When Shea mentions that Trans-space Insurance is still searching for wreckage from the ship, 20 years later, it occurs to Brandon that there must have been something extremely valuable on board, and that Trans-space still hasn't found it. The three men learn via Moore's Multivac terminal that Quentin had a prototype of a revolutionary new invention with him on the ship, and that it is still missing. The only clue is the description of the device as "an opticon", an apparent reference to a light-manipulating device.