ANTS VS. LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING.
Author's Note: Hi, everyone. Here's the next chapter of Ants VS LUE. The plot doesn't exactly go very far in this chapter but it's entertaining all the same. It's pretty straightforward; Trillian and Arthur play scrabble. Just because nothing happens here, that doesn't mean you shouldn't read it. It actually has relevance to something that will happen later. Once again, please read and review (constructive criticism VERY welcome). Just bear in mind, I don't own anything. Not even the ants. Also, if you're a fan of Stargate: Atlantis please read my buddy divinepurity's fanfic called "Atlantis". Share and Enjoy!
Chapter 2: Scrabble.
After a few minutes, the Heart Of Gold approached the strangest looking planet the crew had ever seen. Even Marvin the Paranoid Android admitted it was odd.
Instead of round or cube shaped like most planets were in this dimension, this one was conical. From far away, it looked like a huge mound of weirdly shaped dirt. When the Starship was closer, the crew could see lots of tiny little holes with millions of ants pouring out of each one. In the flat part of the cone was a huge crater. Strangely enough, it was shaped like a spaceport. Trillian parked the Heart Of Gold there.
After arguing for several minutes, Zaphod and Ford stepped onto the planet of Antia Nellex Telebuta, the ants' home world. Zaphod walked out confidently after a large army of ants. Ford was more uncertain and nervous; he clutched his ragged towel and his copy of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He planned on making an entry on the planet while Zaphod sorted out the tricky stuff.
Inside the ship, Trillian and Arthur were playing Scrabble. Trillian placed a few tiles above the letter D. The word now spelt 'observed'.
"Trillian?"
"Yes, Arthur?"
"We could probably play scrabble with them."
Trillian looked up from the board. "Who? Zaphod and Ford? Trust me, Zaphod cheats and I'm not entirely sure Ford knows how to spell."
"No, no," Arthur also looked up from the board. "I mean the ants."
"What? Use them as letters?"
"No, well, yes. Kind of. They could get together and spell words. Like we are now. It's you against me. Why not you against me against the ants? The seem to spell better than Ford, and I don't think they'll cheat…"
"OK, then. Lets go find some and ask them if they'd like to play."
Arthur and Trillian found a reasonable amount of ants in the bathroom of the Heart Of Gold. The ants agreed to play. Once the humans had explained the rules, the ants decided that they would move the individual tiles around themselves. So, to the humans' amazement, the tiny creatures formed seven groups and each group dragged one letter out of the bag and put it on the stand. When it was the ants' turn, they re-formed into their groups and dragged each letter onto the scrabble board. Once again, the ants then ventured into the bag and got out the required number of letters.
Towards the end of the game, Arthur noticed that there were considerably less ants and the remaining ones were scuttling about in agitation. When he looked inside the bag, he found out why the ants were so upset. Many of them had gone into the bag and had not been able to get out again. Arthur tipped the bag out gently and removed the ants. From then on, the letters stayed out of the bag.
Trillian had found the ants were actually quite intelligent. They were one of the hardest opponents she had ever come across. That was certainly saying something because when she was in university, Trillian, or Tricia as she was called back then, had held the Scrabble Master title for six years in which one of those years she broke a ninety-year-old top score record. Nevertheless, the ants were still very good. At one point, they spelt 'quixotic' on a triple word score. At the end of the game, the scores were terribly close. Trillian won by one point and Arthur was tied with the ants. The ants formed a message on the table.
It said: Best out of five?
Author's Note: How was that? Not too painful, I hope. Umm, chapter 3 is on the way though it may take some time as I don't really know where to go from here. By the way, to "John" who reviewed chapter 1, WTF is Gaint Emp? You have aroused my interest…. Anyway, read and review.