經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》第2章6

At that same precise moment, Ford Prefect was in mid air. This was not because of anything wrong with the ship’s artificial gravity field, but because he was leaping down the stair-well which led to the ship’s personal cabins. It was a very high jump to do in one bound and he landed awkwardly, stumbled, recovered, raced down the corridor sending a couple of miniature service robots flying, skidded round the corner, burst into Zaphod’s door and explained what was on his mind.
“Vogons,” he said.
A short while before this, Arthur Dent had set out from his cabin in search of a cup of tea. It was not a quest he embarked upon with a great deal of optimism., because he knew that the only source of hot drinks on the entire ship was a benighted piece of equipment produced by the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation. It was called a Nutri-Matic Drinks Synthesizer, and he had encountered it before.
It claimed to produce the widest possible range of drinks personally matched to the tastes and metabolism of whoever cared to use it. When put to the test, however, it invariably produced a plastic cup filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.
He attempted to reason with the thing.
“Tea,” he said.
“Share and Enjoy,” the machine replied and provided him with yet another cup of the sickly liquid.
He threw it away.

在同一刻，福特長官正位於半空中。不是因爲飛船的人造重力場出了什麼毛病，而是他正從通往飛船居住區的樓梯井往下跳。這一跳的落差不低，所以他的落地姿勢相當狼狽。跌跌絆絆地恢復了平衡之後，他衝進走廊，撞飛了兩個微型服務機器人，在角落裏來了個急轉，一頭闖進贊福德的房間，開始向他闡述自己的看法。
“沃貢人。”他說。
而在此之前一會兒，阿瑟·鄧特剛剛走出自己的房間，想來上一杯茶。對於這個需求，他並沒有抱很樂觀的態度，因爲他知道，整艘飛船上惟一的熱飲來源是一臺由天狼星控制系統公司生產的弱智裝置。這臺裝置叫做自動營養飲料合成機，他以前曾經見識過。
這玩意兒宣稱它能夠調配出最多樣化的飲料，以適應任何一位使用者的口味和新陳代謝情況。然而，一旦使用起來，它卻總是一成不變地出來一塑料杯不太像但也並非完全不是茶的液體。
這次，他決定要就這個問題跟這臺機器理論一番。
“茶。”他說。
“請分享，請享用。”機器回答說，又一次提供了這樣一杯令人作嘔的液體。
他把杯子扔到一邊。