When the representative outlined the plot and characters, Asimov knew he could not write such a story, but did not want to refuse at a dinner the film studio was paying for.

[1] A later draft was published in the April 1970 issue of If (May 1970 in the UK edition) and was reprinted in the 1976 collection The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories.

Ostensibly on a visit to exchange views on safety issues, Demerest is in fact planning to destroy Ocean-Deep.

Nevertheless, he proceeds with his objective and overrides the safety systems that control the airlocks, whilst holding the Bergens hostage with a low-power laser.

The Bergens try to talk him out of his object, and feed him a not-entirely-untrue story that Ocean-Deep is in fact an experimental precursor to colonizing Jupiter and other planets.