Twenty megaseconds after the Namqem debacle, survivors stabilize: Maresk is a radioactive ruin with nearly a billion dead, Alqin is emptied, and Namqem’s automation is crippled, yet famine is averted. Sura Vinh builds an enormous temp in Brisgo Gap for a historic Grand Meeting. Pham hopes the successful Rescue proves the Qeng Ho can be more than traders.

Pham addresses a million Qeng Ho in an immense zero-gee hall, empty seats honoring Maresk’s dead. He argues that mobile Traders and sessile civilizations together can break history’s cycle and that the Qeng Ho must become more than mere sellers. The reception suggests he may win the coming vote.

In private, Sura congratulates Pham but insists his success was luck and not repeatable. She reveals a long-laid plan: there will be no true election. Using control of information utilities, they will sanitize the record of his speech, stage “special meetings,” and announce a compromise—expanded info services but no interstellar governance. Pham will be exiled on a well-provisioned “far fleet,” with hard-core supporters quietly culled.

Pham’s children—Ratko, Butra, and Qo—stand with Sura, admitting the Meeting was a charade to dissuade him. Sammy Park, Pham’s Flag Captain, wishes him luck but refuses exile under family pressure. Guards escort Pham away as he imagines the fleet might be coffins. Later memory clarifies the ships were real but scattered; he survives, vows to return, and carries his dream forward across centuries.

Cut to the present: Pham wakes from memory, adjusts localizers, and resumes covert work. He plans better drills so Vinh can withstand Nau’s interviews without revealing secrets. He has fooled the snoops again, but judges Anne Reynolt the greatest ongoing threat.