經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》第12章6

“Where is your jacket?”
Zaphod looked at him in mystification.
“My jacket? I took it off. It’s outside.”
“Good, we will go and find it.”
Zarniwoop stood up and gestured to Zaphod to follow him.
Out in the entrance chamber again, they could hear the screams of the passengers being fed coffee and biscuits.
“It has not been a pleasant experience waiting for you,” said Zarniwoop.
“Not pleasant for you!” bawled Zaphod, “How do you think…”
Zarniwoop held up a silencing finger as the hatchway swung open. A few feet away from them they could see Zaphod’s jacket lying in the debris.
“A very remarkable and very powerful ship,” said Zarniwoop, “watch.”
As they watched, the pocket on the jacket suddenly bulged. It split, it ripped. The small metal model of the Heart of Gold that Zaphod had been bewildered to discover in his pocket was growing.
It grew, it continued to grow. It reached, after two minutes, its full size.
“At an Improbability Level,” said Zarniwoop, “of… oh I don’t know, but something very large.”
Zaphod swayed.
“You mean I had it with me all the time?”
“Zarniwoop smiled. He lifted up his briefcase and opened it.
He twisted a single switch inside it.
“Goodbye artificial Universe,” he said, “hello real one!”
The scene before them shimmered briefly – and reappeared exactly as before.
“You see?” said Zarniwoop, “exactly the same.”
“You mean,” repeated Zaphod tautly, “that I had it with me all the time?”
“Oh yes,” said Zarniwoop, “of course. That was the whole point.”
“That’s it,” said Zaphod, “you can count me out, from hereon in you can count me out. I’ve had all I want of this. You play your own games.”
“I’m afraid you cannot leave,” said Zarniwoop, “you are entwined in the Improbability field. You cannot escape.”

“你的夾克在哪兒？”
贊福德迷惑地看着他。
“我的夾克？我脫掉了，扔在外面。”
“好的，我們出去找到它。”
扎尼烏普站起身，做了個手勢，讓贊福德跟着自己。
他們再次來到出人間，聽見了那些正被提供咖啡和點心的乘客們的尖叫聲。
“在這個地方等你可不是一件讓人愉快的事。”扎尼烏普說。
“你還不愉快！”贊福德叫道，“那你認爲……？”
正在這時，艙門打開了，扎尼烏普豎起一根指頭，示意他安靜。距離他們幾英尺以外，贊幅德的央克躺在一堆碎片中；
“真是一艘動力強勁的非凡的飛船。”扎尼烏普說，“你看。”
當他們看過去時，夾克上的衣兜突然膨脹起來，它逐漸開裂，被慢慢撐破。黃金之心號的金屬小模型，也就是當初贊槁德在自己的衣兜裏發現的、讓他迷惑不解的那個小金屬塊，正在長大。
它繼續生長着。兩分鐘過後，它達到了完整的尺寸。
“在一個非概率場的水平上，”扎尼烏普說，“嗯……我不知道，不過確實是個大傢伙。”
贊福德搖晃着。
“你的意思是說，我一直把它帶在身上？”
扎尼烏普笑了笑。他提起他的公文包，打開。
他扭了一下包裏的一個開關。
“再見，人造宇宙！”他說，“你好，真實宇宙！”
他們眼前的景象短暫地閃爍了幾下——然後重新出現，和此前一模一樣，
“瞧見了嗎，”扎尼烏普說，“完全一樣，”
“你的意思是，”贊福德的聲音緊繃繃的，“我一直把它帶在身上？”
“哦，是的。”扎尼烏普說，“當然。這是最關鍵的一點。”
“那就行了，”贊福德說，“你可以把我排除在外。從現在起你就可以把我排除在外了，我對這件事已經受夠了。你玩你自己的遊戲去吧，”
“恐怕你還不能離開，”扎尼鳥普說，“你已經被纏進非概率場中了。你逃不掉的。”