After Gravity loses sophon surveillance in the blind region, Blue Space becomes inaccessible to direct observation, and the droplets must act without real-time orders from Trisolaris. Gravity's captain decides not to wait and orders further acceleration. Blue Space proposes surrendering two-thirds of its crew, including the main suspects, if the rest may continue into deep space as a human seed, but Gravity rejects the offer and insists the entire crew must be tried.

With the droplets making resistance hopeless, Blue Space announces full surrender and begins maximum deceleration. Gravity awakens its crew and prepares for combat and arrest operations. The crew members, cut off from Earth and still loyal to their mission, distrust Blue Space even more and want to finish the capture quickly.

Dr. West receives an unexpected visit from Commander Devon, the military police commander, who reports seeing Lieutenant Commander Park Ui-gun from Blue Space walking aboard Gravity. West attributes the vision to fatigue and Devon's long-term surveillance of Blue Space, but Devon insists the sighting was real and threatens to kill Park if he sees him again. Soon afterward, a ruptured nutrient tube in Ecological Area #3 is found to contain embedded micrometeoroid fragments, even though the area lies deep inside the ship and no hull breach alarms occurred.

The narrative then reveals other impossible incidents aboard Gravity. Sublieutenant Ike saw a spherical, mirror-edged opening erase part of his wall, cabinet, Verenskaya's bed, and even Verenskaya's legs, yet the phenomenon later vanished and Verenskaya appeared unharmed. Petty Officer Liu Xiaoming, inspecting the exterior from a pinnace, saw Gravity's stern apparently sliced off and the ship shortened, but after waiting and looking again, the ship appeared intact; both Ike and Liu keep quiet to avoid being judged mentally unfit and placed in hibernation.

West visits Guan Yifan, a civilian scholar in the stern observatory, after detecting signs of distress. Guan describes a new claustrophobia caused by a dream or vision of a place unimaginably open, then argues that the universe itself seems diseased because the speed of light and the limitation to three macroscopic dimensions prevent it from functioning as a whole. Their conversation turns personal, with both men feeling old and alienated from the stars, until battle alarms announce that both droplets are accelerating—one toward Blue Space and one toward Gravity. With no time for evasive action, West and Guan prepare for imminent death with strange calm.