經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》第17章7

“It’s marvellous though,” he rattled on, “to see so many of you.here tonight no isn’t it though? Yes, absolutely marvellous. Because I know that so many of you come here time and time again, which I think is really wonderful, to come and watch this final end of everything, and then return home to your own eras… and raise families, strive for new and better societies, fight terrible wars for what you know to be right… it really gives one hope for the future of all lifekind. Except of course,” he waved at the blitzing turmoil above and around them, “that we know it hasn’t got one…”
Arthur turned to Ford he hadn’t quite got this place worked out in his mind.
“Look, surely,” he said, “if the Universe is about to end… don’t we go with it?”
Ford gave him a three-Pan-Galactic-Gargle-Blaster look, in other words a rather unsteady one.
“No,” he said, “look,” he said, “as soon as you come into this dive you get held in this sort of amazing force-shielded temporal warp thing. I think.”
“Oh,” said Arthur. He turned his attention back to a bowl of soup he’d managed to get from the waiter to replace his steak.
“Look,” said Ford, “I’ll show you.”
He grabbed at a napkin off the table and fumbled hopelessly with it.
“Look,” he said again, “imagine this napkin, right, as the temporal Universe, right? And this spoon as a transductional mode in the matter curve…”
It took him a while to say this last part, and Arthur hated to interrupt him.
“That’s the spoon I was eating with,” he said.
“Alright,” said Ford, “imagine this spoon…” he found a small wooden spoon on a tray of relishes, “this spoon…” but found it rather tricky to pick up, “no, better still this fork…”
“Hey would you let go of my fork?” snapped Zaphod.
“Alright,” said Ford, “alright, alright. Why don’t we say… why don’t we say that this wine glass is the temporal Universe…”
“What, the one you’ve just knocked on the floor?”
“Did I do that?”
“Yes.”
“Alright,” said Ford, “forget that. I mean… I mean, look, do you know do you know how the Universe actually began for a kick off?”
“Probably not,” said Arthur, who wished he’d never embarked on any of this.
“Alright,” said Ford, “imagine this. Right. You get this bath. Right. A large round bath. And it’s made of ebony.”
“Where from?” said Arthur, “Harrods was destroyed by the Vogons.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“So you keep saying.”
“Listen.”
“Alright.”

“真是太好了，”他嘰裏呱啦地說，“今晚在這裏見到了你們這麼多人——難道不是嗎？是的，太好了。我知道你們中的許多人來了一次義一次，我覺得這真是太妙了，來這兒參觀所有一切的最後終結，然後回到你們各自時代的家中去養家餬口，爲新的，更好的社會而奮鬥，打那些可怕的但被你們認爲是正確的仗。這些仗確實爲所有生命形式的來來帶來了希望。只不過，當然——”他朝頭頂和周圍騷動的字宙一揮手“我們知道，並不存在這種美好未來。”
阿瑟轉向福特—他的腦子還沒把這個地方弄明白。
“你瞧，是這樣的，”他說，“如果宇宙就要終結我們難道不會和它一塊兒完蛋嗎？”
福特遞給他一杯一份的泛銀河系含漱爆破藥，換句話說，一杯相當猛烈的東西。
“不會，”他說，“你瞧，”他接着說，“一旦你進人這家下等酒吧，你也就處在一種了不起的時間彎曲防護盾一類東西的保護下。至少我是這麼想的。”
“哦……”阿瑟說=他這才把注意力轉移回來，試罔從侍者那裏得到一碗湯，以代替他的肉排
“你瞧，”福特說，“我演示給你看。”
他從桌上扯下一張餐巾，無望地擺弄着。
“你瞧，”他接着說，“假設這張餐巾，對了，是時間維度的宇宙，對嗎，而這把勺子是一個轉換系統，通過這樣的彎曲…”
他花了很大功夫才說這句話，阿瑟直不願意打斷他，
“可我正要用這把勺子喝湯，”他說，
“那好吧，”福特說，“假設這把勺子——”他從裝開胃小菜的盤子裏找到一把小木勺，“這把勺子－－”卻發現它很難拿起來，“算了，還是這把叉子好點兒……”
”嘿，你能放下我的勺子嗎？”贊櫥德猛地說了一句：
“那好吧，”福特說，“好的，好的；我們爲什麼不說……我們爲什麼不說這個酒杯是時間維度的宇宙？”
“什麼，是你剛剛掉在地上的那個嗎？”
”是我乾的嗎7”
“是的，”
“那好吧，”搖特說，“別管它。我是說…我是說，你瞧，你知道嗎－－你知道宇宙實際上是怎幺開始死去的嗎，”
“可能不知道。”阿瑟說，他只希望自己從來沒有引起這個話題。
“部好吧，”福特說，“假設是這樣。對了。你有這個浴盆。對了。一個大的圓形浴盆。是用烏木做的。”
“從哪兒來的呢，”阿瑟說，“出產烏術的哈羅茲已經被沃貢人摧毀了。”
“重要的不是這個。”
“你接着說吧，”
“聽着。”
“好吧。”