In the dream, rising waters cover the world until John remembers he can push them back. He raises land from the sea, and John and the listening woman sit on a half-dead car near a broken concrete building guarded by cracked bone. John explains that his group had become politically dangerous: governments, backers, and rivals denied or feared his miracles while demanding diplomatic process before anyone would seriously discuss using his powers.

John says his compound held people who sometimes wanted to leave, including possible plants and frightened defectors, and John let them go because John only trusted his inner circle. John lists the loyal specialists who remained with him and mentions Ulysses and Titania, two dead children. John wanted to bring Ulysses and Titania back, but John could only repair bodies and prevent near-death people from dying; once the soul was gone, the repaired bodies remained empty.

John says the crisis changed when his group discovered where the money had gone. After walking off his anger, John explains that their ships had been taken and the cryo plan had been abandoned in favor of faster-than-light evacuation. The wealthy backers claimed cryo was unsafe and immoral because of an eight percent risk of damage and unresolved maternity issues, but John remembers that his team had been the ones who forced the program down to that risk and fought for reproductive justice.

John describes the proposed FTL plan: a dozen guide ships would test a beacon-based system, triangulate toward Tau Ceti, unload the population, and return while more ships were supposedly built. A— warned that the mathematics did not solve the problem of where ships would emerge, and John’s group realized the enormous cost and limited living capacity meant the plan could not evacuate everyone. M— concluded that the rich were scattering like rats, using public language about rescue to hide a private flotilla for themselves.

John says he initially believed no one could get away with such an obvious betrayal after his group had already exposed impossible truths and destabilized public trust. But as John speaks, John is overcome by rage and grief. John tells the listening woman that the powerful left her behind on inadequate life support and did not even try to save her; when she says she does not remember, John answers that he cannot forget.