin.
“I know,” said the Frogstar battle machine, after another moment’s consideration, “you must have one of those new Xanthic Re-Structron Destabilized Zenon Emitters!”
“Nice, aren’t they?” said Marvin.
“That’s what you’ve got?” said the machine in considerable awe.
“No,” said Marvin.
“Oh,” said the machine, disappointed, “then it must be…”
贊福德試圖評估一下這個人。很熱心的類型，他想，不會是在開玩笑。只有這種人纔會不辭辛苦，在起伏搖晃的走廊裏跑上跑下，闖入一扇扇門內，在一間間空空如也的辦公室裏說這種讓人摸不着頭腦的話。
“自我介紹一下吧，”那人說。“我叫羅斯塔，這是我的毛巾。”
“你好，羅斯塔。”贊福德說。
“你好，毛巾。”當羅斯塔遞給他一條相當骯髒但卻花哨的舊毛巾時，他又補充了一句。他不知道該如何處置這條毛巾，只好拎着一個角抖了抖。
窗戶外面，一艘鼻涕蟲狀的、泛着鐵灰綠光澤的巨型太空船隆隆飛過。
“是的，來猜猜吧。”馬文對這部巨大的戰鬥機器說，“你永遠也猜不到的。”
“嗯嗯嗯嗯嗯……”機器說，因爲這種它不習慣的思維方式而激動不已，“激光射束？”
馬文嚴肅地搖了搖頭。
“不會是這個，”機器用一種像是從喉嚨深處發出來的低沉聲音嘀咕着，“這個太明顯了。反物質射線？”它想賭一把運氣。
“這個豈不是更明顯嗎？”馬文提醒它說。
“是啊，”機器轟轟地說，感到有點兒慚愧。“嗯……電子錘，對不對？”
對馬文來說，這是個新鮮玩意兒。
“電子錘是什麼？”他問。
“類似這種。”機器興奮地說。
從它的炮塔裏伸出一支尖刺，發射了一道致命的亮光。馬文身後的那堵牆轟地垮掉了，變成了一堆灰。灰塵翻騰了一陣，這才落地。
“不，”馬文說，“也不是這一類的。”
“但這種武器相當不錯，不是嗎？”
“很不錯。”馬文表示同意。
“我知道了。”又考慮了一陣後，這部蛙星戰鬥機器說，“你一定有一個那種新式的物質破壞及重構發射器！”
“那種武器棒極了，不是嗎？”馬文說。
“你有的真是那種？”機器以一種相當敬畏的語氣問。
“不是。”馬文說。
“喔，”機器失望地說，“那麼一定是……”
