Ptolemy arrives at the secret Denali Research Facility, a lethal world whose atmosphere would kill him if the facility protections failed. Despite the danger, Ptolemy feels safer than he did in the League because Denali can only be reached with VenHold Navigator guidance, keeping the Butlerians away.

Ptolemy sees his research in a new way after the destruction of Zenith and Elchan's death. He no longer thinks of science as profit or convenience, but as a weapon to preserve civilization against Butlerian violence. Noffe, the Tlulaxa head of the facility, welcomes Ptolemy and says that Venport Holdings supports Denali's work for both profit and the survival of human civilization.

In Noffe's office, the two scientists bond over their shared trauma from Butlerian attacks. Noffe describes how the movement turns fear and ignorance into destructive mob violence, while Ptolemy admits he once thought the conflict could be debated rationally. Now Ptolemy considers the Butlerians evil and pledges to fight them through science.

Noffe shows Ptolemy Denali's laboratories, including tanks holding the expanded brains of failed Navigator candidates. Noffe explains that, though unfit as Navigators, the enhanced brains may be useful as components in new machines. This connects directly with Ptolemy's former work with Elchan on interfaces between human minds and artificial systems.

Ptolemy speaks openly about his belief that cymek technology contained valuable possibilities, even though the Titans had used it for evil. Noffe agrees that a tool should not be condemned because of its misuse, then reveals intact cymek machine bodies stored at Denali. Ptolemy is stunned by the complete warrior form and by the additional arachnid, builder, and flying bodies outside the dome.

Noffe explains that the neo-cymek brains once housed there died after Vorian Atreides killed Agamemnon and the last Titans, leaving the machine bodies available. Ptolemy accepts the opportunity, intending to make the technology productive and defensive, and commits to working with Noffe for what he sees as the good of humanity.