經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》第17章2
In a small room in one of the arms of the Restaurant complex a tall, thin, gangling figure pulled aside a curtain and oblivion looked him in the face.
It was not a pretty face, perhaps because oblivion had looked him in it so many times. It was too long for a start, the eyes too sunken and too hooded, the cheeks too hollow, his lips were too thin and too long, and when they parted his teeth looked too much like a recently polished bay window. The hands that held the curtain were long and thin too: they were also cold. They lay lightly along the folds of the curtain and gave the impression that if he didn’t watch them like a hawk they would crawl away of their own accord and do something unspeakable in a corner.
He let the curtain drop and the terrible light that had played on his features went off to play somewhere more healthy. He prowled around his small chamber like a mantis contemplating an evening’s preying, finally settling on a rickety chair by a trestle table, where he leafed through a few sheets of jokes.
A bell rang.
He pushed the thin sheaf of papers aside and stood up. His hands brushed limply over some of the one million rainbow-coloured sequins with which his jacket was festooned, and he was gone through the door.
In the Restaurant the lights dimmed, the band quickened its pace, a single spotlight stabbed down into the darkness of the stairway that led up to the centre of the stage.
Up the stairs bounded a tall brilliantly coloured figure. He burst on to the stage, tripped lightly up to the microphone, removed it from its stand with one swoop of his long thin hand and stood for a moment bowing left and right to the audience acknowledging their applause and displaying to them his bay window. He waved to his particular friends in the audience even though there weren’t any there, and waited for the applause to die down.
He held up his hand and smiled a smile that stretched not merely from ear to ear, but seemed to extend some way beyond the mere confines of his face.
“Thank you ladies and gentlemen!” he cried, “thank you very much. Thank you so much.”
He eyed them with a twinkling eye.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “The Universe as we know it has now been in existence for over one hundred and seventy thousand million billion years and will be ending in a little over half an hour. So, welcome one and all to Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe!”
With a gesture he deftly conjured another round of spontaneous applause. With another gesture he cut it.
“I am your host for tonight,” he said, “my name is Max Quordlepleen…” (Everybody knew this, his act was famous throughout the known Galaxy, but he said it for the fresh applause it generated, which he acknowledged with a disclaiming smile and wave.) “… and I’ve just come straight from the very very other end of time, where I’ve been hosting a show at the Big Bang Burger Bar where I can tell you we had a very exciting evening ladies and gentlemen and I will be with you right through this historic occasion, the End of History itself!”
Another burst of applause died away quickly as the lights dimmed down further. On every table candles ignited themselves spontaneously, eliciting a slight gasp from all the diners and wreathing them in a thousand tiny flickering lights and a million intimate shadows. A tremor of excitement thrilled through the darkened Restaurant as the vast golden dome above them began very very slowly to dim, to darken, to fade.
Max’s voice was hushed as he continued.
“So, ladies and gentlemen,” he breathed, “the candles are lit, the band plays softly, and as the force-shielded dome above us fades into transparency, revealing a dark and sullen sky hung heavy with the ancient light of livid swollen stars, I can see we’re all in for a fabulous evening’s apocalypse!”
Even the soft tootling of the band faded away as stunned shock descended on all those who had not seen this sight before.
A monstrous, grisly light poured in on them,
a hideous light,
a boiling, pestilential light,
a light that would have disfigured hell.
The Universe was coming to an end.
