19. Recall Is a Thing

Howard learns that Senator MacIntosh, a vocal anti-replicant politician, is being recalled from office through a successful grassroots campaign driven by various afterlife communities concerned about their rights. Meanwhile, Bridget presents Howard with information about a newly discovered planet with a bizarre and exotic ecosystem that Mario's exploration team has found during their search for Others' nests.

Howard and Bridget discuss Senator MacIntosh's recall campaign. Although Howard initially assumes the replicants orchestrated it, he learns that the recall was driven by diverse afterlife communities—requiring approximately 15,000 signatures—who grew concerned about MacIntosh's anti-replicant stance after comparisons to FAITH's authoritarian approach were made public. Bridget cautions that MacIntosh has not yet been voted out and notes that the underlying mistrust of replicants remains a systemic problem. Howard reveals he has already begun circulating rumors about the development of mannies for living humans, strategically avoiding specific details, as a way to make a complete ban on replicants less politically viable. Bridget then shifts topics to present Howard with exploration data from Mario's crew, who have been searching for Others' nests while discovering new systems. One recently found planet fascinates them both—its ecosystem is described as extraordinarily unusual, surpassing even the Quinlan ecosystem in complexity. Howard reacts with surprise and humor, joking about flying monkeys, and Bridget suggests this discovery will become her most substantial blog subject to date. She has already requested that Mario construct a space station and autofactory in the system while she uses spy drones to gather preliminary data.