Children of Memory

Children of Ruin is a 2022 science fiction novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It is preceded by Children of Ruin.

Stats

Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
OCLC: 1367879305
Publication date: 2022

Plot details

People

Fabian

Gathi: A Corvid obsessed with the novel and new.

Gethli: A Corvid obsessed with the familiar and puzzles.

Holt, Captain

Lif

Miranda

Paul

Portia

Places

Imir: The 5th planet of a Star system that was the destination of the Enkidu. Minimally terraformed when the Enkidu arrived.

Landfall: A settlement on Imir.

Things

Enkidu: An ark ship from Earth. Captained by Harist Holt.

Oshinabi: A shuttle of the Enkidu.

Sekkers: A semi-mythical community of people rivaling those of Landfall.

Narrative

What Has Gone Before: The Terraforming Age

Stage 1

00:00:28

Humanity expands to become an interstellar civilization. When it fell due to a war and broadcasted cyber attack, only Ivrana Kern's world was finished being terraformed.

Stage 2

00:01:10

Kern's nanovirus worked on a species of spider instead of the targeted species of simian which were all killed in a sabotage attack that left only Kern as the only survivor.

Stage 3

A terraforming project survived the electronic attack.

Dizra Senkovi used the same nanovirus to uplift octopi on Damascus.

Erma Lante studied life in Nod.

Stage 4

Composite microbial lifeform on Nod infects Lante and her followers. In a misunderstanding, the lifeform spreads to Damascus, killing all the octopi there while trying to understand them.

The Second Dawn and the Age of the Arkships

Stage 5

Portids on Kern's World develop a civilization and invent ant-based computers.

Stage 6

Human survivors of Earth's fall bootstrap themselves into a space-faring civilization one last time before the poisoned Earth became completely uninhabitable. The humans built arkships and emigrated to find habitable terraformed worlds.

Stage 7

The arkship Gilgamesh arrives at Kern's World to find the Portids and the artificial intellect Ivrana Kern. Portids infect the Gilgamesh humans with a modified version of the virus, coverting them into Humans, who are inclined via empathy to see the Portids as fellow intelligent beings, this promoting peaceful coexistence with the Portids.

The Age of Exploration

Stage 8

A Portid-Human exploration team investigating a signal find the octopus civilization of Damascus and the microbial Nod organism. The Nod organism wishes to experience the wider universe beyond. Kern convinces the Nod organism that communication is more rewarding than devouring; devouring hosts results in unstimulating monoculture. A peace agreement is made between the Nod organism and Octopus civilization.

Stage 9

Octopus scientists recover a starship engine from a location previously made inaccessible by threat of Nod organism infection. The engine allows faster than light travel.

Dramatis Personae

00:06:05

Terraformers and their Worlds

Ivrana Kern: Kern's World

Dizra Senkovi: Damascus

Erma Lante: Nod

Baltil, Rani, Lortis: Nod

Reneé Pepper: Roarke

Alex Tomasava: Roarke

Mikhail Alesko: Roarke

The Crew of the Arkship Enkidu

Harist Holt: Command

Helena Farm: Security

Alf: Engineering

Mazarin Tok: Science

Esi Arbandir: Classicist

Dustin Gembal: Science second

The Crew of the Portid Vessel Skipper

00:06:55

Bianca: Portid spider. In command.

Ivrana Kern: Uploaded intelligence.

Miranda: Interlocutor

Portia: Portid spider.

Fabian: Portid spider.

Paul: Octopus

Jajri: Human

Gathi, Gethli: Corvids

The People of Imir

00:07:27

Lif: A child.

Lif's parents.

Molda: Uncle.

Garm: Guard hog.

Arkeli: Councilor.

Yotta: A child. Lif's friend.

Blisk: A widow.

Miranda: Teacher.

Portia: A hunter.

Fabian: An engineer.

Paul: Artist.

Part 1:The Ancient Mariner

The Ark Age. Long Age

Chapter 1.1: Not with a Whimper but a Bang

00:08:10

The Crew of the Enkidu travel for two millennia and find, about a century before arriving, their destination exists. Commander Harist Holt celebrates with security commander Helena, engineer Alf, science lead Mazarin Tok and sciende second Dustin Gembal and classicist Esi. Mazarin suffered damage on suspension. Holt names the planet "Imir" on a whim.

