Seveneves

Kath Two, a Moiran surveyor, awakens on New Earth, where she works for TeReForm. Preparing to return to the Habitat Ring, she dons a smart suit made of nat robots and launches with an inflatable glider. After pausing to collect water (briefly glimpsing a human figure retreating into the forest), she builds enough energy to glide to a hangar. There, she joins two others and struggles under the strain of 3g conditions toward a waiting flivver. One of the others, a Teklan, is the only one able to stand under the gravity. Kath Two reflects on the affinity between Teklans and Moirans.

The three travelers—Kath Two, Beled Tomov (the Teklan), and Dinan Rhys Alaskov—exchange names and racial gestures, and Rhys comments that canids on New Earth are “nearly unrecognizable” now. The planet has been reseeded with flora and fauna to create balanced ecosystems. Human society, however, remains divided between the “Take Our Time” (TOT) and “Get It Done” (GID) factions formed in the 4820s over how quickly ecosystems should be reestablished. This political divide hardened into the Red and Blue blocks on the Habitat Ring. While traveling, Kath Two reflects on Moira’s genetic experiments, which resulted in eight failed pregnancies and one heir, Cantabrigia, who became the progenitor of the Moirans.

The travelers plan to use a robotic whip maneuver to reach the Eye (the massive orbital structure that serves as both a tether hub and a transit system). The Eye includes the Great Chain, an iris-like rotating ring, which is celebrated as a diverse metropolis with Luisa as its “patron saint.” As they travel, Kath Two considers the sociopolitical tension between the Red and Blue cultures, rooted in differing “Amistics” (the cultural choices regarding which technologies to adopt or reject, a term derived from the Amish of pre-Zero America).

Along the way, Kath Two tells Beled she saw a human outside a designated Registered Indigen Zone (RIZ). Indigens are descendants of “Sooners,” who illegally settled New Earth. Beled encourages her not to report the sighting. When they dock at the Eye, Kath Two undergoes Quarantine but is held longer than expected, unlike Rhys, who is quickly released. During confinement, she begins sleeping beside Beled, their companionship remaining platonic.

Kath Two has a staged “chance” encounter with Ariane Casablancova, a Quarantine investigator, who presses her about possible secrets. Kath admits she saw a camouflaged human, which she assumed was an Indigen, and confesses that she feared she might be “going epi,” undergoing a Moiran epigenetic shift. Since leaving New Earth, however, her symptoms have lessened. Ariane advises her not to share this with others.

Eventually released, Kath Two travels through habitats modeled on Old Earth ecosystems, eventually finding Doc, who now lives in a simulated British Columbian rainforest with his students and his nurse, Memmie (Remembrance), a Camite. Doc embraces her warmly and reveals that she has been chosen as part of a Seven, an honor in which one representative of each race comes together. The gathering will take place at the Cradle, a remnant of Cleft now tethered to the Eye.

As she waits, Kath Two wanders the Great Chain. Though tempted to buy new clothes to blend in, she chooses not to risk appearing foolish, instead purchasing books to keep in her caches. She visits an Old Earth museum and reflects on humanity’s loss of advanced communication technologies, attributed to fears of repeating Tav’s mistakes. Oral history and the Epic (the foundational record of Zero and its aftermath) became central to cultural memory, particularly for Blues, while Reds remained closed off.

Traveling to Cradle, Kath Two is joined by Beled and Ariane. Doc and Memmie meet them there, and Kath learns that Doc has arranged for the Seven to gather (one representative from each lineage). He refuses to reveal their mission until the group is complete but advises them to use the journey to enjoy “all of the things you will look back on fondly later when you have not been able to do them for a long time” (649).

Cradle, built from Cleft where Dubois had taken his last walk, was humanity’s first permanent settlement before being tethered into orbit. As Kath Two explores, she reflects on how the seven lineages diverged. Dinah, Ivy, Tekla, and Moira’s descendants resisted genetic tampering, while Camila aggressively engineered cooperation, and Aïda deliberately diversified her seven offspring to compete against other lineages. Julia, isolated, produced only one child. Over generations, genetic drift, technological enhancements, and isolation produced 32 distinct strains, later blended again through hybridization and Cosmopolitanization.

