After Baltiel seals Lortisse’s body in the lab, Baltiel and Lante retreat to the habitat’s main bubble room. Lante disinfects the bite wound Lortisse gave her while panicking over the possibility of infection, and Baltiel tries to save Rani, whose throat Lortisse has torn open. Baltiel sends Lante back to the lab for the treatment she had prepared for Lortisse while Baltiel fabricates emergency medical supplies.

In the lab, Lante tries to convince herself the alien organism is only a disease and that Lortisse’s violence was brain damage rather than intent. Lante sees Lortisse’s mutilated corpse grinning, and before Lante can react, Lortisse’s arm jerks out and injects Lante in the ankle with the fluid Lortisse had drawn from behind his eye.

In the main chamber, Rani briefly revives, but Rani speaks with We’s collective voice, claiming that We now understands better and can preserve Rani forever. Baltiel backs away, searching for a weapon, and finds an emergency axe that had been stored after an earlier habitat disaster. As Baltiel prepares to kill infected Rani, Lante appears and reveals that Lante has also been taken by We.

Lante tries to persuade Baltiel that We is not a threat but a liberation, arguing that humanity has no Earth, no wider purpose, and can become something new. Baltiel recognizes that some part of Lante may remain, but concludes that the parasite is learning to manipulate its hosts by exploiting their minds and memories. Baltiel flees through the airlock into Nod’s thin atmosphere and runs for the shuttle.

Baltiel attempts to launch the shuttle, but Lante and Rani flood its systems with chaotic interface commands, blocking Baltiel’s access. As Lante and Rani stagger toward Baltiel across the marsh, calling his name, Baltiel briefly feels the emptiness of the colonists’ lives and the temptation of We’s promised purpose. Baltiel rejects surrender, affirms his own individuality, raises the axe, and waits for the infected women to reach him.