On Resurgam, Sluka wakes Sylveste and Pascale to watch the broadcast. Sylveste recognizes Volyova’s voice and face immediately. He confirms these are the Ultras who previously kidnapped him, that they possess planet-destroying weapons, and that they will follow through.

Volyova broadcasts a threatening message to the entire colony via satellite. She identifies herself as a Triumvir of the Nostalgia for Infinity, demands Sylveste present himself within 24 hours, and states that failure will result in destruction of a small settlement, escalating ultimately to Cuvier. Volyova receives several false claimants and one genetic near-match, none of which she accepts. When the deadline passes, she extends it by one hour at Khouri’s request. Khouri addresses the colonists directly, urging them to take the threat seriously. When the extended deadline passes, Volyova fires the ship’s orbital-suppression weapons at Phoenix, a small outpost of approximately 100 people near the northern polar region. A red-hot impact scar appears on the surface.

From Mantell, Sylveste, Pascale, and Sluka watch a bright flash on the horizon. Sluka had dismissed Volyova’s threat. After the pressure wave arrives, they use seismic data to pinpoint the attack. An aide retrieves updated maps from Cuvier. Phoenix appears as a small outpost of roughly 100 people. Sluka’s aide presents infrared images of the crater transmitted by the Nostalgia for Infinity. A Cuvier aircraft is dispatched to confirm the imagery. Sylveste tells Sluka he must be handed over to prevent further strikes. He states Pascale must accompany him and requests Falkender perform additional eye surgery before departure. Sluka agrees.

Aboard the ship, Hegazi detects a voice communication from Sylveste relayed via Cuvier’s satellite. Volyova confirms contact and begins negotiating handover terms. She gives Sylveste six hours to travel far enough from Mantell. At the end, Volyova adds one final condition: Sylveste must bring Calvin.

Khouri retreats into the ship to reflect. She is met by Sudjic, who reveals that her animosity toward Khouri is fading. She still loathes Volyova, however, seeing a possible alliance with Khouri as important. They both agree that the captain is likely dead and Sudjic warns that they will be sent together to retrieve Sylveste.

Sylveste and Pascale board a small aircraft programmed to fly a pre-set route. Once airborne, Sylveste wakes Calvin’s simulation. Sylveste explains the situation to Pascale: Before Cal’s involvement with the Eighty, the crew kidnapped him to use Calvin’s surgical expertise, channeled through his body, to treat Captain Brannigan’s Melding Plague infection. Calvin had performed an incomplete repair, making a second treatment inevitable. This time, since Calvin was dead, they sought out Sylveste and his beta-level simulation of his father, which they wanted to perform the operation The process required Sylveste to be physical inactive while Calvin’s simulation controlled his motor functions. Sylveste presumes that the captain now requires a third operation.

Sylveste contacts Volyova by radio. She triangulates and gives instructions. Three crew members—Volyova, Sudjic, and Khouri—descend in adaptive combat suits, performing atmospheric re-entry and landing in the razorstorm near Sylveste’s coordinates. A sixth empty suit is dispatched separately to retrieve Sajaki.

During descent, the Mademoiselle appears to Khouri as a degraded dust-apparition. She explains she has been losing a mental war against Sun Stealer inside Khouri’s skull and is dying. Before dispersing, she unlocks Khouri’s suit weapons, overriding Volyova’s restrictions, and urges Khouri to kill Sylveste, as per her original mission. She invokes the threat of the Inhibitors to compel Khouri to act.

Just as Khouri locates Sylveste and Pascale, Sudjic produces a handheld boser-pistol and shoots Volyova twice, badly damaging her suit and wounding her. Sudjic states she is doing this in revenge for Nagorny. Khouri targets and fires on Sudjic. Sudjic’s suit retaliates automatically, but Khouri’s responds with antimatter pellets, killing Sudjic instantly. Sajaki arrives to find Volyova wounded, Sudjic destroyed, and Sylveste and Pascale standing unharmed.

Sajaki takes charge. He identifies the unnamed crewwoman as Khouri and accepts that Sudjic shot Volyova, who he announces will survive. Sylveste taunts Sajaki, then produces the quantum-state memory chip containing Calvin’s beta-level simulation and crushes it, scattering the dust into the storm.

The group boards the Nostalgia for Infinity. In the holding area, Sajaki reveals he kept a backup copy of Calvin from Sylveste’s previous visit. He admits the copy became corrupted. When Sylveste presses, Sajaki holds him at gunpoint, but Sylveste announces there is another copy and that Pascale knows its location. Calvin is restored from that copy, embedded by Pascale inside Descent into Darkness, the biography she assembled using Cuvier’s governmental computer core. Calvin explains Pascale encoded him gradually and that—once sufficient fragments were copied—they achieved critical mass, causing Calvin to regard himself as fully conscious. Sylveste deduced the hidden copy existed because the biography’s file size was 15% larger than the visible simulation data. The group proceeds to Captain Brannigan’s level. Sylveste removes his dust-goggles, exposing his crude replacement eyes. Sylveste tells Sajaki he wants the ship taken somewhere and announces that a pinhead antimatter device, purchased from Remilliod and installed by Sluka’s people inside his eye implants, will detonate if he or Pascale is harmed. Sajaki agrees to negotiate.

On the bridge, Sylveste calls up a map of the Delta Pavonis system and directs attention to Hades and Cerberus. He argues the Amarantin showed an increasing interest in Cerberus as the Event approached. He proposes the ship travel there, using the vessel’s weapons if necessary. Sajaki and Hegazi privately assess whether Sylveste’s threat is plausible and conclude they cannot safely dismiss it.

Volyova wakes in the medical bay 10 days after being shot. Khouri briefs her: Sylveste is aboard, the Calvin backup recovered, and Sylveste has threatened to destroy the ship. Volyova judges Sylveste may be lying, but the risk is too great to test. Volyova has Khouri run combat simulations in gunspace in preparation for conflict near Cerberus. The simulations routinely kill Khouri’s simulated self. In a ship meeting, Volyova discloses she detected a weak neutrino source near Cerberus during the approach, consistent with a Conjoiner drive. Sylveste can already identify the ship, revealing that it is the wrecked hull of the Lorean.