the blindfold supper: the body's gifts as compensation and as Eschaton ammo

Pemulis consoles the science-weak Arslanian by inventorying his body instead: no head for annular physics, but "quick hands and a wicked lob off the backhand." The junior body is appraised as a bundle of specific athletic gifts, and a good backhand lob is offered as a fair trade for a weak brain. And the appraisal doubles as recruitment: the lob is exactly the stroke Eschaton is secretly built to develop and reward, so Pemulis is already sizing Arslanian up as ordnance — the wicked backhand lob that makes a poor physics student makes a promising warhead-launcher.