A mysterious, young “swarm” inhabits an unfamiliar new host body and listens to the night’s radiations and nearby life. As it explores its own emerging consciousness, it discovers lingering mental artifacts that it identifies as belonging to Ameer Kindred—memories and preferences that unsettle it and confirm it cannot return to any prior purity. Believing time is short, it decides it can no longer remain hidden.

When a door opens beyond a coral wall, the swarm steps out and confronts an older man it identifies as Samar Austad, advancing on borrowed legs and smiling as it addresses him by name.

Elsewhere, Jessyn meets Irinna in an empty courtyard and confirms she does not think Tonner can stop the political breakup of their research team. Irinna worries about being scattered to separate projects and asks if Jessyn would accept leadership of her own project; Jessyn hesitates, fearing separation from her brother Jellit, who helps manage her recurring mental health crises. Jessyn admits she values stability over ambition, and the two share quiet grief about losing their shared lab community and about Rickar’s likely support base if others remain.

At home, Jessyn finds Jellit energized by urgent astronomical work. He explains that, after speaking with colleagues and Llaren Morse’s group, they obtained permission to probe a lensing anomaly; they received a structured return between infrared and microwave, suggesting ordered, nonexotic mass—possibly titanium and carbon—inside the effect. Jellit argues the phenomenon is unlikely to be random and may be designed, even a probe, and Jessyn’s perspective shifts from personal dread to awe at the larger mysteries around them.

As Jessyn reflects on a priest’s teaching about feeling small within a vast universe, her calm is interrupted by a call from Campar. Campar warns that Jessyn may be contacted by security forces and reports that Samar Austad has been killed.