The chapter opens with a description of what happens after an experiment is over. It's clear that the experiment has ended, and the laboratory is being cleaned up. The narrator tells us that he doesn't understand what he's seeing in zhen. He says that every time he'd been in a serious relationship with someone, they'd just been trying to figure out what to do with him. They'd looked at him and tried to fuck him, but they didn't want to help him. He's not sure if zhen is in love with him or not. He wants to know what the future holds, and he wants to see what it will be like when he gets there. He knows that he landed on a beautiful new world, with a climate that supports life and love, but he didn' t listen to the people who tried to tell him about the weather. He trusts that everything's going well tonight, and that he has control over the great work. He tells the narrator that he owes everything to what he taught him: how to survive, how to build a solid base, and how to understand hidden things. He asks the narrator if he can go any faster than they're going, and if they can burn the place down with zhen in it. He thinks that's unfair, since zhen wants to burn it down with him, and it's just not fair. He wonders if they've abandoned the city under a tree there, too, and wonders if there's anything going on there from space.