Seven years after the war, the Spiders’ orbital industry surrounds their modest moonlet, and the Grand Temp hosts a small, formal farewell. Trixia and Victory welcome human and Spider allies, but Pham breaks the stiffness with a zero‑g wine trick to spark open conversation. They agree to set a meeting mark for just after the next Brightness, acknowledging that centuries may pass before they reunite.

Belga Underville challenges the wisdom of attacking the Emergent core worlds with only three ships. Anne argues that Focus must be stopped at its source and outlines their advantages: spoofed Emergent traffic, deep knowledge of inner‑system automation, crews of motivated exFocused experts, and new human‑Spider hardware. Anne names the flagship Emergents’ Reward, promising Pham he can rename it Wild Goose after victory.

As courses arrive, they remember fallen friends and hard-won gains. Pham then shares a larger vision: Arachna’s anomalies—OnOff’s physics, cavorite, diamonds—hint at an ancient supercivilization. He argues that the galactic core’s shrouded regions could hide it, proposing a future expedition once technology matures. Skeptics like Belga demand proof, while Gonle urges near-term pragmatism. Ezr and Qiwi grasp the potential and the scale, even as Qiwi flinches at echoes of Nau’s rhetoric.

Pham wagers that by the next Bright Time, their joint human‑Spider enterprise will have the capability to begin such a search. After defeating the Emergents and building a larger fleet, he intends to return, outfit at Arachna, and head coreward. Victory says her father would have loved the plan, linking Pham’s dream to Sherkaner Underhill’s spirit of invention.

Anne surprises all by suggesting Underhill might still live, hidden in the deep altiplano superdeeps, continuing his greatest Lurk. The gathering gazes out at the dark planet and its bright tracery, ending on the possibility that Sherkaner endures while Pham and Anne depart to strike Balacrea and set the course for far grander journeys.