Admiral Rossner says that everyone is free to go about their business, and thanks them for their service regarding the Mercury incident. Ridge receives a medal of valor for her bravery in attempting to acquire the substance despite the extremely hazardous nature. Trenton Verner’s dereliction of duty is overlooked, provided that he resume and complete basic training over the next two weeks.
Noun, Peters and Fey are given backstories explaining how they managed to escape the world just before it disappeared. The story is that the U.N. managed to save three eminent professionals in the nick of time, and has been questioning and studying them regarding the incident ever since. They are just now being allowed to leave, and talk about their survival. So, they are on the news, but they have been instructed to withhold the truth about the rogue planet and other details beyond the scope of the backstory. Doing so might be difficult, as they are in the public eye and being asked many questions.
Ridge is instructed to take some time off – given "shore leave" as it were. It’s a reward for a job well done. (In addition, no new deep-space missions are taking place due to the threat of disappearing colonies.)
Malcolm is free to do whatever he wants, as well. Saint Barnabas expresses gladness at the gray goo threat having been taken care of, but concern that the souls within the Sun should still be brought home for Gaia to recycle, as is normal. (A "soul" consists of a quasi-physical part, which Gaia recycles, and a spiritual part, which moves on to become one with God.)
Fae is approached by a member of the New Lunar Order – a female werewolf named Selena Sharptooth. The werewolves have essentially become Luna’s strongest proponents, as they possess great power while on the moon. They look to Everlily Nyx as their leader – she is the one who is leading them away from the Caretaker, and towards Luna. Some of the Lunars are concerned about the lack of homage to the Caretaker, but Nyx is being careful not to push too hard too fast. Nyx now believes that combining Emmanual with Gaia was a mistake, but has not publically admitted this (she said so to William Moss during one of their fights, however). The elves are also highly honored as Luna’s servants.
The trolls, on the other hand, have stoically stood by the Caretaker. One of the trolls (with some cybernetic enhancements to protect him against fire and acid damage) has taken up a reluctant leadership position. He is very friendly and nice and somewhat shy, but a total badass. His name is Sledge Greenhorn. Fey is familiar with him, but has never met him until now. If she approaches him, he says that Gaia’s Ancient Order is concerned about the growing number of Lunars who have forgotten their heritage. He has even heard some rumors that the Lunars are starting to believe that the Caretaker has abandoned them. Why, he does not understand.
Once Malcolm reports back to Saint Barnabas, the Caretaker definitely knows about the Mercury souls. (If Malcolm does not report back within a day, the Caretaker finds out anyway when the U.N. Forces makes the announcement.) So it instructs Greenhorn to contact Fey (who was involved in the Mercury events earlier) and tell her about its plan to seed the Sun with a Heart Tree, so that the souls there can return home. (So, Fey is contacted soon after Malcolm reports in, or after a few hours, whichever comes first.)
Meanwhile, Laiden is subject to intense scrutiny from the U.N., as they ask him all kinds of questions about how he came by ownership of such a unique vessel.
Once Fey is told about the Caretaker’s plan to produce a special Heart Tree seed (one capable of withstanding the power of the Sun), she hopefully can contact Laiden to procure the use of his vessel – the only one capable of this mission. However, it takes time for DED to research the phasing ability that can extend their voyage to Sol. And acquiring a Heart Tree seed requires Fey to visit the most ancient Heart Tree (the one on Earth near Xanadu) and gain permission from Gaia’s Ancient Order to use it. In this case, the Caretaker must also infuse the seed with the ability to withstand the power of the sun, a ritual which involves many halflings chanting around a pod, and cleansed in a flashfire (the halflings burn, but do not feel the pain, nor do they die – they blacken, and then their skin crusts off, and they are fine underneath).
The hope is that Fey organizes a mission to the sun to plant the tree. If so, U.N. Forces wants a piece of the pie – they don’t trust anyone just going to the sun. Since Ridge and Trenton were involved before, they are sent along. Everyone else previously on the mission is invited to go as well. Hopefully, Noun is interested in DED’s phasing technique. Andrew goes with Noun. Malcolm is hopefully interested in seeing the quasi-physical portion of these souls properly returned to Earth.
While the mission is being prepped, about 10 days pass. There is some news about the abduction of some scientist, but it turns out to have been a StratCo publicity stunt.
The ship is ready to leave on the 20th, and will arrive at the sun on the 21st. Planting the Tree will not take much time, as long as the ship can survive. The seed must be watered with a gravitic drive’s worth of mystic energy (which Laiden’s ship needs to have retrofitted; Laiden probably doesn’t trust anyone else to do this work, so he may end up spending much of the 10 days doing it himself). It will need to be watered once a week forever (unless the Sun is someday seeded with mystic energy), or else it will stop growing and die. If DED’s technology can be shared, then the U.N. would volunteer to perform this monotonous task.
But when they move to plant the seed, they are confronted by the Oversoul. It communicates with them, expressing its desire to return to Earth. After being watered, the tree has only grown a small amount, but then the Oversoul burns it down, and it reforms fully grown. Fey knows such a thing is utterly unheard of. (These trees take years to grow, even with magical aid.)
Cliffhanger: after returning from the Sun (mission successful), it is Friday, June 23. There is breaking news of the return of the rogue planet, this time in the Wolf 359 system. U.N. Forces deploys quickly to intercept the planet, and reaches it within 8 hours. But 18 hours after its arrival, the planet leaves suddenly, and the galaxy holds its breath as Lupus seems unharmed.