Young Zaphod Plays it Safe is a novella by Douglas Adams set in his The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy universe. It doesn't appear as a standalone work, but is included with several collections. It first appeared in The Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book (1986) which Adams also co-edited. It also appears in The Salmon of Doubt. The story does appear in some versions of the complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
The story is a prequel to the events in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy and has the young Zaphod Beeblebrox working as a salvage ship operator. He guides some bureaucrats to a crashed spaceship which may be leaking some hazardous materials. The bureaucrats are determined to "make it safe". The comic asides in the story include some of the time travel paradoxes which are a common running theme in Adams' SF work, and plenty of material about lobsters. Throughout the story, it is emphasized that there is something particularly dangerous on board that ought to have been utterly destroyed, but is feared to have escaped. Ultimately, it is revealed that the something was actually three identical, dangerous entities with good intentions but incredible and devastating powers. The end of the story culminates with the revelation that one of the personalitites has escaped and headed off into the galaxy. Though it does not state it specifically, the story implies that this unspeakably dangerous creation is now known to the planet Earth as then-President Ronald Reagan, a reflection of the author's antagonistic attitude toward the president which also surfaces in So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.
