經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》第6章3
“Can I ask you why you want to see Mr. Zarniwoop?”
“Yeah,” said Zaphod, who was unclear on this point himself, “I told myself I had to.”
“Come again sir?”
Zaphod leaned forward, conspirationally.
“I just materialized out of thin air in one of your cafes,” he said, “as a result of an argument with the ghost of my great grandfather. No sooner had I got there that my former self, the one that operated on my brain, popped into my head and said ‘Go see Zarniwoop’. I have never heard of the cat. That is all I know. That and the fact that I’ve got to find the man who rules the Universe.”
He winked.
“Mr. Beeblebrox, sir,” said the insect in awed wonder, “you’re so weird you should be in movies.”
“Yeah,” said Zaphod patting the thing on a glittering pink wing, “and you, baby, should be in real life.”
The insect paused for a moment to recover from its agitation and then reached out a tentacle to answer a ringing phone.
A metal hand restrained it.
“Excuse me,” said the owner of the metal hand in a voice that would have made an insect of a more sentimental disposition collapse in tears.
This was not such an insect, and it couldn’t stand robots.
“Yes, sir,” it snapped, “can I help you?”
“I doubt it,” said Marvin.
“Well in that case, if you’ll just excuse me…” Six of the phones were now ringing. A million things awaited the insect’s attention.
“No one can help me,” intoned Marvin.
“Yes, sir, well…”
“Not that anyone tried of course.” The restraining metal hand fell limply by Marvin’s side. His head hung forward very slightly.
“Is that so,” said the insect tartly.
“Hardly worth anyone’s while to help a menial robot is it?”
“我能夠問問您，您爲什麼想見扎尼烏普先生嗎？”
“當然，”贊福德說，但其實這個問題連他自己也不太清楚。“我告訴自己，我必須這麼做。”
“請再說一遍，先生？”
贊福德往前靠了靠，顯得神祕兮兮的。
“這個念頭是在你們這兒的一家咖啡館裏成形的，”他說，“是我和我曾祖父的鬼魂之間一次討論的結果。我一到這裏，我原來的那個自我，那個給我的腦子動手術的傢伙，就鑽進我的腦袋裏說，‘去見扎尼烏普’。我甚至從來沒聽說過這隻傻貓。這就是我所知道的一切，就這些。還有，我必須找出統治宇宙的那個人。”
他眨了眨眼。
“畢博布魯克斯先生，先生，”這隻昆蟲以敬畏的聲音說，“您簡直太古怪了，應該出現在電影裏。”
“是啊。”贊福德拍打着它的一隻正在撲騰的粉紅色翅膀，“至於你，小傢伙，應該出現在現實生活中。”
蟲子頓了一下，以便從激動的情緒中恢復過來。然後它伸出一隻觸角，準備接聽一部剛好響起來的電話。
一隻金屬手製止了它。
“對不起，”這隻金屬手的主人說，聲音之憂鬱，簡直會讓一隻性格更加敏感的昆蟲崩潰，流下眼淚來。
但它並不是這樣一隻昆蟲，並且，它忍受不了機器人。
“什麼，先生，”它說，“我能爲你效勞嗎？”
“我表示懷疑。”馬文說。
“哦，既然這樣，請原諒……”現在有六部電話在響，有一百萬件事情正在等着這隻蟲子去處理。
“沒有人能幫助我。”馬文拖着哭腔呻吟道。
“是的，先生，那麼……”
“當然了，沒有誰靠得住。”制止昆蟲的那隻金屬手無力地垂到馬文體側，他的頭微微向前傾着。
“是嗎？”蟲子尖刻地說。
“根本值不得花費任何人的時間來幫助一個機器僕人，是嗎？”
