The Old Mimoid
- Kelvin is waiting to leave the station for several months.
- He thinks about how he'll eventually heal and be a new Kelvin, less ambitious or silly. It's a description of the grieving process, really; he's mourning Rheya again.
- Snow comes in and they start to talk about religion; Kelvin has an idea that the ocean is a god, but an imperfect one, who wants to free himself from matter, but can't manage it.
- Snow and Kelvin ponder whether humankind might be that god, or the ocean.
- Snow isn't taking it all that seriously, though. He suggests that maybe the ocean is a child, just playing and not having achieved full rationality yet.
- Kelvin decides to go out to visit an old mimoid over the ocean in a helicopter. Snow is still worried that Kelvin will kill himself, but Kelvin tells him to stop fussing.
- Kelvin explores the mimoid and realizes that he really came to see the ocean.
- He gets out on a beach, puts his hand in the ocean, and it molds to his hands. Nifty.
- He thinks about Rheya and how he is waiting for her without hope.