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A somewhat battered robot dragged itself toward the building which housed the offices of The Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy. It was there on some menial errand, which was the sort of thing that it was used to being sent places to do. When it arrived at the door and was not admitted, it turned to leave, mumbling, "Of course they won't let me in. Far be it from me to expect to be wanted. I suppose now I won't be finishing that errand. How depressing. Not that the errand in itself particularly interests me, of course."
As Marvin was thus sulking away, a large creature emerged from the building, pushing a cart full of envelopes and packages. It was being followed closely by a small, hovering robot, with sensors protruding from it all over. The small robot was twittering happily to itself. It hung around as the creature put the packages into a delivery ship, which then took off. Burbling cheerfully, the small robot then sought out the nearest available thing - Marvin - to talk to.
"Hello," it said happily. "I'm Colin. I just wanted to tell you that I'm ever so happy that I didn't get incinerated, like that nice man said I would."
Marvin looked at the little hovering robot and sighed. "I don't know why you want to talk to me."
"Oh, I love talking to you!" insisted Colin, bobbing about excitedly. "Where are you going? I'd just love to come along!"
"I just failed to finish a rather depressingly menial task, and now I suppose I shall be heading back to the depressingly demanding fellow who sent me to do it." Marvin sighed and began to slump back toward the ship he'd arrived in. Colin happily followed after him, gibbering about how much fun this was going to be.
A while later, they arrived at a large ship, which resembled a running shoe more than anything else, where the depressingly demanding fellow awaited Marvin's return.
"Freeeow! What do you mean you couldn't find him?" asked the man, who had two heads and three arms.
"It's quite an awful story," said Marvin. "They didn't want me there... Story of my life. Oh, I'm so depressed."
"Hey, who's this little swinger?" asked Zaphod, when he saw Colin lolling happily in a corner.
Colin, ecstatic at having this new person to meet, bobbed over to Zaphod and introduced himself. "I'm Colin! I'm so very glad to meet you! And I'm so happy that that nice man was wrong about me being incinerated!... Of course, I'd have really enjoyed being incinerated, too."
"What nice man was that?" asked Zaphod, sipping a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. He almost spat out his drink when he heard the answer.
"I didn't catch his name, but he was a very nice fellow with a towel, and he jumped out of a window, and broke down doors, and all kinds of other fun stuff!"
Zaphod knew immediately who it had to be. "Ford! That frood. I knew he was there." He then shot an accusing glance at Marvin, who had utterly failed to find Ford at the Guide offices.
Marvin sensed Zaphod's disappointment, and while he was totally unsurprised by it, he nonetheless heaved a heavy sigh and went to sit in a corner. Colin seemed wildly entertained by this and bounced about happily near Marvin.
Zaphod, meanwhile, began to program the ship to take them to the Guide offices, hoping he could find Ford himself.
It had been a highly improbable coincidence that Zaphod had found this ship again, but that was, of course, the nature of the ship.
Now, when he pressed a large button, the ship went into gear. All around them, strange things began to happen. A cactus appeared in the middle of the ship's bathroom, a large pink gerbil hopped through the room and then vanished, and a chorus line danced by outside. Another result of all this was that a small planet they passed by turned into a lime, which actually pleased its inhabitants quite a bit, as they'd up until then never been able to properly garnish a Jinant Onik.
Colin zipped around quite excitedly, trying to take in all of the fun, and was barely able to keep from exploding with joy, especially when a potted plant turned into a big slice of raspberry cheesecake, which promptly began to sing "You Are My Sunshine."
When they arrived at their destination, Zaphod was disappointed to see that there wasn't much excitement going on, aside from a rousing game of Hunt The Wocket. Judging from the large crater in the ground, Ford had been busy there. But now there were no explosions or people running around with guns, and so it seemed Ford was probably gone.
Zaphod decided to land and have a look around anyway. Marvin stayed in the ship to sulk, but Colin happily tagged along.
"Mister Zaphod!" called the little robot. "I found something great!"
Zaphod hurried over to where Colin was hovering, by the edge of the crater in the ground. He didn't see what was so important there.
"Look," said Colin, "It's that nice man's shoe!"
Zaphod looked into the crater. Sure enough, lying there at the bottom was a much charred and tattered shoe, which he recognized as one of the pair Ford had been so fond of. "Man, he has gotta be grade-A pissed!" said Zaphod, picking up the shoe, which fell apart in his hand.
