"And that's how I came to be stuck on your primitive little planet," said Ford, concluding his long-winded, almost certainly fanciful (at least in parts), and probably never-to-be-repeated-OR-paraphrased exposition. Both Arthur and Agnes had manfully (or womanfully) maintained a polite silence throughout the entire narrative, and were loath to ask any questions for fear it would result in further monologues. This fear effected a prolonged silence once Ford had finished, which (astonishingly) felt even more excruciating.
When Ford next spoke, thankfully it was to deliver practical, helpful information.
"If you're gonna fly around the galaxy with me, there's a few items you'll need, items I just happen to have a surfeit of." He began to rummage around in his dilapidated duffel bag, stopping when it seemed he'd found something useful. He pulled out two objects that, to Arthur, looked a lot like artificial phalluses.
Handing one to each of them, he explained, "This is a Diverse Intelligent Life-form Decoding Object. It insures that you will be sexually compatible with any sentient being you encounter. It's called DILDO for short."
(It should be noted that the DILDO does nothing to facilitate linguistic translation, as it is unnecessary. As every English speaker naturally intuits, every intelligent life-form in the universe is automatically fluent in it, barring some hideous genetic defect.)
Arthur looked at it doubtfully. "Um, what do I do, exactly?"
"Just place the base of it next to the head of your penis." Ford then gave Agnes a teasing look. "I assume you don't need me to tell you where to put that..."
Smilingly shaking her head, "No," she reached her hand down her skirt and (for all Arthur and Ford could tell) installed the device perfectly.
In the meantime, Arthur was intrigued to discover that following Ford's instructions caused the device to open up at the base, fitting over his penis like a sheath, then conforming to its original appearance exactly.
Arthur poked at his apparently unmodified member with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. It doesn't seem especially...enhanced," he said, sounding somewhat disappointed.
"Wait until you're banging an Antarean sex-priestess up her eight-inch circumference pleasure hole," said Ford knowingly. "No point in carrying extra weight until you need it, eh?"
"You've got nothing to worry about, sweetie," said Agnes, with a sly smile. "I know a place you'll always fit..."
"Yes, well," said Arthur, a bit flustered and embarrassed. Whatever Ford had done to make her so besotted, he knew it couldn't last forever. He just wasn't sure he felt comfortable taking advantage, now that he knew the source of her ardor. Plus he dreaded her eventual outrage.
Opting for the time-honored stratagem of changing the subject, he shifted the focus of the conversation. "Erm, so, what else have you got in that bag of yours, Ford?" he asked.
Rummaging again for another second or two, Ford pulled out two towels, which looked suspiciously like towels from a Holiday Inn that had had the logos bleached off of them. Ford then proceeded to disabuse Arthur of that notion. "This, he said, with what sounded like a note of pride in his voice, "is the Toweltron Mark Zeta. It is the vanguard of towel technology. Automatically self-cleaning, it also serves to clean 100% of all surfaces, particularly biological ones."
Seeing the humans puzzled expressions, he rushed to clarify. "In other words, you can wipe yourself – or anything else – clean. Completely adjustable for moistness and soapiness, also serves as a makeshift bandanna or do-rag, AND," (now his grin was almost maniacal) "perfectly suited for life forms of the bipedal variety for turning any surface into a dynamite shag pad, no matter how harsh the surface may seem at first glance."
The next item looked even less impressive. Which isn't all that fair, since when it first came out, the I-phone, which this closely resembled, looked pretty damn impressive. But perhaps humans have gotten a little bit too used to the rapid pace of technological advance. Which is why the first thing out of Arthur's mouth was hardly enlightening:
"Oh, did you manage to save your I-phone?" He then paused and continued in a more sober tone. "I don't suppose it's much good with the planet destroyed and everything. No more phone service, no more Internet." Both him and Agnes sighed, unhappy to think of how completely the structure of their previous lives had been dismantled.
Then Agnes chimed in, in a brighter tone. "Are any of the apps still operational?"
Ford was visibly impatient. This, Arthur felt, was ungracious, considering they'd been attentively listening to his every word for some time.
"This isn't a bloody I-phone!" he yelled. This is a link to the vastest, most useful body of knowledge in the entire galaxy!"
"Oohh!" said Agnes. "You mean like the Internet?"
"No, not the Internet," said Ford, growing ever more irritated. "This is the Hitchhiker's Manual, a continually updated open-source informational text about everything in the galaxy, every planet, every sentient species, every political system; you name it, and if it's not in the Manual, you're probably making it up."
Understanding dawned on Arthur. "So it's like Wikipedia!" he exclaimed.
"Sort of," conceded Ford. "But it's for profit, and the last time someone tried planting fake information, they were reduced to a crispy cinder, then a very fine ash."