Chapter 18 Chapter Sixteen

Arthur was awakened by the sound of arguing, so he went to the control bridge.Ford was waving his arms. "You must be crazy, Zaphod," he said. "Mangrass is just a myth, a fairy tale told to children at night by parents who hope their children grow up to be economists." ,it is……" "It's the planet we're orbiting right now," Zaphod emphasized. "Look, I don't know what orbit you're orbiting," said Ford, "but this ship..." "Computer!" shouted Zaphod. "Oh, don't..." "Hi guys! I'm Eddie, your onboard computer. I'm feeling great right now, guys, and I promise I can handle any program you put on me."

Arthur looked at Trillian questioningly.She motioned for him to come in, but to be quiet. "The computer," said Zaphod, "tell everyone where we are on the trajectory." "Very happy, man," it said. "We are now in orbit at an altitude of 300 miles above the fabled planet Magrath." "That doesn't say anything," retorted Ford. "I don't believe the computer can even tell me my weight." "Of course I can do that," said the computer enthusiastically, typing out more tapes at the same time. "I can even work out your personality weaknesses to ten decimal places, if you want."

At this moment Cui Lien interjected. "Zaphod," she said, "we're going to go to the day side of this planet right now anyway," she added, "whichever it turns out to be." "Hey, what do you mean? The planet is exactly where I predicted it should be, isn't it?" "Yes, I know there's a planet here. I don't mean to argue with anyone, but I can't tell if it's Magrath yet. Dawn is coming anyway." "Well, well," murmured Zaphod, "at least let our eyes enjoy the sight. Computer!" "Hi everyone! Can I..."

"You just shut up and let us all take another look at this planet." A monotonous, dark chaos filled the screen again—the planets whirled beneath them. They watched in silence for a while, but Zaphod couldn't contain his excitement. "We're crossing the night hemisphere..." he lowered his voice.The planets keep turning. "The surface of the planet is now 300 miles below us..." he continued.He's trying to get back to what he thinks he should feel when he's facing a great moment.Manglas!He was hurt by Ford's questioning.Manglas! "In a few seconds," he went on, "we'll see . . . look!"

The moment has finally come.Even the most experienced interstellar rovers cannot fail to be shocked by the sunrise in space, and the double star sunrise is one of the wonders in the entire Milky Way. Out of the absolute darkness suddenly appeared a flickering point of light.Slowly expanding, spreading out into a narrow band of light, and then, within seconds, both suns were visible, like white flames rising from the edge of the dark horizon.Brilliant colors quickly cut through the thin atmosphere below them. "Flame of Dawn!" Zaphod exclaimed, "Twin Suns, Thorian Rees and Ram..."

"Or any other sun," said Ford quietly. "Thorian Rhys and Ram!" insisted Zaphod. The twin stars shone brightly in space, and there was a terrible sound of music in the control bridge: Marvin was humming ironically, because he absolutely hated humans. Ford was thrilled, too, as he stared at the spectacle of light before him, but it was only the thrill of seeing a new planet; he had seen enough.Zaphod insists on imposing comic fantasies on such scenes in order to serve his own point of view.This practice made him a little angry.All this nonsense about Manglas seems childish.Is it not enough to see a garden so beautiful that one must believe that there are fairies in it?

All these things about Mangrass were incomprehensible to Arthur.He leaned over to Trillian and asked her what was going on. "I only know what Zaphod told me." She whispered to him. "Magrath is obviously a legend that no one really believes. Sounds a bit like the legend of Atlantis on Earth, It's just that the legend says that the Magrathians once made planets." Arthur looked at the screen, feeling as if he had forgotten something very important.Suddenly, he realized what it was. "Is there any tea on this ship?" he asked. As the Heart of Gold orbits, more and more of the planet's surface is revealed beneath them.The double star hung high in the black sky now, the brilliant glow of dawn was over, and the planet's surface looked bleak and eerie in normal daylight—gray, dusty, and vaguely outlined.The whole planet looked dead and cold, like a catacomb.Sometimes hopeful images appear on the horizon in the distance—canyons, maybe mountains, maybe even cities—but when they get closer, it all blurs again and nothing emerges .The surface of the planet is eroded by time, by the slow movement of the enveloping thin air, century after century.

Obviously, it's very, very old. Seeing these gray scenes moving under him, a wave of doubt appeared in Ford's mind.The huge time span troubled him, and he could clearly feel it at this moment.So he cleared his throat. "Well, even assuming this is..." "That's it," said Zaphod. "Not really," continued Ford, "but what do you want out of here? There's nothing here." "Not on the surface," said Zaphod. "Well, even assuming there's something here, I'm pretty sure you're not here just for industrial archaeology. What exactly are you looking for?"

One of Zaphod's heads looked sideways, and the other followed to see what the first was looking at, but saw nothing. "Oh," said Zaphod briskly, "part curiosity and part adventure. But mostly, I think, fame and money..." Ford fixed him with a piercing eye.He had a very strong feeling that Zaphod had absolutely no intention of being here. "You know, I don't like the look of this planet at all," Trillian said tremblingly. "Oh, don't be prejudiced," said Zaphod. "Half the wealth of the previous Galactic Empire is hidden somewhere on it, and that alone deserves a good look."

Nonsense, thought Ford.Even assuming that this is indeed the home of some ancient civilization that has turned to dust, even assuming that some of the most improbable things are true, there is no great wealth buried here in a form that still makes sense today. on the planet.So he could only shrug. "I think it's just a dead planet," he said. "It's almost killing me to be so suspenseful all the time," said Arthur angrily. Stress and tension are a pretty serious social problem anywhere in the galaxy right now.In order not to further aggravate this situation, several facts are announced in advance as follows: This planet full of doubts is actually the legendary Manglas.

A deadly missile attack about to be launched by ancient atomic defenses, the damage will be limited to three coffee mugs and a rat cage, a bruise on someone's forearm, a pot that opened before it was in season and suddenly died Morning glory, and an innocent whale. But at the same time, there should still be some mystery, so it's too early to say whose forearm was injured.This fact can form the main body of suspense, and it doesn't hurt because it doesn't matter who it is.