About a century later, Holt awakens to chaos; during slowdown, the Enkidu suffered an explosion which resulted in the deaths of thousands of its approximately 30 thousand sleeping suspended humans. Mazarin did not survive suspension. Alf, Helena, and Holt lead efforts to repair the Enkidu and bring the ark ship into orbit earlier than planned.

The destination planet is found to be incompletely terraformed. A breathable atmosphere exists but only due to phytoplankton in the ocean. Livable outdoor temperature only exists on a dry desert; no lush land vegetation exists, only sparse lichen.

Chapter 1.2

00:32:08

The Enkidu crew plan to start a colony on Imir. Esi detects a non-repeating cryptic signal on Imir; Helena narrows down the transmission point to a location near a river Delta and some highlands. Gembal develops agriculture species based on surviving flora and fauna of Earth's collapse. Holt orders a colony established near the signal source.

Part 2: To Darkness and To Me

00:49:30

Imir: Now

Chapter 2.1: Lif

00:49:38

Lif searches the woods of Landfall for her grandfather who she saw one night. Lif hopes to save her grandfather, the Ancient Mariner Holt, from a witch. Lif becomes lost until her cries for help summon Gathi and Gelfi (?), two talking birds. After talking to them, Lif suddenly discovers she can see the path to bring her home.

Lif observes Fabian, someone from the outer farms who is very technically adept.

Lif attends school. Lif observes the school teacher Miranda is an exceptional outsider. Lif worries for Miranda being judged negatively by the community because she spends time with Fabian.

Lif attends the remembrance night event where forbidden things are talked about. Lif has strange dreams of an empty and desolate Landfall on rememberance night. Lif remembers two birds in the sky.

Lif attends school and observes Miranda being reprimanded by the community for teaching undocumented history of Earth. Miranda teaches ecology. Miranda teaches that spiders must never be killed. Lif asks if she can bring birds to the school. Miranda denies that birds exist on Imir because they were never brought over from Earth. Lif points out two distantly circling birds in the sky. Miranda irritated that she cannot deny the existence of birds.

Chapter 2.2: Miranda

01:37:01

Miranda is frustrated at her lack of progress in understanding the community. Miranda is a spy. Miranda tries to work out with Fabian who the "Sekkers" are and why the community tries to keep them a secret yet persistently passes on information about their existence from generation to generation. Fabian and Miranda speculate "Sekkers" are a rival faction of humans that seceded from the main population.

Fabian showcases a telescope in private with Miranda, Paul, and Paul's children.

Miranda visits the parents of Lif. Lif's parents are very cagey about Lif's curiosity and strange stories. Lif is upset no one believes her. Miranda loses reputation for asking questions about Lif's strangeness.

Chapter 2.3: Gathi, Gethli

01:56:34

Gathi and Gethli debate on how to detect anomalies in the local population of Landfall (?). One wants to analyze beetle populations. One wants to perform a census. One wants to prevent a witch in a cave from investigating directly since they doubt the witch will be able to do so discreetly. They decide to fly above the local population in order to conduct a census.

Part 3: The World Tree

Miranda. Before Imir.

02:04:09

Chapter 3.1

02:04:20

Branch 1 On Nod, microbial life explored human bodies, causing problems.

Branch 2 On Kern's World, Portid civilization developed after human civilization collapsed. Portid development was guided by Kern, a scientist who became an artificial intellect.

Branch 3 Humans developed a civilization on Earth. They terraformed planets such as Kern's World and Nod before self-destructing. Survivors of Earth temporarily rebuilt civilization long enough to send ships to colonize trrraformed planets they hoped existed. They confronted the Portids of Kern's World; the Portids persuaded the humans to coexist. Some Portids, Kern, and Humans explore worlds where humans used to be.

Branch 4 A composite microorganism of Nod infected Damascus which was inhabited by octopi developed by humans. The microorganisms explored the bodies of humans, killing them. Then, the microorganisms killed life of Damascus, leaving the octopi to survive only in orbit about the two planets. A Portid-Human expedition arrived which resulted in Kern renegotiating the microorganism's relationship with the universe from that of parasite to omni-symbiote. A transport drive of the octopi allowed the narrator, the narrator's crew of the Skipper, and the narrator's greater civilization to explore.

