Two

The swarm, inhabiting Jellit's body, works in the physics lab while wrestling with the competing consciousnesses of three dead humans it has absorbed. It resolves to reveal itself to Dafyd but prepares to tell him only partial truths, withholding details about its true nature and the lethal data payload it has hidden inside another person.

The swarm, a parasitic intelligence controlling Jellit's body, reflects on its work perfecting lensing techniques in the physics lab to guard against detection by the Carryx empire. Internally, it struggles with Jellit's persistent resistance to possession—stronger than the fading consciousnesses of Ameer Kindred and Else Yannin, whose identities are degrading as they remain separated from their physical bodies. The swarm receives an offered reprieve from Kadey, a colleague, and returns to its assigned room. It debates with the dead inside its mind about revealing itself to Dafyd, Else's former lover, rationalizing that no romantic relationship involves absolute honesty. After bathing and dressing, the swarm enters Dafyd's quarters, sensing his distress. Dafyd expresses hopelessness, having lost the hope he felt when an ally against the Carryx briefly appeared. As the swarm begins preparing tea, it plans to tell him that the spy (itself) still lives and fights, but Jellit's voice intrudes with brutal reminders: the swarm has smuggled a fragment of itself into someone departing the station, a payload designed to detonate like a grenade once it reaches range. Confronted with this reality, the swarm realizes this is not the day it will confess.