Return

Starfarers.

Returning to Sol:

Ricardo, captain

Wenji, engineer

Dayan, physicist

Mokoena, biologist, physician

Zeyd, biochemist

Sundaram, linguist, semantician

Not returning:

Ruszek, pilot

Kilbirnie, pilot

Brent, engineer

Cleland, planetologist

While returning:

Zeyd has qualified himself as second engineer, able to do routine work for Wenji.

Mokoena has learned enough linguistics to become Sundaram's assistant.

Dayan has become an auxiliary pilot.

The returning crew works well and comprises three couples, I think. Meanwhile, Earth has gone its own way and has neither expected nor prepared for Envoy's return. Through an interpreter speaking barely comprehensible English:

"'The Unifier Areli bids peace, pax, calm, harmony...'" (47, p. 447)

Like entering orbit around a new planet in a Star Trek episode. A cultural chasm gapes open.