At Tau Ceti

"The Voortrekkers."

The third narrative passage, on pp. 255-259, is four and a third pages in length, is narrated by Korene and begins while the ship orbits the second planet of Tau Ceti. Since this planet has humanly breathable air, therefore life, it will be explored with organic bodies.

For two pages, Korene remembers a television interview in which a spokesman for the interstellar project explained that small spaceships cannot carry human beings but exploration needs human intelligence so human psychoneural patterns would be mapped into computer-sensor-effector systems which can be switched off in transit. Organic bodies would be used to test the habitability of planets. Such bodies are self-healing, therefore, in some ways, more durable than robots. The same psychoneural patterns would be used to economise on data banks.

Korene says that sending themselves into the sleeping bodies will be a "...climax outcrying the seven thunders..." (p. 259) Another Biblical reference. See Revelation 10: 1-7.