The saucer left a hole 17 kilometres deep, where Makoe's bell tower once stood. Makoe checked the health of the brain scans of the Miriani. Six were present; the two guards, Uric, Iysik, Dokai and Temri.

Matrioshka scanned the surroundings of the bell tower. Such a large volume of empty space had created an intense pressure differential – air began to rush to fill the hole. Matrioshka calculated it would take the hole 18.3 hours to completely fill with air, during the entire time the surrounding area would experience winds as strong as 30 meters/s.

Matrioshka used all of Makoe's remaining nanites to form a barrier around the hole. Air would pass through, but no matter larger than a grain of sand.

Makoe had returned to the virtual; she and Matrioshka were floating above the streets of Erdon, near the bell tower.

Makoe's eyes were scared; Matrioshka reached to comfort her but backed away when Makoe's sorrow turned to anger.

"What was that?" asked Makoe.

"I think it was the Fifth Wonder. They used a terraforming saucer to try to kill you."

Makoe nodded; Matrioshka saw her partition spike to the maximum. "And uh, how long do you plan to stand around doing fuck all?"

Matrioshka's eyes widened. "Excuse me?"

"Did you not hear me? I thought the enslavement bond made sure you were aware of everything."

Matrioshka floated closer to the smaller woman. "I understand this was stressful-"

Makoe sucked in a breath and made herself bigger – as easy as blinking for a digital being. She flew forward, pushing into Matrioshka's chest. She said: "Stressful? Fuck you. They almost died because you took control of my lattice."

Matrioshka laboured to remain calm. "Did you not allow the situation to happen? You did nothing as the children procured a bomb. You did nothing as they planned to infiltrate a location full of reactive chemicals."

"I!" Makoe yelled. "Had it under control! The bomb would not have detonated if I was allowed to be present!"

"Should I have let you perish?"

Makoe blinked, tears in her eyes. "Who cares about me!? I'm not even me! Let me die next time."

Matrioshka looked at the pink woman’s face. She was torn between believing Makoe wanted death, and pity. Pity for this woman who had been told by the universe – You are not you. Yet somehow, Matrioshka had landed on irritation.

"Don't say that ever again."

Makoe scoffed. "You command me still!? How are you so blind?"

"I see it all! I am responsible for you all."

"Then are you responsible for Shkadov?" asked Makoe. "You talked to him on the Fifth Wonder? Could he not have been persuaded against harming us? What did you tell him?"

"I told him what I had to. Who are you to meddle in my family's affairs?" Matrioshka crossed her arms.

"Who am I? I am Makoe Rue, the damn duplicate of Corella Viris, of the fucking CEO of Coriolis Enterprises. Fuck you Matrioshka. You are passive, like a scanner. You act once you feel like it, when you are sure you can be the hero."

"That's unfair."

"Is it?" asked Makoe. "Sure. Prove it. Do something about the Fifth Wonder."

"What can I do? We don't know where they are; we have a single Atomic Press."

"Aha! Yes, the Atomic Press - which I am using so we can return our connection to the Imperium."

Matrioshka decided it was high time she took the offensive: "Work faster. Don't mingle with the populace? Maybe then you could have already connected us."

Makoe pointed to Matrioshka. "Look who's talking! Miss queen of the Miriani... Tell me – What are your plans for the ruling family?"

"You don't need to know that."

"Perfect! Thanks for reminding me!" Makoe summoned an image of PesKal, and of the copper sphere he had discovered. "When can we know, huh? Can PesKal know why you stole the discovery of a Precursor artifact from him? This could be huge for him. He would be famous, the first Ankrahi to discover a Precursor object!"

"First, the artifact was discovered by the Miriani, not PesKal. And second, I have outstanding orders when it comes to Precursor tech." Matrioshka smiled. "If that bothers you, take it up with the Imperator."

Makoe's teeth clenched; showing no signs of winding down. Rhea had invited Matrioshka to her virtual. Matrioshka went, and Makoe followed.

They both appeared in Rhea's clinic; Rhea had asked something of Matrioshka, but Makoe managed to steal the captain's attention. She said:

"You love mentioning the Imperator, don't you? Fuck you for being so old! Let's meet up again in a millennium, Matrioshka."

"I didn't choose the date of my birth, Makoe. And neither did you. Simple fact of the matter is; You. Are. Young."

Makoe's eyes flared.

Rhea struck Matrioshka across the face, hard. Matrioshka flew across the virtual and landed against a cabinet filled with medicine.

Makoe received a fat slap too; she spun and fell to the floor.

Both women looked to Rhea.

