Chapter 15 Chapter Thirteen

Marvin walked down the corridor, still complaining. "So, all the diodes on my entire left side hurt so badly..." "What?" Arthur who was walking beside him asked coldly, "Really?" "Oh, of course," said Marvin. "I asked for them all to be replaced, but I was never bothered." "I can imagine." The murmured murmurs of Ford's mouth, "Yeah, yeah, yeah," he kept saying to himself, "Zaphod Beeblebrox..." Marvin stopped suddenly and held up a hand. "You know what's going on, right?" "I don't know. What?" Arthur really didn't want to know.

"We've run into one of those damn doors again." This end of the corridor is also a sliding door.Marvin stared at it suspiciously. "What?" said Ford impatiently. "Are we going to get through?" "'Are we going to get through?" Marvin murmured, "Of course. This is the entrance to the Control Bridge. Take it to the bridge. I daresay it may be the highest test of my wits to-day." Slowly, with great disgust, he approached the door like a hunter stalking his target.Suddenly, the door slid open. "Thanks," it said, "you make a simple door very pleasant."

Inside Marvin's chest, the components began to vibrate painfully. "Funny," he lamented mournfully, "when you think life is too bad to be any worse than it really is." As he spoke, he walked through the door, leaving Ford and Arthur looking at each other outside the door, shrugging helplessly.At this time, Marvin's voice came from the door again. "I think you'll see the two strangers now," he said. "Do you want me to go back and sit in the corner, or just stand here?" "Okay, bring them in, will you, Marvin?" said another voice.

Arthur looked at Ford and was surprised to see that he was smiling. "how……" "Shh," said Ford, "go in." He walked into the control bridge. Arthur followed him nervously, and upon entering he was surprised to see a man lounging in the seat, with his feet on the console, picking the teeth of the head on the right with his left hand.The face on the right is almost completely obscured by the work, but the face on the left clearly wears a relaxed and nonchalant smile.The number of things in the room that Arthur couldn't believe was so great that he couldn't close his jaw for a long time.

The strange man cast a languid glance at Ford, and then said in a somewhat indifferent voice, "Hey, Ford, how are you? I'm glad you're here." "Zaphod," replied Ford, also casually, "nice to meet you, you look good, and the extra arm goes well with it. Looks like you've stolen a nice ship." Arthur stared at him. "You know this guy?" he asked, pointing at Zaphod. "Of course I do!" exclaimed Ford. "He's..." He paused, deciding to reverse the order of the introductions. "Oh, Zaphod, this is a friend of mine, Arthur Dent." He introduced, "I saved him when his planet was destroyed."

"Oh, of course," said Zaphod, "hello, Arthur, welcome here." He turned his right head casually to say hello, then turned back to pick his teeth. Ford continued to introduce: "Arthur, this is my half-cousin, Zaphod. Bibe..." "We have," said Arthur sharply. Feeling pretty good about yourself after passing a few cars with ease in the fast lane, at which point your engine will fly out from under the hood if you happen to go straight from 4th to 1st instead of 3rd , needless to say later—that was exactly how Ford Prefect felt when he heard those words.

"Oh... what?" he said. "I said we met." Zaphod startled in embarrassment and chewed his gum. "Hey...um, yeah? Hey...um..." Ford turned and glared at Arthur.Now he felt that he had returned to his own world, and he suddenly began to hate that he should be with this ignorant primitive man.This guy knew as much about galactic affairs as an African mosquito knew about life in Beijing. "What do you mean you've seen it?" he asked. "It's Zaphod Beeblebrox from Betelgeuse Five. You've got to figure it out, not from Croydon." Come damn Martin Smith."

"I don't care," said Arthur coldly. "We met, didn't we? Zaphod Beeblebrox—or should I call you... Phil?" "What?" cried Ford. "You gotta remind me," said Zaphod, "I can't always remember race." "It was at a party," continued Arthur. "Yeah, well, I doubt it," said Zaphod. "Calm-a little, Arthur!" said Ford. Arthur didn't listen to dissuasion at all, "A party six months ago, on Earth...England..." Zaphod shook his head, a forced smile on his face. "London," insisted Arthur, "Islington."

"Oh." Zaphod began to feel a little guilty, "That party." This is completely unfair to Ford.He turned his head from side to side, looking now at Arthur and now at Zaphod. "What?" he said to Zaphod. "You don't mean you've been on that poor asteroid, do you?" "No, of course not," said Zaphod briskly, "but, well, I seem to have been there once briefly, on the way somewhere..." "But I was stuck there for 15 years!" "Oh, I don't know, do I?" "But what are you doing there?" "Find some...you know..."

"He broke into a party," said Arthur, shaking with rage. "A fancy dress party..." "So what?" Ford asked. "At that party," continued Arthur, "a girl... oh, well, you see, it doesn't matter now. The whole earth has been wiped out..." "I hope you stop sulking about that damned planet," said Ford. "Who's that lady?" "Oh, it's just someone. Well, I couldn't get her. I've been trying all night. Damn, she's still in my heart. Beautiful, elegant, pure. Finally I let her come a little closer to me, Let's have a good chat. And then this friend of yours comes in and says, 'Hey beauty, does this guy bother you? Why don't you come and talk to me? I'm from another planet.' That's it , I never saw her again."

"Zaphod?" cried Ford. "Yes," said Arthur, staring at him, trying not to look silly. "He had two hands and one head, and he called himself Phil, but..." "But you have to admit that he is indeed from another planet." Trillian said, entering their field of vision from the other side of the control bridge.She gave Arthur a sweet smile—it was as if a whole ton of bricks had been dumped on Arthur—and turned her attention back to the controls of the spaceship. There was a few seconds of silence in the room, and then words burst out of Arthur's tangle of brains. "Tricia, Macmillan?" he asked. "Why are you here?" "Like you," she said, "I'm hitchhiking. After all, with a degree in mathematics and an astrophysics degree, what else can I do? Only choose this, or only Monday Line up for relief." "Infinity minus 1," the computer said again at this time, "the total number of non-probability has finally been calculated." Zaphod glanced at himself, then at Ford, then at Arthur, then at Trillian. "Trilyn," he said, "does this sort of thing happen every time we use improbability drives?" "I'm afraid it's quite possible," she answered.