Mickey7 explains that people distrust multiples because of a man named Alan Manikova and the colony of Gault. The bioprinter was invented long before Expendables, which were created 200 years ago. The first humans created from the bioprinter were barely sentient and had no memories. Manikova, a resident of the Eden colony, was the son of wealthy parents and incredibly intelligent, obtaining three doctoral degrees. He also displayed sociopathic tendencies, and when his parents mysteriously died, many people thought he murdered them. 

Manikova used his inheritance to create a scientific company that could replicate the human mind, allowing for the bioprinter’s full recreation of people, including memories and personalities. He then went to Gault, a colony based on radical individualism and tribalism, created by wealthy people who wanted no government oversight.

Manikova initially pretended to help the people of Gault, when in reality, he used their livestock and eventually their bodies as the raw material for his bioprinter, which he used to churn out countless copies of himself. The people of Gault sent a distress signal to Eden, which took seven years to get there. The people of Eden took two years to decide to send help, and it was another seven years before the military invasion arrived at Gault. 

In the nearly two decades since Gault sent for help, Manikova’s technology had advanced, and he sent nuclear missiles to destroy Eden’s warship before it could cause any damage. A smaller, less advanced colony called Farhome launched a ship called The Bullet at Gault, a ship that they did not plan to decelerate. The ship slammed into Gault and destroyed the entire planet. The general attitude throughout the Union afterward was that although it was detrimental to destroy an inhabitable planet, Manikova needed to be destroyed. From then on, multiples had a bad reputation.

Mickey7 doesn’t ping Cat when she gets off work. She pings him anyway and asks to meet him in the gym. When he arrives, she immediately accuses him of being a multiple, citing her encounter with Mickey8 and his uninjured hand. Mickey7 confesses to the truth but does not elaborate on how it happened, calling it a mistake. 

Cat and Mickey7 discuss the Ship of Theseus, and she asks if he thinks he’s immortal and the same Mickey Barnes he started as. He’s not sure. Cat tells him that she’s been thinking a lot about dying, which she didn’t expect at the age of 34. She tells Mickey7 she likes him and won’t tell Command about him and Mickey8, and then she leaves.

Mickey7 returns to his room and finds Mickey8 and Nasha naked in bed. Mickey7 is upset that Mickey8 blew their cover with both Cat and Nasha, but Nasha promises that Cat won’t tell Command (Nasha would cause problems for her if she did). Mickey7 is also concerned that two people have discovered the situation in only a few days. Nasha tells him to calm down and join her and Mickey8 in bed. He does.

After two hours, Cat knocks on the door. Mickey8 answers and lets her in, and she is disturbed by the sight of two naked Mickeys with Nasha. Mickey7 tries to talk to her about the situation, but Nasha tells Cat to get in or leave. Cat leaves. Mickey7 is panicked, but Nasha tells him not to worry. The trio fall asleep but are awoken by security guards looking down at them, demanding they get dressed for their execution.

Mickey7 is terrified of what Marshall will do to them, though Nasha seems calm. He finds this ironic, as he’s been executed before, and relates the story of Mickey3 and Mickey4: Though Niflheim lacked enough oxygen for people to survive outside the dome, biologists decided that the introduction of algae into the ecosystem would create enough oxygen by the time the colonist embryos grew up. Instead of looking for a new planet, which was risky, the colonists decided to make Niflheim work. 

When the Drakkar reached landfall on Niflheim, the medical officers and biologists needed to test for any dangerous aspects of the microbiome. They put Mickey3 in an isolation chamber and exposed him to various airborne substances with an upload helmet on, so he could keep his memories, and the scientists could study them. He became very sick and died, coughing up blood in Nasha’s arms, as she demanded a contamination suit so she could sit with Mickey3.

Mickey4 told Nasha she didn’t have to stay with him and watch him die again, but Nasha confessed her love and promised to stay. He refused to wear the upload helmet, so he has no memories of dying again after receiving ineffective inoculations to the airborne pathogen. Mickey5 wore the upload helmet after being threatened by the medical officer Arkady. After a new set of inoculations, he survived the pathogen. However, he developed terrible worm parasites in his brain that eventually killed him.

Despite these horrible past deaths, Mickey7 is still afraid of what Marshall will do to him, Mickey8, and Nasha.

The security officers take Nasha and both Mickeys to the security office. Nasha sits on a couch and wraps her arms around both Mickeys while they wait. The Mickeys assure her that Marshall won’t kill her—she is one of only two combat pilots in the dome. Nasha wants to kill Cat for turning them in. A security officer takes Nasha away, and another takes both Mickeys and locks them in a storage closet. Mickey8 sleeps, though his ocular sends strange, gibberish messages, until another security officer takes them to see Marshall.

Marshall is enraged at the situation. Though both Mickeys try to claim Nasha only just found out about the multiples, she already confessed that she found out days ago. As the Mickeys predicted, Marshall needs Nasha alive, as they’ve recently discovered that the creepers are sentient. 

However, he is uncertain what to do about the Mickeys. He threatens to kill them without creating a Mickey9, but then decides to talk to some others. He sends them to a holding cell, and Mickey7 feels his dread dissipate, as the situation is now completely out of his control. Mickey7 and Mickey8 discuss Marshall’s threat. While Mickey8 thinks they are all the same Mickey Barnes, Mickey7 says they are not. He argues that they are their own people. He decides to sleep instead of continuing the conversation. When he wakes up, a guard takes him to see Marshall again. Marshall asks him about the tunnels and creepers, and Mickey7 tells him everything.

Mickey7 returns to the holding cell with Mickey8. He tells Mickey8 that the creepers are sentient, and Marshall is readying for war. Mickey8’s ocular sends strange messages again, and he promises to have it looked at if he survives. Mickey7 wonders about Mickey6’s death—Berto claims it was caused by creepers, but Mickey7 doesn’t remember. 

He wonders if Niflheim is actually habitable. Not all colonies fail on difficult planets—Bergen’s World is an example of a colony that succeeded despite the planet being dangerous. The colonists destroyed a continent and rebuilt it to be habitable for humans.

A guard gets Mickey7 and Mickey8 and takes them to the corpse hole, where Marshall is waiting with Nasha and security guards, including Cat. Marshall threatens to push them down the corpse hole and not make another Mickey, instead using Cat as a replacement. Mickey7 is angry at Cat’s betrayal, and, remembering her questions about his supposed immortality, realizes that she wants his job. Marshall offers to let them all live if Mickey7 and Mickey8 fulfill a mission for him.