Branch 5 The narrator was a Human named Miranda and a descendant of Kern's World. Miranda used the transport drive to explore worlds. Miranda asked the narrator, the interlocutor, to preserve a copy of her consciousness across time so she could see through the long-term exploration of a particular world she wanted explored (Baltakatei: Imir.).

The interlocutor was grown a body to inhabit and in which they could remember Miranda, allowing Miranda to effectively be resurrected from her archived copy.

The interlocutor describes their role in space exploration as an archivist of minds for civilization whose objective is to collect novel experiences by providing archival services to their symbiotic hosts. The interlocutor is ashamed of their innocent but destructive exploration methods of its early history.

Chapter 3.2

Miranda then.

02:13:54

Miranda inhabits a female body. She enjoys having her hair combed by Portia. She laments not being accepted by Jajri (?).

Miranda recalls an expedition to Roarke where they discovered the Corvids. The terraformed world responded uncannily correctly for an old Empire world but without questions. Upon landing, the Corvids disassembled her and Fabian's ship. Then, with schematics provided by Kern, the Corvids reassembled the ship perfectly.

Chapter 3.3

02:30:05

Kern observes Gothi and Gethli board the Skipper. Kern is not convinced the two Corvid ambassadors are intelligent enough to give consent to permitting her access to their data systems. The two corvids dismantle a food printer. Fabian worries they will damage the Skipper.

Kern notes that the Corvid world had maintained meticulous records of the original terraforming project, filling in gaps of her own memory of other terraforming projects. The Skipper flies to one such forgotten terraforming project.

Chapter 3.4

02:42:40

Miranda is invited by Kern to chat with Gathi and Gethli. The rest of the Skipper crew has finished preparations to go into hibernation for the journey. Kern would like Gathi and Gethli to sleep as well and has prepared equipment for them but is concerned they would not understand the process enough to give consent. Miranda chats with the two Corvids about her own personal history as a Human who wished to experience the new in symbiosis with an Interlocutor. Miranda communicates the history of Humans and Portids. Miranda shares her view that the reason for her exploration of new life on other worlds is because “life is precious” due to its rarity; only one independently evolved life form besides that of Earth has been found: the interlocutors of Nod.

Gathi and Gethli share with Miranda a story of their creator, Reneé Pepper. Kern observes that Pepper was the name of one of the original Roarke terraformer humans.

Later, Kern builds Gathi and Gethli two hibernation pods. They immediately dismantle one and begin assembling an improved design that takes their own biology into account; they cite terraforming project research data. The hibernation equipment the Corvids build does not sit flush with the rest of the Skipper equipment but is securely, albeït unconventionally, built. Miranda and Kern observes that the Corvids were not in communication with Roarke and so could not have consulted its databases. Miranda decides the Corvids are super geniuses. Kern remains unconvinced they are self-aware (?) enough to consent to go into hibernation. The Corvids assemble a hibernation pod large enough to fit both of themselves inside; they enter and hibernate.

Miranda decants her Nod organism self into a literal human handful of fluid, leaving her Human shell a vacant vessel.

Part 4:Mere Anarchy is Loosed

Imir: Now.

Chapter 4.1: Lif

A council meeting occurs. Lif is 26 years old. Lif accompanies her father and Uncle Mold to council since her father doesn't want to leave his wife and children alone on the farm unprotected. The council indicates low food stores means hoarding of resources is to be punished. A widow says the low food supply is punishment for offending the Watchers; the widow is carried away as if mad; Lif wishes she could ask what exactly the Watchers are.

Lif notices her father is intimidated by Uncle Mold. Her father's tractor breaks down. Lif recommends Fabian's expertise. Lif visits Fabian's workshop; Lif sees Paul, Paul's industrious children, and Miranda. Lif asks Miranda to teach her what the Watchers are. Miranda confesses she does not know but has hypotheses. Lif shares that the Sekkers are likely named after "Second Colony", although she doesn't know of such a colony. Lif says all the children know of a witch and that the witch sends animals that appear as people to do her bidding. Lif shares the village suspicion that the Sekkers are the ones who steal livestock and food.

Miranda provides the hypothesis that the Sekkers may be an imaginary scapegoat to explain thievery by local residents against one another.

Lif insists the witch is real as well as her animal people assistants. Lif suspects Miranda is a watcher.

