经典科幻文学:《宇宙尽头的餐馆》第9章3
“OK,” muttered the bird morosely and flapped off into the dust again.
Zaphod watched its departure in bewilderment.
“Did that bird just talk to me?” he asked Marvin nervously. He was quite prepared to believe the alternative explanation, that he was in fact hallucinating.
“Yes,” confirmed Marvin.
“Poor souls,” said a deep, ethereal voice in Zaphod’s ear.
Twisting round violently to find the source of the voice nearly caused Zaphod to fall off the building. He grabbed savagely at a protruding window fitting and cut his hand on it. He hung on, breathing heavily.
The voice had no visible source whatever – there was no one there. Nevertheless, it spoke again.
“A tragic history behind them, you know. A terrible blight.”
Zaphod looked wildly about. The voice was deep and quiet. In other circumstances it would even be described as soothing. There is, however, nothing soothing about being addressed by a disembodied voice out of nowhere, particularly if you are, like Zaphod Beeblebrox, not at your best and hanging from a ledge eight storeys up a crashed building.
“Hey, er…” he stammered.
“Shall I tell you their story?” inquired the voice quietly.
“Hey, who are you?” panted Zaphod. “Where are you?”
“Later then, perhaps,” murmured the voice. “I am Gargravarr. I am the Custodian of the Total Perspective Vortex.”
“Why can’t I see…”
“You will find your progress down the building greatly facilitated,” the voice lifted, “if you move about two yards to your left. Why don’t you try it?”
Zaphod looked and saw a series of short horizontal grooves leading all the way down the side of the building. Gratefully he shifted himself across to them.
“Why don’t I see you again at the bottom?” said the voice in his ear, and as it spoke it faded.
“Hey,” called out Zaphod, “Where are you…”
“It’ll only take a couple of minutes…” said the voice very faintly.
“Marvin,” said Zaphod earnestly to the robot squatting dejectedly next to him, “Did a… did a voice just…”
“Yes,” Marvin replied tersely.
“好吧。”这只鸟愁眉苦脸地嘟哝道
赞福德看着它离去，感到一头雾水。断断续续地咂着鸟喙重新扑腾到空中。
“那只鸟是在对我说话吗？”他紧张兮兮地问马文。他已经做好了充分的思想准备，等待着一个否定的回答，即实际上是他自己产生丁幻觉。
“是的。”马文肯定地说。
“可怜的家伙。”一个深邃而缥缈的声音传进赞福德的耳朵。
赞福德猛地转身，四下寻找这个声音的来源，差点儿跌下楼去，忙乱中，他一把抓住一个突出的窗户零件，然后又搭上另外一只手。他就这样吊着，大日地喘着粗气。
这声音并没有任何可见的来源——四周空无一人，然而，它又出现了。
“要知道，他们身后都有一段悲惨的历史。一次可怕的打击！”
赞福德发疯般地东张西望。这声音深邃而从容。换个环境，它甚至可能会被捕述为某种抚慰人心的声音。但是，一个不知从何处传来的声音，空空洞洞、缺乏和任何宴体的联系，这种东西绝对起不到抚慰人心的作用，尤其是当你像赞福德·毕博布鲁克斯现在这样，并非处于你的最佳状态，而是吊在一栋坠毁的建筑物八楼外的一个突出物上时。
“嘿，嗯……”他结结巴巴地说。
“我应该把他们的故事告诉你吗？”这个声音平静地问，
“呃……你是谁，”赞福德喘息着问：“你在哪儿？”
“那就待会儿吧，也许。”这声音喃喃地说“我是伽古拉瓦，我是绝对透视旋涡的管理员。”
“为什么我看不见？”
“你会发现你爬下这栋大楼的路程要容易得多……”这声音提高了声凋说：“如果你往左边移动大概两码的话，干吗不试试呢7”
赞福德望了一眼，看见一连串水平走向的短凹槽一直延伸到大楼的底部。于是，他感激地朝这些凹槽移动过去。
“我们何不在楼下见面呢，”这声音又传进他的耳朵里，一边说着一边逐渐减弱。
“嘿，”赞福德喊道，“你究竟在哪儿……”
“只需要花费你几分钟的时间。”这声音极其微弱地说。
“马文，”赞福德认真地问那个沮丧地蹲在他旁边的机器人，“是不是有……是不是有一个声音？刚才……”
“是的。”马文简洁地回答道。
