Miranda wakes in the Fix-it house in Landfall, confused about the expedition to Imir. Avrana Kern explains that there was no team expedition into the colony: Miranda went alone to investigate both Landfall and another signal, which Kern later identified as an ancient buried engine that records and simulates.

Miranda leaves the house despite Kern’s warning and sees a ruined, empty Landfall. As Miranda searches for Liff, Kern follows and reveals the truth: the original Imir colony, founded by the ark ship Enkidu, survived for generations but eventually failed and died out. The alien engine recorded every life and now runs a looped simulation of the colony.

Kern explains that when Miranda arrived, the engine read and incorporated Miranda into the simulation. Because Miranda is a composite being with many selves, the engine repeatedly tried to fit Miranda into different roles, creating contradictions and chaotic versions of events. Miranda’s physical ship crashed, and Miranda’s remaining biological body was lost, but Kern and the Corvids discovered that an instance of Miranda persisted inside the simulation.

Kern says the rescue party entered the simulation to isolate Miranda and now understands enough to extract Miranda into a newly grown body. Miranda realizes she is still inside the simulation and that the lynchings, variant memories, and repeated histories were all part of the engine’s looping narrative. Kern also reveals that Liff and Heorest Holt became unusually central to the simulation because Holt was the first colonist and Liff was the last.

Miranda enters the town square and finds Liff alive within this ruined stage of the simulation, but Liff no longer recognizes Miranda because Miranda has been removed from Liff’s past. Liff, starving and frightened, asks whether Miranda and Kern are Seccers or Watchers and begs for food. Overwhelmed by empathy, Miranda asks Kern to help Liff, but Kern says it all happened long ago; then time catches up with them, and they leave.