经典科幻文学:《宇宙尽头的餐馆》第20章2
In fact, though they weren’t to know it, the decor had been chosen in honour of its owner’s sad, lamented, and tax-deductible condition.
The ship gave a particularly sickening lurch.
“Take it easy,” pleaded Arthur, “you’re making me space sick.”
“Time sick,” said Ford, “we’re plummeting backwards through time.”
“Thank you,” said Arthur, “now I think I really am going to be ill.”
“Go ahead,” said Zaphod, “we could do with a little colour about this place.”
“This is meant to be a polite after-dinner conversation is it?” snapped Arthur.
Zaphod left the controls for Ford to figure out, and lurched over to Arthur.
“Look, Earthman,” he said angrily, “you’ve got a job to do, right? The Question to the Ultimate Answer, right?”
“What, that thing?” said Arthur, “I thought we’d forgotten about that.”
“Not me, baby. Like the mice said, it’s worth a lot of money in the right quarters. And it’s all locked up in that head thing of yours.”
“Yes but…”
“But nothing! Think about it. The Meaning of Life! We get our fingers on that we can hold every shrink in the Galaxy up to ransom, and that’s worth a bundle. I owe mine a mint.”
Arthur took a deep breath without much enthusiasm.
“Alright,” he said, “but where do we start? How should I know? They say the Ultimate Answer or whatever is Forty-two, how am I supposed to know what the question is? It could be anything. I mean, what’s six times seven?”
Zaphod looked at him hard for a moment. Then his eyes blazed with excitement.
“Forty-two!” he cried.
Arthur wiped his palm across his forehead.
“Yes,” he said patiently,” I know that.”
Zaphod’s faces fell.
他们当然不会知道，事实上，之所以选择这种装饰风格，完全是为了纪念这艘飞船的主人目前所处的可悲、口f叹、可以获得减免税的处境。
猛然问，飞船往下一沉。
“动作别太猛，”阿瑟恳求道，“这样会弄得我太空晕船的。”
“你是晕时间，”福特说，“我们正在通过时间往回骤降。”
“谢谢你。”阿瑟说，“我觉得我真的快吐了。”
“那就吐吧，”赞福德说，“咱们可以在这个地方搞出点儿颜色来。”
“这算礼貌的餐后交谈吗？”阿瑟生气地说。
赞福德离开控制台，来到福特身边，和他商量丁一下，然后转向阿瑟。
“瞧，地球人，”他生气地说对吗’终极答案的问题，对吗，”
“什么，那件事？”阿瑟说。“你以前有一项工作要完成“我还以为咱们已经把它抛到脑后去了！”
“我可没有，伙计。那些老鼠说过，找到了地方的话，它值一大笔钱呢。而它就被锁在你那个叫脑袋的玩意儿里。”
“是的，可……”
“没什么可不可的！想想吧，生命的意义！只要咱们掌握了了一点，银河系的每个心理医生就成了任凭咱们摆布的人质，我们想让他们拿多少赎金出来，他们就得拿多少赎金出来。这可是一大笔钱呐。简直是一座造币厂。”
阿瑟吸了一口气，并没有表现出多大的热情。
“好吧，”他说，“可我们从哪儿开始呢？我怎么会知道呢？他们说那个终极答案，或者随便什么玩意儿，是42，我凭什么该知道针对这个答案的问题是什么，可能是任何东西。我的意思是，6乘以7等于多少？”
赞福德严肃地盯着他，看了一会儿。然后，他的眼睛里冒出了兴奋的光彩。
“421”他叫道。
阿瑟用手掌擦了擦前额。
“对，”他耐心地说，“我知道。”
赞福德的脸沉了下来。
