Seventeen

Jessyn and Irinna are attacked by feather-haired monkeys in the lab after an explosion, likely triggered by a bomb the creatures had brought earlier. Jessyn fights off the attackers, killing one, but Irinna is severely burned and injured. Jessyn carries the dying woman back to their quarters, where she collapses; Irinna does not survive.

Jessyn spends the morning in the lab skinning berries to test which amino acids are toxic to the farm organism, hoping to develop crops to feed their Carryx captors. She is struggling with depression and has been withholding her last psychiatric medication pill, secretly wondering if she might synthesize it using the lab's bioengineering capabilities. When a spark of hope ignites—the possibility of manufacturing her medication from the berries—she rushes back to her room to retrieve the precious pill. She encounters Tonner, who resents her leaving the schedule, and retrieves the bottle from under her bed. As she returns to the lab, an explosion rocks the complex. She discovers the feather-haired monkeys, the same creatures that had been playfully delivering items to their alcove, have turned violent. They are attacking Irinna, who has been burned by what Irinna identifies as a bomb hidden in a box the monkeys delivered earlier. Jessyn fights the creatures with brutal efficiency, killing one by breaking its neck, her depression and emotional numbness paradoxically freeing her to act with clinical detachment. The other attackers flee. With the lab destroyed and Irinna critically injured, Jessyn carries the semiconscious woman back through the alien-filled corridors to their quarters, repeating to herself "I can't go on" with each step. She collapses at the door, where Else lets them in. Campar carries both women inside, and Synnia tends their wounds. Else's expression of horror suggests Irinna does not survive.