经典科幻文学:《宇宙尽头的餐馆》第14章2

“No,” muttered Arthur. He had raised himself on to his elbows but it didn’t seem to improve things. He slumped down again.
“No,” said Trillian, standing up, “no way at all.”
A dull hoarse gurgling sound came from the floor. It was Zaphod Beeblebrox attempting to speak. “I certainly didn’t survive,” he gurgled, “I was a total goner. Wham bang and that was it.”
“Yeah, thanks to you,” said Ford, “We didn’t stand a chance. We must have been blown to bits. Arms, legs everywhere.”
“Yeah,” said Zaphod struggling noisily to his feet.
“If the lady and gentlemen would like to order drinks…” said the green blur, hovering impatiently beside them.
“Kerpow, splat,” continued Zaphod, “instantaneously zonked into our component molecules. Hey, Ford,” he said, identifying one of the slowly solidifying blurs around him, “did you get that thing of your whole life flashing before you?”
“You got that too?” said Ford, “your whole life?”
“Yeah,” said Zaphod, “at least I assume it was mine. I spent a lot of time out of my skulls you know.”
He looked at around him at the various shapes that were at last becoming proper shapes instead of vague and wobbling shapeless shapes.
“So…” he said.
“So what?” said Ford.
“So here we are,” said Zaphod hesitantly, “lying dead…”
“Standing,” Trillian corrected him.
“Er, standing dead,” continued Zaphod, “in this desolate…”
“Restaurant,” said Arthur Dent who had got to his feet and could now, much to his surprise, see clearly. That is to say, the thing that surprised him was not that he could see, but what he could see.
“Here we are,” continued Zaphod doggedly, “standing dead in this desolate…”
“Five star…” said Trillian.
“Restaurant,” concluded Zaphod.
“Odd isn’t it?” said Ford.
“Er, yeah.”

“不。”阿瑟咕哝道。他用双肘撑起身体，但这样似乎很难使他的处境有所改善。于是，他再次瘫在地上。
“不，”崔莉恩说，一边站起身来。 “根本不可能。”。
那是赞福德·毕博布鲁克斯在努力尝试着说话。 “我肯定是没能括下来，”他说，“我已经完全是个死人了。‘轰’的一声巨响，就这样。”
“是啊，全都得多谢你，”福特说，“我们连一点儿机会都没有。我们一定已经被炸成了碎片，残肢断腿到处都是。”
“是啊。”赞福德哼哼着、挣扎着，朝自己的双脚移动过去。
“如果女士和先生们想来点儿喝的……”那团绿影说。它一直不耐烦地盘旋在他们身旁。
“‘砰’，这么一声，”赞福德继续说道，“我们一瞬间就化成了分子！嘿！福特，”他说，他辨认出了围绕在他身边的那些正在缓慢凝同的影子中的一个，“你有过那种体验吗，你的一生在你面前一闪而过？”
”你也有那种体验吗？”福特说，“你的整个一生？”
“是的，”赞福德说，“最起码我认为那是我的一辈子。你知道的，我的脑子在我的头骨以外度过了很多时间。”
他环顾自己周围，只见缥缈的各种影子最终变成了固定的形状，不再模糊，不再不具形态地游移不定了。
“那么”他说。
“那么什么？”福特说。
“那么我们就在这里了，”赞福德犹豫地说，“躺着，死了”
“站着。”崔莉恩纠正他说。
“哦，站着，死了，”赞福德继续道，“在这个荒凉的……”
“餐馆。”阿瑟·邓特说，他已经接触到了自己的双脚，并且惊讶地发觉，自己现在居然能看清楚了。更准确地说，使他感到惊讶的并不是他能看见，而是他所看见的景物。
“我们就在这里，”赞福德固执地继续说道，“站着，死了，在这个荒凉的……”
“五星级——”崔莉恩说。
“餐馆。”赞槁德作出了结论。
“这太古怪了，不是吗，”福特说。
“嗯，是啊。”