Dafyd Alkhor is interrogated by a security forces officer about why he had been asking around about Samar Austad despite never meeting him. Dafyd insists he only wanted to understand Dyan Academy’s proposal affecting the workgroup and denies any connection to Austad’s death or the earlier dead “girl” case. The questioning feels like an attempt to lure him into saying something incriminating, but it ends abruptly and Dafyd is released.

Outside, Dafyd’s aunt meets him and hustles him into private transport to avoid journalists. Dafyd presses for details, but she warns that “us” is a broad category for blame and says she is dealing with too many problems to explain. She confirms that without Samar to champion the proposal, it likely won’t pass, though the political damage remains; she also warns that major news is about to break and tells Dafyd to stay out of trouble. Dafyd realizes afterward that he never sees his aunt again.

Rickar Daumatin, newly expelled from Tonner Freis’s workgroup and questioned by security since daybreak, meets a small Dyan Academy delegation at a café. While commiserating, he learns he has missed world-changing developments: lensing observations have resolved into seventeen city-sized, faceted objects—possible vehicles—now in-system. Reports show Llaren Morse explaining that targeted scanning seemed to collapse the lensing effect, and the objects appeared “like someone flipped a switch.” Rickar is overwhelmed by a mix of awe and fear as he grasps that this discovery will eclipse the workgroup’s struggles.

Elsewhere, Synnia watches live observatory feeds with her partner Nöl, tracking the seventeen objects as they alter formation and continue toward Anjiin. They then observe the objects releasing trailing clouds that resolve into oblong “spore”-like bodies apparently heading toward the planet, intensifying Synnia’s dread and her fear that security forces might panic and provoke an aggressive response.

Back at the lab, Dafyd finds Tonner agitated and trying to leverage Samar’s death as a “windfall” to cement control of the workgroup while the world is distracted by the approaching objects. Only Campar and Else are present; others are absent or unresponsive. Else points out that public feeds appear to be repeating old images—suggesting censorship—then insists they should all relocate to her mostly underground rooms where she has a telescope and better shelter. Tonner refuses to go and pointedly tells Else to take Dafyd instead.

Dafyd follows Else through the deserted complex to her old quarters in the ecosphere basement, which feel half-abandoned and boxed up. Dafyd explains that although Dyan Academy’s immediate move has failed, future factions will try again and the workgroup may have only a year before being dismantled. The two discuss Tonner’s stress responses and Else’s fear of what is coming from the sky; Dafyd nearly confesses his feelings, and Else stops him from talking by kissing him. At that moment, a deep rumble shakes the building, the lights flicker, and distant alarms begin to wail.