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"He gatecrashed a party," persisted Arthur, treer, "a fancy dress party"

"It would have to be, wouldn't it?" said Ford

"At this party," persiste

d Arthur, "was a girloh well, look it doesn't one up in smoke anyway"

"I wish you'd stop sulking about that bloody planet," said Ford "Who was the lady?"

"Oh, just so very ith her I'd been trying all evening Hell, she was soent, at last I'd got her toher with a bit of talk when this friend of yours barges up and says 'Hey doll, is this guy boring you? Why don't you talk to ain"

"Zaphod?" exclaimed Ford

"Yes," said Arthur, glaring at hi not to feel foolish "He only had the two arms and the one head and he called himself Phil, but"

"But you must admit he did turn out to be froht at the other end of the bridge She gave Arthur a pleasant smile which settled on him like a ton of bricks and then turned her attention to the ship's controls again

There was silence for a few seconds, and then out of the scrambled mess of Arthur's brain crawled some words

"Tricia McMillian?" he said "What are you doing here?"

"Saree in Maths and another in astrophysics what else was there to do? It was either that or the dole queue again on Monday"

"Infinity minus one," chattered the computer, "Improbability sum now complete"

Zaphod looked about him, at Ford, at Arthur, and then at Trillian

"Trillian," he said, "is this sort of thing going to happen every time we use the Improbability drive?"

"Very probably, I'm afraid," she said

Chapter 14

The Heart of Gold fled on silently through the night of space, now on conventional photon drive Its crew of four were ill at ease knowing that they had been brought together not of their own volition or by simple coincidence, but by some curious principle of physics--as if relationships between people were susceptible to the saoverned the relationships between atoms and molecules

As the ship's artificial night closed in they were each grateful to retire to separate cabins and try to rationalize their thoughts

Trillian couldn't sleep She sat on a couch and stared at a se which contained her last and only links with Earth--thiteShe had expected not to see the planet again, but she was disturbed by her negative reaction to the planet's destruction It seehts to think about it She watched thefuriously in their little plastic treadwheels till they occupied her whole attention Suddenly she shook herself and went back to the bridge to watch over the tiny flashing lights and figures that charted the ship's progress through the void She wished she knehat it was she was trying not to think about

Zaphod couldn't sleep He also wished he knehat it was that he wouldn't let hi as he could re not all there Most of the tiht aside and not worry about it, but it had been re-awakened by the sudden inexplicable arrival of Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent Somehow it seemed to conform to a pattern that he couldn't see

Ford couldn't sleep He was too excited about being back on the road again Fifteen years of virtual iive up hope Knocking about with Zaphod for a bit pro faintly odd about his seer on The fact that he had beco, as was thethe post Was there a reason behind it? There would be no point in asking Zaphod, he never appeared to have a reason for anything he did at all: he had turned unfatho in life with a enius and naive incompetence and it was often difficult to tell which hich

Arthur slept: he was terribly tired

There was a tap at Zaphod's door It slid open

"Zaphod?"

"Yeah?"

"I think we just found what you came to look for"

"Hey, yeah?"

Ford gave up the attempt to sleep In the corner of his cabin was a small computer screen and keyboard He sat at it for a while and tried to coons but couldn't think of anything vitriolic enough so he gave that up too, wrapped a robe round hie

As he entered he was surprised to see two figures hunched excitedly over the instruments

"See? The ship's about to"There's a planet out there It's at the exact coordinates you predicted"

Zaphod heard a noise and looked up

"Ford!" he hissed "Hey, come and take a look at this"

Ford went and had a look at it It was a series of figures flashing over a screen

"You recognize those Galactic coordinates?" said Zaphod

"No"

"I'll give you a clue Computer!"

"Hi, gang!" enthused the co real sociable, isn't it?"

"Shut up," said Zaphod, "and show up the screens"

Light on the bridge sank Pinpoints of light played across the consoles and reflected in four pairs of eyes that stared up at the external monitor screens

There was absolutely nothing on them

"Recognize that?" whispered Zaphod

Ford frowned