At the Crow’s Nest, Kath Two meets a Dinan bartender, scarred by a “pulya” weapon from the Red-Blue War. He introduces himself as Ty Lake, an Indigen and member of the Seven. Ty leads Kath to the Bolt Hole, where Doc, Memmie, Ariane, and a Neoander named Langobard (Bard) are gathered. Bard’s Neanderthal-derived lineage, designed by Aïda, was meant to counter Tekla’s progeny. Tensions flare between him and Beled, but Doc explains that they’ll soon travel to Beringia, and Ariane confirms their mission. Kath Two suggests using a glider, and the group prepares for departure.

Ty, whose primary role is to observe people and report to the Owners of the Crow’s Nest, tends the bar as Cradle docks at Cayambe. He departs with the other members of the Seven. The Owners, pleased that Ty has been chosen, anticipate that he’ll return with valuable insights. As is customary, Ty takes the lead while Beled brings up the rear. They split into cabs before converging at an “aitrain” station.

From there, they board a large glider that Kath Two pilots through another whip maneuver. Ty studies the group, noting that at least four of the Seven are weapons-trained. He suspects that Beled is a “Zerk”—a berserker in the Snake Eater military branch. Ty muses on trade practices, contrasting “Spacers” with Indigen customs, and remarks that no Indigen would stray as far from a RIZ as the human Kath Two encountered.

Kath Two flies them to Magdalena, a TeReForm base where Doc once worked. When they land, a crowd greets Doc. Memmie, who manages Doc’s interactions, intercepts the crowd so that he isn’t overwhelmed. That evening, Doc dines with Ariane out of curiosity but later informs Memmie that he’ll talk to the other Seven with Ariane going forward. He begins with Beled, meeting him in the gym to reveal their mission of searching for “wanderers,” beginning in Beringia.

The Seven travel aboard Ark Madiba, which is carrying animals and Moirans whose epigenetic adaptations allow uncanny harmony with their cargo. After unloading at Mokupuku, they continue to Blue Antimer and the settlement of Qayaq, built of pykrete near the volcanic Ash Wall. At Qayaq, Ty assumes leadership (a role Ariane seems to resent). Seeking to unwind, Ty suggests a night out, and most of the Seven accompany him to an adult club. There, they meet Einstein, an Ivyn who claims that he can lead them to a pre-Zero artifact.

Guided by Einstein, the group glides into the mountain and hikes to the site of a buried truck. Though they find only remnants (a hose, a steering wheel set as a memorial, and a broken shovel handle stamped “CRAFTSMAN®”), Doc realizes the journey as a true “main event.” Returning, they discover a totem near their glider and encounter armed “Diggers,” bow-wielding descendants of Rufus’s line who survived the Hard Rain by going underground. Negotiations falter: One Digger denounces them as cowards, while a woman seizes the shovel handle and kills Memmie.

Chaos erupts. Ty fends off an attacker, while Ariane summons backup. Ambots deploy from the glider, forming armor around Beled and circling Bard as chains. Ariane seizes the murderous Digger as a hostage and disables Ty with an ambot, though Kath Two shields him from further harm, and Einstein removes the device. A Thor emergency craft descends, extracting Ariane and her prisoner back to orbit. In the aftermath, Doc has a fatal stroke. The group buries him and Memmie. The Diggers take Kath Two, Ty, and Einstein captive, collaring and tethering them, but allowing supplies. Kath Two alternates between sleeping and illness, undergoing a post-traumatic epigenetic shift, or POTESH. Observing the Digger community, Ty and Einstein reflect on their captors. The Diggers, Ty reasons, intentionally isolate their prisoners to control how their people perceive the Spacers.

Three Diggers approach the captives. One introduces himself as Donno and introduces the young woman with them as a “Cyc” named Sonar Taxlaw, who has memorized Volume 17 of Rufus’s preserved Encyclopedias. Ty explains that Ariane had been a Red spy. Donno declares that Spacers aren’t welcome on their land and mentions the Pingers, an ocean-dwelling society that also survived the Hard Rain. The Diggers withdraw, leaving Ty and Einstein to reflect on their situation.

