Enlisting the aid of the ship's three service robots drones, which he eventually names Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Lowell stages a fake premature explosion as a ruse, and sends the Valley Forge careening away from the space freighter fleet, towards Saturn. Injured and alone with the three drones, Lowell reprograms them to perform surgery on his leg. Lowell and the drones set out into deep space to maintain the forest.