"Adams, Douglas - Hitchhiker's 02 - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe 1.1b" - читать интересную книгу автора (Adams Douglas)

"Forty-five seconds," he added at the appropriate time. He
flicked idly at some useless switches, then gave Arthur an
unfriendly look.

"Dying for a cup of tea, eh?" he said. "Three minutes and forty
seconds."

"Will you stop counting!" snarled Zaphod.

"Yes," said Ford Prefect, "in three minutes and thirty-five
seconds."

Aboard the Vogon ship, Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz was puzzled. He had
expected a chase, he had expected an exciting grapple with
tractor beams, he had expected to have to use the specially
installed Sub-Cyclic Normality Assert-i-Tron to counter the Heart
of Gold's Infinite Improbability Drive, but the Sub-Cyclic
Normality Assert-i-Tron lay idle as the Heart of Gold just sat
there and took it.

A dozen 30-Megahurt Definit-Kil Photrazon Cannon continued to
blaze away at the Heart of Gold, and still it just sat there and
took it.

He tested every sensor at his disposal to see if there was any
subtle trickery afoot, but no subtle trickery was to be found.

He didn't know about the tea of course.

Nor did he know exactly how the occupants of the Heart of Gold
were spending the last three minutes and thirty seconds of life
they had left to spend.

Quite how Zaphod Beeblebrox arrived at the idea of holding a
seance at this point is something he was never quite clear on.

Obviously the subject of death was in the air, but more as
something to be avoided than harped upon.

Possibly the horror that Zaphod experienced at the prospect of
being reunited with his deceased relatives led on to the thought
that they might just feel the same way about him and, what's
more, be able to do something about helping to postpone this
reunion.

Or again it might just have been one of the strange promptings
that occasionally surfaced from that dark area of his mind that
he had inexplicably locked off prior to becoming President of the
Galaxy.
"You want to talk to your great grandfather?" boggled Ford.