经典科幻文学:《宇宙尽头的餐馆》第12章3

They were now in the passenger compartment and Zaphod’s heart stopped still again for a every seat sat a passenger, strapped into his or her passengers’ hair was long and unkempt, their fingernails were long, the men wore beards. All of them were quite clearly alive – but sleeping.
Zaphod had the creeping horrors.
He walked slowly down the aisle as in a dream. By the time he was half-way down the aisle, the stewardess had reached the other end. She turned and spoke.
“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,” she said sweetly, “Thank you for bearing with us during this slight delay. We will be taking off as soon as we possibly can. If you would like to wake up now I will serve you coffee and biscuits.”
There was a slight hum.
At that moment, all the passengers awoke.
They awoke screaming and clawing at their straps and life support systems that held them tightly in their seats. They screamed and bawled and hollered till Zaphod thought his ears would shatter.
They struggled and writhed as the stewardess patiently moved up the aisle placing a small cup of coffee and a packet of biscuits in front of each one of them.
Then one of them rose from his seat.
He turned and looked at Zaphod.
Zaphod’s skin was crawling all over his body as if it was trying to get off. He turned and ran from the bedlam.
He plunged through the door and back into the corridor. The man pursued him.

他们现在是在乘客舱里，有那么一阵子，赞福德的心跳停止了。每个座位上都坐着一个乘客，被安全带缚在自己的座位上。这些乘客的头发都很长，乱槽糟的没有梳理，他们的指甲也很长，男人们都胡子拉碴的。所有的人显然都还活着——但处于睡眠状态。
恐惧在赞福德的全身蔓延开来。
他缓慢地行走在过道上，仿佛是在一场梦里。他走到一半时，那个机器人空姐已经到达了尽端。她转过身来，开始说话。
“女士们先生们，下午好，”她用甜美的声音说道，“感谢你们对这一点点儿延迟的忍耐。一旦有可能，我们将立即起飞。如果您现在愿意醒来，我将为您提供咖啡和点心。”
舱内出现了一阵轻微的嗡嗡声。
就在此时，所有乘客都醒过来了。
他们醒过来，开始尖叫，用手去抓将他们紧紧固定在座位上的安全带和生命支持系统。他们发出的尖叫、哀号和呼救，使赞福德觉得自己的耳朵都要被震聋了。
他们挣扎着，扭动着，而与此同时，那个机器人空姐则耐心地沿着过道移动，将一小杯咖啡和一小包点心放在每个人面前。
然后，他们中的一个从座位上站了起来。
他转过身，望着赞福德。
赞福德全身的皮肤都开始悸动，仿佛想从他身上脱下来。他回过身，奔跑着逃离这片混乱。
他冲过那道门，重新回到走道，那人追赶着他。