 Why does everyone begin to starve and grow thirsty?
When nobody aboard ship remembers where it's going, how can they tell when it has arrived? Every day for a week now, Rikud had come to the viewport to watch the great changeless sweep of space. But ever since the engines somewhere in the rear of the world had changed their tone, from the steady whining Rikud had heard all twenty-five years of his life, to the sullen roar that came to his ears now, the feelings had grown. The stars—it was a meaningless concept to Rikud, but that was what everyone called the bright pinpoints of light on the black backdrop in the viewport—were not apparent in the speckled profusion Rikud had always known. Instead, there was more of the blackness, and one very bright star set apart by itself in the middle of the viewport. "In five more years," the older man chided, "you'll be ready to sire children. Chuls' reminder fostered uneasiness. But it came again, and each time it left him with a feeling he could not explain. Why should he think he was thinking such thoughts, when it always embroiled him in a hopeless, infinite confusion that left him with a headache? Chuls said, "It is time for my bath in the health-rays. Rikud knew that something which he could not explain had entered the elder man's head for a moment, but it had departed almost before Chuls knew of its existence. Perhaps two score men lay about, naked, under the ray tubes. Chuls stripped himself and selected the space under a vacant tube. Now why shouldn't a man be permitted to do what he wanted, when he wanted to do it? There was a strange thought, and Rikud's brain whirled once more down the tortuous course of half-formed questions and unsatisfactory answers. But something soft had cushioned the impact—something which had come into being just for the moment and then abruptly passed into non-being again, something which was as impalpable as air.
 Rikud broke the buzzer, and without it they don't know how to care for themselves.
 Without the buzzer, there is no food or drink to have.  The buzzer no longer works, and no one knows how to fix it.  Rikud broke the buzzer, and they're all waiting.  Rikud broke the buzzer, and without it they don't know how to care for themselves.