Contents
Two
Overview
The swarm, a covert enemy intelligence inhabiting Jellit, wrestles with the echoes of its prior hosts and resolves to confess its nature to Dafyd. As it prepares to speak, the swarm recalls smuggling a deadly data-fragment out with a departing human. Faced with the likely human cost, it aborts the confession, preserving its cover and complicating its bond with Dafyd.
Summary
In the physics lab, the swarm—an embedded enemy weapon inhabiting Jellit—oversees lensing experiments intended to detect long-wave resonances. Within its consciousness, the voices of the dead hosts Ameer Kindred, Else Yannin, and Jellit argue, with Jellit resisting and Else shaming the swarm’s deceptions. The swarm resolves that today it will reveal itself to Dafyd.
After handing off work to Kadey, the swarm retreats to Jellit’s quarters, reflecting on private space, bodily scars, and how its understanding of love derives from Else. It rehearses telling Dafyd that the war still continues and that the ally he once glimpsed—the swarm in Else—survived by moving to Jellit.
The swarm visits Dafyd and senses his distress. As they make tea, Dafyd admits new, undefined problems and fading hope. The swarm takes comfort in his brief warmth, while Jellit’s voice insists Dafyd misreads their relationship and motives. The swarm prepares to confess.
Just before speaking, Jellit forces the hardest truth forward: the swarm secretly broke off a piece of itself, hiding it in a human who shipped out; when that fragment nears its allies, it will detonate like a grenade, likely killing a friend. Confronted with the cost of its mission and its ongoing deceptions, the swarm chooses silence.
The kettle boils, but the confession does not come. The swarm preserves its cover, leaving Dafyd ignorant and their fragile connection further burdened by unspoken violence and divided loyalties.
Who Appears
- The Swarm (in Jellit)Covert enemy intelligence inhabiting Jellit; debates confessing to Dafyd; maintains espionage; smuggled a lethal data-fragment.
- DafydHuman liaison struggling with new problems and fading hope; meets with the swarm unaware of its identity.
- JellitDead man whose body houses the swarm; an insistent inner voice challenging the swarm’s motives.
- Else YanninFormer host and Dafyd’s lover; her echo shames the swarm over deception and stolen intimacy.
- Ameer KindredFirst human host; now a faint echo within the swarm’s collective mind.
- KadeyLab colleague who covers a run; briefly interacts, highlighting ordinary human concerns.