Having finally been given access to Pod 4, the crew of the Antares come face to face with the Beta object. Eve Shaw recounts how, as a 22 year-old aid worker in South America, she came across the object. She has now devoted 15 years of her life to its study and for the first time, the crew learns the true purpose of their 6 year mission. They also learn that it is the Beta object that selected them for the mission and that for whatever reason, their hallucinations are all based on fears from their past. For Donner and Ted, the new mission may be related to their own mission to Mars 10 years ago. That secrets have been kept does cause friction between Eve and Ted and also between Jen and Rollie, who was also in on the secret