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.padding-bottom: 60.16%;"> “咱們連武器都沒有。” 司拉提巴特法斯道，“笨透了。” “真見鬼。”阿瑟輕聲說道。 福特一言不發。 崔莉安也一言不發，不過跟別人的表情又不太一樣。她凝視着小行星之外那漆黑的太空。 小行星繞着塵雲運轉，塵雲包裹着緩時封皮，封皮裏封着版求星，版求星上住着版求人及其殺人機器。 這幾個可憐的傢伙，不知道機器人們是否已注意到他們。他們只能假定自己的確被注意到了。不過，也沒什麼好怕的——的確如此。機器人們可是身負歷史重任，像他們這種旁觀者當然可以忽略掉。 “真的很無奈……對吧？”阿瑟道。沒人搭理他。 機器人們向光環中心靠近，那中間有個矩形的縫隙。縫隙越來越清晰，很快可以看出，它是一整塊的，大概六尺見方，正在緩緩上升。 此時他們又注意到另外一件事。這件事幾乎難以覺察，只感到有什麼東西在移動。 終於覺察出來了。 是小行星在移動。它正慢慢靠近塵雲，彷彿被某種神力牽着，無力地滑向塵雲深處。 從前他們在信息幻影室裏經歷過的旅程，現在卻要親身體驗了。衆人陷入沉默。崔莉安表情嚴肅。 時間如此漫長。當小行星鑽入那一片朦朧的雲團時，時空似乎開始極慢地流轉。 很快，他們沒入了忽明忽暗的雲裏。他們穿行其中，幾乎不曾注意那些模糊的陰影和光輪——當然眼角餘光還能瞟到一點兒。 塵雲將那些光束遮去了大半。光束在無垠的星塵中，如同小星一般黯淡。 崔莉安，卻依然一臉嚴肅地沉浸在自己的思緒中。 終於穿過了雲層。也許是一分鐘，也許用了半小時，他們終於穿過了雲層，闖入另一片空虛。整個太空，彷彿突然被掐滅了似的。 一切卻發生得那麼快。
