经典科幻文学:《宇宙尽头的餐馆》第32章7
“You’re a bunch of raving nutters,” he opined.
The tide of opinion started to turn against him. What had started out as excellent entertainment had now, in the crowd’s view, deteriorated into mere abuse, and since this abuse was in the main directed at them they wearied of it.
Sensing this shift in the wind, the marketing girl turned on him.
“Is it perhaps in order,” she demanded, “to inquire what you’ve been doing all these months then? You and that other interloper have been missing since the day we arrived.”
“We’ve been on a journey,” said Ford, “We went to try and find out something about this planet.”
“Oh,” said the girl archly, “doesn’t sound very productive to me.”
“No? Well have I got news for you, my love. We have discovered this planet’s future.”
He continued.“It doesn’t matter a pair of fetid dingo’s kidneys what you all choose to do from now on. Burn down the forests, anything, it won’t make a scrap of difference. Your future history has already happened. Two million years you’ve got and that’s it. At the end of that time your race will be dead, gone and good riddance to you. Remember that, two million years!”
The crowd muttered to itself in annoyance. People as rich as they had suddenly become shouldn’t be obliged to listen to this sort of gibberish. Perhaps they could tip the fellow a leaf or two and he would go away.
They didn’t need to bother. Ford was already stalking out of the clearing, pausing only to shake his head at Number Two who was already firing his Kill-O-Zap gun into some neighbouring trees.
He turned back once.
“Two million years!” he said and laughed.
“Well,” said the Captain with a soothing smile, “still time for a few more baths. Could someone pass me the sponge? I just dropped it over the side.”
“你们简直就是一群胡言乱语的疯子。”他发表了自己的看法，
意吣的潮流开始逆转，人群开始反对他。在人们看来，一开始时作为精彩螟乐出现的东西现在已经演变成了辱骂，并且是指向他们的辱骂。于是，他们开始感到厌烦了。
由于感觉到了空气中的这种变化，那个市场部女孩转向他。
“也许有必要问问，这几个月以来你都做了些什么？从我们到达那一天，你和另一个闯人者就失踪了，”
“我们进行了一次旅行，”福特说，“我们试图找出一些东西，关于这颗行星的。”
“哦，”这女孩狡黠地说，“听上去不是太有成果嘛。”
“不是？那好，让我告诉你一个新闻，亲爱的。我们已经发现了这颗星球的未来。”
他继续道：“从现在起，无论你们选择做些什么，其价值都顶不七一对臭烘烘的澳洲野狗的腰子。烧掉森林，或者其他任何事，都不会有一丝一毫的区别。你们未来的历史已经发生了，你们还有二百万年，就这些。这段时间过后，你们这个种族将会灭亡。对你们来说，灭亡真是一种解脱。记住这一点吧，二百万年！”
人群开始烦恼地嘀咕这件事。突然变得富裕的人们觉得自己不应该被人强迫听这种胡肓乱语。也许他们浚给这家伙一两片叶子的小费，让他离开。
其实他们不用担心这个。耦特已始开始离开这片空地了，他只在看见二号的时候停了一下，摇头叹息，嘣为二号已经开始用蒸发轰击枪对着附近的树林开火了。
他转过头。
“二百万年！”他大笑道。
“噢，”舰长平静地微笑着说，‘还有时间多洗几次澡谁能把海绵递我一下？我刚刚把它弄掉了”