在這家上的一間小屋子裏，一個四肢細長的瘦高個拉開一塊窗簾，映在臉上的是一片虛無和湮沒。
這張臉算不上漂亮，也許是由於虛無和湮沒映在它上面的次數太多了。首先，它太長了，眼睛太凹，崩骨太突出，臉頰太過深，他的嘴脣太薄也太長，當它們分開時，他的牙齒看上去像極了剛剛擦拭過的凸窗。抓住窗簾的手同樣長而細，並且冰涼。這隻手輕輕壓在窗簾的皺褶上，給人這樣一種印象：如果他不是像老鷹那樣看管着它們的話，它們就會自發地緩緩爬走，到一個角落裏做出一些可怕得無法形容的事情來：
他讓窗簾落下來，於是，照在他臉上的那些可怕的光消失了，跑去照在別的什麼更健康的地方，他在這間小屋子裏來回轉悠，像一隻正在考慮晚餐獵獲物的螳螂最後，他終於在一張支架擱板桌旁的一把晃晃悠悠的椅子上坐下來，翻看起幾頁笑話來。
鈴聲響了。
他把幾頁紙推到一邊，站起身來；他用手輕輕撣了撣裝飾在他央克上的那些色彩斑斕的小金屬片，然後走出門去，
餐館裏，燈光昏暗下來，樂隊加快了節奏。一束錐光射下來，打破通往舞臺中心的臺階上的黑暗。
一個渾身五顏六色的高個子跳上臺階。他衝上舞臺，輕快地移動到麥克風前，用他細長的手猛地一把抓起麥克風，然後在原地站了一會兒，向臺下的觀衆左右鞠躬，答謝他們的掌聲，同時也展示着他的凸窗板牙，他朝觀衆中間他的某些特別的朋友們揮手致意，即使那裏其實並沒有這樣的朋友，他在等待掌聲平息。
他繼續舉着手，笑了笑，這笑容不僅從耳朵延伸到耳朵，看上去甚至超出了整張臉的範圍。
“謝謝，女士們、先生們！”他喊道，“非常感謝。真是太感謝了！”
他衝他們眨了下眼睛。
“女士們、先生們，”他說，“宇宙，如我們所知，已經存在了超過十七萬個百萬個十億年，它即將在半個多小時內終結。所以，歡迎你們中的每一位以及全體來到‘天盡頭’，宇宙盡頭的餐館！”
用一個手勢，他巧妙地喚起了叉一輪自發的掌聲：而用另一個手勢，他終止了掌聲，
“我是你們今晚的主持人，”他說，“我叫馬克斯，科沃爾德勒普蘭。”——所有人都知道這個名字，他的表演在整個已知銀河系都非常出名，但他還是要說出這個名字，爲的是激起新一輪掌聲－－而他則用一種否認的微笑和揮手致意來答謝：“我剛從時間的另一端直接趕過來，我在那兒主持了一場在‘創世大爆炸漢堡包餐吧’的表演——我可以告訴你們，我們在那兒度過了一個非常令人興奮的夜晚。女士們、先生們——而現在，我將和你們一起度過這一歷史性的時刻，那就是，歷史本身的終結！”
爆發出的又一陣掌聲很快就平息下去，因爲燈光變得更加黯淡了。在每張餐桌上，蠟燭自己燃起來，這引來了所有用餐者的輕微喘息聲－－並將他們籠罩在微微閃爍着的燭光以及無數隱隱約約的暗影巾上方的巨大金色穹頂開始非常緩慢地黯淡下來，逐漸褪色時，一陣興奮的震顫席捲了整個昏暗的餐館。
馬克斯的聲音再次響起，顯得一片肅靜。
“女士們，先生們，”他換了口氣說，“蠟燭點燃了，樂隊發出輕柔的音響，我們上方的防護盾穹頂變成透明，顯露出灰暗陰沉的天空。天空上佈滿逐漸膨脹的恆星發出的來自遠卉的光芒。我可以看到－－我們所有人都在準備迎接一個不可思議的夜晚帶來的啓示！”
極度震撼的衝擊降臨在所有以前沒有見識過這種場面的人身上，這時，連樂隊發出的輕柔音響都消失了，
一道強烈而可怕的光傾筲進來，灑在人們身上。
一道令人驚駭的光。
一道熾熱而危險的光。
一道甚至會摧毀地獄的光。
宇宙正在步人盡頭！
