經典科幻文學:《銀河系漫遊指南》第27章2

"Seven and a half million years our race has waited for this Great and Hopefully Enlightening Day!" cried the cheer leader. "The Day of the Answer!"
Hurrahs burst from the ecstatic crowd.
"Never again," cried the man, "never again will we wake up in the morning and think Who am I? What is my purpose in life? Does it really, cosmically speaking, matter if I don't get up and go to work? For today we will finally learn once and for all the plain and simple answer to all these nagging little problems of Life, the Universe and Everything!"
As the crowd erupted once again, Arthur found himself gliding through the air and down towards one of the large stately windows on the first floor of the building behind the dais from which the speaker was addressing the crowd.
He experienced a moment's panic as he sailed straight through towards the window, which passed when a second or so later he found he had gone right through the solid glass without apparently touching it.
No one in the room remarked on his peculiar arrival, which is hardly surprising as he wasn't there. He began to realize that the whole experience was merely a recorded projection which knocked six-track seventy-millimetre into a cocked hat.
The room was much as Slartibartfast had described it. In seven and a half million years it had been well looked after and cleaned regularly every century or so. The ultramahagony desk was worn at the edges, the carpet a little faded now, but the large computer terminal sat in sparkling glory on the desk's leather top, as bright as if it had been constructed yesterday.
Two severely dressed men sat respectfully before the terminal and waited.

“整整750萬年了，我們種族始終等待着這個偉大而充滿了希望的啓示之日！”狂歡領袖大叫着，“答案之日！”
狂喜的人羣再次呼喝？
“再也不會了，”那個男人喊道，“我們再也不會在清晨醒來時苦苦思索：”我是誰？我生命的目的是什麼？按照宇宙的法則，如果我不起牀去工作，真的有什麼關係嗎？‘因爲，就在今天，對於所有這些不斷困擾着我們的涉及生命、宇宙和一切的問題，我們將會一勞永逸地得到一個清晰而簡潔的答案！“
當人羣再次沸騰起來時，阿瑟發現自己正在空中滑翔，朝着高臺背後那棟建築一樓的一扇富麗堂皇的巨大窗戶下降。
由於直直地衝着窗戶而去，他一度經歷了短暫的慌亂，但僅僅幾秒鐘之後慌亂就過去了，因爲他發現自己已經穿越了堅固的玻璃，甚至絲毫沒有碰到它。
屋內並沒有人察覺到這個不速之客的光臨，這一點兒也不奇怪，因爲他本來就不在那裏。他開始意識到，所有這些經歷都只是一頂接入6條70毫米磁道的頭盔所產生的一種記錄投影。
這間屋子和司拉提巴特法斯特所描述的非常接近。在整整750萬年中，它被照看得很好，幾乎每個世紀都會定期清掃一番。上等紅木製成的操作桌擺放在牆邊，地毯稍稍有些褪色了，但是巨大的電腦終端立在皮革桌面上，閃耀着淡淡的光芒，就像昨天才剛剛組裝完成似的。
兩個身着正式禮服的人畢恭畢敬地坐在終端前，等待着。