Thirty-One

Jessyn retrieves Corvall's sabotage cylinder from the orchard and kills Third Gardener and its Rak-hund guard to prevent discovery. She activates the spore weapon, which disables the Carryx ships' engines as they attempt to escape an incoming enemy force. The ships manage to leave the planet's gravity well despite the sabotage, and Jessyn discovers a hidden message from Garral in her field notes indicating he survived and escaped.

Jessyn endures the human moiety's solicitous care following her near-fatal encounter with a Carryx soldier. Third Gardener pressures her to complete her field work by the end of the next day, prompting Jessyn to sneak out at night to the orchard where she has hidden Corvall's sabotage cylinder beneath dead leaves. Third Gardener confronts her there, and Jessyn shoots both the Sinen and its Rak-hund guard with a gun she finds at the cache, then returns to the ships undetected. The next morning, a Carryx soldier interrogates Jessyn about her nighttime visit to the orchard, asking whether Third Gardener told her of incoming ships or expressed fear for her safety. Jessyn denies everything, claiming she only went to retrieve equipment and left when ordered. The Carryx assigns a new overseer and returns her to the human quarters. Later, locked in her cell during emergency preparations, Jessyn opens the cylinder in her room. The gray dust spills out, grows cold, and disperses, leaving only rust and the smell of stone. As the Carryx ships attempt to lift off, Jessyn realizes the sabotage has disabled their engines mid-ascent. The ships lurch and shudder under enemy attack, nearly crashing before their engines restart. Despite the damage, the vessels successfully break free of the planet's gravity well and jump into asymmetric space. While reviewing her field notes afterward, Jessyn discovers an annotation written in her notebook by someone else—a message referencing strawberry signaling and asking forgiveness for leaving without her, apparently from Garral, confirming he escaped alive.