The cliffhanger is resolved—previously, Lili Marquette had returned to Earth with her Jaridian mate Vor'jak, and was pregnant with a hybrid baby. Dying because of her need for Taelon energy, she says that Da'an, captured to help her, has to die. Da'an decides to do so.
Renee has steered the ship into a tropical zone, and is now calling Augur for help. Da'an and Lili are sharing as he gives her his energy for her and her baby. As Vor'jak stands by, a ball of golden light appears over Lili's stomach and materializes into a baby girl. Their joy is interrupted as Da'an shivers and then changes into a crystalline form, apparently dead. Liam is shattered.
Augur is exercising at a track when Volunteer investigators appear. He activates a device that allows him to evade pursuit, using mirrorlike images of himself. He escapes to the "fringes," where the eccentric and the genius reign. He meets up with a friend, J. Street, a younger hacker who agrees to create a new identity. Augur is leaving for Singapore, but he asks Street to help his friends first.
On the mothership, Sandoval is being treated for a fatal blast to his skrill. Zo'or comes in and becomes angry when he learns that a Jaridian is still at large on Earth. He suspects that Sandoval is in league with his enemies, but cannot prove it.
On the ship, Liam carefully covers Da'an's remains with a cloth as Renee arranges to have the body shipped back to Washington. Afterward, Lili brings Liam up to speed about her relationship with Vor'jak and what the Jaridians hope their daughter, Ariel, can do for them. The Jaridians are dying as well as the Taelons, their metabolisms spinning out of control.
Ariel develops a fever, and Liam wants to take her to a hospital to be treated. Vor'jak, not entirely trusting Liam, escapes with Lili and Ariel through a small portal.
At a sex-club called Kobe, Sandoval meets the injured Tate, who tells him that the freighter no longer has Lili or Vor'jak on it. However, she and two unidentifiable people passed through a portal in New York.
Ariel is getting worse, and her parents are also starting to react to the alien atmosphere. In desperation, Vor'jak assaults a hospital guard and takes several bags of Taelon plasma. As he leaves, a nurse sees him and calls security. Sandoval comes by and checks out to see if it was the Jaridian, then destroys the hospital as he leaves.
Liam comes to Augur's lair, and finds Street rambling around. The young woman switches on a message that Augur left, saying goodbye, offering love to Lili, and telling Liam that he should work with Street. Liam seems dubious, but accepts what Augur says.
Liam and a disguised Renee infiltrate the Kobe Club, and Liam slips into a private room to find Sandoval. He threatens the older man if anything happens to Lili and her family, then leaves. Sandoval arranges for a shuttle to be left for Vor'jak and Lili.
Elsewhere, Vor'jak is rapidly deteriorating, but a shuttle has been left out so that they can leave the planet. He gives Lili his weapon and stays behind. Torn, Lili has no choice but to leave her husband behind for the sake of her daughter. Liam and Renee arrive to stop her, not trusting Sandoval, but Lili is determined to save her dying child and starts to take off anyway. Suddenly Vor'jak staggers out and begs her to let Liam examine the engines.
Liam looks inside the shuttle and discovers a bomb. Tossing it high in the air, he destroys it with his gun. He urges Vor'jak to get into the shuttle, but the Jaridian is about to die and refuses to put Lili or Ariel at risk when his body incinerates. Liam gives him a capsule of Taelon energy and helps him into the shuttle. There is a hasty farewell between Liam and Lili, and the three set off from Earth.
Sandoval tells Zo'or that there was an explosion not far from where Lili and Vor'jak were. Zo'or announces that there was a transmission from the edges of Jaridian space, but Sandoval innocently suggests that it was a mistaken transmission. Zo'or doesn't buy it.
Da'an's crystallized body is lying in the Embassy. Liam speaks sadly to his apparently dead friend, but as he turns to go, the Taelons returns to his normal state, apparently recovered. He "played dead" to avoid being harmed by Vor'jak, in the state of crystalline hibernation. He angers Liam by informing him that humans have been used in hybridization experiments by the Taelons, and Liam storms out.
At the lair, Liam receives a goodbye message from a delighted Lili, who also shows him her recovering husband and child.
