At first, the "Sunbird's" commander refuses to communicate with them, suspicious of their motives. As they continue to plead with the astronauts to accept their rescue offer, the men are chilled to hear their mission referred to in historical terms. They come to realize that they were not only thrown off-course in space but in "time" as well and that their flight was lost centuries ago. They are given bare details of the current Earth: an undefined cataclysm has reduced the human population to a few million. Eventually, the "Sunbird" agrees to rendezvous with the spaceship "Gloria" to allow the astronauts to spacewalk to safety.