Raquella arrives at the main Parmentier spaceport and sees the Suk School expanding into an enormous new complex. The sight reminds her of her past on Parmentier with Mohandas Suk, the Hospital for Incurable Diseases, and the mob violence inspired by Rayna Butler’s anti-technology fervor. The thriving school suggests that Dr. Zhoma may now be valuable to the Sisterhood, especially because Zhoma has been chosen as Emperor Salvador’s personal physician.

Raquella travels through the dusty construction site and is met by Dr. Waddiz, the school’s deputy administrator and part owner. Waddiz escorts Raquella through ostentatious new buildings and describes planned athletic facilities, which Raquella considers a distraction from the school’s humanitarian mission. He then brings Raquella to a cleanroom where Zhoma is undergoing a daily experimental treatment in a medical capsule.

After Zhoma emerges, surprised but pleased, Zhoma and Raquella speak privately over lunch. Zhoma explains that Roderick Corrino personally requested her service and that Imperial favor will strengthen the Suk School financially and politically. Raquella observes Zhoma’s anxiety and infers that the school badly needs both the Emperor’s endorsement and his payment.

Raquella warns Zhoma that Emperor Salvador is not a reliable ally because Manford Torondo and the Butlerians influence him. Zhoma believes Salvador’s fear of illness will make him support advanced medicine, but Raquella insists Salvador is willing to sacrifice the Suk School to appease the anti-technology movement. Raquella then reveals her true purpose: the Sisterhood’s breeding projections show a dangerous flaw in Salvador Corrino’s branch, so Salvador must not produce offspring.

Raquella asks Zhoma to use her access as Salvador’s physician to make him sterile with undetectable drugs. Zhoma recoils because the act would be treason, but Raquella exploits Zhoma’s desire for redemption by promising forgiveness, restoration to the Sisterhood, and a major financial transfer to Parmentier. Raquella frames the act as treating humanity itself, warning that one of Salvador’s descendants would cause catastrophic havoc. Zhoma accepts, saying she has faith in Raquella and will do it.