Back on the ship, Edmund Gundersen tells us that he's been waiting eighteen years for the opportunity to go back to his old job as a lieutenant. He's excited about the prospect of being back on his old stomping grounds, but he also knows that he hasn't seen his old friend for eight years. He also tells us about how Alexander van Beneker, the guy who's supposed to be the new leader of the colony, is bitter and jealous of all the other colonists who've been left behind by the decolonization process.