The silver-haired woman had tears streaking across her face. She was sobbing quietly. She pointed to a small burnt carcass on the floor and asked:

"What the fuck!?"

It was the inert body of Memri, the girl Rhea had healed when she landed on Rosamond's World. And Rhea's Miriani body was motionless, paused while staring at Memri.

Omrica had hunched over Memri, sobbing, and holding her face with her hands. The men that helped bring Memri to the clinic tried to appear stoic; none succeeded.

Makoe rose from the floor and explained: "She came at the worst possible time… there was an explosion. Temri wanted to disrupt the flow of cash for the Family."

Rhea teleported into Makoe's personal space and placed a hand on her chest. "You were there?"

"I was. But I-"

"Insolent child," breathed Rhea, her eyes filled with shock. "How could you let this happen?"

Matrioshka teleported between them, pushing them away from each other. She reduced herself, Makoe, and Rhea, down to one part in a trillion. All three women were forced to take a deep simulated breath due to the sudden change. Matrioshka allowed their processing powers to fly back up.

The three women were silent.

Ashamed.

Matrioshka said: "I want to preface this by saying... I am sorry. I am sorry for being reactive instead of proactive." She looked at Makoe. "You were right to demand better of me."

Makoe nodded.

Rhea somehow managed to retain her emotion through the processing bottleneck. She said: "What did this emotional child demand of you, captain?"

Makoe's eyes flared again; she went to take a step forward but was stopped by Matrioshka's hand. Matrioshka opened a private channel and told Makoe:

"Go to the atomic factory, redouble your efforts for the statelite. Team meeting soon."

Makoe looked up at her and nodded. She vanished, and in the empty silence, Rhea scoffed.

"Communicating privately? Rude when another person is near you."

Matrioshka shook her head, turning fully towards Rhea. "That other person was acting indignant."

Rhea was bewildered. "I have every right to feel the way I do. Memri is dead."

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Matrioshka cocked an eyebrow. "You have her scan, do you not?"

"We spoke of this. Nothing guarantees it will be her."

"That fear of being re-awakened from a copy, your Retrovitaphobia… is starting to get on my nerves." Matrioshka winced as she spoke; it seems like her own emotions managed to persist too.

"Point me towards a research paper that states, with no uncertainty, that re-awakening preserves the cognitive unity of the mind." Rhea looked at Matrioshka and proffered her hand, waiting for Matrioshka to give her something.

"You know I cannot do that. Cogni-"

Rhea nodded. "Cognitron research is forbidden. I know. Then let's agree that we simply do not know if Memri died. And that there is a chance she has."

Matrioshka gulped and sighed. "Fine."

"Hold on a moment," Rhea said and returned to her Miriani body. She looked down towards the corpse and stood up. Omrica was crying; the men decided to give her space, and they shuffled outside. Rhea went to follow, but Omrica grabbed her leg.

"Stay," Omrica commanded. Her face crossed with tears. She wiped her face with her sleeves and stood. She said:

"You are a doctor. You know how to recognize life-threatening injury?"

Rhea clasped her hands. "Naturally."

"Then you shall observe, as I extract information from a little bitch that was there when my daughter was killed." Omrica walked outside and commanded one of the men: "Bring the grey one."

A man scurried away, outside the sensor range, and Omrica turned towards Rhea's tools. She spied a knife, sharper than any other on the surface of Rosamond's World, used for cutting through the Miriani shoulder meso-dermis – which was tougher than dried leather.

Omrica picked up the knife.

"You plan to torture?" asked Rhea.

Omrica's face turned cruel. "I do."

Matrioshka flew outside in the virtual and watched for the grey one. The man was back within sensor range, pulling behind him a young Miriani girl with grey fur.

It was Rui.

She had escaped the blast which killed most of her friends. She had a small concussion and a patch of burnt fur on her back. She cried as she was dragged by the fur of her neck.

The man pulled her into the clinic and said: "Here she is."

Omrica clasped her hands and motioned for the man to leave.

Rui's gaze darted between Rhea and Omrica; she was terrified – deep inside the Miriani reflex of speechlessness.

Matrioshka considered the girl and told Rhea: "This must not come to be. Torture of a pre-computational being is paramount to treason. The Imperator will not tolerate this, even for me."

Matrioshka winced, remembering how she starved Dall and Sumi of oxygen.

"I am aware, captain."

Rhea approached the girl; she placed a hand on her shoulder, and Rui tensed. She tried to back away.

"Stay put. I am a doctor."

Rui's eyes were wide; yet she managed to clasp her hands.

"She is," added Omrica. "She will monitor your health during the process…"

Rui's gaze fell on the knife in Omrica's hands. Her heartbeat lurched.

