Disra Senkovi has barely slept since confronting the possibility that his uplifted octopuses are not merely trained animals but minds trying to communicate. Senkovi wrestles with the scientific habit of avoiding anthropomorphic interpretation, yet Paul’s apparent question or demand forces Senkovi to treat the exchange as meaningful.

Senkovi decides not to explain Earth, humanity, or the broader mission to the octopuses. Instead, Senkovi chooses to disclose the immediate truth that matters to them: Damascus, the blue ocean planet where some of Paul’s relatives already live and interact with terraforming machinery.

Because the broad terraforming of Damascus is largely complete, Senkovi focuses on the finer work of making the varied ocean environments viable for humans and octopuses. Senkovi spends nearly one hundred and fifty sleepless, drug-sustained hours building a complete miniature model of the Damascus project, intending to show Paul and the others what world they can have and how they might shape it.

As Senkovi releases sections of the simulation, the octopuses become intensely active in the Aegean’s tanks, flashing colors and briefly fighting while their virtual presences explore the expanding model. Senkovi can track their activity but cannot know what they truly understand, even after choosing to believe Paul has spoken with intent.

Exhausted and aware that obsession has overtaken rationality, Senkovi finally finishes his input and leaves the system to keep expanding the octopuses’ virtual horizons. As Senkovi prepares a drug cocktail to allow sleep, Senkovi notices seventeen urgent messages from Baltiel that were somehow ignored and opens the first, learning that something has happened to Lortisse.