Chapter 24 Chapter Twenty Two

He stood with his back to Arthur, watching the last rays of light sink into the darkness below the horizon.He was tall and elderly, and he was wearing a gray single robe.When he turned around in a moment, he could see that his face was thin, noble, troubled but kind, the kind of face you want to see.But at this moment he hadn't turned around, and didn't even respond to Arthur's exclamation. The afterglow of the sun finally disappeared completely, and he turned around.His face was still lit by light from somewhere, and as Arthur looked for the source of the light, he saw a small craft parked a few yards away - Arthur guessed it was a small hovercraft, A dim light shines.

The old man looked at Arthur, looking sad. "You chose a cold night to visit our dead planet," he said. "Who... are you?" Arthur stammered. The old man looked away.Another look of sadness crossed his face. "My name doesn't matter," he said. He looked preoccupied and clearly not keen on talking.Arthur felt embarrassed. "I... um... you surprised me..." he broke off. The old man looked at him again, raising his eyebrows slightly. "Huh?" he said. "I said you surprised me." "Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you."

Arthur frowned at him. "But you fired at us! I mean the missiles..." he said. The old man looked toward the bottom of the crater.The gleam from Marvin's eyes cast a pale red shadow over the whale's massive carcass. He smiled softly. "That's an automatic system," he sighed slightly, "The ancient computers installed in the depths of the planet have been running in the darkness for thousands of years, and generations after generations have weighed heavily on them. Dust database. I guess the occasional launch is just an effort to shake up the same monotony a little bit."

He looked at Arthur and said solemnly: "You know, I'm a big fan of science." "Oh . "Well, yes," said the old man, and shut his mouth. "Oh, um..." Arthur suddenly had a strange feeling, he felt like a man who was having adultery with someone else's wife, and saw the husband enter the room, change a pair of pants, and make a statement about the weather. Left again after a thoughtless comment. "You seem uncomfortable." The old man asked politely. "Well, no... oh, yes. Actually, you see, we didn't really expect to find anyone on this planet. From what I understand, you're all dead or..."

"Dead?" said the old man. "My God, of course not. We just fell asleep." "Sleeping?" Arthur couldn't believe it. "Yeah, to get through the recession," said the old man, obviously not too concerned that Arthur really understood even a single word he said. So Arthur had to remind him again. "Um, a recession?" "Yes, you see, five million years ago, the economy of the entire galaxy collapsed, and custom planets were a luxury. You see..." He paused, looking at Arthur. "You know we build planets, don't you?" he asked gravely.

"Oh, yes," said Arthur, "I know a little..." "Attractive trade." The old man said, with a trace of nostalgia in his eyes. "Building the coastline is my favorite job, especially the construction of the bay. Trying to rediscover my train of thought, "But here comes the slump. We figured we'd save a lot of trouble if we spent this time in sleep mode. So we programmed the computer to wake up when the slump was completely over. us." The old man suppressed a yawn and continued: "These computers are directly linked to the price of the galactic stock market, you understand, so once someone else rebuilds the economy enough to afford our expensive services, we will be all wake."

Arthur, who has always been a loyal reader of the left-wing "Guardian", couldn't help being shocked when he heard these words. "Shouldn't be a pleasant choice, should it?" "Really?" the old man asked gently, "I'm sorry, I'm a little out of step with the situation." He pointed to the bottom of the pit. "Is that your robot?" he asked. "No." A metallic voice came from below, "I am mine." "If you call it a robot," murmured Arthur, "it's more like some kind of electronic anger machine."

"Bring it up," said the old man.Arthur was startled by the sudden command of the old man.He beckoned to Marvin, and he started up the slope, limping and pretending to be crippled, even though he wasn't limping. "I've changed my mind," said the old man. "Leave it here. You must come with me, and something will happen soon." He turned to his craft, which, although it gave no obvious signal, was on its way. Float toward them from the darkness. Arthur looked down at Marvin, who was turning around with difficulty and back down to the bottom of the pit, still muttering something.

"Come on," the old man called to him, "Come on before it's too late." "Late?" asked Arthur. "Late for what?" "What's your name, human?" "Dent. Arthur Dent," replied Arthur. "I'm late, and I mean if you don't hurry you'll be the late Dent, Arthur Dent," said the old man sharply. "It's a threat, you see." He was tired and There was another hint of sadness in the aging eyes. "I've never been very good at these things myself, but I've heard they're very effective."

Arthur blinked. "What a queer man," he said to himself. "What did you say?" asked the old man. "Oh, nothing, I'm sorry," said Arthur in embarrassment. "Well, where shall we go?" "Get aboard my skycar," said the old man, letting Arthur step into the vehicle parked quietly beside them. "We will enter the depths of this planet, where our race is growing from five million Awoke from the slumber of years. Manglas awoke." Sitting beside the old man, Arthur began to tremble involuntarily.After a silent vibration, the strange craft took off into the night sky.He was quite disturbed.

He looked at the old man, his face illuminated by the faint lights on the dashboard. "Excuse me," he said to the old man, "what's your name?" "My name?" said the old man, and the same sadness came over his face again.He paused. "My name," he said, "is Slartibartfast." Arthur choked. "Could you please repeat that?" he said. "Slartibartfast," the old man repeated quietly. "Slarti Bartfast?" The old man looked at him sullenly. "As I said, it doesn't matter," he said. The flying car sailed in the night.