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ill-fated Englishman who, with his friend Ford Prefect, an alien from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse and researcher for the eponymous guidebook, escapes the devastation of Earth by a bureaucratic alien race called the Vogons. Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford's semi-cousin and the Galactic President, unknowingly saves the pair from death. He takes them aboard his stolen spaceship, whose crew rounds out the main cast of characters: Marvin, the Paranoid Android, a depressed robot, and Trillian, known as Tricia McMillan, a woman Arthur once met at a party in Islington who he soon realises is the only other human survivor of Earth's destruction. After this, the characters embark on a quest to find the legendary planet of Magrathea and the Question to the Ultimate Answer, 42.