經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》第7章1
Chapter 7
Marvin stood at the end of the bridge corridor. He was not in fact a particularly small robot. His silver body gleamed in the dusty sunbeams and shook with the continual barrage which the building was still undergoing.
He did, however, look pitifully small as the gigantic black tank rolled to a halt in front of him. The tank examined him with a probe. The probe withdrew.
Marvin stood there.
“Out of my way little robot,” growled the tank.
“I’m afraid,” said Marvin, “that I’ve been left here to stop you.”
The probe extended again for a quick recheck. It withdrew again.
“You? Stop me?” roared the tank. “Go on!”
“No, really I have,” said Marvin simply.
“What are you armed with?” roared the tank in disbelief.
“Guess,” said Marvin.
The tank’s engines rumbled, its gears ground. Molecule-sized electronic relays deep in its micro-brain flipped backwards and forwards in consternation.
“Guess?” said the tank.
Zaphod and the as yet unnamed man lurched up one corridor, down a second and along a third. The building continued to rock and judder and this puzzled Zaphod. If they wanted to blow the building up, why was it taking so long?
With difficulty they reached one of a number of totally anonymous unmarked doors and heaved at it. With a sudden jolt it opened and they fell inside.
All this way, thought Zaphod, all this trouble, all this not-lying-on-the-beach-having-a-wonderful-time, and for what? A single chair, a single desk and a single dirty ashtray in an undecorated office. The desk, apart from a bit of dancing dust and single, revolutionary form of paper clip, was empty.
“Where,” said Zaphod, “is Zarniwoop?” feeling that his already tenuous grasp of the point of this whole exercise was beginning to slip.
“He’s on an intergalactic cruise,” said the man.
第七章
馬文站在帶拱廊的橋的這一端。他其實不算是個小型機器人。他的銀色軀體在跳動着塵埃的陽光束中閃閃發光，隨着繼續搖晃的大樓不停地搖擺着。
然而，當巨型的黑色坦克在他面前停下時，他看上去確實小得可憐。坦克伸出一個探測器檢查了他，然後又縮了回去。
馬文仍然站在那兒。
“滾開，別擋我的路，小機器人。”坦克隆隆地說。
“恐怕，”馬文說，“他們讓我留在這兒阻止你。”
探測器再次伸了出來，快速地重新檢查了一番，然後再次縮了回去。
“你？阻止我？”坦克咆哮道，“滾一邊去！”
“不，我真的要阻止你。”馬文簡潔地說。
“你的武器裝備呢？”坦克懷疑地繼續咆哮道。
“猜猜。”馬文說。
坦克的引擎重新開始轟鳴，齒輪也轉動起來，微電子腦中的分子尺寸的電子繼電器驚愕地前後跳動着。
“猜猜？”坦克說。
贊福德和那個至今不知道姓名的人步履蹣跚地爬上一條走廊，又下到第二條，現在正走在第三條走廊裏。大樓繼續搖晃着、震動着。贊福德覺得很奇怪。如果他們真想炸掉這棟大樓，爲什麼耽擱這麼久？
費了老大的勁兒，他們來到許許多多沒有標牌的匿名房門中的一扇面前，喘息着。門猛地一震，打開了，他們跌了進去。
所有這些路程，贊福德想，所有這些麻煩，這麼多本來應該躺在沙灘上享受的美妙時光——浪費了這麼多，到底是爲什麼？一把孤零零的椅子，一張孤零零的桌子，還有一個孤零零的髒菸灰缸，這間未加裝飾的辦公室裏只有這麼多東西。桌面上，除了跳躍着的灰塵和一個孤零零的樣式新奇的曲別針外，一無所有。
“扎尼烏普，”贊福德問，“在哪兒？”他感到，本來已經抓住的關於整件事情的一絲線索，現在又開始從他手裏滑走了。
“他正在進行一次星系際巡航。”那人說。
