After the crash on Nod, Viola restores enough equipment to keep the survivors functioning. Fabian is surprised that Viola, whom Fabian had misjudged as impractical, gets a tracked machine working to move the injured Zaine. Artifabian confirms that Zaine never shared atmosphere with any possible infection, so Zaine is brought into the main crew compartment while Zaine's suit remains quarantined.

Viola concentrates on the damaged ship, Zaine's injuries, and the need for working drones. Kern is withdrawn and terse, devoting attention to communications: Kern tries to contact Voyager without revealing its position and also attempts to reach Meshner, though Fabian suspects Kern may only be connecting to Meshner's implant. Meanwhile, Kern uses ants and Portiid biotechnology to begin converting surviving hull sections into photosynthetic material and to restore Kern's own damaged organic systems and personality.

Viola repairs an aerial drone so Fabian can investigate the alleged city near the crash site. Fabian launches the drone from the airlock and confirms that the formation is not natural. From above, Fabian sees a human-scaled grid of streets and collapsed-looking block structures, arranged in the rectilinear style Fabian associates with human design rather than Portiid spirals.

As Fabian pilots the drone closer, Fabian realizes the apparent city was not built but carved out of existing stone by removing the surrounding ground. The doorways are only fronts, leading to solid stone rather than interiors, making the place a false ruin: a painstaking facsimile of a human city created by unknown hands and for no clear reason. This unnatural imitation unsettles Fabian more than an ordinary ruin would.

Fabian sends the drone higher and farther, seeing the plateau, red desert, strange coloured lakes, and other signs of Nod's life. Fabian then spots a much larger version of the same false city and, farther away, another ghost-metropolis beside a straightened river or canal. The repeated pattern suggests that the copied human city has been reproduced across the landscape.

As Fabian turns the drone back, movement appears in the streets. Fabian sees a figure assembled from shells, rocks, dust, and pieces of creatures, arranged into the shape of a human in an old encounter suit. The thing stares at the drone with a smooth stone faceplate, then collapses into separate pieces as Fabian pulls the drone away, leaving Fabian horrified and uncertain how to explain the footage to Viola.