 Why does Dunbar continue to tell stories of an enchanting paradise?
Four men, thought Russell, held together by an invisible string of gravity, plunging through a lost pocket of hell's dark where there had never been any sound or life, with old Dunbar the first in line, taking the lead because he was older and knew where he was and where he was going. When the four of them had escaped from that prison colony on a sizzling hot asteroid rock in the Ronlwhyn system, that wasn't enough for Dunbar. no—Dunbar had to start talking about a place they could go where they'd never be apprehended, in a system no one else had ever heard of, where they could live like gods on a green soft world like the Earth had been a long time back.
 To motivate them to keep persisting until they arrive
 To motivate them to keep persisting until they arrive  To convince himself that he is choosing the correct star  To assuage his crewmen's minds before they inevitably die  To lure the Johnson, Alvar, and Russell into a trap