At extreme altitude aboard the Sky Nest, Viola prepares the mission to send Portia and the small male Fabian up in the Star Nest. The crew battles cold; Portia chafes at being protected but accepts her role. Models predict a narrow window to reach the uppermost air where buoyancy fails. Portia and Fabian strap into the cramped capsule, begin ascent, and report to Viola and the ground.

Midflight, the Messenger breaks silence, apologizing and inviting questions. Bianca asks why the spiders are here. Avrana Kern, memory-fragmented, explains as best she can: humans terraformed and seeded worlds, then destroyed themselves in war; the spiders are unintended heirs, and their purpose is what they choose—survive, grow, understand. The ascent slows as the Star Nest nears its ceiling.

At the edge, the satellite—an ant-and-algae biosphere with a radio relay—fails to detach, iced to the hull. With air and heat margins collapsing, Portia exits through self-made airlocks into the near-vacuum. Her suit inflates, trapping heat; she chips at the ice as the satellite’s rockets begin to warm. She wrenches it free, leaps, and throws it clear; the rockets fire, sending the payload spinning toward orbit. Her suit tears; she falls but is caught by her safety line, barely conscious.

Fabian hauls Portia back inside and vents hydrogen to descend, but air and strength are failing. He contacts the Messenger, who cannot help physically but agrees to relay his plan. Fabian triggers Portia’s buried mating reflex with a courting display, giving himself up so she can feed and recover enough to survive the descent.

Portia later awakens aboard the Sky Nest, injured and maimed but alive, and learns of Fabian’s sacrifice and the satellite’s success. The Messenger, now patient and comprehensible, confirms the warning: other intelligences exist and are dangerous. Portia will never fly again but will help plan safer, more sophisticated flights as the spiders prepare for a broader spacefaring future.