We have no weapons, said Slartibartfast, stupidly.
Damn, said Arthur very quietly.
Ford said nothing.
Trillian said nothing, but in a peculiarly thoughtful and distinct way. She was staring at the blankness of the space beyond the asteroid.
The asteroid circled the Dust Cloud which surrounded the Slo-Time envelope which enclosed the world on which lived the people of Krikkit, the Masters of Krikkit and their killer robots.
The helpless group had no way of knowing whether or not the Krikkit robots were aware of their presence. They could only assume that they must be, but that they felt, quite rightly in the circumstances, that they had nothing to fear. They had an historic task to perform, and their audience could be regarded with contempt.
Terrible impotent feeling, isn’t it? said Arthur, but the others ignored him.
In the centre of the area of light which the robots were approaching, a square-shaped crack appeared in the ground. The crack defined itself more and more distinctly, and soon it became clear that a block of the ground, about six feet square, was slowly rising.
At the same time they became aware of some other movement, but it was almost sublimal, and for a moment or two it was not clear what it was that was moving.
Then it became clear.
The asteroid was moving. It was moving slowly in towards the Dust Cloud, as if being hauled in inexorably by some celestial angler in its depths.
They were to make in real life the journey through the Cloud which they had already made in the Room of Informational Illusions. They stood frozen in silence. Trillian frowned.
An age seemed to pass. Events seemed to pass with spinning slowness, as the leading edge of the asteroid passed into the vague and soft outer perimeter of the Cloud.
And soon they were engulfed in a thin and dancing obscurity. They passed on through it, on and on, dimly aware of vague shapes and whorls indistinguishable in the darkness except in the corner of the eye.
The Dust dimmed the shafts of brilliant light. The shafts of brilliant light twinkled on the myriad specks of Dust.
Trillian, again, regarded the passage from within her own frowning thoughts.
And they were through it. Whether it had taken a minute or half an hour they weren’t sure, but they were through it and confronted with a fresh blankness, as if space were pinched out of existence in front of them.
And now things moved quickly.
“咱们连武器都没有。” 司拉提巴特法斯道，“笨透了。”
“真见鬼。”阿瑟轻声说道。
福特一言不发。
崔莉安也一言不发，不过跟别人的表情又不太一样。她凝视着小行星之外那漆黑的太空。
小行星绕着尘云运转，尘云包裹着缓时封皮，封皮里封着版求星，版求星上住着版求人及其杀人机器。
这几个可怜的家伙，不知道机器人们是否已注意到他们。他们只能假定自己的确被注意到了。不过，也没什么好怕的——的确如此。机器人们可是身负历史重任，像他们这种旁观者当然可以忽略掉。
“真的很无奈……对吧？”阿瑟道。没人搭理他。
机器人们向光环中心靠近，那中间有个矩形的缝隙。缝隙越来越清晰，很快可以看出，它是一整块的，大概六尺见方，正在缓缓上升。
此时他们又注意到另外一件事。这件事几乎难以觉察，只感到有什么东西在移动。
终于觉察出来了。
是小行星在移动。它正慢慢靠近尘云，仿佛被某种神力牵着，无力地滑向尘云深处。
从前他们在信息幻影室里经历过的旅程，现在却要亲身体验了。众人陷入沉默。崔莉安表情严肃。
时间如此漫长。当小行星钻入那一片朦胧的云团时，时空似乎开始极慢地流转。
很快，他们没入了忽明忽暗的云里。他们穿行其中，几乎不曾注意那些模糊的阴影和光轮——当然眼角余光还能瞟到一点儿。
尘云将那些光束遮去了大半。光束在无垠的星尘中，如同小星一般黯淡。
崔莉安，却依然一脸严肃地沉浸在自己的思绪中。
终于穿过了云层。也许是一分钟，也许用了半小时，他们终于穿过了云层，闯入另一片空虚。整个太空，仿佛突然被掐灭了似的。
一切却发生得那么快。