Falconi wakes Kira up. They have arrived at their destination, and the new year has passed—it is now 2258. No Jellies or nightmares are on their radar. Although to the crew no time has passed, Kira has experienced the trip and has felt her grief over Adra and Alan recede. The crew meet in Control to check out their new location. Kira recognizes the place from the Soft Blade’s memory. Falconi tells her they have detected numerous very old, artificially constructed structures in the system. Kira directs them toward the fourth planet in the system, which matches the Soft Blade’s memories. She thinks about the term she had learned on the Jelly ship, “the Vanished,” and wonders if this was them.

The Darmstadt's ship mind finds a cluster of abandoned buildings on the planet, and Kira gets a memory from the xeno. The two ships prepare to send Kira and a team to the surface to search for the Staff of Blue. The Entropists ask Kira about an object they found on the Jelly ship. The xeno does not offer information, but Kira tells them it came from a room called The Aspect of the Void.

Nielsen is ill in her cabin, so Kira brings her some tea.