經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》第5章3
Zaphod looked nervously out of the corners of his eyes at the two dishevelled hitch-hikers at the next table. Where the hell was he? How had he got there? Where was his ship? His hand felt the arm of the chair on which he was sitting, and then the table in front of him. They seemed solid enough. He sat very still.
“How can they sit and write a guide for hitch-hikers in a place like this?” continued the voice. “I mean look at it. Look at it!”
Zaphod was looking at it. Nice place, he thought. But where? And why?
He fished in his pocket for his two pairs of sunglasses. In the same pocket he felt a hard smooth, unidentified lump of very heavy metal. He pulled it out and looked at it. He blinked at it in surprise. Where had he got that? He returned it to his pocket and put on the sunglasses, annoyed to discover that the metal object had scratched one of the lenses. Nevertheless, he felt much more comfortable with them on. They were a double pair of Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses, which had been specially designed to help people develop a relaxed attitude to danger. At the first hint of trouble they turn totally black and thus prevent you from seeing anything that might alarm you.
Apart from the scratch the lenses were clear. He relaxed, but only a little bit.
The angry hitch-hiker continued to glare at his monstrously expensive fruit juice.
“Worst thing that ever happened to the Guide, moving to Ursa Minor Beta,” he grumbled, “they’ve all gone soft. You know, I’ve even heard that they’ve created a whole electronically synthesized Universe in one of their offices so they can go and research stories during the day and still go to parties in the evening. Not that day and evening mean much in this place.”
Ursa Minor Beta, thought Zaphod. At least he knew where he was now. He assumed that this must be his great grandfather’s doing, but why?
Much to his annoyance, a thought popped into his mind. It was very clear and very distinct, and he had now come to recognize these thoughts for what they were. His instinct was to resist them. They were the pre-ordained promptings from the dark and locked off parts of his mind.
He sat still and ignored the thought furiously. It nagged at him. He ignored it. It nagged at him. He ignored it. It nagged at him. He gave in to it.
What the hell, he thought, go with the flow. He was too tired, confused and hungry to resist. He didn’t even know what the thought meant.
贊福德緊張地看了看旁邊桌上的那兩個邋遢的漫遊者。該死的，他究竟是在哪兒？他怎麼會跑到這兒來的？他的飛船又在哪兒？他用手感覺了一下自己坐着的椅子的扶手，又感覺了一下身前的桌子。它們是真真切切的。他坐在那兒，幾乎無法動彈。
“他們怎麼可能坐在一個像這樣的地方，爲漫遊者們寫出一本指南來呢？”那個聲音繼續道，“我的意思是，看看這地方吧。看看吧！”
贊福德正在看。不錯的地方啊，他想。可是，這是哪裏呢？這一切又是怎麼回事？
他伸手到口袋裏去掏他的太陽鏡。這時，他摸到口袋裏有一個堅硬、光滑、沉甸甸的金屬塊，不知是什麼東西。他把這東西掏出來，看了一眼，結果卻對着它驚訝地連連眨眼。這玩意兒是打哪兒鑽出來的？他把它放回口袋，然後戴上太陽鏡，卻惱火地發現那塊金屬把鏡片中的一片刮花了。不過，戴上以後，他還是覺得舒服多了。這是一副祖·傑塔200型超級色度危險感應太陽鏡，專門用於幫助人們在面對危險時採取一種放鬆的態度。一旦感應到出現麻煩的第一個徵兆，它就會完全變黑，阻止你再看到任何可能警示你的東西。
除了刮傷外，鏡片還是清晰的。他終於放鬆下來，但僅僅只是一點兒。
那個憤怒的漫遊者還在繼續盯着他那杯異常昂貴的果汁。
“對《指南》來說更糟糕的事情是：來到小熊星座貝塔星，”他抱怨到，“他們全都被軟化了。你知道嗎，我甚至聽說過，他們在一間辦公室裏創造了一個完全電子化合成的宇宙，這樣一來，他們就可以輕輕鬆鬆地白天研究問題，晚上仍舊去參加派對。當然，在這個地方區分白天和晚上倒也沒有太大意義。”
小熊星座貝塔星，贊福德想。現在他終於知道自己在什麼地方了。他猜這一定是他的曾祖父乾的，可爲什麼呢？
讓他感到更爲煩惱的是，一個念頭突然在他的頭腦中閃現出來。它非常清晰，非常獨特，而他現在已經意識到這一類念頭究竟是些什麼了。他的本能想抗拒它們。它們是預先制定的召喚和催促，來自他腦子裏那些黑暗的鎖閉部分。
他坐在那兒，一動不動，拼命想要不去理會這個念頭。它來煩他，他沒有理會。它又來煩他，他還是沒有理會。它再次來煩他，他終於向它屈服了。
這究竟是什麼鬼東西，他想，像潮水一樣淹沒了他。他實在是太累、太迷惑、太餓了，無力繼續抗拒。他甚至不知道這個念頭是什麼意思。