Miranda asks Lif to consider the possibility that the Watchers may refer to people still on board the ship her grandfather and the residents of Firstfall came from. Lif is surprised at the plausibility of this explanation.

Later, Lif is awoken by Gathi and Gethli who ask Lif to tell her about people who do not fit in. Lif refuses to betray her friend (Baltakatei: likely referring to Miranda). Lif questions her sanity. The bird people fly away when her mother comes. Lif's mother reprimands Lif for speaking to herself.

Chapter 4.2: Miranda

03:25:38

Miranda is accosted in the street by a local militia turning lascivious on her female body. A stray comment by one of her students (“What are they doing to Teacher?”) breaks her free from their suspicion. Many refugees from failed farms have arrived at Landfall; the local establishment is asserting dominance over refugees for pleasure.

Miranda talks with Fabian, Paul, and Portia. Portia acts as manual labor since her previous cover as a hunter of stray hogs is no longer plausible due to the famine killing all wild hogs. Paul and his children report calculations that the colony is doomed due to failed ecology; a fungus evolved into a destructive pattern that kills all trees and the colonists farmed their land too hard so it is now barren of vital nutrients. Paul suggests again that they, the outsiders, help the local colony. The consensus remains that the colony should be left to fail since the suspicious locals will likely violently reject outside assistance.

Miranda is disconcerted when Portia says Portia is leaving to work on her farm; Miranda knows none of them have ever had a farm.

03:40:54

Miranda saves Paul from being beaten by militia bear the council house. Paul had been upset at the removal of one of his abstract paintings that the council had commissioned in better times. Pail's children, who are extensions of Paul himself, fight the militia. Miranda intervenes, shouting to tell them he is "not well"; Paul's cover story is that he is a mute artist who enjoys tattooing himself and painting. Miranda gets rifle butted in the jaw, knocking a tooth free. Miranda extricates Paul and his children.

Chapter 4.3: Lif

03:48:50

Lif ventures into the dead forest to talk to the Witch. When she finds herself sufficiently alone, she calls out so the Witch's familiars, the two birds, will come guide her. Gathi and Gethli come and guide her; Lif finds their mannerisms not really human; Lif notices that their bodies seem to be simultaneously that of mythical birds of Earth (feathered creatures small enough to perch on a tree branch) and humanoid (with recognizable facial expressions and clothing).

Lif finds at the end of the path a stream of water emerging from a cave blocked off by a polished smooth boulder resembling a mirror with strange complex engravings that Lif cannot read. Lif calls for the witch and the Witch appears in the mirror. Lif asks for Witch to give her back her grandfather, Holt. The witch balks at Lif's temerity. Lif equips an iron nail with which to control the Witch as is done in stories she read. The Witch amusedly grabs the nail and bends it, saying she is made of iron. Lif asks what the witch wants. The Witch says she and the Corvids are searching for a survey team that has gone rogue. The Witch asks Lif to lead the Corvids to individuals that stand out from the local population. Lif deduces that the Witch is trapped in the mirror. Lif also deduces that the Witch and the Corvids are lost. Lif refuses to point out the person she knows who stand out (Miranda), not wishing to betray Miranda to the Witch. The Witch threatens to unleash a horde of little devils on the colony which are only kept in check by her will. Lif throws some seeds and crumbs at the Witch in a bid to distract her so she can make an escape. The Witch is not distracted but Gathi, the familiar to Gethli's novel, immediately begins cataloguing the thrown items.

Lif returns to town but finds a bad situation.

Chapter 4.4: Miranda

04:15:54

Miranda is at home with Paul and Portia. Portia goes to hunt. Some beggars come to beg for food; Paul gives them some. A mob suddenly attacks, capturing Miranda and Paul. Paul is beaten into submission and his children ripped away. Both Miranda and Paul are hauled to the town square where they find a beaten Fabian. Miranda observes people in the mob and militia enjoying the physical excitement of violence; Miranda speculates some participants don't feel hate but instead attack and support the haters out of fear of being the next to be lynched.

Portia arrives, shooting and stabbing dead several militiamen holding Fabian. Portia is beaten into submission. Miranda sees the dead first tree in the town square has four nooses hung about.

Chapter 4.5: Lif

04:30:20

Lif witnesses the executions by hanging of Portia, Fabian, Paul, and Miranda.

