Jai Vedh, a homosexual environmental designer, is the central character of And Chaos Died. The starship in which he is traveling explodes, and he and the Captain are the only survivors together on a planet inhabited by a race of beings who have developed full telepathic powers. The Captain, a tough macho military type who has unquestioning faith in "science," initially reacts with contempt to the inhabitants of the planet, who live in an Edenic climate: "Sit a man on his ass with nothing to do but eat and the first thing that goes is his mind." He is similarly hostile to Jai Vedh, as much because he is a civilian as because he is homosexual. It is the Captain's mind, however, that "goes" in the face of this, to him, incomprehensible civilization.

He frantically tries to reconstruct a communication device to summon help, but as Jai Vedh...