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… 他們終於又開始四處旅行。 本來，阿瑟·鄧特不願再旅行了。他說，是意館數學飛船給了他啓示：時間和空間是一體的，精神和宇宙是一體的，感知和現實是一體的。一個人，旅行的越遠，就越趨向於靜止。這些東西之間到底有什麼關係，他要靜下來好好弄清楚——既然它們跟宇宙都是一體的，那想必花不了多少時間。弄清之後他就可以休息了，可以練練飛行，可以學學廚藝，他一直很想學。那罐希臘橄欖油，現在是他最珍貴的財產。他說，它是如此不可思議地重返自己的生命之中，這給了他一種萬物一體的靈感，令他感到…… 他打了個哈欠，睡着了。 第二天早上，大家準備把他帶到一個寧靜恬美的星球上去，在那兒他想怎麼說就怎麼說。還沒出發，他們就收到電腦發來的一條求救信號，便開始調查此事。 原來有一艘小小的、完好無損的梅里達級太空飛船，似乎正在太空中跳着詭異的快步舞。初步智能掃描顯示，飛船沒問題，中樞電腦沒問題，只是那個駕駛員瘋了。 “半瘋，半瘋。”那個人獲救的時候，如此堅持地宣稱着。他們把他弄到黃金之心上。 他是《恆星每日評論》的一名記者。他們給他服了鎮靜劑，並讓馬文陪着他。最後他終於向大家保證，自己能夠試着理智地說話了。 “我本來是在報道一次審判，”他終於開口了，“在阿加布鬆。” 他那羸弱瘦小的肩膀猛地一抖，身子直了起來，眼神驚恐萬狀。他的白色頭髮立了起來，像是在跟隔壁屋裏什麼人打招呼似的。 “沒事沒事。”福特說。崔莉安用手輕輕地搭在他的肩頭，以示撫慰。 那人又躺了回去，雙眼直直地盯着病房艙的天花板。 “案件本身，”他說，“已經不重要了。可是有個證人……有個證人……名字叫普啦刻的。他是個又怪又難搞的人。所以他們不得不給他服用說真話的藥物。真話藥。” 他的眼珠無助地顫動着。 “他們給他吃太多了，”他的聲音帶着哭腔，“他們給他吃太多了。”他哭了起來，“我想一定是那些機器人撞到醫生的手了。” “機器人？”贊福德警覺地問道，“什麼機器人？” “一些白色機器人，”那人低聲道，“他們闖進法庭，把法官的節杖搶走了。正義的阿加布鬆節杖，玻璃做的破玩意兒。不知道他們爲什麼這麼做。”他又哭了起來，“可我想是他們撞到醫生的手了……” 他無力地搖着頭，茫然而悲傷。他痛苦地閉緊了雙眼。 “但審判還是繼續進行，”他一邊抽泣一邊說着，“他們問了一個最不幸的問題。他們叫他……”他不禁打了個寒戰，哽了一下，“說出真相，全部的真相，毫釐不差的真相。可是……你們難道還不明白嗎？” 他猛地用雙肘撐了起來，狠狠地叫道： “他們給他吃太多太多的藥了！” 他又頹然倒下，依然發出低低的哀鳴。 “太多太多太多太多太……”