Uncle Mold rescues Lif from the seething mob. When Lif attempts to plead for Miranda, Mold explains to Lif that they are executing dangerous outsiders to send a message to other outsiders against the thieving of farms. Lif discerns that Mold is steering the community anger at decreasing food supplies towards an Other (Baltakatei: In order to preserve his political power on the council); without an Other to blame, the blame must necessarily fall upon the residents of Landfall itself.

Miranda at the last second manages to break free and shout an offer that they can save the dying people. Miranda is gagged and noosed.

All four are shoved off the gallows. Portia is already dead from blood loss from a gunshot wound. Fabian quivers meekly. Paul attempts to free himself by stretching his body free; his children gather to attach to him; a gun shot goes off (Baltakatei: Implying Paul has been shot). Lif sees Miranda's death is the worst than Paul's.

Chapter 4.6: Gathi, Gethli

04:42:08

Gathi and Gethli observe the lynching. They dread having to report to the Witch the news. They discuss the nature of consciousness and attempt comedy.

Part 5: The Raven Saga

Miranda. Approaching Imir. Recently.

04:49:36

Chapter 5.1

04:49:47

The interlocutor awakens from sleep; the interlocutor remembers to be Miranda who awakes from sleep.

Kern delivers an understanding to Miranda containing knowledge about the Corvid's origins.

Chapter 5.2

04:54:55

Stage 1

A history of Earth's terraforming projects and the virus that shut most of human civilization down.

Stage 2

04:58:10

Reneé Pepper, an ecologist and genetic engineer, won a seat on a terraforming project of a planet designated Roarke.

The terraforming ship, the Phoenix, sent to Roarke suffered problems en route. Alex Tomasova led the effort. Upon arriving, the ship was unloaded and all crew, cargo, and much equipment that could be stripped was brought down planetside. Abiotic processes involving the local sun and water generated enough oxygen via splitting of water molecules to permit the atmosphere to be breathable by humans.

When the destroying signal from Earth was received, all listening equipment was permanently disabled but the terraforming crew could survive the shock of losing advanced technology long enough to create life that could survive indefinitely.

Stage 3

05:04:40

Stage 4

Stage 5

Tomasova shows Pepper that the Corvids brought from Earth, bred in captivity, and exiled for their destructive curiosity, had returned to inhabit human habitats vacated by the declining human population. The Corvids had sensibly refused to go into the wilderness to die but instead had stayed as long as they could in human habitats until actively ejected by violent humans. Pepper noted that the Corvids had survived while her foxes, sheep, frogs, and other animals all died. Tomasova showed Pepper that the Corvids had not only survived but were fixing life support equipment.

The Corvids, to humans, were trying very hard to be human (solving problems in novel ways). Pepper notes that the humans of Earth, when the Phoenix departed for Roarke, were so human that even the humans were finding it difficult to be human enough. (Baltakatei: A weird statement I think that was intended to highlight the self-destructive nature of baseline humans if left to their own devices)

Stage 6

05:18:19

The Corvids survive int he wilderness after their exile. They share the wilderness with engineered resurrected Earth life forms suffering congenital genetic defects. Only the ants and Corvids ended up succeeding. Roarke's surface material contained many carcinogenic carbon-based compounds which caused cancer in most long-lived Earth life forms, humans included.

Pepper discovered that mutations in the Corvids caused complementary neurodivergences that each compensated for the other when found in a Corvid mating pair; one bird would obsessively remember everything new while the other would obsessively problem solve.

Stage 7

05:25:55

When the humans retreated due to attrition, the Corvids moved in. The Corvids fixed equipment and developed and maintained computer databases because failures were detected by those that obsessed over novelty while the one obsessed with problem solving worked to repair the aberration.

The Corvids care for Pepper, the last surviving human. The Corvids were unable to repair Pepper and so she died. The Corvids remember what she said and periodically repeat things she said.

Stage 8

05:29:40

The Corvids carried out the terraforming project because those that were best able to follow human project plans, be they repairing life support systems or programming terraforming drones, were best able to reproduce.

Miranda speculates that Corvid intelligence could described as the temporary channeling of ghosts of past sentient individuals.

