經典科幻文學:《銀河系漫遊指南》第3章 Part 5

A sudden silence hit the Earth. If anything it was worse than the noise. For a while nothing happened.
The great ships hung motionless in the air, over every nation on Earth. Motionless they hung, huge, heavy, steady in the sky, a blasphemy against nature. Many people went straight into shock as their minds tried to encompass what they were looking at. The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.
And still nothing happened.
Then there was a slight whisper, a sudden spacious whisper of open ambient sound. Every hi fi set in the world, every radio, every television, every cassette recorder, every woofer, every tweeter, every mid-range driver in the world quietly turned itself on.
Every tin can, every dust bin, every window, every car, every wine glass, every sheet of rusty metal became activated as an acoustically perfect sounding board.
Before the Earth passed away it was going to be treated to the very ultimate in sound reproduction, the greatest public address system ever built. But there was no concert, no music, no fanfare, just a simple message.
"People of Earth, your attention please," a voice said, and it was wonderful. Wonderful perfect quadrophonic sound with distortion levels so low as to make a brave man weep.
"This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council," the voice continued. "As you will no doubt be aware, the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route through your star system, and regrettably your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition. The process will take slightly less that two of your Earth minutes. Thank you."
The PA died away.

突然，一片寂靜席捲了整個地球。這比嘈雜還要糟糕。這一刻，什麼都沒有發生。
巨大的飛船靜止在天空中，覆蓋了地球上的所有國家。它們紋絲不動地懸在那裏，顯得巨大、沉重，這對自然是一種褻瀆。許多人徑直休克了，因爲他們試圖在頭腦中理解所看見的東西。飛船就這樣懸在空中，同樣大小的磚石建築可沒這個本事。
還是什麼都沒有發生。
然後，傳來一聲輕微的響動，這突然的一聲像是擰開了總開關。地球上所有的音響、所有的收音機、所有的電視、所有的錄音機、所有的低音擴音器、所有的高音擴音器、所有的中音擴音器同時都自動打開了。
所有罐頭、所有垃圾桶，所有窗戶、所有汽車、所有酒瓶、所有生鏽金屬片都成了發出和諧聲音的器具。
就在地球快要毀滅之前，它們發出了最後的聲音，形成有史以來最爲龐大的公衆廣播系統。不過，傳出的不是交響樂，不是音樂，也不是嘹亮的號角，只有一條簡單的信息。
“地球上的人們，請你們注意了，”一個聲音響起，音質美極了。這個完美的四聲道聲音幾乎沒有一絲扭曲，純得足以使一個勇敢的人留下眼淚。
“這裏是銀河系超空間計劃委員會的沃貢·傑爾茲，”這個聲音繼續說道，“你們無疑已經知道，開發銀河系偏遠地區的計劃需要修建一條超空間快速通道穿越你們這個星系。令人遺憾的是，你們居住的這顆行星屬於被清除的範圍。清除行動將在你們地球時間兩分鐘之內展開。謝謝。”
然後，廣播系統停止了工作。