After the tortoise stabs Lortisse, the crew returns him to the habitat in profound shock. Lante spends four hours using the medical lab to keep Lortisse alive, manually supporting failing nervous-system functions until the systems can maintain his brain, heart, and body within survival tolerances.

Once Lortisse no longer requires Lante’s constant intervention, Lante meets Baltiel and explains what the tortoise injected. Lante links the substance to earlier samples from the “tortoise graveyard,” where several apparently dead or torpid tortoises contained a dense opaque fluid in their central sacs. Lante had once considered reproductive explanations, but the evidence did not support them.

Lante now believes the substance is an infection among the tortoises, possibly analogous to a slime mould: a collective cellular material able to move and act in concert. The material cannot truly infect Lortisse in the usual sense because human biology is alien to it, but it provokes catastrophic immune responses as it travels through Lortisse’s body and alters its external structures.

Lante says Lortisse’s immune system is repeatedly driving him toward lethal anaphylactic reactions, including fever, swelling, and damage to his pulmonary tract. The best hope is that Lortisse’s body will wear down the invasive material before the reaction causes brain damage or death, though Lante cannot give a real prognosis.

Lante tells Baltiel that the incident changes everything because Nod has effectively attacked them, even without intent, exposing how little the expedition understands the planet. Baltiel rashly implies Lante should have investigated the material earlier, and Lante rebukes his leadership before leaving to sleep, with Rani covering medical. Baltiel recognizes that Lante is right but cannot undo the remark; soon afterward, Senkovi finally answers Baltiel’s repeated messages.