經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》第12章3

They were now in the passenger compartment and Zaphod’s heart stopped still again for a every seat sat a passenger, strapped into his or her passengers’ hair was long and unkempt, their fingernails were long, the men wore beards. All of them were quite clearly alive – but sleeping.
Zaphod had the creeping horrors.
He walked slowly down the aisle as in a dream. By the time he was half-way down the aisle, the stewardess had reached the other end. She turned and spoke.
“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,” she said sweetly, “Thank you for bearing with us during this slight delay. We will be taking off as soon as we possibly can. If you would like to wake up now I will serve you coffee and biscuits.”
There was a slight hum.
At that moment, all the passengers awoke.
They awoke screaming and clawing at their straps and life support systems that held them tightly in their seats. They screamed and bawled and hollered till Zaphod thought his ears would shatter.
They struggled and writhed as the stewardess patiently moved up the aisle placing a small cup of coffee and a packet of biscuits in front of each one of them.
Then one of them rose from his seat.
He turned and looked at Zaphod.
Zaphod’s skin was crawling all over his body as if it was trying to get off. He turned and ran from the bedlam.
He plunged through the door and back into the corridor. The man pursued him.

他們現在是在乘客艙裏，有那麼一陣子，贊福德的心跳停止了。每個座位上都坐着一個乘客，被安全帶縛在自己的座位上。這些乘客的頭髮都很長，亂槽糟的沒有梳理，他們的指甲也很長，男人們都鬍子拉碴的。所有的人顯然都還活着——但處於睡眠狀態。
恐懼在贊福德的全身蔓延開來。
他緩慢地行走在過道上，彷彿是在一場夢裏。他走到一半時，那個機器人空姐已經到達了盡端。她轉過身來，開始說話。
“女士們先生們，下午好，”她用甜美的聲音說道，“感謝你們對這一點點兒延遲的忍耐。一旦有可能，我們將立即起飛。如果您現在願意醒來，我將爲您提供咖啡和點心。”
艙內出現了一陣輕微的嗡嗡聲。
就在此時，所有乘客都醒過來了。
他們醒過來，開始尖叫，用手去抓將他們緊緊固定在座位上的安全帶和生命支持系統。他們發出的尖叫、哀號和呼救，使贊福德覺得自己的耳朵都要被震聾了。
他們掙扎着，扭動着，而與此同時，那個機器人空姐則耐心地沿着過道移動，將一小杯咖啡和一小包點心放在每個人面前。
然後，他們中的一個從座位上站了起來。
他轉過身，望着贊福德。
贊福德全身的皮膚都開始悸動，彷彿想從他身上脫下來。他回過身，奔跑着逃離這片混亂。
他衝過那道門，重新回到走道，那人追趕着他。