Draigo Roget arrives on Kolhar after completing his expensive Mentat training on Lampadas. Josef Venport greets Draigo proudly and notes that Draigo seems more intense and focused. Draigo confirms that the plan succeeded and assures Josef that VenHold will not regret funding his education.

Josef reflects that Draigo is among the first of several secretly sponsored candidates sent to the Mentat School. Because the school is uncomfortably close to Manford Torondo and the Butlerians, Josef had Cioba help identify candidates while Ekbir created false identities and histories to conceal their VenHold ties. Josef expects these Mentats to strengthen VenHold banking, shipping, and commercial operations.

Josef then brings Draigo to the melange-gas tanks where Navigator candidates are undergoing transformation. Cioba joins them, and Josef reveals a secret case: Royce Fayed, a captured Celestial Transport spy, was placed in a tank as a form of execution but has unexpectedly adapted to the mutation. Josef believes Fayed may survive and become a Navigator under Norma Cenva’s guidance.

Draigo immediately identifies the risk: because Fayed was an enemy and has been forcibly transformed, Fayed might sabotage a ship or betray VenHold. Cioba answers that Norma has assured them Fayed now wants to become a Navigator for VenHold. Josef accepts Norma’s judgment because her abilities are central to VenHold’s commercial empire.

Draigo then presents his own valuable discovery. Before graduation, Draigo and Gilbertus Albans analyzed more than a century of records on thinking-machine ship movements and independently projected the likely location of a large, intact machine shipyard or refueling facility. Josef realizes such a depot would be an immense prize, especially because Celestial Transport appears to be searching for the same kind of facility, and Draigo hints that he may know where it is.