The school’s headmaster Marcus Howe and the colony leader — a company man from the Beta Earth Mining Company — learn of Jim Marlowe’s new pet, and plot to steal him for medical experiment in order to generate a serum to protect the miners, and thus, keep the company in the black. Willis records this entire conversation, which prompts Jim, Willis, and P.J. to escape into the desert. With their life-support running low, they are forced to take shelter in a carnivorous plant, using the process of photosynthesis so the plant will generate oxygen and keep them alive.