經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》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。”這隻鳥愁眉苦臉地嘟噥道
贊福德看着它離去，感到一頭霧水。斷斷續續地咂着鳥喙重新撲騰到空中。
“那隻鳥是在對我說話嗎？”他緊張兮兮地問馬文。他已經做好了充分的思想準備，等待着一個否定的回答，即實際上是他自己產生丁幻覺。
“是的。”馬文肯定地說。
“可憐的傢伙。”一個深邃而縹緲的聲音傳進贊福德的耳朵。
贊福德猛地轉身，四下尋找這個聲音的來源，差點兒跌下樓去，忙亂中，他一把抓住一個突出的窗戶零件，然後又搭上另外一隻手。他就這樣吊着，大日地喘着粗氣。
這聲音並沒有任何可見的來源——四周空無一人，然而，它又出現了。
“要知道，他們身後都有一段悲慘的歷史。一次可怕的打擊！”
贊福德發瘋般地東張西望。這聲音深邃而從容。換個環境，它甚至可能會被捕述爲某種撫慰人心的聲音。但是，一個不知從何處傳來的聲音，空空洞洞、缺乏和任何宴體的聯繫，這種東西絕對起不到撫慰人心的作用，尤其是當你像贊福德·畢博布魯克斯現在這樣，並非處於你的最佳狀態，而是吊在一棟墜毀的建築物八樓外的一個突出物上時。
“嘿，嗯……”他結結巴巴地說。
“我應該把他們的故事告訴你嗎？”這個聲音平靜地問，
“呃……你是誰，”贊福德喘息着問：“你在哪兒？”
“那就待會兒吧，也許。”這聲音喃喃地說“我是伽古拉瓦，我是絕對透視旋渦的管理員。”
“爲什麼我看不見？”
“你會發現你爬下這棟大樓的路程要容易得多……”這聲音提高了聲凋說：“如果你往左邊移動大概兩碼的話，幹嗎不試試呢7”
贊福德望了一眼，看見一連串水平走向的短凹槽一直延伸到大樓的底部。於是，他感激地朝這些凹槽移動過去。
“我們何不在樓下見面呢，”這聲音又傳進他的耳朵裏，一邊說着一邊逐漸減弱。
“嘿，”贊福德喊道，“你究竟在哪兒……”
“只需要花費你幾分鐘的時間。”這聲音極其微弱地說。
“馬文，”贊福德認真地問那個沮喪地蹲在他旁邊的機器人，“是不是有……是不是有一個聲音？剛纔……”
“是的。”馬文簡潔地回答道。