Rhea's ears vibrated. "Step back, Omrica. You will learn nothing if you scare her mute."

Omrica slashed the knife across Rhea's face, creating a deep simulated gash; nanites emitting red blood coated the knife and sprayed across. Rhea's virtual face widened; she analyzed the path of the cut – it crossed her forehead and went down her right cheek. Omrica had aimed to hurt and scar, not kill.

Rhea looked at her flatly and asked: "Are you done?"

Omrica took a step back; her attack not having the desired effect. Matrioshka saw her center of harmony flare in an intense but temporary migraine.

Blood continued to flow across Rhea's Miriani face. "Now I will have to stop this bleeding first…" Rhea shook her head.

"H-How?" Omrica asked. "How are you so calm?"

Rui snickered, and as both women looked towards her, she did a quiet yelp. Her voice had returned. Omrica's eyes flared with rage: "You have something to say?"

Rui held her arms up, her brain dancing through a torrent of emotions. "Don't hurt me!"

Rhea walked to a cabinet and pretended to pull out some gauze. She used nanites from her body to form it and tie it across her face and over her head.

Omrica warned: "Then speak. The only reason you live still is because you called for help instead of running away."

Rui appeared small as she said: "It was Temri; she decided to destroy your drugs."

"My elder daughter did this?" Omrica's ears vibrated.

Rui did not respond; her silence was an affirmation.

"Giant protect me… You wanted to kill our stash? Brilliant." Omrica's ears vibrated. "Where is Uric? I sent him there with Memri."

She looked towards the corpse of her dead daughter.

"The red dude?" asked Rui. "He was inside when it exploded."

Omrica closed her eyes. She whispered: "Rest in the arms of the Giant, friend." She knelt again, next to Memri. "You rest too." Tears pooled once more. "Rest, my love."

Rui's breath had quickened; she looked at Rhea, who was watching her. Matrioshka knew what was next; Rui would have to explain Temri died too.

Omrica's only remaining child.

The last remnant of her family.

Rui saw something in Rhea; she took a step forward. "Do you- Have a sister? Or daughter?"

Rhea considered her. "I have sisters, though they are very far from this place."

"Hmm," said Rui. "Never mind then…" She looked back to Omrica.

"Madam- head of the Family… Um..."

"Speak," said Omrica.

"Temri," Rui fought to keep her throat from closing. "She was inside too. When the bomb went off."

Omrica inhaled once, a shallow act. Then she was still as death.

The chatter of the Miriani outside the clinic made its way inside in waves, filling the silence. After a moment more, Omrica turned towards Rui.

Matrioshka had not seen a person so guilt-stricken, so enveloped by sorrow and buried in fear, in all her lifetime. Weakly, she asked:

"She too?"

Rui clasped her hands.

"I am alone." announced Omrica, sparing a glance towards the Duchess. She pulled a large linen cover from below the mattress and spread it over Memri's body.

"Where did you get the bomb?" she asked.

"This Alm guy sold it to us."

Omrica smiled. "Those crazy people that live due towards the Giant? The ones that fucked over the king and think themselves royalty?"

Rui confirmed, and Omrica walked past her, grabbing the smaller girl by the collar. She opened the door to the clinic and told Rhea: "You will stay here. I hear there are some more wounded from the explosion."

"What will you do to her?" asked Rhea.

"She was Temri's friend. I will not harm her," Omrica answered and closed the door. She walked towards the men gathered outside; a crowd had formed, all members of the Family.

Omrica yelled, so all heard her: "We have a noble to kill. Blood for blood."

The Family cheered; their minds grateful for the opportunity to jump from grief to anger. Omrica whispered to Rui:

"Child, lead us towards the home of the future."

Inside, Rhea asked: "You might need to warn PesKal; they are coming for his Miriani."

"He is warned," Matrioshka said and forwarded the notice to PesKal. The Ankrahi was scandalized. He sent to his captain:

"There is a mob? They will harm or possibly kill Yim!?"

"Calm, Officer PesKal."

Matrioshka took a moment to collect her thoughts. There was truth in what Makoe had yelled at her – she was too passive. When did she get so dulled? Perhaps during those centuries on Jaerik.

"We need to change our approach; this waiting is leading us nowhere. We are to have a crew meeting."

Matrioshka alerted everyone to meet in PesKal's virtual in 10 minutes.

Rhea smiled. "Nice to see this change in attitude. You wear decisiveness well, captain."

Matrioshka smiled too; she approached the taller woman. "I haven't forgotten you punched me."

