While John is recovering, Chiana is sent to John's room to get him some more of his clothes. There she encounters the beast, which turns out to be a primative version of John. Original-John doesn't believe at first that Primative John is who he really says. He believes it has more to do with the sphere and why it's on the ship. Zhaan informs him the creature indeed has his exact DNA.

The sphere again reacts and another version of John is sprung. This is a more advanced John. They fight to find out why the sphere is there. It is trying to draw the ship into another dimension and they can't figure out why or how to stop it.

Both Original-John and Advanced-John realize that the shield can be set up to send the force back into the sphere, temporarily. After they have succeeded in doing that, they are later able to hear what the sphere wants.

Only the three John's can hear what it is saying, but it tells them that it's purpose is to gather DNA. One of every life form it encounters, and of course, it had never encountered a being like John. It tells them that they must send at least one John back in and it would leave them alone.