经典科幻文学:《宇宙尽头的餐馆》第18章1

The main reception foyer was almost empty but Ford nevertheless weaved his way through it.
Zaphod grasped him firmly by the arm and manoeuvred him into a cubicle standing to one side of the entrance hall.
“What are you doing to him?” asked Arthur.
“Sobering him up,” said Zaphod and pushed a coin into a slot. Lights flashed, gases swirled.
“Hi,” said Ford stepping out a moment later, “where are we going?”
“Down to the car park, come on.”
“What about the personnel Time Teleports?” said Ford, “Get us straight back to the Heart of Gold.”
“Yeah, but I’ve cooled on that ship. Zarniwoop can have it. I don’t want to play his games. Let’s see what we can find.”
A Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Happy Vertical People Transporter took them down deep into the substrata beneath the Restaurant. They were glad to see it had been vandalized and didn’t try to make them happy as well as take them down.
At the bottom of the shaft the lift doors opened and a blast of cold stale air hit them.
The first thing they saw on leaving the lift was a long concrete wall with over fifty doors in it offering lavatory facilities for all of fifty major lifeforms. Nevertheless, like every car park in the Galaxy throughout the entire history of car parks, this car park smelt predominantly of impatience.
They turned a corner and found themselves on a moving catwalk that traversed a vast cavernous space that stretched off into the dim distance.
It was divided off into bays each of which contained a space ship belonging to one of the diners upstairs, some smallish and utilitarian mass production models, others vast shining limoships, the playthings of the very rich.
Zaphod’s eyes sparkled with something that may or may not have been avarice as he passed over them. In fact it’s best to be clear on this point avarice is definitely what it was.
“There he is,” said Trillian, “Marvin, down there.”
They looked where she was pointing. Dimly they could see a small metal figure listlessly rubbing a small rag on one remote corner of a giant silver suncruiser.
At short intervals along the moving catwalk, wide transparent tubes led down to floor level. Zaphod stepped off the catwalk into one and floated gently downwards. The others followed. Thinking back to this later, Arthur Dent thought it was the single most enjoyable experience of his travels in the Galaxy.
“Hey, Marvin,” said Zaphod striding over towards to him, “Hey, kid, are we pleased to see you.”
Marvin turned, and in so far as it is possible for a totally inert metal face to look reproachfully, this is what it did.
“No you’re not,” he said, “no one ever is.”

主接待大厅几乎是空的，但福特仍然摇摇晃晃、东拐两绕。
赞福德一把牢牢抓住他的胳膊，把他架到大厅一侧的～问小屋于里，
“你要对他干什么？”阿瑟闻。
“让他清醒过来。”赞福德说，一边把一枚硬币塞进一个投币口，指示灯开始闪烁，气流也旋转起来。
“嗨……”过了一会儿，福特从里面走出来，“我们这是要去哪儿？”
“下到停车场去，来吧。”
“为什么不用时间传送法？”福特说，“直接把我们送回‘黄金之心号’上去。”
“本来可以，但我对那艟飞船已经没兴趣了。扎尼乌酱得到了它，我不想玩他那个游戏。咱们去停车场，看看能找到些什么。”
一部天狼星控制系统公司的人体垂直传送器，把他们带到了餐馆地下很深的底层。大家高兴地发现这部机器已经被人蓄意破坏掉了，所以在运送他们下去的过程中没有试图使他们快乐起来。
到了传送通道底部，电梯门打开了，迎面扑来一阵寒冷、陈腐的空气，
走出电梯后，他们第一眼看到的是一堵长的混凝土墙，以便为所有五十种主要生命形式提供卫生设备。尽管如此，就像银河系内的任何一个停车场、停车场历史的任何一个停车场一样，这个停车场的气味也同样让人无法忍受。
他们转过一个角落，发现自己簧身于一条正在移动的高架通道，这条通道横穿一片压大的目目穴式空间，直朝着昏暗的远处延伸过去，
这片空间被分隔成一个个泊位，每一个都停放着一艘属于楼上某个用餐者的飞船。其中一些是小而实用的大众化产品，另一些则是n大闪亮的豪华飞船，是那些巨富之人的玩物。
经过这些飞船的时候，赞福德的眼里闪闪发光，可能是贪婪，也可能不是。实际上，准确地说……正是贪婪。
“他在那儿，”栏莉恩说，“马文，在那头。”
他们顺着她指的方向看过去，隐隐约约地看见一个小小的金属东西在远处的一个角落里，正无精打采地用一块破布擦着一艘再大的恒星巡航飞船。
这条高架通道每隔一小段距离，就有一些粗大的透明管子通向地面。赞幅德近走通道，进了其中一根，轻巧地滑落地面。其他人跟着他。后来回想起来，阿瑟·邓特认为，这是他的银河系旅程中惟一令人愉快的经所，
“嘿，马文”赞福德说，大步胡他走过去，“嘿，伙计，我们很高必看她你，”
马文转过身来，如果一张完全没有表情的金脸上有可能的表情，那么他的脸上正是这种表情。
“不，见到我你们并不高兴，”他说，“没有人会高兴。”