Helena and Portia are returned to their cell after the octopuses' apparent deliberations, but Helena cannot tell whether any decision has been made. Helena reflects on how easily she anthropomorphizes the octopuses and how difficult it is to interpret a species whose thoughts and politics are expressed through shifting skin, motion, and shared emotional states.

Almost immediately, Helena and Portia are moved again through the familiar bubble-and-pipe system into a smaller air-filled room. The chamber contains a newly made approximation of an Old Empire terminal, awkward human-like chairs, and a strange wall image that seems intended to depict Disra Senkovi as a bridge between humans and octopuses.

A group of octopuses watches from an adjoining chamber. Portia identifies the pale, uneasy octopus placed in front as likely the same prisoner they saw before, or at least one occupying the same mental role. The others appear to push the prisoner into acting as an ambassador, perhaps because it has more experience communicating with aliens.

Helena connects her slate to the terminal and conducts a strained two-channel exchange, while Portia supplements the message with stylized physical gestures. The ambassador relays information through colour, posture, and data, though the surrounding octopuses constantly interrupt, prompt, and disagree. Helena learns that the octopuses know about the Voyager and have precise information about its location and potential targeting solutions, which Portia reads as a threat.

Helena replies carefully, trying to communicate pride, calm, worry for her friends, curiosity, and friendliness all at once. The octopuses then reveal that they have detected a signal from the Lightfoot, coming from the planet where Kern is broadcasting in hopes that the Voyager will hear and attempt a rescue while keeping its location hidden.

The ambassador then slowly presents a proposal built around the emotional idea of a journey. Portia decodes that the octopuses want to travel to that planet and want Helena and Portia to accompany them, possibly because humans might help at a human-associated site where a human-shaped threat waits. Helena recognizes the risks and the instability of octopus intentions, but also understands that this may be the only possible route toward the stranded survivors.