And at the end they travelled again.
There was a time when Arthur Dent would not. He said that the Bistromathic Drive had revealed to him that time and distance were one, that mind and Universe were one, that perception and reality were one, and that the more one travelled the more one stayed in one place, and that what with one thing and another he would rather just stay put for a while and sort it all out in his mind, which was now at one with the Universe so it shouldn’t take too long, and he could get a good rest afterwards, put in a little flying practice and learn to cook which he had always meant to do. The can of Greek olive oil was now his most prized possession, and he said that the way it had unexpectedly turned up in his life had again given him a certain sense of the oneness of things which made him feel that…
He yawned and fell asleep.
In the morning as they prepared to take him to some quiet and idyllic planet where they wouldn’t mind him talking like that they suddenly picked up a computer-driven distress call and diverted to investigate.
A small but apparently undamaged spacecraft of the Merida class seemed to be dancing a strange little jig through the void. A brief computer scan revealed that the ship was fine, its computer was fine, but that its pilot was mad.
Half-mad, half-mad, the man insisted as they carried him, raving, aboard.
He was a journalist with the Siderial Daily Mentioner. They sedated him and sent Marvin in to keep him company until he promised to try and talk sense.
I was covering a trial, he said at last, on Argabuthon.
He pushed himself up on to his thin wasted shoulders, his eyes stared wildly. His white hair seemed to be waving at someone it knew in the next room.
Easy, easy, said Ford. Trillian put a soothing hand on his shoulder.
The man sank back down again and stared at the ceiling of the ship’s sick bay.
The case, he said, is now immaterial, but there was a witness… a witness… a man called… called Prak. A strange and difficult man. They were eventually forced to administer a drug to make him tell the truth, a truth drug.
His eyes rolled helplessly in his head.
They gave him too much, he said in a tiny whimper. They gave him much too much. He started to cry. I thing the robots must have jogged the surgeon’s arm.
Robots? said Zaphod sharply. What robots?
Some white robots, whispered the man hoarsely, broke into the courtroom and stole the judge’s sceptre, the Argabuthon Sceptre of Justice, nasty Perspex thing. I don’t know why they wanted it. He began to cry again. And I think they jogged the surgeon’s arm…
He shook his head loosely from side to side, helplessly, sadly, his eyes screwed up in pain.
And when the trial continued, he said in a weeping whisper, they asked Prak a most unfortunate thing. They asked him, he paused and shivered, to tell the Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth. Only, don’t you see?
He suddenly hoisted himself up on to his elbows again and shouted at them.
They’d given him much too much of the drug!
He collapsed again, moaning quietly.
Much too much too much too much too…
他们终于又开始四处旅行。
本来，阿瑟·邓特不愿再旅行了。他说，是意馆数学飞船给了他启示：时间和空间是一体的，精神和宇宙是一体的，感知和现实是一体的。一个人，旅行的越远，就越趋向于静止。这些东西之间到底有什么关系，他要静下来好好弄清楚——既然它们跟宇宙都是一体的，那想必花不了多少时间。弄清之后他就可以休息了，可以练练飞行，可以学学厨艺，他一直很想学。那罐希腊橄榄油，现在是他最珍贵的财产。他说，它是如此不可思议地重返自己的生命之中，这给了他一种万物一体的灵感，令他感到……
他打了个哈欠，睡着了。
第二天早上，大家准备把他带到一个宁静恬美的星球上去，在那儿他想怎么说就怎么说。还没出发，他们就收到电脑发来的一条求救信号，便开始调查此事。
原来有一艘小小的、完好无损的梅里达级太空飞船，似乎正在太空中跳着诡异的快步舞。初步智能扫描显示，飞船没问题，中枢电脑没问题，只是那个驾驶员疯了。
“半疯，半疯。”那个人获救的时候，如此坚持地宣称着。他们把他弄到黄金之心上。
他是《恒星每日评论》的一名记者。他们给他服了镇静剂，并让马文陪着他。最后他终于向大家保证，自己能够试着理智地说话了。
“我本来是在报道一次审判，”他终于开口了，“在阿加布松。”
他那羸弱瘦小的肩膀猛地一抖，身子直了起来，眼神惊恐万状。他的白色头发立了起来，像是在跟隔壁屋里什么人打招呼似的。
“没事没事。”福特说。崔莉安用手轻轻地搭在他的肩头，以示抚慰。
那人又躺了回去，双眼直直地盯着病房舱的天花板。
“案件本身，”他说，“已经不重要了。可是有个证人……有个证人……名字叫普啦刻的。他是个又怪又难搞的人。所以他们不得不给他服用说真话的药物。真话药。”
他的眼珠无助地颤动着。
“他们给他吃太多了，”他的声音带着哭腔，“他们给他吃太多了。”他哭了起来，“我想一定是那些机器人撞到医生的手了。”
“机器人？”赞福德警觉地问道，“什么机器人？”
“一些白色机器人，”那人低声道，“他们闯进法庭，把法官的节杖抢走了。正义的阿加布松节杖，玻璃做的破玩意儿。不知道他们为什么这么做。”他又哭了起来，“可我想是他们撞到医生的手了……”
他无力地摇着头，茫然而悲伤。他痛苦地闭紧了双眼。
“但审判还是继续进行，”他一边抽泣一边说着，“他们问了一个最不幸的问题。他们叫他……”他不禁打了个寒战，哽了一下，“说出真相，全部的真相，毫厘不差的真相。可是……你们难道还不明白吗？”
他猛地用双肘撑了起来，狠狠地叫道：
“他们给他吃太多太多的药了！”
他又颓然倒下，依然发出低低的哀鸣。
“太多太多太多太多太……”