Miranda wakes above Fabian’s Fix-it, where the expedition is hiding among refugees in overcrowded Landfall. Food is scarce because another harvest has failed, and Miranda notes that the town’s hunger gives their false story cover, even as the militia increasingly questions people about their origins.

While preparing a meagre breakfast, Miranda reflects on the crew’s disguises. Paul, an Octopus mind spread among a mute man and many silent children, draws suspicion because he does not perform useful labour. Fabian’s technical skills remain valuable, Portia’s hunting and tracking suit the crisis, and Miranda’s teaching matters less as survival becomes the colony’s only priority.

Miranda’s thoughts drift through contradictory memories of a farm that never existed, another sign of the unstable reality around Landfall. She reviews the expedition’s conclusion: Imir’s ecosystem is collapsing not because of outside enemies, but because the original Enkidu colonists built an extremely limited biosphere with too few species, too little redundancy, and no resilience against mutation or microbial imbalance.

The crew has argued over whether to intervene. Fabian wants to save the colonists, Portia warns that saving individuals might destroy their culture, and Miranda feels trapped between the urge to help and the fear that they have arrived only in time to witness Landfall’s end.

Fabian returns exhausted with a little cornflour and rice, and Miranda goes out to seek milk. In the town centre, beneath the dead First Tree, militia-supervised workers are building a platform, an ominous sign that makes Miranda uneasy.

Miranda sees Liff with Liff’s brutal uncle and other men. Misreading Liff’s urgent look as a plea for help rather than a warning to flee, Miranda approaches. Miranda realizes too late that her assumed superiority and lack of tools have left her vulnerable, and the men catch her after only a few backward steps.