Chapter 13

Murga travels to the Barish-Estranza supply transport to meet Leonide and learn about the attack on the explorer. When Leonide attempts to take Arada hostage to negotiate better terms, Murga subdues a guard and forces their way off the ship with ART's support. The group then travels to the colony's space dock to investigate further, and Murga discusses with ART a plan to create sentient killware using a copy of its own consciousness—a proposal ART strongly opposes.

Murga and Arada board the Barish-Estranza supply transport in EVAC suits, with Murga gaining control of the ship's SecSystem upon arrival. Four armed guards greet them, and they proceed to a meeting room where Leonide awaits. Leonide confirms that her explorer's contact team was compromised by implanted devices and explains how the explorer subsequently attacked the supply transport, damaging its wormhole capability before fleeing. Arada describes her own encounter with the Targets, carefully blending truth with misdirection about how they arrived in the system. When Leonide attempts to hold them hostage pending renegotiation of payment, Murga acts decisively, seizing a guard and forcing Leonide to stand down with ART's targeting systems trained on the bridge. After extracting a promise that the invoice will be transmitted, Murga and Arada return safely to ART. Later, in private, Murga proposes to ART that it create variable killware by copying Murga's consciousness as the sentient component. ART rejects the idea forcefully, upset at the prospect of sacrificing a copy of Murga. Amena later finds Murga and compares the proposed copy to creating a 'baby,' which leads to ART eventually accepting the plan as potentially necessary. The group then approaches the colony's space dock in orbit, finding no sign of the explorer. While Arada, Overse, Thiago, and Ratthi discuss the dock's purpose and design, Murga volunteers to scout it alone but is overruled by contract provisions and insisted upon by crew members. Despite private protests to ART—which refuses to back Murga up—Murga reluctantly agrees to lead a team of three into the dock.