Back on the ship, the ship's captain tells the crew that he's back. He's waiting for them. He tells them that the comet that's passing through the Earth's orbit is going to collide with the Earth in a few hundred years. The captain says that it's going to take a lot of time for two worlds to get close enough to each other that they'll be able to "eat" each other. He also says that if you're lucky, you'll get to meet a bunch of new people in your lifetime. He compares this to the "numbers game," where you keep track of how many people you've met and how many new people you want to meet, but you don't really know how to count them all.