Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen

Four lifeless bodies fell through a swirling black sky.Consciousness is dead, and the cold blankness pulls these bodies into the abyss of inanimate step by step.A silent wail echoed desolately around them, and they sank at last into a sea of ​​darkness and agony.The red tide surged slowly, as if to engulf them forever. After what seemed like a long, long time, the sea receded, leaving them lying on a cold and hard shore, like wreckage and litter floating in the river of life, the universe, and everything. Cramps from the cold hit them, and lights danced dizzyingly around them.The cold, hard shore began to tilt and swirl, then stood still and gleamed dimly—a cold, hard shore polished smooth.

A group of green shadows stared at them disapprovingly. It coughed. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen," it said, "do you have an appointment?" Officer Ford's consciousness suddenly bounced back like a rubber band, and his brain immediately became active.He raised his head and looked at the green shadow in a daze. "An appointment?" he said weakly. "Yes, sir." Green Shadow said, "Do you need to make an appointment in the next life?" The opponent raised his eyebrows with as much contempt as a green shadow could. "Afterlife, sir?" it said.

Arthur Dent tried to hold on to his consciousness like picking up a slipped bar of soap in the bathroom. "Is this the afterlife?" he stammered. "Well, I suppose so," said Prefect Ford, who was trying to find out which direction was up, and he began to test the inference that it must be in the opposite direction from the cold, hard shore on which he lay. , before stumbling toward what he hoped were his feet, "I mean," he said, shaking slightly, "could we survive an explosion like that?" "No." Arthur mumbled.He propped himself up on his elbows, but that hardly seemed to improve his situation.So, he collapsed on the ground again.

"No," Trillian said, standing up. "Totally impossible.".It was Zaphod Beeblebrox trying to speak. "I definitely didn't wrap it up," he said. "I'm totally dead. Boom, that's it." "Yeah, all thanks to you," said Ford. "We didn't even stand a chance. We must've been blown to pieces, with limbs and limbs all over the place." "Yeah." Zaphod hummed and struggled, moving toward his feet. "If ladies and gentlemen want something to drink..." said the green shadow.It kept hovering impatiently around them.

"'Bang,'" Zaphod went on, "and we're molecules in an instant! Hey Ford," he said, making out one of the slowly coalescing shadows around him. One, "Have you ever had that experience where your whole life flashed before you?" "Have you had that experience?" Ford said. "Your whole life?" "Yes," said Zaphod, "at least I think that's my whole life. You know, my mind spends a lot of time outside of my skull." He looked around himself, only to see that all kinds of misty shadows finally became fixed shapes, no longer blurred, no longer wandering without form.

"Then" he said. "Then what?" said Ford. "Here we are then," said Zaphod hesitantly, "lying, dead" "Stand." Trillian corrected him. "Oh, standing, dead," continued Zaphod, "in this desolate..." "Restaurant," said Arthur Dent, who had touched his feet and was amazed that he could see clearly now.Rather, it was not what he could see that surprised him, but what he saw. "Here we are," continued Zaphod stubbornly, "standing, dead, in this desolate..." "Five-star—" Trillian said.

"Restaurant," concluded Zangard. "It's so weird, isn't it," Ford said. "Oh, yes." "And there are gorgeous chandeliers," Trillian said. They looked around in bewilderment. "Not so much like an afterlife," said Arthur, "more like a reception." Actually, the chandeliers look a bit gaudy, hanging from the low, vaulted ceiling.In a perfect universe, this ceiling would not be painted in this particular shade of dark turquoise; and if it did, it would not be accentuated by highlights from concealed spotlights.It's not a perfect universe, however, and this is further evidenced by the cross-eye nitrile pattern inlaid in the marble floor and the design of the eighty-yard-long marble-topped bar front.The front of the marble-topped bar, which is eighty yards long, is inlaid and sewn from almost 20,000 pieces of lizard skin from Antares, even though these 20,000 lizards need these skins so much to cover their bodies.

Trendy guys hang out at the bar, or relax on the brightly colored fully wrap-around seats scattered throughout the bar area.A young Verhag star official and his young, high-spirited green female companion walked through the huge black glass doors at the far end of the bar and into the gleaming main part of the restaurant. Behind Arthur was a huge bay window, shaded by curtains.He raised a corner of the curtain, and what he saw was a desolate and gloomy scene: gray, pitted, and miserable.Under ordinary circumstances such a sight would have sent Arthur shuddering.However, this is no ordinary environment.Here is something else that freezes his blood and makes goosebumps stand on his back as if the skin wants to climb up his back to the top of his head and break free from the top of his head and leave him completely.It's the sky here...

A waiter came over and politely put the curtains back into the distance. "All is well, sir," he said. Zaphod's eyes flickered. "Hey, wait a minute, dead fellas," he said. "Well, I think we missed the most important sentence we've been in this place. Very important. Somebody said a certain sentence, and we ignored it." .” Arthur was relieved to be able to ignore what he had just seen. "I did say it was like a party," he said. "Yes...don't you wish you hadn't said that at all?" said Zaphod. "Ford?" "I told you it was weird here."

"Yes, that's perfectly true, and almost meaningless. Maybe here's..." "Perhaps," interrupted the green blob, now a skinny green waiter in a black uniform, "maybe you can discuss this after you have ordered your drinks." "Drink!" cried Zaphod. "This is it! See, if you don't stay alert, you'll miss something so important." "Exactly, sir," said the waiter patiently, "if the ladies and gentlemen would like something to drink before dinner." "Dinner!" cried Zaphod passionately, "Listen, little green man, in the name of my gut, if only for the idea of ​​it, I'll take you home and cuddle you all night. "

The waiter is determined not to deviate from the direction of his home. "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe will do everything in its power to satisfy you." His words were full of emotion. "Oh," he said, "what drinks do you serve here?" The waiter laughed.That's the way the polite little waiter always laughs. "Oh," he said, "I think the gentleman may have misunderstood me." "Oh, I hope not." The waiter coughed.Ford gasped. "Our guests often feel a little uncomfortable with time travel," he said, "so, if I'm allowed to recommend—" "Time travel?" said Zaphod. "Time travel?" Ford said. "Time travel," Trillian said. "You mean it's not the afterlife?" Arthur asked. The waiter had almost exhausted his capacity as a polite little waiter, and was about to enter his other role, a sarcastically pursed little waiter. "Afterlife, sir," he said, "No, sir." "We're not dead?" Arthur asked again. The waiter pursed his lips. "Aha, ha," said he, "you are evidently alive, sir, or I would not have attempted to serve you." Zaphod slapped both of his foreheads with his arms and slapped one thigh with the other.It is impossible to describe this extraordinary pose: "Hey guys," he said, "this is crazy. We did it. We finally got where we were going. Here's 'End of Sky'!" "The end of the day!" said Ford. "Yes, sir," the waiter snapped off his patience, "this is the 'End of the Sky'—the restaurant at the end of the universe." "The end of what?" Arthur asked. "Universe," the waiter repeated, very clearly and with unnecessary emphasis. "When will the universe end," Arthur asked again. "A few minutes, sir," said the waiter.He took a deep breath.He didn't really need to, since his body was kept alive by several special gases in a small IV set strapped to his leg.However, no matter what type of metabolism you have, there will always be times when you need to take a deep breath. "When you finally make up your mind and decide to order drinks," he said, "I'll show you a seat." Zaphod grinned manically on both faces, and then he walked calmly to the bar and bought most of the wine inside.