Chapter 5.3

05:34:00

Miranda watches the Corvids after they awoke from sleep. They deposit information into a data store prepared fro them by Kern. The Corvids begin filling it with various bits of data from Human, Portid, or Octopus authors. Gathi (female) retrieves new information. Gethli (male) adds information to their archive.

One of the Corvids quotes an old saying. (Baltakatei: The last line of Ulysses (poem): “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”^[1])

Gathi's flights were usually uniquely new. Gethli were iterations on Gathi's with variations hinting at subtle complexity.

Kern and Miranda provide the Corvids with puzzles to study their capabilities. They discover if puzzles are simply laid out for them they will gleefully solve them together. If the same puzzle is provided at a later date, Gathi would ignore them while Gethli would reconfigure the puzzle into a different puzzle entirely.

Gathi says "I am a free being with an independent will". Kern recognizes the quote from an old text (Baltakatei: It is a quote from the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë^[2]).

Kern asks for another quote. She receives: “Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” (Baltakatei: It is by Virginia Woolf from A Room of One's Own^[3])

Kern and Miranda decide to use the Corvids as survey tools.

Kern reports she has detected signals from the planet.

Part 6: A World in a Grain of Sand

05:48:10

Imir. Now.

Chatper 6.1: Lif

05:48:20

Lif, aged 12, hears the Oshinabi heavy lift shuttle approaching. Lif hasn't seen the shuttle for 2 years.

Lif knows she isn't 12. Lif insists she is 26 years old. Grandma Ese tells Lif not to talk back. Lif resents having to complete exercises from Earth test software.

Lif recalls the Oshinabi was the last of the red hot heavy lifters, as Grandpa Harist describes it. Grandpa Harist is in the Oshianbi; Lif knows Harist flew the Enkidu from Earth.

Lif recalls Alf has described the Enkidu as being bare of useful equipment. It's not plundering a tomb, robbing a corpse; the difference between those two things is is scale and longevity.

Lif resents being called "The First".

Lif counts 23 newcomers from the Enkidu. Many are highly qualified scientists having woken up fresh after being retrieved from the Enkidu.

Harist Holt introduces the colonists to Miranda Lane who will teach the colony's new generation of local children. Miranda and Lif meet eyes; both are overcome with a feeling of disorientation; Lif feels her sense of time warp. Miranda stumbles and is held up by Harist Holt.

Gembal informs Harist about the ecology of Imir. Lif spies two black forms circling above.

Chapter 6.2: Miranda

06:04:10

Miranda infiltrates the colony council. Miranda organizes information using her beyond human skills.

Miranda overhears a conversation between Harist Holt and the classicist Ese Holt; they argue about some secret being uncovered and people remembering. They argue about the shuttle having made its last journey from the Enkidu.

Miranda meets with her fellow infiltrators. Miranda suspects something is amiss. Miranda recalls a plausible story about how she could have infiltrated the Enkidu from the Skipper. However, Miranda can't quite put her finger on what she might be forgetting.

Chapter 6.3: Lif

06:22:18

Lif accompanies Harist Holt on a trip with Ese Holt. Miranda observes Harist is concerned for the colony's future. Gemble plans to cultivate catfish in the oceans.

Harist Holt confesses to Lif that there is a woman outside that contacted him long ago that he must see again. Lif guesses that Holt wants to see the Witch who she somewhat remembers.

Holt goes into the forest with Helena and does not return, leaving Ese Holt a widow. Lif falls into depression. Miranda comes and visits at some point to check on a student but Lif remains depressed.

One morning, the Witch arrives with her birds to talk to Lif. Lif asks for her grandfather back. The witch, annoyed by the label of "Witch", says she cannot being her grandfather back; Lif refuses to help the Witch. The Witch asks Lif to bring the incongruous people to her. Lif refuses. The Witch confesses that she is older than human civilization by an order of magnitude and wishes for a permutation to break free.

Chapter 6.4

05:51:40

Gathi, Gethli

The Corvids discuss how Lif remains the same each cycle and, paradoxically, becomes a source of novelty. The Corvids discuss the nautre of their own consciousness as a two-bodied mind. Gathi criticizes Gethli for the result of Gethli proposing the plan that had them read children books in order to appeal to Lif's children book fantasy expectations.

