I can do that for you, sure, enthused the computer, punching out more tickertape. I can even work out you personality problems to ten decimal places if it will help.
Trillian interrupted.
Zaphod, she said, any minute now we will be swinging round to the daylight side of this planet, adding, whatever it turns out to be.
Hey, what do you mean by that? The planets where I predicted it would be isnt it?
Yes, I know theres a planet there. Im not arguing with anyone, its just that I wouldnt know Magrathea from any other lump of cold rock. Dawns coming up if you want it.
OK, OK, muttered Zaphod, lets at least give our eyes a good time. Computer!
Hi there! What can I
Just shut up and give us a view of the planet again.
A dark featureless mass once more filled the screensthe planet rolling away beneath them.
They watched for a moment in silence, but Zaphod was fidgety with excitement.
We are now traversing the night side he said in a hushed voice. The planet rolled on.
The surface of the planet is now three hundred miles beneath us he continued. He was trying to restore a sense of occasion to what he felt should have been a great moment. Magrathea! He was piqued by Fords sceptical reaction. Magrathea!
In a few seconds, he continued, we should see there!
The moment carried itself. Even the most seasoned star tramp cant help but shiver at the spectacular drama of a sunrise seen from space, but a binary sunrise is one of the marvels of the Galaxy.
Out of the utter blackness stabbed a sudden point of blinding light. It crept up by slight degrees and spread sideways in a thin crescent blade, and within seconds two suns were visible, furnaces of light, searing the black edge of the horizon with white fire. Fierce shafts of colour streaked through the thin atmosphere beneath them.
The fires of dawn! breathed Zaphod. The twin suns of Soulianis and Rahm!
Or whatever, said Ford quietly.
Soulianis and Rahm! insisted Zaphod.
The suns blazed into the pitch of space and a low ghostly music floated through the bridge: Marvin was humming ironically because he hated humans so much.
As Ford gazed at the spectacle of light before them excitement burnt inside him, but only the excitement of seeing a strange new planet, it was enough for him to see it as it was. It faintly irritated him that Zaphod had to impose some ludicrous fantasy on to the scene to make it work for him. All this Magrathea nonsense seemed juvenile. Isnt it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
All this Magrathea business seemed totally incomprehensible to Arthur. He edged up to Trillian and asked her what was going on.
I only know what Zaphods told me, she whispered. Apparently Magrathea is some kind of legend from way back which no one seriously believes in. Bit like Atlantis on Earth, except that the legends say the Magratheans used to manufacture planets.
Arthur blinked at the screens and felt he was missing something important. Suddenly he realized what it was.
Is there any tea on this spaceship? he asked.
More of the planet was unfolding beneath them as the Heart
of Gold streaked along its orbital path. The suns now stood high in the black sky, the pyrotechnics of dawn were over, and the surface of the planet appeared bleak and forbidding in the common light of daygrey, dusty and only dimly contoured. It looked dead and cold as a crypt. From time to time promising features would appear on the distant horizonravines, maybe mountains, maybe even citiesbut as they approached the lines would soften and blur into anonymity and nothing would transpire. The planets surface was blurred by time, by the slow movement of the thin stagnant air that had crept across it for century upon century.
Clearly, it was very very old.
A moment of doubt came to Ford as he watched the grey landscape move beneath them. The immensity of time worried him, he could feel it as a presence. He cleared his throat.
Well, even supposing it is
It is, said Zaphod.
Which it isnt, continued Ford. What do you want with it anyway? Theres nothing there.
Not on the surface, said Zaphod.
Alright, just supposing theres something. I take it youre not here for the sheer industrial archaeology of it all. What are you after?
One of Zaphods heads looked away. The other one looked round to see what the first was looking at, but it wasnt looking at anything very much.
Well, said Zaphod airily, its partly the curiosity, partly a sense of adventure, but mostly I think its the fame and the money
Ford glanced at him sharply. He got a very strong impression that Zaphod hadnt the faintest idea why he was there at all.
You know I dont like the look of that planet at all, said Trillian shivering.
Ah, take no notice, said Zaphod, with half the wealth of the former Galactic Empire stored on it somewhere it can afford to look frumpy.
Bullshit, thought Ford. Even supposing this was the home of some ancient civilization now gone to dust, even supposing a number of exceedingly unlikely things, there was no way that vast treasures of wealth were going to be stored there in any form that would still have meaning now. He shrugged.