It is revealed that the powerful Father, the Wanderer, is in fact a human progressor named Rudolf Sikorski, carefully working in secret to gradually improve the lot of the people of Saraksh. His plans now ruined, the Wanderer finally catches up with Maxim and lambasts him for his interference. He describes the unanticipated consequences of Kammerer's rash actions: up to 20% of the people may die or go insane due to the withdrawal from the mind control signal; Saraksh faces famine, anarchy, widespread radioactive pollution, and looming invasion by the Island Empire which they planned to stop using the depression field. The Wanderer orders Kammerer to leave the planet but Maxim refuses and stays on, to help stabilize the situation. Despite the many upheavals that Saraksh has ahead of her, he is still glad he destroyed the Control Center because now the people can be in charge of their own destiny.