Chapter 9

The narrator infiltrates a hostile aircraft to eliminate threat and commandeers it for the group's continued escape. After subduing the occupants and setting them adrift with falsified evidence, the team lands at an interior platform and navigates toward a border crossing into a supply-conflict zone where Leonide's humans are reportedly hiding.

The narrator climbs out of their tourist pod and enters the cargo hold of the larger hostile aircraft via its lifting field. After breaching the aircraft's security system and finding five humans in the cockpit, the narrator reveals itself, causing panic. When one occupant retrieves a stunner, the narrator threatens violence and interrogates them about two missing crew members (Rod and Giz). The narrator lies that they are dead to provoke an attack, but the humans instead become terrified and helpless. A newsfeed alert appears showing a grainy image of the narrator as a rogue SecUnit stealing a jump-fly and taking hostages—framing that could transfer blame to another rogue unit. Rather than kill the incapacitated humans, the narrator stuns them, retrieves the two missing crew members from the pod, and administers medication to keep all five unconscious for twelve hours. The narrator deletes identifying data from the hijacked aircraft, creates false beacons, and loads the unconscious humans into evidence packets attached to the original tourist aircraft's autopilot, sending it back toward the hydroponics zone to cause confusion. The group takes control of the nicer aircraft and flies deeper into the torus structure. Farai privately apologizes to the narrator for her earlier order, and the narrator admits it was prepared to kill the hostiles and interpreted her permission as acceptance of that. After rest, food, and entertainment, the team lands at a large interior platform and navigates through a crowded commercial zone with shops and kiosks. They use bubble pod vehicles to cross multiple cylinder corridors, heading toward a border crossing guarded by seven humans and two deterrent bots. A security officer warns them the next zone is experiencing supplier conflict between Allvahill and Izolineer, but confirms it is not a Barish-Estranza operation. Despite uncertainty about hidden corporate involvement and the spreading warning, the narrator and group proceed through the aperture into the target zone.