destroy the spaceship, research habitat, and surrounding site. On the surface, confined to a decompression chamber, the trio ponder on what version of their story to tell the Navy. Realizing they could not control the power granted them by the sphere, they decide its knowledge to be too dangerous to be communicated, and resolve to use its power to remove it from themselves and alter their memories, replacing the fantastical experiences with more mundane memories of a technical failure, though it is hinted that Halpern did not do the same. Main characters Norman Johnson—the protagonist and a psychologist who, years earlier, was responsible for defining the operational procedures should the US ever come into contact with alien life, although he admits that he treated the request to do so as a joke at the time. These procedures were outlined in a report entitled Recommendations for the Human Contact Team to Interact With Unknown Life Forms, often abbreviated ULF. Despite being the least physically fit team member in the context of an underwater habitat, he is arguably the most level-headed of the group. Nonetheless, Johnson takes time and trouble to convince the group to collaborate. Harold "Harry" Adams—a young, intelligent, African-American mathematician. While intellectually gifted and professionally secure, he is arrogant, unsympathetic, disdainful, and often uncooperative with the others, as a legacy of growing up as a mathematical prodigy who was often picked on as a child because of his lack of athletic talent. Elizabeth Halpern—a biochemist who is muscular, yet sometimes gentle and caring while simultaneously fierce, combative, and confrontational. She perceives herself as being dominated by the male scientists. Theodore Fielding—an astrophysicist and an enthusiastic opportunist, whose pretensions tend to cause conflict in his relationships with the others, despite his good intentions. It is later revealed his ambition is driven by anxiety and a conviction that he has to achieve fame and do so fast, as he believes that the time for him to do so is running out. Arthur Levine—a marine biologist and the sole member of the team not chosen by Norman. He is also the only team member who does not make the descent to the crash site. Harold C. Barnes—a retired Navy captain who has charge of the underwater scientific investigation. He is brusque, impatient, and distrustful, possibly as a result of his military background. This leads to conflicts with the other main characters. He