The next day, Donno returns, proposing a trade: the captives in exchange for the warriors that Beled and Bard have captured. Ty dispatches a crow with a message to them. Before Beled and Bard arrive, Red ships descend. An Aïdan “peloton” unit lands, led by a woman carrying a replica of the Digger’s totem. Marge, the Digger whom Ariane seized, is with them. Seizing the moment, Beled and Bard free the captives, and Sonar chooses to join them as they retreat down the mountain. They improvise a backpack carrier for Kath (now Kathree), allowing Beled to carry her more easily. Sonar explains that the Diggers will travel south to the sea, where she believes her knowledge will be essential, as the Pingers have left cairns signaling for contact. Ty declares that they’ll head toward the coast.

The Blues sends a pod of supplies, and then two Blues join their party: an Ivyn named Esa Arjun and a Teklan named Roskos Yur. Arjun warns Ty of Red’s propaganda on the Habitat Ring and delivers two packages to him, one shaped like a pizza box. He then reveals that Red has constructed the Kulak (a counterpart to the Eye and the Great Chain) and the Gnomon (a rival to Cradle, with its base under the ocean). Roskos is skeptical of Ty until realizing that Ty is working for the mysterious Purpose. Kathree, adjusting to her heightened stamina, ranges ahead. At the Pacific coast, Sonar recounts the Pingers’ history of the “three Deluges”: the Hard Rain, the comet drops to restore the oceans, and the current resurgence of life in the sea.

Ty discovers a metal plate with a pipe leading into the water and sends Q-coded Morse messages to the Pingers. While he waits for their response, an ark (Darwin) surfaces, releasing luminous robots that form an aitrain in the air. A Moiran (Cantabrigia Barth Five) emerges, broadcasting something and then approaching Kathree. She asks Kathree to protect the Diggers: “[D]ead Diggers on a video screen is a thing we cannot afford” (825). She then shows Kathree Red’s propaganda videos of the Kulak and Gnomon. Cantabrigia emphasizes that befriending the Pingers is crucial.

Red forces and Diggers converge on the coast. As battle breaks out, Kathree runs to join the fight alongside Beled, Bard, and Roskos, disabling a Digger with an ambot and neutralizing a Red broadcaster. She persuades the second Digger to abandon the conflict, warning him of Red’s intentions. Meanwhile, Beled defeats a Neoander opponent despite breaking his hand, and Bard carries Roskos, who is injured, to safety. Once the Reds have been neutralized, fighting stops.

On the beach, Ty wades into the surf with the pizza box package, which Einstein opens. Inside is Cal’s final photograph, once sent to Ivy. The Pingers (bluish-gray, thick-skinned, with folds of skin protecting vital areas) emerge from the water and study the image. Ty and a Pinger converse, laughing together, and Sonar embraces another Pinger. Cantabrigia watches with satisfaction.

The Blues, along with Sonar and Einstein, board Darwin, removing themselves from Digger territory as Red forces occupy the land. Arjun explains to the group (and to Deep, the Pinger whom Ty befriended) that Ivyns have studied Cal’s final images in detail. Hidden within the backgrounds were clues revealing how he and others planned to survive beneath the ocean: “They have an Epic of their own” (857).

Ty reflects with Einstein, confessing his wish to find a bond as immediate as the one Einstein felt with Sonar and affirming Einstein’s significance within the Seven. When Einstein asks about the “Purpose,” Ty describes it as humanity’s persistent drive to believe in meaning beyond mere survival. For thousands of years, the Purpose was neglected while humanity struggled to endure. Ty observes that even the question of the Agent remains unresolved.

As they consider the future, Ty notes that the Seven will no longer be seven but 13, expanding to include all the surviving lineages: the Spacers, the divided Aïdan lines, the Diggers, and the Pingers. Ty invites them all to come stay at the Crow’s Nest.