In this chapter, Orgon explains that he is the victim of the "metabaron" . He tells us that he was once a member of the castaka tribe, and that the epyphotite was the key to his being able to communicate with Octavius. Octavius, he says, knew that the discovery of the ephyphotite wells would bring about a bloody reckoning, so he planned to reveal the location to Orgon. Now that Octavius is dead, he will no longer be a leader of the technocracy. He says that he and his men must look for the source of ephite on a different planet.