Upon Bartolomeo's urging, the Executive Committee decides that rather than continuing to explore the staggeringly huge vessel themselves, they will attach the ship to the Argonos and take it with them in hopes of delivering it to another human settlement with greater resources to continue the ship's exploration. This proves to be a horrible mistake as the true nature of the ship is revealed. Shortly after this decision is made, a young boy known by Bartolomeo sneaks aboard the alien ship, and Bartolomeo uncovers a horrifying part of the puzzle when he goes on board to bring the boy back to the Argonos: behind a door that the exploration team was not able to open on previous visits, Bartolomeo and the boy discover an enormous chamber containing horribly mangled corpses similar to the ones uncovered on Antioch, but in much greater quantity and more well-preserved because they had been frozen. It becomes clear that the aliens who committed the genocidal acts on Antioch were or still are on board the alien vessel, and were most likely its builders. While talking to the distraught boy, Bartolomeo has a sudden realization: How did the old woman know that they had named the planet "Antioch?" She is, as deduced by Bartolomeo, an alien.