Zaphod is the commander of a massive sea vessel. As he’s docking at an island, the vessel suddenly plunges down into the water. Zaphod asks mission control what’s happening; they answer that they’re doing a mandatory security check of the vessel. The ship hits the bottom of the ocean and Zaphod is captured. He asks about the true nature of his mission. The vessel had been made to recover a special kind of energy generated from traveling back to the past, but the energy proved unsustainable and highly destructive of the future. His higher-ups tell him not to worry about anything, that his impression of the energy is wrong and that it’s highly safe. But Zaphod refuses to take that as an answer: he insists on knowing how they’ve even cultivated that energy from the past. The commander reveals that the energy comes from Designer People, who were tossed out for having bland personalities and now are the source of the energy rods. Horrified, Zaphod looks down where he sees one such person babbling in a tank, alone.