经典科幻文学:《宇宙尽头的餐馆》第16章2

Seen from the outside, which it never is, the Restaurant resembles a giant glittering starfish beached on a forgotten rock. Each of its arms houses the bars, the kitchens, the forcefield generators which protect the entire structure and the decayed planet on which it sits, and the Time Turbines which slowly rock the whole affair backwards and forwards across the crucial moment. In the centre sits the gigantic golden dome, almost a complete globe, and it was into this area that Zaphod, Ford, Arthur and Trillian now passed.
At least five tons of glitter alone had gone into it before them, and covered every available surface. The other surfaces were not available because they were already encrusted with jewels, precious sea shells from Santraginus, gold leaf, mosaic tiles, lizard skins and a million unidentifiable embellishments and decorations. Glass glittered, silver shone, gold gleamed, Arthur Dent goggled.
“Wowee,” said Zaphod, “Zappo.”
“Incredible!” breathed Arthur, “the people…! The things…!”
“The things,” said Ford Prefect quietly, “are also people.”
“The people…” resumed Arthur, “the… other people…”
“The lights…!” said Trillian.
“The tables…” said Arthur.
“The clothes…!” said Trillian.
The waiter thought they sounded like a couple of bailiffs.
“The End of the Universe is very popular,” said Zaphod threading his way unsteadily through the throng of tables, some made of marble, some of rich ultra-mahagony, some even of platinum, and at each a party of exotic creatures chatting amongst themselves and studying menus.
“People like to dress up for it,” continued Zaphod, “Gives it a sense of occasion.”
The tables were fanned out in a large circle around a central stage area where a small band were playing light music, at least a thousand tables was Arthur’s guess, and interspersed amongst them were swaying palms, hissing fountains, grotesque statuary, in short all the paraphernalia common to all Restaurants where little expense has been spared to give the impression that no expense has been spared. Arthur glanced around, half expecting to see someone making an American Express commercial.
Zaphod lurched into Ford, who lurched back into Zaphod.
“Wowee,” said Zaphod.
“Zappo,” said Ford.
“My great granddaddy must have really screwed up the computer’s works, you know,” said Zaphod, “I told it to take us to the nearest place to eat and it sends us to the End of the Universe. Remind me to be nice to it one day.”
He paused.
“Hey, everybody’s here you know. Everybody who was anybody.”
“Was?” said Arthur.

从外面看——虽然这种情形从来没有发生过——这家餐馆就像一个闪闪发光的巨大海星，趴在一块被遗忘的礁石上，在它的每只手臂的位置上，座落着洒吧、厨房，用来维持它所处星球的整个结构及其衰变部分的力场发生器，还有时间涡轮机。后者控制着这一切，在宇宙终结这条重要分界线两边缓慢地来回移动，往它的中心位置座落着乒大的金色穹顶，大得几乎像一个完整的星球。这就是赞福德、福特、阿瑟和崔莉恩现在正准备进去的地方。
起码有足足五吨的闪光物质已经在他们之前进入了这个空间，覆盖了看得见的每一寸表面，其余不可见的表面之所以是不可见的，因为它们早已被覆上了宝石、来自桑特拉金斯的珍贵贝壳、金叶子，马赛克瓷砖、蜥蜗皮，以及上百万种无法识别的饰物和装潢。玻璃耀眼，银器发光，金子闪烁，而阿瑟·邓特则瞪大了眼。
“哇，”赞福德说，“过瘾。”
“简直不可思议！”阿瑟有点儿喘不过气来，“这些人！这些……家伙！”
“这些‘家伙’，”福特长官轻声说，“其实都是人。”
“这些人……”阿瑟重新说道，“这些……另外的……家伙……”
“这些灯……”崔莉恩说。
“这些桌子……”阿瑟说。
“这些衣服……”崔莉思又说。
侍者听在耳朵里，觉得他们活像一群管家。
“宇宙尽头餐馆很受欢迎，”赞福德说着，摇摇晃晃地穿过密集的桌子……其中一些是大理石的，一些是上等红木的，还有一些甚至是白金制成的。每张桌旁都罔坐着一伙奇怪的生物，一边聊天，一边研究菜谱。
“人们喜欢盛装打扮，到这里就餐，”赞福德继续说，“所以这儿的场面才会这么隆重。”
这些桌子围绕着一个中心舞台散开，形成一个巨大的圆形。舞台上，一支小型乐队正在演奏轻音乐。阿瑟估计，这里起码有上千张桌子。其间点缀着播曳的棕榈、咝咝作响的喷泉、奇形怪状的雕塑，简而言之，就是所有那些不遗余力地希望给人留下自己在装满上不遗余力的印象的餐馆所常用的一切装备。阿瑟四下张望着，目的多半是希望能看到有人在用美国运通卡付账。
赞福德突然间歪向福特，而福特反过来也歪向了赞福德了。
“哇。”赞福德说。
“过瘾。”福特说。
“你知道，我那位曾祖父一定强化了那台电脑的功能。”赞福德说，“我叫它把我们带到最近的能够吃上东西的地方，而它居然把我们送到了宇宙尽头。记得提醒我对它好点儿——等哪天我们冉见到它的时候。”
他停顿了一下。
“嘿，每个人都在这儿。曾经是个人物的每个人。”
“曾经是？”阿瑟问。