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"I don't suppose there's any tea on this spaceship?" Arthur said again, despairingly. Once again, Ford, Zaphod and Trillian ignored him. Marvin was ignoring him as well, but as far as Arthur could see that was a continuation of being ignored from earlier, rather than a brand new stage of being ignored. After a while, Arthur wandered off to see if he could possibly get a cup of tea from what he'd been told was a Nutri-mat machine. He was somewhat surprised to find someone else giving it a good thump and staring in disgust at the cup of brownish liquid it had disgorged.
"Hello," Arthur said warily. He supposed this was another alien no one had bothered to tell him about.
"Hello," the other person said, jumping a little in surprise and then settling his wings back down. "Er. I'm not sure I'm supposed to be here."
"Me neither," Arthur sighed. "Are you another hitchhiker?"
"Not precisely," the fellow said, passing Arthur a cup of the brownish liquid. "I was just, um, out for a spot of aether, and then poof! I got scooped up somehow." He glared at their cups. "This will never do." He made a funny little gesture, and drank happily.
Engaging Improbability Drive, Trillian's voice said over the intercom.
By the time normality had been restored, the other alien had vanished. Arthur didn't pay too much attention to that, because the steam was still gently rising from his cup of tea. He drank it slowly and reverently. It was the best tea he'd ever tasted. It was heavenly.