Holsten decodes a terse warning from the “Second Brin Sentry Habitat” forbidding approach to the planet. As Guyen orders replies asserting distress, the habitat powers up and begins shutting down or destroying Karst’s drones—some via intrusion, one with a direct energy shot—while Holsten’s authentication attempts fail. The Gilgamesh cannot deviate from its approach and prepares for orbit under threat.

Mirroring its original distress call back to the satellite elicits a new channel: an audio link from “Eliza,” a composite expert system. Holsten also discerns a hidden overlay—an anguished voice—implying a human mind within. Eliza confirms a quarantine and threatens retaliation if they contact “Kern’s World.” Guyen presses their need: five hundred thousand sleepers require a new home.

Eliza refuses, citing Exaltation Program rules. Holsten asks to speak to Eliza’s “sister,” triggering contact with Doctor Avrana Kern. Kern’s replies veer between lucid authority and madness, questioning their provenance and denying their humanity. In orbit, the Gilgamesh endures shifting gravity as Lain monitors systems while Holsten summarizes the post-Imperial collapse and Earth’s later uninhabitability.

Kern abruptly seizes the Gilgamesh’s systems, then manifests a human face and calls the crew “monkeys,” forbidding any interference with her uplift experiment. After a breakdown and recovery, Kern offers “help to leave,” dumping star maps and what appear to be access codes to other terraforming projects; Vitas notes the nearest is just under two light-years away. With control restored, the crew awaits Guyen’s decision as Kern’s image glowers, the implicit threat still present.