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Relaxing in a wickerwork sun chair, Zaphod Beeblebrox said, "What the hell happened?"

"Well, I was just saying," said Arthur lounging by a small fish pool, "there's this Improbability Drive switch over here" he waved at where it had been There was a potted plant there now

"But where are we?" said Ford as sitting on the spiral staircase, a nicely chilled Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster in his hand

"Exactly where ere, I think" said Trillian, as all about thehted landscape of Magrathea which still scooted along beneath them

Zaphod leapt out of his seat

"Then what's happened to the missiles?" he said

A new and astounding ie appeared in the mirrors

"They would appear," said Ford doubtfully, "to have turned into a bowl of petunias and a very surprised looking whale"

"At an Ied a bit, "of eight million seven hundred and sixty-seven thousand one hundred and twenty-eight to one against"

Zaphod stared at Arthur

"Did you think of that, Earthman?" he demanded

"Well," said Arthur, "all I did was"

"That's very good thinking, you know Turn on the I the proofing screens Hey, kid, you just saved our lives, you know that?"

"Oh," said Arthur, "well, it was nothing really"

"Was it?" said Zaphod "Oh well, forget it then OK, computer, take us in to land"

"But"

"I said forget it"

Another thing that got forgotten was the fact that against all probability a sperm whale had suddenly been called into existence several miles above the surface of an alien planet

And since this is not a naturally tenable position for a whale, this poor innocent creature had very little time to come to terms with its identity as a whale before it then had to co a whale any more

This is a coan its life till the moment it ended it

Ah! What's happening? it thought

Er, excuse me, who am I?

Hello?

Why am I here? What's my purpose in life?

What do I mean by who am I?

Cal sensation, what is it? It's a sort ofyawning, tingling sensation innas if I want to make any headway in what for the sake of what I shall call an argument I shall call the world, so let's call it my stomach

Good Ooooh, it's getting quite strong And hey, what's about this whistling roaring sound going past what I' to call ood name? It'll doperhaps I can find a better name for it later when I've found out what it's for Itvery important because there certainly see? Thislet's call it a tail--yeah, tail Hey! I can really thrash it about pretty good, can't I? Wo! That feels great! Doesn't seem to achieve very much but I'll probably find out what it's for later on Now--have I built up any coherent picture of things yet?

No

Never , so much to find out about, so much to look forward to, I'm quite dizzy with anticipation

Or is it the wind?

There really is a lot of that now, isn't it?

And ! Hey! What's this thing suddenly co and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding naround! That's it! That's a good naround!

I wonder if it will be friends with me?

And the rest, after a sudden wet thud, was silence

Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the ain Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that ould know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now

Chapter 19

"Are we taking this robot with us?" said Ford, looking with distaste at Marvin as standing in an aard hunched posture in the corner under a small palm tree