Lif

06:34:57

Lif speaks with Gathi and Gethli. Gethli attempts to speak in terms of children fantasies. the birds reiterate the Witch's demands that Lif being the incongruous people to the cave. However, Lif has been reading more technical books this cycle and is more suspicious of what the birds may be. Lif asks for what Gathi and Gethli really are; Lif shares her suspicion that the two birds are engineered animals from a rival colony descended from the Enkidu.

Gathi, Gethli

Later, Gathi and Gethli discuss how they had to adjust their plans in dealing with Lif. They observe that Lif is like a terminal for the greater system that keeps failing; different input provided to Lif results in a different failure mode for the colony. Gathi and Gethli lament the amount of understandings they've had to learn so far. Gethli's new plan was to share with Lif a technically accurate description of her world while Lif slept via whispering. Gethli says the new tactic of being more truthful may cause the situation to become worse before it improves but sees no other way.

Part 7: Age Shall not Weary Them

07:03:45

Miranda in Imiri Orbit. Recently.

Chapter 7.1

07:03:56

The Skipper crew and the Corvids analyze signals from the planet. Only a single settlement is detected. A survey team is organized to investigate the local human population in person: Fabian, Portia, Miranda, and Paul. Kern splits off a part of the Skipper into a landing vehicle.

Chapter 7.2

07:27:54

Miranda, Fabian, Portia, and a Kern mobile unit explore the Enkidu wreck. Many occupied failed hibernation pods are found. Miranda has a panic attack until Portia helps administer drugs to calm her body.

Chapter 7.3

07:45:02

Miranda wishes that the exploration plan allows her to personally contact the planet's inhabitants so that she can have a chance at persuading a local ark ship descendant to download themselves into herself.

Fabian sends a remote drone to observe the signal source close up. After a brief malfunction when Portia disrupted Fabian's piloting, they see human settlements and evidence of genetic engineering and agriculture.

The Corvids report to Miranda they there is a non-human signal besides the human transmissions detected by the Skipper.

Part 8: Look Upon My Works Ye Mighty

08:02:23

Imir. Now.

Chapter 8.1

08:02:29

Lif

Lif brings Miranda to see the Witch. Miranda and the Witch seem to know each other but the Witch requires more than Miranda. Lif demands to have her grandfather Holt back. Miranda calls the Witch by the name “Kern”. Lif observes that whenever the Witch becomes angry, the local weather seems to become agitated, pouring rain and generating lightning strikes.

Lif, overcome with the stress of her conflicting memories, runs away and dies in a landslide.

Chapter 8.2

08:27:40

Miranda

Miranda digs into the landslide but finds Lif too late to save her. She grieves while holding Lif's corpse.

Miranda feels Lif move. Miranda sprints Lif back to Portia's farm. Miranda demands medical attention for Lif; Portia reluctantly gives permission for Fabian to administer aid; Portia gives in when Miranda claims she met Kern. Miranda tells Portia and Fabian that she witnessed a likely malfunctioning Kern controlling the local weather.

Miranda explains that Lif seemed to have a confused memory.

Lif wakes. Fabian feeds Lif. Fabian reports that Lif regularly talks about events that she chronologically could not have seen such as the Enkidu's lander flying. Portia goes to inform Lif's family, the distant uncle Molda, who took her in after Lif's parents suffered an unfortunate accident long ago; uncle Molda tells Portia to send Lif over the next day.

Chapter 8.3

08:55:30

Lif

Lif dreams of the Witch's two birds. Lif watches drips of water fall into a pool; Lif is surprised that the pattern repeats. Then, a bird appears, attempting to still the surface of some water by erratically disturbing it and asking the other for help. The bird not disturbing the water complains they cannot advise on how to perturb the water without seeing the surface completely still first.

Lif wakes up in the household of Miranda, Portia, and Fabian. Lif heard them speak contradictory things about her that she knows to be true and contradictory.

Lif opens the window of the room and calls out for the Witch to come. Miranda enters and Lif is afraid for a moment, remembering seeing a Miranda in a grotesque state. Miranda retreats some until Lif remembers Miranda is her caring schoolteacher.

Miranda sees Kern arrive with her birds. Kern asks Lif to open the door for her but Lif does not take action. Kern demands entry but does not force her way in. Portia readies a gun. Lightning strikes nearby. Kern threatens Miranda by saying Kern knows where Miranda's bodies are buried.