On August 1, 2046 NGE Perry Rhodan flies to Opt-THORA with a ZALTERTEPE-Jet to save Atlan. To be on the safe side, a whole sloop flotilla accompanies the small ship. They don't want to risk being shot down; Opt-Atlan and the bio-replicas are not to be trusted. The Opt-THORA uses novel weapon systems against the sloops of the RAS TSCHUBAI. Many are hit, including Rhodan's jet. Through daring maneuvers, he manages to land on the outer shell of an eye ship mounted on the Opt-THORA. Rhodan, Pucky and Zemina Paath enter the ship unnoticed. They take the Paau and ten TARA-IX-INSIDE combat robots with them.

There is interaction between the Cairan Star Wheel and the Lead Sphere. A hyper-energetically active rift opens, which, according to Sichu Dorksteiger's findings, pulls the Star Wheel closer to the Lead Sphere. The point of no return will soon be passed. HATH'HATHANG can't help. The superintelligence and the bendo it generates have almost completely died out. Only one more Hyper-thrust is possible and there can only be one target for this one: The Lead Sphere. The Supramentum, which is identical to the Opt-THORA, is essential for this. Without its piloting services, the Star Wheel would be destroyed in the collision with the Lead Sphere, and that would most likely have catastrophic effects on all of Thantur-Lok.

Meanwhile, Jasmyne da Ariga links to Atlan's consciousness via the SEMT helmet. The Arkonide's Knight aura, which cannot be copied, is required to cross the Null Zone. Jasmyne da Ariga is knocking on the doors in Atlan's mind. She doesn't penetrate, but the "knocking" has a different effect together with the hyperphysical conditions surrounding the Lead Sphere. A holo-factum embedded in Atlan's memory is activated. It consists of autonomous memory packets deposited long ago by the Cosmocrat Mu Sargai for this very moment.

Atlan finds himself in various surreal environments in which he must rediscover what defines him: his extra sense, the cell activator and the Knight aura. In the dream worlds he encounters three incarnations of Mu Sargai. After a trek through ice and snow, he warms up with the young lady Sargai in an igloo. He dances with Madame Sargai at a party on a paddle steamer. Finally, he strengthens himself in the inn "Mother Sargai's Final Rest" with food and drink. He learns that Mu Sargai was the one who deleted his memories of sojourning beyond the Matter Sources, and that this happened at his own request, because his consciousness had changed so much as a result of the experiences at that time that he would no longer have been able to live in the standard universe.

Mu Sargai grants Atlan a small flashback. Atlan sees the birth and death of innumerable universes pervaded by the Moral Code. Even this softened snapshot is overwhelming. To see the whole picture - as he did centuries ago - would mean losing his humanity. This becomes clear to Atlan, as does the fact that the reservations he had about being granted the status of Knight of the Deep were based on a mistake. The memory erasure was not an injustice committed by the Cosmocrats, but pure self-protection. So Atlan can finally fully accept his Knightly aura. He also learns that his Thez-cell activator and the Knight Aura are about to merge into something new. As a result, Atlan will develop into a singular factor of Order and such a factor will be urgently needed very soon, the Cosmocrat claims.

Mu Sargai has no objections to the Trajectory, for after all, the Cairans will take all the superintelligence legacies they have appropriated to an unreachable place and in this way ultimately still fulfill their disposal order. In farewell, the Cosmocrat tells Atlan that someone is trying to peel off his Knightly aura. Atlan decides it's time to take action against his twin.

Since Jasmyne da Ariga was unsuccessful in her efforts, Opt-Atlan tells her to take care of the Time Torpedo project. Then he cuts his long hair in order to visually stand out from Old-Atlan. As he returns to the bed Old-Atlan opens his eyes...