Summary

Chapter 26 flashes back to Kazakhstan, where Ryland sat in a jail cell waiting for the space mission's launch. Stratt entered and talked to him about history. She stated that most of human history revolved around acquiring food. She said that the Hail Mary was humanity's only hope to stave off widespread famine, remarking, “The entire fabric of society will fall apart” (431).

In the present, Ryland is 18 days into his four-year trip back to Earth. He is lonely. Using the Hail Mary's cameras, he can still see the light of the Blip-A in the distance. Ryland goes into the lab and opens a large container of Astrophage and smells something strange. He realizes it is the smell of dead Astrophage, which means there are Taumoeba loose on the ship again.

In Chapter 27, Ryland attempts to determine where the Taumoeba are coming from...