Thirty-Six

The swarm occupies Jellit's body for the first time, experiencing the cognitive and sensory differences of a male host while grappling with new emotional conflicts. It contemplates abandoning its espionage mission to remain with Jessyn and Dafyd, even as the remnant consciousnesses of its previous hosts—Ameer and Else—argue against this betrayal of duty.

The swarm finds itself in Jellit's body, disoriented by the physiological differences of a testosterone-driven male form and the host's violent resistance to the occupation. It experiences Jellit's senses differently than it did Else Yannin's, perceiving electromagnetic spectra and heat signatures with altered perception. Jessyn approaches the swarm, and when it takes her hand, it experiences the conflicting echoes of Jellit's love for his sister alongside resentment and rage at touching her. The swarm recognizes that leaving to transmit its gathered military intelligence to its side is the correct course of action, yet it is internally divided by love for Dafyd. The remnants of Ameer and Else argue within its shared consciousness—Ameer noting that Else's feelings are merely habits the swarm has adopted, Else claiming she was already dead before any relationship with Dafyd began, neither excusing the swarm's emotional attachment. The swarm formulates an alternative plan: to carve away a data packet containing military intelligence and insert it into another body to be carried off-world without the carrier's knowledge, allowing it to remain with Dafyd. Ameer points out this would kill the carrier. The swarm remains with Jessyn, holding her as she leans against its shoulder, experiencing Jellit's memories of her illness. It senses Dafyd in his room and becomes consumed with imagining a shared future—working together as spies, finding a way to detonate a bomb at the Carryx's core, watching its civilization fall together. The voices of Ameer and Else resurface, insisting that Dafyd loved Else, not the swarm, and will hate it for killing her twice over. The chapter closes with the swarm observing a distant phenomenon of radiation and magnetic force beyond the atmosphere, recording it as part of its espionage function, while wrestling with longing and despair it was not designed to feel, ultimately resolving to burn the world down with Dafyd.