On arriving at the spot, the student finds the present day Star Folk in themselves just as much of an uninteresting dead end as had been supposed – but he still makes very startling and important discoveries. First, he encounters a kind of "child" with supernatural powers – teleportation, living in a vacuum, and more. Then he discovers the records left by earlier passengers, from which he pieces out the tragic history of these ships. This forms the bulk of the book, with the student being in effect just the frame story.