The sky, from one horizon to another, from east to west, from north to south, was utterly and completely black.
Chapter 11
Stomp stomp.
Whirrr.
– Pleased to be of service.
– Shut up.
– Thank you.
Stomp stomp stomp stomp stomp.
Whirrr.
– Thank you for making a simple door very happy.
– Hope your diodes rot.
– Thank you. Have a nice day.
Stomp stomp stomp stomp.
Whirrr.
– It is my pleasure to open for you…
– Zark off.
–…and my satisfaction to close again with the knowledge of a job well done.
– I said zark off.
– Thank you for listening to this message.
Stomp stomp stomp stomp.
– Wop.
Zaphod stopped stomping. He had been stomping around the Heart of Gold for days, and so far no door had said “wop” to him. He was fairly certain that no door had said “wop” to him now. It was not the sort of thing doors said. Too concise. Furthermore, there were not enough doors. It sounded as if a hundred thousand people had said “wop”, which puzzled him because he was the only person on the ship.
It was dark. Most of the ship’s non-essential systems were closed down. It was drifting in a remote area of the Galaxy, deep in the inky blackness of space. So which particular hundred thousand people would turn up at this point and say a totally unexpected “wop”?
He looked about him, up the corridor and down the corridor. It was all in deep shadow. There were just the very dim pinkish outlines of the doors which glowed in the dark and pulsed whenever they spoke, though he had tried every way he could think of of stopping them.
The lights were off so that his heads could avoid looking at each other, because neither of them was currently a particularly engaging sight, and nor had they been since he had made the error of looking into his soul.
It had indeed been an error. It had been late one night - of course.
It had been a difficult day - of course.
There had been soulful music playing on the ship’s sound system - of course.
And he had, of course, been slightly drunk.
In other words, all the usual conditions which bring on a bout of soul-searching had applied, but it had, nevertheless, clearly been an error.
Standing now, silent and alone in the dark corridor he remembered the moment and shivered. His one head looked one way and his other the other and each decided that the other was the way to go.
He listened but could hear nothing.
All there had been was the “wop”.
It seemed an awfully long way to bring an awfully large number of people just to say one word.
He started nervously to edge his way in the direction of the bridge. There at least he would feel in control. He stopped again. The way he was feeling he didn’t think he was an awfully good person to be in control.
The first shock of that moment, thinking back, had been discovering that he actually had a soul.
In fact he’d always more or less assumed that he had one as he had a full complement of everything else, and indeed two of somethings, but suddenly actually to encounter the thing lurking there deep within him had giving him a severe jolt.
And then to discover (this was the second shock) that it wasn’t the totally wonderful object which he felt a man in his position had a natural right to expect had jolted him again.
Then he had thought about what his position actually was and the renewed shock had nearly made him spill his drink. He drained it quickly before anything serious happened to it. He then had another quick one to follow the first one down and check that it was all right.
– Freedom, - he said aloud.
Trillian came on to the bridge at that point and said several enthusiastic things on the subject of freedom.
– I can’t cope with it, - he said darkly, and sent a third drink down to see why the second hadn’t yet reported on the condition of the first. He looked uncertainly at both of her and preferred the one on the right.
He poured a drink down his other throat with the plan that it would head the previous one off at the pass, join forces with it, and together they would get the second to pull itself together. Then all three would go off in search of the first, give it a good talking to and maybe a bit of a sing as well.
He felt uncertain as to whether the fourth drink had understood all that, so he sent down a fifth to explain the plan more fully and a sixth for moral support.
– You’re drinking too much, - said Trillian.
His heads collided trying to sort out the four of her he could now see into a whole position. He gave up and looked at the navigation screen and was astonished to see a quite phenomenal number of stars.
– Excitement and adventure and really wild things, - he muttered.
– Look, - she said in a sympathetic tone of voice, and sat down near him, - it’s quite understandable that you’re going to feel a little aimless for a bit.
He boggled at her. He had never seen anyone sit on their own lap before.
– Wow, - he said. He had another drink.
– You’ve finished the mission you’ve been on for years.
– I haven’t been on it. I’ve tried to avoid being on it.
– You’ve still finished it.
He grunted. There seemed to be a terrific party going on in his stomach.
– I think it finished me, - he said. - Here I am, Zaphod Beeblebrox, I can go anywhere, do anything. I have the greatest ship in the known sky, a girl with whom things seem to be working out pretty well…
– Are they?
– As far as I can tell I’m not an expert in personal relationships
Trillian raised her eyebrows.
– I am, - he added, - one hell of a guy, I can do anything I want only I just don’t have the faintest idea what.
He paused.
– One thing, - he further added, - has suddenly ceased to lead to another - in contradiction of which he had another drink and slid gracelessly off his chair.
Whilst he slept it off, Trillian did a little research in the ship’s copy of
– Go to it, - it said, - and good luck.
It was cross-referenced to the entry concerning the size of the Universe and ways of coping with that.
Then she found the entry on Han Wavel, an exotic holiday planet, and one of the wonders of the Galaxy.