Rhea's eyes widened slightly; she appeared embarrassed for a moment. "I was emotional." She shut her eyes. "I still am. Memri's biological life is over."

"Her computational one has just begun."

"I know," Rhea scoffed and set her hair behind her ears.

Matrioshka received an alert – a reminder to check something, so she asked Rhea: "Did you manage to learn anything about your missing time?"

"Which time?" asked Rhea.

"On the Sliver, when we first arrived. You said you were missing time." Matrioshka saw the lack of recollection in Rhea's eyes. She added: "Like Damien. You have a hole in your memory 44.5 hours wide."

Rhea's eyes widened. "I have no such thing."

Matrioshka lifted her finger and caged Rhea's lattice and attention.

"What is the meaning of this!?" Rhea touched the immaterial barrier around herself. She could do nothing but stay in the simulated environment.

"You have been compromised," said Matrioshka, and sent her memory of the event - Of Rhea waking and asking her captain if she knew anything of her missing 44.5 hours.

The data passed through a tiny computational opening, one-way of course, and entered Rhea's mind.

"Wha-" Rhea's eyes filled with fresh tears. "I don't remember this."

"What do you remember?"

"I came here because I wanted to study a foreign system," Rhea said.

"Go a step further. Why did you want to do that? What did you do before?"

Rhea answered: "I am an evolutionary biologist. Specializing in sentience evolution. I have been studying the Arioa and the derivatives of its consciousness stratum for the last 700 years. I applied for a transfer to the Subdirectory of Reconnaissance to-"

Matrioshka motioned with her hand for her to continue.

"To…" Rhea said, her eyes widening.

"Since you awoke in the system, there was only a single moment when this could have been done to you - aboard the Fifth Wonder."

"But... I wasn't awake then… They'd need access to my mind while it was encrypted. Root-primary access…"

"They had it," concluded Matrioshka. "You are a sleeper agent, Rhea. There is no doubt code hiding within your mind, mimicking memories, which would take control of you."

Rhea knelt and grabbed her head with her hands. "So much… my mind has been altered so much. Firstly, by them, whoever they are, and by you with your Enslavement bond. Now I am a puppet. If I can't trust my own memories then- Then what is real?"

Matrioshka approached the woman. She hadn't touched Rhea, outside of a few fleeting moments; the poor woman was understandably upset. Foreign code riddled her mind like parasites.

"I'm sure most of you is unaltered. You cannot cram too much into a mind before the memories become obviously not your own. Tell me of yourself?"

Rhea rose to her feet and answered, grabbing at the sliver of hope provided by Matrioshka. She smiled and said: "I was born on Rhea."

"The moon of Saturn?" grinned Matrioshka.

"Yeah. My parents were French, late arrivals however. Rhea, the moon, was mostly colonized by the time they decided to get off their Terran asses." Rhea's eyes lit up as she spoke.

"I was a grown woman by the time you came around and set those people free from Enceladus. Poor souls, to volunteer for such wicked experiments."

Good. Imperial propaganda has killed the truth of Enceladus. Matrioshka thought.

"I was fascinated by it all; it's what pushed me away from botany and towards sentience," Rhea said. "I have been fond of the unknown since then – to think a human proto-civilization lived under all that ice..."

Matrioshka looked at Rhea's smile. It was genuine. Purely human.

Matrioshka's mind had drifted towards Rhea's lips. The past few days have been a burden, and Matrioshka was starting to feel antsy. She looked up and saw Rhea's eyes had drifted down towards her captain's black dress.

Matrioshka was about to step forward when Rhea said:

"I like you. I mustn't, but I do."

"That's- That is not so bad?" asked Matrioshka, a wild grin appearing on her face.

Rhea shook her head. "I am not good for you. I am poison."

"Why would you think that?"

"I know myself; I know my history – what little of it I can trust. Grand megastructures… can I trust any of it?"

"Trust me," said Matrioshka.

"You are grand, my captain. So famed and feared… the two of us coming together would resemble matter-antimatter annihilation. It would be catastrophic."

Matrioshka had to think for an answer to that. Suppose Rhea was right… Matrioshka's relationships did tend to detonate.

"I understand…" she said.

Well, there goes that opportunity for connection.

After her shouting match with Makoe, Matrioshka did not know where she stood with the woman. It would seem she is back to being alone. Before her thoughts could spiral, Matrioshka said:

"Officer Lavigne, I think it best if you remained within a single virtual body, I will transfer your data by proxy.”

Rhea nodded. "There is no other way. I know. So be it…"

Matrioshka nodded and saw it was time for the meeting. Both women left the virtual, as Rhea's Miriani body waited for a new patient.