Introducing the crew of the Galactic Patrol vessel Ferkel to his earthling mother proves to be as difficult as predicted, and explaining that he's going with them to find his semi-alien father is an even harder task.
After they question Smorkus Flinders (a muscle-bound alien from Dimension X) and learn something of BKR's current plan, Rod is contacted again by his friend Snout, master of the mental arts.
Partly inspired by this contact, Grakker (the ship's commander) decides to break off from the Galactic Patrol and head for the Mentat instead, the school where Snout became a master of the Mental Arts (incidentally, the building is one big PLANT).
The first half, which is then named Seymour, resembles a squashed, hairless blue cat with four (later six) legs, a long tail, and a similar neck with a gigantic eyeball at one end.
Later that day, the Mentat's security force (led by an insectoid woman named Arly Bung) arrests Rod, Elspeth and the crew after being contacted by the Galactic Patrol.
Selima Khan also reveals the plans of BKR and Smorkus Flinders: they intend to use a black hole to detonate a bomb that will disrupt the space-time continuum and eventually bring the flow of time itself to a complete stop, but require Rod's brain to do so, for an unknown reason.
Rod's father (Ah-Rit Alber Ite, or Arthur "Art" Albright) reveals the truth about where he came from (the lost civilization of Atlantis, circa 35,000 years ago), and his personal history with BKR.
Just in time, the Ferkel arrives as well, and the resulting battle ends with a stalemate: BKR has Ah-Rit in his grasp, and threatens to kill him if Rod (and the crucial information) aren't handed over to him.