Inside Meshner’s implant-space, Kern urges Meshner to edit away his memory of the alien entity so Kern can exclude it and buy time. Meshner refuses because the copy of Meshner now living in the implant feels real, and Meshner challenges Kern by asking how long Kern took to accept her own transformed existence.

Meshner addresses the blurred womanlike presence and asks whether the presence feels real. The presence identifies itself as Erma Lante, a terraforming engineer, biologist, and medical specialist from the ship Aegean. Lante recalls Earth, the failed colony effort, the war, and Baltiel, and the simulation around Meshner shifts into a shadowy cityscape from Lante’s remembered home.

Kern explains that the organism’s cells can encode and retrieve their whole history. Because the organism once infested Lante and mirrored Lante’s neural activity, the presence can replay an imperfect simulation of Lante, even if the organism itself may not understand what Lante is. Meshner recognizes the implication that the organism is doing the same kind of mirroring to Meshner.

Meshner asks what the organism wants. The Lante-simulation speaks of going on an adventure through new rules, ideas, worlds, and stars, while its behavior begins to show traces of Meshner. Kern warns that the organism is expanding into the implant’s data-space and unpacking Lante’s memories, consuming the space and processing power that Kern needs to function and that Meshner needs in order to exist.

Kern also reminds Meshner that Helena and Portia are trying to stop an octopus warship from destroying the orbital and the Lightfoot. Because the octopuses have only destructive experience of the organism, Kern says they need a reason for the octopuses not to fear it, or a weapon. With no true plan left, Meshner asks Kern to upload Fabian’s study of Lante into the implant so the organism can see itself, and Kern agrees.