It is written, repeated Prak, in thirty-foot-high letters of fire on top of the Quentulus Quazgar Mountains in the land of Sevorbeupstry on the planet Preliumtarn, third out from the…
Sorry, said Arthur again, which mountains?
The Quentulus Quazgar Mountains in the land of Sevorbeupstry on the planet…
Which land was that? I didn’t quite catch it.
Sevorbeupstry, on the planet…
Sevorbe-what?
Oh, for heaven’s sake, said Prak and died testily.
In the following days Arthur thought a little about this message, but in the end he decided that he was not going to allow himself to be drawn by it, and insisted on following his original plan of finding a nice little world somewhere to settle down and lead a quiet retired life. Having saved the Universe twice in one day he thought that he could take things a little easier from now on.
They dropped him off on the planet Krikkit, which was now once again an idyllic pastoral world, even if the songs did occasionally get on his nerves.
He spent a lot of time flying.
He learnt to communicate with birds and discovered that their conversation was fantastically boring. It was all to do with wind speed, wing spans, power-to-weight ratios and a fair bit about berries. Unfortunately, he discovered, once you have learnt birdspeak you quickly come to realize that the air is full of it the whole time, just inane bird chatter. There is no getting away from it.
For that reason Arthur eventually gave up the sport and learnt to live on the ground and love it, despite a lot of the inane chatter he heard down there as well.
One day, he was walking through the fields humming a ravishing tune he’d heard recently when a silver spaceship descended from the sky and landed in front of him.
A hatchway opened, a ramp extended, and a tall grey-green alien marched out and approached him.
Arthur Phili… it said, then glanced sharply at him and down at his clipboard. He frowned. He looked up at him again.
I’ve done you before haven’t I? he said.
“它是，”普啦刻重复道，“用三十英尺高的火焰字，写在普列留塔恩星的瑟文毕奥普斯特里大陆上的昆塔勒斯·夸兹加山脉的顶峰，这颗星是……”
“抱歉，”阿瑟又道，“什么山脉？”
“昆塔勒斯·夸兹加山脉，它在瑟文毕奥普斯特里大陆，在那颗……”
“什么大陆？还没听清……”
“瑟文毕奥普斯特里大陆，那颗行星叫……”
“瑟文什么？”
“噢，我的天啊。”普啦刻说了这么一句，便不耐烦地死掉了。
接下来的日子里，阿瑟就这个问题思考了一段时间，但最后还是决定不再纠缠其中，而是按照原计划，找个好地方住下来，过着宁静的退休生活。一天之内拯救了两次宇宙，他觉得自己应该活得轻松点才行。
大家把他搁在版求星上。现在，那儿已恢复了静谧的田园风貌，虽说有时候那些歌挺烦人的。
他经常练习飞行。
他学会了与鸟儿们交流，然后发现这简直无聊得要死。它们不外乎说些风速、翼幅、体重-力量的比率，以及关于浆果的问题罢了。不幸的是，阿瑟发现，一旦你学会鸟语，你会觉得周围全是鸟语。全是那些无聊的谈话，躲都没处躲。
于是，阿瑟终于放弃了飞行运动，试着在地上生活。他还是挺喜欢这样的。当然，地上偶尔也会听见那些无聊的话。
一天，他走在乡间小路上，哼着一首最近听到的、相当动人的歌儿，一艘银色的飞船就从天而降，落在他的面前。
舱门打开，舷梯伸了下来，一个高高的灰绿色生物步出，来到了他面前。
“阿瑟·菲利……”它说着，突然怀疑地瞟了他几眼，又看了看手上的文件夹，皱起了眉头。它又看了看他。
“我骂过你了对吧？”它问道。