日本科幻文学 经典科幻文学:《宇宙尽头的餐馆》第9章1

经典科幻文学:《宇宙尽头的餐馆》第9章1  

The air around the second pla of the Frogstar system was stale and unwholesome.
The dank winds that swept continually over its surface swept over salt flats
dried up marshland
tangled and rotting vegetation and the crumbling remains of ruined cities. No life moved across its surface. The ground
like that of many plas in this part of the Galaxy
had long been deserted.
The howl of the wind was desolate enough as it gusted through the old decaying houses of the cities; it was more desolate as it whipped about the bottoms of the tall black towers that swayed uneasily here and there about the surface of this world. At the top of these towers lived colonies of large
scraggy
evil smelling birds
the sole survivors of the civilization that once lived here.
The howl of the wind was at its most desolate
however
when it passed over a pimple of a place set in the middle of a wide grey plain on the outskirts of the largest of the abandoned cities.
This pimple of a place was the thing that had earned this world the reputation of being the most totally evil place in the Galaxy. From without it was simply a steel dome about thirty feet across. From within it was something more monstrous than the mind can prehend.
About a hundred yards or so away
and separated from it by a pockmarked and blasted stretch of the most barren land imaginable was what would probably have to be described as a landing pad of sorts. That is to say that scattered over a largish area were the ungainly hulks of o or three dozen crash-landed buildings.
Flitting over and around these buildings was a mind
a mind that was waiting for something.
The mind directed its attention into the air
and before very long a distant speck appeared
surrounded by a ring of smaller specks.
The larger speck was the left-hand tower of The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy office building
descending through the stratosphere of Frogstar World B.
As it descended
Roosta suddenly broke the long unfortable silence that had grown up beeen the o men.
He stood up and gathered his towel into a bag. He said: “Beeblebrox
I will now do the job I was sent here to do.”
Zaphod looked up at him from where he was sitting in a corner sharing unspoken thoughts with Marvin.
“Yeah?” he said.
“The building will shortly be landing. When you leave the building
do not go out of the door
” said Roosta
“go out of the window.”
“Good luck
” he added
and walked out of the door
disappearing from Zaphod’s life as mysteriously as he had entered it.
Zaphod leapt up and tried the door
but Roosta had already looked it. He shrugged and returned to the corner.
Two minutes later
the building crashlanded amongst the other wreckage. Its escort of Frogstar Fighters deactivated their force beams and soared off into the air again
bound for Frogstar World A
an altogether more congenial spot. They never landed on Frogstar World B. No one did. No one ever walked on its surface other than the intended victims of the Total Perspective Vortex.