One month later, Uchi and Martim meet with the Executive in the Sweetsea. Uchi reveals that he has seen classified files proving that the Great Silence is ending due to renewed contact from Earth. He demands that this information be suppressed, arguing that its release would cause chaos, halt the terraforming of Aquilo, and lead to subjugation by Earth. 

The Executive refuses to decide, announcing their imminent retirement. Instead, the Board of Directors will vote on the matter at the next Annual General Meeting, and the Executive’s final act will be to implement their decision. This news makes Uchi’s own Board nomination critical. He resolves to do whatever it takes to get confirmed, ordering Martim to subtly sabotage a rival director and committing to his own recorporalization. Expressing his complete trust in Martim, Uchi offers him a future Exclusive contract. Despite his private misgivings, Martim reaffirms his loyalty and agrees to execute Uchi’s plan.

Thirteen weeks before the start of the main narrative, Martim successfully orchestrates Uchi’s nomination to the Board. On the same day, SatOps officially defeats Astrocom in a corporate war, a victory that Martim secretly aided by funding a smear campaign against Director Forest Greves. His triumph is soured when he learns that Uchi has abruptly fired Fox Wilson, his longtime friend and subdirector. Martim confronts his client, who reacts with explosive rage before storming out. 

Left alone, Martim finds an unfamiliar injection pen labeled “Sudexatrine 02” on Uchi’s desk. Thea returns after seeing Uchi home and reveals that the director has been in a bad state ever since Martim discovered the information about the Great Silence. She stops short of disclosing what Wilson said, citing the Code, and warns Martim to be careful around his client from now on.

Eight weeks prior to the start of the main narrative, Martim meets with Uchi in advance of his scheduled recorporalization. Uchi confronts Martim about his illegal drug use, revealing that he has evidence to revoke his license. Martim counters by exposing his knowledge of Uchi’s secret neurodegenerative disease, which makes the upcoming procedure incredibly risky. Uchi then reveals the full truth: He has incurable Gray’s Waste, rendering recorporalization impossible.

Rejecting Martim’s crisis-management plan for an orderly succession, Uchi presents his own radical solution: Martim must secretly take his place. He proposes transferring Martim’s mind into Uchi’s new synthbody, allowing Martim to become Uchi, secure the Board nomination, and lead the division. Horrified, Martim refuses, but Uchi leverages Martim’s drug use as both blackmail and a convenient cover story for his disappearance. With Thea’s support for the plan, Uchi expresses his wish to meet his end by walking out into the Vastness. Defeated, Martim accepts, taking Uchi’s signature scarf as a marker of his new identity.

One month before the start of the main narrative, Martim undergoes “the Process,” transferring his consciousness into an advanced 8G synthetic body identical to Uchi’s. As part of the plan, Uchi disappears so that the two will never be seen together. 

After an initial period of novelty, Martim begins to suffer from severe post-recorporalization depersonalization-derealization disorder (PR3D), which causes him to feel deeply disconnected from his new body and reality. Thea, who experienced the same trauma when she was placed in her own synthbody, becomes his only confidante, helping him cope while maintaining the deception.

Forced to immediately assume Uchi’s role, Martim meets with ally Tide Sullivan to strategize for the upcoming Board confirmation vote. Martim struggles with his dissociation but manages to maintain his cover. The meeting becomes tense when Sullivan’s perceptive atier, Condor Anand, asks about the disappearance of Uchi’s previous atier, Martim himself. Martim gives the cover story that he was fired, but he’s left deeply unnerved by Anand’s suspicious gaze, fearing that his secret is already in jeopardy.

Two weeks prior to the start of the main narrative, Thea informs Martim that Isthmus Isako is officially investigating his death for the Agency. Thea has discovered that Isako is working with Rain Kob and suspects that they were hired by Savannah Minto to sabotage Uchi’s bid for the Board. Over Thea’s objections, Martim agrees to meet them, confident that he can sell a cover story about his death by suicide. 

After the meeting, an enraged Martim learns that Thea hired shadowcons to assassinate Isako and Kob without his knowledge. The attempt failed, which has only confirmed their suspicions and escalated the threat. During the confrontation, Martim deduces from Thea’s nervous hesitation that the real Uchi is alive in cryostasis, awaiting a cure, and she confirms it. Martim realizes that he’s merely a temporary placeholder and that Thea was ordered to eventually kill him so that Uchi could reclaim his body. In response, Thea renounces her loyalty to Uchi and pledges to protect Martim, forming a new, fragile alliance to survive their shared deception.

At the Elite Renewal clinic, Dr. Lucan confirms that Martim’s new 8G synthtech body is functioning well. Martim confronts the doctor about the illegal recorporalization and demands to see Uchi in cryostasis. Lucan reluctantly complies, wheeling in the cryo-capsule. Upon seeing his former client’s preserved form, Martim is overcome with conflicting emotions, acknowledging his long-standing desire for Uchi’s approval while also resenting the man for what he has become. He whispers that he hates Uchi but also wishes he would wake up and take command again.

Suddenly, a massive explosion rocks the building, and alarms blare, signaling an attack. Thea, now acting as Martim’s bodyguard, realizes that their location has been discovered and leaves to fight the intruders, ordering Martim to stay. Unfazed by the surrounding chaos and the threat of death, Martim remains by the capsule. He speaks to Uchi’s body, quoting Epictetus to express his resolve to become himself again, free from Uchi’s influence.