经典科幻文学:《银河系漫游指南》第3章 Part 5

A sudden silence hit the Earth. If anything it was worse than the noise. For a while nothing happened.
The great ships hung motionless in the air, over every nation on Earth. Motionless they hung, huge, heavy, steady in the sky, a blasphemy against nature. Many people went straight into shock as their minds tried to encomPAss what they were looking at. The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.
And still nothing happened.
Then there was a slight whisper, a sudden spacious whisper of open ambient sound. Every hi fi set in the world, every radio, every television, every cassette recorder, every woofer, every tweeter, every mid-range driver in the world quietly turned itself on.
Every tin can, every dust bin, every window, every car, every wine glass, every sheet of rusty metal became activated as an acoustically perfect sounding board.
Before the Earth passed away it was going to be treated to the very ultimate in sound reproduction, the greatest public address system ever built. But there was no concert, no music, no fanfare, just a simple message.
"People of Earth, your attention please," a voice said, and it was wonderful. Wonderful perfect quadrophonic sound with distortion levels so low as to make a brave man weep.
"This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council," the voice continued. "As you will no doubt be aware, the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route through your star system, and regrettably your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition. The process will take slightly less that two of your Earth minutes. Thank you."
The PA died away.

突然，一片寂静席卷了整个地球。这比嘈杂还要糟糕。这一刻，什么都没有发生。
巨大的飞船静止在天空中，覆盖了地球上的所有国家。它们纹丝不动地悬在那里，显得巨大、沉重，这对自然是一种亵渎。许多人径直休克了，因为他们试图在头脑中理解所看见的东西。飞船就这样悬在空中，同样大小的砖石建筑可没这个本事。
还是什么都没有发生。
然后，传来一声轻微的响动，这突然的一声像是拧开了总开关。地球上所有的音响、所有的收音机、所有的电视、所有的录音机、所有的低音扩音器、所有的高音扩音器、所有的中音扩音器同时都自动打开了。
所有罐头、所有垃圾桶，所有窗户、所有汽车、所有酒瓶、所有生锈金属片都成了发出和谐声音的器具。
就在地球快要毁灭之前，它们发出了最后的声音，形成有史以来最为庞大的公众广播系统。不过，传出的不是交响乐，不是音乐，也不是嘹亮的号角，只有一条简单的信息。
“地球上的人们，请你们注意了，”一个声音响起，音质美极了。这个完美的四声道声音几乎没有一丝扭曲，纯得足以使一个勇敢的人留下眼泪。
“这里是银河系超空间计划委员会的沃贡·杰尔兹，”这个声音继续说道，“你们无疑已经知道，开发银河系偏远地区的计划需要修建一条超空间快速通道穿越你们这个星系。令人遗憾的是，你们居住的这颗行星属于被清除的范围。清除行动将在你们地球时间两分钟之内展开。谢谢。”
然后，广播系统停止了工作。