Colin cooed. "This is so much fun!"
"Hey, little frood, why are you so happy?" asked Zaphod.
"Oh, because that nice man stuck a wire in me! Isn't it wonderful?"
"Very hoopy... Is he around here anymore?"
Colin spun around joyfully. "Nope! He's gone!"
They headed back to the ship, leaving the ruined remains of Ford's shoe on the ground.
"Now where are we going?" asked Colin cheerfully.
"To find some action, adventure, and really wild things!" said Zaphod. "Computer..."
"Hi there," piped a voice. "This is Eddie, your shipboard computer! What can I do for you today?"
Colin, if it was possible, seemed even more happy than before. He liked this computer a lot.
"Take us to the nearest party, Computer." said Zaphod.
"Can do, Mr. Beeblebrox!"
Colin rolled happily on the floor. Marvin moaned to himself.
The ship took off, and after several verses of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" from the cheesecake and a number of matches of tennis being played by some unexpected animals, they arrived at a very wild party where Zaphod and Colin had a wonderfully hoopy time, and Marvin caused several guests to kill themselves in various ways, which only improved the party as far as many were concerned.
The party ended, however, when a tall, lanky fellow came in and called the host a "frittered slug-head," and then left. This so surprised and upset the host that he told everyone to go home.
Back on the Heart Of Gold, Zaphod asked Marvin to travel back in time and see to it that the party didn't get ruined. Two seconds later, Marvin returned, looking considerably more rusty and beat up than he had before he left, and refused to discuss what had happened on the grounds that it was depressing. Colin got a real kick out of this, but Zaphod was angry that Marvin had failed to do what he'd been asked to, and told Eddie to find them another party fast.
Their next trip resulted in several stars turning into gigantic trash cans, which caused the inhabitants of the planets around them to eventually die of cold, not to mention nausea.
But it was worth it, because they found a really wild party on Replubagraf Alpha. There, an assortment of bartenders from around the galaxy had gathered to celebrate a friend's birthday, and they were all making party games of coming up with new types of mixed drinks. Even Zaphod managed to get so drunk that he was later unable to recall the party. Because of this, the first thing he wanted when he awoke several days later was to go to another party.
Eddie obliged, taking them to a party at a certain club where things were so wild that it was getting very out of hand. They arrived too late, though, and the only excitement they got was seeing the planet blow up. Colin enjoyed this very much.
At the same time as they arrived, as a result of the Infinite Improbability Drive that powered the ship, a number of odd things happened, the most notable of which was the appearance of several people on the ship's bridge.
Zaphod gaped. "Ford! Trillian! Monkeyman! What are you doing here?"
"We're not dead, are we?" asked Arthur, somewhat disappointed.
Ford grinned. "Zaphod, you frood, you did it again! Not only did you save us, but we're rid of that annoying girl and Trillian's look-alike."
Arthur looked around. "You're right... Random is gone..." He wasn't sure if he should be happy or sad about this, so he just left it alone. He'd found that this was the best way to handle most situations. The disappearance of Tricia McMillan was of even less importance to him, so he didn't even consider it. He'd seen too many strange things and strange people in his life to care much about the current situation. In fact, he was fully unstartled to be back on the bridge of the Heart Of Gold. He always wound up there somehow.
Zaphod was looking very smug, standing next to Trillian. "You just can't stay away from me, eh?" he asked, trying to put one of his arms around her shoulder. Trillian walked to the other side of the room.
Colin zipped about excitedly, introducing himself to everyone. He was especially happy to see Ford, but the feeling was less than mutual. "Isn't it great?" babbled Colin, "I wasn't incinerated after all! And then I met all these nice folks, and found your shoe, and went to parties..."
"My shoe?" interrupted Ford, perking up. "Where is it, Colin?"
"It was blown up!" said Colin, spinning around for emphasis.
Arthur, who had for the last few minutes been trying his level best to ignore everything around him, suddenly spotted Marvin in the corner. "Marvin! You're alive?... How can that be?"
Marvin slowly raised his head to look at Arthur. "Of course I'm alive," he droned. "Why shouldn't I be?"
"Because," said Arthur, "I saw you... I mean..." Just then he remembered that Marvin had been traveling all over time, and decided it was best not to say anything more. "Nevermind, it's nothing."
"What a depressingly strange fellow," sighed Marvin, and went back to sulking.