Chapter 3
“Does anyone have a kettle?” Arthur asked as he walked on to the bridge, and instantly began to wonder why Trillian was yelling at the computer to talk to her, Ford was thumping it and Zaphod was kicking it, and also why there was a nasty yellow lump on the vision screen.
He put down the empty cup he was carrying and walked over to them.
“Hello?” he said.
At that moment Zaphod flung himself over to the polished marble surfaces that contained the instruments that controlled the conventional photon drive. They materialized beneath his hands and he flipped over to manual control. He pushed, he pulled, he pressed and he swore. The photon drive gave a sickly judder and cut out again.
“Something up?” said Arthur.
“Hey, didja hear that?” muttered Zaphod as he leapt now for the manual controls of the Infinite Improbability Drive, “the monkey spoke!”
The Improbability Drive gave two small whines and then also cut out.
“Pure history, man,” said Zaphod, kicking the Improbability Drive, “a talking monkey!”
“If you’re upset about something…” said Arthur.