The Hitchhikers Academy
Chapter 2
Ford and Kari sat in the Great Expanse, an exact replica of the Heart of Gold. They were traveling at light speed to their destination: Cruton. Ford had decided that, since this was a very active planet, it would be the perfect place to start Kari's training. It also had an excellent security base where they could leave the Great Expanse until they could come back to it.
In the few hours that he had known Kari, he could already see that she was a quite, shy girl who did nothing but read. From the few facts he had gleaned from her, he knew that she was only fourteen, which meant that she had passed a year ahead of time. No wonder, from all the reading she was doing. Also, she had never been anywhere on her own. He would have to break her of that.
The trip took several hours, even at light speed. When they arrived, the terminal was already so full with ships trying to land that it took another hour to get to the ground and another half and hour to get to the security base. Ford was so frustrated that he would have yelled for the whole hour and a half if he didn't have to worry about Kari. He was sure that if he started yelling, she would think it was her fault.
They stepped out into a tropical jungle. In the distance, a monkey screeched. This looked nothing like the bustling space port that they had just seen through the window of the Great Expanse. Ford turned around to find that the Great Expanse had disappeared, along with Kari. Now, Ford was scared. Actually, that was an understatement. Ford was terrified. He had just walked from a bustling city port to a deserted jungle and now his apprentice had disappeared.
Ford turned back to face the jungle only to find that Kari had kept her composure, and while he had been thinking about how scared he was, she had set up a fire and was looking for something that they could cut the trees. Maybe he had underestimated her.
Finally, Kari found an abandoned machete stuck in a tree. Here, Ford took control, grabbed the machete and began to cut small branches for a fire and large branches for a shelter. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that Kari had disappeared again. He figured that she had just gone to get something else, but his mind was completely changed when he heard deep, maniacal laughter and a high-pitched scream from somewhere nearby.
Ford ran in the direction of the sounds and arrived just in time to see Kari being dragged by four very primitively dressed men. Ford sized up the men and calculated that he was no match for the four men who were at least twice his size. But he couldn't just let them take Kari! Even though he hadn't known her for very long, he still felt responsible, as her teacher, for her safety. So he came up with a plan.
He followed the men and Kari and found their camp. He watched all through the day as the men tortured Kari for what seemed like no reason at all. That night, he snuck into the camp, recaptured Kari, and ran with her, bruised and bleeding, back to the camp that they had set up. He set her gingerly down. He tried to stay up to keep watch, but he soon fell asleep.
When he woke up, he saw that Kari had no injuries on her body, not even a sign that they had ever been there. He also noticed that they were no longer in the jungle.