By Day 700, the Cloud Ark stretches across the sky “like a bright bead strung on a silver chain” (229). Arkies (civilians selected in the Casting of Lots) arrive at an increased rate. The station’s growing network of connected modules allows for freer movement. Non-Arkies, including specialists like Dubois, form the General Population. Amalthea remains positioned at the front of Izzy. Given Izzy’s 93-minute orbit, Earth time is irrelevant; the community adopts Greenwich time, including it in their date format—for instance, “A+1.335.8, or ‘dot 8’” (234). Working third shift, which coincides with his family’s time zone on Earth, Dubois visits the gym, where he encounters Luisa. She reports that Venezuelan officials have threatened the Kourou spaceport with a missile strike after Venezuelan citizens were excluded from the Cloud Ark. Ivy (whom Markus has replaced) joins them. As Ivy and Luisa discuss Cal, who has “gone dark,” Dubois leaves for the third torus, T3, home to Markus’s office and “The Farm,” a hub for support staff.

On the Situational Awareness Monitors, Dubois sees Julia denouncing the People’s Justice Blockade as a Venezuelan political stunt. A public relations officer asks him to record a message to calm public fears. Dubois is asked to film in microgravity to combat conspiracy theories that the Cloud Ark is a fabrication. Searching for an appropriate space, he passes the “Woo-Woo Pod” (intended as a multidenominational chapel) and the morgue before heading toward the Mining District: the Arjuna Expeditions’ base aboard Izzy. Political tensions are mounting between those who argue that the asteroid and mining operations should be jettisoned for maneuverability and those who insist on keeping the resources. At Dinah’s office, Dubois encounters Markus, who emerges from her quarters, their affair an open secret though unacknowledged.

Inside, Dinah hears a Morse code message that she suspects is from the Space Troll, an unknown entity from space using her and Rufus’s frequency. When the message references a familiar serial number, she realizes that it must be Sean. Though the Ymir has been silent for nearly two years, the timing coincides with both the expectations of their return and the looming White Sky (predicted within weeks). Skeptical at first, Dubois helps Dinah decipher Sean’s coded messages. Sean reports that two of his six crew members have survived and then requests a situation report. Exhausted, Dubois departs, leaving Dinah to compile the data. Ivy joins Dinah to look at the window in the lab after learning that Cal was ordered to fire a nuclear weapon. Ivy and Dinah watch as the weapon detonates on Earth. Kourou resumes launching rockets.

Elsewhere, Moira longs for communal spaces and imagines opening a café. In The Farm, she encounters Tekla, to whom she feels drawn, and soon Markus joins them. Moira notices subtle exchanges between Tekla and Markus, who has made Tekla his aide. Tekla and Markus display little reaction to the nuclear strike on Earth, while Moira and Luisa, arriving behind them, express discomfort: “It’s in our memories now. And not just that. But in a few hours we’ll be taking deliveries from Kourou, reaping the benefits of having used fuel-air explosives and nuclear weapons against people who were basically defenseless” (280). A craft arrives carrying Arkies and genetic material from the Philippines, along with Dr. Miguel Andrada, the scientist behind “Sprice”—rice that can grow in space. They ceremonially deposit the frozen embryos into storage and joke about creating alcohol from the Sprice.

Markus spars with Tekla in a test of combat techniques in microgravity. Though he has been issued Tasers, he hesitates to authorize their use. His concern about maintaining order grows as tensions escalate.

Dubois feels increasingly distant from his family on Earth. Dinah seeks him out with urgent news: Sean has identified an asteroid he calls the “Eight Ball,” which is set to pass through the moon cloud and trigger the White Sky in six hours. Dubois later interrupts Markus as he confers with lawyer Salvator Guodian, or Sal, about his legal authority. When Dubois announces that the White Sky is imminent and that Dinah has been communicating with Sean, Markus invokes PSAS, the Ark’s constitutional provision for martial law.