Aboard the octopus warship Profundity of Depth, Ahab listens to the delayed exchange between factions and to Helena’s translated human narrative. Ahab is a scientist and military authority who has long watched Nod, furious that science has not solved the infection and repeatedly tempted to destroy the human orbital. The arrival of the alien vessel intensified Ahab’s crisis, and Ahab already ordered one precise strike against the newcomers.

As Helena’s story reaches Ahab through layers of translation, Ahab experiences the human emotions as strange but partly comprehensible patterns. Ahab communes across distance with the commander of the Shell That Echoes Only, sharing reflections on home, fear, beauty, and destruction. While this exchange becomes aesthetically moving to Ahab, Nod’s moon moves out of the way, soon giving the Profundity of Depth a clear line of fire on the planet, the orbital, or both.

At the crash site, Fabian remains in contact with Portia. Portia warns that the octopus warship may strike again and urges the survivors to get clear, but Fabian and Viola explain that Zaine cannot be moved and that the survivors need rescue, not merely restraint from the octopuses. Portia admits rescue looks unlikely while Helena continues trying to persuade the octopuses.

Zaine attracts attention, and Artifabian shows Fabian and Viola something outside. The local starfish creatures are closing up and inching away, suggesting a nearby predator. Fabian launches the damaged drone and sees a humanoid, shambling construction crest the plateau: a We-made body using shells, animal remains, dust, stone, and an old corroded piece of metal, with a shell where the polished faceplate had been before.

Fabian recognizes the entity as the same parasitic intelligence shaped by Lante’s memories and Understandings, able to imitate human form and desire. When Fabian asks Kern what it wants, Kern answers only, “Adventure,” before turning attention elsewhere. The creature advances toward the crashed ship; Fabian doubts they can burn it, suspects it can get inside given time, and notices the starfish opening again behind it, implying they may no longer be themselves.